- Table View
- List View
A Song for Nolan
by Rushie EllenwoodGet ready to roll with Nolan! Boys' skate! Girls' skate! Leave it to Nolan, who is nonbinary, to bring everyone together to sing, dance, and groove in this celebration of being yourself."Chen's thin-lined, saturated artwork is an ideal partner to Ellenwood's characterization in this uplifting tale about making room for oneself-and all." - Publisher's Weekly"A useful reminder about the importance of inclusion for anyone planning group events." - School Library JournalWhen Nolan is invited to a birthday party at the roller rink, they are so excited. They pick out the perfect, sparkling outfit, tie on their snazzy skates, and join their friends for a day of roller skating bliss. But when the DJ calls for a boys skate followed by a girls skate, Nolan feels left out. With courage and a strong sense of self, Nolan bravely requests a song for EVERYONE. This powerful and joyful picture book uplifts and celebrates nonbinary children.Published in partnership with media advocacy organization GLAAD, this empowering book positively represents LGBTQ families.
NMDA Receptors: Methods and Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology #2799)
by Nail Burnashev Pierre SzepetowskiThis fully updated volume explores N-Methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), and the structure-function relations, principles, and rules that govern how NMDARs operate in brain processing under normal and pathological conditions. With chapters from leading laboratories around the world, this book examines the expression and purification of diverse NMDA receptor subtypes, gene targeting and generation of conditional NMDAR mutant mouse lines, studies of NMDARs in zebrafish, electrophysiological studies, NMDARs modeling in silico, drug development with artificial intelligence, and much more. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step and readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and up-to-date, NMDA Receptors: Methods and Protocols, SecondEdition serves as an ideal guide to the diversity of possible approaches in the field of NMDARs and the progress that has been made in recent years.
Tools, Techniques and Strategies for Reflective Second & Foreign Language Teacher Education: Insights from Contexts Around the World
by Paul Voerkel Mergenfel A. Vaz Ferreira Nancy DrescherEssential questions about the skills teachers need for effective classroom practice have raised by researchers such as Shulman, Schön, Altrichter & Posch and Hattie, and discussions still continue. In this context, the anthology combines theoretical studies and practical insights about Reflection from foreign and second language teacher education and professional development. It includes examples of reflective tools, techniques and strategies that can help teachers to (re)think their practices and ensure the quality of their everyday work.
Ethical Dilemma in Psychiatry: Real Cases Scenario
by Perihan Elif EkmekciPsychiatry is a field that differs from other fields of medical practice in terms of its ethical problems and ethical dilemmas it encounters. The physicians who specialize in the field of psychiatry or health professionals who work in mental health services should be equipped to recognize these ethical problems, to deal with them in the right ethical frameworks and to offer practical and appropriate solutions in their clinical practice. The work compiles extensive experiences from Medical Faculty of Ankara University, Turkey. The book aims to give a comprehensive understanding about the particular ethical problems and dilemmas in psychiatry and provide tools and methods to approach them in an ethically appropriate way.
Communication and Intelligent Systems: Proceedings of ICCIS 2023, Volume 2 (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems #968)
by Lipo Wang Harish Sharma Vivek Shrivastava Ashish Kumar TripathiThis book gathers selected research papers presented at the Fifth International Conference on Communication and Intelligent Systems (ICCIS 2023), organized by Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, India, during December 16–17, 2023. This book presents a collection of state-of-the-art research work involving cutting-edge technologies for communication and intelligent systems. Over the past few years, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning have sparked new research efforts around the globe, which explore novel ways of developing intelligent systems and smart communication technologies. The book presents single- and multi-disciplinary research on these themes to make the latest results available in a single, readily accessible source. The work is presented in three volumes.
