Voices of Dissent: E-Books at the Library

The Troubling State of India's Democracy brings together leading scholars from around the world to assess the conditions of India's democracy across three important dimensions: politics, specifically the state of political parties and the party system; the state, including the condition of federalism and the health of various institutions; and society, including NGOs, ethnic and religious tensions, and control of the media. Even though elements of India's democracy seem to function--like its commitment to elections--the contributors document a disturbing trajectory, one that not only threatens to undermine India's own stability, but could also affect the global order.

An incisive, lyrical, and deeply reported account of India's descent into authoritarianism. Traveling across India, interviewing Hindu zealots, armed insurgents, jailed dissidents, and politicians and thinkers from across the political spectrum, Siddhartha Deb reveals a country in which forces old and new have aligned to endanger democracy. The result is an absorbing—and disturbing—portrait. India has become a religious fundamentalist dystopia, one depicted here with a novelist's precise language and eye for detail. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party—a formation explicitly drawing on European fascism—has deftly exploited modern technologies, the media, and market forces to launch a relentless campaign on minorities, women, dissenters, and the poor. Deb profiles these people, as well as those fighting back, including writers, scholars, and journalists. Twilight Prisoners sounds the alarm now that the world's largest democracy is under threat in ways that echo the fissures in the United States, United Kingdom, and so-called democracies the world over.

India will soon be the world's most populated country and its political development will shape the world of the 21st century. Yet Hindu nationalism - at the helm of contemporary Indian politics - is not well understood outside of India, and its links to the global neoliberal trajectory have not been explored. Covering 30 years of Indian politics, this book shows for the first time the importance of education in propagating the acceptance of Hindu nationalism within a neolberal system, including the reframing of the concept of Indian citizenship. The first five years of Modi rule failed to bring about the development that had been promised and have seen India's rapid change from a largely inclusive society to one where religious minorities are denied their basic rights.

A riveting account of how a popularly elected leader has steered the world's largest democracy toward authoritarianism and intoleranceOver the past two decades, thanks to Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has been coupled with a form of national-populism that has ensured its success at the polls, first in Gujarat and then in India at large. Modi managed to seduce a substantial number of citizens by promising them development and polarizing the electorate along ethno-religious lines. Both facets of this national-populism found expression in a highly personalized political style as Modi related directly to the voters through all kinds of channels of communication in order to saturate the public space.Drawing on original interviews conducted across India, Christophe Jaffrelot shows how Modi's government has moved India toward a new form of democracy, an ethnic democracy that equates the majoritarian community with the nation and relegates Muslims and Christians to second-class citizens who are harassed by vigilante groups. He discusses how the promotion of Hindu nationalism has resulted in attacks against secularists, intellectuals, universities, and NGOs. Jaffrelot explains how the political system of India has acquired authoritarian features for other reasons, too. Eager to govern not only in New Delhi, but also in the states, the government has centralized power at the expense of federalism and undermined institutions that were part of the checks and balances, including India's Supreme Court.Modi's India is a sobering account of how a once-vibrant democracy can go wrong when a government backed by popular consent suppresses dissent while growing increasingly intolerant of ethnic and religious minorities.

Majoritarian State traces the ascendance of Hindu nationalism in contemporary India. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP administration has established an ethno-religious and populist style of rule since 2014. Its agenda is also pursued beyond the formal branches of government, as the new dispensation portrays conventional social hierarchies as intrinsic to Indian culture while condoning communal and caste- and gender-based violence. The contributors explore how Hindutva ideology has permeated the state apparatus and formal institutions, and how Hindutva activists exert control over civil society via vigilante groups, cultural policing and violence. Groups and regions portrayed as 'enemies' of the Indian state are the losers in a new order promoting the interests of the urban middle class and business elites. As this majoritarian ideology pervades the media and public discourse, it also affects the judiciary, universities and cultural institutions, increasingly captured by Hindu nationalists. Dissent and difference silenced and debate increasingly sidelined as the press is muzzled or intimidated in the courts. Internationally, the BJP government has emphasised hard power and a fast- expanding security state. This collection of essays offers rich empirical analysis and documentation to investigate the causes and consequences of the illiberal turn taken by the world's largest democracy.

