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Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt
by Elizabeth Tandy ShermerThe untold history of how America’s student-loan program turned the pursuit of higher education into a pathway to poverty. It didn’t always take thirty years to pay off the cost of a bachelor’s degree. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer untangles the history that brought us here and discovers that the story of skyrocketing college debt is not merely one of good intentions gone wrong. In fact, the federal student loan program was never supposed to make college affordable. The earliest federal proposals for college affordability sought to replace tuition with taxpayer funding of institutions. But Southern whites feared that lower costs would undermine segregation, Catholic colleges objected to state support of secular institutions, professors worried that federal dollars would come with regulations hindering academic freedom, and elite-university presidents recoiled at the idea of mass higher education. Cold War congressional fights eventually made access more important than affordability. Rather than freeing colleges from their dependence on tuition, the government created a loan instrument that made college accessible in the short term but even costlier in the long term by charging an interest penalty only to needy students. In the mid-1960s, as bankers wavered over the prospect of uncollected debt, Congress backstopped the loans, provoking runaway inflation in college tuition and resulting in immense lender profits. Today 45 million Americans owe more than $1.5 trillion in college debt, with the burdens falling disproportionately on borrowers of color, particularly women. Reformers, meanwhile, have been frustrated by colleges and lenders too rich and powerful to contain. Indentured Students makes clear that these are not unforeseen consequences. The federal student loan system is working as designed.
Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational
by Michael ShermerBest-selling author Michael Shermer presents an overarching theory of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them.Nothing happens by accident, everything is connected, and there are no coincidences: that is the essence of conspiratorial thinking. Long a fringe part of the American political landscape, conspiracy theories are now mainstream: 147 members of Congress voted in favor of objections to the 2020 presidential election based on an unproven theory about a rigged electoral process promoted by the mysterious group QAnon. But this is only the latest example in a long history of ideas that include the satanic panics of the 1980s, the New World Order and Vatican conspiracy theories, fears about fluoridated water, speculations about President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and the notions that the Sandy Hook massacre was a false-flag operation and 9/11 was an inside job. In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status—and even political affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged (LBJ's 1948 Senate race); medical professionals have intentionally harmed patients in their care (Tuskegee); your government does lie to you (Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Afghanistan); and, tragically, some adults do conspire to sexually abuse children. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control play a role in conspiratorial cognition patterns, as do certain personality traits. This engaging book will be an important read for anyone concerned about the future direction of American politics, as well as anyone who's watched friends or family fall into patterns of conspiratorial thinking.
Soviet Power: The Continuing Challenge (RUSI Defence Studies)
by James SherrRepresenting the culmination of an RUSI main theme study, "Soviet Power and Prospects", this volume is based on the Institute's proposition that military power exerts a profound influence on the course of world politics and that such power cannot be divorced from its social and political context.
Striving to Save: Creating Policies for Financial Security of Low-Income Families
by Margaret Sherrard Sherraden Amanda Moore McBride"Striving to Save will inform and inspire social policy with its breakthrough approach in understanding how low-income families make ends meet while striving to make a better life for themselves and their families. Scholarly work in savings, debt, household finance, and behavior economics will benefit from this pioneering study that provides real-life context for some of the most important issues of our day." ---Tom Shapiro, Brandeis University "The central contribution of the book is to use original qualitative research to provide readers with a nuanced understanding of the financial difficulties facing low-income households, their financial decision-making processes, and their paths to saving and building assets over time. The book provides an essential corrective to the unidimensional view of poor households as unable and unwilling to save." ---Michael Barr, University of Michigan In Striving to Save, Margaret Sherrard Sherraden and Amanda Moore McBride examine savings in eighty-four working families with low incomes, including fifty-nine families who participated in a groundbreaking program of matched savings and financial education. In-depth interviews with these families, along with savings and survey data, shed light on saving in low-income households. The book concludes with recommended public policy approaches for increasing savings in households that are striving to save. Margaret Sherrard Sherraden is Professor of Social Work at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Amanda Moore McBride is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Washington University, St. Louis.
Inclusion in the American Dream: Assets, Poverty, and Public Policy
by Michael SherradenInclusion in the American Dream brings together leading scholars and policy experts on the topic of asset building, particularly as this relates to public policy. The typical American household accumulates most of its assets in home equity and retirement accounts, both of which are subsidized through the tax system. But the poor, for the most part, do not participate in these asset accumulation policies. The challenge is to expand the asset-based policy structure so that everyone is included.
