Saturday, March 9, 2024

iTunes Store: Top 25 Books in Politics & Current Events 2024-03-10

Abigail Shrier - Bad Therapy artwork Bad Therapy
Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up
Abigail Shrier
Genre: Political Science
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: February 27, 2024
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

From the author of Irreversible Damage , an investigation into a mental health industry that is harming, not healing, American children In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not helped the staggering number of kids who are lonely, lost, sad and fearful of growing up. What’s gone wrong with America’s youth? In Bad Therapy , bestselling investigative journalist Abigail Shrier argues that the problem isn’t the kids—it’s the mental health experts. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with child psychologists, parents, teachers, and young people, Shrier explores the ways the mental health industry has transformed the way we teach, treat, discipline, and even talk to our kids. She reveals that most of the therapeutic approaches have serious side effects and few proven benefits. Among her unsettling findings: Talk therapy can induce rumination, trapping children in cycles of anxiety and depressionSocial Emotional Learning handicaps our most vulnerable children, in both public schools and private“Gentle parenting” can encourage emotional turbulence – even violence – in children as they lash out, desperate for an adult in charge Mental health care can be lifesaving when properly applied to children with severe needs, but for the typical child, the cure can be worse than the disease. Bad Therapy is a must-read for anyone questioning why our efforts to bolster America’s kids have backfired—and what it will take for parents to lead a turnaround.



Chris Miller - Chip War artwork Chip War
The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
Chris Miller
Genre: Political Science
Price: $24.99
Publish Date: October 04, 2022
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

One of Barack Obama ’ s Favorite Books of 2023 The Financial Times Business Book of the Year, this epic account of the decades-long battle to control one of the world’s most critical resources—microchip technology—with the United States and China increasingly in fierce competition is “pulse quickening…a nonfiction thriller” ( The New York Times ). You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything —from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America’s military superiority and economic prosperity. Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the US became dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America’s victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. Until recently, China had been catching up, aligning its chip-building ambitions with military modernization. Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War is “an essential and engrossing landmark study" ( London Times ).



Colin Kahl & Thomas Wright - Aftershocks artwork Aftershocks
Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order
Colin Kahl & Thomas Wright
Genre: Political Science
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: August 24, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Seller: Macmillan

Two of America's leading national security experts offer a definitive account of the global impact of COVID-19 and the political shock waves it will have on the United States and the world order in the 21st Century. “Informed by history, reporting, and a truly global perspective, this is an indispensable first draft of history and blueprint for how we can move forward.” — Ben Rhodes The COVID-19 pandemic killed millions, infected hundreds of millions, and laid bare the deep vulnerabilities and inequalities of our interconnected world. The accompanying economic crash was the worst since the Great Depression, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that it will cost over $22 trillion in global wealth over the next few years. Over two decades of progress in reducing extreme poverty was erased, just in the space of a few months. Already fragile states in every corner of the globe were further hollowed out. The brewing clash between the United States and China boiled over and the worldwide contest between democracy and authoritarianism deepened. It was a truly global crisis necessitating a collective response—and yet international cooperation almost entirely broke down, with key world leaders hardly on speaking terms. Colin Kahl and Thomas Wright's Aftershocks offers a riveting and comprehensive account of one of the strangest and most consequential years on record. Drawing on interviews with officials from around the world and extensive research, the authors tell the story of how nationalism and major power rivalries constrained the response to the worst pandemic in a century. They demonstrate the myriad ways in which the crisis exposed the limits of the old international order and how the reverberations from COVID-19 will be felt for years to come.



Michael Cohen - Disloyal: A Memoir artwork Disloyal: A Memoir
The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump
Michael Cohen
Genre: Political Science
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: September 08, 2020
Publisher: Skyhorse
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

