{"title":"Current Affairs \/ Social Issues.","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780140262636","title":"Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation - Silber, Laura ; Little, Allan","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eYugoslavia: Death of a Nation\u003c\/u\u003e by Silber, Laura ; Little, Allan\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Penguin Books, 1997\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The most authoritative account in English or any other language about how the war began.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books, 1997","offers":[{"title":"Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation \/ Good","offer_id":47946475241764,"sku":"9780140262636GD","price":6.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/9780140262636.jpg?v=1723001980"},{"product_id":"9780143122012","title":"The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined - Pinker, Steven","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eThe Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined\u003c\/u\u003e by Pinker, Steven\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Trade Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Penguin Books, 2012\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFaced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned. How has this happened?\n\n\nThis groundbreaking book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to understand our intrinsic motives- the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away-and how changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail. Exploding fatalist myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books, 2012","offers":[{"title":"The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined \/ Very Good","offer_id":47946587832612,"sku":"9780143122012VG","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined \/ Good","offer_id":50352038707492,"sku":"9780143122012GD","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_67fbf4a1-6c34-41fe-a0bf-f755a29b9134.jpg?v=1784389572"},{"product_id":"9780062797124","title":"Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse - Carney, Timothy P","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eAlienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse\u003c\/u\u003e by Carney, Timothy P\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Trade Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Harper Paperbacks, 2020\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRespected conservative journalist and commentator Timothy P. Carney continues the conversation begun with Hillbilly Elegy and the classic Bowling Alone in this hard-hitting analysis that identifies the true factor behind the decline of the American dream: it is not purely the result of economics as the left claims, but the collapse of the institutions that made us successful, including marriage, church, and civic life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u2028\u2028\u003cp\u003eDuring the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump proclaimed, “the American dream is dead,” and this message resonated across the country.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhy do so many people believe that the American dream is no longer within reach? Growing inequality, stubborn pockets of immobility, rising rates of deadly addiction, the increasing and troubling fact that where you start determines where you end up, heightening political strife-these are the disturbing realities threatening ordinary American lives today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe standard accounts pointed to economic problems among the working class, but the root was a cultural collapse: While the educated and wealthy elites still enjoy strong communities, most blue-collar Americans lack strong communities and institutions that bind them to their neighbors. And outside of the elites, the central American institution has been religion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat is, it’s not the factory closings that have torn us apart; it’s the church closings. The dissolution of our most cherished institutions-nuclear families, places of worship, civic organizations-has not only divided us, but eroded our sense of worth, belief in opportunity, and connection to one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn Abandoned America, Carney visits all corners of America, from the dim country bars of Southwestern Pennsylvania., to the bustling Mormon wards of Salt Lake City, and explains the most important data and research to demonstrate how the social connection is the great divide in America. He shows that Trump’s surprising victory was the most visible symptom of this deep-seated problem. 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Its slogan “Mni Wiconi”—Water is Life—was about more than just a pipeline. Water Protectors knew this battle for Native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anti-colonial struggle would continue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Our History is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to the #NoDAPL movement from the days of the Missouri River trading forts through the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian Movement, and the campaign for Indigenous rights at the United Nations. 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Award-winning journalist David Neiwert — who been following the rise of these extremist groups since the late 1970s, when he was a young reporter in Idaho — explores how the movement was built over decades, how it was set aflame by Donald Trump and his cohorts, and how it will continue to attack American democracy for the foreseeable future. Neiwert especially studies how the Pacific Northwest has long been a breeding ground of extremist violence, from the time when neo-nazis migrated to the area from southern California in the 1970s, through the great battles in Portland and Seattle and neighboring towns over the last decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLaying out how these groups organize their terroristic violence and attacks on democratic institutions at every level—including local, state, and federal targets—Neiwert details what their strategies and plans look like for the foreseeable future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Melville House, 2023","offers":[{"title":"The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy \/ Very Good","offer_id":49622709305636,"sku":"9781685890360VG","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/9781685890360_0eeefd33-e820-4892-b7e7-34bd884d6123.jpg?v=1723002022"},{"product_id":"9780745641447","title":"World Poverty and Human Rights - Pogge, Thomas W.