This book, edited by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, explores the challenges posed by limited global resources and the growing inequality between nations. It discusses the environmental, economic, and social impacts of resource consumption, climate change, and global production systems. Through scientific analysis and policy-oriented perspectives, the book argues fo…
The Force of Fantasy explores how symbolic communication, storytelling, and rhetorical vision shape American social and political life. Ernest G. Bormann examines the ways collective fantasies influence public opinion, national identity, and political decision-making. Through his analysis of rhetorical movements and shared fantasies, the book demonstrates how narratives help restore, reform, or…
This book examines the ways imprisonment, escape, and the notion of “brainwashing” shaped American cultural and political perceptions during the Cold War. Susan L. Carruthers explores how captivity narratives, political prisoners, defections, and repatriation stories were represented in media, motion pictures, literature, and popular culture. Through historical documentation and cultural an…
The Lexus and the Olive Tree explores the rise of globalization as the defining international system of the post–Cold War era. Thomas L. Friedman examines how technological innovation, free markets, and global integration shape political, economic, and cultural dynamics across nations. Through vivid reporting and analytical insights, Friedman contrasts the forces of modernization (“the Lexu…
This book examines the major tensions shaping the modern world: the struggle between "Jihad," which is local tribalism and fundamentalism, and "McWorld," which is the forces of globalization, capitalism, and consumer culture. Benjamin Barber explains how these two forces—though seemingly opposed—both undermine democracy. "Jihad" divides society into narrow identities and ethnic conflicts, w…
Abner Cohen's book, The Politics of Elite Culture, examines how elite groups construct, maintain, and manipulate power through symbols, rituals, and social actions in modern African societies, particularly through a case study of Sierra Leone. Using a political anthropology approach, Cohen outlines the relationship between elites, bureaucracies, professions, and power structures, and how elite …
Ever since the ascendancy of critical theory and multicultural studies in the 1960s and 1970s, traditional humanistic education has been under assault. Often condemned as the intolerant voice of the masculine establishment and regularly associated with Eurocentrism and even imperialism, the once-sacred literary canon is now more likely to be ridiculed than revered. While this seismic shift--bro…
Drawing on groundbreaking brain and behavioral research, Goleman shows the factors at work when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ di surprisingly well. These factors, which inculde self-awareness, self-dicipline, and empathy, add up to a different way of being smart, and they aren't fixed at birth. Although shaped by childhood experience, emotional intelligence can be nurtured a…
So argues John McDermott in Corporate Society, an original and far-reaching analysis of the impact of the modern corporation on contemporary social structure. Combining business history with political insight, McDermott offers a systematic critique of the post-industrial order and the illusions it fosters. He warns against the development of a "post-society industry" in which the corporate orde…
Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice, by Kathryn Sorrells, introduces students to the complex relationships, structures, and contexts that shape intercultural communication in the new millennium. This book examines intercultural communication within the geopolitical, economic, and cultural context of globalization and offers a dynamic and complex understanding of cultur…