Assets and the Poor: New American Welfare Policy
by Michael Sherraden Neil GilbertThis work proposes a new approach to welfare: a social policy that goes beyond simple income maintenance to foster individual initiative and self-sufficiency. It argues for an asset-based policy that would create a system of saving incentives through individual development accounts (IDAs) for specific purposes, such as college education, homeownership, self-employment and retirement security. In this way, low-income Americans could gain the same opportunities that middle- and upper-income citizens have to plan ahead, set aside savings and invest in a more secure future.
Assets and the Poor: New American Welfare Policy
by Michael Sherraden Neil GilbertThis work proposes a new approach to welfare: a social policy that goes beyond simple income maintenance to foster individual initiative and self-sufficiency. It argues for an asset-based policy that would create a system of saving incentives through individual development accounts (IDAs) for specific purposes, such as college education, homeownership, self-employment and retirement security. In this way, low-income Americans could gain the same opportunities that middle- and upper-income citizens have to plan ahead, set aside savings and invest in a more secure future.
Can Microfinance Work?: How to Improve Its Ethical Balance and Effectiveness
by Lesley SherrattMicrofinance began with the noble aim of alleviating poverty through the extension of small loans to poor borrowers, and has grown to now serve approximately 200,000,000 people-the majority of whom are female. Yet despite claims to the contrary, the practice has not been proven to have succeeded in either enriching or empowering its borrowers. In a thorough-going ethical assessment of the industry, Can Microfinance Work? examines the central microfinance model and whether or not it is effective, the extent to which the practice creates the conditions for exploitation and coercion to occur, and whether the distribution of the benefits and burdens of microfinance is likely to be an ethical one. Author Lesley Sherratt argues for the establishment of a duty of care in microfinance in recognition of the vulnerability of the client base. She also examines the ethical dilemmas inherent in working in the informal sector, as well as microcredit's macro impact on economies. From there, Sherratt draws some wider lessons microfinance can offer anti-poverty developments in general. Challengingly, the book considers how microfinance might be reformed to ensure it is practiced both more ethically and effectively, and in doing so, argues that only a part of the industry may survive in its current form. The bulk could instead bifurcate in to one of two camps, either scaling down to become predominantly savings rather than credit vehicles, probably subsidized; or scaling up to provide credit to small and medium enterprise lending operations. For the rest, it is argued that establishing a non-exploitative interest rate, ending the practice of group liability, and fully specifying a duty of care -- with, if necessary, regulation developed to enforce these -- are microfinance's urgent ethical priorities.
Can Microfinance Work?: How to Improve Its Ethical Balance and Effectiveness
by Lesley SherrattMicrofinance began with the noble aim of alleviating poverty through the extension of small loans to poor borrowers, and has grown to now serve approximately 200,000,000 people-the majority of whom are female. Yet despite claims to the contrary, the practice has not been proven to have succeeded in either enriching or empowering its borrowers. In a thorough-going ethical assessment of the industry, Can Microfinance Work? examines the central microfinance model and whether or not it is effective, the extent to which the practice creates the conditions for exploitation and coercion to occur, and whether the distribution of the benefits and burdens of microfinance is likely to be an ethical one. Author Lesley Sherratt argues for the establishment of a duty of care in microfinance in recognition of the vulnerability of the client base. She also examines the ethical dilemmas inherent in working in the informal sector, as well as microcredit's macro impact on economies. From there, Sherratt draws some wider lessons microfinance can offer anti-poverty developments in general. Challengingly, the book considers how microfinance might be reformed to ensure it is practiced both more ethically and effectively, and in doing so, argues that only a part of the industry may survive in its current form. The bulk could instead bifurcate in to one of two camps, either scaling down to become predominantly savings rather than credit vehicles, probably subsidized; or scaling up to provide credit to small and medium enterprise lending operations. For the rest, it is argued that establishing a non-exploitative interest rate, ending the practice of group liability, and fully specifying a duty of care -- with, if necessary, regulation developed to enforce these -- are microfinance's urgent ethical priorities.
The Oligarch: Rewriting Machiavelli’s The Prince for Our Time
by James SherryThis book uses the structure of Machiavelli’s The Prince to show how governance has changed over the last 500 years. If Machiavelli focuses on power concentrated in the hands of the republic or principalities, The Oligarch looks at how states and companies today function as oligarchies. Rather than dealing with the form of government, it addresses the operations and networks of governance for both states and corporations as a single set of common processes. The author links politics, ecology and literature, by using the literary device of appropriation to raise awareness of ecology and the overreach of powerful people, offering both wielders and critics of power a common ground based on how people in power actually conduct themselves.