A #1 New York Times Bestseller! "I read it cover-to-cover. I did not intend to, but I started at the beginning and didn’t put it down until it was over."—Rachel Maddow, MSNBC This book almost didn’t see the light of day as government officials tried to bar its publication. The Inside Story of the Real President Trump, by His Former Attorney and Personal Advisor—The Man Who Helped Get Him Into the Oval Office Once Donald Trump’s fiercest surrogate, closest confidant, and staunchest defender, Michael Cohen knows where the skeletons are buried. This is the most devastating business and political horror story of the century. As Trump’s lawyer and “fixer,” Cohen not only witnessed firsthand but was also an active participant in the inner workings of Trump’s business empire, political campaign, and presidential administration. This is a story that you have not read in newspapers, or on social media, or watched on television. These are accounts that only someone who worked for Trump around the clock for over a decade—not a few months or even a couple of years—could know. Cohen describes Trump’s racist rants against President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and Black and Hispanic people in general, as well as the cruelty, humiliation, and abuse he leveled at family and staff. Whether he’s exposing the fact that Trump engaged in tax fraud by inflating his wealth or electronic fraud by rigging an online survey, or outing Trump’s Neanderthal views towards women or his hush-money payments to clandestine lovers, Cohen pulls no punches. He shows Trump’s relentless willingness to lie, exaggerate, mislead, or manipulate. Trump emerges as a man without a soul—a man who courts evangelicals and then trashes them, panders to the common man, but then rips off small business owners, a con man who will do or say absolutely anything to win, regardless of the cost to his family, his associates, or his country. At the heart of Disloyal , we see how Cohen came under the spell of his charismatic "Boss" and, as a result, lost all sense of his moral compass. The real "real" Donald Trump who permeates these pages—the racist, sexist, homophobic, lying, cheating President—will be discussed, written about, and analyzed for years to come.



Melissa Murray & Andrew Weissmann - The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary artwork The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary
Melissa Murray & Andrew Weissmann
Genre: Political Science
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: February 27, 2024
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Seller: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

New York Times Bestseller Collecting the four unprecedented indictments against Donald Trump, this essential volume features extensive commentary by NYU law professors and MSNBC contributors Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann. In the long span of American history, Donald Trump is the first former president to face criminal indictment. He is the subject of a series of explosive charges across four cases: the January 6 case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith; the election interference case in Georgia; the classified documents case also brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith; and the "hush money" case in New York. The Trump Indictments includes: • An introduction offering historical background and international comparisons for criminal charges against a former political leader. • The four indictments with annotations throughout, including insider notes from an eminent scholar (Murray) and a former federal prosecutor (Weissmann). • A cast of characters, from Trump and his alleged co-conspirators to notable Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who face prison sentences as a result of related January 6 cases. • A timeline that brings together in one place the critical events that led to the four indictments. A necessary handbook for anyone following the trials in 2024, The Trump Indictments will endure as an indispensable record of a democracy at the crossroads.



Tom Schaller & Paul Waldman - White Rural Rage artwork White Rural Rage
The Threat to American Democracy
Tom Schaller & Paul Waldman
Genre: Political Science
Price: $18.99
Publish Date: February 27, 2024
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing portrait and damning takedown of America’s proudest citizens—who are also the least likely to defend its core principles “This is an important book that ought to be read by anyone who wants to understand politics in the perilous Age of Trump.”—David Corn, New York Times bestselling author of American Psychosis White rural voters hold the greatest electoral sway of any demographic group in the United States, yet rural communities suffer from poor healthcare access, failing infrastructure, and severe manufacturing and farming job losses. Rural voters believe our nation has betrayed them, and to some degree, they’re right. In White Rural Rage, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why rural Whites have failed to reap the benefits from their outsize political power and why, as a result, they are the most likely group to abandon democratic norms and traditions. Their rage—stoked daily by Republican politicians and the conservative media—now poses an existential threat to the United States. Schaller and Waldman show how vulnerable U.S. democracy has become to rural Whites who, despite legitimate grievances, are increasingly inclined to hold racist and xenophobic beliefs, to believe in conspiracy theories, to accept violence as a legitimate course of political action, and to exhibit antidemocratic tendencies. Rural White Americans’ attitude might best be described as “I love my country, but not our country,” Schaller and Waldman argue. This phenomenon is the patriot paradox of rural America: The citizens who take such pride in their patriotism are also the least likely to defend core American principles. And by stoking rural Whites’ anger rather than addressing the hard problems they face, conservative politicians and talking heads create a feedback loop of resentments that are undermining American democracy. Schaller and Waldman provocatively critique both the structures that permit rural Whites’ disproportionate influence over American governance and the prospects for creating a pluralist, inclusive democracy that delivers policy solutions that benefit rural communities. They conclude with a political reimagining that offers a better future for both rural people and the rest of America.



