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  • av Alain Park
    1 006

    The authoritative annual guide to the requirements for certification of teachers. This annual volume offers the most complete and current listings of the requirements for certification of a wide range of educational professionals at the elementary and secondary levels. Requirements for Certification is a valuable resource, making much-needed knowledge available in one straightforward volume.

  • - Early Psychology and Literary Modernism
    av Judith Ryan
    653,-

    Is thinking personal? Or should we not rather say, "it thinks," just as we say, "it rains"? In the late nineteenth century a number of psychologies emerged that began to divorce consciousness from the notion of a personal self. They asked whether subject and object are truly distinct, whether consciousness is unified or composed of disparate elements, what grounds exist for regarding today's "self" as continuous with yesterday's. If the American pragmatist William James declared himself, on balance, in favor of a "real and verifiable personal identity which we feel," his Austrian counterpart, the empiricist Ernst Mach, propounded the view that "the self is unsalvageable." The Vanishing Subject is the first comprehensive study of the impact of these pre-Freudian debates on modernist literature. In lucid and engaging prose, Ryan traces a complex set of filiations between writers and thinkers over a sixty-year period and restores a lost element in the genesis and development of modernism. From writers who see the "self" as nothing more or less than a bundle of sensory impressions, Ryan moves to others who hesitate between empiricist and Freudian views of subjectivity and consciousness, and to those who wish to salvage the self from its apparent disintegration. Finally, she looks at a group of writers who abandon not only the dualisms of subject and object, but dualistic thinking altogether. Literary impressionism, stream-of-consciousness and point-of-view narration, and the question of epiphany in literature acquire a new aspect when seen in the context of the "psychologies without the self." Rilke's development of a position akin to phenomenology, Henry and Alice James's relation to their psychologist brother, Kafka's place in the modernist movements, Joyce's rewriting of Pater, Proust's engagement with contemporary thought, Woolf's presentation of consciousness, and Musil's projection of a utopian counter-reality are problems familiar to readers and critics: The Vanishing Subject radically revises the way we see them.

  • - Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore
    av Chloe Ahmann
    379,-

    A powerful ethnographic study of South Baltimore, a place haunted by toxic pasts in its pursuit of better futures. Factory fires, chemical explosions, and aerial pollutants have inexorably shaped South Baltimore into one of the most polluted places in the country. In Futures after Progress, anthropologist Chloe Ahmann explores the rise and fall of industrial lifeways on this edge of the city and the uncertainties that linger in their wake. Writing from the community of Curtis Bay, where two hundred years of technocratic hubris have carried lethal costs, Ahmann also follows local efforts to realize a good future after industry and the rifts competing visions opened between neighbors. Examining tensions between White and Black residents, environmental activists and industrial enthusiasts, local elders and younger generations, Ahmann shows how this community has become a battleground for competing political futures whose stakes reverberate beyond its six square miles in a present after progress has lost steam. And yet--as one young resident explains--"that's not how the story ends." Rigorous and moving, Futures after Progress probes the deep roots of our ecological predicament, offering insight into what lies ahead for a country beset by dreams deferred and a planet on the precipice of change.

  • - How Protests Create a Filipino Diaspora
    av Sharon M Quinsaat
    379 - 1 128

    Sociologist Sharon M. Quinsaat sheds new light on the formation of diasporic connections through transnational protests. When people migrate and settle in other countries, do they automatically form a diaspora? In Insurgent Communities, Sharon M. Quinsaat explains the dynamic process through which a diaspora is strategically constructed. Quinsaat looks to Filipinos in the United States and the Netherlands-examining their resistance against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, their mobilization for migrants' rights, and the construction of a collective memory of the Marcos regime-to argue that diasporas emerge through political activism. Social movements provide an essential space for addressing migrants' diverse experiences and relationships with their homeland and its history. A significant contribution to the interdisciplinary field of migration and social movements studies, Insurgent Communities illuminates how people develop collective identities in times of social upheaval.

  • - Economist and Social Scientist
    av Karen Iversen Vaughn
    267

    In John Locke: Economist and Social Scientist Karen Iversen Vaughn presents a comprehensive treatment of Locke's important position in the development of eighteenth century economic thought.

