- Table View
- List View
Briarheart
by Mercedes LackeyFrom a beloved fantasy author comes this fresh feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty about one girl destined for greatness—and the powerful sister ready to protect her by any means necessary. Miriam may be the daughter of Queen Alethia of Tirendell, but she's not a princess. She's the child of Alethia and her previous husband, the King's Champion, who died fighting for the king, and she has no ambitions to rule. When her new baby sister Aurora, heir to the throne, is born, she's ecstatic. She adores the baby, who seems perfect in every way. But on the day of Aurora's christening, an uninvited Dark Fae arrives, prepared to curse her, and Miriam discovers she possesses impossible power.Soon, Miriam is charged with being trained in both magic and combat to act as chief protector to her sister. But shadowy threats are moving closer and closer to their kingdom, and Miriam's dark power may not be enough to save everyone she loves, let alone herself.
Bridge: Winning Ways to Play Your Cards
by Paul MendelsonMany bridge books feature magical and inspiring hands but hands that are never seen in day-to-day play at the bridge table. Bridge: Winning Ways to Play Your Cards concentrates on the type of hands that will make a real difference to your scores and which will help you improve your game.Discover how to assess your opponents' strengths and weaknesses - in relation to your own - and win!
Bridge the Culture Gaps: A toolkit for effective collaboration in the diverse, global workplace
by Robert GibsonThe highly practical self-help guide to optimize the performance of individuals working in an intercultural environment.Readers will learn how to mitigate unconscious bias to create inclusive organizations and how to use key cultural dimensions to communicate and cooperate in intercultural teams. Addressing the unique challenges of influencing across cultures and managing international projects, this is an indispensable toolkit for a key competence in business.Bridge The Culture Gaps provides readers with a framework for developing key skills essential for effective global collaboration in the VUCA world. These include reflecting on experience, understanding the nature and impact of culture and the importance of diversity for business success. Readers learn how to mitigate unconscious bias to create inclusive organizations, and to use key cultural dimensions to communicate and cooperate in intercultural teams. It addresses the challenges of leading diverse teams, influencing across cultures and managing international transformation projects, as well as making international assignments successful.
Bridge to Bat City
by Ernest ClineFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Ernest Cline comes a mostly true tall tale about an unexpected friendship between a young girl and a music-loving colony of bats. After losing her mother, thirteen-year-old Opal moves in with her uncle Roscoe on the family farm. There, Opal bonds with Uncle Roscoe over music and befriends a group of orphaned, music-loving bats. But just as the farm is starting to feel like home, the bats&’ cave is destroyed by a big mining company with its sights set on the farmland next. If Opal and the bats can fit in anywhere, it&’s the nearby city of Austin, home to their favorite music and a host of wonderfully eccentric characters. But with people afraid of the bats and determined to get rid of them, it&’ll take a whole lot of courage to prove that this is where the bats—and Opal—belong.
A Brief History of the Samurai: The Way of Japan's Elite Warriors (Brief History )
by Jonathan ClementsFrom a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. <P><P>The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.
Bright Red Fruit
by Safia ElhilloAn unflinching, honest novel in verse about a teenager's journey into the slam poetry scene and the dangerous new relationship that could threaten all her dreams. From the award-winning poet and author of HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY.Bad girl. No matter how hard Samira tries, she can&’t shake her reputation. She&’s never gotten the benefit of the doubt—not from her mother or the aunties who watch her like a hawk.Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring DC, and growing as a poet—until a scandalous rumor has her grounded and unable to leave her house. When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted. But soon she&’s keeping a bigger secret than ever before—one that that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community.In this gripping coming-of-age novel from the critically acclaimed author Safia Elhillo, a young woman searches to find the balance between honoring her family, her artistry, and her authentic self.
Bright Thrones: A Court of Fives Novella (Court of Fives)
by Kate ElliottAn exciting e-novella set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Court of Fives, from World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott!
