Book Description
This concise text provides students and instructors with a comprehensive overview of world politics, inviting them in a straightforward and accessible way to explore international relations and its new challenges. A hallmark of the text is the authors' position that politics affect the lives of all of us, and that the individual can have an impact, whether small or large, by being politically aware and by taking action.
Book Description
Much praised for being both accessible and scholarly, John Rourke's text uses current examples to illustrate theories. The eleventh edition has been meticulously revised to recognize new scholarship and to update coverage of world events and trends, including elections in Iraq, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, the defeat of the E.U. Constitution by French and Dutch voters, the tsunami in Indonesia, the first investigations of the International Criminal Court, corruption in the UN’s oil-for-food program, and growing U.S.-China tensions over China's arms program.
Customer Reviews:
International politics on the world stage.......2007-09-29
This book is the text book for a class my daughter is taking. The school's bookstore was out of stock and could not provide a date when the text would be restocked
Book Description
This innovative collection of newly commissioned essays from leading experts in sociology and cultural studies looks at youth culture through subcultural identity. Youth Culture is the first text to bridge sociology and cultural studies in order to understand youth identity replacing the outmoded theories based on deviance. This volume examines the social worlds of young people in their natural environments; suburban bedrooms, shopping malls, rock concerts, and school. In addition, it explores the impact of the media and music on youth, using Beavis and Butthead, grunge, and heavy metal bands as examples of youth subcultural identity.Epstein's collection of prominent writers and researchers will give you a better understanding of why youths, in particular, are prone to collective identity, and how they achieve their sense of self through fashion, music, sports and entertainment.
Customer Reviews:
Where do they get off?.......2001-04-07
I've associated myself with punk culture since I was 14. I'm 21 now, and as a college student, I find myself growing out of my angst and search of identity. I was interested, then, to see an objective point of view on why someone like me would have been drawn to such a subculture.
I searched my school library's limited database for the word "punk" and this book came up. I checked it out, and thoroughly enjoyed the forward. It offers an earnest plea for a fair observation of my generation.
350 pages later, I feel none-too-enlightened. I read the whole thing, cursing as I went. No one understands youth but the youth themselves. Don't waste your time with this book.
Book Description
John T. Rourke's eighth edition of International Politics on the World Stage explores the dynamic world of politics as it swings into the new millennium. Current political research theory establishes a foundation. From this base, Rourke traces the growth of the international political system and uses current events to challenge students to decide where the trends are leading and where their best interests lie. The engaging style that has made this title a bestseller is combined for the first time in this edition with full-color photos and graphics. The Web site continues to be a strong component this time, featuring interactive exercises, important Web links, interactive maps, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Cannot believe I was required to buy this book.......2006-09-17
This book is terrible. Every chapter begins with at least one Shakespeare quote which leads one to wonder whether this man spends more time considering politics or indulging in sonnets. The book is structured to make international relations appear as Shakespearean dramas which becomes extremely annoying after the first five pages. The references are vague, many terms left undefined, and somehow beyond the condescending tone of the book he finds a way to make every sentence that actually contains important information structurally unbearable. If I did not have really smart friends who are majoring in International Affairs this book would convince me that such majors are a joke.
Cant say horrible...that title is already taken........2006-03-02
This book is absolutely painful to read. If you have to purchase this book for class, be prepared for chapter 7, 10, & 11. These are the most painful chapters in the book. In these chapters it is very hard to follow the text (i.e. main points). Other students and I got migranes from trying to prepare notes for these chapters for a test. Just horrible.
An Appropriate World Politics Textbook.......2004-02-15
Rourke covers topics using horizontal and vertical methods. He explaisn the nature of power relationships, non governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and other political structural forms horizontally while explaining political happenings and characters vertically. His section on the nature and conduct of diplomacy is quite well done for a survey textbook. The level of articulation and the engagement of the reader makes this a good choice for a survey or introductory World Politics classroom. AP World History course instructors may also want to examine this book as it may fit well with high school students as well as undergraduates.
Very broad ... but very biased!.......2003-01-13
Good book for an introduction to International Relations couse in terms of topics covered - but the author's bias is clearly leaning toward that of an idealist/globalist. Make sure you get a balanced perspective from the other side of the coin before taking this text as gospel.
Horrible!.......2003-01-09
I took POLS 132 (International Relations) and my professor was John Rourke, the author of the book. He knows his stuff (he writes a new edition every year), but his lectures were horrible! Half of the students in lecture would never go, and the students who did attend class only went because he took attendence. He cannot teach. He rambles on and on in lecture and is frequently off-topic. This is reflected in his writing. Having the textbook as our only source was hard enough, not to mention having him as the professor for our class! Just save your time and money--stay away from this book. (And if you're a UConn student, don't take his classes.)
Amazon.com
"When I first started going to New Haven," writes William Finnegan, "I was taken on a tour of the city's neighborhoods by two black residents. Their conversation reminded me of others I've heard--in countries suffering from chronic guerrilla war."