The Punitive Turn in American Life: How the United States Learned to Fight Crime Like a War
by Michael S. SherryIn 1965, President Lyndon Johnson insisted that "the policeman is the frontline soldier in our war against crime," and police forces, arms makers, policy makers, and crime experts heeded this call to arms, bringing weapons and practices from the arena of war back home. The Punitive Turn in American Life offers a political and cultural history of the ways in which punishment and surveillance have moved to the center of American life and become imbued with militarized language and policies. Michael S. Sherry argues that, by the 1990s, the "war on crime" had been successfully broadcast to millions of Americans at an enormous cost--to those arrested, imprisoned, or killed and to the social fabric of the nation--and that the currents of vengeance that ran through the punitive turn, underwriting torture at home and abroad, found a new voice with the election of Donald J. Trump. By 2020, the connections between war-fighting and crime-fighting remained powerful, evident in campaigns against undocumented immigrants and the militarized police response to the nationwide uprisings after George Floyd's murder. Stoked by "forever war," the punitive turn endured even as it met fiercer resistance. From the racist system of mass incarceration and the militarization of criminal justice to gated communities, public schools patrolled by police, and armies of private security, Sherry chronicles the United States' slide into becoming a meaner, punishment-obsessed nation.
Double or Nothing (Double O #1)
by Kim SherwoodThe start of a brand new trilogy following MI6’s agents with a licence to kill, that blows the world of James Bond wide open!
A Spy Like Me (Double O #2)
by null Kim SherwoodThe stunning new spy thriller that blows the world of James Bond wide open! Six days. A bomb goes off at the BBC. The country is in chaos, but this is just the start. A global terrorist organisation is plotting a series of deadly attacks. MI6 has just six days’ warning for when the next one will strike. Three agents. With James Bond missing, three of MI6’s toughest Double O agents race across the world to stop the attacks. From Venice to Australia to Dubai, they soon uncover a vast network of terror. One chance to find James Bond. As the Double Os close in, they find themselves unexpectedly inching closer to 007. Now the race is on to stop the terrorists – and save Britain’s finest spy. What readers are saying about A Spy Like Me ‘Reading A Spy Like Me is just like being immersed in the world of Bond, with travel, gadgets and glamour galore’ ‘I gasped aloud at the ending – be prepared for a thunderbolt!!’ ‘Wow! What a fantastic, gripping read this was. Pure Bond from start to finish. I’m blown away by how good this book was!’ ‘Immensely enjoyable, a real joy to read and difficult to put down’ ‘This story moves between a number of different locations and certainly keeps the readers turning the pages’ ‘A fabulously written gripping story that was a pleasure to read’ ‘Action packed from the very first page to the very last page’ ‘you get an excellent world tour in some truly out of this world locations from the comfort of your armchair’ ‘Wow this book grips you from page one and keeps you on a rollercoaster for the whole book’ ‘Pure escapist fiction’ ‘A non-stop whirl of espionage and great fun, with a killer cliffhanger ending’
At Home with Democracy: A Theory of Indian Politics
by D. L. Sheth Peter Ronald DeSouzaThis book presents numerous discussions of specific aspects of democratic politics, showing how ‘democracy’ can be projected as a model of deliberate imperfection – a model that tolerates various loose ends in the system – and how democracy recognizes a multiplicity of possible courses open to the system at any point in time. Against this backdrop, the book carefully analyzes the lifetime work of D.L. Sheth, which, seen as a whole, offers us with a theory of Indian politics. The selection of fifteen essays has been clustered into five sections that signify the major domains of democratic politics: State, Nation, Democracy; Parapolitics of Democracy; Social Power and Democracy; Representation in Liberal Democracy; and Emerging Challenges of Democracy. These essays give a sense of the transformations and struggles that are underway in India, brought about by the dynamics of democratic politics. Each of the fifteen chapters focuses on one aspect, providing a unique analysis of the deepening of democracy in India.
At Home with Democracy: A Theory of Indian Politics (PDF)
by D. L. Sheth Peter Ronald DeSouzaThis book presents numerous discussions of specific aspects of democratic politics, showing how ‘democracy’ can be projected as a model of deliberate imperfection – a model that tolerates various loose ends in the system – and how democracy recognizes a multiplicity of possible courses open to the system at any point in time. Against this backdrop, the book carefully analyzes the lifetime work of D.L. Sheth, which, seen as a whole, offers us with a theory of Indian politics. The selection of fifteen essays has been clustered into five sections that signify the major domains of democratic politics: State, Nation, Democracy; Parapolitics of Democracy; Social Power and Democracy; Representation in Liberal Democracy; and Emerging Challenges of Democracy. These essays give a sense of the transformations and struggles that are underway in India, brought about by the dynamics of democratic politics. Each of the fifteen chapters focuses on one aspect, providing a unique analysis of the deepening of democracy in India.