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eWorld Poverty and Human Rights\u003c\/u\u003e by Pogge, Thomas W.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Trade Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Polity, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSome 2.5 billion human beings live in severe poverty, deprived of such essentials as adequate nutrition, safe drinking water, basic sanitation, adequate shelter, literacy, and basic health care. 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How can loving parents and otherwise responsible citizens join terrorist movements? How can anyone possibly believe that the cause of Islam can be advanced by murdering passengers on a bus or an airplane? In this important new book, groundbreaking scholar Louise Richardson answers these questions and more, providing an indispensable guide to the greatest challenge of our age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter defining–once and for all–what terrorism is, Richardson explores its origins, its goals, what’s to come, and what is to be done about it. Having grown up in rural Ireland and watched her friends join the Irish Republican Army, Richardson knows from firsthand experience how terrorism can both unite and destroy a community. As a professor at Harvard, she has devoted her career to explaining terrorist movements throughout history and around the globe. From the biblical Zealots to the medieval Islamic Assassins to the anarchists who infiltrated the cities of Europe and North America at the turn of the last century, terrorists have struck at enemies far more powerful than themselves with targeted acts of violence. Yet Richardson understands that terrorists are neither insane nor immoral. Rather, they are rational political actors who often deploy carefully calibrated tactics in a measured and reasoned way. What is more, they invariably go to great lengths to justify their actions to themselves, their followers, and, often, the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRichardson shows that the nature of terrorism did not change after the attacks of September 11, 2001; what changed was our response. 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The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully written narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. 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The so-called spring didn't last long, quickly unraveling into a collection of civil wars, civil unrest, and secessions. Phares argues that Washington is too hesitant to take action when necessary, that US policy is highly disoriented on counter terrorism efforts, and that the effects of these errors have already proven costly. In Benghazi, US foreign policy failed to see the explosions coming, didn't meet the challenges of political transformation where and with whom it should, and failed in isolating the Jihadi terrorists worldwide. Too many strategic errors were committed. 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They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year. Kim, fifteen, raises $10,000 so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, eighteen, exchanges a high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, seventeen, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for Poland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough these young informants, Ripley meets battle-scarred reformers, sleep-deprived zombie students, and a teacher who earns $4 million a year. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into learning in other cultures, reveal a pattern of startling transformation: none of these countries had many “smart” kids a few decades ago. Things had changed. Teaching had become more rigorous; parents had focused on things that mattered; and children had bought into the promise of education.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA journalistic tour de force, The Smartest Kids in the World is a book about building resilience in a new world—as told by the young Americans who have the most at stake.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster, 2013","offers":[{"title":"The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way \/ Very Good","offer_id":50577838113060,"sku":"9781451654424VG","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_f1c9a30e-c93c-47e5-bb97-6efb74e5200c.jpg?v=1784390882"},{"product_id":"9780618446704","title":"Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market - Schlosser, Eric","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eReefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market\u003c\/u\u003e by Schlosser, Eric\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Trade Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Mariner Books, 2004\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn unforgettable examination of America's black market and its unrelenting grip on society.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEric Schlosser turns his exacting eye on the underbelly of the American marketplace and its far-reaching influence on our society. Exposing three American mainstays—pot, porn, and illegal immigrants—this book shows how the black market has burgeoned over the past several decades. He also draws compelling parallels between underground and overground: how tycoons and gangsters rise and fall, how new techonology shapes a market, how government intervention can reinvigorate black markets as well as mainstream ones, and how big business learns—and profits—from the underground. Reefer Madness is a powerful investigation that illuminates the shadow economy and the culture that casts that shadow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mariner Books, 2004","offers":[{"title":"Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market \/ Very Good","offer_id":50577840865572,"sku":"9780618446704VG","price":6.