New Books in Public Policy

Andrea Wenzel, "Community-Centered Journalism: Engaging People, Exploring Solutions, and Building Trust" (U Illinois Press, 2020)

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At a time when trust in the media is low and "news deserts" are increasing across the United States, engaged journalism offers a framework for connec...

Maneesha Deckha, "Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders (University of Toronto Press, 2021), Maneesha Deckha critically examines how Can...

Francine Tremblay, "Organizing for Sex Workers’ Rights in Montréal: Resistance and Advocacy" (Lexington Books, 2020)

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Francine Tremblay's book Organizing for Sex Workers’ Rights in Montréal: Resistance and Advocacy (Lexington Books, 2020) is based on a case study...

Lesley Lavery, "A Collective Pursuit: Teachers' Unions and Education Reform" (Temple UP, 2020)

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A Collective Pursuit: Teachers' Unions and Education Reform (Temple UP, 2020) focuses on the idea that individuals, in this case, teachers, are multi...

Eva Rosen, "The Voucher Promise: 'Section 8' and the Fate of an American Neighborhood" (Princeton UP, 2020)

02 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Eve Rosen's The Voucher Promise: 'Section 8' and the Fate of an American Neighborhood (Princeton UP, 2020) examines the Housing Voucher Choice Prog...

Democracy and Social Critique with Cornel West

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cornel West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor at Union Theological Seminary. Professor West is among the nation’s most distinguished philosophers...

Gregg D. Caruso, "Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

According to an intuitive view, those who commit crimes are justifiably subject to punishment. Depending on the severity of the wrongdoing constitutiv...

Ellen Peters, "Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers" (Oxford UP, 2020)

31 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To many mathematicians and math enthusiasts, the word "innumeracy" brings to mind popular writing like that of John Allen Paulos. But inequities in ou...

Michelle Miller-Adams, "The Path to Free College: In Pursuit of Access, Equity, and Prosperity" (Harvard Education Press, 2021)

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In The Path to Free College: In Pursuit of Access, Equity, and Prosperity (Harvard Education Press, 2021), Michelle Miller-Adams argues that tuition...

Joanne Meyerowitz, "A War on Global Poverty: The Lost Promise of Redistribution and the Rise of Microcredit" (Princeton UP, 2021)

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A War on Global Poverty: The Lost Promise of Redistribution and the Rise of Microcredit (Princeton UP, 2021) provides a fresh account of US involveme...

Matthew Thompson, "Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool's Hidden History of Collective Alternatives" (Liverpool UP, 2020)

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How can we develop solutions to the housing crisis? In Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool's Hidden History of Collective Alternatives (Liverpo...

Tom Barker, "Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

26 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) presents a powerful and thorough investigation into police deviance ...

Christoph Brumann, "The Best We Share: Nation, Culture and World-Making in the UNESCO World Heritage Arena" (Berghahn, 2021)

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention is one of the most widely ratified international treaties, and a place on the World Heritage List is a widely cov...

Jennifer Sherman, "Dividing Paradise: Rural Inequality and the Diminishing American Dream" (U California Press, 2021)

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How rural areas have become uneven proving grounds for the American Dream. Small-town economies that have traditionally been based on logging, mining,...

Aaron Shapiro, "Design, Control, Predict: Logistical Governance in the Smart City" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The “smart” city of today looks little like what experts of yesteryear expected them to. In this book, Aaron Shapiro, Ph.D. takes readers on a b...

Erin Stewart, "The Missing Among Us: Stories of Missing Persons and Those Left Behind" (NewSouth, 2020)

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'To be missing, you must be missed'. Erin Stewart's 2021 book examines missing for just about every point of view.  In Australia 38,000 people are r...

Giulia Zampini on Researching Drug Taking

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Giulia Zampini about her research into drug taking, and particularly about the "People and Dancefloors" project. Based on a par...

Matthew Clair, "Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court" (Princeton UP, 2020)

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court (Princeton UP, 2020) by Matthew Clair is a powerful ethnographic study of the ...

Marc Brackett, "Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive" (Celadon, 2019)

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University's Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In his 25 ye...

David Hardin, "Standpipe: Delivering Water in Flint" (Belt, 2021)

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A brief, elegant memoir of the author's work as a Red Cross volunteer delivering emergency water to residents of Flint, Michigan, Standpipe sets the...

