Whatever Happened to Class?


Book Description

Class explains much in the differentiation of life chances and political dynamics in South Asia; scholarship from the region contributed much to class analysis. Yet class has lost its previous centrality as a way of understanding the world and how it changes. This outcome is puzzling; new configurations of global economic forces and policy have widened gaps between classes and across sectors and regions, altered people’s relations to production, and produced new state-citizen relations. Does market triumphalism or increased salience of identity politics render class irrelevant? Has rapid growth in aggregate wealth obviated long-standing questions of inequality and poverty? Explanations for what happened to class vary, from intellectual fads to global transformations of interests. The authors ask what is lost in the move away from class, and what South Asian experiences tell us about the limits of class analysis. Empirical chapters examine formal and informal-sector labor, social movements against genetic engineering, and politics of the "new middle class." A unifying analytical concern is specifying conditions under which interests of those disadvantaged by class systems are immobilized, diffused, coopted -- or autonomously recognized and acted upon politically: the problematic transition of classes in themselves to classes for themselves.




Whatever Happened to the Egyptian Revolution?


Book Description

In his latest exploration of the Egyptian malaise, Galal Amin first looks at the events of the months preceding the Revolution of 25 January 2011, pointing out the most important factors behind popular discontent. He then follows the ups and downs (mainly the downs) of the Revolution: the causes of rising hopes and expectations, mingled with successive disappointments, sometimes verging on despair, not least in the case of the presidential elections, when the Egyptian people were invited to choose between a rock and a hard place. This is followed by an outline of a possible brighter future for Egypt, based on a more balanced and faster growing economy, and a more democratic and equitable society, within a truly independent, modern, and secular state. The story of what happened to the 2011 Revolution may be a sad one, but if viewed within the larger context of Egypt's economic and social developments of the last century, on which the author's previous books threw very useful light, it can be regarded as one important step forward toward a much better future.




What Really Happened to the Class of '93


Book Description

Through his classmates' intensely personal stories from a decade defined by Monica Lewinsky, economic downturn and 9/11, Colin presents an arresting picture of an extraordinary era.




How Good is David Mamet, Anyway?


Book Description

The legendary Greek figure Orpheus was said to have possessed magical powers capable of moving all living and inanimate things through the sound of his lyre and voice. Over time, the Orphic theme has come to indicate the power of music to unsettle, subvert, and ultimately bring down oppressive realities in order to liberate the soul and expand human life without limits. The liberating effect of music has been a particularly important theme in twentieth-century African American literature. The nine original essays in Black Orpheus examines the Orphic theme in the fiction of such African American writers as Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, James Baldwin, Nathaniel Mackey, Sherley Anne Williams, Ann Petry, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Gayl Jones, and Toni Morrison. The authors discussed in this volume depict music as a mystical, shamanistic, and spiritual power that can miraculously transform the realities of the soul and of the world. Here, the musician uses his or her music as a weapon to shield and protect his or her spirituality. Written by scholars of English, music, women's studies, American studies, cultural theory, and black and Africana studies, the essays in this interdisciplinary collection ultimately explore the thematic, linguistic structural presence of music in twentieth-century African American fiction.




Class, Politics, and the Decline of Deference in England, 1968-2000


Book Description

In late twentieth-century England, inequality was rocketing, yet some have suggested that the politics of class was declining in significance, while others argue that class identities lost little power. Neither interpretation is satisfactory: class remained important to 'ordinary' people's narratives about social change and their own identities throughout the period 1968-2000, but in changing ways. Using self-narratives drawn from a wide range of sources - the raw materials of sociological studies, transcripts from oral history projects, Mass Observation, and autobiography - the book examines class identities and narratives of social change between 1968 and 2000, showing that by the end of the period, class was often seen as an historical identity, related to background and heritage, and that many felt strict class boundaries had blurred quite profoundly since 1945. Class snobberies 'went underground', as many people from all backgrounds began to assert that what was important was authenticity, individuality, and ordinariness. In fact, Sutcliffe-Braithwaite argues that it is more useful to understand the cultural changes of these years through the lens of the decline of deference, which transformed people's attitudes towards class, and towards politics. The study also examines the claim that Thatcher and New Labour wrote class out of politics, arguing that this simple - and highly political - narrative misses important points. Thatcher was driven by political ideology and necessity to try to dismiss the importance of class, while the New Labour project was good at listening to voters - particularly swing voters in marginal seats - and echoing back what they were increasingly saying about the blurring of class lines and the importance of ordinariness. But this did not add up to an abandonment of a majoritarian project, as New Labour reoriented their political project to emphasize using the state to empower the individual.




