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Hope for American democracy in an era of deep divisions In Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer quickens our instinct to seek the common good and gives us the tools to do it. This timely, courageous and practical work—intensely personal as well as political—is not about them, «those people» in Washington D.C., or in our state capitals, on whom we blame our political problems. It's about us, «We the People,» and what we can do in everyday settings like families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations and workplaces to resist divide-and-conquer politics and restore a government «of the people, by the people, for the people.» In the same compelling, inspiring prose that has made him a bestselling author, Palmer explores five «habits of the heart» that can help us restore democracy's foundations as we nurture them in ourselves and each other: An understanding that we are all in this together An appreciation of the value of «otherness» An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways A sense of personal voice and agency A capacity to create community Healing the Heart of Democracy is an eloquent and empowering call for «We the People» to reclaim our democracy. The online journal Democracy & Education called it «one of the most important books of the early 21st Century.» And Publishers Weekly, in a Starred Review, said «This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it.»

Online technologies excite the public imagination with narratives of democratization. The Internet is a political medium, borne of democracy, but is it democratizing? Late modern democracies are characterized by civic apathy, public skepticism, disillusionment with politics, and general disinterest in conventional political process. And yet, public interest in blogging, online news, net-based activism, collaborative news filtering, and online networking reveal an electorate that is not disinterested, but rather, fatigued with political conventions of the mainstream. This book examines how online digital media shape and are shaped by contemporary democracies, by addressing the following issues: How do online technologies remake how we function as citizens in contemporary democracies? What happens to our understanding of public and private as digitalized democracies converge technologies, spaces and practices? How do citizens of today understand and practice their civic responsibilities, and how do they compare to citizens of the past? How do discourses of globalization, commercialization and convergence inform audience/producer, citizen/consumer, personal/political, public/private roles individuals must take on? Are resulting political behaviors atomized or collective? Is there a public sphere anymore, and if not, what model of civic engagement expresses current tendencies and tensions best? Students and scholars of media studies, political science, and critical theory will find this to be a fresh engagement with some of the most important questions facing democracies today.

Fischer offers a captivating analysis of Europe’s turbulent history during the first half of the twentieth century, from the optimism at the turn of the century to the successive waves of destruction of the First and Second World Wars. Written by a leading authority in this field, the book draws upon his areas of expertise Reflects the most recent scholarship in this period of history While laying stress on Europe's major powers and the seminal events of the earlier twentieth century, Fischer pays due attention to the smaller European countries from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and the Baltic to the Mediterranean Extends beyond the political, sociological, and economic paradigms to include extensive references to the European cultural scene Organized both as a broad chronology and thematically, in order to allow for historical insights and entry into the key debates and literature