The moral lives of animals / Dale Peterson This rigorous,...

The moral lives of animals / Dale Peterson This rigorous, imaginative, and stimulating book forces us to reexamine what Peterson calls our Darwinian narcissism, and it shows the profound connections between humans and other species. Peterson shows how much animal behavior follows principles embodied in humanity’s ancient moral codes, from the Old Testament rules as expressed in the Ten Commandments to the New Testament principles of attachment through cooperation, kindness, and empathy. Understanding the moral lives of animals offers new insights into our own.

Sustainable failures : environmental policy and democracy...

Sustainable failures : environmental policy and democracy in a petro-dependent world / Sherry Cable. Environmental policies fail in conspicuous and egregious ways to sustain the natural resource base and protect citizens from production-generated risky exposures. In her engaging study, Sustainable Failures, Sherry Cable asks, why does environmental policy seem to be a contributing cause rather than a partial solution to environmental problems? Melding a biophysical science perspective of environmental processes with sociological insights into human behavior, Cable examines the people, policie...

The bully society : school shootings and the crisis of...

The bully society : school shootings and the crisis of bullying in America’s schools / Jessie Klein Argues that the rise in school violence is the consequence of a society that promotes and encourages aggressive and competitive behavior, and proposes ways to transcend these destructive trends and stress compassion over bullying.

Leak : why Mark Felt became Deep Throat / Max...

Leak : why Mark Felt became Deep Throat / Max Holland Argues that FBI official Mark Felt —better known as “Deep Throat” during the Watergate scandal—did not blow the whistle on Richard Nixon out of love for his country or to protect the FBI from Nixon’s corruption, but instead did so to serve his own private agenda, in a book where the author uses official documents and new interviews and oral histories to present his case.

Everyone’s a winner : life in our congratulatory...

Everyone’s a winner : life in our congratulatory culture / Joel Best Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. Many high schools name dozens of seniors as valedictorians—of the same class. Cars sport bumper stickers that read “USA—Number 1.” Prizes proliferate in every corner of American society, and excellence is trumpeted with ratings that range from “Academy Award winner!” to “Best Neighborhood Pizza!” In Everyone’s a Winner, Joel Best— acclaimed author of Damned Lies and Statistics and many other books—shines a bright light on the increasing abundance of s...

Duels and duets : why men and women talk so differently /...

Duels and duets : why men and women talk so differently / John L. Locke Why do men and women talk so differently? And how do these differences interfere with communication between the sexes? In search of an answer to these and other questions, John Locke takes the reader on a fascinating journey, from human evolution through ancient history to the present, revealing why men speak as they do when attempting to impress or seduce women, and why women adopt a very different way of talking when bonding with each other, or discussing rivals. When men talk to men, Locke argues, they frequently engag...

The intolerance of tolerance / D.A. Carson. Tolerance currently...

The intolerance of tolerance / D.A. Carson. Tolerance currently occupies a very high place in Western societies: it is considered gauche, even boorish, to question it. In The Intolerance of Tolerance, however, questioning tolerance — or, at least, contemporary understandings of tolerance — is exactly what D. A . Carson does. Carson traces the subtle but enormous shift in the way we have come to understand tolerance over recent years — from defending the rights of those who hold different beliefs to affirming all beliefs as equally valid and correct. He looks back at the history of this...

The folly of fools : the logic of deceit and self-deception...

The folly of fools : the logic of deceit and self-deception in human life / Robert Trivers Why did intellect and language evolve to include lies and self-deception? Trivers (anthropology and biological sciences, Rutgers U.) presents a general theory based on evolutionary logic to answer this intriguing question. He argues that deception, which occurs even between our brain hemispheres, is closely tied to group conflict, courtship, neurophysiology and immunology, but can be overridden by awareness of it and its consequences. The accessible book is based on extensive reference material, and bea...

Curious behavior : yawning, laughing, hiccupping, and...

Curious behavior : yawning, laughing, hiccupping, and beyond / Robert R. Provine The kinds of reflexive behaviors people rarely think about, and are often embarrassed by, are the topic of this entertaining popular book by Robert R. Provine (psychology and neuroscience, U. of Maryland, Baltimore County). Provine devotes a chapter to each behavior: yawning, laughing, crying out loud, tearing up, coughing, sneezing, hiccupping, vomiting, tickling, itching and scratching, and farting and belching. He throws in a couple of other categories: the fact that humans have visible whites to our eyes (m...

Recycling reconsidered : the present failure and future...

