Reading Political Stories

In recent years, the practice of teaching political theory through literature and the arts has become widespread. Taken together, the essays in this book, written by 9 prominent practitioners, review the state of the art in this emerging field, dealing with the general nature of connections between political theory and literature and visual arts, with an eye to its political content and meaning. The contributors consider what makes a literary work political, political values and literature, literature, politics and feminism and the way in which particular novels comment on political thought and behaviour. A particular focus of the volume is the way in which political ideas particular to the American political culture are expressed in American novels - both in classic works and in modern novels and popular fiction.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) On May 20, 2010, Laura Ingraham received a package from an anonymous source that will change the history of the United States and the legacy of President Barack Obama. While retrieving her automobile from the underground garage at the Watergate complex (where she had just enjoyed her weekly pedicure), Ingraham discovered a manila envelope on the hood of her car. When she picked it up, a deep baritone voice called out from a nearby stairwell: "Just read it. You’ll know what to do." The shadowy figure then disappeared into the darkness without another word. The envelope contained copies of what appeared to be diary entries written by President Barack Obama, his family, and high-ranking administration officials. Because the "diaries" are so revealing, Ingraham felt compelled to release them to the American public and the citizens of the world. Major media outlets love to describe the president as "no drama Obama," but The Obama Diaries tells a different tale. Through these "diary entries," readers will see past the carefully constructed Obama façade to the administration’s true plans to "remake America." In The Obama Diaries, Ingraham hilariously skewers the president and his minions. She takes aim at: •the cynical "razzle-dazzle" marketing of Obama’s radical agenda •the use of the Obama "brand" and family to obscure Obama’s true aims •Michelle Obama’s gardening and anti-obesity initiative; and much more. Informative and hugely entertaining, The Obama Diaries will inspire both laughter and critical thinking about the future of the nation and the man currently at the helm. Excerpts from Laura Ingraham’s The Obama Diaries Obama on Sarah Palin: "Hell, doesn’t Palin have anything better to do than criticize me? Shouldn’t she be back home shooting some endangered wolf species from a helicopter?" (April 9, 2010) Michelle on being First Lady: "I’ll be damned if all this fabulosity is going to go to waste reading Dr. Seuss to snot-nosed kids all day." (January 23, 2009) Vice President Joe Biden on Michelle Obama: "She’s kind of like a black Hillary Clinton. I mean that in a good way." (May 5, 2009) Obama on his visit to the Vatican: "If I can ingratiate myself with a few more of these red-hats, the pope thing might not be a bad follow-up to the presidency." (July 10, 2009)

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

A new novel by PEN/Faulkner Award winner Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi--"if you don't know this name yet, you should" (Entertainment Weekly)--about a young woman caught in an affair with a much older man, a personal and political exploration of desire, power, and human connection. It's summer when Arezu, an Iranian American teenager, goes to Spain to meet her estranged father at an apartment he owns there. He never shows up, instead sending her a weekly allowance, care of his step-nephew, Omar, a forty-year-old Lebanese man. As the weeks progress, Arezu is drawn into a mercurial, charged, and ultimately catastrophic affair with Omar, a relationship that shatters her just at the cusp of adulthood. Two decades later, Arezu inherits the apartment. She returns with her best friend, Ellie, an Israeli-American scholar devoted to the Palestinian cause, to excavate the place and finally put to words a trauma she's long held in silence. Together, she and Ellie catalog the questions of agency, sexuality, displacement, and erasure that surface as Arezu confronts the ghosts of that summer, crafting between them a story that spans continents and centuries. Equal parts Marguerite Duras and Shirley Jackson, Rachel Cusk and Samanta Schweblin, Savage Tongues is a compulsive, unsettling, and bravely observed exploration of violence and eroticism, haunting and healing, and the profound intimacy born of the deepest pain.

WINNER OF CBC CANADA READS WINNER OF THE STEPHEN LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR Here’s the set up: A burnt-out politcal aide quits just before an election—but is forced to run a hopeless campaign on the way out. He makes a deal with a crusty old Scot, Angus McLintock—an engineering professor who will do anything, anything, to avoid teaching English to engineers—to let his name stand in the election. No need to campaign, certain to lose, and so on. Then a great scandal blows away his opponent, and to their horror, Angus is elected. He decides to see what good an honest M.P. who doesn’t care about being re-elected can do in Parliament. The results are hilarious—and with chess, a hovercraft, and the love of a good woman thrown in, this very funny book has something for everyone.

A media expert and network commentator examines the welter of misinformation--generated by politicians and the media alike--that surrounds political campaigns.