Jim Sciutto - The Return of Great Powers artwork The Return of Great Powers
Russia, China, and the Next World War
Jim Sciutto
Genre: Political Science
Price: $16.99
Expected Publish Date: March 12, 2024
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

The essential new book by CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto, identifying a new, more uncertain global order with reporting on the frontlines of power from existing wars to looming ones across the globe. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 dawned what Francis Fukuyama called “The End of History.” Three decades later, Jim Sciutto said on CNN’s air as the Ukraine war began, that we are living in a “1939 moment.” History never ended—it barely paused—and the global order as we long have known it is now gone. Powerful nations are determined to assert dominance on the world stage. And as their push for power escalates, a new order will affect everyone across the globe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a part of it, but in reality, this power struggle impacts every corner of our world—from Helsinki to Beijing, from Australia to the North Pole. This is a battle with many fronts: in the Arctic, in the oceans and across the skies, on man-made islands and redrawn maps, and in tech and cyberspace.   Through globe-spanning, exclusive interviews with dozens of political, military, and intelligence leaders, Sciutto defines our times as a return of great power conflict, “a definitive break between the post–Cold War era and an entirely new and uncertain one.” With savvy, thorough, in-person reporting, he follows-up his 2019 bestseller, The Shadow War: Inside Russia’s and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America , which focused on the covert tactics of a hidden conflict.   The Return of Great Powers analyzes a historic and visible shift in real time. It details the realities of this new post–post–Cold War era, the increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese governments, and the flashpoint of a new, global nuclear arms race. And it poses a question: As we consider uncertain, even terrifying, outcomes, will it be possible for the West and Russia and China to prevent a new World War?



Malcolm Nance & Chris Sampson - Hacking ISIS artwork Hacking ISIS
How to Destroy the Cyber Jihad
Malcolm Nance & Chris Sampson
Genre: Political Science
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: April 25, 2017
Publisher: Skyhorse
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

This book is written by two of the leading terrorist experts in the world - Malcolm Nance, NBC News/MSNBC terrorism analyst and Christopher Sampson, cyber-terrorist expert. Malcolm Nance is a 35 year practitioner in Middle East Special Operations and terrorism intelligence activities. Chris Sampson is the terrorism media and cyber warfare expert for the Terror Asymmetric Project and has spent 15 years collecting and exploiting terrorism media. For two years, their Terror Asymmetrics Project has been attacking and exploiting intelligence found on ISIS Dark Web operations. Hacking ISIS will explain and illustrate in graphic detail how ISIS produces religious cultism, recruits vulnerable young people of all religions and nationalities and disseminates their brutal social media to the world. More, the book will map out the cyberspace level tactics on how ISIS spreads its terrifying content, how it distributes tens of thousands of pieces of propaganda daily and is winning the battle in Cyberspace and how to stop it in its tracks. Hacking ISIS is uniquely positioned to give an insider’s view into how this group spreads its ideology and brainwashes tens of thousands of followers to join the cult that is the Islamic State and how average computer users can engage in the removal of ISIS from the internet.



Brian Stelter - Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth artwork Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth
Brian Stelter
Genre: Political Science
Price: $15.99
Publish Date: August 25, 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

The instant New York Times bestseller that reveals the collusion between Fox News and Donald Trump— with explosive new reporting covering the election and the January 6 riot. As the nation recovers from the Trump presidency, many questions remain: Why was the COVID-19 pandemic so grossly mishandled? How did we get so politically polarized? What caused white nationalist groups to come out of the shadows, and are they here to stay? The answers lie the twisted story of the relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News. Through firsthand accounts from over 250 current and former Fox insiders, CNN anchor and chief media correspondent Brian Stelter unlocks the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch’s multibillion-dollar media empire. The confessions are shocking: “We don’t really believe all this stuff,” a producer says. “We just tell other people to believe it.” Stelter completes the story of the Trump years and looks toward the future of the network that made him. Hoax is a book for anyone who reads the news and wonders how we got here, and what happens next.



Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf artwork Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler
Genre: Politics & Current Events
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: July 07, 2013
Publisher: Liber Electronicus
Seller: Kamil Jodelko

Mein Kampf written by Adolf Hitler is known as one of the most dangerous books in history. It is a fundamental exposition of Nazi ideology, which caused deaths of milions of people. The publisher would like to inform, that propaganda of any totalitarianism, such as Nazism, Fascism and Communism is not his target and this book should be only perceived as a historical source. Every man wanting to understand the complexity of the World War II should be acquainted with this position. 



Peter Schweizer - Blood Money artwork Blood Money
Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans
Peter Schweizer
Genre: Political Science
Price: $19.99
Publish Date: February 27, 2024
Publisher: Harper
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It’s often said that China is in a cold war with America. The reality is far worse: the war is hot, and the body count is one-sided. China is killing Americans and working aggres­sively to maximize the carnage while our leaders remain passive and, in some cases, compliant. Why? If anyone could crack the code, it’s the renowned nonpartisan investigator Peter Schweizer. Schweizer’s previous three number one New York Times bestsellers sent shock waves through official Wash­ington, sparking FBI investigations and congres­sional probes that continue to this day. For Blood Money, Schweizer and his team of forensic investigators spent more than two years scouring a trove of restricted Chinese military documents, data-mining a mountain of American financial records, and tracking US political lead­ers’ investments and family businesses. Schweizer unloads bombshell after bombshell, exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s covert operations in the American drug trade, social justice movement, and medical establishment to sow chaos and deca­dence in the United States. A towering achievement of investigative jour­nalism, Blood Money is one of those rare books that makes you clearly see the world anew.



John Vaillant - The Tiger artwork The Tiger
A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
John Vaillant
Genre: Public Administration
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: August 24, 2010
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

It's December 1997 and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. To their horrified astonishment it emerges that the attacks are not random: the tiger is engaged in a vendetta. Injured and starving, it must be found before it strikes again, and the story becomes a battle for survival between the two main characters: Yuri Trush, the lead tracker, and the tiger itself. As John Vaillant vividly recreates the extraordinary events of that winter, he also gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spectacularly beautiful region where plants and animals exist that are found nowhere else on earth, and where the once great Siberian Tiger - the largest of its species, which can weigh over 600 lbs at more than 10 feet long - ranges daily over vast territories of forest and mountain, its numbers diminished to a fraction of what they once were. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers - even sharing their kills with them - in a natural balance. We witness the first arrival of settlers, soldiers and hunters in the tiger's territory in the 19th century and 20th century, many fleeing Stalinism. And we come to know the Russians of today - such as the poacher Vladimir Markov - who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching for the corrupt, high-paying Chinese markets. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters and how early Homo sapiens may have once fit seamlessly into the tiger's ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator, and the grave threat it faces as logging and poaching reduce its habitat and numbers - and force it to turn at bay. Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger is a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest.



Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett & Tommy Vietor - Democracy or Else artwork Democracy or Else
How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps
Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett & Tommy Vietor
Genre: Political Science
Price: $19.99
Expected Publish Date: June 25, 2024
Publisher: Zando
Seller: Perseus Books, LLC

From your friends at  Pod Save America  and Crooked Media comes a useful and illustrated guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection If you’re looking to navigate the chaotic, dunce-infested waters of American politics,  Democracy or Else  is here to help you tackle what might be the greatest question of our time: How do you get involved in the political process and make a real difference without giving in to the sense of impending dread that hangs over our society like a nameless stench? Each chapter will take readers step-by-step through the perilous journey of Getting informed when you don’t know which influencer to trust (all of them!)Donating and volunteering where you can have the biggest impactOrganizing, protesting, and even running for office yourselfStaying engaged in politics without losing hope or your mind or all of your friends Democracy or Else  is a resource for everyone—from political junkies following every turn of the news cycle to young people getting ready to vote for the first time. And it's filled with practical advice from some of the smartest experts and least annoying politicians around. The stakes and average global temperatures have never been higher—but there have also never been so many opportunities to join the fight. It’s an age of contradictions! 