Recycling reconsidered : the present failure and future promise of environmental action in the United States / Samantha MacBride. Recycling is widely celebrated as an environmental success story. The accomplishments of the recycling movement can be seen in municipal practice, a thriving private recycling industry,and widespread public support and participation. In the United States, more people recycle than vote. But, as Samantha MacBride points out in this book, the goals of recycling—saving the earth(and trees), conserving resources, and greening the economy—are still far from being rea...

All in: the education of General David Petraeus / Paula...

All in: the education of General David Petraeus / Paula Broadwell with Vernon Loeb General David Petraeus is the most transformative leader the American military has seen since the generation of Marshall. In the New York Times bestseller All In, military expert Paula Broadwell examines Petraeus’s career, his intellectual development as a military officer, and his impact on the U.S. military. Afforded extensive access by General Petraeus, his mentors, his subordinates, and his longtime friends, Broadwell reported on the front lines of fighting and at the strategic command in Afghanistan t...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: turning the American dream into a...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: turning the American dream into a nightmare / Oonagh McDonald. The purpose of this book is to examine the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the financial crisis. First of all, it will explain their role in public policy and in the provision of mortgage financing for housing, as envisaged originally and subsequently. The aim will not be to examine this throughout the decades since the establishment of Fannie Mae in the 30s, but to highlight their role in the 90s as a result of political decisions, focusing on mortgage lending. Politicians found it easier to encou...

Confessions of a microfinance heretic: how microlending lost its...

Confessions of a microfinance heretic: how microlending lost its way and betrayed the poor / Hugh Sinclair. Microfinance insider Hugh Sinclair weaves a shocking tale of an industry focused on maximizing profits and plagued by predatory lending practices, scandals, cover-ups and corruption. Part exposé, part memoir and part financial detective story, this witty account of his experience with several funds and institutions around the world reveals the sad truth of an industry once hailed as the miraculous solution to long-term poverty – and offers solutions for the future.

O powerful western star! : American Jews, Russian Jews, and...

O powerful western star! : American Jews, Russian Jews, and the final battle of the Cold War / Peter Golden [This book] explores the hundreds of years of history that led American Jewry into the middle of the Cold War. The book’s primary focus is on the impact of the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the founding of Israel on American and Soviet Jewry. The changes in American and Soviet culture, and the Cold War are explored in depth. Along with original documents, published histories, newspapers, journals, and magazines, Peter Golden also relied on his interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev,...

The historical Jesus and the literary imagination, 1860-1920 /...

The historical Jesus and the literary imagination, 1860-1920 / Jennifer Stevens. Fictional reconstructions of the Gospels continue to find a place in contemporary literature and the popular imagination. Present-day writers of New Testament–based fiction are considered to be part of a tradition formed in the mid-to-late twentieth century. Yet the foundations were laid earlier still by writers like Oscar Wilde, George Moore, and Marie Corelli who, in turn, drew influence from other works of biblical scholarship. The latest in the English Association Monographs series, The Historical Jesus and...

Something like the gods: a cultural history of the athlete from...

Something like the gods: a cultural history of the athlete from Achilles to LeBron / Stephen Amidon A lively, literary exploration of one of the West’s most iconic cultural figures—the athlete. Why is the athlete so important to us? Few public figures can dominate the public imagination with such power and authority. Even in our cynical times, when celebrities can be debunked at the speed of light, many still look to athletes as models for our moral and emotional lives. An aging fastballer goes for a few last wins in his final season, and he becomes an exemplar for our daily struggles aga...

Film and genocide / edited by Kristi M. Wilson and Tomas F....

Film and genocide / edited by Kristi M. Wilson and Tomas F. Crowder-Taraborrelli Film and Genocide brings together scholars of film and of genocide to discuss film representations, both fictional and documentary, of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and genocides in Chile, Australia, Rwanda, and the United States. Since 1955, when Alain Resnais created his experimental documentary Night and Fog about the Nazis’ mass killings of Jews and other ostracized groups, filmmakers have struggled with using this medium to tell such difficult stories, to re-create the sociopolitical contexts of ...

Chicle: the chewing gum of the Americas, from the ancient Maya...

Chicle: the chewing gum of the Americas, from the ancient Maya to William Wrigley / Jennifer P. Mathews ; with Gillian P. Schultz. Although Juicy Fruit® gum was introduced to North Americans in 1893, Native Americans in Mesoamerica were chewing gum thousands of years earlier. And although in the last decade ?biographies” have been devoted to salt, spices, chocolate, coffee, and other staples of modern life, until now there has never been a full history of chewing gum. This book provides an in-depth look at the 11,000 year history of chewing gum, focusing on chicle, the resin used in chew...