Archive For The “Culture” Category
By Thomas E. Mann
Acrimony and hyperpartisanship have seeped into the whole lot of the political method. Congress is deadlocked and its approval scores are at list lows. America’s major political events have given up their traditions of compromise, endangering our very procedure of constitutional democracy. And this kind of events has taken at the function of rebel outlier; the Republicans became ideologically severe, scornful of compromise, and ardently against the tested social and monetary coverage regime.
In It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, congressional students Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein determine overriding difficulties that experience led Congress—and the United States—to the edge of institutional cave in. the 1st is the intense mismatch among our political events, that have develop into as vehemently antagonistic as parliamentary events, and a governing approach that, in contrast to a parliamentary democracy, makes it tremendous tough for majorities to behave. moment, whereas either events perform tribal battle, each side aren't both culpable. The political procedure faces what the authors name “asymmetric polarization,” with the Republican celebration implacably refusing to permit something that will support the Democrats politically, irrespective of the cost.
With disorder rooted in long term political tendencies, a coarsened political tradition and a brand new partisan media, the authors finish that there's no “silver bullet” reform which could clear up every thing. yet they provide a panoply of worthy principles and reforms, endorsing a few options, like larger public participation and institutional restructuring of the home and Senate, whereas debunking others, like autonomous or third-party applicants. peculiarly, they name at the media in addition to the general public at huge to target the genuine explanations of disorder instead of simply throwing the bums out each election cycle. till electorate discover ways to act strategically to gift challenge fixing and punish obstruction, American democracy will stay in severe danger.
By Albert Borgmann
In this eloquent consultant to the meanings of the postmodern period, Albert Borgmann charts the choices ahead of us as we search choices to the joyless and synthetic tradition of intake. Borgmann connects the elemental principles riding his realizing of society's ills to each sphere of latest social lifestyles, and is going past the language of postmodern discourse to supply a powerfully articulated imaginative and prescient of what this new period, at its most sensible, has in store.
"[This] considerate ebook is the 1st remotely real looking map out of the publish glossy labyrinth."—Joseph Coates, The Chicago Tribune
"Rather astoundingly large-minded imaginative and prescient of the character of humanity, civilization and science."—Kirkus Reviews
By Jesse J. Prinz
“A loud counterblast to the trendy religion of our instances: that human nature is pushed via biology . . . pressing and persuasive.”―Sunday Times (London)
during this period of genome tasks and mind scans, it's all too effortless to overestimate the position of biology in human psychology. yet during this passionate corrective to the concept that DNA is future, Jesse Prinz specializes in the main notable element of human nature: that nurture can complement and supplant nature, permitting our minds to be profoundly encouraged through event and tradition. Drawing on state-of-the-art examine in neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology, Prinz shatters the parable of human uniformity and divulges how our differing cultures and lifestyles reviews make each one folks specific. alongside the way in which he exhibits that we can’t blame psychological affliction or dependancy on our genes, and that societal elements form gender adjustments in cognitive skill and sexual habit. A much-needed contribution to the nature-nurture debate, Beyond Human Nature indicates us that it is just during the lens of nurture that the spectrum of human variety turns into absolutely and brilliantly noticeable.
By Anthony Harkins
During this pioneering paintings of cultural historical past, historian Anthony Harkins argues that the hillbilly-in his numerous guises of "briar hopper," "brush ape," "ridge runner," and "white trash"-has been considered by means of mainstream american citizens concurrently as a violent degenerate who threatens the fashionable order and as a keeper of conventional values of kinfolk, domestic, and actual construction, and therefore symbolic of a nostalgic previous freed from the issues of latest existence. "Hillbilly" indicates either rugged individualism and obdurate backwardness, robust kinfolk and family networks but in addition inbreeding and bloody feuds. Spanning movie, literature, and the whole expanse of yank pop culture, from D. W. Griffith to hillbilly song to the web, Harkins illustrates how similar to the hillbilly has continuously served as either a marker of social derision and local satisfaction. He strains the corresponding adjustments in representations of the hillbilly from late-nineteenth century the United States, throughout the nice melancholy, the mass migrations of Southern Appalachians within the Nineteen Forties and Fifties, the battle on Poverty within the mid Nineteen Sixties, and to the current day. Harkins additionally argues that photographs of hillbillies have performed a severe function within the building of whiteness and modernity in 20th century the USA. Richly illustrated with dozens of images, drawings, and picture and tv stills, this distinctive ebook stands as a testomony to the iconic position of the hillbilly within the American mind's eye.
By Kalle Lasn
America isn't any longer a rustic yet a multimillion-dollar model, says Kalle Lasn and his fellow "culture jammers". The founding father of Adbusters journal, Lasn goals to forestall the branding of the US by way of altering the best way details flows; the way in which associations wield strength; the way in which tv stations are run; and how the foodstuff, type, vehicle, activities, song, and tradition industries set agendas. With a brave and compelling voice, Lasn deconstructs the advertisements tradition and our fixation on icons and model names. And he indicates tips on how to manage resistance opposed to the ability belief that manages the manufacturers via "uncooling" buyer goods, through "dermarketing" models and celebrities, and by way of breaking the "media trance" of our TV-addicted age.