Peter Pomerantsev - How to Win an Information War artwork How to Win an Information War
The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler
Peter Pomerantsev
Genre: Political Science
Price: $24.99
Publish Date: March 05, 2024
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

From one of our leading experts on disinformation, this inventive biography of the rogue WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer confronts hard questions about the nature of information war: what if you can't fight lies with truth? Can a propaganda war ever be won? In the summer of 1941, Hitler ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Britain was struggling to combat his powerful propaganda machine, crowing victory and smearing his enemies as liars and manipulators over his frequent radio speeches, blasted out on loudspeakers and into homes. British claims that Hitler was dangerous had little impact against this wave of disinformation. Except for the broadcasts of someone called Der Chef, a German who questioned Nazi doctrine. He had access to high-ranking German military secrets and spoke of internal rebellion. His listeners included German soldiers and citizens, as well as politicians in Washington DC who were debating getting into the war. And--most importantly--Der Chef was a fiction. He was a character created by the British propagandist Thomas Sefton Delmer, a unique weapon in the war. Then, as author Peter Pomerantsev seeks to tell Delmer's story, he is called into a wartime propaganda effort of his own: the US response to the invasion of Ukraine. In flashes forward to the present day, Pomerantsev weaves in what he's learning from Delmer as he seeks to fight against Vladimir Putin's tyranny and lies. This book is the story of Delmer and his modern investigator, as they each embark on their own quest to manipulate the passions of supporters and enemies, and to turn the tide of an information war, an extraordinary history that is informing the present before our eyes.



Michael Shellenberger - San Fransicko artwork San Fransicko
Why Progressives Ruin Cities
Michael Shellenberger
Genre: Public Administration
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: October 12, 2021
Publisher: Harper
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

National bestselling author of APOCALYPSE NEVER skewers progressives for the mishandling of America’s faltering cities.  Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse. Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison. But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem. What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies. San Francisco and other West Coast cities — Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland — had gone beyond merely tolerating homelessness, drug dealing, and crime to actively enabling them. San Fransicko reveals that the underlying problem isn’t a lack of housing or money for social programs. The real problem is an ideology that designates some people, by identity or experience, as victims entitled to destructive behaviors. The result is an undermining of the values that make cities, and civilization itself, possible.



Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury artwork Fire and Fury
Inside the Trump White House
Michael Wolff
Genre: Political Science
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: January 05, 2018
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Seller: Macmillan

#1 New York Times Bestseller With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Michael Wolff reveals what happened behind-the-scenes in the first nine months of the most controversial presidency of our time in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House . Since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the country—and the world—has witnessed a stormy, outrageous, and absolutely mesmerizing presidential term that reflects the volatility and fierceness of the man elected Commander-in-Chief. This riveting and explosive account of Trump’s administration provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office, including: -- What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him -- What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama -- Why FBI director James Comey was really fired -- Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room -- Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing -- What the secret to communicating with Trump is -- What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers Never before in history has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion. “Essential reading.” —Michael D’Antonio, author of Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success , CNN.com “Not since Harry Potter has a new book caught fire in this way…[ Fire and Fury ] is indeed a significant achievement, which deserves much of the attention it has received.” — The Economist



Max Wyman - The Compassionate Imagination artwork The Compassionate Imagination
How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy
Max Wyman
Genre: Public Administration
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: August 26, 2023
Publisher: Cormorant Books
Seller: Cormorant Books

A radical reimagining of the role of art and culture in contemporary democracy, The Compassionate Imagination proposes a new Canadian Cultural Contract that re-humanizes our way of living together by tapping into the instincts for generosity and compassion that find their expression in art.  Over the last forty years, the arts have been increasingly deemed unimportant to the creation of an educated workforce. Reflecting a broadly held political view that in a market-based economy the arts were “a frill,” they were deemed “unnecessary” courses compared to sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But what kind of Canada might we make if we were to place art and culture at the heart of our mutual decision-making, and return the arts to a central position in our education, shifting to steam rather than stem? What might be possible if we integrate the creative imagination into our responses to the great social challenges we face? What impact would it have on the future shape of our democracy?  It’s time to find where the Compassionate Imagination can take us.



