Politics at Continuum

Continuum Author on CSPAN

John Celock will be on CSPAN's Washington Journal this coming Sunday, July 3rd from 9:15 am to 10:00 am, to discuss his book, The Next Generation. This live show with viewer call is aired nationally.

Based on first-hand interviews, The Next Generation: Young Elected Officials and Their Impact on American Politics is an in-depth look at the people under 35 years old who run for office in the US.

"John Celock combines the story-telling abilities of a journalist with the systematic approach of a political scientist to produce an engaging and richly textured book of unusual depth and quality.  Celock takes us with him as he crisscrosses the nation conducting extensive interviews aimed at understanding the political trajectories of young elected officials.  His approach to the subject is simultaneously entertaining and systematic while relating the rich political context that surrounds each of the remarkable individuals he profiles.  The Next Generation convincingly makes the argument that “next generation” politicians are bringing fresh ideas to our local, state and national politics and changing the political landscape."--Sean Q. Kelly - Professor of Political Science, California State University Channel Islands

Symposium on Marx Through Post-Structuralism by Simon Choat (Continuum 2010)

As part of a special issue examining the contemporary relevance of Marxism, the journal Global Discourse has organised a book review symposium on Simon Choat's Marx Through Post-Structuralism, featuring reviews by Jason Edwards and Saul Newman and a reply by Choat. The symposium is available at http://global-discourse.com/contents/marx-through-post-structuralism-by-simon-choat/

Global Discourse Special Issue: Examining the Contemporary Relevance of Marxism
The 21st century has so far seen US-led military interventions, global financial crises, identity conflicts, terrorism on a grand scale, environmental disasters and fraught industrial/labour relations. These dramatic events have challenged the notion of an ‘end to history’ and the widespread belief that the collapse of the Soviet Union has made Marx and Marxism irrelevant. With growing instability in the social, political and economic functioning of societies, it is necessary to examine the relevance of Marx to contemporary global society.
 
Global Discourse (http://global-discourse.com/), has released the first of two special issues conducting this examination through a number of articles developed from papers given at ‘Examining the Relevance of Marx and Marxism to Contemporary Global Society’ conference, which was held at Newcastle University on January 29th and 30th. There are contributions by key figures, such as Norman Geras, Stuart Sim, Lawrence Wilde, Joseph Femia, Terrell Carver, Alan Johnson, Paul Bowman and Mark Sandle, as well as book review symposia on Murray E. G. Smith’s Global Capitalism in Crisis, with reviews by Esteban Castro and Thom Workman, and on Simon Choat’s Marx Through Post-Structuralism, with reviews by Jason Edwards and Saul Newman. Also included in this issue, though not engaging directly with Marxism, is a review symposium on Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect by James Pattison, featuring rigorous reviews by David Miller and Graham Long. Full contents are available at http://global-discourse.com/contents/.
 
About the Journal
Global Discourse is a forum for the expression and development of critical research projects in all areas of politics and international relations.  The journal accepts innovative and rigorous articles which employ or engage with critical approaches, particularly those which transcend disciplinary boundaries.

Review: The Transforming Fire

HAARETZ.com has published a review of The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict.

Written by Jonathan Spyer, the book sets out to explain how the rise of Islamism is changing the nature of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

"in clear language not burdened with academic jargon (despite the author's doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics ), Spyer lays out the threats against Israel that have worsened in the two decades since Islamists took over from Arab nationalists as Israel's main foes."

To read the full review click on the link: http://www.haaretz.com/culture/books/middle-east-when-force-has-the-final-word-1.361060

New Title: Faith and Foreign Policy

Faith and Foreign Policy The Views and Influence of U.S. Christians and Christian Organizationsby Stephen R. Rock examines how the attitudes and preferences of various Christian groups in the United States can influence U.S. foreign policy with specific examples.

  "Faith and Foreign Policy makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the role of religious groups in American politics. Steve Rock shows that the religious forces influencing domestic policy extend into the international realm, impinging on virtually every imaginable policy concern in a globalizing world. This sensitive and lucid volume details religious group advocacy on the use of military force, international human rights, the Middle East, international institutions, and the global environment. Rock’s careful assessment of religious influence makes this an absolutely essential book for anyone interested in the intersection of religion and American foreign policy." - James L. Guth, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science, Furman University.
     

