Harvard University Press - POLITICAL SCIENCE

Americans All

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Diana Selig
From the 1920s—a decade marked by racism and nativism—through World War II, hundreds of thousands of Americans took part in a vibrant campaign to overcome racial, ethnic, and religious prejudices. Progressive activists encouraged pluralism in homes, schools, and churches across the country.Selig tells the neglected story of the cultural gifts movement, which flourished between the world wars.
Hardcover June 2008

Free Riding

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Richard Tuck
A proposition of contemporary economics and political science is that it would be an exercise of reason, not a failure of it, not to contribute to a collective project if the contribution is negligible, but to benefit from it nonetheless.Tuck makes careful distinctions between the prisoner’s dilemma problem, threshold phenomena such as voting, and free riding. He analyzes the notion of negligibility, and shows some of the logical difficulties in the idea—and how the ancient paradox of the sorites illustrates the difficulties.
Hardcover June 2008

When Is Discrimination Wrong?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Deborah Hellman
Hellman develops a much-needed general theory of discrimination. She demonstrates that many familiar ideas about when discrimination is wrong—when it is motivated by prejudice, grounded in stereotypes, or simply departs from merit-based decision-making—won’t adequately explain our widely shared intuitions. When Is Discrimination Wrong? explores what it means to treat people as equals and thus takes up a central problem of democracy.
Hardcover June 2008

Nexus

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Jonathan Reed Winkler
In an illuminating study that blends diplomatic, military, technology, and business history, Winkler shows how U.S. officials during World War I discovered the enormous value of global communications. In this absorbing history, Winkler sheds light on the early stages of the global infrastructure that helped launch the United States as the predominant power of the century.
Hardcover June 2008

A Government Ill Executed

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Paul C. Light
Foreword by Paul A. Volcker
The federal government is having increasing difficulty faithfully executing the laws, which is what Alexander Hamilton called “the true test” of a good government. This book diagnoses the symptoms, explains their general causes, and proposes ways to improve the effectiveness of the federal government.
Hardcover May 2008

Holding Bishops Accountable

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Timothy D. Lytton
The prevalence of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system’s remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light. The lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.
Hardcover May 2008

Understanding Privacy

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Daniel J. Solove
Solove offers a comprehensive overview of the difficulties involved in discussions of privacy and ultimately provides a provocative resolution. He argues that no single definition can be workable, but rather that there are multiple forms of privacy, related to one another by family resemblances. His theory bridges cultural differences and addresses historical changes in views on privacy.
Hardcover May 2008

The Warping of Government Work

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

John D. Donahue
The divergent paths of public and private employment have intensified a long-standing pattern: elite workers spurn public jobs, while less skilled workers cling to government work as a refuge from a harsh private economy. The Warping of Government Work documents government’s isolation from the rest of the American economy and arrays the stark choices we confront for narrowing, or accommodating, the divide between public and private work.
Hardcover May 2008

Bending Science

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Thomas O. McGarity
Wendy E. Wagner
McGarity and Wagner reveal the range of sophisticated legal and financial tactics political and corporate advocates use to discredit or suppress research on potential human health hazards.Bending Science exposes an astonishing pattern of corruption and makes a compelling case for reforms to safeguard both the integrity of science and the public health.
Hardcover May 2008

Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers?

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Zygmunt Bauman
Bauman urges us to think in new ways about a newly flexible, newly challenging modern world. In an era of routine travel, where most people circulate widely, the inherited beliefs that aid our thinking about the world have become an obstacle. He challenges members of the “knowledge class” to overcome their estrangement from the rest of society.
Hardcover May 2008

Unmaking the Public University

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Christopher Newfield
Unmaking the Public University is the story of how conservatives have maligned and restructured public universities in a campaign to end public education’s democratizing influence on American society.
Hardcover May 2008

Woodrow Wilson and the American Myth in Italy

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Daniela Rossini
Translated by Antony Shugaar
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson’s image as leader of the free world and the image of America as dispenser of democracy spread throughout Italy, filling an ideological void. American popularity, though, did not ensure mutual understanding. Rossini sets the Italian-American political confrontation within the full context of the two countries’ cultural perceptions of each other, different war experiences, and ideas about participatory democracy and peace.
Hardcover May 2008

