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Up in Arms: How Military Aid Stabilizes—and Destabilizes—Foreign Autocrats
by Adam E CaseyAn &“extraordinary…must-read&” (Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling coauthor of How Democracies Die) look at how support from foreign superpowers propped up—and pulled down—authoritarian regimes during the Cold War, offering lessons for today&’s great power competition Throughout the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union competed to prop up friendly dictatorships abroad. Today, it is commonly assumed that this military aid enabled the survival of allied autocrats, from Taiwan&’s Chiang Kai-shek to Ethiopia&’s Mengistu Haile Mariam. In Up in Arms, political scientist Adam E. Casey rebuts the received wisdom: aid to autocracies often backfired during the Cold War. Casey draws on extensive original research to show that, despite billions poured into friendly regimes, US-backed dictators lasted in power no longer than those without outside help. In fact, American aid often unintentionally destabilized autocratic regimes. The United States encouraged foreign regimes to establish strong, independent armies like its own, but those armies often went on to lead coups themselves. By contrast, the Soviets promoted the subordination of the army to the ruling regime, neutralizing the threat of military takeover. Ultimately, Casey concludes, it is subservient militaries—not outside aid—that help autocrats maintain power. In an era of renewed great power competition, Up in Arms offers invaluable insights into the unforeseen consequences of overseas meddling, revealing how military aid can help pull down dictators as often as it props them up.
Up in Arms: How the Bundy Family Hijacked Public Lands, Outfoxed the Federal Government, and Ignited America's Patriot Militia Movement
by John Temple"IT'S TIME! They have my cattle and now they have one of my boys. Range War begins tomorrow at Bundy Ranch." These words, pounded out on a laptop at Cliven Bundy's besieged Nevada ranch on April 6, 2014, ignited a new American revolution. Across the country, a certain type of citizen snapped to attention: This was the flashpoint they'd been waiting for, a chance to help a fellow American stand up to a tyrannical and corrupt federal government. Up in Arms chronicles how an isolated clan of desert-dwelling Mormons became the guiding light—and then the outright leaders—of America's Patriot movement. The nation was riveted in 2014 when hundreds of Bundy supporters, many of them armed, forced federal agents to abandon a court-ordered cattle roundup. Then in 2016, Ammon Bundy, one of Cliven's 13 children, led a 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Those events and the subsequent shootings, arrests, and trials captured headlines, but they're just part of a story that has never been fully told. John Temple, award-winning journalist and author of American Pain, gives readers an unprecedented and objective look at the real people and families at the heart of these highly publicized standoffs. Up in Arms offers a propulsive narrative populated by rifle-toting cowboys, apocalyptic militiamen, undercover infiltrators, and the devout and charismatic Bundys themselves. Neither mainstream nor conservative media outlets have contextualized the religious, political, environmental, and economic factors that set the stage for these events. Up in Arms provides a framework for understanding this diverse collection of American rebels who believe government overreach justifies the taking up of arms.
Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town
by Colin JerolmackA riveting portrait of a rural Pennsylvania town at the center of the fracking controversyShale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public's consent.The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend "up to heaven and down to hell," which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth. In this deeply intimate book, he reveals how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can also cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself.Up to Heaven and Down to Hell casts America’s ideas about freedom and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors’ liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all.
The Upcoming Insignificance of the American Presidency: Flouting the Framer's Forewarnings
by Wilbur C. RichThis new text analyzes the development of the presidency as the dominant political institution in the United States and raises questions about its future relevance. In this history of the U.S. executive branch from the framing of the Constitution to the Biden administration, author Wilbur C. Rich illuminates the transformation of the presidential role by a variety of extra-constitutional, non-legal forces, technology, and social changes.The book highlights how some presidents nevertheless have managed to maintain relevancy and dominance by adapting to these changes or by introducing changes of their own. For undergraduate students and researchers of presidential history and American political development, this expansive historical overview of the executive branch in America makes a strong case that the significance of the American presidency has declined dramatically—and perhaps irrevocably—in the modern presidency.