Doron Taussig, "What We Mean by the American Dream: Stories We Tell about Meritocracy" (Cornell UP, 2021)

14 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Doron Taussig invites us to question the American Dream. Did you earn what you have? Did everyone else? The American Dream is built on the idea that A...

Cristina Beltrán, "Cruelty As Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)

13 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cristina Beltrán has written a thoughtful and interrogating analysis of the concept of citizenship, particularly in the United States, and how the hi...

Lisa Waddington and Anna Lawson, "The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Practice" (Oxford UP, 2018)

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Practice: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Courts (Oxford UP, 2018) brings toge...

Linda Gibbs et al., "How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness: Innovations That Work" (U California Press, 2021)

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness: Innovations That Work (U California Press, 2021) provides a first-hand account of the challenges of homel...

LaTonya J. Trotter, "More Than Medicine: Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health Care Organizations, and the State" (Cornell UP, 2020)

10 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In More Than Medicine: Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health Care Organizations, and the State (Cornell UP, 2020), La...

Tim Jackson, "Post Growth: Life after Capitalism" (Polity, 2021)

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I spoke with Prof. Tim Jackson about his latest book: Post Growth, Life after Capitalism, published by Polity Books in 2021. The book starts with a r...

David Alan Sklansky, "A Pattern of Violence: How the Law Classifies Crimes and What it Means for Justice" (Harvard UP, 2020)

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the George Floyd killing, many Americans are engaging in a renewed debate about the role violence and especially police violence, plays...

M. Vollman Makris and M. Gatta, "Gentrification Down the Shore" (Rutgers UP, 2020)

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Gentrification Down the Shore (Rutgers University Press, 2020), Molly Vollman Makris and Mary Gatta engage in a rich ethnographic investigation o...

Heath Brown, "Homeschooling the Right: How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State" (Columbia UP, 2021)

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Political Scientist Heath Brown’s new book, Homeschooling the Right: How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State (Columbia UP, 2021) is ...

Adam Hochschild, "Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the political ferment of early twentieth century New York City, when socialists and reformers battled sweatshops, and writers and artists thought a...

C. G. Faricy and C. Ellis, "The Other Side of the Coin: Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021)

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In The Other Side of the Coin: Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021), political scientists Christopher Ellis...

Jessi Streib, "Privilege Lost: Who Leaves the Upper Middle Class and How They Fall" (Oxford UP, 2020)

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Talking about social class and the American class structure is a challenge. It can be easy to talk about the class system too rigidly, implying that “...

Daniel Greene, "The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope" (MIT Press, 2021)

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we keep trying to solve poverty with technology? What makes us feel that we need to learn to code--or else? In The Promise of Access: Technolo...

Matthew A.M. Thomas et al., "Examining Teach For All: International Perspectives on a Growing Global Network" (Routledge, 2020)

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Teach for America (TFA) continues to be the single largest preparation program for teachers in the United States. As that program grew in the US (attr...

Jeanne Shea et al., "Beyond Filial Piety: Rethinking Aging and Caregiving in Contemporary East Asian Societies" (Berghahn, 2020)

29 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Known for a tradition of Confucian filial piety, East Asian societies have some of the oldest and most rapidly aging populations on earth. Today these...

Jarvis R. Givens, "Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching" (Harvard UP, 2021)

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to New Books in African American Studies, a channel on the New Books Network. I am your host, Adam McNeil. On today’s podcast, I am intervie...

Terri E. Givens, "Immigration in the 21st Century: The Comparative Politics of Immigration Policy" (Routledge, 2020)

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Immigration in the 21st Century: The Comparative Politics of Immigration Policy (Routledge, 2020) is an excellent primer for those looking to underst...

Rachel Z. Friedman, "Probable Justice: Rethinking the Politics of Risk" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The emergence of individual and commercial insurance in Early Modern Europe required an understanding of probability. In Probable Justice: Rethinki...

Carolyn J. Heinrich, et al., "Equity and Quality in Digital Learning: Realizing the Promise in K-12 Education" (Harvard Education Press, 2020)

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID19 pandemic has profoundly changed the landscape of K-12 education in our society. Last March, many states closed their brick-and-mortar scho...