Brighter Than the Sun
by Daniel AlemanThis timely and thought-provoking story about a teen girl shouldering impossibly large responsibilities and ultimately learning that she doesn&’t have to do it alone is the perfect follow-up to Daniel Aleman's award-winning debut novel, Indivisible. Every morning, sixteen-year-old Sol wakes up at the break of dawn in her hometown of Tijuana, Mexico and makes the trip across the border to go to school in the United States. Though the commute is exhausting, this is the best way to achieve her dream: becoming the first person in her family to go to college. When her family&’s restaurant starts struggling, Sol must find a part-time job in San Diego to help her dad put food on the table and pay the bills. But her complicated school and work schedules on the US side of the border mean moving in with her best friend and leaving her family behind. With her life divided by an international border, Sol must come to terms with the loneliness she hides, the pressure she feels to succeed for her family, and the fact that the future she once dreamt of is starting to seem unattainable. Mostly, she&’ll have to grapple with a secret she&’s kept even from herself: that maybe she&’s relieved to have escaped her difficult home life, and a part of her may never want to return.
Broken Circle
by J.L. Powers M.A. PowersWinner of the Writers' League of Texas's Discovery Prize for Middle Grade/Young Adult!"The Powerses' worldbuilding and writing will keep [readers] hooked. They will find themselves questioning what is fact and what is fiction and cheering Adam on as he journeys in this new, strange world. A gripping, philosophical paranormal thriller."--Kirkus Reviews"In this intriguing tale of life and death (literally, there are soul guides and a grim reaper), siblings J. L. and M. A. Powers explore the intersections of fear and power in relation to limbo, as Adam and his newfound friends try to become everything they are supposed to be...[This] will keep readers on the edge of their seats, wanting more--which is good, considering this is the first of a series."--Booklist"Fans of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare will enjoy this series starters."--School Library Journal"This novel was well constructed and rich in detail. The characters are well rounded and realistic...I enjoyed this novel very much and am excited for the next book in the series. I would recommend this novel to fans of Reaper fiction and any fantasy."--Life My Way (blog)"A very entertaining read."--Read Explore Repeat (blog)"If paranormal is your thing...give this one a try."--Reading Through Life"You won't want to put this one down: it's Hogwarts for soul guides, with family rivalries and developing powers aplenty. The writing flows and the characters have a rich depth to them, even with their own secrets that we may or may not find out before this volume ends. Thank goodness it's the first in a series; I have more to look forward to and so will you. Give this to your Gaiman fans, for sure; hand it to your Potterheads that are ready to meet a new group of friends. Give it to your readers that enjoy seeing life from a different point of view."--Mom Read It"Broken Circle is perfect for anyone who has ever been intrigued by figures of death (like the Grim Reaper, or the Underworld), enjoys YA fiction, and also likes boarding school settings."--Utopia State of Mind (blog)"Broken Circle's exacting mix of myth, science and the paranormal discloses that the whole world's destiny is at stake if powers and abilities like Adam's fall into the wrong, crepuscular hands. The Powerses have placed a sympathetic kid and his crew bravely in the midst of some very big questions (it's OK to think Harry Potter). What happens gives a different spin to everything on Earth and whatever may come after."--The Center for Fiction/Junior Edition columnAdam wants nothing more than to be a "normal" teen, but his reality is quickly leaking normal. Afraid to sleep because of the monster that stalks his dreams, Adam's breakdown at school in front of his crush Sarah lands him in the hospital.As he struggles to cope with his day-to-day life, Adam can only vaguely comprehend some sort of future. His mother died when he was only four and his eccentric father--who might be an assassin, a voodoo god, the reincarnation of the Buddha, or something even stranger--is never available when Adam really needs him. Even his paranoid grandfather, who insists that people are "out to kill the entire family," is no help.Adam's life takes an even weirder turn when a fat man with a gold tooth and a medallion confronts his father regarding Adam's supposed "True Destiny." Adam is soon headed toward a collision with life, death, and the entities charged with shepherding souls of the newly dead, all competing to control lucrative territories where some nightmares are real and psychopomps of ancient legends walk the streets of North America.