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_b9427250-772b-4fdf-9b7c-6ad2ccd353bf.jpg?v=1784390903"},{"product_id":"9780063226883","title":"The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism - Alberta, Tim","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eThe Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism\u003c\/u\u003e by Alberta, Tim\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Harper, 2023\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInstant New York Times Bestseller\u003cbr\u003eOne of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003eAn Economist and Air MailBest Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\"Brave and absorbing.\" -- New York Times\u003cbr\u003e“Alberta is not just a thorough and responsible reporter but a vibrant writer, capable of rendering a farcical scene in vivid hues.” -- Washington Post\u003cbr\u003e“An astonishingly clear-eyed look at a murky movement.” -- Los Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003eEvangelical Christians are perhaps the most polarizing—and least understood—people living in America today. In his seminal new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, journalist Tim Alberta, himself a practicing Christian and the son of an evangelical pastor, paints an expansive and profoundly troubling portrait of the American evangelical movement. Through the eyes of televangelists and small-town preachers, celebrity revivalists and everyday churchgoers, Alberta tells the story of a faith cheapened by ephemeral fear, a promise corrupted by partisan subterfuge, and a reputation stained by perpetual scandal.\u003cbr\u003eFor millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom—a land set apart, a nation uniquely blessed, a people in special covenant with God. This love of country, however, has given way to right-wing nationalist fervor, a reckless blood-and-soil idolatry that trivializes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Alberta retraces the arc of the modern evangelical movement, placing political and cultural inflection points in the context of church teachings and traditions, explaining how Donald Trump's presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated historical trends that long pointed toward disaster. Reporting from half-empty sanctuaries and standing-room-only convention halls across the country, the author documents a growing fracture inside American Christianity and journeys with readers through this strange new environment in which loving your enemies is \"woke\" and owning the libs is the answer to WWJD.\u003cbr\u003eAccessing the highest echelons of the American evangelical movement, Alberta investigates the ways in which conservative Christians have pursued, exercised, and often abused power in the name of securing this earthly kingdom. He highlights the battles evangelicals are fighting—and the weapons of their warfare—to demonstrate the disconnect from scripture: Contra the dictates of the New Testament, today's believers are struggling mightily against flesh and blood, eyes fixed on the here and now, desperate for a power that is frivolous and fleeting. Lingering at the intersection of real cultural displacement and perceived religious persecution, Alberta portrays a rapidly secularizing America that has come to distrust the evangelical church, and weaves together present-day narratives of individual pastors and their churches as they confront the twin challenges of lost status and diminished standing.\u003cbr\u003eSifting through the wreckage—pastors broken, congregations battered, believers losing their religion because of sex scandals and political schemes—Alberta asks: If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, what is its purpose?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper, 2023","offers":[{"title":"The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism \/ Very Good","offer_id":50796425740580,"sku":"9780063226883VG","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_7970c22a-6770-425a-a2c2-ec610b5edb37.jpg?v=1784391236"},{"product_id":"9780679759270","title":"Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun - Larson, Erik","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eLethal Passage: The Story of a Gun\u003c\/u\u003e by Larson, Erik\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Vintage, 1995\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis devastating book illuminates America's gun culture -- its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists -- but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Touches on all aspects of the gun issue in this country. Gives great voice to that feeling...that something real must be done.\" --San Diego Union-Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One of the most readable anti-gun treatises in years.\" --Washington Post Book World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: on December 16, 1988, sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11\/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked in his backpack. By day's end, he had killed one teacher and severely wounded another.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Lethal Passage Erik Larson shows us how a disturbed teenager was able to buy a weapon advertised as \"the gun that made the eighties roar.\" The result is a book that can -- and should -- save lives, and that has already become an essential text in the gun-control debate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage, 1995","offers":[{"title":"Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun \/ Good","offer_id":50796429377828,"sku":"9780679759270GD","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_7c6b34ba-f568-4ae8-b8fe-ea30689c1e5d.jpg?v=1784391250"},{"product_id":"9781039008458","title":"At a Loss for Words Conversation in an Age of Rage - Off, Carol","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eAt a Loss for Words Conversation in an Age of Rage\u003c\/u\u003e by Off, Carol\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Random House, 2025\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward-winning author and broadcast journalist Carol Off digs deep into six words whose meanings have been distorted and weaponized in recent years—including democracy, freedom and truth—and asks whether we can reclaim their value.