Astrophysics: An Introduction to Theory and Basics
by Karl-Heinz SpatschekThis textbook offers a comprehensible introduction to the physical fundamentals of the processes in our universe. The first chapters cover the observational possibilities of astrophysical quantities, cosmic rays, star formation and evolution, and galaxy formation and modeling. Subsequently, the basics of general relativity and different phenomena such as gravitational waves and black holes are covered. The book concludes with an introduction to cosmology: In addition to traditional homogeneous approaches, inhomogeneous cosmology in particular is given a broader scope in this new edition. Current inflationary models are presented. The book is intended for students of physics at the undergraduate, bachelor, and master levels, but it also offers a readable and easy-to-understand introduction for people with a basic knowledge of mathematics and physics who are interested in the natural sciences. ContentsSome important physical basics - observational possibilities - cosmic rays - stellar structure and stellar evolution - final stages of burning stars - galaxies - Newtonian cosmology - computational rules of ART - ART effects - relativistic stars and stellar dynamics - homogeneous cosmology - observations and interpretation approaches - inflation - inhomogeneous cosmology
Signal and Information Processing, Networking and Computers: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Signal and Information Processing, Networking and Computers (ICSINC): Vol. III (Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering #1188)
by Yue Wang Lexi Xu Jiaqi Zou Zhilei Ling Xinzhou ChengThis book collects selected papers from the 11th Conference on Signal and Information Processing, Networking and Computers held in Chengdu, China, in September 2023. The book focuses on the current works of information theory, communication system, computer science, aerospace technologies, big data, and other related technologies. People from both academia and industry of these fields can contribute and find their interests from the book.The 11th International Conference on Signal and Information Processing, Networking and Computers (ICSINC) was held in Chengdu, China, in September 2023, which focused on the key technologies and challenges of signal and information processing schemes, network application, computer theory, space technologies, big data, and other related technologies
Thirty Years of Literacies Testing at the University of Cape Town: A Critical Reflection on the Work and its Impact
by Alan CliffThis book delves into extensive research regarding the identification and characterization of academic literacies constructs, encompassing academic literacy, quantitative literacy, mathematics comprehension, and reasoning skills, with a specific focus on their relevance within South African educational contexts. The volume provides an in-depth exploration of the research behind the design and creation of assessments aimed at gauging these crucial literacies. It also delves into theoretical aspects of developmental work while shedding light on historical and contemporary inequalities in the South African educational landscape. Emphasising the practical implications of this research, the book underscores the pivotal role that assessing academic literacies can play in the equitable selection of students, particularly those hailing from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, it highlights how such assessments can inform higher education responsiveness, curriculum development, programme implementation, and the provision of support services for students, ultimately aiding in informed student placement decisions.
Internationale Pflegefachkräfte für kommunale Krankenhäuser gewinnen: Maßnahmen und rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen (essentials)
by Gerald G. Sander Denise M. HradeckyDieses essential bietet eine Analyse staatlicher Maßnahmen zur Bewältigung des Pflegekräftemangels, darunter das Pflegepersonal-Stärkungsgesetz, das Pflegeberufegesetz und das Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz. Es beleuchtet auch das Pflegestellen-Förderprogramm und Initiativen wie „Faire Anwerbung Pflege Deutschland“ des Bundesgesundheitsministeriums. Zudem werden die Rekrutierungsbemühungen kommunaler Krankenhäuser im Hinblick auf ausländische Pflegefachkräfte sowie die rechtlichen Anforderungen thematisiert. Darüber hinaus werden Fragen zur Anerkennung ausländischer Pflegeberufsqualifikationen und Berufsabschlüsse behandelt. Die strukturierte Darstellung erläutert die besonderen Herausforderungen des Pflegekräftemangels und präsentiert staatliche, institutionelle und rechtliche Lösungsansätze.
Exercises in Applied Mathematics: With a View toward Information Theory, Machine Learning, Wavelets, and Statistical Physics (Chapman Mathematical Notes)
by Daniel AlpayThis text presents a collection of mathematical exercises with the aim of guiding readers to study topics in statistical physics, equilibrium thermodynamics, information theory, and their various connections. It explores essential tools from linear algebra, elementary functional analysis, and probability theory in detail and demonstrates their applications in topics such as entropy, machine learning, error-correcting codes, and quantum channels. The theory of communication and signal theory are also in the background, and many exercises have been chosen from the theory of wavelets and machine learning. Exercises are selected from a number of different domains, both theoretical and more applied. Notes and other remarks provide motivation for the exercises, and hints and full solutions are given for many. For senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students majoring in mathematics, physics, or engineering, this text will serve as a valuable guide as theymove on to more advanced work.
