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Why do populists come to power? Are they a threat to democracy? Has the rise of global populism reached its peak, or is it just beginning? This book provides answers to these questions and many more, by summarising in non-technical language the vast research literature on populism that extends across political science, economics, sociology, psychology, and history. Going well beyond the usual cases of Trump and Brexit, Paul D. Kenny provides evidence both of the recurrent global appeal of populism, and of its often deleterious consequences. Populism: What Everyone Needs to Know® advances a new approach to defining populism that helps to make sense of the most robust research findings to date, and that sets up an exciting and dynamic approach in research for the years to come. Populism is, at heart, a political movement that challenges the institutional status quo. The great paradox of populism is that while people are often justifiably resentful of a system they feel is rigged against them, their reliance on charismatic leaders to channel their frustrations usually harms rather than helps democracy.

Winner, The Lionel Gelber PrizeSilver Medal, Arthur Ross Book AwardFor decades, China''s rise to power was characterized by its reassurance that this rise would be peaceful. Then, as Susan L. Shirk, shows in this sobering, clear-eyed account of China today, something changed.For three decades after Mao''s death in 1976, China''s leaders adopted a restrained approach to foreign policy. They determined that any threat to their power, and that of the Chinese Communist Party, came not from abroad but from within—a conclusion cemented by the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. To facilitate the country''s inexorable economic ascendence, and to prevent a backlash, they reassured the outside world of China''s peaceful intentions.Then, as Susan Shirk shows in this illuminating, disturbing, and utterly persuasive new book, something changed. China went from fragile superpower to global heavyweight, threatening Taiwan as well as its neighbors in the South China Sea, tightening its grip on Hong Kong, and openly challenging the United States for preeminence not just economically and technologically but militarily. China began to overreach. Combining her decades of research and experience, Shirk, one of the world''s most respected experts on Chinese politics, argues that we are now fully embroiled in a new cold war.To explain what happened, Shirk pries open the "black box" of China''s political system and looks at what derailed its peaceful rise. As she shows, the shift toward confrontation began in the mid-2000s under the mild-mannered Hu Jintao, first among equals in a collective leadership. As China''s economy boomed, especially after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Hu and the other leaders lost restraint, abetting aggression toward the outside world and unchecked domestic social control. When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he capitalized on widespread official corruption and open splits in the leadership to make the case for more concentrated power at the top. In the decade following, and to the present day—the eve of the 20th CCP Congress when he intends to claim a third term—he has accumulated greater power than any leader since Mao. Those who implement Xi''s directives compete to outdo one another, provoking an even greater global backlash and stoking jingoism within China on a scale not seen since the Cultural Revolution.Here is a devastatingly lucid portrait of China today. Shirk''s extensive interviews and meticulous analysis reveal the dynamics driving overreach. To counter it, she argues, the worst mistake the rest of the world, and the United States in particular, can make is to overreact. Understanding the domestic roots of China''s actions will enable us to avoid the mistakes that could lead to war.

The authoritative guide to understanding and helping an autistic teenager. While adolescence can be a tough time for parents and their teens, autistic teenagers may face specific challenges and need targeted support from the adults in their lives. The road ahead can be difficult for parents and caregivers, too, especially because the teenage years can involve surprising changes in their child and in society''s expectations of them. This concise, readable book offers the latest in evidence-based information about what happens when autism and adolescence intersect. The book covers the teen years, addressing middle school and high school, along with the transition period from high school into adulthood and, where relevant, college and employment. Among other topics, the book addresses autism and co-occurring medical and mental health conditions, social connections, puberty and hygiene, and sexuality. If Your Adolescent Has Autism will give parents and caregivers of autistic preadolescents and adolescents what they need: information and guidance presented with compassion and understanding, with an emphasis on both the strengths and the disability related to autism and their unique manifestations during this transitional period of life.