Postscript: Biden's First 100 Days

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Much has long been made of the bold legislative action that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt marshalled forward in his first 100 days in office in ...

Matthew O. Jackson, "The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors" (Vintage, 2019)

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Social networks existed and shaped our lives long before Silicon Valley startups made them virtual. For over two decades economist Matthew O. Jackson...

Graham Smith, "Can Democracy Safeguard the Future?" (Polity, 2021)

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our democracies repeatedly fail to safeguard the future. From pensions to pandemics, health and social care through to climate, biodiversity and emerg...

Johana Londoño, "Abstract Barrios: The Crises of Latinx Visibility in Cities" (Duke UP, 2020)

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The rapid gentrification of Black and brown neighborhoods in urban areas by predominantly upper-class white and other white-adjacent peoples is largel...

Charley E. Willison, "Ungoverned and Out of Sight: Public Health and the Political Crisis of Homelessness in the United States" (Oxford UP, 2021)

15 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If health policy truly seeks to improve population health and reduce health disparities, addressing homelessness must be a priority. Homelessness is a...

Anita Hardon, "Chemical Youth: Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Anita Hardon's Chemical Youth: Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) explores how young people engage with c...

Morten T. Korsgaard, "Bearing with Strangers: Arendt, Education and the Politics of Inclusion" (Routledge, 2018)

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bearing with Strangers: Arendt, Education and the Politics of Inclusion (Routledge, 2018) looks at inclusion in education in a new way. By introduc...

Allison B. Wolf, "Just Immigration in the Americas: A Feminist Account" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Allison B. Wolf's Just Immigration in the Americas: A Feminist Account (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020) proposes a pioneering, interdisciplinary, fem...

Karen Petrou, "Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America" (Wiley, 2021)

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping strug...

Alexandra Kemmerer, "Human Dignity in Context" (Nomos/Hart, 2018)

12 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Human dignity is the key term that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights placed at the center of legal discourse on a global level. In 1949, Germa...

Bertram Levine and Grande Lum, "America's Peacemakers: The Community Relations Service and Civil Rights" (U Missouri Press, 2020)

08 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Community Relations Service (CRS) came into being alongside the Voting Rights Act—as part of the Act itself. And this organization was integrate...

Stuart P. Green, "Criminalizing Sex: A Unified Liberal Theory" (Oxford UP, 2020)

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Starting in the latter part of the 20th century, the law of sexual offenses, especially in the West, began to reflect a striking divergence. On the on...

Cristina V. Groeger, "The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston" (Harvard UP, 2021)

02 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Education is thought to be the route out of poverty, but history disagrees. For generations, Americans have looked to education as the solution to eco...

Stuart Rees, "Cruelty or Humanity: Challenges, Opportunities and Responsibilities" (Policy Press, 2020)

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Stuart Rees's Cruelty or Humanity: Challenges, Opportunities and Responsibilities (Policy Press, a Bristol University Press imprint, 2020) exposes...

Chuck Collins, "The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions" (Polity, 2021)

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These ‘ag...

Aaron Griffith, "God’s Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America" (Harvard UP, 2020)

19 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The rise of Neo-Evangelicalism as a social and political American movement accompanied shifting attitudes in broader American criminal justice policie...

Dying from Despair in the USA: A Discussion with Anne Case

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row—a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in m...

Kara M. Schlichting, "New York Recentered: Building the Metropolis from the Shore" (U Chicago Press, 2019)

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Providing a fresh perspective is one of the biggest challenges for historians of New York City. Kara Murphy Schlichting, however, has managed to do ju...

Melissa Moschella, "To Whom Do Children Belong?: Parental Rights, Civic Education, and Children's Autonomy" (Cambridge UP, 2016)

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton, which ruled that the Title VII prohibition on sex discrimination in employment extends to discri...

Gabriel Winant, "The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America" (Harvard UP, 2021)

08 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In his book The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Healthcare in Rust Belt America (Harvard University Press, 2021), Gabriel Winant ex...

Tom Philpott, "Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

04 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020) is an unsettling journey into the ...

Ronald J. Deibert, "Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society" (House of Anansi, 2020)

26 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ronald Deibert is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and the Director of The Citizen Lab, a public interest research organi...