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs co-host of CBC Radio's As It Happens, Carol Off spent a decade and a half talking to people in the news five nights a week. On top of her stellar writing and reporting career, those 25,000 interviews have given her a unique vantage point on the crucial subject at the heart of her new book—how, in these polarizing years, words that used to define civil society and social justice are being put to work for a completely different political agenda. Or they are being bleached of their meaning as the values they represent are mocked and distorted. As Off writes, “If our language doesn’t have a means to express an idea, then the idea itself is gone—even the range of thought is diminished.” And, as she argues, that’s a dangerous loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn six wide-ranging chapters, Off explores the mutating meanings and the changing political impact of her six chosen words—freedom, democracy, truth, woke, choice and taxes—unpacking the forces, from right and left, that have altered them beyond recognition. She also shows what happens when we lose our shared political vocabulary: we stop being able to hear each other, let alone speak with each other in meaningful ways. This means we stop being able to reckon with the complexity of the crises we face, leaving us prey to conspiracy theories, autocrats and the machinations of greed. At a Loss for Words is both an elegy and a call to arms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House, 2025","offers":[{"title":"At a Loss for Words Conversation in an Age of Rage \/ Very Good","offer_id":51935113052452,"sku":"9781039008458VG","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_1ad58858-5e99-4229-8c79-61a558dd4c8e.jpg?v=1784392076"},{"product_id":"9780805076066","title":"Bait and Switch The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream - Ehrenreich, Barbara","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eBait and Switch The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream\u003c\/u\u003e by Ehrenreich, Barbara\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Macmillan, 2005\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America’s ailing middle class what she did for the working poor\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e\n\n\u003c\/b\u003eBarbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the shadowy world of the white-collar unemployed. Armed with a plausible résumé of a professional “in transition,” she attempts to land a middle-class job—undergoing career coaching and personality testing, then trawling a series of EST-like boot camps, job fairs, networking events, and evangelical job-search ministries. She gets an image makeover, works to project a winning attitude, yet is proselytized, scammed, lectured, and—again and again—rejected.\n\n\n\nBait and Switch highlights the people who’ve done everything right—gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive résumés—yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster, and not simply due to the vagaries of the business cycle. Today’s ultra-lean corporations take pride in shedding their “surplus” employees—plunging them, for months or years at a stretch, into the twilight zone of white-collar unemployment, where job searching becomes a full-time job in itself. As Ehrenreich discovers, there are few social supports for these newly disposable workers—and little security even for those who have jobs. \n\n\n\nLike the now classic Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch is alternately hilarious and tragic, a searing exposé of economic cruelty where we least expect it.\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan, 2005","offers":[{"title":"Bait and Switch The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream \/ Very Good","offer_id":51935113806116,"sku":"9780805076066VG","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_661580cc-65dd-4274-a9db-c5ff3eababf6.jpg?v=1784392086"},{"product_id":"9781608198382","title":"Unaccountable What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care - Makary, Marty","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eUnaccountable What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care\u003c\/u\u003e by Makary, Marty\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Every once in a while a book comes along that rocks the foundations of an established order that's seriously in need of being shaken. The modern American hospital is that establishment and Unaccountable is that book.\"-Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated\n\n Dr. Marty Makary is co-developer of the life-saving checklist outlined in Atul Gawande's bestselling The Checklist Manifesto. As a busy surgeon who has worked in many of the best hospitals in the nation, he can testify to the amazing power of modern medicine to cure. But he's also been a witness to a medical culture that routinely leaves surgical sponges inside patients, amputates the wrong limbs, and overdoses children because of sloppy handwriting. Over the last ten years, neither error rates nor costs have come down, despite scientific progress and efforts to curb expenses. Why? To patients, the healthcare system is a black box. Doctors and hospitals are unaccountable, and the lack of transparency leaves both bad doctors and systemic flaws unchecked. Patients need to know more of what healthcare workers know, so they can make informed choices. Accountability in healthcare would expose dangerous doctors, reward good performance, and force positive change nationally, using the power of the free market. Unaccountable is a powerful, no-nonsense, non-partisan diagnosis for healing our hospitals and reforming our broken healthcare system.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013","offers":[{"title":"Unaccountable What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care \/ Very Good","offer_id":51935117017380,"sku":"9781608198382VG","price":8.