Random House New Releases - Social Science - Social Classes - Between May 22, 2012 and June 21, 2013.

Cancer in the Community by Martha Balshem

2013-04-09T00:30:00-05:00

Cancer in the Community Class and Medical Authority
Written by Martha Balshem

Focusing on deep conflicts between the medical establishment and the working class, Martha Balshem chronicles a health education project in “Tannerstown,” a pseudonym for a blue-collar neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia.

Down the Up Escalator by Barbara Garson

2013-04-02T00:30:00-05:00

Down the Up Escalator How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession
Written by Barbara Garson

One of our most incisive and committed journalists—author of the classic All the Livelong Day—shows us the real human cost of our economic follies.

The Great Recession has thrown huge economic challenges at almost all Americans save the super-affluent few, and we are only now beginning to reckon up the human toll it is taking. Down the Up Escalator is an urgent dispatch from the front lines of our vast collective struggle to keep our heads above water and maybe even—someday—get ahead. Garson has interviewed an economically and geographically wide variety of Americans to show the painful waste in all this loss and insecurity, and describe how individuals are coping. Her broader historical focus, though, is on the causes and consequences of the long stagnation of wages and how it has resulted in an increasingly desperate reliance on credit and a series of ever-larger bubbles—stocks, technology, real estate. This is no way to run an economy, or a democracy.

From the members of the Pink Slip Club in New York, to a California home health-care aide on the eve of eviction, to a subprime mortgage broker who still thinks it could have worked, Down the Up Escalator presents a sobering picture of what happens to a society when it becomes economically organized to benefit only the very rich and the quick-buck speculators. But it also demonstrates the wit and resilience of ordinary Americans—and why they deserve so much better than the hand they’ve been dealt.

Down the Up Escalator by Barbara Garson

2013-04-02T00:30:00-05:00

Down the Up Escalator How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession
Written by Barbara Garson

Gun Guys by Dan Baum

2013-03-05T00:30:00-05:00

Gun Guys A Road Trip
Written by Dan Baum

Here is armed America—a land of machine-gun gatherings in the desert, lederhosened German shooting societies, feral-hog hunts in Texas, and Hollywood gun armories. Whether they’re collecting antique weapons, practicing concealed carry, or firing an AR-15 or a Glock at their local range, many Americans love guns—which horrifies and fascinates many other Americans, and much of the rest of the world. This lively, sometimes raucous book explores from the inside the American love affair with firearms.

Dan Baum is both a lifelong gun guy and a Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey feeling like a “child of a bitter divorce with allegiance to both parents.” In Gun Guys he grabs his licensed concealed handgun and hits the road to meet some of the 40 percent of Americans who own guns. We meet Rick Ector, a black Detroit autoworker who buys a Smith & Wesson after suffering an armed robbery—then quits his job to preach the gospel of armed self-defense, especially to the resistant black community; Jeremy and Marcey Parker, a young, successful Kentucky couple whose idea of a romantic getaway is the Blue Ridge Mountain 3-Gun Championship in Bowling Green; and Aaron Zelman, head of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Baum also travels to New Orleans, where he enters the world of a man disabled by a bullet, and to Chicago to interview a killer. Along the way, he takes us to gun shows, gun stores, and shooting ranges trying to figure out why so many of us love these things and why they inspire such passions.

In the tradition of Confederates in the Attic and Among the Thugs, Baum brings an entire world to life. Written equally for avid shooters and those who would never touch a firearm, Gun Guys is more than a travelogue. It gives a fresh assessment of the heated politics surrounding guns, one that will challenge and inform people on all sides of the issue. This may be the first book that goes beyond gun politics to illuminate the visceral appeal of guns—an original, perceptive, and surprisingly funny journey through American gun culture.

Gun Guys by Dan Baum

2013-03-05T00:30:00-05:00

Gun Guys A Road Trip
Written by Dan Baum

Gun Guys by Richard Kind

2013-03-05T00:30:00-05:00

Gun Guys A Road Trip
Written by Dan Baum
Read by Richard Kind

Meme Wars by Adbusters

2013-02-05T00:30:00-05:00

Meme Wars The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics
Written by Kalle Lasn
Edited by Adbusters

"Engrossing, exciting [...] This book compels us to rethink our approaches to economics ..." —Literary Review of Canada

"Thought-provoking and creative [...]" —Julie Nelson, author of Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics

From the editor and magazine that started and named the Occupy Wall Street movement, Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics is an articulation of what could be the next steps in rethinking and remaking our world that challenges and debunks many of the assumptions of neoclassical economics and brings to light a more ecological model. Meme Wars aims to accelerate the shift into this new paradigm that takes into account psychonomics, bionomics, and other aspects of our physical and mental environment that are often left out in discussions of economics.