Heromaker


Book Description

Ezekiel-Amadeus is the eldest of nine children, all raised by a single mother, and tends to show total independence a lot younger than expected. An enigmatic change in his body compared to his fellow teenagers and a past life he cannot remember, he rises to prove himself capable of standing up for those he wishes to protect. Hildegard is an orphan raised by an abusive aunt, who wishes to one day become a singer and actress. But the more she learns about her parents, the more of a target she becomes. But when things get tough, she will do what she can to stand up for herself. Cadence is an incredibly intelligent, yet shy, young woman who has ideas to advance humanity’s understanding of science, all the while a stranger to true affection. And yet, beyond going through school, they encounter more than what most people know. Secrets, such as an underground nation comprised of Neo Nazis, the mysterious society of the Knights of the Peace Equation, the experimental city of Mega, among the fate of the race of Elfs, among other mythological creatures. About the Author About the time he reached middle school, G.B. Chavez began thinking of ideas for a television series he’d wish to someday create. By the time he graduated high school in 2019, he had begun to reinvent the story upon realizing how much of a challenge it would be, but still wished to get a version of the story out. In March of 2021, Chavez began to write Heromaker: A British Story Written By An American, which he plans to eventually be the first installment of an extensive series of books surrounding the main protagonist(s). Chavez has always had a fascination with culture affiliated with the United Kingdom, which has stemmed from watching Peter Pan as a child. This fascination is not only what inspired for this story to take place in the United Kingdom, but has him wishing to one day travel to the European nation.




Dreams to Sell


Book Description

1949. Attractive and spirited Roz Rainey, who lives in post-war Edinburgh with her widowed mother, her sister and her brother, enjoys working in a lawyer’s property office where she dreams, not of love, but of one day having a beautiful house of her own. After all, why shouldn't she be ambitious? Until the unexpected happens when she falls in love with her new boss, the charming Jamie Shield. Full of happiness, it seems as though a blissful future beckons for Roz. Fate, however, has other ideas . . . Roz will have to face heartbreak for herself and her family, and even danger, before she can learn the lessons of life and come through her trials to find true love.




Whatever Happened to Inclusion?


Book Description

Law, policy, and practice in the United States has long held that students with disabilities - including those with intellectual disabilities - have the right to a free and appropriate public education, in a non-restrictive environment. Yet very few of these students are fully included in general education classrooms. Educational systems use loopholes to segregate students; universities regularly fail to train teachers to include students; and state regulators fail to provide the necessary leadership and funding to implement policies of inclusion. Whatever Happened to Inclusion? reports on the inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities from national and state perspectives, outlining the abject failure of schools to provide basic educational rights to students with significant disabilities in America. The book then describes the changes that must be made in teacher preparation programs, policy, funding, and local schools to make the inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities a reality.




A National Joke


Book Description

Comedy is crucial to how the English see themselves. This book considers that proposition through a series of case studies of popular English comedies and comedians in the twentieth century, ranging from the Carry On films to the work of Mike Leigh and contemporary sitcoms such as The Royle Family, and from George Formby to Alan Bennett and Roy 'Chubby' Brown. Relating comic traditions to questions of class, gender, sexuality and geography, A National Joke looks at how comedy is a cultural thermometer, taking the temperature of its times. It asks why vulgarity has always delighted English audiences, why camp is such a strong thread in English humour, why class influences what we laugh at and why comedy has been so neglected in most theoretical writing about cultural identity. Part history and part polemic, it argues that the English urgently need to reflect on who they are, who they have been and who they might become, and insists that comedy offers a particularly illuminating location for undertaking those reflections.




Hawthorn Hills Complete Box Set


Book Description

The Hawthorn Hills Duet Series follows four couples. Each two-book duet must be read in order to enjoy the couple’s full story and we highly recommend reading the whole series in order as the stories and characters are all interconnected. Within this eight book boxed set, you’ll find angst-filled, slow-burn, epic love stories, along with some topical storylines, some amazingly real and raw characters and of course, plenty of steam and swoon!