The second edition of Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides a comprehensive and updated look at the rapidly evolving world of drones, otherwise known as unmanned or uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). Covering the past, present, and future of military and civilian applications, this book explores how drones have transformed--and are transforming--industries and warfare. It delves into the ethical, legal, and safety concerns raised by their widespread use, examining issues from privacy violations to international security.While the US has historically been a dominant force in drone development, this fully updated volume addresses the global proliferation of drones. They quickly became one of the most effective weapons in the Russia-Ukraine War, and states like China, Iran, and Turkey are now supplying drones to states and violent non-state actors around the world. This book discusses the dramatic rise of commercial drones, from deliveries to emergency response, while analyzing the challenges of regulation and public perception. Drones also expands beyond the air to cover ground and maritime drones, and projects the future of drone technology across multiple domains with a focus on autonomous vehicles and lethal autonomous weapons. A must-read for anyone seeking a well-rounded understanding of this pivotal technology, Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides crucial insights into how UAVs are reshaping modern warfare, domestic security, and civilian life.

In civil litigation, dismissal offers the opportunity, early in a controversy, to preemptively dispose of a claim that does not present a legally judiciable case. Everyday talk, of course, is not bound by such procedural rules. Yet in conversation we often engage in a form of discursive dismissal: when faced with discomforting claims, our frequent instinct is not to engage in reasoned deliberation over them, but to brush them aside without considering their merits. How does dismissal fit within a broader ecosystem of deliberation? What is deliberative dismissal? When (if ever) is it justifie? n Deliberation, Dismissal, and Democracy, David Schraub analyzes our tendency toward dismissal and the problems that flow from it. Schraub focuses on dismissal as a social, rather than legal, phenomenon. Drawing on academic work both historical and contemporary, as well as examples drawn from everyday discourse and controversy, he creates a framework explicating why dismissal is a significant problem that defies easy resolution. While a state can be held to an anti-censorship commitment, private actors cannot and should not avoid "discriminating" on basis of viewpoint. What they can do, however, is cultivate certain deliberative virtues--dispositions towards consideration and open-mindedness--that orient them towards deliberating, rather than dismissing, the hard thoughts that any healthy democracy must be willing to tackle.

Aristotle''s De Anima is an extraordinarily influential text in the history of philosophy; it is also one of the earliest works in what we now call psychology. Aristotle explores the psuche, a distinctively Greek concept that overlaps in certain respects with our modern notions of the mind and the soul, but also applies to plants and non-human animals. The De Anima develops an innovative and challenging account of the relation between the psuche and the body, and offers thought-provoking analyses of the different capacities of the psuche, starting with nutrition and reproduction. A general discussion of perception is followed by detailed accounts of the five individual sense modalities, as well as perceptual imagination. After subtly exploring the intellectual capacities that he considers distinctive to human beings (where we find his famous discussion of the "agent intellect") Aristotle gives a sophisticated account of how desire leads to action.In this lively and accessible Oxford Guide, which presupposes no knowledge of Greek, José Luis Bermúdez situates the De Anima in the context of ancient Greek philosophy, and places it within Aristotle''s corpus as a whole. Each chapter is organized around focus readings from the De Anima and elsewhere in Aristotle''s writings (as well as from Plato''s Phaedo and Theaetetus). Bermúdez develops a historically-informed account of Aristotle''s arguments in the De Anima that draws connections with contemporary philosophy of mind as appropriate. The reader is introduced to some of the key topics and controversies in modern Aristotle scholarship, as well as to the insights of the ancient and medieval commentators.

American wars in Iraq were a defining feature of global politics for almost thirty years. The Gulf War of 1991, the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the campaign against the Islamic State beginning in 2014 each had their own logic. Each occurrence was a distinct conflict; however they must not only be considered in isolation. The United States spent the 1990s trying but failing to implement the Gulf War''s cease fire agreement. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, American leaders decided to settle the open-ended aftermath of the Gulf War by launching the Iraq War of 2003. The Iraq War unleashed resistance, civil war, insurgency and eventually the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Thus, following the Gulf War, each war was fought to finish the previous conflict. The Iraq Wars, therefore, are perhaps best understood as a chain of events.Academics, journalists, statesmen, and soldiers have produced many library shelves of books on the Iraq Wars. Yet, no short, easily digestible volume exists to synthesize this vast literature of both English and Arabic sources. The Iraq Wars: A Very Short Introduction covers this series of important conflicts as a whole, in a highly succinct and uniquely readable way.