Like Adbusters, the book will be image heavy and full-color throughout. Lasn calls it "a textbook for the future" that provides the building blocks, in texts and visuals, for a new way of looking at and changing our world. Through an examination of alternative economies, Lasn hopes to spur students to become "barefoot economists" and to see that a humanization of economics is possible. Meme Wars will include contributions from Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Samuelson, George Akerlof, Lourdes Benería, Julie Matthaei, Manfred Max-Neef, David Orrell, Paul Gilding, Mathis Wackernagel and the father of ecological economics Herman Daly, among others.

Based on ideas that were presented in a special issue of Adbusters entitled "Thought Control in Economics: Beyond the Growth Paradigm / An Activist Toolkit," Meme Wars will help move forward the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Coming Apart by Charles Murray

2013-01-29T00:30:00-05:00

Coming Apart The State of White America, 1960-2010
Written by Charles Murray

From the bestselling author of Losing Ground and The Bell Curve, this startling long-lens view shows how America is coming apart at the seams that historically have joined our classes.

In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity.

Drawing on five decades of statistics and research, Coming Apart demonstrates that a new upper class and a new lower class have diverged so far in core behaviors and values that they barely recognize their underlying American kinship—divergence that has nothing to do with income inequality and that has grown during good economic times and bad.

The top and bottom of white America increasingly live in different cultures, Murray argues, with the powerful upper class living in enclaves surrounded by their own kind, ignorant about life in mainstream America, and the lower class suffering from erosions of family and community life that strike at the heart of the pursuit of happiness. That divergence puts the success of the American project at risk.

The evidence in Coming Apart is about white America. Its message is about all of America.

The Rich Don't Always Win by Sam Pizzigati

2012-11-27T00:30:00-05:00

The Rich Don't Always Win The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970
Written by Sam Pizzigati

The Occupy Wall Street protests have captured America's political imagination. Polls show that two-thirds of the nation now believe that America's enormous wealth ought to be "distributed more evenly." However, almost as many Americans--well over half--feel the protests will ultimately have "little impact" on inequality in America. What explains this disconnect? Most Americans have resigned themselves to believing that the rich simply always get their way.

Except they don't.

A century ago, the United States hosted a super-rich even more domineering than ours today. Yet fifty years later, that super-rich had almost entirely disappeared. Their majestic mansions and estates had become museums and college campuses, and America had become a vibrant, mass middle class nation, the first and finest the world had ever seen.

Americans today ought to be taking no small inspiration from this stunning change. After all, if our forbears successfully beat back grand fortune, why can't we? But this transformation is inspiring virtually no one. Why? Because the story behind it has remained almost totally unknown, until now.

This lively popular history will speak directly to the political hopelessness so many Americans feel. By tracing how average Americans took down plutocracy over the first half of the 20th Century--and how plutocracy came back-- The Rich Don't Always Win will outfit Occupy Wall Street America with a deeper understanding of what we need to do to get the United States back on track to the American dream.

The Rich Don't Always Win by Sam Pizzigati

2012-11-27T00:30:00-05:00

The Rich Don't Always Win The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970
Written by Sam Pizzigati

The Beginning of the American Fall by Stephanie McMillan

2012-11-13T00:30:00-05:00

The Beginning of the American Fall A Comics Journalist Inside the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Written by Stephanie McMillan

Can a cartoonist and millions of random strangers change the world? The initial stages of their attempt are chronicled in this book of comics-journalism and written observations.

Stephanie McMillan, long-time activist and cartoonist, has waited her entire life for the American people to rise up. Sparked by uprisings around the world, a new movement bursts onto the national scene against a system that denies the people a decent life and puts the planet at risk.

With delightful full-color drawings, interviews, dialogue, description, and insightful reflections, this book chronicles the first several months of the fragile and contradictory movement. It situates detailed personal experiences and representative narratives within the broad context of a truly unique and historical global conjuncture. This book will stand as a record of the emerging movement in accessible comics form.

The Beginning of the American Fall by Stephanie McMillan

2012-11-13T00:30:00-05:00

The Beginning of the American Fall A Comics Journalist Inside the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Written by Stephanie McMillan

Meme Wars by Adbusters

2012-11-13T00:30:00-05:00

Meme Wars The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics
Edited by Kalle Lasn and Adbusters

"Engrossing, exciting [...] This book compels us to rethink our approaches to economics ..."
—Literary Review of Canada

"Thought-provoking and creative" — Julie Nelson, author of Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics

"Meme Wars is a Molotov cocktail tossed into the boardroom. "— Calgary Herald

From the editor and magazine that started and named the Occupy Wall Street movement, Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics is an articulation of what could be the next steps in rethinking and remaking our world that challenges and debunks many of the assumptions of neoclassical economics and brings to light a more ecological model. Meme Wars aims to accelerate the shift into this new paradigm that takes into account psychonomics, bionomics, and other aspects of our physical and mental environment that are often left out in discussions of economics.