Bromley's Family Law
by N V Lowe G DouglasRelied on by generations of students and practitioners alike, Bromley's Family Law remains the definitive guide to the subject. Updated by experts in the area, Nigel Lowe and Gillian Douglas provide an accurate, detailed yet highly readable account of family law. The text presents a broad and comprehensive treatment of the key issues relating to adult and child law in a clear and distilled manner. Regular headings break up the text and allow easy navigation and quick reference for both students new to the subject and those in practice. The new edition has been fully edited and updated to take account of the latest case law and legislation, while also reflecting new debates and emerging issues in the area. Particular attention is also paid to the increasingly significant international dimension of family law, with a new chapter on this area added to the 11th edition.
Bronxwood
by Coe BoothThe acclaimed author of TYRELL and KENDRA returns to PUSH to continue Tyrell's astonishing story.Tyrell's father is just out of jail, and Tyrell doesn't know how to deal with that. It's bad enough that his brother Troy is in foster care and that his mother is no help whatsoever. Now there's another thing up in his face, just when he's trying to settle down. Tyrell's father has plans of his own, and doesn't seem to care whether or not Tyrell wants to go along with them. Tyrell can see the crash that's coming -- with his dad, with the rest of his family, with the girls he's seeing -- but he's not sure he can stop it. Or if he even wants to.
Brothers Born of One Mother: British–Native American Relations in the Colonial Southeast (Early American Histories)
by Michelle LeMasterThe arrival of English settlers in the American Southeast in 1670 brought the British and the Native Americans into contact both with foreign peoples and with unfamiliar gender systems. In a region in which the balance of power between multiple players remained uncertain for many decades, British and Native leaders turned to concepts of gender and family to create new diplomatic norms to govern interactions as they sought to construct and maintain working relationships. In Brothers Born of One Mother, Michelle LeMaster addresses the question of how differing cultural attitudes toward gender influenced Anglo-Indian relations in the colonial Southeast.As one of the most fundamental aspects of culture, gender had significant implications for military and diplomatic relations. Understood differently by each side, notions of kinship and proper masculine and feminine behavior wielded during negotiations had the power to either strengthen or disrupt alliances. The collision of different cultural expectations of masculine behavior and men's relationships to and responsibilities for women and children became significant areas of discussion and contention. Native American and British leaders frequently discussed issues of manhood (especially in the context of warfare), the treatment of women and children, and intermarriage. Women themselves could either enhance or upset relations through their active participation in diplomacy, war, and trade. Leaders invoked gendered metaphors and fictive kinship relations in their discussions, and by evaluating their rhetoric, Brothers Born of One Mother investigates the intercultural conversations about gender that shaped Anglo-Indian diplomacy. LeMaster's study contributes importantly to historians’ understanding of the role of cultural differences in intergroup contact and investigates how gender became part of the ideology of European conquest in North America, providing a unique window into the process of colonization in America.
The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games #4)
by Jennifer Lynn BarnesOVER 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD OF THE #1 BESTSELLING SERIES!Four brothers. Two missions. One explosive read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns to the world of her #1 bestselling, TikTok sensation Inheritance Games trilogy, and the stakes have never been higher. Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson&’s half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements. Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can&’t resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London&’s most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible. Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather&’s fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win. It doesn't end here—Avery and the Hawthornes will be back in The Grandest Game! Pre-order now!
Bruno Trask and the Dark Lady's Jewels
by Michael PryorIn the fantastical world of Michael Pryor?s new novel, humans live alongside elves, dwarves, werewolves and ogres. Bruno Trask is a human boy with a very boring job: he has to parade around the local shopping mall dressed as Roger, the Smiley Dragon. One day at the mall a fabulous collection of enchanted jewellery is on display. It is presided over by the Dark Lady, the most famous, rich and influential Dark Elf in the world. Just as she?s unveiling the main attraction?an old family heirloom called the Black Star?Bruno accidentally knocks it out of her hand in a spectacular collision. It soars high into the air and Bruno, again accidentally, puts out his hand and catches it. In a flash of light, the Black Star merges with his hand and becomes embedded in the middle of his palm. Suddenly, Bruno is the centre of attention. The Dark Lady wants her Black Star back and she?ll do anything to get it. With two of her bodyguard ogres after him, Bruno very quickly finds himself on the run. Will Bruno stay out of the Dark Lady?s clutches? And what is the secret behind the Black Star?