Mr. Peter Zeihan - The Accidental Superpower artwork The Accidental Superpower
Ten Years On
Mr. Peter Zeihan
Genre: Political Science
Price: $3.99
Publish Date: November 04, 2014
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

With a new "10 years later" epilogue for every chapter, comes an eye-opening assessment of American power and deglobalization in the bestselling tradition of The World is Flat and The Next 100 Years .   Near the end of the Second World War, the United States made a bold strategic gambit that rewired the international system. Empires were abolished and replaced by a global arrangement enforced by the U.S. Navy. With all the world's oceans safe for the first time in history, markets and resources were made available for everyone. Enemies became partners.   We think of this system as normal - it is not. We live in an artificial world on borrowed time.   In The Accidental Superpower , international strategist Peter Zeihan examines how the hard rules of geography are eroding the American commitment to free trade; how much of the planet is aging into a mass retirement that will enervate markets and capital supplies; and how, against all odds, it is the ever-ravenous American economy that - alone among the developed nations - is rapidly approaching energy independence. Combined, these factors are doing nothing less than overturning the global system and ushering in a new (dis)order.   For most, that is a disaster-in-waiting, but not for the Americans. The shale revolution allows Americans to sidestep an increasingly dangerous energy market. Only the United States boasts a youth population large enough to escape the sucking maw of global aging. Most important, geography will matter more than ever in a de-globalizing world, and America's geography is simply sublime.



Robert D. Putnam - Our Kids artwork Our Kids
The American Dream in Crisis
Robert D. Putnam
Genre: Public Administration
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 10, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

A New York Times bestseller and “a passionate, urgent” ( The New Yorker ) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone : why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility. Central to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap” emerge. We Americans have always believed that those who have talent and try hard will succeed, but this central tenet of the American Dream seems no longer true or at the least, much less true than it was. In Our Kids , Robert Putnam offers a personal and authoritative look at this new American crisis, beginning with the example of his high school class of 1959 in Port Clinton, Ohio. The vast majority of those students went on to lives better than those of their parents. But their children and grandchildren have faced diminishing prospects. Putnam tells the tale of lessening opportunity through poignant life stories of rich, middle class, and poor kids from cities and suburbs across the country, brilliantly blended with the latest social-science research. “A truly masterful volume” ( Financial Times ), Our Kids provides a disturbing account of the American dream that is “thoughtful and persuasive” ( The Economist). Our Kids offers a rare combination of individual testimony and rigorous evidence: “No one can finish this book and feel complacent about equal opportunity” ( The New York Times Book Review ).



Alain Denault & William Sacher - Paradis sous terre artwork Paradis sous terre
Comment le Canada est devenu la plaque tournante de l'industrie minière mondiale
Alain Denault & William Sacher
Genre: Politics & Current Events
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: September 12, 2012
Publisher: Écosociété
Seller: Diffusion Dimedia Inc.

Le Canada est le refuge idéal de sociétés minières qui spéculent en Bourse et mènent à travers le monde des opérations controversées, voire criminelles. Elles y trouvent un système boursier-casino favorable à la spéculation, des exonérations dignes d’un paradis fiscal, des mesures législatives canalisant vers elles l’épargne des citoyens, une diplomatie de complaisance soutenant ses pires desseins, ainsi qu’un droit taillé sur mesure pour la couvrir à l’étranger, comme sur le front de la critique intérieure. En six chapitres d’une redoutable efficacité, Alain Deneault et William Sacher retracent l’histoire du Canada et exposent comment cette ancienne colonie est devenue le paradis réglementaire et judiciaire d’une industrie évoluant hors de tout contrôle. Pillage, expropriations violentes de populations, pollution durable de vastes territoires sont le lot des pays qui subissent les méthodes de cette industrie aveuglément tournée vers le profit. La Bourse de Toronto se révèle le pilier de ce système où s’enregistrent 60 % des sociétés minières mondiales, des entreprises protégées par des politiques serviles. Grâce à un travail minutieux de recensement de sources internationales, les auteurs nous montrent comment le Canada, trop souvent présenté comme vertueux et pacifiste, est devenu la Suisse des mines.