  • av Samuel Johnson
    466

    "The artist and architect El Lissitzky (1890-1941) is celebrated for his contributions to painting, architecture, photography, and graphic design, and for his role in disseminating Russian and Soviet avant-garde art in Europe during the 1920s. Though he worked in a diversity of media, Lissitzky nonetheless produced the majority of his work on paper in the form of innovative photomontages, architectural drawings, lithographs, typography, books, and photo magazines. This monograph--the first career-spanning archival study of Lissitzky since 1968--reveals that the artist's multiple pursuits arose from his deep commitment to print as the premier medium of public exchange in the young and turbulent twentieth century. Samuel Johnson demonstrates that paper and print media were preoccupations that shaped Lissitzky's worldview, values, politics, and production in ways that have never been fully appreciated. Probing Lissitzky's stance on the problems of distribution and reception, this book offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of Lissitzky as experimenter, visionary designer, technocrat, and propagandist-the very prototype of the twentieth-century artist, with a legacy that remains largely on paper"--

  • av Aziz Rana
    466

    "Americans today are increasingly uneasy about the democratic weaknesses of their Federal Constitution. But for most of living memory that very Constitution has been idealized as near perfect. How could it be that this flawed system came to enjoy such intense veneration? In a striking reinterpretation of the American constitutional past, Aziz Rana connects the spread of a distinctive twentieth century American relationship to its founding document to another development rarely treated alongside it: the rise of the U.S. to global dominance. In the process, he highlights the role of constitutional veneration in shaping the terms of American power abroad, with ultimately transformative effects at home for narratives of nation and ideas of reform. In the process, Rana also explores the remarkably diverse array of movement activists-in Black, Indigenous, feminist, labor, and immigrant politics-that struggled to imagine a very different constitutional horizon, one grounded in equal and effective freedom for all and able to overcome the basic limitations of the consolidating legal-political system. These voices of opposition, including to the Constitution itself, have overwhelmingly been excised from constitutional memory. And yet they offer essential insights for making sense of our present difficulties, in which Americans find themselves bereft of the constitutional sureties that have long shaped collective life"--

  • av Teresa Ghilarducci
    282

    "The issue of the future of Social Security, on which millions of Americans depend, produced great political theater at the State of the Union address. That highlighted a bigger problem of financing retirement as baby boomers seek to retire, often with limited resources. Many argue that the solution to the problem is for people to work longer. Teresa Ghilarducci, a noted expert on retirement, argues that the 'working longer' idea is wrong, unnecessary, and discriminates against people who work in lower wage occupations. Ghilarducci pushes for a national plan to finance retirement that would draw on contributions by both employers and employees to replace our privatized and ramshackle personal retirement system and make changes in the tax system that supports Social Security to give people a real choice whether to retire or continue to work in their later years. This book tells the stories of people locked into jobs later in life not because they love to work but because they must work. She demonstrates how relatively low-cost changes in the way we manage, and finance retirement will enable people in their so-called 'golden years' to choose how to spend their time. Ghilarducci has a good public platform, writes for Bloomberg and other outlets, and is passionate about her ideas and reaching as broad a public as possible. The book is for the growing number of people in the public and policy community who are worried about their retirement and engaged in the renewed debate about Social Security and Medicare"--

  • av Caspar Henderson
    282

    "A Little Book of Noises gathers together sounds from the cosmos, the natural world, the human world, and the invented world, as well as containing pockets of silence. From the vast sound of sand in the desert to the tuneful warble of a songbird, from the meditative resonance of a temple bell to the improvisational melodies of jazz, this is a celebration of all things "auraculous," or "ear marvelous." Sound shapes our world in invisible but significant ways, and writer Caspar Henderson brings his characteristic curiosity and knowledge to the subject to take us on an exhilarating journey to examine noise related to humans (anthropophony), other life (biophony), our planet (geophony), and space (cosmophony)"--

  • av David G James
    692,-

    From Ivy: Butterflies and moths are among the most studied creatures in nature. Caterpillars, the juvenile stage, are just as diverse and alluring--and deserve to be admired and observed just as closely. Now, with The Book of Caterpillars, they can be. This taxonomic survey profiles 600 key species from around the world, with spectacular imagery and authoritative text. Each entry details the attributes of the species, uncovers their camouflage and forms, and describes the defenses that they employ. Photographs show both a life-size view and a magnified close-up, and every entry also includes an engraving of the adult, a population distribution map, and a table of essential information. A definitive resource for all enthusiasts.