Examines the place of history in the political thought of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, one of the key architects of modern Hindu nationalism. Hindutva and Violence explores the place of history in the political thought of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), the most controversial Indian political thinker of the twentieth century and a key architect of Hindu nationalism. Examining his central claim that "Hindutva is not a word but a history," the book argues that, for Savarkar, this history was not a total history, a complete history, or a narrative history. Rather, its purpose was to trace key historical events to a powerful source-the font of motivation for "chief actors" of the past who had turned to violence in a permanent war for Hindutva as the founding principle of a Hindu nation. At the center of Savarkar's writings are historical characters who not only participated in ethical warfare against invaders, imperialists, and conquerors in India, but also became Hindus in acts of violence. He argues that the discipline of history provides the only method for interpreting Hindutva.

The Collapse of Venezuela documents Venezuela's economic implosion as politicians adopted strategies that severely harmed the economy in their struggle for power. Between 2012 and 2020, Venezuela suffered the largest economic contraction ever documented outside of wartime. This collapse was caused not just by the failure of an economic model but also the deeper failure of its political system to manage the conflicts inherent to a polarized society. The Collapse of Venezuela argues that when the stakes of power are high, politicians have an incentive to adopt political strategies that directly harm the economy.

This book compares the sociopolitical processes behind twomajor revolutions--those of Cuba in 1959, when Fidel Castro came to power, and Venezuelain 1999, when Hugo Chávez won the presidential election.

A Blessing and a Curse examines the lived experience of political change, moral uncertainty, and economic crisis amid Venezuela's controversial Bolivarian Revolution. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in an urban barrio over the course of a decade, Matt Wilde argues that everyday life in this period was intimately shaped by a critical contradiction: that in their efforts to capture a larger portion of oil money and distribute it more widely among the population, the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro pursued policies that ultimately entrenched Venezuela in the very position of dependency they sought to overcome.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has come to dominate the world economically and politically, leading many to describe the United States as an empire. Scholars have analyzed how the US government has worked through international financial institutions, its Central Intelligence Agency, and outright warfare to achieve its will. In this book, Timothy M. Gill spotlights how the US government also worked through democracy promotion to undermine governments abroad, including in Venezuela. President Hugo Chávez, who ruled from 1999 until his death in 2013, was among the democratically elected Latin American state leaders who embraced socialism and challenged the idea of US global power. Gill shows how US government agencies funded and trained opposition parties and activists, and how such intervention often was justified in neocolonial and racist terms. Through analysis of documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, embassy cables, and interviews with US government and Venezuelan nonprofit members, Gill details such operations and the imperial thinking behind them.

Crime and violence soared in twenty-first-century Venezuela even as poverty and inequality decreased, contradicting the conventional wisdom that these are the underlying causes of violence. The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela explains the rise of violence under both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro--leftist presidents who made considerable investment in social programs and political inclusion. Contributors argue that violence arose not from the frustration of inequality, or the needs created by poverty, but rather from the interrelated factors of a particular type of revolutionary governance, extraordinary oil revenues, a reliance on militarized policing, and the persistence of concentrated disadvantage. These factors led to dramatic but unequal economic growth, massive institutional and social change, and dysfunctional criminal justice policies that destabilized illicit markets and social networks, leading to an increase in violent conflict resolution. The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela reorients thinking about violence and its relationship to poverty, inequality, and the state.

Venezuela invertebrada, reúne un coro de voces imprescindibles para entender y enmendar un país que se deshace, con una debilitada democracia. Paola Bautista de Alemán, infatigable venezolana entregada a la tarea de pensar y formar políticos congrega en este libro los análisis de políticos, académicos e intelectuales sobre la hora que vivimos.

A focused history of women and popular culture in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion, to 9/11, to the Taliban's takeover. How does normal social, cultural, religious life survive in constant turmoil? How can the people flourish? These basic questions are examined and answered by Razia Sultanova's academic analysis and deep fieldwork, with extensive eyewitness and personal contacts and conversations with a wide variety of Afghan men and women. She looks at basic questions of gender, identity, nation, tradition, history, popular culture and especially the role of music - classical, popular, modern and contemporary - as a vital element for survival. And all is over-shadowed by the Taliban with on-going threat of terror and repression especially for women and girls.