Rand Paul - Deception artwork Deception
The Great Covid Cover-Up
Rand Paul
Genre: Political Science
Price: $18.99
Publish Date: October 10, 2023
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

Senator Rand Paul was on to Anthony Fauci from the start. Wielding previously unimaginable power, Fauci misled the country about the origins of the Covid pandemic and shut down scientific dissent. One of the few leaders who dared to challenge "America’s Doctor" was Senator Rand Paul, himself a physician. Deception is his indictment of the catastrophic failures of the public health bureaucracy during the pandemic. Senator Paul presents the evidence that: • The Covid virus was likely the product of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab in China—research funded in part by the U.S. government. • Taxpayer dollars for that research were deceptively funneled to Wuhan without the required regulatory review. • Fauci and his scientific yes-men knew from day one about Covid’s origin and tried to cover it up . • Fauci and his allies ruthlessly attacked everyone—including highly qualified scientists—who threatened to reveal the truth about the pandemic. Why? Hundreds of millions of dollars of grants and unreported royalties were at stake, and heads would roll if the truth got out. It almost worked. At Fauci’s insistence, the government imposed needlessly extreme lockdowns on Americans at the cost of immense personal and economic destruction. Covid-19 was deadly, but the real killer was the coverup, led by America’s most durable medical bureaucrat—a man for whom the truth was too often expendable. Senator Paul makes a powerful case that funding dangerous bioengineering in a totalitarian country is madness. If we don’t heed this warning, the next pandemic could be far worse.



Robert Spencer - The Truth About Muhammad artwork The Truth About Muhammad
Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
Robert Spencer
Genre: Political Science
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: September 15, 2006
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

Muhammad: a frank look at his influential (and violent) life and teachings In The Truth about Muhammad, New York Times bestselling author and Islam expert Robert Spencer offers an honest and telling portrait of the founder of Islam-perhaps the first such portrait in half a century-unbounded by fear and political correctness, unflinching, and willing to face the hard facts about Muhammad's life that continue to affect our world today. From Muhammad's first "revelation" from Allah (which filled him with terror that he was demonpossessed) to his deathbed (from which he called down curses upon Jews and Christians), it's all here-told with extensive documentation from the sources that Muslims themselves consider most reliable about Muhammad. Spencer details Muhammad's development from a preacher of hellfire and damnation into a political and military leader who expanded his rule by force of arms, promising his warriors luridly physical delights in Paradise if they were killed in his cause. He explains how the Qur'an's teaching on warfare against unbelievers developed-with constant war to establish the hegemony of Islamic law as the last stage. Spencer also gives the truth about Muhammad's convenient "revelations" justifying his own licentiousness; his joy in the brutal murders of his enemies; and above all, his clear marching orders to his followers to convert non-Muslims to Islam-or force them to live as inferiors under Islamic rule. In The Truth about Muhammad, you'll learn - The truth about Muhammad's multiple marriages (including one to a nine-year-old) - How Muhammad set legal standards that make it virtually impossible to prove rape in Islamic countries - How Muhammad's example justifies jihad and terrorism - The real "Satanic verses" incident (not the Salman Rushdie version) that remains a scandal to Muslims - How Muhammad's faulty knowledge of Judaism and Christianity has influenced Islamic theology--and colored Muslim relations with Jews and Christians to this day. Recognizing the true nature of Islam, Spencer argues, is essential for judging the prospects for largescale Islamic reform, the effective prosecution of the War on Terror, the democracy project in Afghanistan and Iraq, and immigration and border control to protect the United States from terrorism. All of which makes it crucial for every citizen (and policymaker) who loves freedom to read and ponder The Truth about Muhammad



George Lakoff - Moral Politics artwork Moral Politics
How Liberals and Conservatives Think
George Lakoff
Genre: Political Science
Price: $17.99
Publish Date: September 05, 2016
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