Unruly Women: Race, Neocolonialism, and the Hijab (Philosophy of Race)
by Falguni A. ShethDespite the disapproval that "visibly" Muslim women face in the West, the U.S. does not ban the hijab or niqab. Nevertheless, it does find a way to manage assertive Muslim women. How so? Subtly and without outright confrontation: through the courts, bureaucratic processes and liberal discourses. From a range of juridical decisions connected not only by a distinctly neocolonial gaze, but also through the tacit dimension of race, Muslim women-among other women of color-are reconceived as neonates who must be taught to behave: as Americans, as professional women, and as autonomous, mildly independent subjects. Focusing on the discrimination claims of Muslim women, this study examines juridical and political approaches that dismiss Muslim women and other populations of color as culturally backward, misguided in their thinking, and gratuitously nonconformist. Likewise, it analyses the experience of racial dismissal through excruciation: the phenomenon by which vulnerable populations are pressed into hopeless performances of cultural assimilation. Racial dismissal is excavated through legal opinions, court transcripts, and other encounters between Muslim women and the state. Ultimately, this work finds that the racial address of dismissal and the phenomena of excruciation have been pivotal to a liberal juridical order that otherwise claims neutrality. By concentrating on the treatment of Muslim women, this book uncovers dynamics of social and racial division which have inhabited and bolstered liberal legal neutrality from its inception. This book's framework, while focusing on Muslim women in the U.S., is a template for understanding how exclusion is juridically implemented for other racialized and marginalized populations.
Unruly Women: Race, Neocolonialism, and the Hijab (Philosophy of Race)
by Falguni A. ShethDespite the disapproval that "visibly" Muslim women face in the West, the U.S. does not ban the hijab or niqab. Nevertheless, it does find a way to manage assertive Muslim women. How so? Subtly and without outright confrontation: through the courts, bureaucratic processes and liberal discourses. From a range of juridical decisions connected not only by a distinctly neocolonial gaze, but also through the tacit dimension of race, Muslim women-among other women of color-are reconceived as neonates who must be taught to behave: as Americans, as professional women, and as autonomous, mildly independent subjects. Focusing on the discrimination claims of Muslim women, this study examines juridical and political approaches that dismiss Muslim women and other populations of color as culturally backward, misguided in their thinking, and gratuitously nonconformist. Likewise, it analyses the experience of racial dismissal through excruciation: the phenomenon by which vulnerable populations are pressed into hopeless performances of cultural assimilation. Racial dismissal is excavated through legal opinions, court transcripts, and other encounters between Muslim women and the state. Ultimately, this work finds that the racial address of dismissal and the phenomena of excruciation have been pivotal to a liberal juridical order that otherwise claims neutrality. By concentrating on the treatment of Muslim women, this book uncovers dynamics of social and racial division which have inhabited and bolstered liberal legal neutrality from its inception. This book's framework, while focusing on Muslim women in the U.S., is a template for understanding how exclusion is juridically implemented for other racialized and marginalized populations.
The Americano: Fighting with Castro for Cuba's Freedom
by Aran Shetterly"Why do I fight here in this land so foreign to my own? Why did I come here far from my home and family?…Is it because I seek adventure? No…I am here because I believe that the most important thing for free men to do is to protect the freedom of others."—William Morgan, in a letter to Herbert Matthews at the New York TimesWhen William Morgan was twenty-two years old, he was working as a high school janitor in Toledo Ohio. Seven years later, in 1958, he walked into a Rebel camp in the Cuban Jungle to join the revolutionaries in their fight to overthrow the corrupt Cuban president, Fulgencio Batista. They were wary of the broad-shouldered, blond-haired, blue-eyed americano but Morgan's dedication and passion, his military skill and charisma, led him to become a chief comandante in Castro's army—he was the only foreigner to hold such a rank, with the exception of Che Guevera.Vicious battles in the jungles were followed by victorious revelry in the cities. Morgan married a Cuban beauty. He single-handedly thwarted the Dominican Republic's attempt to overthrow Castro. And he was chosen to work with Castro and other high ranking Rebels to improve the quality of life for all people. This man who had lived under the radar in America was now a Cuban hero on the watch lists of several governments, all of whom wondered whose side he was really on. It all ended in 1961, when, at age thirty-two, Morgan was executed by firing squad, at the hands of Fidel Castro.Journalist Aran Shetterly takes us back to an era when democracy could have flourished in Cuba. He interviewed Morgan's friends and family and former Cuban Rebels, and examined FBI and CIA documents in search of the truth. What emerged was the true story of a young man who had never fit in but finally found his place in the world by fighting another country's war.