Al Qaeda in Its Own Words

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Gilles Kepel
Edited by Jean-Pierre Milelli
Translated by Pascale Ghazaleh
Introduction and notes by Thomas Hegghammer
Introduction and notes by Stephane Lacroix
Introduction and notes by Jean-Pierre Milelli
Introduction and notes by Omar Saghi
To reveal Al Qaeda’s inner workings, Gilles Kepel and his collaborators, all scholars of Arabic and Islam, have collected and brilliantly annotated key texts of the major figures from whom the movement has drawn its beliefs and direction. The resulting volume offers an unprecedented glimpse into the assumptions of the salafist jihadists who have reshaped political life at the beginning of the third millennium.
Hardcover April 2008

How Judges Think

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Richard A. Posner
A distinguished and experienced appellate court judge, Posner offers in this new book a unique and, to orthodox legal thinkers, a startling perspective on how judges and justices decide cases.
Hardcover April 2008

The Quest for Democracy in Iran

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Fakhreddin Azimi
The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 launched Iran as a pioneer in a broad-based movement to establish democratic rule in the non-Western world. In a book that provides essential context for understanding modern Iran, Azimi traces a century of struggle for the establishment of representative government.
Hardcover April 2008

The Origins of the Developmental State in Taiwan

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

J. Megan Greene
The rapid growth of Taiwan’s postwar “miracle” economy is most frequently credited to the leading role of the state in promoting economic development. Megan Greene challenges this standard interpretation in the first in-depth examination of the origins of Taiwan’s developmental state.
Hardcover April 2008

Chutes and Ladders

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Katherine S. Newman
Now that the welfare system has been largely dismantled, the fate of America's poor depends on what happens to them in the low-wage labor market. In this timely volume, Katherine S. Newman explores whether the poorest families benefited from the tight labor markets and good economy in the late 1990s. More than a story of the shifting fortunes of the labor market, Chutes and Ladders asks probing questions about the motivations of low-wage workers, the dreams they have, and their understanding of the rules of the game.
Paperback April 2008

The Business of Lobbying in China

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Scott Kennedy
Based on over 300 in-depth interviews with company executives, business association representatives, and government officials, this study identifies a wide range of national economic policies influenced by lobbying, including taxes, technical standards, and intellectual property rights. These findings have significant implications for how we think about Chinese politics and economics, as well as government-business relations in general.
Paperback March 2008

Nature and History in American Political Development

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

James W. Ceaser
Foreword by Theda Skocpol
In this inaugural volume of the Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures, James Ceaser traces the way certain "foundational" ideas--including nature, history, and religion--have been understood and used over the course of American history. Ceaser treats these ideas as elements of political discourse that provide the ground for other political ideas, such as liberty or equality. Three critical commentators challenge Ceaser's arguments, and a spirited debate about large and enduring questions in American politics ensues.
Paperback March 2008

Partisans of Allah

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Ayesha Jalal
Today, more than ever, jihad signifies the political opposition between Islam and the West. As the line drawn between Muslims and non-Muslims becomes more rigid, Jalal seeks to retrieve the ethical meanings of this core Islamic principle in South Asian history. Drawing on historical, legal, and literary sources, Jalal traces the intellectual itinerary of jihad through several centuries and across the territory connecting the Middle East with South Asia.
Hardcover March 2008

Policymaking in Latin America

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Ernesto Stein
Edited by Mariano Tommasi
Edited by Carlos Scartascini
Edited by Pablo Spiller
What determines the capacity of countries to design, approve, and implement effective public policies? To address this issue, this book builds on the results of a comparative study of political institutions, policymaking processes, and policy outcomes in eight Latin American countries. The volume benefits from both micro detail on the intricacies of policymaking in individual countries and a broad cross-country interdisciplinary analysis of the process in the region.
Paperback March 2008

Starved for Science

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Robert Paarlberg
Foreword by Norman Borlaug
Foreword by Jimmy Carter
In Starved for Science Paarlberg explains why poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought. He traces this obstacle to the current opposition to farm science in prosperous countries.
Hardcover March 2008

China's Trapped Transition

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Minxin Pei
In a book sure to provoke debate, Minxin Pei examines the sustainability of the Chinese Communist Party's reform strategy--pursuing pro-market economic policies under one-party rule. Combining powerful insights with empirical research, China's Trapped Transition offers a provocative assessment of China's future as a great power.
Paperback March 2008

Freedom Is Not Enough

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Nancy MacLean
In this bold and groundbreaking work, Nancy MacLean shows how African-American and later Mexican-American civil rights activists and feminists concluded that freedom alone would not suffice: access to jobs at all levels is a requisite of full citizenship. Tracing the struggle to open the American workplace to all, MacLean chronicles the cultural and political advances that have irrevocably changed our nation over the past fifty years.
Paperback March 2008