  • av Mark E Hauber
    643

    We must be careful what we say. No bird resumes its egg. Emily DickinsonAnd what a shame, as while birds are stunning in their plumage, the variety and beauty of the vessels from which they hatch are beguiling. The egg has been called nature s perfect container. And the variation on a theme is spectacular from the bold purple red hue of a Tinamou egg to the roughly surfaced greenish-blue Emu egg. Incubation varies as much as color from days to months as does the clutch size. All of these different egg types reflect ecological and evolutionary dynamics."The Book of Eggs" introduces readers to the eggs of 600 bird species. Bird eggs have inspired artists like Rosamond Purcell, and countless birders have considered them quarry. For scientists, these brilliant vessels lead to an array of interesting topics, from the patterns of egg coloration to how birds and their parasites recognize eggs. Particularly appealing is this book s use of The Field Museum s bird egg and nest collection.After an introductory section, the work is organized taxonomically. Each entry, which focuses largely on North American birds, includes life-size photos, distribution maps, and drawings of the birds from which the eggs emerge. The text discusses bird behavior and the egg traits, inclusive of some evolutionary explanations for the variance of form. This is the first time the Field s egg collection has been photographed, and it is world renowned for its content. The book will also include portrayals and descriptions of the clutches, which can be a helpful tool in identifying species for birders."

  • av Sara A. Lourie
    395

    Seahorses are among the oddest of ocean creatures. They are terrible swimmers, but they have an uncanny ability to find their mates, which they do daily, and hold on with prehensile tales for hours on end. They also manage to be some of the most aggressive ocean hunters, and must eat all of the time as they lack stomachs and therefore they are ingesting into their tiny snouts much of the time. Seahorses have a mythical beauty, owing to their mating most likely, but they are also among the enviable few species in which the males carry the babies, or frys, and then give birth to two thousand at a time. Clearly we have a lot to learn about and from seahorses. This life-size guide presents captivating stories of species that range from less than an inch to nearly a foot in height and is authored by the foremost expert on seahorse taxonomy. "Seahorses" will appeal equally to those seeking a beautiful gift book, as well as those who are captivated by the intrigue of these iconically odd ocean dwellers. "

  • av Sarah Burns
    549,-

  • av John Krinsky
    1 111

    One of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's proudest accomplishments is his expansion of the Work Experience Program, which uses welfare recipients to do routine work once done by unionized city workers. The fact that WEP workers are denied the legal status of employees and make far less money and enjoy fewer rights than do city workers has sparked fierce opposition. For antipoverty activists, legal advocates, unions, and other critics of the program this double standard begs a troubling question: are workfare participants workers or welfare recipients? At times the fight over workfare unfolded as an argument over who had the authority to define these terms, and in Free Labor, John Krinsky focuses on changes in the language and organization of the political coalitions on either side of the debate. Krinsky's broadly interdisciplinary analysis draws from interviews, official documents, and media reports to pursue new directions in the study of the cultural and cognitive aspects of political activism. Free Labor will instigate a lively dialogue among students of culture, labor and social movements, welfare policy, and urban political economy.