Cold New World depicts the lives of American teenagers and young adults, struggling to hang onto what little they've got. They are part of a growing underclass whose lives have become saturated with drugs and violence. Whether he's talking to an African American drug dealer who plies his trade in the shadow of Yale or a young woman caught up in the feud between two rival skinhead gangs in the northernmost suburbs of Los Angeles, Finnegan brings his subjects to life on the page with a compassion that doesn't undermine any of his bluntness about their desperate conditions. You may not like what Cold New World has to say about the state of the nation, but it's a book that you ignore at your peril.
Book Description
New Yorker writer William Finnegan spent time with families in four communities across America and became an intimate observer of the lives he reveals in these beautifully rendered portraits: a fifteen-year-old drug dealer in blighted New Haven, Connecticut; a sleepy Texas town transformed by crack; Mexican American teenagers in Washington State, unable to relate to their immigrant parents and trying to find an identity in gangs; jobless young white supremacists in a downwardly mobile L.A. suburb. Important, powerful, and compassionate, Cold New World gives us an unforgettable look into a present that presages our future.
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction of 1998 selection
One of the Voice Literary Supplement's Twenty-five Favorite Books of 1998
Customer Reviews:
Exhilirating.......2007-02-27
It is hard to overstate how much I liked this book.
Finnegan reports on young Americans living in compromised circumstances. He could probably have found this story in any community. He chose four places -- the inner city of New Haven, rural Texas, a California exurb, and the farm fields of Washington state.
In New Haven, you see the logic of the choices faced by inner city kids, and the struggle to get by in a world where so many people have so much. That first section is good, but its probably also the one with a theme that matches the expectations of readers.
The rest of the story is more complicated. In rural Texas, Finnegan shows a system of justice dominated by local sheriffs that serve to balance the interests of everyone in a pothole politics that reminds me of Chicago aldermen. It also shows the footprint of race upon land use.
In Washington state, the young people fail to understand the social justice aspirations of their migrant farmworkers parents. These kids don't feel that they belong anywhere: not in the consumerist schools of Washington state, and certainly not in the underdeveloped cinder block streets of their parent's Mexico.
In California, Finnegan shows how economic insecurity among parents trickles down into distorted opinions about race among a group of white power youth.
Finnegan uses a first person narrative approach that allows him to report and analyze what he sees as he travels. The analysis helps him to weave in local politics, history, and even some academic research. He does not interject his opinion into his writing, at least until the end of the book when he offers a conclusion.
When I think of peers for this book, a few come to mind: "There are No Children Here," by Alex Kotlowitz and "A Hope in the Unseen" by Ron Suskind are the two that most match its power. Even so, going to four places so different is a bit harder. Like catching lighting four times.
Had to read this book for college.......2005-10-14
Bill Finnegan is a real journalist. He is the kind that goes to place we only read about in news briefs in a paper's international section. The kind of places we'd rather not know too much about.
In this book (more like a collection of four books) he stays stateside and tries to find out about what the future holds for the youth of America.
From poor rural farmers in the Big Piney region of east Texas to kids stuck in the violent racist/anti-racist punk rock scene of southern California, Finnegan sticks himself into the lives of his subjects, living with them for monthes at a time.
He tries and I think succeeds on gainging insight into what it is like to be raised in working class America.
The book is heavy, and can be a bit of an emotional drain but it leaves you armed with perspective.
Highly Recommended Sociological Study of the Real America.......2005-09-21
William Finnegan's study of American 'underclasses' is hardly scientific in the traditional sense, yet a reading of this book will certainly earn the reader's respect for its depth and the amount of physical area it touches upon across the U.S. Finnegan gets so deep in these peoples' lives over the six years he took to gather these stories that he can describe the situations to perfection. His familiarity with the people in these stories is very clear, he was obviously not afraid to spend ample time with them. The four stories he comes back with, which make up this book, are precious nuggets of the reality facing so much youth in America right now. Finnegan always brings it back to the youth, and how the circumstances being constucted for them in this society will effect them. How are they reacting? Read the book and find out.
Down and Out in the U.S.A........2004-10-03
This mix of sociology and journalism is a mostly gripping and always harrowing journey to the four corners of the American underclass. During the early to mid-1990s, Finnegan spent time with four young people in from very different geographic locations and of very different cultural backgrounds. Each of these are detailed in 50-100 page sections, followed by a surprisingly brief coda, in which he attempts to sum up the similarities between the four cases and draw some prescriptions from them. This is that rarest of books, an in-depth, complex examination of class in America.
Finnegan starts in New Haven with Terry, who is practically a cliche of the ghetto youth. A black drug-dealing kid who blows his cash on flashy threads and gaudy jewelry for his girlfriends, he lives near the affluence of Yale University, and yet worlds away culturally. From East Coast to East Texas, where in a small town, Finnegan hangs out with Lanee, a young black woman whose community has just been the subject of a massive federal drug sting. Both sections illustrate just how enticing the drug trade is to the young poor. It's vastly more lucrative than any conceivable alternative, and there's no great social stigma attached to it. In each place, the percentage of the community who is using is so large that the trade assumes a huge place in the microeconomy and has a big ripple effect.