 "Faith and Foreign Policy provides a useful description of the foreign policy positions and activities of the major religious organizations in the United States. It is a valuable addition to the literature on a topic that typically received far less attention that it deserved--and that is likely to be the focus of enhanced scrutiny in the future. A well-written and researched volume."- John C. Green, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Akron

Continuum Author wins Award

In January 2011, the specialist group ‘Conservatives and Conservatism’ of the UK Political Studies Association awarded its prize for best publication on Conservative and Conservatism to David Seawright for his book, The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics.

 

Author on Democracy Now!

Marc Blecher, author of China Against the Tides, appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss President's Hu Jintao's visit to the United States. You can watch the video of the interview and read the transcript at http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/20/china_human_rights_and_the_role

 

Recast All Under Heaven wins "honorable mention"

Continuum is pleased to announce that Recast All Under Heaven by Xiaoyuan Liu has received an "honorable mention" in this year's scholarship award competition of the Chinese Historians in the United States. The award committee wrote:

"Professor Liu Xiaoyuan’s book, Recast All Under Heaven, offers a systematic examination of China’s incessant efforts to reassert its sovereignty over its frontiers in the twentieth century. By weaving together the episodes of its interactions with neighboring countries (Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and India), the two superpowers of the Cold War era, as well as domestic ethnic minorities, the author tells a fascinating story of China’s regeneration from a traditional empire based on universalistic sovereignty to a “modern” state that went beyond the conventional type of nation-states. Liu’s work is conceptually powerful, empirically rich and solid, and indeed groundbreaking in advancing our understanding of China’s territorial identity in the modern era."

Putin's Oil - Martin Sixsmith

Putin's Oil: The Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia by Martin Sixsmith was reviewed in the 'Books of the Year' feature, Times Literary Supplement (UK):

'Martin Sixsmith brings out all the political drama (and literary resonance) of the ongoing confrontation between Putin and the imprisoned entrepreneur Mikhail Khodorkovsky.'

Just Published: Recast All Under Heaven

We are proud to announce the publication of Recast All Under Heaven: Revolution, War, Diplomacy, and Frontier China in the 20th Century by Xiaoyuan Liu.

    "In this collection of well-argued essays, Professor Xiaoyuan Liu offers an extremely valuable perspective on the evolution of China's "geo-body" in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries--that is, its evolution from an empire to a "modern" nation state. This complex process involved a constant effort to reconcile the unifying impulses of the central government with the vibrant ethnic particularism that existed within China's constantly shifting borders."Richard J. Smith,George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History, Rice University, USA

    "The rise of China to the status of a global power necessitated its transformation from a loosely integrated empire into a modern state. This process entailed the assertion of central control over Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, Inner Asian lands that had long been contested by foreign powers and nurtured their own aspirations for independence or genuine autonomy.  In this illuminating set of essays, Liu Xiaoyuan, the master of China's frontier history and ethnopolitics, ranges widely across the boundaries of space and time to examine how modern China came into being.  By emphasizing the  seemingly paradoxical centrality of the periphery in the consolidation and legitimation of Chinese political authority, Liu explains Beijing's concern about trouble on its Inner Asian frontiers and expands our understanding of China's modern history." --Steven I. Levine, Senior Research Associate, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana

    "Xiaoyuan Liu has provided a most compelling study of frontier in the shaping of modern China modern territorial identity. Ethnopolitics, usually confined to the domestic sphere, must now be "recast" and brought to the forefront of any attempt to understand China's international relations, and vice versa."--Uradyn E. Bulag, University of Cambridge

Stuart A. Scheingold

It is with great regret that we announce the passing of Stuart Scheingold, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Washington. A prominent scholar, Dr. Scheingold is renowned for his work in law, society and politics.

You can read a full obituary on the Seattle Times website, at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012217962_scheingoldobit27m.html

 Continuum is proud and saddened to publish his last work this month. Titled The Political Novel, it is a unique work that reveals how novels of political estrangement have drawn on cultural narratives to capture the zeitgeist of the twentieth century and the disillusionment of modernism.