  • av Robert A Ferguson
    418,-

    In a bravura performance that ranges from Aaron Burr to O. J. Simpson, Robert A. Ferguson traces the legal meaning and cultural implications of prominent American trials across the history of the nation. His interdisciplinary investigation carries him from courtroom transcripts to newspaper accounts, and on to the work of such imaginative writers as Emerson, Thoreau, William Dean Howells, and E. L. Doctorow. Ferguson shows how courtrooms are forced to cope with unresolved communal anxieties and how they sometimes make legal decisions that change the way Americans think about themselves. Burning questions control the narrative. How do such trials mushroom into major public dramas with fundamental ideas at stake? Why did outcomes that we now see as unjust enjoy such strong communal support at the time? At what point does overexposure undermine a trial's role as a legal proceeding? Ultimately, such questions lead Ferguson to the issue of modern press coverage of courtrooms. While acknowledging that media accounts can skew perceptions, Ferguson argues forcefully in favor of full television coverage of them--and he takes the Supreme Court to task for its failure to grasp the importance of this issue. Trials must be seen to be understood, but Ferguson reminds us that we have a duty, currently ignored, to ensure that cameras serve the court rather than the media. The Trial in American Life weaves Ferguson's deep knowledge of American history, law, and culture into a fascinating book of tremendous contemporary relevance. "A distinguished law professor, accomplished historian, and fine writer, Robert Ferguson is uniquely qualified to narrate and analyze high-profile trials in American history. This is a superb book and a tremendous achievement. The chapter on John Brown alone is worth the price of admission."--Judge Richard Posner "A noted scholar of law and literature, [Ferguson] offers a work that is broad in scope yet focuses our attention on certain themes, notably the possibility of injustice, as illustrated by the Haymarket and Rosenberg prosecutions; the media's obsession with pandering to baser instincts; and the future of televised trials. . . . One of the best books written on this subject in quite some time."--Library Journal, starred review

  • av Daniel J Wilson
    260

    Polio was the most dreaded childhood disease of twentieth-century America. Every summer during the 1940s and 1950s, parents were terrorized by the thought that polio might cripple their children. They warned their children not to drink from public fountains, to avoid swimming pools, and to stay away from movie theaters and other crowded places. Whenever and wherever polio struck, hospitals filled with victims of the virus. Many experienced only temporary paralysis, but others faced a lifetime of disability."Living with Polio" is the first book to focus primarily on the personal stories of the men and women who had acute polio and lived with its crippling consequences. Writing from personal experience, polio survivor Daniel J. Wilson shaped this impassioned book from the testimonials of more than one hundred polio victims, focusing on the years between 1930 and 1960. Wilson traces the entire life experience of the survivors-from the alarming diagnosis all the way through to the most recent development of post-polio syndrome, a condition in which the symptoms of the disease may return two or three decades after they originally surface. "Living with Polio" follows every physical and emotional stage of the disease: the loneliness of long separations from family and friends suffered by hospitalized victims; the rehabilitation facilities where survivors spent a full year or more painfully trying to regain the use of their paralyzed muscles; and then the return home, where they were faced with readjusting to school or work with the aid of braces, crutches, or wheelchairs while their families faced the difficult responsibilities of caring for and supporting a child or spouse with adisability.Poignant and gripping, "Living with Polio" is a compelling history of the enduring physical and psychological experience of polio straight from the rarely heard voices of its survivors.

  • av Steven B Smith
    601,-

  • av Marty Crump
    379,-

    Well-known tropical field biologist Marty Crump examines the bizarre conduct of animals as they mate, parent, feed, defend themselves, and communicate.

  • av Edward F. Lawlor
    653,-

    Recent debates on Medicare reform focus on prescription drug coverage, expanding managed-care choices, or technical issues of payment policy. Despite all the heat generated by these issues, Edward F. Lawlor's new book, Redesigning the Medicare Contract, demonstrates that fundamental questions of purpose and policy design for Medicare have been largely ignored. Challenging conventional ideas, Lawlor suggests that we look at Medicare as a contract between the federal government, the program's beneficiaries, and health care providers. Medicare reform, then, would involve rewriting this contract so that it more successfully serves the interests of both beneficiaries and taxpayers. To do this, Lawlor argues that we must improve the agency of the program--the informational, organizational, and incentive elements that assure Medicare program carries out beneficiary and taxpayer interests in providing the most appropriate, high-quality care possible. The book includes a chapter devoted solely to concepts and applications that give definition to this brand of agency theory. Lawlor's innovative agency approach is matched with lucid explanation of the more comprehensive groundwork in the history and politics of the Medicare program. Lawlor's important and timely book reframes the Medicare debate in a productive manner and effectively analyzes alternatives for reform. Lawlor argues that effective policy design for Medicare requires greater appreciation of the vulnerability of beneficiaries, the complexity of the program itself, its wide geographical variations in services and financing, and the realistic possibilities for government and private sector roles. Tackling difficult problems like end-of-life and high-tech care--and offering sensible solutions--Redesigning the Medicare Contract will interest political scientists, economists, policy analysts, and health care professionals alike.