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_131ea145-d7b0-402f-8a0d-01fc209f1d76.jpg?v=1784392126"},{"product_id":"9780670030439","title":"Brown: The Last Discovery of America - Rodriguez, Richard","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eBrown: The Last Discovery of America\u003c\/u\u003e by Rodriguez, Richard\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Viking Adult, 2002\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe author of Hunger of Memory and Days of Obligation concludes his \"trilogy of American public life\" by contemplating the many cultural associations of the color brown--toil, decay, impurity, and time--as he considers the meaning of Hispanics in American society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viking Adult, 2002","offers":[{"title":"Brown: The Last Discovery of America \/ Very Good","offer_id":52003509043492,"sku":"9780670030439VG","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_22ffa3a6-7534-441c-b7cc-e1057795aac1.jpg?v=1784391584"},{"product_id":"9780525509301","title":"How to Be an Antiracist - Kendi, Ibram X.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eHow to Be an Antiracist\u003c\/u\u003e by Kendi, Ibram X.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Random House Publishing Group, 2023\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves\u003cb\u003e—now updated, with a new preface.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cb\u003e“The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”—The New York Times\u003c\/b\u003e \n\n\n\n\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\n\nAntiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.\n\n\n\nKendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group, 2023","offers":[{"title":"How to Be an Antiracist \/ NEW","offer_id":52634098401572,"sku":"9780525509301NW","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_64636bda-8ab1-4132-bee5-7abdd751b310.jpg?v=1784392313"},{"product_id":"9781668007808","title":"Cults Like Us Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America - Borden, Jane","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eCults Like Us Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America\u003c\/u\u003e by Borden, Jane\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Simon and Schuster, 2025\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn “engrossing, unputdownable” (Amanda Montell, New York Times bestselling author) pop history that explains \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ewhy the eccentric doomsday beliefs of our Puritan founders are still driving American culture today, contextualizes the current rise in far-right extremism as a natural result of our latent indoctrination, and proposes that the United States is the largest cult of all.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\n\nSince the Mayflower sidled up to Plymouth Rock, cult ideology has been ingrained in the DNA of the United States. In this eye-opening book, journalist Jane Borden argues that Puritan doomsday belief never went away; it went secular and became American culture. From our fascination with cowboys and superheroes to our allegiance to influencers and self-help, susceptibility to advertising, and undying devotion to the self-made man, Americans remain particularly vulnerable to a specific brand of cult-like thinking.\n\n \n\nWith in-depth research and compelling insight, Borden uncovers the American history you didn’t learn in school, including how we are still being brainwashed, making us a nation of easy marks for con artists and strong men. Along the way, she also revisits some of the most fascinating cults in this country—including, the Mankind United and Love Has Won—presenting them as integral parts of our national psyche rather than aberrations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon and Schuster, 2025","offers":[{"title":"Cults Like Us Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America \/ Very Good","offer_id":52780960383268,"sku":"9781668007808VG","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_5c4fe230-d2b0-4d68-8fdf-a8a1550661da.jpg?v=1784392687"},{"product_id":"9780307389886","title":"The Return of History and the End of Dreams - Kagan, Robert","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eThe Return of History and the End of Dreams\u003c\/u\u003e by Kagan, Robert\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. The world remains “unipolar,” but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict, and a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics.For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in \u003cb\u003eThe Return of History and the End of Dreams\u003c\/b\u003e, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009","offers":[{"title":"The Return of History and the End of Dreams \/ Very Good","offer_id":53250712502564,"sku":"9780307389886VG","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_0caec50d-c2a5-4243-b5b8-29008cc8be8d.jpg?v=1784392857"},{"product_id":"9781328915382","title":"Destined for War Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? - Allison, Graham ; Graham T. 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Over the past five hundred years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times; war broke out in twelve.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018","offers":[{"title":"Destined for War Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? \/ Very Good","offer_id":53250719908132,"sku":"9781328915382VG","price":8.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_059f6e8a-42c1-4e76-97b2-95bd1cf28ec2.jpg?v=1784392933"},{"product_id":"9780312425074","title":"The World is Flat a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century - Friedman, Thomas L.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eThe World is Flat a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century\u003c\/u\u003e by Friedman, Thomas L.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Picador, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eA New Edition of the Phenomenal #1 Bestseller\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n \n\n\"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal,\" the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times reviewing The World Is Flat in 2005. In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents across the country, this third edition also includes two new chapters--on how to be a political activist and social entrepreneur in a flat world; and on the more troubling question of how to manage our reputations and privacy in a world where we are all becoming publishers and public figures.