BTEC First Health and Social Care Level 2 Assessment Guide: Unit 1 Human Lifespan Development & Unit 2 Health and Social Care Values
by Ian Gunn Carole Trotter Joanne FranksTake the guesswork out of BTEC assessment with sample student work and assessor feedback for all pass, merit and distinction criteria.By focusing on assessment this compact guide leads students through each pass, merit and distinction criterion by clearly showing them what they are required to do.- Helps your students tackle the new exam with confidence, with mock examination questions together with answers and feedback provided. - Provides a sample student answer for every single pass, merit and distinction criterion, together with detailed assessor's comments on how work can be improved, so that students know exactly what their work needs to show to hit their grade target - Saves you time - realistic model assignments are included and provide an opportunity to generate all evidence, with each criterion and grade clearly indicated, so there is no need to rewrite yet more assignment briefs- Use instead of a textbook - detailed revision-style summaries of all the learning aims from the unit support students, allowing them to quickly find the facts and ideas they will need for their assessment- Enables you to customise your course - combine this guide with others in the series so you only pay for the units you deliver
BTEC First Health and Social Care Level 2 Assessment Guide: Unit 3 Effective Communication in Health and Social Care
by Elizabeth RasheedTake the guesswork out of BTEC assessment with sample student work and assessor feedback for all pass, merit and distinction criteria.By focusing on assessment this compact guide leads students through each pass, merit and distinction criterion by clearly showing them what they are required to do.- Provides a sample student answer for every single pass, merit and distinction criterion, together with detailed assessor's comments on how work can be improved, so that students know exactly what their work needs to show to hit their grade target - Saves you time - realistic model assignments are included and provide an opportunity to generate all evidence, with each criterion and grade clearly indicated, so there is no need to rewrite yet more assignment briefs- Use instead of a textbook - detailed revision-style summaries of all the learning aims from the unit support students, allowing them to quickly find the facts and ideas they will need for their assessment- Enables you to customise your course - combine this guide with others in the series so you only pay for the units you deliver
BTEC National Level 3 Sport and Exercise Science 4th Edition
by Simon Rea Jennifer Stafford-Brown Tim EldridgeHelp your students gain the academic expertise and employability skills needed for further progression in education or the workplace with this textbook, fully updated to reflect the new structure and content of the 2016 Level 3 BTEC qualification.- Prepare your students for new external assessment requirements with teaching guidance and tips- Contextualise knowledge and build practical understanding of concepts with case studies- Provide opportunities to stretch and challenge Distinction students- Help students prepare for assignments with activities linked to assessment criteria- Written by expert author team Jennifer Stafford-Brown and Simon Rea
Building Blocks For Teaching Preschoolers With Special Needs (Second Edition)
by Susan R. Sandall Ilene S. Schwartz Gail E. Joseph Eva M. Horn Samuel L. Odom Mary Louise HemmeterUpdated for today's educators--especially those new to inclusion--the second edition of this bestselling guide is the lifeline preschool teachers need to fully include children with disabilities in their classrooms. Easy to use with any existing curriculum, including Creative Curriculum and HighScope, Building Blocks gives educators three types of practical, research-based inclusion strategies that promote progress in critical areas like behavior, emergent literacy, and peer relationships. A must for professional development, this revised edition helps teachers thrive in the era of accountability with NEW material that reflects the six years of changes in early education since the first edition. Teachers will discover how the Building Blocks approach aligns with OSEP outcomes to help teachers meet the federal requirements for special education learn everything they need to know about evidence-based practice and how to apply it in their classrooms. Through clear and instructive vignettes woven throughout the book, teachers will also meet four young children from diverse backgrounds and learn from their teachers' examples of successful interventions. A perfect training tool for teachers and an ideal textbook for college and university courses, this revised bestseller will help today's preschool educators start all their students on the road to lasting school success. Promote inclusion and improve child outcomes through curriculum modifications that allow all children to participate embedded learning opportunities used in typical classroom activities child-focused instructional strategies that help students with individual learning objectives
Building Coalitions, Making Policy: The Politics of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies
by Martin A. Levin, Daniel DiSalvo and Martin M. ShapiroGetting past "No" in an age of partisan noise.In an age when partisan politics has reached a deafening—and arguably impotent—pitch, how does the real work of politics get done? This book opens the door on backroom politics and gives readers an insider's perspective on the efforts of policymakers from three presidential administrations to get past the naysayers and effect real and lasting policy changes.The editors take a comparative approach, offering a thorough overview of policymaking during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, with further discussion of President Obama's successful and failed attempts to build coalitions and get past no. The contributors, a national network of prominent political scientists, reveal the sausage-making of politics and policy. Readers can almost see the political players in the proverbial smoke-filled room, shirtsleeves rolled up and BlackBerrys in hand, developing the strategies and hammering out the compromises designed to hold the party base while winning over independent voters. Combining an insider's perspective with actual case studies, the volume examines the policymaking behind such programs as• No Child Left Behind• tax cuts• Social Security privatization• Medicare prescription drug reform• education and immigration reform• environmental policy• judicial politics• national securityCovering all major areas of policymaking, Building Coalitions, Making Policy gives instructors in political science, public administration and policy, American government, and American presidential studies plenty of provocative examples for classroom debate.
Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships
by W. Daniel Hale Richard G. Bennett Panagis GaliatsatosHow can religious and health care organizations work together to create community-based health care programs?Because health care works best when patients assume greater responsibility for their own health, community outreach and patient education are essential. But where can health care organizations find the resources to educate large numbers of people about chronic diseases? How can they tailor programs to meet the needs of increasingly diverse communities? And how can they reach people who have no ties to the health care system? Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships presents an innovative approach to community-based health education and patient advocacy programs targeted at the prevention and management of disease. Offering valuable guidance for religious and medical leaders interested in developing programs in their congregations and communities, the book includes practical and accessible information for establishing health education programs, identifies additional resources that can be obtained from local and national organizations, and discusses a range of medical topics. It also outlines how to train volunteers to assist others in navigating our complex health system. This latest edition, which has been thoroughly revised and updated, incorporates• new chapters on medical topics across the lifespan, including lung disease, kidney disease, and child and adolescent health issues;• a thorough assessment of medical-religious partnerships that have emerged over the past twenty-five years; and• a user-friendly website with downloadable resources—including an instructor's guide, PowerPoint slides, and ready-made handouts.
Building Strategy and Performance
by Kim WarrenThe fundamental challenge facing business leaders is to drive performance into the future--the dynamics of strategy. To tackle this effectively, they need a clear understanding of what causes performance to improve or deteriorate and what power they have to change this trajectory for the better. Without this understanding, they risk making poor choices about their future--failing to exploit promising opportunities, pursuing unachievable aims, or falling victim to competitive and other threats. Building Strategy and Performance Through Time sets the agenda for building business strategy in powerful, actionable, and accessible terms. It gives executives clear frameworks for answering three fundamental questions: * Why is our business performance following its current path? * Where is it going if we carry on as we are? * How can we design a robust strategy to transform this future? The existing strategy tools most widely used help guide management's choices about where to compete--which customers to serve, with what products and services, and how to deliver those products and services to those customers effectively and profitably. While this choice is important, it is not often changed in any fundamental way; having found a reasonably strong and profitable position on these issues, few firms will, or should, set off in a new direction. But there is still much to be done to deliver that strategy, powerfully and sustainably over time. Many decisions need to be made, continually and holistically, across all functions of the business and adapted as conditions change from month to month and year to year. Pricing, product development, marketing, hiring, service levels, and other decisions cannot be made in isolation but must take into account other choices being made, elsewhere and at different times. Building Strategy and Performance Through Time explains a reliable, practical method, known as strategy dynamics, that creates a living picture of how an enterprise actually works and delivers performance. This picture shows exactly where the levers are that management controls and how to choose what to do, when, and how much, to accomplish your specific goals. It shows, too, how the same approach can be used to defeat competitors, cope with other outside forces, and keep delivering performance.