Upgrading Political Systems with Purposive Technology: A Performing Democracy
by Soobhiraj BungsrazThis book presents a framework for designing and implementing technologies to reduce risks in parliamentary decision-making, leading to the emergence of e-politics. It emphasizes adaptable virtual systems and problem-solving over predefined solutions, fostering multi-helix engagement among cross-functional teams. These teams collaborate to develop strategic, tactical, and operational solutions for citizens, elected parliamentarians, and organizations such as the UN. The book underscores the importance of risk identification, mitigation, and communication for e-political system safety. The framework leverages technology to create an e-democracy, enhancing the productivity of parliamentarians and promoting democratic sustainability. It builds on the theoretical framework of system engineering, aiming to avoid the pitfalls of previous generations' promises and instead focusing on continuous improvement through a people-centric system. The book introduces the PI App as a purposive technology that aids in implementing these ideas. By promoting an ever-improving parliament and parliamentarians, the framework aims to achieve higher productivity in decision-making roles and evolve practical e-democracy. It highlights the need for a Virtuous Cycle for continuous improvement in strategic decisions for national investment, ultimately leading to a people-centric system. The book envisions a future where technology plays a crucial role in ensuring democratic sustainability and enhancing the effectiveness of parliamentary decision-making.
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
by Jared DiamondA "riveting and illuminating" (Yuval Noah Harari) new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of the landmark bestsellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. <P><P>Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises. <P><P>Diamond compares how six countries have survived recent upheavals -- ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S. Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to a murderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations of Germany and Austria after World War Two. <P><P>Because Diamond has lived and spoken the language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenching histories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees, through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honest self-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to the future, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole world are successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learn from lessons of the past? <P><P>Adding a psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all of Diamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nations and individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal book yet. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
Upheaval
by Lou DobbsBestselling author and host of Lou Dobbs Tonight offers his illuminating views on some of our nation's most intractable problems. In 2012, Lou Dobbs Tonight celebrated its one-year anniversary and a steadily growing viewership. Now, expanding on the "Chalk Talks" segment from his popular program, Dobbs gives his take on some of the country's most pressing problems--including provocative topics no one is talking about--and what might be done to address them. Covering our challenges in the areas of debt, the failure of our transportation infrastructure, the encroachment of the federal government, the power and size of public sector unions, the problems of business, big banks, big government, and more, Axis of Upheaval arms us with valuable information, as only Lou Dobbs can deliver it: with his frank, intelligent, and witty style.
Upon the Altar of Work: Child Labor and the Rise of a New American Sectionalism (Working Class in American History #311)
by Betsy WoodRooted in the crisis over slavery, disagreements about child labor broke down along sectional lines between the North and South. For decades after emancipation, the child labor issue shaped how Northerners and Southerners defined fundamental concepts of American life such as work, freedom, the market, and the state. Betsy Wood examines the evolution of ideas about child labor and the on-the-ground politics of the issue against the backdrop of broad developments related to slavery and emancipation, industrial capitalism, moral and social reform, and American politics and religion. Wood explains how the decades-long battle over child labor created enduring political and ideological divisions within capitalist society that divided the gatekeepers of modernity from the cultural warriors who opposed them. Tracing the ideological origins and the politics of the child labor battle over the course of eighty years, this book tells the story of how child labor debates bequeathed an enduring legacy of sectionalist conflict to modern American capitalist society.
Upon the Ruins of Liberty: Slavery, the President's House at Independence National Historical Park, and Public Memory
by Roger C. AdenThe 2002 revelation that George Washington kept slaves in his executive mansion at Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park in the 1790s prompted an eight-year controversy about the role of slavery in America's commemorative landscape. When the President's House installation opened in 2010, it became the first federal property to feature a slave memorial. In Upon the Ruins of Liberty, Roger Aden offers a compelling account that explores the development of this important historic site and how history, space, and public memory intersected with contemporary racial politics. Aden constructs this engrossing tale by drawing on archival material and interviews with principal figures in the controversy-including historian Ed Lawler, site activist Michael Coard, and site designer Emanuel Kelly. Upon the Ruins of Liberty chronicles the politically-charged efforts to create a fitting tribute to the place where George Washington (and later, John Adams) shaped the presidency while denying freedom to the nine enslaved Africans in his household. From design to execution, the plans prompted advocates to embrace stories informed by race, and address difficulties that included how to handle the results of the site excavation. As such, this landmark project raised concerns and provided lessons about the role of public memory and how places are made to shape the nation's identity.