  • av David A. Wise
    1 268,-

    In 1986, the National Bureau of Economic Research initiated a research project on the economics of aging under the direction of David A. Wise. The goal of the program is to further our understanding of both the determinants of the economic well-being and health of the elderly, and the consequences for the elderly and for the larger society of an increasingly older population. This third volume to result from the project contains nine essays addressing new issues, some of international scope, as well as research that continues work introduced in the previous volumes. Topics include retirement and saving for retirement; living arrangements and family support of the elderly; the aged in developing countries, including Thailand and Cote d'Ivoire; social security reform, with an analysis of the Japanese system; and the relation between the duration of nursing home stays and the source of payment for care. Each paper is accompanied by critical commentary. Robin L. Lumsdaine, James H. Stock, and David A. Wise find that although complex models are better predictors of actual retirement behavior, the most complex does not provide significantly more information. In a paper offering startling evidence likely to be of wide interest, Thomas E. MaCurdy and John B. Shoven report that the long-term rate of return on stocks is higher than that on bonds but, despite this difference in returns, fewer than twenty percent of TIAA-CREF participants choose to put more than half their retirement savings into stocks. Axel Borsch-Supan, Vassilis Hajivassiliou, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, and John N. Morris develop a model of living arrangements that promises easier implementation than past models, and confirm thatincreasing age and decreasing functional ability are the most important factors influencing the decision to enter a nursing home. Borsch-Supan, Jagadeesh Gokhale, Kotlikoff, and Morris consider the time that children spend with their parents, concluding that this time is determined primarily by demographic factors, with economic factors such as income and wealth playing an insignificant role. Using data from the Retirement History Survey, Michael D. Hurd argues that wealth, excluding housing, declines about three percent a year during retirement; average consumption expenditures also decrease by two to four percent a year, findings consistent with the life-cycle theory. Angus Deaton and Christina H. Paxson consider aging issues in less developed countries, finding that older people in Thailand and Cote d'Ivoire tend to live with younger relatives in multigenerational households and that economic status is less variable over the life cycle in these countries. The pay-as-you-go Japanese social security system is examined by Tatsuo Hatta and Noriyoshi Oguchi, as are the implications of changing from the current system to one that is actuarially fair. Alan M. Garber and Thomas E. MaCurdy explore the relation between the duration of nursing home stays and the source of payment for nursing home care. They conclude that the incentive effects of the subsidies of nursing home care may play an important role in what type of nursing home care is most often used. Finally, transitions in and out of nursing homes are considered by Edward C. Norton, who analyzes data from an experiment that tested the effects of performance-based reimbursement on the quality and cost of nursing home care.

  • av Bruce Adams
    847

    In Rustic Cubism, Bruce Adams tells the fascinating story of Moly-Sabata, an art colony founded in the Rhône Valley during the height of French modernism by Cubist pioneer Albert Gleizes. Following his social and spiritual agenda of earthly labor and a Celtic-medievalist view of Christianity, Gleizes' disciples worked to fuse Cubism with a revival of ancient agrarian, artisanal traditions. The most important and committed member of this experimental commune was ceramicist Anne Dangar (1885-1951). In part a gripping biography of this Australian expatriate, Rustic Cubism chronicles Dangar's personal battles and the tumult of the World War II era during her tempestuous tenure at Moly-Sabata. Dangar dedicated herself to the colony's aims by working in the region's village potteries, combining their vernacular elements with Gleizes' design methods to arrive at a type of rustic Cubism. Her work there would ultimately be rewarded; her pieces can today be found in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and many other museums. Rustic Cubism places Dangar at the heart of Moly-Sabata's alternative art movement--one that, in its nostalgic present, attempted to construct a culture based on the distant past. Generously illustrated with photographs of the art and social milieu of the period, this captivating and original narrative makes a considerable contribution to our understanding of French modernism and early twentieth-century cultural politics as well as of the life of a most talented and intriguing female artist.

