Polity Press (Over 41,000 results)

Paperback. Condition: Good. Syria was once one of the Middle East's most stable states. Today it is a country on its knees. Almost 200,000 people are estimated to have died in its bloody internal conflict and, as the violence intensifies, Syria's future looks bleak. In this timely book, Samer Abboud provides an in-depth analysis of Syria's descent into civil war. He unravels the complex and multi-layered causes of the current political and military stalemate - from rebel fragmentation to the differing roles of international actors, and the rise of competing centers of power throughout the country. Rebel in-fighting and the lack of a centralizing authority, he contends, have exacerbated Syria's fragmentation and fragility. This, in turn, has aided the survival of the Assad regime, contributed to the upsurge of sectarianism, and led to a major humanitarian crisis as nine million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes. A resolution to the Syrian conflict seems unlikely in the short-term as the major actors remains committed to a military solution. As this situation persists, the continued fighting is reshaping Syria's borders and will have repercussions on the wider Middle East for decades to come.…

Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

Condition: very_good. Fast Free Shipping â" Very Good condition book with a firm cover and clean pages. Shows normal use and some light wear or limited notes markings. A solid, nice copy to enjoy.

Condition: good. Fast Free Shipping â" Good condition. It may show normal signs of use, such as light writing, highlighting, or library markings, but all pages are intact and the book is fully readable. A solid, complete copy that's ready to enjoy.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A defining feature of being human is our ability to think. We refer to ourselves, after all, as Homo sapiens. But in a world where experiencing and achieving as much as possible is the number one preoccupation, there is little room for reflection. Technology is also making everything easier, eroding the need for us to think at all. Of course deep, critical thinking can be difficult, sometimes painful, and it takes time. But it is fundamental to our well-being. In this new book, bestselling philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann argues for a return to the thoughtful life, where we learn to think well, to think deeply, to lose ourselves in reverie and tune in to our inner voice. By spending time in our thoughts and letting them wander freely, we will discover that thinking is one of the most enriching things we can do in life ? and one of the most human, too.…

Paperback. Condition: Good. A defining feature of being human is our ability to think. We refer to ourselves, after all, as Homo sapiens. But in a world where experiencing and achieving as much as possible is the number one preoccupation, there is little room for reflection. Technology is also making everything easier, eroding the need for us to think at all. Of course deep, critical thinking can be difficult, sometimes painful, and it takes time. But it is fundamental to our well-being. In this new book, bestselling philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann argues for a return to the thoughtful life, where we learn to think well, to think deeply, to lose ourselves in reverie and tune in to our inner voice. By spending time in our thoughts and letting them wander freely, we will discover that thinking is one of the most enriching things we can do in life ? and one of the most human, too.…

Paperback. Condition: Good. Subjectified is a book about subjects, objects, and verbs. It is also a book about clothing-optional resorts, masturbation circles, and sex parties. Suzannah Weiss takes the reader through her adventures as a sex and relationship writer to explore how we can create a world with less objectification and more subjectification ? placing women and other marginalized groups in the subject role of sentences and actions. Offering a deeply personal critique of sexual empowerment movements, Weiss presents a way forward that focuses on what women desire, not what men desire from them. Subjectified calls for women everywhere to inhabit their bodies and hearts ? to look through their own eyes and speak as ?I.? The book is for everybody wanting to understand themselves as subjects. Wholeheartedly, the author invites you to follow her search for subjecthood and, should you desire, forge your own path out of objecthood.Now available as an audiobook.…

Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

Condition: Good. Item in good condition and has highlighting/writing on text. Used texts may not contain supplemental items such as CDs, info-trac etc.

Condition: Very Good. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 2nd ed. It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Recently there has been an extraordinary international revival of interest in Hannah Arendt. She was extremely perceptive about the dark tendencies in contemporary life that continue to plague us. She developed a concept of politics and public freedom that serves as a critical standard for judging what is wrong with politics today. Richard J. Bernstein argues that Arendt should be read today because her penetrating insights help us to think about both the darkness of our times and the sources of illumination. He explores her thinking about statelessness and refugees; the right to have rights; her critique of Zionism; the meaning of the banality of evil; the complex relations between truth, lying, power, and violence; the tradition of the revolutionary spirit; and the urgent need for each of us to assume responsibility for our political lives. This short and very readable book will be of great interest to anyone who wants to understand the forces that are shaping our world today.…

Paperback. Condition: Good. Recently there has been an extraordinary international revival of interest in Hannah Arendt. She was extremely perceptive about the dark tendencies in contemporary life that continue to plague us. She developed a concept of politics and public freedom that serves as a critical standard for judging what is wrong with politics today. Richard J. Bernstein argues that Arendt should be read today because her penetrating insights help us to think about both the darkness of our times and the sources of illumination. He explores her thinking about statelessness and refugees; the right to have rights; her critique of Zionism; the meaning of the banality of evil; the complex relations between truth, lying, power, and violence; the tradition of the revolutionary spirit; and the urgent need for each of us to assume responsibility for our political lives. This short and very readable book will be of great interest to anyone who wants to understand the forces that are shaping our world today.…

Paperback. Condition: Good. All of a sudden, everybody?s talking about the gig economy. From taxi drivers to pizza deliverers to the unemployed, we are all aware of the huge changes that it is driving in our lives as workers, consumers and citizens.  This is the first comprehensive overview of this highly topical subject. Drawing upon years of research, stories from gig workers, and a review of the key trends and debates, Jamie Woodcock and Mark Graham shed light on how the gig economy came to be, how it works and what it?s like to work in it. They show that, although it has facilitated innovative new services and created jobs for millions, it is not without cost. It allows businesses and governments to generate value while passing significant risk and responsibility onto the workers that make it possible. This is not, however, an argument for turning back the clock. Instead, the authors outline four strategies that can produce a fairer platform economy that works for everyone.  Woodcock and Graham?s critical introduction will be essential reading for students, scholars and general readers interested in the massive shifts that characterize our modern digital economy.…