Robotics, Computer Vision and Intelligent Systems: 4th International Conference, ROBOVIS 2024, Rome, Italy, February 25–27, 2024, Proceedings (Communications in Computer and Information Science #2077)
by Joaquim Filipe Juha RöningThis volume constitutes the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Robotics, Computer Vision and Intelligent Systems, ROBOVIS 2024, which was held in Rome, Italy, during February 25-27, 2024. The 8 full papers and 21 short papers are presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. They focus on topics on research and development in robotics, computer vision, and intelligent systems.
Over-Efficiency in the Lower Criminal Courts: Understanding a Key Problem and How to Fix it
by Shaun S. YatesIn our pursuit of efficiency in the lower criminal courts, have we lost sight of quality justice? Through the critical examination of original stenographic data, this book demonstrates how an English Magistrates' courthouse often pursued managerial efficiency to the detriment of social justice and procedural due process values. Given that these courts process more than 95% of all criminal cases, this ‘over-efficiency’ problem has the capacity to cause significant social harm. Yates’ work concludes by providing socio-legal and criminological readers with ways to fix this over-efficiency problem. This accessible work is of value to policy makers and post-graduate students alike.
Good Judgment: Making Better Business Decisions with the Science of Human Personality
by Richard DavisFrom an experienced organizational psychologist comes a unique guide to learning how to better read and understand people and make improved, more informed business decisions about them—including choosing the right employees, fostering relationships in the workplace, resolving conflicts more effectively, and optimizing your performance on the job—using the science of personality.Psychologists widely agree that five key traits define our personalities—intellect, emotionality, sociability, drive, and diligence. Unlike emotions, which are transitory in nature, these traits determine our behaviors, including our motivations, social inclinations, reactions to crisis or complexity, patterns of thinking, and more.Organizational psychologist Dr. Richard Davis is an expert in assessing personalities. He has spent decades advising business leaders and evaluating executives from some of the world’s biggest companies, including Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Under Armour, Meta, Starbucks, Nike, LVMH, and the NBA. Over the course of his career, he has helped numerous executives make tough, highly consequential hiring calls based on personality. A company’s board might want its next CEO to be decisive, focused, and a strong communicator. Investors backing a start-up might want a leader who is not only a visionary but also a team player who doesn’t retaliate when given constructive feedback. That’s where he comes in. As a result of his life’s work, Dr. Davis has developed not only a unique perspective on what human personality is, but an indispensable toolkit for analyzing it, and using the information effectively.In Good Judgment, he brings his expertise to you. Dr. Davis explains what the science of personality is and how it works, and how all of us can use it to improve our working relationships, careers, and lives. Whether you’re a novice manager looking to hire your first assistant, a board member in need of the ideal CEO, an angel investor trying to choose between two different startups, or a new parent selecting a pediatrician, understanding the science of personality and how to utilize it is the key to exercising good judgment—at work and in life.
The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines
by Matt BeaneFrom one of the world’s top researchers on work and technology comes an insightful and surprising guide to protecting your skill in a world filling with AI and robots. Think of your most valuable skill, the thing you can reliably do under pressure to deliver results. How did you learn it?Whatever your job – plumber, attorney, teacher, surgeon – decades of research show that you achieved mastery by working with someone who knew more than you did. Formal learning—school and books—gave you conceptual knowledge, but you developed your skill by working with an expert.Today, this essential bond is under threat. In our grail-like quest to optimize productivity with intelligent technologies like AI and robots, we are separating junior workers from experts in workplaces around the world. It’s a looming multi-trillion-dollar problem that few are addressing, until now.In The Skill Code, researcher and technologist Matt Beane reveals the hidden code that underwrites every successful expert-novice relationship. Beane has spent the last decade examining this unique bond in a variety of settings, from warehouses to surgical suites. He’s found that just as the four amino acids are the building blocks of DNA, the three C’s—challenge, complexity, and connection—are the basic components of how we develop our most valuable skills.Whether you’re an expert or a novice, this book will show you how to build skill more effectively – and how to make intelligent technologies part of the solution, not the problem. The Skill Code is an insightful must-read, with significant implications for how we will work and build skill in the twenty-first century—a guide to help you not only survive but thrive.