\n\n \n\nThe World Is Flat 3.0 is an essential update on globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize--winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador, 2007","offers":[{"title":"The World is Flat a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century \/ Very Good","offer_id":53375498191140,"sku":"9780312425074VG","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_49ac5c1f-55fd-40b2-928d-d642a379990d.jpg?v=1784392716"},{"product_id":"9780618187805","title":"House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power - Carroll, James","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eHouse of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power\u003c\/u\u003e by Carroll, James\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the National Book Awardwinning author of An American Requiem and Constantine's Sword comes a sweeping yet intimate look at the Pentagon and its vast often hidden impact on America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. James Carroll proves a controversial thesis: the Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more. To argue his case, he marshals a trove of often chilling evidence. He recounts how \"the Building\" and its denizens achieved what Eisenhower called \"a disastrous rise of misplaced power\" from the unprecedented aerial bombing of Germany and Japan during World War II to the \"shock and awe\" of Iraq. He charts the colossal U.S. nuclear buildup, which far outpaced that of the USSR, and has outlived it. He reveals how consistently the Building has found new enemies just as old threats and funding evaporate. He demonstrates how Pentagon policy brought about U.S. indifference to an epidemic of genocide during the 1990s. And he shows how the forces that attacked the Pentagon on 9\/11 were set in motion exactly sixty years earlier, on September 11, 1941, when ground was broken for the house of war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCarroll draws on rich personal experience (his father was a top Pentagon official for more than twenty years) as well as exhaustive research and dozens of extensive interviews with Washington insiders. The result is a grand yet intimate work of history, unashamedly polemical and personal but unerringly factual. With a breadth and focus that no other book could muster, it explains what America has become over the past sixty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006","offers":[{"title":"House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power \/ Very Good","offer_id":53574505169188,"sku":"9780618187805VG","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_ae3bd74c-e58b-4ddd-8c03-ac3f352d569d.jpg?v=1784393358"},{"product_id":"9780679642817","title":"The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror - Lewis, Bernard","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eThe Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror\u003c\/u\u003e by Lewis, Bernard\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Modern Library, 2003\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Crisis of Islam ranges widely through thirteen centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today: the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Brilliantly disentangling the crosscurrents of Middle Eastern history from the rhetoric of its manipulators, Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award–winning article for The New Yorker, The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Usama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Modern Library, 2003","offers":[{"title":"The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror \/ Very Good","offer_id":53574518866212,"sku":"9780679642817VG","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_c9db2988-fcc0-4dee-afef-c30af9584719.jpg?v=1784393367"},{"product_id":"9780316409131","title":"Upheaval Turning Points for Nations in Crisis - Diamond, Jared","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eUpheaval Turning Points for Nations in Crisis\u003c\/u\u003e by Diamond, Jared\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Little, Brown, 2019\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Bill Gates Summer Reading Pick\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\n\n\u003c\/b\u003eA \"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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\n\n\u003c\/b\u003e \n\nIn his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. 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.\n\n\n\nDiamond 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. 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? \n\nAdding 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown, 2019","offers":[{"title":"Upheaval Turning Points for Nations in Crisis \/ Very Good","offer_id":54064828121380,"sku":"9780316409131VG","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_d8766078-26d4-4cf0-9072-1512043de661.jpg?v=1784393561"},{"product_id":"9781565849716","title":"Torture Does it Make Us Safer? is it Ever OK? : a Human Rights Perspective - Roth, Kenneth ; Minky Worden ; Amy D. Bernstein","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eTorture Does it Make Us Safer? is it Ever OK? : a Human Rights Perspective\u003c\/u\u003e by Roth, Kenneth ; Minky Worden ; Amy D. Bernstein\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by New Press, 2005\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOf all the issues on the human rights agenda, torture offered Americans the moral high ground . . . until this year. With the abuses at Abu Ghraib that led to accusations of torture within the domestic criminal justice system, the question of cruel and unusual treatment has taken on new urgency in the United States and elsewhere.\n\n In Torture, twelve newly written essays by leading thinkers and experts range over history and continents, offering a nuanced, up-to-the-minute exploration of this wrenching but timely topic, including, among others, Reed Brody on the road to Abu Ghraib and \"ghost detainees\"; Eitan Felner on the Israeli experience; Tom Malinowski on violations of State Department \"forbidden practices\" at Abu Ghraib and in Afghanistan; Kenneth Roth on the U.S. government's shift from cover-up to justification; and Minky Worden on a global survey of torturing countries.