The New Haven section is fairly cohesive, and it's somewhat refreshing to see Finnegan admit his inability to stay detached and his attempts to lend a helping hand to Terry. The East Texas section doesn't hold together quite as well. Although Finnegan is again focusing on an individual (Lanee), he is clearly more interested in the broader story of a large federal drug sting in which virtually everyone in the community has a friend or family member indicted. This ties in with the story of the longtime reign of a benign all-powerful sheriff who recently lost reelection, which also ties in with the influence of the "old" white Texan families of the town. There are a lot of interesting threads here, and it's no wonder Finnegan gets a little distracted.
From here, the book moves west, to the Yakima Valley of central Washington state, where rural meets strip mall. There Finnegan hangs out with Juan, the eldest son of hard-working Mexican immigrant field laborers and union activists. In many ways, he's the most mainstream and self-aware kid of the book, and yet he's constantly in trouble due to a proclivity for fighting. Part of this lies within himself, and part of this stems from his need to back up his friends. Acquiring a rep for being a badass turns into a self-fulfilling trap that he has difficulty escaping. Although slacker Juan doesn't claim any of the various Latino gangs that are rampant throughout the Valley, he's perpetually caught up in various beefs that appear to be one step away from gunfire.
Finally, Finnegan winds up in the LA exurb of Antelope Valley, where he finds a white supremacist skinhead gang at war with the changing neighborhood demographics and a band of anti-racist SHARP skins. This is one of those instant communities whose bubble burst rather quickly when defense and aerospace jobs disappeared. Living in the town became a step down for whites, but a step up for black and Latino families. Fueled by meth and dead-end prospects, white power skins harass local minorities and engage in running skirmishes with anti-racist skinheads. Finnegan does an excellent job of explaining the origins and different shades of the skinhead subculture. Perhaps most disturbing are the confused hangers-on (mostly women), who are alternately allured and disgusted by the white supremacists.
The common theme is that these are all young people who are set on a course of backward mobility, compared to their parents and grandparents. Finnegan places them in the larger context of post-oil crisis, postindustrial America, where a factory job is no longer a sufficient foundation for a middle class existence. Indeed, even the concept of the middle-class as an attainable destination is completely absent. Finnegan apportions blame to the economy that makes stay-at-home parenting the province of the rich, a public education system that has given up on the bottom tier, a punitive welfare system, an ill-considered government approach to the scourge of drugs, and perhaps most tellingly, "the fecklessness and self-absorption of my own generation." This is best reflected in the stunning statistic that over the last 25 years (as of the writing), poverty among the elderly has dropped by 50%, and among children has increased by 37%. This is not an optimistic book, but it will provoke serious thought and debate--a great one for book clubs.
Our cold world.......2002-01-21
William Finnegan has written a truly American book, even though its characters are not quite representative of Americans at all. His interest for this book is in a certain segment of the population. The four cities he chooses are those that have been hard hit by economic downturns, and the youths he associates with and learns about are those situated in danger and immobility. What makes the book relevant to all Americans (beyond our ability to feel a basic concern for others) is that Finnegan tackles two issues that we reluctantly, and too often simplistically, face-poverty and race. A few more topics that constantly appear that I would consider as being born of the previous two are drugs and gangs.
It doesn't take much to enjoy this book. It reads like four stories. I had to keep reminding myself that these were true (according to Finnegan). After the "stories," in which Finnegan tries to keep a journalistic distance (though not always), there is an epilogue, and we see what the author is trying to get the reader the see. There are deep questions of responsibility that run through America's laws and policies, that these questions must be asked by the citizens of the country who sometimes must choose between economic growth and economic equality. Such consideration requires an understanding that some decisions allow a few to prosper and few to fall into deprivation.
It's easy to say people like Terry and Juan are hopeless, that they will forever be in trouble, and that they deserve any punishment they get. It's a little harder to say that when you consider that you have human beings in desperate conditions, and they will not go away simply by enforcing judicial toughness.
Book Description
This brief, basic introduction to world politics offers your students a sophisticated theoretical analysis of global politics supported by an up-to-date review of research in the field. This theoretical base is made accessible and interesting to students through the use of contemporary illustrations. As part of the ConnecText series, this edition makes extensive use of the growth of information technologies. ConnecText is a concept that invites the student to make a connection between the basic, necessarily static information in a text and the dynamic information available on the Internet. Students can access such things as maps, tables, biographies, and practice quizzes on the home page. Faculty can access lecture outlines, activity suggestions, and discussion questions. Carefully selected sites on the World Wide Web allow students and faculty the opportunity to explore developments as they occur in the world and to examine issues from a worldwide perspective.
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International Politics on the World Stage: John T. Rourke (Brown & Benchmark)
John T. Rourke
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
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Athenian Democracy (Inside the Ancient World)
Reginald H. Barrow
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