For A New West

At a recent meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was reported that a ghost was haunting the deliberations of the assembled global elite - that of the renowned social scientist and economic historian, Karl Polanyi. In his classic work, The Great Transformation, Polanyi documented the impact of the rise of market society on western civilization and captured better than anyone else the destructive effects of the economic, political and social crisis of the 1930s. Today, in the throes of another Great Recession, Polanyi’s work has gained a new significance. To understand the profound challenges faced by our democracies today, we need to revisit history and revisit his work. In this new collection of unpublished texts - lectures, draft essays and reports written between 1919 and 1958 - Polanyi examines the collapse of the liberal economic order and the demise of democracies in the inter-war years. He takes up again the fundamental question that preoccupied him throughout his work - the place of the economy in society - and aims to show how we might return to an economy anchored in society and its cultural, religious and political institutions. For anyone concerned about the danger to democracy and social life posed by the unleashing of capital from regulatory control and the dominance of the neoliberal ideologies of market fundamentalism, this important new volume by one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century is a must-read.

Originally published in 1974, this book is now regarded as a classic book of photography in the pantheon of landmark projects exploring American culture and society.

No evolution of a geographical region was more rapid and transformative than that of the American West at Mid-Century. "New West" explores the innovations that shaped this unique architectural landscape, through the vibrant, compelling images of the colour-saturated, highly-textured, popular art form of the Linen Post Card. Collision, eruption, and erosion are the formative forces that account for the raw vitality and breathtaking beauty of the American West. While it has taken 4.5 billion years to write the complex geological and hydrological history embedded in this region, it has taken less than 200 years to write the story of its modern transformation into an interdependent network of cities, parks, roads, infrastructure, and communications. "New West" draws from over 500 Mid-Century Linen Post Card images, to explore in detail the changes that the four waves of innovation; steam, steel, oil, and information, have wrought upon the land

Rediscover New Westminster in this richly illustrated history of British Columbia's first capital city. Jim Wolf has created an illuminating overview of the city's development and growth--incorporating the words of those who witnessed and recorded the events--and paired it with the remarkable images of the photographers who viewed New Westminster with discerning eyes, capturing history in magical moments with the click of their cameras. Royal City will be a treasured keepsake for current and past residents of New Westminster, as well as a useful tool for anyone interested in the history of this colourful city and its early photographers.

In the early 1970s, empowered by the civil rights and women's movements, a new group of women writers began speaking to the American public. Their topic, broadly defined, was the postmodern American West. By the mid-1980s, their combined works made for a bona fide literary groundswell in both critical and commercial terms. However, as Krista Comer notes, despite the attentions of publishers, the media, and millions of readers, literary scholars have rarely addressed this movement or its writers. Too many critics, Comer argues, still enamored of western images that are both masculine and antimodern, have been slow to reckon with the emergence of a new, far more "feminine," postmodern, multiracial, and urban west. Here, she calls for a redesign of the field of western cultural studies, one that engages issues of gender and race and is more self-conscious about space itself_especially that cherished symbol of western "authenticity," open landscape. Surveying works by Joan Didion, Wanda Coleman, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Marmon Silko, Barbara Kingsolver, Pam Houston, Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, and Mary Clearman Blew, Comer shows how these and other contemporary women writers have mapped new geographical imaginations upon the cultural and social spaces of today's American West.

Few figures are more crucial to understanding the upheavals of our contemporary era than Karl Polanyi. In a world riven by social and economic crises, from rising inequality to the decay of democratic institutions and profound technological disruption, Polanyi’s path-breaking account of the dynamics of market capitalism and his defence of society and nature against the dangerous tendencies of the market capitalist system are more relevant than ever. This book brings together Polanyi’s most important articles and essays to give a unique selection of his essential shorter writings, mixing classic texts with significant but previously little-known pieces. It highlights the coherence and richness of Polanyi’s theoretical and political approach, making it indispensable for understanding his overarching intellectual contribution. The volume includes his interwar writings, which deal with the world economic crisis and the socialist alternative to conservative and fascist developments; his reflection on political theory and the international situation after the war; and his comparative studies of economic institutions. Polanyi’s political writings are complemented and supported by the critique of economic determinism and what he termed ‘our obsolete market mentality’. This book is an invaluable companion to Polanyi’s masterpiece, The Great Transformation, and an essential resource for students and scholars of political economy, sociology, history and political philosophy.

This wide-ranging collection of essays is intended to provoke both thought and action. The pieces collected here explore a variety of issues facing the American West -- deteriorating air quality, suburban sprawl, species loss, grassland degradation, disappearing Native American languages, and many others -- and suggest steps toward "healing." More than "dealing with" or "solving," according to the editors, the concept of healing addresses not just symptoms buy their underlying causes, offering not just a temporary cure but a permanent one. The very idea of restoring the West to health, the contributors and editors contend, unleashes our imaginations, sharpens our minds, and gives meaning to the ways we choose to live our lives. At the same time, acknowledging the profound difficulty of the work that lies ahead immunizes us against our own arrogance as we set about the task of healing the West.