\n\n Intended for a general audience, some of the key questions addressed include how to define torture, whether torture is ever effective, and whether it is ever acceptable.\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New Press, 2005","offers":[{"title":"Torture Does it Make Us Safer? is it Ever OK? : a Human Rights Perspective \/ Very Good","offer_id":54064835330340,"sku":"9781565849716VG","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_268867db-22df-4f53-a063-c5420a47f2cd.jpg?v=1784393670"},{"product_id":"9780316564717","title":"American Reich A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate - Lichtblau, Eric","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eAmerican Reich A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate\u003c\/u\u003e by Lichtblau, Eric\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Little Brown, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Pulitzer-winning author of the New York Times bestseller The Nazis Next Door, a deeply reported exploration of the violent resurgence of hatred and white supremacy through the lens of Orange County, California--\"ground zero\" for racial extremism--and the story of one brutal murder there that revealed the deep roots of violent bigotry as a bellwether for the country.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n One night in early 2018, while he was home from college, an Ivy League student named Blaze Bernstein snuck out of his parents' house in Orange County. Waiting for him in a car outside was an old high-school classmate: Sam Woodward, someone who Blaze mostly remembered as a brooding, bigoted loner. But that night, after months of flirtatious messaging, Sam had succeeded in coaxing Blaze--a gay, Jewish sophomore at UPenn--out for a rendezvous. No one would ever see him alive again.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n In American Reich, veteran investigative journalist Eric Lichtblau uses the story of Blaze's life and death to shine a light on the epidemic of hate in Southern California and, increasingly, the nation as a whole. Orange County has long been a bastion of the ultra-right: carved out of farmland as a haven for wealthy whites fleeing the diversifying metropolis to the north, it was the birthplace of the far-right John Birch Society, a hub for neo-Nazi recruitment, and a powerful springboard for race-baiting Republican politicians including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But in the years leading up to Blaze's disappearance, Orange County was changing: like the country as a whole, it was rapidly diversifying, to the outrage of many of its white residents. No one was more opposed to the changes than America's resurgent neo-Nazi groups, one of which had recently gained a new member: Sam Woodward.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n Revealing how Orange County has exported racial hatred to the rest of the country and the world, American Reich weaves this tragic tale together with stories from across the nation, showing what this haunted place and the colliding paths of two of its residents reveal about America's fractured soul and our hope for healing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little Brown, 2026","offers":[{"title":"American Reich A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate \/ Very Good","offer_id":55119842640164,"sku":"9780316564717VG","price":9.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_7adde2b4-edea-4751-9ab1-1a5b36a0b2f7.jpg?v=1784393753"},{"product_id":"9780553387292","title":"On Fire for God Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right - a Personal History - Hesse, Josiah","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eOn Fire for God Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right - a Personal History\u003c\/u\u003e by Hesse, Josiah\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Random House, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne part Educated, one part rebuttal to Hillbilly Elegy, On Fire for God explores the ways evangelical Christianity has preyed upon its followers while galvanizing them into the political force known today as the Christian right.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\n\nExvangelical journalist Josiah Hesse grew up in the stifling working-class town of Mason City, Iowa, raised in the institutions of fundamentalist Christianity: a toxic mixture of schools, ministries, and religious camps that taught creationism, instilled sexual shame, and foretold horrific tales of the rapture and the ceaseless agony awaiting sinners in the afterlife. In the churches where he worshipped, pastors siphoned their flocks’ wealth while preaching a doctrine of prosperity and humiliating the poor. Meanwhile, as economic struggles grew in the community around him, his fellow believers lambasted organized labor and shunned the social safety net, becoming an army for God against the evils of progressivism. Like many of his peers, Hesse would find himself a high-school dropout, in and out of a series of dead-end jobs. Only upon escaping Iowa in search of something more would he consider the possibility that the world wasn’t going to end and that he was woefully unprepared for a future he’d never believed would arrive.\n\n\n\nWritten in vivid prose, On Fire for God is both an unflinching memoir of religious trauma and survival and a stirring examination of the emotional, political, and sociological effects of the Christian right. Returning to his hometown in search of answers about his upbringing, his family history, and the political forces at work in the region, Hesse calls into question prevailing theories about the disappearing working class that point to opioids, automation, or globalism as the culprits. His story of awakening and escape exposes how conservative Christian conmen have, over generations, trapped working-class believers in an isolated bubble of racism, xenophobia, and self-imposed martyrdom and stripped communities like his of their wealth and self-esteem, leaving behind a passive, low-wage workforce unable—and unwilling—to demand better. In On Fire for God, Hesse plumbs the depths of his own experience to illuminate, with deep feeling and piercing immediacy, what he describes as the socioeconomic tragedy of the American working class.