Social Civics

The majority of Americans are far closer in values than the ideological opinion-shapers lead us to believe. This book asks how we can restore the civic unity that our political elites have worked for years to dismantle.

Activism begins in small ways and in unexpected places. In this inspiring audiobook, over 40 activists recount the experiences that sparked their journeys and share the beliefs that keep them going. These are ordinary citizens who met challenge with action. Their visions for peace, equality, and justice have reshaped American society - from voting to reproductive rights, and from the environment to the economy. This audiobook brings together multiple generations and different (sometimes opposite) perspectives.

In order to transform our world, we must unite behind a new kind of civility. In a world that is more divided than ever, it will take a radical act to transform our discourse, our lives, and our world. International civility consultant and keynote speaker Shola Richards believes that unifying our world around the power of civility is that radical act, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Do we want a safer world to live in? Do we want less toxicity in our politics? Do we want a world free of hate and discrimination? Do we want to work in organizations that allow us to do our best work?

Losing Control is a vivid history of the past half century of immigration politics and policy. It is also a dramatic ground-level account of how the story took shape. Kammer describes the economic and cultural forces that both pushed millions of migrants from home communities in Latin America and pulled them northward to the US. He shows how the backlash gradually emerged from the frustrations of American workers and communities who felt overwhelmed by the influx and betrayed by their government.

Power Shift charts the rise of Latino political power and its impact, from the breakthrough election of the first Mexican American to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949 to today’s leadership of California and its heavyweight role in polarized America. This inspiring story recounts the origins and development of 10 LA-based Latina and Latino leaders who transformed politics and government, forging a progressive political tradition in the process.

In austerity Britain, disabled people have become the favourite target. From social care to the benefits system, politicians and media alike have made the case that Britain's 12 million disabled people are a drain on the public purse. In Crippled, leading commentator Frances Ryan exposes the disturbing reality, telling the story of those most affected by this devastating regime. This includes a paralysed man forced to crawl down the stairs because the council wouldn't provide accessible housing and the young girl with bipolar forced to turn to sex work to survive.

Anything that alienates and divides us leaves us weak and exposed to disaster. Simple human compassion is more essential to our national resilience and strength than most of us recognize. Shallow values won’t suffice as the foundation of our social and cultural infrastructure. With anecdotes and unexpected stories about growing up during the '60s and '70s in Los Angeles and from her work in disaster recovery, Diane Burden Cox illustrates the importance of our relationships with each other to our national resilience.

A journalist chronicles the next chapter in civil rights - the story of a movement and a nation, witnessed through the poignant and inspiring experiences of five young undocumented activists who are transforming society's attitudes toward one of the most contentious political matters roiling America today: immigration.

Ethical leadership, steeped in integrity and fairness, matters. The future of our nation and our world depends upon the quality of America's character. In this uncompromising, absorbing look at our government and society today, Jill Long Thompson persuasively argues that we all have a meaningful role to play in shaping America's character and future. The citizenry, as well as their elected officials, are responsible for protecting fairness of participation and integrity in elections, as well as in the adoption and execution of laws.

The Fascism This Time elucidates a psychosocial model of fascism which predicted that Trump’s election would lead to immigrant concentration camps, an assault on democratic institutions, a global increase in authoritarianism, a massive rise in crimes against humanity, and the starvation of Yemen. It is an original and perceptive account tying the fascism this time to the overwhelming challenges with which the world is now faced.

Don’t be scammed! The movement that brought Donald Trump to the White House is under attack by scam artists. Mainstream media, liberal elites and professors, and Antifa-led rioters are promoting a scam, notorious for its long history of failure and disasters. The S.C.A.M. is Socialism, Communism, and Marxism. Attorney and theologian Scott L. Smith, Jr. brings together the 20th century’s greatest defenders of truth to explain once and for all how to defeat scam.

In a scathingly funny account of his time in the Washington swamp, Florida firebrand Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump’s key supporters in Congress, gleefully skewers the enemies of the MAGA revolution and lays out his own vision for the future of the populist movement.

In Citizenship: What Everyone Needs to Know, legal scholar Peter J. Spiro explains citizenship through accessible terms and questions: what citizenship means, how you obtain citizenship (and how you lose it), how it has changed through history, what benefits citizenship gets you, and what obligations it extracts from you - all in comparative perspective.

From his youth, Kingston has always carried a vision for a free and united America. With an approachable and conversational style, as well as a dash of humor, John Kingston draws on a diverse and compelling collection of wisdom—the parables of the Bible and the philosophy of Aristotle, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the speeches of Abraham Lincoln, the songs of Bruce Springsteen and current studies from the best neuro and social scientists today—to remind us that there is no "them", there is only us, and we're in this together.

Discussing everything from the meaning of the Second Amendment to the stated rules around Supreme Court nominations, Sheehan walks us through the entire Constitution, from its preamble to its final amendment. He also offers a bonus section on the Declaration of Independence. Extra-credit information throughout on things like amendments that were never passed and what powers elected officials actually have, gives listeners all the information they need to be informed and effective voters and citizens.

The glorification of citizenship is a given in today's world, part of a civic narrative that invokes liberation, dignity, and nationhood. In reality, explains Dimitry Kochenov, citizenship is a story of complacency, hypocrisy, and domination, flattering to citizens and demeaning for noncitizens. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Kochenov explains the state of citizenship in the modern world.

Women are wildly underrepresented at every level of the US government: federal, state, and local. Research has shown that women in executive government positions are far more likely than men to commit to policies that benefit women, girls, and other marginalized groups, so after centuries of underrepresentation, it's clear: Our best bet for creating a system that is more fair, balanced, and just for everyone is electing our first Madam President - as soon as we can.

In this bracing book, Michael Chertoff makes clear that our laws and policies surrounding the protection of personal information, written for an earlier time, need to be completely overhauled in the Internet era. In offering his compelling call for action, Chertoff argues that what is at stake is not so much the simple loss of privacy, which is almost impossible to protect, but of individual autonomy - the ability to make personal choices free of manipulation or coercion.

Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico. Yet he has come under partisan fire for applying those same principles to Donald Trump during the course of his many appearances in national media outlets as an expert resource on civil and constitutional law. The Case Against Impeaching Trump seeks to reorient the debate over impeachment to the same standard that Dershowitz has continued to uphold for decades: the law of the United States of America, as established by the Constitution.

Virtual Country examines the current nexus of technology and western democracy, pointing to a historical opportunity for We the People to evolve our democracy to include a new public institution that enables a coherent, collective voice on the issues that affect us all. The book's centerpiece is a proposal for a new online institution for citizen reengagement - the National Town Square. The Square would be a transparent, citizen-led, noncorporate, nongovernmental, nonpartisan online venue for individual advisory voting, moderated discussion, and more.