Political Reform

Using campus social justice movements as an entry point, Leigh Patel shows how the struggles in higher education often directly challenged the tension between narratives of education as a pathway to improvement and the structural reality of settler colonialism that creates and protects wealth for a select few.

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg is a seminal work in political theory that explores the fundamental question of whether social change is best achieved through gradual reforms or revolutionary upheavals. Luxemburg critically examines the limitations of reformist approaches within the capitalist system, arguing that true liberation requires a radical transformation of the existing socio-economic order. Through a nuanced analysis of class struggle, imperialism, and the dynamics of capitalism, Luxemburg presents a compelling argument that challenges prevailing notions of incremental change.

On December 16, 2019, Jerrold Nadler, Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, and the full Committee on the Judiciary released an updated version of the Impeachment Report. Now officially titled Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, Report of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, this document serves as the latest government-issued report from the Democrat-led House.

In this short, searing book, Auster traces centuries of America’s use and abuse of guns, through the colonial prehistory of the Republic, armed conflict against the native population, the forced enslavement of millions, and the mass shootings that dominate the current news cycle. He examines the embattled gun-control and anti-gun-control camps, frames gun violence as a public health issue, and investigates the details of one horrific incident including the perpetrator’s unchecked purchase of the gun he used and the suffering of a bystander-turned-hero.

From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir Duty, a characteristically direct, informed, and urgent assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how smart, committed leadership can effect real improvement regardless of scale.

American democracy is at an impasse. After years of zero-sum partisan trench warfare, our political institutions are deteriorating. Our norms are collapsing. Democrats and Republicans no longer merely argue; they cut off contact with each other. In short, the two-party system is breaking our democracy, and driving us all crazy.

Tatum had a brutal home life, but one thing to emerge from her living with a family of gun runners was that she learned to shoot with unerring accuracy. When she finally escaped her family, she found friendship and camaraderie with a sisterhood of feminist activists until many of her friends were killed in a deadly terrorist attack.

Tatum O’Neill knows her life is a mess, and escaping her violent family seems the only solution, but then, she finds herself in a terrorist conspiracy and must evade the cabal’s grip to bring them to justice. The New Reform Quartet is the complete dystopian political thriller series.

Exploring the full sweep of federalism from the founding to today, Kettl focuses on pivotal moments when power has shifted between state and national governments - from the violent rebalancing of the Civil War, when the nation almost split in two, to the era of civil rights a century later, when there was apparent agreement that inequality was a threat to liberty and the federal government should set policies for states to enact. Despite this consensus, inequality between states has only deepened since that moment.

The United States spends far more money on health care than any other country, and yet nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured at least part of the time each year. Health Care Reform Now! is written for anyone who cares enough about our health-care situation to consider serious alternatives to the current system.

In this searing and deeply researched examination of the promises and realities of racial integration, award-winning Washington Post journalist Laura Meckler aims to uncover where the problem lies and to shed light on what’s being done to move forward—in housing, in education, and in the promise of shared community.

Nearly every aspect of our criminal justice system encourages defendants-whether innocent or guilty-to take a plea deal. Punishment Without Trial showcases how plea bargaining has undermined justice at every turn and across socioeconomic and racial divides. It forces the hand of lawyers, judges, and defendants, turning our legal system into a ruthlessly efficient mass incarceration machine that is dogging our jails and pun­ishing citizens.

The Mexican American War has ended, but in a California divided between two nations, Anglo squatters continue to antagonize citizens of Mexican descent by making claims on their land. Against this charged backdrop, the lives of the Alamar family - the rightful owners of a San Diego ranch - become politically, economically, and romantically entwined with a family of New England settlers, the Darrells. Inspired by experiences in her own life, Ruiz de Burton insightfully captured a troubling time in American history - a period of intense corruption, greed, racism, and classism.

Has American democracy's long, ambitious run come to an end? Possibly yes. As William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe argue in this trenchant new analysis of modern politics, the United States faces a historic crisis that threatens our system of self-government - and if democracy is to be saved, the causes of the crisis must be understood and defused.

With Mental Health, Inc., award-winning investigative journalist Art Levine delivers a Shock Doctrine-style exposé of the failures of our out-of-control, profits-driven mental health system, with a special emphasis on the failures of the pharmaceuticals industry, including the treatment of children with antipsychotics and disastrous PTSD protocols for veterans.

In contrast to the anxiety surrounding our voting system, with stories about voter suppression and manipulation, there are actually quite a few positive initiatives toward voting rights reform. Professor Joshua A. Douglas, an expert on our electoral system, examines these encouraging developments in this inspiring book about how regular Americans are working to take back their democracy, one community at a time.

Beyond These Walls is an ambitious and far-ranging exploration that tracks the legacy of crime and imprisonment in the United States, from the historical roots of the American criminal justice system to our modern state of over-incarceration, and offers a bold vision for a new future. Author Tony Platt, a recognized authority in the field of criminal justice, challenges the way we think about how and why millions of people are tracked, arrested, incarcerated, catalogued, and regulated in the United States.

China's reform era is ending. Core factors that characterized it - political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth - are unraveling.

We see it everywhere: shady zoning regulations in a small town; taxpayer money diverted into political campaigns; deals that enrich the few at the expense of the many; billion-dollar bailouts; and much more. When private interests need a political favor, they know whom to call. When politicians need money, they also know whom to call. The people involved try to keep most of it concealed behind closed doors. This is the system that prevails in Russia after the fall of Communism. But increasingly it is America's system as well.

Judicial decisions assessing the constitutional rights of students in the nation’s public schools have consistently generated bitter controversy. The Schoolhouse Gate gives a fresh, lucid, and provocative account of the historic legal battles waged over education and illuminates contemporary disputes that continue to fracture the nation.