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House, 2026","offers":[{"title":"On Fire for God Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right - a Personal History \/ Very Good","offer_id":55119842672932,"sku":"9780553387292VG","price":9.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_26068b89-89c9-47d0-87f1-1c9082396d96.jpg?v=1784393754"},{"product_id":"9780593833407","title":"Nations Apart How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America - Woodard, Colin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eNations Apart How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America\u003c\/u\u003e by Woodard, Colin\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Penguin Group, 2025\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A world-class intellectual. . . . [Colin Woodard’s] research can help Americans rediscover their common identity in spite of all the attempts to divide them.\" —Garry Kasparov\n\n \n\n\"A powerful paradigm for understanding the defining hot button issues of contemporary America and the action we can take to bridge our cultural divisions and save the republic.\" —The Next Big Idea Club\n\n\n\n“A lucid exercise in political geography with tremendous—and disturbing—explanatory power.” —Kirkus Reviews\n\n \n\nThe bestselling author of American Nations reveals how centuries-old regional differences have brought American democracy to the brink of collapse and presents a powerful story that can bridge our cultural divisions and save the republic\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\n\nOur democracy has been purposefully dismantled, first in the states and now at the federal level. With groundbreaking original data and historical insights, Nations Apart is an essential guide to understanding why Americans are so divided on many hot button issues, creating geographic fissures that have been exploited by authoritarians. Colin Woodard shows how colonial era settlement patterns and the cultural geography they left behind are at the root of our political polarization, economic inequality, public health crises, and democratic collapse.\n\n\n\nDrawing on quantitative research from Woodard’s university-based think tank project, Nations Apart exposes the true ideological and cultural divides behind today’s struggles over:\n\n\n\n * Gun control\n\n * Immigration\n\n * Health policy\n\n * Abortion\n\n * Climate Change\n\n * History\n\n * Authoritarianism and Democracy\n\n\n\nBut there is a road map to right the country: a carefully researched, vigorously tested common story for the country built on the mission set forth for us in the document that first bound our regions together, the Declaration of Independence. Combining compelling storytelling with scholarly vigor, Nations Apart offers a blueprint for bridging the rifts that divide us and ensuring the American dream of democratic self-government will reach its 300th birthday.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Group, 2025","offers":[{"title":"Nations Apart How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America \/ Very Good","offer_id":55119843590436,"sku":"9780593833407VG","price":9.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_9dc02d25-0441-48bf-9f6f-b7fc4e397b8c.jpg?v=1784393754"},{"product_id":"9781851685219","title":"Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides) - DeCarlo, Jacqueline","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eFair Trade: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides)\u003c\/u\u003e by DeCarlo, Jacqueline\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Oneworld Publications, 2007\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhat’s wrong with buying regular coffee? Does Fair Trade necessarily mean ethical trade? What impact can consumers have on global economics? Fair Trade: A Beginner’s Guide reveals why Fair Trade means more than just bananas, coffee, and chocolate. Author and activist Jacqueline DeCarlo explains the principles behind Fair Trade and its development into a powerful economic tool. Packed with inspiring ways to make a difference, this book will encourage readers of all backgrounds to help end poverty,environmental destruction, and human exploitation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oneworld Publications, 2007","offers":[{"title":"Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides) \/ Very Good","offer_id":55759288107300,"sku":"9781851685219VG","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_b38d3d02-06fc-40f0-a474-b4ae9360b6c5.jpg?v=1784394131"},{"product_id":"9780804172479","title":"American Dialogue The Founders and Us - Ellis, Joseph J.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eAmerican Dialogue The Founders and Us\u003c\/u\u003e by Ellis, Joseph J.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2019\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe award-winning author of Founding Brothers and The Quartet now gives us a deeply insightful examination of the relevance of the views of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to some of the most divisive issues in America today.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\n\nThe story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question \"What would the Founding Fathers think?\" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, Madison and the doctrine of original intent. Through these juxtapositions—and in his hallmark dramatic and compelling narrative voice—Ellis illuminates the obstacles and pitfalls paralyzing contemporary discussions of these fundamentally important issues.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2019","offers":[{"title":"American Dialogue The Founders and Us \/ Very Good","offer_id":55759297511716,"sku":"9780804172479VG","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_3a2610cf-6284-4add-a963-2a8b29da8ad6.jpg?v=1784394483"}],"url":"https:\/\/brookingsbooks.com\/collections\/current-affairs-social-issues.oembed?page=2","provider":"Brookings Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}