Exploring STEM, Insulin Research, and Why We Get Sick

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to br...

Enrico Bonadio, "Protecting Art in the Street: A Guide to Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti" (Dokument Forlag, 2020)

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There has recently been a sharp increase in cases where corporations have been sued by street and graffiti artists because their artworks had been use...

Gary Alan Fine, "The Hinge: Civil Society, Group Cultures, and the Power of Local Commitments" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Most of the time, we believe our daily lives to be governed by structures determined from above (e.g., laws that dictate our behavior, companies that ...

Anthony Warner, "Ending Hunger: The Quest to Feed the World without Destroying It" (Oneworld, 2021)

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nutritionists tell you to eat more fish. Environmentalists tell you to eat less fish. Apparently they are both right. It's the same thing with almonds...

Ray Ison and Ed Straw, "The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency" (Routledge, 2020)

08 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in Climate Emergency (Routledge, 2020) is a persuasive, lively book that shows how systems thinking ...

Mical Raz, "Abusive Policies: How the American Child Welfare System Lost Its Way" (UNC Press Books, 2020)

05 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1970s, a new wave of public service announcements urged parents to help end an American tradition of child abuse. The message, relayed re...

The Role of Community Colleges in Higher Education: A Discussion with Penny Wills

04 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to b...

Tony Tekaroniake Evans, "Teaching Native Pride: Upward Bound and the Legacy of Isabel Bond" (Washington State UP, 2020)

03 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1877, Eloosykasit was on his way Tolo Lake, a gathering place frequented by the Nez Perce, when he heard news of the Wallowa band's flight from the...

B. Kilpatrick and M. Patel, "Estate Regeneration: Learning from the Past, Housing Communities of the Future" (Routledge, 2020)

02 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One hundred years ago, the Addison Act created the circumstances for the large scale construction of municipal housing in the UK. This would lead to t...

T. Maschi and K. Morgen, "Aging Behind Prison Walls: Studies in Trauma and Resilience" (Columbia UP, 2020)

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today, more than 200,000 men and women over age fifty are languishing in prisons around the United States. It is projected that by 2030, one-third of ...

K. M. Broton and C. L. Cady, "Food Insecurity on Campus: Action and Intervention" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020)

11 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The new essay collection Food Insecurity on College Campuses edited by Katharine M. Broton and Clare L. Cady explores the widespread problem of food...

Barbara Dennis, "Walking with Strangers: Critical Ethnography and Educational Promise" (Peter Lang, 2020)

11 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Barbara Dennis of Indiana University on her new ethnography, Walking with Strangers: Critical Ethnography and Educa...

Michael Kagan, "The Battle to Stay in America: Immigration's Hidden Front Line" (U of Nevada Press, 2020)

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The debate over American immigration policy has obsessed politicians and disrupted the lives of millions of people for decades. In The Battle To Stay...

Ian Ayres and Fredrick E. Vars, "Weapon of Choice: Fighting Gun Violence While Respecting Gun Rights" (Harvard UP, 2020)

16 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States, gun violence is in a state of national crisis, yet efforts to reform gun regulation face significant political and constitutiona...

Kimberley Brownlee, "Being Sure of Each Other: An Essay on Social Rights and Freedoms" (Oxford UP, 2020)

11 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kimberley Brownlee, a professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia, has written a monograph addressing her argument in favor a right ...

O. Carter Snead, "What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics" (Harvard UP, 2020)

09 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At first glance, the term “expressive individualism” seems benign enough. After all, people throughout the Western world value their personal free...

Ashley E. Lucas, "Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so th...

Nancy D. Campbell, "OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose" (MIT Press, 2020)

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Reducing harm or shrinking the likelihood of accidental death are remarkably contentions projects—in areas from sex education, to pandemic managemen...

Claire Herbert, "A Detroit Story: Urban Decline and the Rise of Property Informality" (U California Press, 2021)

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bringing to the fore a wealth of original research, A Detroit Story: Urban Decline and the Rise of Property Informality (University of California Pr...

Matthew H. Rafalow, "Digital Divisions: How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

30 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I speak with Matt Rafalow, about his book, Digital Divisions: How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era (University of Chicago...