A data-rich analysis that will reshape our understanding of how rising income inequality has actually affected societies in the industrialized world.Increasing economic inequality is now one of the most studied subjects in the social sciences. The general view is that while its increase represents a bad social outcome in and of itself, its negative impact extends into numerous other realms of social life: declines in living standards for those in the lower deciles of the income ladder, worse health outcomes, reductions in happiness, and less opportunity for most.In Is Inequality the Problem?, Lane Kenworthy draws from a vast trove of research on the rich democracies to argue that while inequality is normatively a problem and we should therefore work to reduce it, the evidence from wealthier countries does not show that income inequality has contributed much at all to the other social ills it is associated with, like poor health outcomes. The effects vary from society to society, but typically the key contributors to negative trends like this one are factors other than inequality. Instead of trying to improve living standards, democracy, opportunity, health, and happiness indirectly via reduction in income inequality or wealth inequality, policy makers are more likely to make progress by pursuing these goals directly.This contrarian yet balanced account of one of the main social problems of our era will reshape our understanding of how rising economic inequality has affected societies in the industrialized world.

In the Americas, organized state violence takes many forms--from forced disappearance and feminicide to extralegal killings, mass incarceration, and illegal detention. In response, mothers'' organizations and collectives emerged in the 1970s to advocate for their disappeared, imprisoned, and murdered relatives. These organizations fight long and challenging battles for state and corporate accountability, demanding the creation of truth commissions, national memory archives, memory sites, and victim-oriented legislation. By implementing alternative caretaking mechanisms on behalf of survivors and victims, mothers'' organizations have become powerful actors against organized state violence, structural inequalities, and political abandonment. In The Maternal Contract, Elva F. Orozco Mendoza traces the mobilization of mothers'' organizations against organized state violence in the Americas. Drawing on the insights and work of four mothers'' organizations--Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, Las Madres de Chihuahua, Colectivo Solecito, and Mothers Reclaiming Our Children, Orozco Mendoza introduces a novel theoretical framework, "the maternal contract," to illustrate how these organizations create and advance their own caretaking structures in the absence of substantive political rights and representation. While these organizations emerged in different times and geographies, Orozco Mendoza argues that they are linked by a powerful commitment to protect subaltern social groups and marginalized subjects against a violence-driven apparatus that disregards human life and dignity. In so doing, she draws attention to the caretaking practices, initiatives, and responsibilities that mothers'' organizations adopt to counter chronic violence and collective suffering.

Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize, the first global history of the world''s first world war.Austerlitz, Wagram, Borodino, Trafalgar, Leipzig, Waterloo: these are the places most closely associated with the era of the Napoleonic Wars. But how did this period of nearly continuous conflict affect the world beyond Europe? The immensity of the fighting waged by France against England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and the immediate consequences of the tremors that spread throughout the world.In this ambitious and far-ranging work, Alexander Mikaberidze argues that the Napoleonic Wars can only be fully understood in an international perspective. France struggled for dominance not only on the plains of Europe but also in the Americas, West and South Africa, Ottoman Empire, Iran, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Taking specific regions in turn, Mikaberidze discusses major political-military events around the world and situates geopolitical decision-making within its long- and short-term contexts. From the British expeditions to Argentina and South Africa to the Franco-Russian maneuvering in the Ottoman Empire, the effects of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars would shape international affairs well into the next century. In Egypt, the wars led to the rise of Mehmed Ali and the emergence of a powerful state; in North America, the period transformed and enlarged the newly established United States; and in South America, the Spanish colonial empire witnessed the start of national-liberation movements that ultimately ended imperial control.Skillfully narrated and deeply researched, here at last is the global history of the period, one that expands our view of the Napoleonic Wars and their role in laying the foundations of the modern world.