Afghan women were at the forefront of global agendas in late 2001, fueled by a mix of media coverage, humanitarian intervention and military operations. Calls for "liberating" Afghan women were widespread. Women's roles in Afghanistan have long been politically divisive, marked by struggles between modernization and tradition. Women, politics, and the state have always been intertwined in Afghanistan, and conflicts have been fueled by attempts to challenge or change women's status. It may appear that we have come full circle twenty years later, in late 2021, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban once more. Women's rights in Afghanistan have been stripped away, and any gains--however tenuous--now appear lost. Today, the country navigates both a humanitarian and a human rights crisis. This book measures the rhetoric of liberation and the physical and ideological occupations of Afghanistan over the twenty-year period from 2001 through 2021 through the voices, perspectives, and experiences of those who are implicated in this reality--Afghan women.

Exploring what it means to enact feminist geography, this book brings together contemporary, cutting-edge cases of social justice activism and collaborative research with activists. From Black feminist organizing in the American South to the stories of feminist geography collectives in Latin America, the editors present contemporary case studies from the global north and south. The chapters showcase the strength and vibrancy of activist-engaged scholarship taking place in the field and serve as a call to action, exploring how this work advances real-world efforts to fight injustice and re-make the world as a fairer, more equitable, and more accepting place.

Drawing on extensive interviews with aid officials, women's rights advocates, and women politicians in Western donor countries and across Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, and Nepal, Aiding Empowerment investigates how democracy aid actors promote gender equality in politics. Saskia Brechenmacher and Katherine Mann argue that international assistance for women's political empowerment has evolved significantly over the last three decades, from a first generation of aid programs aimed at integrating women into nascent democratic institutions to a second generation focused on transforming the broader political ecosystem hindering women's equal political influence. However, this evolution is still unfolding, and changes in thinking have outstripped changes in aid practice. Several challenges threaten future progress, from the persistence of patriarchal norms to rising concerns about democratic erosion and backlash. In the face of these hurdles, the book presents practical recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates fighting for women's political empowerment globally.

In Positioning Women in Conflict Studies, Sabrina Karim and Daniel W. Hill, Jr., develop an original framework to study the condition of women in peace and conflict that avoids conflating gender equality with other terms. Karim and Hill re-evaluate the literature on gender, international politics, and conflict to reveal that the term "gender equality" is often used to refer to four distinct concepts: women's inclusion, women's rights, harm to women, and beliefs about women's roles. They develop original measures for each of these concepts and examine their impact on inter-state war onset, intra-state conflict onset, state repression/human rights violations, and terrorism. The results suggest that the relationships between women's status and political violence are not uniform and vary across different aspects of women's status as well as different types of political violence. Overall, Positioning Women in Conflict Studies demonstrates how the conceptualization and measurement of gender equality and women's status is critical in understanding how to reduce political violence globally.

This book caters to scholars, practitioners, and students seeking a profound understanding of the crucial role, implementation, and impact of gender-transformative social protection. It covers diverse topics, including an introduction to gender-transformative change and social protection, analyzing gender inequality within social protection systems, the intersectionality of gender in social protection, gender-responsive policies and programs, addressing gender bias in implementation, empowering women through social protection initiatives, case studies of successful gender-transformative interventions, and monitoring and sustaining transformative change. By offering expert perspectives and practical insights, this handbook serves as an indispensable guide for individuals navigating the complexities of promoting gender equality through social protection. It empowers readers to effect change, foster inclusive societies, and contribute to the advancement of gender-transformative approaches within social protection frameworks, both locally and globally.

Focusing on the flight of women and girls from Venezuela, this book examines the gendered nature of forced displacement and the ways in which the failures of protection regimes to be sensitive to displacement's gendered character affect women and girls, and their sexual and reproductive health. Highlighting how categorical legal distinctions between 'refugees' and 'migrants' fail to capture the dynamics of forced migration in Latin America, it investigates how the operation of this categorical divide generates responsibility and protection gaps in relation to female forced migrants which act as determinants of sexual and reproductive health. Drawing on the voices of displaced women, it argues that a robust political ethics of protection of the forcibly displaced must encompass all necessary fleers and be responsive to the gendered character of forced displacement and particularly to effective access to sexual and reproductive health rights.

In Dictating the Agenda, authors Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis reveal how today's authoritarian states are actively countering liberal ideas and advocacy surrounding human rights and democracy across various global governance domains. The transformed global context has unlocked for authoritarian states the possibility to contend with Western liberal soft power in new, traditionally "non-political" ways, including by plugging or even reversing the very channels of influence that originally spread liberalism. Cooley and Dukalskis ultimately advance a theory of authoritarian snapback, the process in which non-democratic states limit the transnational resonance of liberal ideas at home and advance anti-liberal norms and ideas into the global public sphere.