The Summer Escape: A Novel (The Sunrise Cove Series #6)
by Jill ShalvisSecrets are revealed and forbidden sparks ignited in this sizzling Sunrise Cove standalone, a tale of enemies to lovers, redemption, missing treasures, and love—by romance superstar and New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis.Anna Moore didn’t just wake up one day and decide to go on a wild quest—especially since her life no longer lends itself to wild anything—so how in the world does she end up racing against the clock with Owen Harris, a sexy, enigmatic adventurist, to prove her beloved dad innocent of stealing a million-dollar necklace? It’s all Wendy’s fault. Her older, bossy sister, who’s seven months pregnant and on bed rest in their small Lake Tahoe hometown, is desperate to clear their departed dad’s name. Owen, though, is convinced he’s guilty as hell and wants to return the jewelry back to its rightful owner—his elderly great aunt. Together Anna and Owen go on a scavenger hunt for clues to the past (with Wendy remotely along for the ride via an earbud, supplying a running wry commentary to boot). On opposing sides and suspicious of each other as they are, Anna and Owen still can’t deny the inexplicable and explosive chemistry between them on this heart-stopping adventure, the outcome of which will prove the necklace isn’t the only thing stolen—their hearts have been as well.
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby: A Novel
by Ellery LloydThe gripping follow up to the “smart, stylish, and savage” (People) New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick The Club—a twisty mystery involving a cursed wealthy family and a Surrealist painting which holds the key to three suspicious deaths over the course of a century. Some women won't be painted out of history . . .Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx.Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations.But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?A tale of love and madness, obsession and revenge, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby unravels the riddle posed by a Sphinx who refuses to reveal her secrets . . .
The Stars Too Fondly: A Novel
by Emily HamiltonIn her breathtaking debut—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—Emily Hamilton weaves a suspenseful, charming, and irresistibly joyous tale of fierce friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself.So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship.They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the stupid dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship’s missing captain, Billie.Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is kind of a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship gets deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting, old mysteries come crawling back to life, and Cleo’s initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for.Lying somewhere in the subspace between science fantasy and sapphic rom-com, The Stars Too Fondly is a soaring near-future adventure about dark matter and alternate dimensions, leaving home and finding family, and the galaxy-saving power of letting yourself love and be loved.
Horror Movie: A Novel
by Paul TremblayA chilling twist on the “cursed film” genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World.In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions—demons of the past be damned.But at what cost? Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful feat of storytelling genius that builds inexorably to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion
The Queen's Faithful Companion: A Novel of Queen Elizabeth II and Her Beloved Corgi, Susan
by Eliza KnightFrom USA Today bestselling author Eliza Knight comes an endearing and vivid novel told from the unique multi-narrative viewpoints of a young Queen Elizabeth; Hanna Penwyck, the fictionalized Keeper of the Queen’s dogs; and Susan, the Queen’s Corgi, whose love and loyalty were boundless.A reigning queen…Elizabeth wasn’t born to be queen. But when her uncle abdicates and her father steps in as king, everything in her life changes. There is one thing that never wavers, however: her endearing love of her Corgis—especially the new puppy Susan, a gift for her eighteenth birthday. Susan is by her side during Elizabeth’s WWII service, falling in love with Philip and getting married, the death of her father King George VI, her accession to the throne, the birth of her first child, and the early struggles with running a country—an ever-present reminder to find the balance between self and crown.A loyal servant…Hanna Penwyck has grown up with her family in service to the crown. Awkward and shy, she has a connection with nature, animals—and the young princesses at Windsor. When she becomes the Keeper of the Queen’s Corgis, her job is to maintain the health and wellness of those most prized companions. With their shared love of the dogs, the Queen can open up to Hanna and feel free to be herself, so that is a service she happily provides as well.A faithful companion…From the moment Susan became a royal dog, her duty was clear: To remind Elizabeth that she is more than just a queen, she is a human, and what matters is not just duty and honor, but connection, family, and unconditional and enduring love. Susan is the keeper of memories, of secrets. Through Susan we gain a dog’s eye view of royal life, human relationships, and the heartwarming bond between a queen and her beloved companion.
