Politics at Continuum

British Military in Iraq

Today marks the end of Britain's combat operations in Iraq. For more, you can check the BBC online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8026136.stm or the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/30/british-troops-end-combat-role-basra

 

China Against the Tides, 3rd Edition

China Against the Tides, 3rd Edition by Marc Blecher will be published in November 2009.

Repeatedly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, China has, to use a phrase favored by Mao Zedong, moved “against the tides” of its own great history and of wider international forces. Sometimes it even challenged the waves of revolution that it had itself set in counter-motion to previous currents. Its state went from an imperial monarchy to a short-lived republic to authoritarianism to revolutionary state socialism to market Leninist structural reform. Its economy underwent repeated shifts from crisis to rapid growth. Its society and culture were sundered by imperialism, class struggle, war and modernization, including explosive urbanization, population movement, technological change and transformation of values. How can these changes be comprehended? What has been their effect on China, the world’s most populous country? And what is their significance for the rest of the world?
China Against the Tides takes four approaches. The first is China’s history, focusing on its resistance to the tidal forces acting on it, and its tendency to break with its own history and with existing models, often in surprising and innovative ways. Second is the question of state socialism, which profoundly reshaped the country in the Maoist era in ways that are distinct from the Soviet model to which it bears a family resemblance. Third, China represents a unique model of “third world” development. And finally, it is a special case of East Asian developmentalism.
This edition is completely revised and updated, and includes a new chapter on China’s international relations.

Marc Blecher is Professor of Politics and East Asian Studies at Oberlin College. He is the author of Micropolitics in Contemporary China, Tethered Deer: Government and Economy in a Chinese County, and dozens of articles on Chinese political economy and the grassroots politics of the Chinese people.

Coming Soon: Resisting the Tide

Resisting the Tide edited by Daniele Albertazzi, Clodagh Brook, Charlotte Ross, and Nina Rothenberg will be published in May 2009.

Focussing on Berlusconi's term as Prime Minister from 2001-06, this interdisciplinary volume provides the first assessment of how the neo-conservative values attributed to him were contested and resisted by a variety of groups: social/minority movements, intellectuals (radical and moderate) and media practitioners.

Bringing together academics in Britain, Ireland, the US and Italy, this book takes an international perspective on Italian events. It investigates how resistance to the new conservative culture has been articulated, and how this has been expressed and explained by those involved.

Analysis is divided into four parts: 1. 'The Economic and Media Landscapes' sets the scene for the rest of the book, explaining how Italian society, and particularly its media environment, have developed in recent years; 2. 'Political Challenges' discusses the main threats to the authority and policies of Berlusconi coming from within his own centre-right coalition, the left and social movements; 3. 'Texts' analyses films, internet sites, television programmes, novels, newspaper articles and theatre performances that sought to resist increasingly dominant conservative norms and/or respond to events set in motion by the Berlusconi governments; 4. 'Experiences and Personalities' considers the voices and practices of those who have opposed Berlusconi from within the cultural industries and identity movements, including journalists, LGBT activists, feminists and associations representing immigrant communities.

Wide-ranging, innovative and challenging, Resisting the Tide should appeal to all those who have an interest in Italy, political, media, and cultural studies.

Editors

Daniele Albertazzi is Senior Lecturer in European Media (Department of Italian Studies, University of Birmingham).

Clodagh Brook is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Charlotte Ross is Lecturer in the Department of Italian Studies, University of Birmingham.

Nina Rothenberg teaches Sociology at the American University of Rome and was Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.

William Shakespeare

Today we honor the death and presumed birthday date of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). What does Shakespeare has to do with politics? Well, to find out, browse through Continuum's new reference work:

Shakespeare's Political and Economic Language: A Dictionary by Vivian Thomas.