  • av Martin Feldstein
    1 268,-

    In the late 1990s, economic and financial crises raged through East Asia, devastating economies that had previously been considered among the strongest in the developing world. The crises eventually spread to Russia, Turkey, and Latin America, and impacted the economies of many industrialized nations as well. In today's increasingly interdependent world, finding ways to reduce the risk of future crises--and to improve the management of crises when they occur--has become an international policy challenge of paramount importance. This book rises to that challenge, presenting accessible papers and commentaries on the topic not only from leading academic economists, but also from high-ranking government officials (in both industrial and developing nations), senior policymakers at international institutions, and major financial investors. Six non-technical papers, each written by a specialist in the topic, provide essential economic background, introducing sections on exchange rate regimes, financial policies, industrial country policies, IMF stabilization policies, IMF structural programs, and creditor relations. Next, personal statements from the major players give firsthand accounts of what really went on behind the scenes during the crises, giving us a rare glimpse into how international economic policy decisions are actually made. Finally, wide-ranging discussions and debates sparked by these papers and statements are summarized at the end of each section. The result is an indispensable overview of the key issues at work in these crises, written by the people who move markets and reshape economies, and accessible to not just economists and policymakers, but also to educated general readers. Contributors: Montek S. Ahluwalia, Domingo F. Cavallo, William R. Cline, Andrew Crockett, Michael P. Dooley, Sebastian Edwards, Stanley Fischer, Arminio Fraga, Jeffrey Frankel, Jacob Frenkel, Timothy F. Geithner, Morris Goldstein, Paul Keating, Mervyn King, Anne O. Krueger, Roberto Mendoza, Frederic S. Mishkin, Guillermo Ortiz, Yung Chul Park, Nouriel Roubini, Robert Rubin, Jeffrey Sachs, Ammar Siamwalla, George Soros

  • av Dora L. Costa
    1 216

    The twentieth century saw significant increases in both life expectancy and retirement rates-changes that have had dramatic impacts on nearly every aspect of society and the economy. Forecasting future trends in health and retirement rates, as we must do now, requires investigation of such long-term trends and their causes. To that end, this book draws on new data-an extensive longitudinal survey of Union Army veterans born between 1820 and 1850-to examine the factors that affected health and labor force participation in nineteenth-century America. Contributors consider the impacts of a variety of conditions-including social class, wealth, occupation, family, and community-on the morbidity and mortality of the group. The papers investigate and address a number of special topics, including the influence of previous exposure to infectious disease, migration, and community factors such as lead in water mains. They also analyze the roles of income, health, and social class in retirement decisions, paying particular attention to the social context of disability. Economists and historians who specialize in demography or labor, as well as those who study public health, will welcome the unique contributions offered by this book, which offers a clearer view than ever before of the workings and complexities of life, death, and labor during the nineteenth century.

  • av Dennis F. Thompson
    418,-

    The 2000 election showed that the mechanics of voting such as ballot design, can make a critical difference in the accuracy and fairness of our elections. But as Dennis F. Thompson shows, even more fundamental issues must be addressed to insure that our electoral system is just. Thompson argues that three central democratic principles--equal respect, free choice, and popular sovereignty--underlie our electoral institutions, and should inform any assessment of the justice of elections. Although we may all endorse these principles in theory, Thompson shows that in practice we disagree about their meaning and application. He shows how they create conflicts among basic values across a broad spectrum of electoral controversies, from disagreements about term limits and primaries to disputes about recounts and presidential electors. To create a fair electoral system, Thompson argues, we must deliberate together about these principles and take greater control of the procedures that govern our elections. He demonstrates how applying the principles of justice to electoral practices can help us answer questions that our electoral system poses: Should race count in redistricting? Should the media call elections before the polls close? How should we limit the power of money in elections? Accessible and wide ranging, Just Elections masterfully weaves together the philosophical, legal, and political aspects of the electoral process. Anyone who wants to understand the deeper issues at stake in American elections and the consequences that follow them will need to read it. In answering these and other questions, Thompson examines the arguments that citizens and their representatives actually use in political forums, congressional debates and hearings, state legislative proceedings, and meetings of commissions and local councils. In addition, the book draws on a broad range of literature: democratic theory, including writings by Madison, Hamilton, and Tocqueville, and contemporary philosophers, as well as recent studies in political science, and work in election law.

