Social Change

Here, political scientist Jakub J. Grygiel brings to light the importance of incorporating geography into grand strategy. He argues that states can increase and maintain their position of power by pursuing a geostrategy that focuses on control of resources and lines of communication.

The Unnatural World chronicles a disparate band of unlikely heroes: an effervescent mad scientist who would fertilize the seas, a pigeon obsessive bent on bringing back the extinct, a low-level government functionary in China doing his best to clean up his city, and more. These scientists, billionaires, and ordinary people are all working toward saving the best home humanity is ever likely to have.

A renowned judge wonders: What would criminal justice look like if we put respect at the center? The Black and Latina daughter of a working-class family, Victoria Pratt learned to treat everyone with dignity, no matter their background. When she became...

Wie wir Klimarettung und Demokratie neu denken müssen. Klimaschutz und Demokratie, das passt für viele Menschen nicht zusammen. Den einen geht der Kampf gegen die Klimakrise zu langsam voran, während die anderen sich von einer angeblichen Ökodiktatur bedroht sehen. SPIEGEL-Journalist Jonas Schaible räumt in diesem Debatten(hör-)buch mit solchen falschen Widersprüchen auf. Er zeigt, dass Klima und Demokratie sich sogar gegenseitig bedingen: Demokratie gibt es nur auf einem bewohnbaren Planten – und das Klima wird sich nur mit demokratischen Mitteln retten lassen.

Human history mirrors the history of climate change. Human origins, for example, can be traced to five million years ago when the climate of East Africa became progressively hotter and drier. This caused the lush tropical jungles to disappear and be replaced by arid plains and savannahs. Our pre-human ancestors learned to exploit those new ecosystems by gathering the seed-bearing grasses, nuts, and tubers that thrived in these semi-arid conditions. Also, by foraging in the heat of the day, proto-humans could minimize unwelcome contact with nocturnal predators.

For 2500 years people have been debating how literature changes lives, and versions of those debates continue today in classrooms, school and library boardrooms, and state legislatures. The life-transforming potential of books caught the attention of Dante, Cervantes, Jane Austen, Percy Shelley, and many others. Better Living through Literature surveys what the great thinkers have said on the subject, from Plato and Aristotle to Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud to W. E. B Du Bois, Harold Bloom, and Martha Nussbaum.

Why understanding evolution—the most reviled branch of science—can help us all, from fighting pandemics to undoing racism Evolutionary science has long been regarded as conservative, a tool for enforcing regressive ideas, particularly about race and gender. But in A Voice in the Wilderness...

Science Be Dammed is an alarming reminder of the high stakes in the management - and perils in the mismanagement - of water in the Western United States. It seems deceptively simple: Even when clear evidence was available that the Colorado River could not sustain ambitious dreaming and planning by decision-makers throughout the 20th century, river planners and political operatives irresponsibly made the least sustainable and most dangerous long-term decisions.

It’s an age-old question: Why do some great ideas or inventions take off and soar while others never get off the ground? Today, with more and more young entrepreneurs seeking to incorporate social justice, economic equity, climate concerns, and communal health into their endeavors, the need for practical-yet-think-big answers is great. Thibault Manekin has a few.

Based on extensive reporting, a Game of Thrones-like telling of what comes next for the factions and families within the Republican Party as they plot for supremacy in the post-Trump era. With Trump’s four years in the White House now in the rearview, an unprecedented period in American...

In lucid and energised prose, Emily Mayhew summons the four horsemen of the apocalypse; the collective threat to humanity bearing the names of war, pestilence, famine and death. As they began in Revelations and have remained in human consciousness ever since, spanning time and space and evolving as new scientific discoveries and advancements in technology alter the world.

The global story is one that is 7.6 billion authors strong. It is rich and complex, and as of today, it is also perilously close to bringing about the destruction of our planet. Why do we continue to live in a bad story? In his latest work, Moritz Davidesko presents a compelling analysis of human storytelling and explores how that behavior has informed our present understanding of the world. In chronicling our species’ collective powers of narration, Davidesko ushers us from the distant past, to the present state of global affairs—the story of our world as we know it!

Climate change is today's news, but it isn't a new phenomenon. Centuries-long cycles of heating and cooling are well documented for Europe and the North Atlantic. These variations in climate, including the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), AD 900 to 1300, and the early centuries of the Little Ice Age (LIA), AD 1300 to 1600, had a substantial impact on the cultural history of Europe.

Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother's estate. There Miranda finds new friends and an island with a mysterious, mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can't make sense of. She also meets Leo, who challenges everything she thought she knew.

Guy Bavli grew up in Israel, a country that has been at war practically throughout its existence. However, the Israeli people never stopped living, loving, singing, dancing, laughing and smiling! Guy soon realized the power of existence, success, and love. A smile! It will change the way you choose to live your life. It is easy to be bitter, angry, and vengeful—but a smile helps you recover, regenerate, overcome, and live!

The Plot to Change America exposes the myths that help identity politics perpetuate itself. This book reveals what has really happened, explains why it is urgent to change course, and offers a strategy to do so. Though we should not fool ourselves into thinking that it will be easy to eliminate identity politics, we should not overthink it, either. Identity politics relies on the creation of groups and then on giving people incentives to adhere to them. If we eliminate group making and the enticements, we can get rid of identity politics.

In response to educators who are already fans of her best seller Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, Marilee Adams, the originator of Question Thinking, presents a compelling model for creating a classroom environment infused with curiosity, creativity, and caring. Through a moving story of a teacher on the verge of burnout, Adams demonstrates the powerful influence our mind-sets have on how we interact with our students, our colleagues, and ourselves.

In 2019, climate activist Charlie Hertzog Young attempted suicide, following a succession of breakdowns. He jumped off a building, resulting in the loss of both legs. He spent a month in a coma, lost his flat and woke up without a job. In rebuilding his life physically and emotionally, Charlie saw that the climate crisis and mental illness are inextricably linked and, equally, little understood. In this reflective account of his own recovery, he explores how his bipolarity was largely driven by climate change and identifies the ways in which our culture has led to the current crisis.

In this book, Nobel Prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps draws on a lifetime of thinking to make a sweeping new argument about what makes nations prosper--and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but "flourishing"--meaningful work, self-expression, and personal growth for more people than ever before?

Sibylle Berg sagt: "Einer der cleversten Aktivisten, die ich kenne." Sie meint den Aktionskünstler und investigativen Journalisten Jean Peters, der hier von seinen wahnwitzigsten, skurrilsten, mutigsten und kreativsten Versuchen, die Welt zum Besseren zu verändern, erzählt. Als sich abzeichnete, dass die Rechten auf dem Vormarsch sind, als Klimaforscher*innen vor den Folgen exponenziellen Wachstums warnten und alle weitermachten wie bisher, da verspürte Jean Peters das Gefühl politischer Ohnmacht.