Rightward Bound

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Bruce J. Schulman
Edited by Julian E. Zelizer
Often considered a lost decade, a pause between the liberal Sixties and Reagan’s Eighties, the 1970s were indeed a watershed era when the forces of a conservative counter-revolution cohered. A critical decade in American history, Rightward Bound illuminates the seeds of both the successes and the failures of the conservative revolution.
Hardcover / Paperback March 2008

War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945-2005

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Franziska Seraphim
Japan has long wrestled with the memories of World War II. Franziska Seraphim traces the activism of five civic organizations to examine the ways in which diverse organized memories have secured legitimate niches within the public sphere. The history of these domestic conflicts--over the commemoration of the war dead, the manipulation of national symbols, the teaching of history, or the articulation of relations with China and Korea--is crucial to the current discourse about apology and reconciliation in East Asia, and provides essential context for the global debate on war memory.
Paperback March 2008

Neverending Wars

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST

Ann Hironaka
Since 1945, the average length of civil wars has increased three-fold. What can explain this startling fact? Hironaka points to the crucial role of the international community in propping up many new and weak states that resulted from the decolonization movement after World War II. These impoverished states are prone to conflicts and lack the necessary resources to resolve them decisively. This timely book will provide an entirely new way to look at recent, vicious civil wars, failed states, and the terrorist movements that emerge in their wake.
Paperback March 2008

Big Enough to Be Inconsistent

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST

George M. Fredrickson
This book focuses on the most controversial aspect of Lincoln’s thought and politics—his attitudes and actions regarding slavery and race. Drawing attention to the limitations of Lincoln’s judgment and policies without denying his magnitude, the book provides the most comprehensive and even-handed account available of Lincoln’s contradictory treatment of black Americans in matters of slavery in the South and basic civil rights in the North.
Hardcover February 2008

The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST

Edited by Robert D. Crews
Edited by Amin Tarzi
The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan explores the paradox at the center of a challenging phenomenon: how has a seemingly anachronistic band of religious zealots managed to retain a tenacious foothold in the struggle for Afghanistan's future? Grounding their analysis in a deep understanding of the country's past, leading scholars of Afghan history, politics, society, and culture show how the Taliban was less an attempt to revive a medieval theocracy than a dynamic, complex, and adaptive force rooted in the history of Afghanistan and shaped by modern international politics.
Hardcover February 2008

The Mighty Wurlitzer

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

Hugh Wilford
Wilford provides the first comprehensive account of the clandestine relationship between the CIA and its front organizations. Using an unprecedented wealth of sources, he traces the rise and fall of America's Cold War front network from its origins in the 1940s to its Third World expansion during the 1950s and ultimate collapse in the 1960s.
Hardcover January 2008

The Conservative Ascendancy

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Donald T. Critchlow
In this provocative history of the Right in modern America, Critchlow finds a deep dilemma inherent in how conservative Republicans expressed their anti-statist ideology in an age of mass democracy and Cold War hostilities. As the Right moved forward with its political program, partisanship intensified and ideological division widened--both between the parties and across the electorate. This intensified partisanship reflects the vibrancy of a mature democracy, Critchlow argues, and a new level of political engagement despite its disquieting effect on American political debate.
Hardcover November 2007

On Nuclear Terrorism

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Michael Levi
Levi takes us inside nuclear terrorism and behind the decisions a terrorist leader would be faced with in pursuing a nuclear plot. Surveying the broad universe of plots and defenses, this accessible account shows how a wide-ranging defense that integrates the tools of weapon and materials security, law enforcement, intelligence, border controls, diplomacy, and the military can multiply, intensify, and compound the possibility that nuclear terrorists will fail.
Hardcover November 2007

Worst-Case Scenarios

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Cass R. Sunstein
Nuclear bombs in suitcases, anthrax bacilli in ventilators, tsunamis and meteors, avian flu, scorchingly hot temperatures: nightmares that were once the plot of Hollywood movies are now frighteningly real possibilities. Sunstein explores these and other worst-case scenarios and how we might best prevent them in this vivid, illuminating, and highly original analysis.
Hardcover November 2007

Flag Wars and Stone Saints

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Nancy M. Wingfield
In a new perspective on the formation of national identity in Central Europe, Wingfield analyzes what many historians have treated separately--the construction of the Czech and German nations--as a larger single phenomenon. Numerous illustrations show how people absorbed, on many levels, visual clues that shaped how they identified themselves and their groups.
Hardcover October 2007