A robust manifesto through a number one media activist, Culture Jam lays the principles for the main major social circulate of the early twenty-first century -- a circulate which can swap the realm and how we predict and live.
By Clay A. Johnson
The sleek human animal spends upwards of eleven hours out of each 24 in a nation of continuing intake. now not consuming, yet gorging on info perpetually spewed from the monitors and audio system we carry pricey. simply as now we have grown morbidly overweight on sugar, fats, and flour—so, too, have we develop into gluttons for texts, rapid messages, emails, RSS feeds, downloads, movies, prestige updates, and tweets.
We're all combating a hurricane of distractions, buffeted with notifications and tempted by means of tasty tidbits of data. And simply as an excessive amount of junk nutrients can result in weight problems, an excessive amount of junk details may end up in cluelessness. The details Diet exhibits you the way to thrive during this info glut—what to seem for, what to prevent, and the way to be selective. within the strategy, writer Clay Johnson explains the function details has performed all through background, and why following his prescribed vitamin is key for everybody who strives to be clever, efficient, and sane.
In The details Diet, you will:
- Discover why eminent students are nervous approximately our kingdom of recognition and basic intelligence
- Examine how today’s media—Big Info—give us precisely what we'd like: content material that confirms our ideals
- Learn to take steps to increase information literacy, cognizance health, and a fit humorousness
- Become engaged within the economics of data by way of studying easy methods to present reliable info prone
- Just like a regular, fit nutrients nutrition, The details Diet isn't approximately eating less—it’s approximately discovering a fit stability that works for you
A Cultural historical past of the Atlantic international, 1250-1820 explores the concept that robust linkages exist within the histories of Africa, Europe, and North and South the USA. John ok. Thornton offers a finished evaluation of the historical past of the Atlantic Basin ahead of 1830 via describing political, social, and cultural interactions among the continents' population. He strains the backgrounds of the populations on those 3 continental landmasses introduced into touch via ecu navigation. Thornton then examines the political and social implications of the encounters, tracing the origins of quite a few Atlantic societies and exhibiting how new methods of consuming, consuming, conversing, and worshipping built within the newly created Atlantic international. This ebook makes use of shut readings of unique resources to supply new interpretations of its topic.
By Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember
Just like the ten-volume Encyclopedia of global Cultures (Macmillan, 1996), the four-volume nations and Their Cultures is predicated at the choice of ethnographic info referred to as the Human family members region records established at Yale college. not like international Cultures, that is equipped through tradition, the hot paintings is geared up via nation. This work's power is that readers who be aware of little or no a couple of state can quick receive a very good orientation to the key matters, background, and social constitution of a kingdom. The 225 entries are among ten and 20 pages lengthy and skim like a move among a well-written encyclopedia article, a go back and forth consultant, and a social technological know-how essay. they supply an excellent basic assessment of a rustic with no vastly oversimplifying or distorting. All entries have a similar constitution, with sections on geography, historical past, demography, languages, foodstuff, economic climate, etiquette, politics, relatives, faith, and humanities and arts. A country's measure of cultural harmony in addition to its cultural adaptations are defined within the sections on nationwide id, ethnic family, and social stratification. every one access has a map with a neighborhood insert, black-and-white photos, and a bibliography of modern scholarly books. suggested particularly for libraries that don't personal Encyclopedia of worldwide Cultures. Marc Meola, Coll. of latest Jersey Lib., Ewing
By Jeremy Gilbert
What does 'anticapitalism' fairly suggest for the politics and tradition of the twenty-first century?
Anticapitalism is an concept which, regardless of going worldwide, continues to be rooted within the neighborhood, persisting as a unfastened number of grassroots hobbies and activities. Anti-capitalism must enhance a coherent and cohering philosophy, anything which cultural conception and the highbrow legacy of the recent Left may also help to supply, significantly during the paintings of key radical thinkers, equivalent to Ernesto Laclau, Stuart corridor, Antonio Negri, Gilles Deleuze and Judith Butler.
Anticapitalism and Culture argues that there's a powerful courting among the novel culture of cultural reports and the recent political hobbies which attempt to withstand company globalization. certainly, the 2 desire one another: when thought can form and direct the massive range of anticapitalist activism, the power and sheer political engagement of the anticapitalist stream can breathe new existence into cultural studies.
By Neil Postman
Initially released in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic concerning the corrosive results of tv on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century publication released within the 20th century. Now, with tv joined via extra refined digital media—from the web to cellphones to DVDs—it has taken on even larger importance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic examine what occurs while politics, journalism, schooling, or even faith develop into topic to the calls for of leisure. it's also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, in an effort to serve our optimum pursuits.