Wisdom of the Path: The Beautiful and Bumpy Ride to Healing and Trusting Our Inner Guide
by Yasmine Cheyenne“Yasmine reminds us that no matter what happens in our lives, we can decide to put one foot in front of the other, choosing to begin again. This book will inspire, motivate, and encourage all who read it.” –Tunde Oyeneyin, New York Times bestselling author of Speak, motivational speaker, and Peloton instructor A roadmap to self-healing and tapping into our inner wisdom when we need it most, from mental wellness advocate, self-healing educator, and author of The Sugar Jar Yasmine Cheyenne. “When I decided to stop hiding in the shadows of what I’d been through and embrace the hills and rugged terrain of my life, I saw who I really was and loved her.” —FROM THE EPILOGUEWe’re each walking our own journey, and sometimes it's a hard one: a divorce, a career change, grief, or a major life transition. These chapters of our lives can leave us feeling lost and overwhelmed thinking, “How did I end up here?” Most often, the answers we tell ourselves make us feel either stuck on the path or stuck in shame. We are uncomfortable with the discomfort that life inevitably presents.But another possibility is that we allow this question to spark curiosity that inspires and invites us to keep going, step by step, until we arrive on the other side of our journey.Wisdom of the Path helps you:Have more patience with yourself during strugglesGather the lessons and wisdom of your past to courageously face new untraveled roads aheadStand in your power and create the future you desireEmbrace that each journey—good and bad—has informed our core wisdom.Wisdom of the Path weaves stories of grief, heartbreak, joy, and overcoming that invite you to gather the wisdom you’ve collected throughout your life and use it for your path ahead. Anchored in four guideposts: base camp, intent, walk the talk, and lessons learned, this soulful and warm storytelling guide encourages us to embrace the bumpy roads of our lives with knowledge and knowing that we’re moving forward.
A Talent for Murder: A Novel
by Peter SwansonA newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married might be a murderer—in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders. Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . .but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.
Chinese Workers of the World: Colonialism, Chinese Labor, and the Yunnan–Indochina Railway
by Selda AltanChinese workers helped build the modern world. They labored on New World plantations, worked in South African mines, and toiled through the construction of the Panama Canal, among many other projects. While most investigations of Chinese workers focus on migrant labor, Chinese Workers of the World explores Chinese labor under colonial regimes within China through an examination of the Yunnan-Indochina Railway, constructed between 1898–1910. The Yunnan railway—a French investment in imperial China during the age of "railroad colonialism"—connected French-colonized Indochina to Chinese markets with a promise of cross-border trade in tin, silk, tea, and opium. However, this ambitious project resulted in fiasco. Thousands of Chinese workers died during the horrid construction process, and costs exceeded original estimates by 74%. Drawing on Chinese, French, and British archival accounts of day-to-day worker struggles and labor conflicts along the railway, Selda Altan argues that long before the Chinese Communist Party defined Chinese workers as the vanguard of a revolutionary movement in the 1920s, the modern figure of the Chinese worker was born in the crosscurrents of empire and nation in the late nineteenth century. Yunnan railway workers contested the conditions of their employment with the knowledge of a globalizing capitalist market, fundamentally reshaping Chinese ideas of free labor, national sovereignty, and regional leadership in East and Southeast Asia.