David Coates, Author of Answering Back

David Coates, author of Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments has a new website. You can watch him on this video. Or, you can visit his website at http://www.davidcoates.net/

Author Website: Answering Back

David Coates, author of Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments has a new website and blog. You can visit both at www.davidcoates.net

For a preview of the book, click on the link.

George Orwell Prize Awarded to Peter Hitchens

Hearfelt congratulations to  Peter Hitchens who won the George Orwell Prize for political writing in the Journalism category for his foreign correspondence in the Mail on Sunday. Hitchens’ winning selection of articles included reports from Prague, South Africa, Tokyo, Ottawa and China, as well as a counterfactual piece asking ‘What if the Berlin Wall didn’t fall?’

Peter Hitchens is the author of Rage Against God (Continuum, 2010) and Broken Compass (2009).

Publicity news -- Continuum Authors in the Media

Steve Hewitt, author of Snitch! A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer did a program for the Sunday Edition of CBC radio. http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/2010/05/may-16-2010.html

Steven Moore's The Novel: An Alternative History was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday May 16.Click here to read the review.

Peter YU's Second Long March was reviewed in The Taiwan Review. Download Taiwan Review

Deviant Globalization - Video

Next year, we will publish a new reader titled, Deviant Globalization. Edited by Nils Gilman, Jesse Goldhammer, and Stephen Weber, this unique collection of essays introduces one of the most pressing, yet least understood, global phenomena today: the thriving illicit industries and activities within the global economy whose growth challenges traditional notions of wealth, power, and progress.

You can view a video of Nils Gilman giving a talk on the subject by clicking here.

Answering Back: Author Interview

David Coates, author of Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments will be doing a phone in show on Answering Back with Peter B. Collins in the week beginning April 5.

Details of the show can be found at The Peter B. Collins Show; listen or podcast at www.peterbcollins.com

Author Interviewed by Judy Woodruff

David Coates, author of Answering Back, was interviewed online by Judy Woodruff of the NewsHour. You can find the interview on their website by clicking here.

(If you're having problems with the link, go to http://www.pbs.org/newshour/  and search for David Coates.)

Sample Chapter: EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC TERRORISM

Welcome to our new feature! As of today, we will regularly post sample chapters from new and upcoming books.

Today, we offer Chapter One from Alethia Cook's Emergency Response to Domestic Terrorism. 

To download the chapter, Download Cook Emergency Response Chapter 1

If you would like a review copy, please contact Marie-Claire Antoine at mantoine@continuum-books.com

For more preview of the book, click here.

The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing forced the population in the interior of the United States to recognize that the “heartlands” were not immune from a massive terrorist attack. In the period following the bombing understandable emotion often clouded an objective analysis of how the authorities responded to the tragedy. Alethia H. Cook has  taken advantage of the passage of time to develop an excellent analytical framework and an impressive empirical approach largely based on interviews to provide an important anatomy of the crucial first twelve hours after a major terrorist incident. Emergency Response to Domestic Terrorism : How Bureaucracies Reacted to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing should be required reading for policy makers, organizations and  operational personnel that are responsible for responding to terrorists attacks and other major catastrophes. It should also be an essential part of any scholar or student who is involved in the increasingly vital and growing field of emergency management"

--Stephen Sloan, Lawrence J. Chastang Distinguished Professor of Terrorism Studies,University of Central Florida; Professor Emeritus, The University of Oklahoma

Slavoj Žižek: 20 Years of Collapse

Today's New York Times features an op-ed by Slavov Žižek about the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. You can read the essay by clicking on the link or cutting and pasting it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/opinion/09zizek.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

If you are interested in Žižek's works, you may want to check his selected writings published by Continuum in two volumes, The Universal Exception and Interrogating the Real.

Adam Smith

James Otteson, author of our upcoming book, Adam Smith, was quoted in an article from Investor's Business Daily. You can read the article at http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=483382.

Adam Smith is a volume in our Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series, which will be published in September 10. For more information, you can visit our website at http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=130995&SearchType=Basic