Amy Bucher, "Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change" (Rosenfeld Media, 2020)

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her new book Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change (Rosenfeld Media, 2020), Amy Bucher analyzes both the barriers and levers to achieving behav...

Jennifer M. Randles, "Essential Dads: The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering" (U California Press, 2020)

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Essential Dads: The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering (University of California Press, 2020), sociologist Jennifer Randles shares the stor...

Michael Mascarenhas, "Lessons in Environmental Justice: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter and Idle No More" (Sage, 2020)

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Mascarenhas's book Lessons in Environmental Justice: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter and Idle No More (Sage, 2020) provides an entry...

Joshua Gans, "The Pandemic Information Gap and the Brutal Economics of Covid-19" (MIT Press, 2020)

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March, a self-isolating and easily distracted economist resolved to take himself in hand. "I decided I would do ...

L. L. Paterson and I. N. Gregory, "Representations of Poverty and Place: Using Geographical Text Analysis to Understand Discourse" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Representations of Poverty and Place: Using Geographical Text Analysis to Understand Discourse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) explores a novel methodolog...

Douglas Kelbaugh, "The Urban Fix: Resilient Cities in the War Against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation" (Routledge, 2019)

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cities are one of the most significant contributors to global climate change. The rapid speed at which urban centers use large amounts of resources ad...

Katja M. Guenther, "The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals" (Stanford UP, 2020)

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Monster is an adult pit bull, muscular and grey, who is impounded in a large animal shelter in Los Angeles. Like many other dogs at the shelter, Monst...

Lindsay Farmer, "Making the Modern Criminal Law: Criminalization and Civil Order" (Oxford UP, 2016)

12 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his latest book, Professor Lindsay Farmer offers a historical and conceptual analysis of theories of criminalization. The book shows how criminal...

Kevin Leo Nadal, "Queering Law and Order: LGBTQ Communities and the Criminal Justice System" (Lexington Book, 2020)

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout US history, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have been pathologized, victimized, and criminalized. Reports of ...

Kathryn A. Mariner, "Contingent Kinship: The Flows and Futures of Adoption in the United States" (U California Press, 2019)

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Contingent Kinship: The Flows and Futures of Adoption in the United States (University of California Press, 2019) offers an ethnography of adoption pr...

Thomas Abt, "Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence" (Basic Books, 2019)

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do we promote peace in the streets? In his new book Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence--and a Bold New Plan for Peace in...

Doug Specht, "Mapping Crisis: Participation, Datafication and Humanitarianism in the Age of Digital Mapping" (U London Press, 2020)

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The digital age has thrown questions of representation, participation and humanitarianism back to the fore, as machine learning, algorithms and big da...

M. Newhart and W. Dolphin, "The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience" (Routledge, 2018)

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Medical marijuana laws have spread across the U.S. to all but a handful of states. Yet, eighty years of social stigma and federal prohibition creates...

Janet Jakobsen, "The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics" (NYU Press, 2020)

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why are Americans, and American politicians more specifically, obsessed with sex? Why, in the words of Janet Jakobsen, are gender and sexuality such r...

Why are Blacks Democrats?: An Interview with Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Black Americans are by far the most unified racial group in American electoral politics, with 80 to 90 percent identifying as Democrats—a surprising...

A. B. Cox and C. M. Rodríguez, "The President and Immigration Law" (Oxford UP, 2020)

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Who truly controls immigration law in the United States? Though common sense might suggest the U.S. Congress, legal scholars Adam B. Cox and Cristina ...

Adam Auerbach, "Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Good Provision in India’s Urban Slums" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

12 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

India’s urban slums exhibit dramatic variation in their access to basic public goods and services—paved roads, piped water, trash removal, sewers,...

Hannah L. Walker, "Mobilized by Injustice: Criminal Justice Contact, Political Participation, and Race" (Oxford UP, 2020)

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hannah Walker’s new book, Mobilized by Injustice: Criminal Justice Contact, Political Participation, and Race (Oxford UP, 2020), brings together the...

John Whysner, "The Alchemy of Disease" (Columbia UP, 2020)

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since the dawn of the industrial age, we have unleashed a bewildering number of potentially harmful chemicals. But out of this vast array, how do we i...