Showing results by narrator "Peter Lerman" in All Categories

The Anatomy of Fake News offers the first historical examination of fake news that takes as its goal the effective teaching of critical news literacy in the United States. Higdon employs a critical-historical media ecosystems approach to identify the producers, themes, purposes, and influences of fake news.

‘Other People’s Money and How Bankers Used It’ was a seminal text in the Progressive Era, aligning with broader calls for reform in American society. The book contributed to the growing push for financial regulation, and its ideas influenced the creation of laws such as the Federal Reserve Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, which were intended to curb the power of monopolies and promote fair competition.

Had Upton Sinclair not written a single book after The Jungle, he would still be famous. But Sinclair was a mere 25 years old when he wrote The Jungle, and over the next 65 years, he wrote nearly 80 more books and won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He was also a filmmaker, labor activist, women’s rights advocate, and health pioneer on a grand scale. This new biography of Sinclair underscores his place in the American story as a social, political, and cultural force, a man who more than any other disrupted and documented his era in the name of social justice.

Surveillance Capitalism in America offers a crucial historical perspective on the intimate relationship between surveillance and capitalism. While surveillance is often associated with governments, today the role of the private sector in the spread of everyday surveillance is the subject of growing public debate. Tech giants like Google and Facebook are fueled by a continuous supply of user data and digital exhaust. Surveillance is not just a side effect of digital capitalism; it is the business model itself.

The chapters contained in this book present Mr. Roosevelt's views on many of the great national issues of the day. They were written since Mr. Roosevelt's return to America and appeared originally in The Outlook as editorials or articles. These articles include "The Management of Small States Which Are Unable to Manage Themselves", "A Remedy for Some Forms of Selfish Legislation", "Rural Life", "The Progressives, Past and Present", "The Pioneer Spirit and American Problems", and "The Tariff: A Moral Issue".

In 1925, the greatest muckraking journalist and advocate for the working man, Upton Sinclair, believed that the cause in which he believed needed to be clearly and concisely explained - in plain English - for the benefit of the American worker. He contended that the elected government was run by the financial supporters of the political parties; that big business, with the support of the courts and legislatures and media at all levels, was exploiting and mistreating workers, and focusing their efforts every day to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

If it were your job to bring a company to the bargaining table so it could merge, sell, or divest, you had better have the stamina and guts as well as an intricate knowledge of how the human mind operates. Negotiating these kinds of deals is not for the faint of heart. But for over 50 years, one merchandising giant after another - Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Home Depot, Nine West, Kohl's, Macy's, Sears, CVS, The Limited, Dollar Tree, Eddie Bauer, Interparfums, Jeffrey Stores, and Jos A. Bank, to name a few - have relied on Gilbert Harrison to help them forge just these kinds of deals.

Upton Sinclair was first and foremost the most eminent and impactful muckraking journalist of the early 20th century (The Jungle - 1906: precipitated meaningful and permanent improvements in the safety and purity of the food we eat).

Our protagonist comes to New York as a lawyer seeking to make his name and build a career. His younger brother has come before him and has already been successful in working his way into the inner circles of the High Society. The younger brother introduces him to the moguls with their extraordinary fortunes, amassed by owners of the Trusts, the Monopolies, the Banks, and the Financiers. With all the money in the world has come all the power. And, with all the money and the power has come the grotesque excess and the decadence and the moral rot.

In the spring of 1946, following the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, America found itself still struggling with the subtler but no less insidious tyrannies of racism and segregation at home. In the midst of it all, Jackie Robinson, a full year away from breaking major league baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was undergoing a harrowing dress rehearsal for integration - his first spring training as a minor league prospect with the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s AAA team.

Schmitz illuminates how the policies FDR pursued in response to the crises of the 1930s transformed Americans' thinking about their place in the world. He shows how the president developed an interlocking set of ideas that prompted a debate between isolationism and preparedness, guided the United States into World War II, and mobilized support for the war while establishing a sense of responsibility for the postwar world.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with recent movers in over a 100 diverse US households, David Ekerdt analyzes the downsizing process and what it says about the meaning and management of possessions. He details how households approach and accomplish downsizing, exploring the decision-making process and the effectiveness of different strategies.

The hard-to-believe fact - but nonetheless true - is a single question a day can help you take steps to grow infinite love that lasts, not only today but forever and ever and then some. In the story, John and Maria accept the challenge. Come join them and be surprised and delighted with them as you discover you can grow your true love that lasts by asking just a single question a day.

For decades the suburbs have been where art happens despite: despite the conformity, the emptiness, the sameness. Time and again, the story is one of gems formed under pressure and that resentment of the suburbs is the key ingredient for creative transcendence. But what if, contrary to that, the suburb has actually been an incubator for distinctly American art, as positively and as surely as in any other cultural hothouse?

George Washington is remembered for leading the Continental Army to victory, presiding over the Constitution, and forging a new nation, but few know the story of his involvement in the establishment of a capital city and how it nearly tore the United States apart. In George Washington's Final Battle, Robert P. Watson brings this tale to life, telling how the country's first president tirelessly advocated for a capital on the shores of the Potomac.

While certainly flawed in many aspects - the New Deal was implemented by a Democratic Party still beholden to the segregationist South for its majorities in Congress and the Electoral College - the New Deal was instated at a time of mass unemployment and the rise of fascistic government models and functioned as a bulwark of American democracy in hard times. This book looks at how this legacy, both for good and ill, informs the current debates around governmental responses to crises.

Since FDR, the US healthcare system has been mired in politics and policy. All the while it has only increased in complexity and cost. Today half of all personal bankruptcies are attributable to healthcare costs. Many community hospitals are barely getting by with single digit profit margins. With a system teetering on the edge of a systemic crisis, we need to turn to a brand-new approach to rescue the US healthcare system.

Ballot box voting is often considered the essence of political freedom. But it has two major shortcomings: individual voters have little chance of making a difference, and they also face strong incentives to remain ignorant about the issues at stake. "Voting with your feet", however, avoids both of these pitfalls and offers a wider range of choices. In Free to Move, Ilya Somin explains how broadening opportunities for foot voting can greatly enhance political liberty for millions of people around the world.

A penetrating look at near-future disruption as truly autonomous vehicles arrive.

Based in the idea that social phenomena are best studied through the lens of different disciplinary perspectives, Empty Churches studies the growing number of individuals who no longer affiliate with a religious tradition. Coeditors Jan Stets, a social psychologist, and James Heft, a historian of theology, bring together leading scholars in the fields of sociology, developmental psychology, gerontology, political science, history, philosophy, and pastoral theology.