Predator Nation

Charles Ferguson, who electrified the world with his Academy Award-winning documentary, Inside Job, now reveals how rogues with influence have taken over the country and are driving it to financial and social ruin. In Predator Nation, Ferguson exposes the networks of academic, government, and congressional influence--in all recent administrations, including Obama's--that prepared the path to conquest. He reveals how once-revered figures like Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers have become mere courtiers to the elite. And based on many newly released court filings, he details the extent of the crimes--there is no other word--committed in the frenzied chase for storied wealth that marked the 2000s. And, finally, he lays out a brief plan of action for how we might take it back.

Introduction --Part I. The struggle for independence and birth of a nation --Colonialism, racism, and modernity --Foreigners and nation building --Race and the nation-building project --Part II. The socialist experiment --African socialism : the challenges of nation building --Socialism, self-reliance, and foreigners --Nationalism, state socialism, and the politics of race --Part III. Neoliberalism, global capitalism, and the nation-state --Neoliberalism and the transition from state socialism to capitalism --Neoliberalism, foreigners, and globalization --Neoliberalism, race, and the global economy --Conclusion : race, nation, and citizenship in historical and comparative perspective.

Introduction: the critical work and critical pleasure of American literature -- Inner-self industries: soft capitalism's reproductive logic -- How America works: getting personal to get personnel -- Dress-down conquest: Americanizing top-down as bottom-up -- Afterword: payoffs

At the onset of the Great Recession, as house prices sank and joblessness soared, many commentators concluded that the economic convictions behind the disaster would now be consigned to history. Yet in the harsh light of a new day, attacks against government intervention and the global drive for austerity are as strong as ever. Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste is the definitive account of the wreckage of what passes for economic thought, and how neoliberal ideas were used to solve the very crisis they had created. Now updated with a new afterword, Philip Mirowski’s sharp and witty work provides a roadmap for those looking to escape today’s misguided economic dogma.

An accessible examination of neoliberalism and its effects on higher education and America, by the author of American Nightmare. Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education reveals how neoliberal policies, practices, and modes of material and symbolic violence have radically reshaped the mission and practice of higher education, short-changing a generation of young people. Giroux exposes the corporate forces at play and charts a clear-minded and inspired course of action out of the shadows of market-driven education policy. Championing the youth around the globe who have dared to resist the bartering of their future, he calls upon public intellectuals—as well as all people concerned about the future of democracy—to speak out and defend the university as a site of critical learning and democratic promise. “Giroux has focused his keen intellect on the hostile corporate takeover of higher education in North America . . . .He is relentless in his defense of a society that requires its citizenry to place its cultural, political, and economic institutions in context so they can be interrogated and held truly accountable. We are fortunate to have such a prolific writer and deep thinker to challenge us all.”―Karen Lewis, President, Chicago Teachers Union “No one has been better than . . . Giroux at analyzing the many ways in which neoliberalism . . . has damaged the American economy and undermined its democratic processes.”―Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos “Giroux . . . dares us to reevaluate the significance of public pedagogy as integral to any viable notion of democratic participation and social responsibility. Anybody who is remotely interested in the plight of future generations must read this book.”―Dr. Brad Evans, Director, Histories of Violence website

In this critical reader, the best writing of two dozen key figures in qualitative research is gathered together to help students to identify emerging themes in the field and the latest thinking of the leaders in qualitative inquiry. These groundbreaking articles are pulled from a decade of social justice-focused plenary volumes emanating from the annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. These are the ideas that have helped shape the landscape of the field over the past decade. This work-brings together the latest work of 25 leading figures in qualitative research from 4 continents;-addresses the central themes of the field over the past decade in theory, methodology, politics, and interventions;-includes contextualizing essays by the volume editors, who direct the Congress.

A Progressive History of American Democracy Since 1945: American Dreams, Hard Realities offers a social, political, and cultural history of the United States since World War II. Unpacking a period of profound transformation unprecedented in the national experience, this book takes a synthetic approach to the history of the 1940s to the present day. It examines how Americans descended from a mid-century apogee of boundless expectations to the unsettling premise that our contemporary historical moment is fraught with a sense of crisis and national failure. The book’s narrative explores the question of decline and more importantly, how the history of this transformation can point the way toward a recovery of shared national values. Chris J. Magoc also gives extensive treatments to the following: Grassroots movements that have expanded the meaning of American democracy, from the 1950s human rights struggle in the South to contemporary movements to confront systemic racism and the existential crisis of climate change. The resilience of American democracy in the face of antidemocratic forces. The impacts of a decades-long economic transformation. The consequences of America’s expanding global military footprint and national security state. Fracturing of a nation once held together by a post-war liberal consensus and broadly shared societal goals to an America facing an attack from within on empirical truth and democracy itself. This book will be of interest to students of modern U.S. history, social history, and American Studies, and general readers interested in recent U.S. history.

This volume of plenary addresses and other key presentations from the 2013 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry shows how scholars convert inquiry into spaces of advocacy in the outside world. The original chapters engage in debate on how qualitative research can be best used to advance the causes of social justice while addressing racial, ethnic, gender, and environmental disparities in education, welfare, and health care. Twenty contributors from six countries and multiple academic disciplines present models, cases, and experiences to show how qualitative research can be used as an effective instrument for social change. Sponsored by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.