The end of the Cold War gave way to a fundamental shift in the structure of the international system. It was an era characterized above all by liberal triumphalism in which Western politicians and policymakers turned to international organizations (IOs) to spread and reinforce liberal values. These IOs, backed by the West, proliferated at exceedingly high rates, with democracies in particular becoming fully integrated members. Scholars agreed with policymakers, finding overwhelming evidence that these IOs were positive forces for democracy, and for several decades liberal democracy appeared ascendant. However, beginning around 2010, liberal democracy''s forward march abruptly halted, and ongoing evidence of democratic backsliding ---an historically unprecedented phenomenon in which democratically elected officials erode liberal democratic institutions--- calls into question the post-Cold War narrative of liberal democratic triumphalism. What explains democracy''s sudden reversal of fortune and the emergence of this new form of democratic regression on the heels of unmatched international integration and support for liberal democracy? Eroding Democracy from the Outside In proposes a novel international-level theory of democratic backsliding. In the decades after the Soviet Union fell, IOs became not only much more common, but a certain subset of these organizations also gained unprecedented power and influence over domestic affairs and substantive, highly salient economic and political policy outcomes. One unintended consequence of this increased delegation of economic and political policy authority to powerful IOs has been that over time core domestic representative institutions, such as political parties and legislatures, have been eroded, while power has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of executives who represent their states at the international level. These weak institutions, unable to either represent citizens'' wide-ranging interests or act as a check on growing executive power, have paved the way for would-be autocrats to consolidate their hold on the state. The result all too often has been democratic backsliding.

A 50th anniversary edition of one of the most widely influential articles of 20th Century philosophy“Consciousness is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable.” So begins Thomas Nagel''s classic 1974 essay “What is it Like to be a Bat?” Nagel''s essay initiated the now widespread attention to consciousness as a central problem for philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience; it also influenced the recognition of the consciousness of nonhuman creatures as an important subject of study. Nagel argued that the essential subjectivity of conscious experience -- what it is like for the creature undergoing it -- means that reductionist theories of mind, which attempt to analyze it in physical terms, can never succeed. It follows that the physical sciences cannot provide a complete description of reality, and that the physical conception of objective reality must be transcended if science is going to comprehend the mind. This edition reissues this classic and widely influential article on its 50th anniversary, along with a new preface discussing the origins and influence of the essay, as well as “Further Thoughts: The Psychophysical Nexus,” a supplementary essay which describes Nagel''s later thoughts about how to respond to the problem posed by “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” This second essay suggests that the most promising path forward for the mind-body problem, if one accepts the irreducible subjectivity of consciousness, is to seek a necessary connection between mental and neurophysiogical states through a more fundamental type of state which is neither mental nor physical but necessitates them both as essential aspects. In other words, a state that is physical from the outside and mental from the inside, just as we are. This would be a form of monism, requiring the formation of new concepts, since our present concepts of the mental and the physical do not entail such a necessary connection. The essay explains why the relation between the mental and the physical may be necessary, even though our present concepts make it appear contingent.

