Africa’s Turn?

Edward Miguel
Cloth / April 2009

“A refreshing take on the fortunes of Africa in the current century and a fascinating compendium of some of the leading theorists of African development.” — Publishers Weekly

By the end of the twentieth century, sub–Saharan Africa had experienced twenty–five years of economic and political disaster. While “economic miracles” in China and India raised hundreds of millions from extreme poverty, Africa seemed to have been overtaken by violent conflict and mass destitution, and ranked lowest in the world in just about every economic and social indicator.

Working in Busia, a small Kenyan border town, economist Edward Miguel began to notice something different starting in 1997: modest but steady economic progress, with new construction projects, flower markets, shops, and ubiquitous cell phones. In Africa’s Turn? Miguel tracks a decade of comparably hopeful economic trends throughout sub–Saharan Africa and suggests that we may be seeing a turnaround.

Responding to Miguel, nine experts gauge his optimism: Olu Ajakaiye, Ken Banks, Robert Bates, Paul Collier, Rachel Glennerster, Rosamond Naylor, Smita Singh, David N. Weil, and Jeremy M. Weinstein.

Inventing American History

William Hogeland
Cloth / April 2009

“For William Hogeland, thinking about history is an act of moral inquiry and high citizenship. A searching and original voice.” — Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland

American public history—in magazines and books, television documentaries and museums—tends to celebrate its subject at all costs. This does us a great disservice, argues William Hogeland. Looking at details glossed over in three examples of public history—the Alexander Hamilton revival, tributes to Pete Seeger and William F. Buckley, and the Constitution Center in Philadelphia—Hogeland considers what we lose when history is written to conform to political aims.

Instead Hogeland calls for a public history grounded in the gritty events of the day. Only by embracing history’s contradictions and difficulties, he argues, will we be able to learn from it.

Race, Incarceration, and American Values

Glenn C. Loury
Cloth / September 2008

“Loury's claims are well-supported with genuinely shocking statistics . . . the slim volume keeps up the pace of the argument without being overwhelming.” — Publishers Weekly

Economist Glenn Loury argues that the United States' extraordinarily high incarceration rate is not a response to rising crime rates or a proud success of social policy, but the product of a generation-old collective decision to become a more punitive society. He connects this policy to our history of racial oppression, showing that the punitive turn in American politics and culture emerged in the post-civil rights years and has today become the main vehicle for the reproduction of racial hierarchies. Our system, Loury argues, should be unacceptable to Americans, and his call to action makes all of us responsible for ensuring that it changes.

The Men in My life

Vivian Gornick
Cloth / September 2008
2008 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist!

“Vivian Gornick makes you want to read. In her new collection of essays, "The Men in My Life," authors, all great literary men, come alive on the page like great characters, bleeding, raging and most of all trying (but almost always failing) to love.” — Judith Lewis, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Gornick remains one of the more intelligent, independent-minded readers writing criticism today, one who insists on making a connection between how we read and how we live. . . . The essays in this collection, in their conviction about the relevance of literature in this hypertext age and their attentiveness to the irritant of all-too-human despair that yields the pearl of lasting art, will provide enjoyment and illumination for fans old and new.” — Daphne Merkin, Bookforum

“A book in which a critic whose sensibility was shaped by second-wave feminism shares her thoughts on a stable of male authors may not strike one as the most happy marriage of writer and subject. Yet Gornick, a reader of immense sympathy and insight, is not out to expose and chasten the unseemly underbellies of the men in her life, but rather, as she says in the preface to this short, elegant book, "to think more inclusively about the emotional imprisonment of mind and spirit to which all human beings are heir.” — Village Voice

“Gornick is a vigorous and sophisticated thinker. . . . [The Men in My Life] illustrates how magnificent the literary yield of human frailty can be. . . . [An] excellent collection.” — Anne Garner, Library Journal
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Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters

Hans Blix
Cloth / April 2008

“It's the least daunting and most accessible book on the subject I've ever seen.” — Diane Rehm, host of NPR's Diane Rehm Show

In 2002 Dr. Hans Blix, then chief United Nations weapons inspector, lead his team on a search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Before the United States went to war with Iraq the next March, he maintained there were no WMD in Iraq. History proved him right. Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters includes specific suggestions–how the UN can set the stage for a credible multilateral disarmament and nonproliferation process; what kind of treaties would be most helpful–and recommendations for regional policy, including providing the Middle East with enriched uranium for civilian nuclear power production but not allowing uranium enrichment there.
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The Road to Democracy in Iran

Akbar Ganji
Foreword by Joshua Cohen and Abbas Milani
Cloth / April 2008
The Road to Democracy in Iran, Ganji's first book in English, demonstrates his lifelong commitment to human rights and democracy. A passionate call for universal human rights and the right to democracy from a Muslim perspective, it lays out the goals and means of Iran's democracy movement, why women's rights trump some interpretations of Islamic law, and how the West can help promote democracy in Iran (he strongly opposes U.S. intervention) and other Islamic countries.
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