Like Adbusters, the book will be image heavy and full-color throughout. Lasn calls it "a textbook for the future" that provides the building blocks, in texts and visuals, for a new way of looking at and changing our world. Through an examination of alternative economies, Lasn hopes to spur students to become "barefoot economists" and to see that a humanization of economics is possible. Meme Wars will include contributions from Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Samuelson, George Akerlof, Lourdes Benería, Julie Matthaei, Manfred Max-Neef, David Orrell, Paul Gilding, Mathis Wackernagel and the father of ecological economics Herman Daly, among others.

Based on ideas that were presented in a special issue of Adbusters entitled "Thought Control in Economics: Beyond the Growth Paradigm / An Activist Toolkit," Meme Wars will help move forward the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto by Howard Bloom

2012-06-05T00:30:00-05:00

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and Trust
Written by Robert David Steele
Foreword by Howard Bloom

What the world lacks right now—especially the United States, where every form of organization from government to banks to labor unions has betrayed the public trust—is integrity. Also lacking is public intelligence in the sense of decision-support: knowing what one needs to know in order to make honest decisions for the good of all, rather than corrupt decisions for the good of the few.

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto is a distillation of author, strategist, analyst, and reformer Robert David Steele life's work: the transition from top-down secret command and control to a world of bottom-up, consensual, collective decision-making as a means to solve the major crises facing our world today. The book is intended to be a catalyst for citizen dialog and deliberation, and for inspiring the continued evolution of a nation in which all citizens realize our shared aspiration of direct democracy—informed participatory democracy. Open-Source Everything is a cultural and philosophical concept that is essential to creating a prosperous world at peace, a world that works for one hundred percent of humanity. The future of intelligence is not secret, not federal, and not expensive. It is about transparency, truth, and trust among our local to global collective. Only "open" is scalable.

As we strive to recover from the closed world corruption and secrecy that has enabled massive fraud within governments, banks, corporations, and even non-profits and universities, this timely book is a manifesto for liberation—not just open technology, but open everything.

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto by Howard Bloom

2012-06-05T00:30:00-05:00

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and Trust
Written by Robert David Steele
Foreword by Howard Bloom

Random House New Releases - Social Science - Social Classes - Between May 22, 2012 and June 21, 2013.

Cancer in the Community by Martha Balshem

Cancer in the Community Class and Medical AuthorityWritten by Martha Balshem

Down the Up Escalator by Barbara Garson

Down the Up Escalator How the 99 Percent Live in the Great RecessionWritten by Barbara Garson

Down the Up Escalator by Barbara Garson

Down the Up Escalator How the 99 Percent Live in the Great RecessionWritten by Barbara Garson

Gun Guys by Dan Baum

Gun Guys A Road TripWritten by Dan Baum

Gun Guys by Dan Baum

Gun Guys A Road TripWritten by Dan Baum

Gun Guys by Richard Kind

Gun Guys A Road TripWritten by Dan Baum Read by Richard Kind

Meme Wars by Adbusters

Meme Wars The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical EconomicsWritten by Kalle Lasn Edited by Adbusters

Coming Apart by Charles Murray

Coming Apart The State of White America, 1960-2010Written by Charles Murray

The Rich Don't Always Win by Sam Pizzigati

The Rich Don't Always Win The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970Written by Sam Pizzigati

The Rich Don't Always Win by Sam Pizzigati

The Rich Don't Always Win The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970Written by Sam Pizzigati

The Beginning of the American Fall by Stephanie McMillan

The Beginning of the American Fall A Comics Journalist Inside the Occupy Wall Street MovementWritten by Stephanie McMillan

The Beginning of the American Fall by Stephanie McMillan

The Beginning of the American Fall A Comics Journalist Inside the Occupy Wall Street MovementWritten by Stephanie McMillan

Meme Wars by Adbusters

Meme Wars The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical EconomicsEdited by Kalle Lasn and Adbusters

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto by Howard Bloom

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and TrustWritten by Robert David Steele Foreword by Howard Bloom

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto by Howard Bloom

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and TrustWritten by Robert David Steele Foreword by Howard Bloom

Cancer in the Community Class and Medical Authority
Written by Martha Balshem

Down the Up Escalator How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession
Written by Barbara Garson

Down the Up Escalator How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession
Written by Barbara Garson

Gun Guys A Road Trip
Written by Dan Baum

Gun Guys A Road Trip
Written by Dan Baum

Gun Guys A Road Trip
Written by Dan Baum
Read by Richard Kind

Meme Wars The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics
Written by Kalle Lasn
Edited by Adbusters

Coming Apart The State of White America, 1960-2010
Written by Charles Murray

The Rich Don't Always Win The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970
Written by Sam Pizzigati

The Rich Don't Always Win The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970
Written by Sam Pizzigati

The Beginning of the American Fall A Comics Journalist Inside the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Written by Stephanie McMillan

The Beginning of the American Fall A Comics Journalist Inside the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Written by Stephanie McMillan

Meme Wars The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics
Edited by Kalle Lasn and Adbusters

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and Trust
Written by Robert David Steele
Foreword by Howard Bloom

The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and Trust
Written by Robert David Steele
Foreword by Howard Bloom