Uprising: A Novel
by Douglas L. BlandA surprise attack on the nation’s military bases and power stations sends the Armed Forces scrambling. When impoverished, disheartened, poorly educated, but well-armed aboriginal young people find a modern revolutionary leader, they rally with a battle cry of "Take Back the Land!" Theirs is a fight to right the wrongs inflicted on them by "the white settlers."They know they are too small to take on the entire country, but they don’t need to. Over a few tension-filled days as the battles rages over abundant energy resources, the frantic prime minister can only watch as the insurrection paralyzes the country. But when energy-dependent Americans discover the southward flow of Canadian hydroelectricity, oil, and natural gas is halted, they do not remain passive.Although none of the country’s leaders see it coming, the shattering consequences unfold with the same plausible harmony by which quiet aboriginal protests decades ago became the eerie premonitions of today’s stand-offs and "days of action."
Uprising
by George MagnusEmerging markets are big news. But after the financial crisis, what does the future really hold for them? And what does this future mean for global business?George Magnus, one of the world's most respected economic analysts, is your guide through the challenges and opportunities for emerging markets and those doing business in them.This magisterial book looks in detail at China and India - the big players - and also less hyped but crucial markets, including Eastern European countries and Turkey. Magnus takes in his sweep everything from commodity prices to climate change, and from comparative advantage to demographic to provide a compelling analysis of what the future might look like - not just for emerging markets, but for investors, businesses and economies everywhere.Uprising is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of the global economy.
Uprising: How Scott Walker Betrayed Wisconsin and Inspired a New Politics of Protest
by John NicholsThe protest movement that captivated the nation and paved the path for Occupy Wall Street. More than 100,000 public employees, teachers, students, and their allies descended on the capital in Madison, Wisconsin after Governor Scott Walker announced his plan to eliminate the right of public sector employees to unionize. The struggle (and the Democratic caucus' escape to Indiana in order to prevent a quorum from being reached) elicited extensive national media coverage and debate-as well as enormous grassroots support for protestors. Uprising provides an anatomy of the event and its implications for the political future of the nation. As state legislatures across the US (in Ohio and New Hampshire, to name a few) take up union busting measures, Nichols shows how the Wisconsin case is a blueprint for progressives around America who've had enough. He also explores how Wisconsin protesters organized and inspired the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Uprising: Who the Hell Said You Can't Ditch and Switch? -- The Awakening of Diamond and Silk
by Diamond Silk“There were these two women, these two beautiful, wonderful women, and I said, ‘Well, let me check it out.’ It took me about two seconds to say, ‘stardom.’” – DONALD J. TRUMP “Diamond and Silk are a national treasure, and their astonishing, heartwarming story is nothing less than an American classic. Get ready to be bowled over.” – MARK LEVIN Who Are Diamond and Silk? Donald Trump’s biggest fans. A national treasure. A force of nature. A political awakening that can’t be stopped. And a natural anti-depressant. Diamond and Silk are all that and more. The very sight and sound of these insightful and ebullient ladies lifts spirits and opens minds. Diamond and Silk are a unique phenomenon impossible to pigeonhole—or to control. And now they tell their own story for the first time. In this account of their amazing journey, told in their own inimitable and irresistible voices, you’ll learn: * How the sisters Lynette and Rochelle Hardaway—a.k.a. Diamond and Silk—“were created for such a time as this” * How the bridge between their mother’s sharecropping family and their father, a middle-class business owner, shaped their characters * Why being “preacher’s kids” was a blessing—and a challenge * How working in North Carolina textile plants gave Diamond and Silk early insight into the way NAFTA was hurting Americans and exporting jobs to Mexico * Why they supported Donald Trump from the minute he announced his candidacy * Why Diamond and Silk will never desert Trump—despite being offered large monetary rewards to switch candidates * How social media moguls tried to shut them down and shut them up, lied to them, and gave them the run around * How after gaslighting them for 6 months, 29 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes, and 43 seconds, Facebook made the preposterous claim that Diamond and Silk were “unsafe for the community” * Practical advice for succeeding the Diamond and Silk way: why “rejection is God’s protection—and redirection” and “your haters make you greater"