Cyber Sovereignty: The Future of Governance in Cyberspace
by Lucie KadlecováGovernments across the globe find themselves in an exploratory phase as they probe the limits of their sovereignty in the cyber domain. Cyberspace is a singular environment that is forcing states to adjust their behavior to fit a new arena beyond the four traditional domains (air, sea, space, and land) to which the classic understanding of state sovereignty applies. According to Lucie Kadlecová, governments must implement a more adaptive approach to keep up with rapid developments and innovations in cyberspace in order to truly retain their sovereignty. This requires understanding the concept of sovereignty in a more creative and flexible manner. Kadlecová argues that the existence of sovereignty in cyberspace is the latest remarkable stage in the evolution of this concept. Through a close study of the most advanced transatlantic cases of state sovereignty in cyberspace—the Netherlands, the US, Estonia, and Turkey—Cyber Sovereignty reveals how states have pursued new methods and tactics to fuel the distribution of authority and control in the cyber field, imaginatively combining modern technologies with legal frameworks. In times of booming competition over cyber governance between democracies and authoritarian regimes worldwide, cyber sovereignty is a major topic of interest, and concern, for the international community.
Democratic Deals: A Defense of Political Bargaining
by Jack Knight Melissa SchwartzbergTwo leading scholars of democracy make the case for political bargaining and define its proper limits.Bargains—grand and prosaic—are a central fact of political life. The distribution of bargaining power affects the design of constitutions, the construction of party coalitions, legislative outcomes, judicial opinions, and much more. But can political bargaining be justified in theory? If it inevitably involves asymmetric power, is it anything more than the exercise of sublimated force, emerging from and reifying inequalities?In Democratic Deals, Melissa Schwartzberg and Jack Knight defend bargaining against those who champion deliberation or compromise, showing that, under the right conditions and constraints, it can secure political equality and protect fundamental interests. The challenge, then, is to ensure that these conditions prevail. Drawing a sustained analogy to the private law of contracts—in particular, its concepts of duress and unconscionability—the authors articulate a set of procedural and substantive constraints on the bargaining process and analyze the circumstances under which unequal bargaining power might be justified in a democratic context. Institutions, Schwartzberg and Knight argue, can facilitate gains from exchange while placing meaningful limits on the exercise of unequal power.Democratic Deals examines frameworks of just bargaining in a range of contexts—constitution-making and legislative politics, among judges and administrative agencies, across branches of government, and between the state and private actors in the course of plea deals. Bargaining is an ineradicable fact of political life. Schwartzberg and Knight show that it can also be essential for democracy.
The Island: War and Belonging in Auden’s England
by Nicholas JenkinsA groundbreaking reassessment of W. H. Auden’s early life and poetry, shedding new light on his artistic development as well as on his shifting beliefs about political belonging in interwar England.From his first poems in 1922 to the publication of his landmark collection On This Island in the mid-1930s, W. H. Auden wrestled with the meaning of Englishness. His early works are prized for their psychological depth, yet Nicholas Jenkins argues that they are political poems as well, illuminating Auden’s intuitions about a key aspect of modern experience: national identity. Two historical forces, in particular, haunted the poet: the catastrophe of World War I and the subsequent “rediscovery” of England’s rural landscapes by artists and intellectuals.The Island presents a new picture of Auden, the poet and the man, as he explored a genteel, lyrical form of nationalism during these years. His poems reflect on a world in ruins, while cultivating visions of England as a beautiful—if morally compromised—haven. They also reflect aspects of Auden’s personal search for belonging—from his complex relationship with his father, to his quest for literary mentors, to his negotiation of the codes that structured gay life. Yet as Europe veered toward a second immolation, Auden began to realize that poetic myths centered on English identity held little potential. He left the country in 1936 for what became an almost lifelong expatriation, convinced that his role as the voice of Englishness had become an empty one.Reexamining one of the twentieth century’s most moving and controversial poets, The Island is a fresh account of his early works and a striking parable about the politics of modernism. Auden’s preoccupations with the vicissitudes of war, the trials of love, and the problems of identity are of their time. Yet they still resonate profoundly today.