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Author: Theodore Caplow
Publisher: American Enterprise Institute
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 332
ISBN-13: 9780844741383
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Companion v. to the PBS television documentary "The first measured century". Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-296) and index.
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Published: 2001
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DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Companion web site to the PBS program of the same title which presents American history with a combination of data about people, trends and events. Contains selected chapters of the FIRST measured century: an illustrated guide to trends in America, 1900-2000" by Theodore Caplow, Louis Hicks and Ben J. Wattenbergan. Includes introduction to the TV program, trends of the century, viewer's voices, teacher's guide, lesson plans, timeline & challenge.
Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2006-06-17
Total Pages: 448
ISBN-13: 0393340406
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. And yet the idea of innate limits—of biology as destiny—dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. Gould has written a substantial new introduction telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book's claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social woes."
Author: Patrick Smith
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2013-05-21
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 030019529X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →DIV Americans cherish their national myths, some of which predate the country’s founding. But the time for illusions, nostalgia, and grand ambition abroad has gone by, Patrick Smith observes in this original book. Americans are now faced with a choice between a mythical idea of themselves, their nation, and their global “mission,” on the one hand, and on the other an idea of America that is rooted in historical consciousness. To cling to old myths will ensure America’s decline, Smith warns. He demonstrates with deep historical insight why a fundamentally new perspective and self-image are essential if the United States is to find its place in the twenty-first century. In four illuminating essays, Smith discusses America’s unusual (and dysfunctional) relation with history; the Spanish-American War and the roots of American imperial ambition; the Cold War years and the effects of fear and power on the American psyche; and the uneasy years from 9/11 to the present. Providing a new perspective on our nation’s current dilemmas, Smith also offers hope for change through an embrace of authentic history. /div
Author: Sarah E. Igo
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2009-06-30
Total Pages: 409
ISBN-13: 0674038940
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. But remarkably, such data--now woven into our social fabric--became common currency only in the last century. With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Sarah Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans' sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation.
Author: Thomas Piketty
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2017-08-14
Total Pages: 817
ISBN-13: 0674979850
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.
Author: James R. Flynn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012-09-06
Total Pages: 325
ISBN-13: 1107028094
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Seeks to explain the 'Flynn effect' (massive IQ gains over time) and its consequences for gender, race and social equality.
Author: Emanuele Lugli
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2022-05-12
Total Pages: 345
ISBN-13: 0226820009
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →An interdisciplinary history of standardized measurements. Measurement is all around us—from the circumference of a pizza to the square footage of an apartment, from the length of a newborn baby to the number of miles between neighboring towns. Whether inches or miles, centimeters or kilometers, measures of distance stand at the very foundation of everything we do, so much so that we take them for granted. Yet, this has not always been the case. This book reaches back to medieval Italy to speak of a time when measurements were displayed in the open, showing how such a deceptively simple innovation triggered a chain of cultural transformations whose consequences are visible today on a global scale. Drawing from literary works and frescoes, architectural surveys, and legal compilations, Emanuele Lugli offers a history of material practices widely overlooked by historians. He argues that the public display of measurements in Italy’s newly formed city republics not only laid the foundation for now centuries-old practices of making, but also helped to legitimize local governments and shore up church power, buttressing fantasies of exactitude and certainty that linger to this day. This ambitious, truly interdisciplinary book explains how measurements, rather than being mere descriptors of the real, themselves work as powerful molds of ideas, affecting our notions of what we consider similar, accurate, and truthful.
Author: Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2015-03-05
Total Pages: 152
ISBN-13: 0745696511
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →For more than a century, the United States has been the world's most powerful state. Now some analysts predict that China will soon take its place. Does this mean that we are living in a post-American world? Will China's rapid rise spark a new Cold War between the two titans? In this compelling essay, world renowned foreign policy analyst, Joseph Nye, explains why the American century is far from over and what the US must do to retain its lead in an era of increasingly diffuse power politics. America's superpower status may well be tempered by its own domestic problems and China's economic boom, he argues, but its military, economic and soft power capabilities will continue to outstrip those of its closest rivals for decades to come.