The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington
by David Sirota[From the book jacket] An All-Access Pass to the Populist Insurrection Brewing Across the Country Job outsourcing. Perpetual busy signals at government agencies. Slashed paychecks. Stolen elections. A war without end, fatally mismanaged. Ordinary Americans on both the Right and Left are tired of being disenfranchised by corrupt politicians of both parties and are organizing to change the status quo. In his invigorating new book, David Sirota investigates whether this uprising can be transformed into a unified, lasting political movement. Throughout the course of American history, uprisings like the one we are seeing now have given birth to powerful movements to end wars, protect workers, and expand civil rights, so the prospect of today's uprising turning into a full- fledged populist movement terrifies Wall Street and Washington. In The Uprising, Sirota takes us far from the national media spotlight into the trenches where real change is happening - from the headquarters of the most powerful third party in America to the bowels of the U.S. Senate; from the auditorium of an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting to the quasi-military staging area of a vigilante force on the Mexican border. This is vital, on-the-ground reporting that immerses us in the tumultuous give-and-take of politics at its most personal. Sirota also offers a biting critique of our politics. He shows how the uprising is, at its core, a reaction to faux "bipartisanship" in the nation's capital - the "bipartisanship" whereby Republican and Democratic lawmakers join together in putting the agenda of corporate interests above all those of ordinary citizens. Ultimately, Sirota reminds us that the Declaration of Independence, "America's original uprising manifesto," says that governments "derive their powers from the consent of the governed." Irreverent and insightful, The Uprising shows how the governed have stopped consenting and have started taking action.
Uprising in Pakistan: How to Bring Down a Dictatorship
by Tariq AliPakistan 1968: the history of a revolutionThe story of what happened in 1968 in Pakistan is often forgotten, but is proof of a global revolutionary moment. In that year, following years of tumult, a radical coalition - led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - brought down the military presidency of Ayub Khan. Students took on the state apparatus of a corrupt and decaying military dictatorship backed by the US. They were joined by workers, lawyers, white-collar employees, and despite the severe repression, they took hold of power. Through a series of strikes, demonstrations and political organising a popular uprising was born.In his riveting account of these events, Tariq Ali offers an eye witness perspective to history, showing that this powerful popular movement was one of the most revolutionary moments of the twentieth century. The victory led to the very first elections in the country, and the birth of a modern nation.
Uprooted: How post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
by Volha CharnyshEach year, millions of people are uprooted from their homes by wars, repression, natural disasters, and climate change. In Uprooted, Volha Charnysh presents a fresh perspective on the developmental consequences of mass displacement, arguing that accommodating the displaced population can strengthen receiving states and benefit local economies. Drawing on extensive research on post-WWII Poland and West Germany, Charnysh shows that the rupture of social ties and increased cultural diversity in affected communities not only decreased social cohesion, but also shored up the demand for state-provided resources, which facilitated the accumulation of state capacity. Over time, areas that received a larger and more diverse influx of migrants achieved higher levels of entrepreneurship, education, and income. With its rich insights and compelling evidence, Uprooted challenges common assumptions about the costs of forced displacement and cultural diversity and proposes a novel mechanism linking wars to state-building.
Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind
by Grace Olmstead"A superior exploration of the consequences of the hollowing out of our agricultural heartlands."—Kirkus ReviewsIn the tradition of Wendell Berry, a young writer wrestles with what we owe the places we&’ve left behind. In the tiny farm town of Emmett, Idaho, there are two kinds of people: those who leave and those who stay. Those who leave go in search of greener pastures, better jobs, and college. Those who stay are left to contend with thinning communities, punishing government farm policy, and environmental decay. Grace Olmstead, now a journalist in Washington, DC, is one who left, and in Uprooted, she examines the heartbreaking consequences of uprooting—for Emmett, and for the greater heartland America. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Uprooted wrestles with the questions of what we owe the places we come from and what we are willing to sacrifice for profit and progress. As part of her own quest to decide whether or not to return to her roots, Olmstead revisits the stories of those who, like her great-grandparents and grandparents, made Emmett a strong community and her childhood idyllic. She looks at the stark realities of farming life today, identifying the government policies and big agriculture practices that make it almost impossible for such towns to survive. And she explores the ranks of Emmett&’s newcomers and what growth means for the area&’s farming tradition. Avoiding both sentimental devotion to the past and blind faith in progress, Olmstead uncovers ways modern life attacks all of our roots, both metaphorical and literal. She brings readers face to face with the damage and brain drain left in the wake of our pursuit of self-improvement, economic opportunity, and so-called growth. Ultimately, she comes to an uneasy conclusion for herself: one can cultivate habits and practices that promote rootedness wherever one may be, but: some things, once lost, cannot be recovered.
Uprooted (Second Edition)
by Khetam Dahi Novia ElvinaIn a simple yet honest and powerful prose, Dahi, through the eyes of a child turning adolescent, narrates the everyday existence of immigrant and working-class families.
Uprooting Bias in the Academy: Lessons from the Field
by Linda F. Bisson Laura Grindstaff Lisceth Brazil-Cruz Sophie J. BarbuThis open access book analyzes barriers to inclusion in academia and details ways to create a more diverse, inclusive environment. It describes the implementation of UC Davis ADVANCE, a grant program funded by the National Science Foundation, to increase the hiring and retention of underrepresented scholars in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and foster a culture of inclusion for all faculty. It first describes what the barriers to inclusion are and how they function within the broader society. A key focus here is the concept of implicit bias: what it is, how it develops, and the importance of training organizational members to recognize and challenge it. It then discusses the limitations of data collection that is guided by the convention assumption that being diverse automatically means being inclusive. Lastly, it highlights the importance of creating a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and institution-wide vision of an inclusive community.
Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice
by Paul Kivel&“The &‘how-to manual&’ for whites to work with people of color to create an inclusive, just world in the 21st century.&” —Maggie Potapchuk, racial equity consultant Over 50,000 copies sold of earlier editions! Completely revised and updated, this fourth edition of Uprooting Racism offers a framework around neoliberalism and interpersonal, institutional, and cultural racism, along with stories of resistance and white solidarity. It provides practical tools and advice on how white people can work as allies for racial justice, engaging the reader through questions, exercises, and suggestions for action, and includes a wealth of information about specific cultural groups such as Muslims, people with mixed heritage, Native Americans, Jews, recent immigrants, Asian Americans, and Latino/as. Inequalities in education, housing, health care, and the job market continue to prevail, while increased insecurity and fear have led to an epidemic of scapegoating and harassment of people of color. Yet, recent polls show that only thirty-one percent of white people in the United States believe racism is a major societal problem; at the same time, resistance is strong, as highlighted by indigenous struggles for land and sovereignty and the Movement for Black Lives. This accessible, personal, supportive, and practical guide is ideal for students, community activists, teachers, youth workers, and anyone interested in issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice. &“A uniquely sensitive, wise, practical guide for white people struggling with their feelings about race.&” —Howard Zinn, national bestselling author of A People&’s History of the United States &“A powerful and wonderful book, a major contribution to our understanding of racism as white people.&” —Judith H. Katz, Ed. D., author, White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training
Uprooting University Apartheid in South Africa: From Liberalism to Decolonization (Routledge Contemporary South Africa)
by Teresa A. BarnesSouth Africa continues to be an object of fascination for people everywhere interested in social justice issues, postcolonial studies and critical race theory as manifested by the enormous worldwide attention given to the #RhodesMustFall movement. In this book, Teresa Barnes examines universities’ complex positioning in the apartheid era and argues that tracing the institutional legacies left by pro-apartheid intellectuals are crucial to understanding the fight to transform South African higher education. A work of interpretive social history, this book investigates three historical dynamics in the relationship between the apartheid system and South African higher education. First, it explores how the legitimacy of apartheid was historically reproduced in public higher education. Second, it looks at ways that academics maneuvered through and influenced national and international discourses of political freedom and legitimacy. Third, it explores how and where stubborn tendrils of apartheid-era knowledge production practices survived into and have been combatted during the democratic era in South African universities.