Not Russian: A novel
by Mikhail ShevelevOne evening in 2015, journalist Pavel Vladimirovich and his wife Tatyana are at home when the news breaks that there has been a terrorist attack. Over a hundred people have been taken hostage in the Church of the Epiphany in the village of Nikolskoye near Moscow. As they watch, on the TV screen appears the face of one of the terrorists: Vadim Petrovich Seryegin, an old friend of Pavel’s. The friendship between the two men evolved through periods of conflict, war, peace, emigration, and isolation. Pavel may be one of Vadim’s only friends, and when others realize this, he is asked to negotiate with Vadim. The Church is horrifyingly silent when Pavel enters. Vadim welcomes Pavel but refuses to capitulate. As the stakes get higher and higher, Vadim’s story including his connection to the wars in Chechnya and the Ukraine is revealed and it becomes clear that the first meeting between the two men was not all it first seemed to be to Pavel. Back in the church, Pavel learns that the terrorists have one and only one demand, and that it concerns the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.
Body/Politics: Studies in Reproduction, Production, and (Re)Construction
by Thomas ShevoryNegotiating the terrain between techno-optimism and eco-pessimism, this work establishes the political connections between technologies of the body, property, and the environment. Specific technologies of the body, such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization, are examined in relation to their political and legal constructions. Next, Shevory analyzes private property as an evolving historical concept that implicates environmental and biological transformations with particular attention given to biotechnology cases. He then considers the body's appearance and its alterations through plastic surgery, dieting, or piercing as political constructions.A theoretical overview specifies technoprogressivist (liberal) and technophobic traditions, especially as they have evolved in the United States during the second half of the 20th-century. Drawing upon critical and feminist theories, Shevory specifies a body politics that negotiates the terrain between these two traditions. Body technologies and markets, he argues, interact to consolidate and reinforce dominant systems of power, while at the same time resisting and sometimes subverting them. Technology is often a factor in the fragmentation of evolving political ideological discourses on the left and right; however, the resulting instabilities create the potential for both the expansion of global capital and its subversion via democratic interventions.
Becoming an Everyday Changemaker: Healing and Justice At School (Equity and Social Justice in Education Series)
by Alex Shevrin VenetEducators with a vision for more equitable, caring schools often struggle with where to begin. I’m just one teacher, where can I start to make change? Is it even possible? How do I do this within current constraints? In this new book, bestselling author Alex Shevrin Venet empowers everyday changemakers by showing how equity-centered trauma-informed practices can guide our approach to school change. Unlike other books on social justice, this powerful resource doesn’t tell you which changes to implement; instead, it focuses on helping you develop the skills, strategies, and tools for making change meaningful and effective.Topics include change opportunities and why trauma makes change harder; skills for navigating the change journey such as building relationships, working from strengths, and navigating many streams of information; and sustainable structures for lasting change. Throughout, there are reflection questions to use as conversation-starters with fellow changemakers, as well as Rest Stops so you can pause and process what you are thinking about and learning. This book will help you start your change journey now, putting you and your students on the path to equity, justice, and healing.
Becoming an Everyday Changemaker: Healing and Justice At School (Equity and Social Justice in Education Series)
by Alex Shevrin VenetEducators with a vision for more equitable, caring schools often struggle with where to begin. I’m just one teacher, where can I start to make change? Is it even possible? How do I do this within current constraints? In this new book, bestselling author Alex Shevrin Venet empowers everyday changemakers by showing how equity-centered trauma-informed practices can guide our approach to school change. Unlike other books on social justice, this powerful resource doesn’t tell you which changes to implement; instead, it focuses on helping you develop the skills, strategies, and tools for making change meaningful and effective.Topics include change opportunities and why trauma makes change harder; skills for navigating the change journey such as building relationships, working from strengths, and navigating many streams of information; and sustainable structures for lasting change. Throughout, there are reflection questions to use as conversation-starters with fellow changemakers, as well as Rest Stops so you can pause and process what you are thinking about and learning. This book will help you start your change journey now, putting you and your students on the path to equity, justice, and healing.
Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media (The Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication)
by J. SheyholislamiInformed by the interdisciplinary approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and theories of identity, nation, and media, the study investigates the ways Kurds, the world's largest stateless nation, use satellite television and Internet to construct their identities. This book examines the complex interrelationships between ethno-national identities, discourses, and new media. Not only offers the first study of discursive constructions of Kurdish identity in the new media, this book also the first CDA informed comparative study of the contents of the two media. The study pushes the boundaries of the growing area of studies of identity, nationalism and transnationalism, discourse studies, minority language, and digital media.