Social Science Power

Governments and hundreds of corporations are spying on you and everyone you know. They're not just selling your data. They're selling the power to influence you and decide for you. Even when you've explicitly asked them not to. Reclaiming privacy is the only way we can regain control of our lives and our societies. These governments and corporations have too much power, and their power stems from us - from our data. Privacy is as collective as it is personal, and it's time to take back control.

Best-selling author Ted Stewart explains how the Supreme Court and its nine appointed members now stand at a crucial point in their power to hand down momentous and far-ranging decisions. Today's Court affects every major area of American life, from health care to civil rights, from abortion to marriage. This fascinating book reveals the complex history of the Court as told through seven pivotal decisions.

The Framers created a form of government they labelled a “republic.” This author calls it a “republic monarchy” because the people who own the nation were given zero power to change anything in government. All they can do is vote for or against the elite monarchs who run it. This book reviews how we got there, the turmoil that has resulted, and what is recommended be done to achieve government excellence. Self-government by The People is advocated, with the strategy of achieving government decision-making excellence under their control.

"Darf ich mal deine Haare anfassen?", "Wo kommst du her?" Wer solche Fragen stellt, meint es meist nicht böse. Aber dennoch: Sie sind rassistisch. Warum, das wollen weiße Menschen oft nicht hören. Alice Hasters erklärt es trotzdem. Eindringlich und geduldig beschreibt sie, wie Rassismus ihren Alltag als Schwarze Frau in Deutschland prägt. Dabei wird klar: Rassismus ist nicht nur ein Problem am rechten Rand der Gesellschaft.

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.

Almost every society has professional judges, but from ancient Athens to modern Asia, cultures have wanted ordinary people involved in legal decisions. The use of juries comes with challenges; societies must determine how to select jurors, what cases jurors should decide and by what rules, and how to inform jurors about the law and evidence. This Very Short Introduction shows how and why societies around the world have used juries, charting the spread of the twelve-person jury from England to the British colonies in America, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean.

In this masterwork, Phil Cousineau examines the connection of mythology to contemporary life and what that means for self-improvement. Drawing on his extensive work with Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth), this is Cousineau's grand opus—revealing mythic insights for everyday life.

Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions provides a multidisciplinary exploration of the contemporary university's entanglement with the history of slavery and settler colonialism in the United States. Inspired by more than a hundred student-led protests during the Movement for Black Lives, contributors examine how campus rebellions - and university responses to them - expose the racialized inequities at the core of higher education.

This book is about the power of communication to do great harm and how civic leaders and engaged citizens can hold other leaders accountable to prevent it. Author Helio Fred Garcia focuses on the language President Trump uses that conditions an audience to accept, condone, and commit violence against a targeted group, rival, or critic. Including a history of such rhetoric, this book identifies a playbook consisting of 12 forms of communication that typically precede genocides and other acts of mass violence. The Rwandan Hutu used 10, the Nazis used all 12, and Trump uses all 12, too.

America is at a crossroads. We are alienated from civic engagement, and our democracy is in doubt. Yet there is a new energy in the air. Young people are again taking up the role they've often held: as leaders of change, demanding a better future, wielding their votes to uphold democracy and lead the country forward. Enter Generation Citizen, an organization dedicated to empowering youth through revitalizing civics education across America.

"Grand strategy" is one of the most widely used and abused concepts in the foreign policy lexicon. In this important book, Hal Brands explains why grand strategy is a concept that is so alluring - and so elusive - to those who make American statecraft. He explores what grand strategy is, why it is so essential, and why it is so hard to get right amid the turbulence of global affairs and the chaos of domestic politics.

Silicon Valley is imperializing the planet. With nearly bottomless supplies of cash and ambition, a small group of companies have been gradually seizing symbolic and practical civic leadership in America and worldwide. But Silicon Valley does not answer to the electorate; nor have they been voted into office. And the perils of their influence are only now making themselves known.

The revolutions sweeping the Middle East in 2011 were unlike any the world had ever seen. Brutal regimes that had been in power for many decades were suddenly swarmed by unstoppable mobs of freedom seekers. Now, one of the key figures behind the Egyptian uprising tells the riveting inside story of what happened and presents lessons for all of us on how to unleash the power of crowds. Wael Ghonim was a little-known 30-year-old Google executive in the fall of 2010 when he anonymously launched a Facebook page to protest the death of an Egyptian man at the hands of security forces....

The independence of the Federal Reserve is considered a cornerstone of its identity, crucial for keeping monetary policy decisions free of electoral politics. But do we really understand what is meant by "Federal Reserve independence"? Using scores of examples from the Fed's rich history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve shows that much common wisdom about the nation's central bank is inaccurate.

Being in flow is when you are “in the zone,” “on your game,” or even “on fire.” It is both a mental state and a physical one. You have a feeling of complete focus, full involvement, and deep enjoyment in whatever you are doing. You feel the activity takes no energy from you—indeed you feel that it is giving you energy. You barely notice the passage of time. You feel calm but almost ecstatic. Most of us have glimpsed being in this state. But what if you could be in your zone not just for a moment of flow, nor merely for a day, but always and forever? This book shows you how.

Jack Zipes has spent decades as a "scholarly scavenger," discovering forgotten fairy tales in libraries, flea markets, used bookstores, and internet searches, and he has introduced countless readers to these remarkable works and their authors. In Buried Treasures, Zipes describes his special passion for uncovering political fairy tales of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, offers fascinating profiles of more than a dozen of their writers and illustrators, and shows why they deserve greater attention and appreciation.

Since 2001, the US Department of State has been sending hip hop artists abroad to perform and teach as goodwill ambassadors. There are good reasons for this: Hip hop is known and loved across the globe, acknowledged and appreciated as a product of American culture. Hip hop has from its beginning been a means of creating community through artistic collaboration, fostering what hip hop artists call building.

A must-listen for the informed citizen, The Impeachment Power argues that impeachment is ultimately a political instrument and gives us the perspective we need to recognize when an impeachment might be useful and when we are better served by looking for alternative ways to solve our political problems.

Shaking up New York and national politics by becoming the first African American congresswoman and, later, the first Black major-party presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm left an indelible mark as an "unbought and unbossed" firebrand and a leader in politics for meaningful change. Chisholm spent her formative years moving between Barbados and Brooklyn, and the development of her political orientation did not follow the standard narratives of the civil rights or feminist establishments.

We live in a time of global crisis. All of the crises are interlinked at their core, expressions of what we have called a global intimacy disorder. The urgent need for coherent action is existential. Every crisis has the potential to be a birth. Crisis is an evolutionary driver. Evolution is not happening to us. Rather, evolution is happening in us. We are called to radically realize and be lived as the transformation.