Upsetting the Apple Cart: Black-Latino Coalitions in New York City from Protest to Public Office
by Opie Frederick DouglassAn exciting new history of the activists, protestors, politicians, and even recipes that changed New York City.
Upsetting the Apple Cart: Black-Latino Coalitions in New York City from Protest to Public Office (Columbia History of Urban Life)
by Frederick OpieUpsetting the Apple Cart surveys the history of black-Latino coalitions in New York City from 1959 to 1989. In those years, African American and Latino Progressives organized, mobilized, and transformed neighborhoods, workplaces, university campuses, and representative government in the nation's urban capital. Upsetting the Apple Cart makes new contributions to our understanding of protest movements and strikes in the 1960s and 1970s and reveals the little-known role of left-of-center organizations in New York City politics as well as the influence of Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns on city elections. Frederick Douglass Opie provides a social history of black and Latino working-class collaboration in shared living and work spaces and exposes racist suspicion and divisive jockeying among elites in political clubs and anti-poverty programs. He ultimately offers a different interpretation of the story of the labor, student, civil rights, and Black Power movements than has been traditionally told. His work highlights both the largely unknown agents of historic change in the city and the noted politicians, political strategists, and union leaders whose careers were built on this history. Also, as Napoleon said, "An army marches on its stomach," and Opie's history equally delves into the role that food plays in social movements, with representative recipes from the American South and the Caribbean included throughout.
Upside Down: How the Left Turned Right into Wrong, Truth into Lies, and Good into Bad
by Mark DavisFossil fuels are bad. Illegal immigration is necessary for the economy. Free markets are arbitrary and cruel. Christians are intolerant. Men and women are exactly the same.The dogma preached by the far left has gone mainstream and the results are frightening: Most of what you hear these days is flat-out wrong. Mark Davis pulls apart the tenets of liberal dogma in Upside Down, a right-side-up correction of everything that's wrong with today's topsy-turvy world.
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization
by Thomas Homer-DixonEnvironmental disasters. Terrorist wars. Energy scarcity. Economic failure. Is this the world's inevitable fate, a downward spiral that ultimately spells the collapse of societies? Perhaps, says acclaimed author Thomas Homer-Dixon - or perhaps these crises can actually lead to renewal for ourselves and planet earth. The Upside of Down takes the reader on a mind-stretching tour of societies' management, or mismanagement, of disasters over time. From the demise of anciRome to contemporary climate change, this spellbinding book analyzes what happens when multiple crises compound to cause what the author calls "synchronous failure." But, crisis doesn't have to mean total global calamity. Through catagenesis, or creative, bold reform in the wake of breakdown, it is possible to reinvour future. Drawing on the worlds of archeology, poetry, politics, science, and economics, The Upside of Down is certain to provoke controversy and stir imaginations across the globe. The author's wide-ranging expertise makes his insights and proposals particularly acute, as people of all nations try to grapple with how we can survive tomorrow's inevitable shocks to our global system. There is no guarantee of success, but there are ways to begin thinking about a better world, and The Upside of Down is the ideal place to start thinking.