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Razors, tweezers, wax and hair removal creams: these are the tools for the initiation rites that signal the passage from girl to woman. Today the only acceptable places for a woman to have hair are on her head (preferably long), her eyebrows (not too wild) and eyelashes (not too sparse). All kinds of cosmetics are sold to achieve the desired effect of localized luxuriance. At the same time, the industry of removing hair everywhere else on the body advances relentlessly. Hair is no longer a sign of joy but a battleground of cosmetic surgery. In this short book, the Catalan writer Bel Olid draws on personal experience to dismantle preconceived ideas about the supposed benefits of waxing and shaving, and to lay bare the social penalties that are meted out to any woman who allows their body hair to grow.  With clarity and courage, Bel Olid exposes the contradictions and hidden costs of hair removal, and issues a rousing call to women everywhere to set themselves free from the urge to please everyone else and to focus, instead, on what pleases them.…

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. We all need food to survive, and forty percent of the world's population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. Yet control over food is concentrated in relatively few hands. Turmoil in the world food economy in recent decades has highlighted a number of vulnerabilities and contradictions inherent in the way we currently organize this vital sector. Extremes of both undernourishment and overnourishment affect a significant proportion of humanity. And attempts to increase production through the spread of an industrial model of agriculture has resulted in serious ecological consequences. The fully revised and expanded third edition of this popular book explores how the rise of industrial agriculture, corporate control, inequitable agricultural trade rules, and the financialization of food have each enabled powerful actors to gain fundamental influence over the practices that dominate the world food economy and result in uneven consequences for both people and planet. A variety of movements have emerged that are making important progress in establishing alternative food systems, but, as Clapp's penetrating analysis ably shows, significant challenges remain.…

Paperback. Condition: Good. What is Cultural History? has established itself as an essential guide to what cultural historians do and how they do it. Now fully updated in its second edition, leading historian Peter Burke offers afresh his accessible guide to the past, present and future of cultural history, as it has been practised not only in the English?speaking world, but also in Continental Europe, Asia, South America and elsewhere. Burke begins by providing a discussion of the ?classic? phase of cultural history, associated with Jacob Burckhardt and Johan Huizinga, and of the Marxist reaction, from Frederick Antal to Edward Thompson. He then charts the rise of cultural history in more recent times, concentrating on the work of the last generation, often described as the ?New Cultural History? He places cultural history in its own cultural context, noting links between new approaches to historical thought and writing and the rise of feminism, postcolonial studies and an everyday discourse in which the idea of culture plays an increasingly important part. The new edition also surveys the very latest developments in the field and considers the directions cultural history may be taking in the twenty?first century. The second edition of What is Cultural History? will continue to be an essential textbook for all students of history as well as those taking courses in cultural, anthropological and literary studies.…

Hardback. Condition: Good. These are turbulent times in the world of book publishing. For nearly five centuries the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but at the dawn of the twenty-first century the industry finds itself faced with perhaps the greatest challenges since Gutenberg.…

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. With a foreword by Lee Child.Andy Martin spent a year in the company of Lee Child, creator of tough-guy hero Jack Reacher. With Child is the diary of their adventures, tracking the publication and reception of Make Me, the writing of Night School at an apartment in Manhattan, the filming of Never Go Back in New Orleans, all the agony and ecstasy of the creative process and the sheer hard work of selling a bestseller. They go on the road together, from TV studios to bookstores, from Harvard to Stockholm, amid literary conferences and gunshows, rivalries and reviews ranging from adulatory to murderous. We meet fellow writers like Stephen King and David Lagercrantz and Karin Slaughter, and dissect the latest novel from Jonathan Franzen.           But Martin also reaches out to Child?s legion of readers in America and around the world. He tracks down a woman in Texas whose name appears in the home invasion scene in Make Me; he goes up a mountain in Montana in search of the only reader who thinks Reacher is a ?lightweight?; and he talks to obsessive fans from Europe to South Africa who find salvation or consolation in the colossal form of Jack Reacher. This compelling account of life on the road with Lee Child demonstrates that readers are just as important as writers in the making of modern fiction.…

Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

Condition: Very Good. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

paperback. Condition: Good.

Paperback. Condition: Good. This book is an exploration of the new forms of social movementsand protests that are erupting in the world today, from the Arabuprisings to the indignadas movement in Spain, and the Occupy WallStreet movement in the US.

Paperback. Condition: Good. In this intellectually and politically potent new book, Martin Shaw proposes a way through the confusion surrounding the idea of genocide. He considers the origins and development of the concept, and its relationships to other forms of political violence.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In the first days of spring, birds undergo a spectacular metamorphosis. After a long winter of migration and peaceful coexistence, they suddenly begin to sing with all their might, varying each series of notes as if it were an audiophonic novel. They cannot bear the presence of other birds and begin to threaten and attack them if they cross a border, which might be invisible to human eyes but seems perfectly tangible to birds. Is this display of bird aggression just a pretence, a game that all birds play? Or do birds suddenly become territorial ? and, if so, why? By attending carefully to the ways that birds construct their worlds and ornithologists have tried to understand them, Despret sheds fresh light on the activities of both and, at the same time, enables us to become more aware of the multiple worlds and modes of existence that characterize the planet we share in common with birds and other species.…

Paperback. Condition: As New. No Jacket. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.