The ancient Near East is known as the "cradle of civilization" - and for good reason. Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia were home to an extraordinarily rich and successful culture. Indeed, it was a time and place of earth-shaking changes for humankind: the beginnings of writing and law, kingship and bureaucracy, diplomacy and state-sponsored warfare, mathematics and literature.This Very Short Introduction offers a fascinating account of this momentous time in human history. The three thousand years covered here - from around 3500 BCE, with the founding of the first Mesopotamian cities, to the conquest of the Near East by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE-represent a period of incredible innovation, from the invention of the wheel and the plow, to early achievements in astronomy, law, and diplomacy. As historian Amanda Podany explores this era, she overturns the popular image of the ancient world as a primitive, violent place. We discover that women had many rights and freedoms: they could own property, run businesses, and represent themselves in court. Diplomats traveled between the capital cities of major powers ensuring peace and friendship between the kings. Scribes and scholars studied the stars and could predict eclipses and the movements of the planets.Every chapter introduces the reader to a particular moment in ancient Near Eastern history, illuminating such aspects as trade, religion, diplomacy, law, warfare, kingship, and agriculture. Each discussion focuses on evidence provided in two or three cuneiform texts from that time. These documents, the cities in which they were found, the people and gods named in them, the events they recount or reflect, all provide vivid testimony of the era in which they were written. About the Series:Oxford''s Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringThis Very Short Introduction is a general introduction to oral history from the interview to the archive. Douglas A. Boyd examines the oral history interview, recording techniques and strategies, technologies for making oral history accessible, and the legal and ethical implications throughout the work of oral history. Boyd also pays special attention to the role of the archive and the importance of memory. Equally important, this book also examines the world of digital possibilities for utilizing oral history for scholarly, public, community, and personal use.An area of explosive interest and growth, oral history is a complex discipline not just sequestered to storytelling. The interview is a complex combination of strategy and flexibility, remembering and forgetting, narrative and silence, and cannot escape individual biases and perspectives. This book offers readers a comprehensive and concise overview of oral history from one of the most important figures in the field.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A sweeping and comprehensive history of Prague--from its origins in the ninth century to the present day--that traces its past as a political center and a city on the periphery of empires.Poets have called Prague the City of One Hundred Spires, Golden Prague, Magic Prague, and the Mother of Cities. Millions of tourists visit the Czech capital each year, awed by the blend of architectural styles and the dramatic landscape. St. Vitus''s Gothic cathedral towers above the Charles Bridge and the Vltava River. Winding Gothic alleys lead to elegant squares lined with Renaissance palaces, Baroque statues, and modern glass structures. Yet, the city''s beauty often obscures centuries of ethnic and religious conflict. In Prague''s Jewish Quarter, the names of nearly 80,000 Holocaust victims are inscribed on the walls of Pinkas Synagogue, which stands as a reminder of a complex and violent past. Cynthia Paces traces the history of Prague since the late ninth century, when Slavic dukes built the first church and fortifications on the castle hill. Over the course of eleven centuries, Prague vacillated between a political center and a city on the periphery of empires. The Holy Roman Emperors Charles IV and Rudolph II transformed Prague into a European center of arts, politics, and pilgrimage, but centuries of religious conflict, the defenestrations of Prague, and the Thirty Years War threatened to destroy the city. In the twentieth century, Prague was hailed as a beacon of democracy, led by philosopher presidents T. G. Masaryk and Václav Havel, but its citizens also endured violent antisemitism, a Nazi occupation, and a repressive communist regime.While illuminating a millennium of political, cultural, and social developments, Prague: The Heart of Europe captures the lives of the men and women who have called the city home. Prague has housed Europe''s largest Jewish community, a diverse population of German and Czech speakers, and artisans from all over Europe. This sweeping book highlights the manifold contributions of Prague''s artists, architects, musicians, and writers. In doing so, it reveals why the city captivated so many creative men and women, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonín Dvorák, Oskar Kokoschka, the poet Elizabeth Weston, and the alchemist John Dee. As Prague native Franz Kafka once wrote, "Prague does not let go; this little mother has claws."

The culminating volume in the acclaimed Gotham series, Gotham at War delivers an unforgettable portrait of America''s greatest city during history''s most catastrophic conflict.Gotham at War unveils the history of New York and the Second World War, from isolationism and factionalism to crucible of the American effort and the Allied Cause in a total and global war.Kaleidoscopic and immersive, Gotham at War captures the full spectrum of New York and the war from every possible aspect-social, political, economic, and military. Even before the war had started street battles between New York''s homegrown fascists and the workers'' movement-allied with immigrants from all over the world and their children in the barrios of Gotham-played prelude. Set in the generation after race "scientists" based in the elite warrens of the Upper East Side championed and then imposed national immigration restriction, Gotham at War sees New Yorkers struggle to shake off the city''s eugenic past. Between 1933 and 1945, the city wrestled with itself, starting from the rise of Hitler through isolationism and growing interventionism; through Pearl Harbor and a full-throated war effort, when millions of American soldiers and sailors and billions of tons of materiel passed through New York''s waterfronts to the warfronts. Along the way Mike Wallace''s saga traces the transformation of New York, embracing garment workers and skyscrapers; the subway and Wall Street; gangsters and idealists; pols and reformers; nightclubs and boardrooms; Nazi infiltrators and FBI gumshoes; magazines and movies; shuls and cathedrals; every neighborhood, every industry, and all the peoples of the city swept up in a world that had caught fire. Here is a portrait of a city and a war like no other. Gotham at War traces the transformation of New York from Depression-wracked mother of exiles to a front in the Second World War, and ultimately to the seat of the United Nations and a very contested "capital of the world."