The Tyranny of the Market

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Joel Waldfogel
Economists have long counseled reliance on markets rather than on government to decide a wide range of questions, in part because allocation through voting can give rise to a "tyranny of the majority." Markets, by contrast, are believed to make products available to suit any individual, regardless of what others want. But the argument is not generally correct. In markets, you can't always get what you want. This book explores why this is so and its consequences for consumers with atypical preferences.
Hardcover October 2007

Blood of Brothers

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

With New Afterword
Stephen Kinzer
Foreword by Merilee S. Grindle
Widely considered the best-connected journalist in Central America, Kinzer personally met and interviewed people at every level of the Somoza, Sandinistas and contra hierarchies, as well as dissidents, heads of state, and countless ordinary citizens. Blood of Brothers is Kinzer's dramatic story of the centuries-old power struggle that burst into the headlines in 1979 with the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship, as well as a vibrant portrait of the Nicaraguan people.
Paperback September 2007

From Comrade to Citizen

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Merle Goldman
A leading scholar of China's modern political development examines the changing relationship between the Chinese people and the state. Correcting the conventional view of China as having instituted extraordinary economic changes but having experienced few political reforms in the post-Mao period, Merle Goldman details efforts by individuals and groups to assert their political rights.
Paperback September 2007

From the Puritans to the Projects

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Lawrence J. Vale
From the almshouses of seventeenth-century Puritans to the massive housing projects of the mid-twentieth century, the struggle over housing assistance in the United States has exposed a deep-seated ambivalence about the place of the urban poor. Lawrence J. Vale's groundbreaking book is both a comprehensive institutional history of public housing in Boston and a broader examination of the nature and extent of public obligation to house socially and economically marginal Americans during the past 350 years.
Paperback September 2007

A New Deal for the World

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Elizabeth Borgwardt
In a work of sweeping scope and luminous detail, Elizabeth Borgwardt describes how a cadre of World War II American planners inaugurated the ideas and institutions that underlie our modern international human rights regime. Borgwardt finds the key in the 1941 Atlantic Charter and its Anglo-American vision of "war and peace aims." In attempting to globalize what U.S. planners heralded as domestic New Deal ideas about security, the ideology of the Atlantic Charter redefined human rights and America's vision for the world.
Paperback September 2007

That the World May Know

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

James Dawes
What can we do to prevent more atrocities from happening in the future, and to stop the ones that are happening right now? That the World May Know tells the powerful and moving story of the successes and failures of the modern human rights movement. Drawing on firsthand accounts from fieldworkers around the world, the book gives a painfully clear picture of the human cost of confronting inhumanity in our day.
Hardcover September 2007

Normalization of U.S.-China Relations

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by William C. Kirby
Edited by Robert S. Ross
Edited by Gong Li
Relations between China and the United States have been of central importance to both countries over the past half-century, as well as to all states affected by that relationship. The eight chapters in this volume offer the first multinational, multi-archival review of the history of Chinese-American conflict and cooperation in the 1970s.
Paperback September 2007

We Who Are Dark

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Tommie Shelby
We Who Are Dark provides the first extended philosophical defense of black political solidarity. Tommie Shelby argues that we can reject a biological idea of race and agree with many criticisms of identity politics yet still view black political solidarity as a needed emancipatory tool. In developing his defense of black solidarity, he draws on the history of black political thought, focusing on the canonical figures of Martin R. Delany and W. E. B. Du Bois.
Paperback September 2007

The Sandbox Investment

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EDT

David L. Kirp
The rich have always valued early education, and for the past forty years, millions of poorer kids have had Head Start. Now, more and more middle class parents have realized that a good preschool is the smartest investment they can make in their children's future in a competitive world. Writing with the verve of a magazine journalist and the authority of a scholar, Kirp makes the ideal guide to this quiet movement and campaign.
Hardcover August 2007

Henry Kissinger and the American Century

Sun, 1 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Jeremi Suri
What made Henry Kissinger the kind of diplomat he was? What experiences and influences shaped his worldview and provided the framework for his approach to international relations? Suri offers a thought-provoking, interpretive study of one of the most influential and controversial political figures of the twentieth century.
Hardcover July 2007

Christianity and American Democracy

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Hugh Heclo
Mary Jo Bane
Michael Kazin
Alan Wolfe
Christianity, not religion in general, has been important for American democracy. With this bold thesis, Heclo offers a panoramic view of how Christianity and democracy have shaped each other over the years, and how their relationship is changing in the present day. Responding to his challenging argument, Mary Jo Bane, Michael Kazin, and Alan Wolfe criticize, qualify, and amend it. The result is a lively debate about a momentous tension in American public life.
Hardcover June 2007