An updated third edition of the modern classic that applies cognitive science to the world of politics—to explain how our unconscious views shape our votes. When Moral Politics was first published, it redefined how Americans think and talk about politics through the lens of cognitive political psychology. Today, George Lakoff’s classic text has become all the more relevant, as liberals and conservatives have come to hold even more vigorously opposed views of the world, with the underlying assumptions of their respective worldviews at the level of basic morality. Even more so than when Lakoff wrote, liberals and conservatives simply have very different, deeply held beliefs about what is right and wrong. Lakoff reveals radically different but remarkably consistent conceptions of morality on both the left and right. Moral worldviews, like most deep ways of understanding the world, are unconscious—part of our hard-wired brain circuitry. When confronted with facts that don’t fit our moral worldview, our brains work automatically and unconsciously to ignore or reject these facts, and it takes extraordinary openness and awareness of this phenomenon to pay critical attention to the countless facts we’re presented with each day. For this edition, Lakoff has added a new preface and afterword, extending his observations to various ideological conflicts since the book’s original publication, from the Affordable Care Act to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the 2008 financial crisis, and the effects of global warming. One might have hoped such massive changes and challenges would bring people together, but the reverse has actually happened; the divide between liberals and conservatives has become stronger and more virulent. To have any hope of bringing mutual respect to the current social and political divide, we need to clearly understand the problem and make it part of our contemporary public discourse. Moral Politics offers a much-needed wake-up call to both the left and the right. “An intelligent take on the way politics is conducted in America.” — Publishers Weekly “That conservatives and liberals see the world differently comes as no news to most, but Lakoff’s look into just why that should be so makes for interesting reading.” — Kirkus Reviews



A.S. Dulat, Asad Durrani & Neil K. Aggarwal - Covert artwork Covert
The Psychology of War and Peace
A.S. Dulat, Asad Durrani & Neil K. Aggarwal
Genre: Political Science
Price: $18.99
Expected Publish Date: April 01, 2024
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

After the tremendous success of The Spy Chronicles, A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani participated in a series of conversations on the psychology of war and peace; these have evolved into this fascinating book, written with psychiatrist Neil K. Aggarwal. Covert takes the reader right into the head of the two spymasters. Delving into their personal and professional trajectories that moulded them in the early years, the conversation traces the extent to which their Indian and Pakistani identities have defined them. Masterfully moderated by Aggarwal, the discussion then turns to the domain of international relations, exploring why the governments of India and Pakistan collaborate in certain areas, but not in others. What emerges is a remarkably forthright, provocatively honest appraisal of the peacebuilding process between the two nations that appear inherently hostile to each other but share so much in terms of history and cultural identity. The dialogues in Covert reveal a deep camaraderie between Dulat and Durrani, who have headed the intelligence operations for their respective countries. But more importantly perhaps, it provides deep insights into the shadowy world of negotiation and subterfuge. It is an eye-opener and a must-read for anyone invested in peace and amity in South Asia.



Emmanuel Todd - La Défaite de l’Occident artwork La Défaite de l’Occident
Emmanuel Todd
Genre: Political Science
Price: $28.99
Publish Date: January 11, 2024
Publisher: Editions Gallimard
Seller: GALLIMARD LIMITEE

L’implosion de l’URSS a remis l’histoire en mouvement. Elle avait plongé la Russie dans une crise violente. Elle avait surtout créé un vide planétaire qui a aspiré l’Amérique, pourtant elle-même en crise dès 1980. Un mouvement paradoxal s’est alors déclenché : l’expansion conquérante d’un Occident qui dépérissait en son cœur. La disparition du protestantisme a mené l’Amérique, par étapes, du néo-libéralisme au nihilisme ; et la Grande-Bretagne, de la financiarisation à la perte du sens de l’humour. L’état zéro de la religion a conduit l’Union européenne au suicide mais l’Allemagne devrait ressusciter. Entre 2016 et 2022, le nihilisme occidental a fusionné avec celui de l’Ukraine, né lui de la décomposition de la sphère soviétique. Ensemble, OTAN et Ukraine sont venus buter sur une Russie stabilisée, redevenue une grande puissance, désormais conservatrice, rassurante pour ce Reste du monde qui ne veut pas suivre l’Occident dans son aventure. Les dirigeants russes ont décidé une bataille d’arrêt : ils ont défié l’OTAN et envahi l’Ukraine. Mobilisant les ressources de l’économie critique, de la sociologie religieuse et de l’anthropologie des profondeurs, Emmanuel Todd nous propose un tour du monde réel, de la Russie à l’Ukraine, des anciennes démocraties populaires à l’Allemagne, de la Grande-Bretagne à la Scandinavie et aux États-Unis, sans oublier ce Reste du monde dont le choix a décidé de l’issue de la guerre. Emmanuel Todd est anthropologue, historien et essayiste. De lui, les Éditions Gallimard ont notamment publié Après l’empire (2002) et Après la démocratie (2008).