This book is a concise and compelling exploration of the increasing number and influence of authoritarian regimes. It explains the realities of recent trends to 'autocratisation', the tools these regimes use, what we can do to resist, and why we might even allow ourselves a degree of optimism.

This book analyses major discourses of human rights for democracy and social justice. The chapters contained in the book examine critically major issues confronting human rights for democracy and social justice both locally and globally. Topics covered include dimensional concerns for social justice and human rights and what to do about them, human rights for democracy and social justice, and celebrating cultural diversity in sport.

Righteous Demagogues examines the dynamics of populist politics primarily through four cases in South Asia. In the late 1960s, Indira Gandhi in India and Zulfiqar Bhutto in Pakistan effected reordering populist mobilizations on the left, against the de facto oligarchic regimes of the Congress party and the Ayub Khan government, mobilizing workers, peasants, and the nascent middle classes against widespread exclusion and inequity. In the mid-2010s, Narendra Modi and Imran Khan effected additive populist mobilizations of the right, mobilizing diverse middle classes across India and Pakistan respectively against perceived corruption and inequity. The book applies the framework and typology to explain the causes, dynamics, and consequences of populism in Latin America, Europe and the United States.

Flexible Authoritarianism challenges the idea that the transnational rise of authoritarianism is a backlash against economic globalization and neoliberal capitalism. Flexible authoritarianism--a form of government that simultaneously incentivizes a can-do spirit and suppresses dissent--reflects the resonance between authoritarian and neoliberal ideologies in today's comeback of strongman rule. The book conveys the look and feel of flexible authoritarianism in Russia through the eyes of up-and-coming youth.

In The Social Roots of Authoritarianism, Natalia Forrat describes two models of authoritarianism: the first in which people see the state as their team leader and the other where they trust informal (non-state) leaders and see the state as a source of perks or punishment. Depending on which vision of the state is dominant in society, she argues that autocrats must use different tools to consolidate their regimes or risk a pushback. If people view the state as their team leader, autocrats rely on social conformity and teamwork logic. If people view the state as an outsider, autocrats rely on clientelist bargains and utility maximization logic. Unpacking the grassroot mechanisms maintaining unity-based and division-based authoritarianisms further, Forrat compares the structures of political machines in four Russian regions. She finds that the two regions with centralized organizational structures bound by social solidarity and team logic delivered predictable, stable results across multiple elections. But the other two regions that relied on decentralized structures with multiple levels of brokers acting independently of each other were less effective in delivering stable results.

Across the globe, millions of people have participated in protests and marches, donated to political groups, or lobbied their representatives with the aim of creating lasting social change, overturning repressive laws, or limiting environmental destruction. Yet very little seems to improve for those affected by rapacious governments. Replace the State brings new hope for social justice movements by looking to progressive campaigns that have found success by unconventional, and more direct, means.

Authoritarianism operates on a visceral level rather than relying on arguments. How can we counter authoritarian affects? This publication brings together more than 50 first-hand accounts of anti-authoritarian movements, activists, artists, and scholars from around the world, focusing on the sensuous and emotional dimension of their strategies. From the collective art and aesthetics of feminist movements in India, Iran, Mexico, and Poland, to sewing collectives, subversive internet art in Hong Kong, and even anti-authoritarian board games, the contributions open new perspectives on moments of resistance, subversion, and creation. Indeed, the handbook itself is a work of anti-authoritarian art.

Authoritarianism seems to be everywhere in the political world--even the definition of authoritarianism as any form of non-democratic governance has grown very broad. Attempts to explain authoritarian rule as a function of the interests or needs of the ruler or regime can be misleading. Autocrats Can't Always Get What They Want argues that to understand how authoritarian systems work we need to look not only at the interests and intentions of those at the top, but also at the inner workings of the various parts of the state. Courts, elections, security force structure, and intelligence gathering are seen as structured and geared toward helping maintain the regime. Yet authoritarian regimes do not all operate the same way in the day-to-day and year-to-year tumble of politics. In Autocrats Can't Always Get What They Want, the authors find that when state bodies form strong institutional patterns and forge links with key allies both inside the state and outside of it, they can define interests and missions that are different from those at the top of the regime. By focusing on three such structures (parliaments, constitutional courts, and official religious institutions), the book shows that the degree of autonomy realized by a particular part of the state rests on how thoroughly it is institutionalized and how strong its links are with constituencies. Instead of viewing authoritarian governance as something that reduces politics to rulers' whims and opposition movements, the authors show how it operates--and how much what we call "authoritarianism" varies.