Bullies, Cyberbullies and Frenemies
by Michele ElliottFriendships and peer relationships are one of the most difficult things about being a teen. Many face bullying of some kind or another, whether in person or on the Internet or social media. Written by Kidscape founder Michele Elliott, Teen Life Confidential: Bullies, Cyberbullies and Frenemies is a friendly, kind and practical guide to navigating these tricky relationships, and beating the bullies. Are there practical things you can do to stop being bullied - at home, at school and online? What are frenemies and how can you deal with them? How can you learn to make friends and respect yourself? If you're a bully, how can you change your behaviour? This brilliant book will tell you what bullying is, where it happens and what you can do about it, as well as how to assert yourself and develop your self-esteem. Advice is supported by quotes from teenagers, who share their own experiences, and will help to make readers feel they're not alone.
The Burden-Sharing Dilemma: Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
by Brian D. BlankenshipThe Burden-Sharing Dilemma examines the conditions under which the United States is willing and able to pressure its allies to assume more responsibility for their own defense. The United States has a mixed track record of encouraging allied burden-sharing—while it has succeeded or failed in some cases, it has declined to do so at all in others. This variation, Brian D. Blankenship argues, is because the United States tailors its burden-sharing pressure in accordance with two competing priorities: conserving its own resources and preserving influence in its alliances. Although burden-sharing enables great power patrons like the United States to lower alliance costs, it also empowers allies to resist patron influence. Blankenship identifies three factors that determine the severity of this burden-sharing dilemma and how it is managed: the latent military power of allies, the shared external threat environment, and the level of a patron's resource constraints. Through case studies of US alliances formed during the Cold War, he shows that a patron can mitigate the dilemma by combining assurances of protection with threats of abandonment and by exercising discretion in its burden-sharing pressure. Blankenship's findings dismantle assumptions that burden-sharing is always desirable but difficult to obtain. Patrons, as the book reveals, can in fact be reluctant to seek burden-sharing, and attempts to pass defense costs to allies can often be successful. At a time when skepticism of alliance benefits remains high and global power shifts threaten longstanding pacts, The Burden-Sharing Dilemma recalls and reconceives the value of burden-sharing and alliances.
Bureaucracy and Self-Government: Reconsidering the Role of Public Administration in American Politics (Interpreting American Politics)
by Brian J. CookA thorough update to this well-regarded political history of American public administration.In this new edition of his provocative book Bureaucracy and Self-Government, Brian J. Cook reconsiders his thesis regarding the inescapable tension between the ideal of self-government and the reality of administratively centered governance. Revisiting his historical exploration of competing conceptions of politics, government, and public administration, Cook offers a novel way of thinking constitutionally about public administration that transcends debates about "big government."Cook enriches his historical analysis with new scholarship and extends that analysis to the present, taking account of significant developments since the mid-1990s. Each chapter has been updated, and two new chapters sharpen Cook’s argument for recognizing a constitutive dimension in normative theorizing about public administration. The second edition also includes reviews of Jeffersonian impacts on administrative theory and practice and Jacksonian developments in national administrative structures and functions, a look at the administrative theorizing that presaged progressive reforms in civil service, and insight into the confounding complexities that characterize public thinking about administration in a postmodern political order.
Bureaucracy in a Democratic State: A Governance Perspective
by Kenneth J. Meier Laurence J. O’Toole Jr.Here, Kenneth J. Meier and Laurence J. O'Toole Jr. present a timely analysis of working democracy, arguing that bureaucracy—often considered antithetical to fundamental democratic principles—can actually promote democracy. Drawing from both the empirical work of political scientists and the qualitative work of public administration scholars, the authors employ a "governance approach" that considers broad, institutionally complex systems of governance as well as the nitty-gritty details of bureaucracy management. They examine the results of bureaucratic and political interactions in specific government settings, locally and nationally, to determine whether bureaucratic systems strengthen or weaken the connections between public preferences and actual policies. They find that bureaucracies are part of complex intergovernmental and interorganizational networks that limit a single bureaucracy's institutional control over the implementation of public policy. Further, they conclude that top-down political control of bureaucracy has only modest impact on the activities of bureaucracy in the U.S. and that shared values and commitments to democratic norms, along with political control, produce a bureaucracy that is responsive to the American people.