The dictionary is an A-Z reference guide to political and economic terms, concepts and references in Shakespeare.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day, a good day to think green. If you are concerned about global environmental issues, check out our publication:

Global Environment and World Politics, 2nd Edition by Elizabeth DeSombre
“In this well-written second edition of her book, Elizabeth DeSombre presents a broad but focused analysis of the ways in which global environmental politics and policy interact with and alter the larger system of world politics.” –Bruce Doern, Technology and Culture, Vol. 49, October 2008

For more infomation, visit our website. 

Guides for the Perplexed

The Guides for the Perplexed series is a major new cross-list series from Continuum, comprising titles from each of our core subject areas. Aimed at a student market, these guides introduce major figures and concepts that students typically find difficult. 

The guides are clear, concise, and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers, and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging—or, indeed, downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

If you would like more information on the series, you can visit our website by clicking here.

If you would like to submit a project to be part of the series within the disciplines of political science and international relations, please contact Marie-Claire Antoine, Acquisitions Editor, at mantoine@continuum-books.com.

 

Piracy Then and Now

Here is an interactive map of the Horn of Africa from the Council on Foreign Relations that shows such information as transnational issues and the armed forces in the region. To access it, click on the link:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/13389/

Is it coincidental that the ship that came to the rescue of American hostages
held by Somali pirates was called the Bainbridge? 

Commodore William Bainbridge was one of the founders of the US Navy and a hero whose fighting in the Second Barbary War helped put a stop to the scourge of piracy in the 19th century.

For more, you can read the New York Times article, Lessons from the Barbary Pirate Wars by Jeffrey Gettelman (April 11, 2009) at http://www.nytimes.com.

 

Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers

Series Introduction

The Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series aims to show that there is a rigorous, scholarly tradition of social and political thought that may be broadly described as ‘conservative’, ‘libertarian’ or some combination of the two.

The series aims to show that conservatism is not simply a reaction against contemporary events, nor a privileging of intuitive thought over deductive reasoning; libertarianism is not simply an apology for unfettered capitalism or an attempt to justify a misguided atomistic concept of the individual. Rather, the thinkers in this series have developed coherent intellectual positions that are grounded in empirical reality and also founded upon serious philosophical reflection on the relationship between the individual and society, how the social institutions necessary for a free society are to be established and maintained, and the implications of the limits to human knowledge and certainty.

Each volume in the series presents a thinker’s ideas in an accessible and cogent manner to provide an indispensable work for both students with varying degrees of familiarity with the topic as well as more advanced scholars.

The following twenty volumes that make up the entire Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series are written by international scholars and experts.

• The Salamanca School by Andre Azevedo Alves and José Manuel Moreira
• Thomas Hobbes by R. E. R. Bunce
• John Locke by Eric Mack
• David Hume by Christopher J. Berry
• Adam Smith by James Otteson
• Edmund Burke by Dennis O’Keeffe
• Alexis de Tocqueville by Alan S. Kahan
• Herbert Spencer by Alberto Mingardi
• Ludwig von Mises by Richard Ebeling
• Joseph A. Schumpeter by John Medearis
• F. A. Hayek by Adam Tebble
• Michael Oakeshott by Edmund Neill
• Karl Popper by Phil Parvin
• Ayn Rand by Mimi Gladstein
• Milton Friedman by William Ruger
• Russell Kirk by John Pafford
• James M. Buchanan by John Meadowcroft
• The Modern Papacy by Samuel Gregg
• Murray Rothbard by Gerard Casey
• Robert Nozick by Ralf Bader

Of course, in any series of this nature, choices have to be made as to which thinkers to include and which to leave out. Two of the thinkers in the series – F. A. Hayek and James M. Buchanan – have written explicit statements rejecting the label ‘conservative’. Similarly, other thinkers, such as David Hume and Karl Popper, may be more accurately described as classical liberals than either conservatives or libertarians. But these thinkers have been included because a full appreciation of this particular tradition of thought would be impossible without their inclusion; conservative and libertarian thought cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of the intellectual contributions of Hume, Hayek, Popper and Buchanan, among others. While no list of conservative and libertarian thinkers can be perfect, then, it is hoped that the volumes in this series come as close as possible to providing a comprehensive account of the key contributors to this particular tradition.