  • av Edward Ingebretsen
    1 111

    Anyone who reads the papers or watches the evening news is all too familiar with how variations of the word monster are used to describe unthinkable acts of violence. Jeffrey Dahmer, Timothy McVeigh, and O. J. Simpson were all monsters if we are to believe the mass media. Even Bill Clinton was depicted with the term during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But why is so much energy devoted in our culture to the making of monsters? Why are Americans so transfixed by transgression? What is at stake when the exclamatory gestures of horror films pass for descriptive arguments in courtrooms, ethical speech in political commentary, or the bedrock of mainstream journalism? At Stake is an analysis of popular culture, a critique of a secularized religious discourse, as well as a plea of a plea for cleaning up the ethics of public speech. Edward J. Ingebretsen explores the social construction of monstrousness in public discourse, examining the uses of transgression and deviancy in tabloids, mainstream press, television, magazine, sermons, speeches, and popular fiction. The two students who took aim at Columbine High School, for instance, were declared monsters by Time magazine. Like wise, on the eve of his execution, Timothy McVeigh was decried as a monster who deserved to die. These examples typify the inept way the word broadly eliminates the very humanity upon which ethical judgment must depend. Ingebretsen argues that monsters serve as convenient tokens whose narratives contain trauma as well as solution; they provide easy answers to intractable problems. Susan Smith, the South Carolinian who murdered her children, is thus thought to embody the crisis of maternal neglect; nonetheless, keeping focus on her leaves unaddressed larger questions about the crisis of marriage and single motherhood. Monster, then, return us to the ancient language that once termed them "omens of the Gods." They show and tell; fright and point.

  • av Alberto Giovannini
    1 176

    As the global economy continues to evolve, events such as the unification of European markets have prompted economists and policymakers to consider whether the current system of taxing income is inconsistent with the trend toward liberalized world financial flows and increased international competition. To help assess the effectiveness of existing tax policies and incentives, this volume presents new research on how taxes affect the investment and financing decisions of multinationals today. The authors examine international financial management, business investment, and international income shifting. The first three papers focus on financial management. Chapter 1 analyzes how tax and non-tax factors affect the relative importance of portfolio equity investments versus foreign direct investments and finds that the composition of equity flows differs dramatically according to tax differences. The authors of the second chapter look at the impact of U.S. and Canadian tax reforms on the financing of U.S. multinationals operating in Canada. Chapter 3 uses new data from 1986 corporate income tax returns to examine the effects of taxes on decisions by foreign subsidiaries to repatriate dividends to U.S. parent corporations. The next three chapters address international business investment. The authors of Chapter 4 consider why most models fail to show how tax policy affects foreign direct investment, and they offer improved models. Chapter 5 models U.S. tax incentives for the level and location of R&D performed by multinationals, and reveals that changes in the after-tax price of R&D have a significant effect on spending decisions of U.S. multinationals. Chapter 6 offers descriptive evidencefrom a careful field study of location and sourcing decisions in nine U.S. multinational manufacturing corporations. The final two papers examine income shifting. In chapter 7, the authors consider the fact that foreign-controlled companies in the United States pay lower taxes than do domestically-controlled companies. Unlike other studies, this one uses firm-level data files, including the actual tax returns filed by foreign-controlled companies. The eighth paper quantitatively assesses the importance of income shifting of U.S. multinationals, using Compustat data for 1984 through 1988 as well as information from annual reports. This volume will guide the development of new theoretical models in public finance and international economics, as well as inform the ongoing policy debate about reforming the taxation of multinational businesses in the United States and abroad.

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