John Meadowcroft
King’s College London

New This Month: Misinterpreting Modern Russia

Bruno Sergi argues in Misinterpreting Modern Russia that the way to know the complete story behind how Putin’s presidency has been viewed in is to examine closely the hard realities that conditioned Putin’s policies and responses.

Misinterpreting Modern Russia: Western Views of Putin and his Presidency looks beyond the stereotypes to the hard logic of the 1990s, and asks a range of provocative questions about the disintegration of the old Soviet empire and the extraordinary riches that have caused so much opportunity and turmoil in recent years.

For more information on the book, please visit our website by clicking here.

UN Record of Diplomatic Conferences

You may find this an interesting link: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/diplomaticconferences/index.html

This United Nations site gives access to the official records of several diplomatic conferences led by the UN to negotiate treaties, such as the Conference on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, 1977-1978 or the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, 1998.

 

Author Talk: David Coates at Wake Forest University

David Coates, author of the upcoming Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments (Continuum, December 09) used the last chapter of Answering Back as the basis for a widely publicized talk at Wake Forest University last Thursday.

Titled What Went Wrong?, the Q&A session focused on the financial meltdown and how to move forward. You can read the transcript at http://www.wfu.edu/wowf/2009/20090407.coates.qa.html

Turning your Dissertation into a Book

Revising your PhD dissertation for book publication involves adapting both content and style. Following are some quick tips about what to keep in mind:

- The aim of the book. Now you are making a contribution to the scholarship. The book should be more succinct and focused than your dissertation.

- The audience. Your monograph will address an academic audience, but don't forget that your topic may have a broader appeal --keep jargon in check.

- Title of the book and titles of chapters should be clear and succinct. Think of key words for a Google search, e.g.

- The chapters should be organized logically and show the progression of the research and argument. They should be somewhat even in length.

- Frame the book with a brief introduction and conclusion (no need to explain the state of the discipline, e.g.)

- Keep the bibliography manageable by removing references that are not strictly necessary.

- Remove any material that will identity the book as a PhD thesis, such as chapters on methodology and literature review.

- Keep notes in check. Remove unnecessary footnotes and integrate as many as you can within the text.

- Avoid lengthy quotations --they may entail permission issues and break the narrative.

For more detailed guidelines, please read Download Author Guidelines_Revising your PhD

If you have any questions, or would like to submit a proposal or discuss a project, please contact

Marie-Claire Antoine
Acquisitions Editor, Politics & International Relations
mantoine@continuum-books.com

Top Sellers

Out top sellers last week were:

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire 
Click here for details.

The Politics of Aesthetics by Jacques Rancière
Click here for details.

Creative Writing Mfa Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students (Revised & Updated) by Tom Kealey
Click here for details.

Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution by Steve McIntosh
Click here for details.

Global Justice: Seminal Essays : Global Responsibilities by Darrell Moellendorf and Thomas Pogge
Click here for details.

Badiou's 'Being and Event' : A Reader's Guide by Christopher Norris
Click here for details.

MPSA

Greetings!

Many thanks to all the scholars who kindly spent time to discuss their research and future projects with me at MPSA. I very much enjoyed our conversations and hope to stay in touch. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

I hope the flights home were uneventful and look forward to discussing your projects further!

With warm wishes,

Marie-Claire Antoine  
Acquisitions Editor, Politics & IR
mantoine@continuum-books.com

Happy Birthday NATO!

Nato is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week. Over the last two decades, the alliance has grown from 16 to 26 member countries. Its mission and administration have changed greatly.

Watch out for these upcoming books on NATO by Continuum:

Permanent Alliance? NATO and the Transatlantic Bargain from Truman to Obama by Stanley Sloan

NATO and Terrorism: Organizational Transformation and Mission Expansion by James Peterson

For more information, you can visit the NATO website  by clicking here.

Also, you may want to read this article from Spiegel Online International on whether NATO is the reluctant Globocop at http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,616547,00.html