A philosophical exploration of how modern global cinema represents everyday means of resisting authoritarianism and totalitarianism

Despite decades under Putin's rule, it is too simplistic to assert that authoritarianism in Russia has eliminated activism, especially in relation to everyday life. Instead, we must build an awareness of diverse efforts to mobilize citizens to better understand how activism is shaped by and, in turn, shapes the regime.

The traditionally top-down focus in human rights scholarship on laws, institutions, and courts has begun to turn towards a bottom-up focus on activists, advocacy groups, affected communities, and social movements. The essays collected in Legal Mobilization for Human Rights examine a range of issues including which groups claim rights, what they are mobilizing to protect, the goals they pursue, the forums they use, the obstacles they encounter, and the extent of their success or failure. Case studies reveal key themes such as: the importance of human rights to marginalized communities; how political and societal authoritarianism shapes opportunities for effective mobilization; the importance of the choice of forum for instigating change; the role intermediary actors such as NGOs play in innovating strategies to address challenges; the possibilities for subaltern mobilization to reshape human rights law; and the importance of supporting genuinely community-led legal mobilization.

This groundbreaking volume assembles an unparalleled roster of media experts and First Amendment luminaries to chart the future of press freedom in America's changing media landscape. Current and former deans of top US law schools, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, former Supreme Court clerks, and renowned scholars of law and communications offer their collective wisdom on safeguarding journalism amidst unprecedented challenges. Their contributions provide an incisive analysis of emerging threats to press freedom, from technological and economic disruptions to eroding public trust, while proposing innovative legal and policy solutions. The volume tackles cutting-edge issues like artificial intelligence in news production and the evolving definition of 'the press' in the digital age.

An innovative and engaging collection that argues that the concept of propaganda needs to be central to discussions about the contemporary media landscape and its informational ecosystems.

Global adoption of the Internet has exploded, yet we are only beginning to understand the Internet's profound political consequences. Authoritarian states are digitally catching up with their democratic counterparts, and both are showing a growing interest in the use of cyber controls--online censorship and surveillance technologies--that allow governments to exercise control over the Internet. Under what conditions does a digitally connected society actually help states target their enemies? Why do repressive governments sometimes shut down the Internet when faced with uprisings? And how have cyber controls become a dependable tool in the weapons arsenal that states use in civil conflict?

Authoritarian Populism and the Challenges for News Journalism: A Discourse Approach is a cutting‑edge study of the practices of news journalism against the background of surging authoritarian populism. This book traces key challenges for news journalism when reporting on authoritarian populism or on topics (such as immigration and terrorism) that are typically leveraged by far‑right actors and platforms as a way of attracting media attention and boosting their popularity with national electorates. It also offers in‑depth analyses of how these challenges are responded to by news journalists in the actual, day‑to‑day practices of news production, as evidenced in the discourse of news. By placing qualitative, critical analysis of discourse at the heart of the systematic inquiry into authoritarian populism in the news media, this book applies a broad methodological framework for studying (a) political performances and their mediated representations, (b) the complex and, often contradictory, normalizing processes at work in the news media, and (c) the attendant challenges and critical tasks for contemporary news journalism.

Press Freedom and Regulation in a Digital Era: A Comparative Study assesses the extent to which the emergent regulatory model for online news media is shaped by analogies from the past, or rather by a newly prevalent culture of control. By interweaving two distinct strands of analysis - the concepts of press freedom and regulation, and the phenomena of convergence and digitalization - this book examines the key implications of digitalization and assesses the challenges for press freedom in the nascent digital news ecosystem. Drawing upon decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as well as from cases in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, this comparative work comprehensively explores the regulation of the press in the digital era and the impact of the proliferating media laws, policies, and jurisprudence on press freedom. Irini Katsirea identifies the regulatory ruptures that persist and makes concrete and timely recommendations for the evolving online news ecosystem.

In The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression, Richard Moon argues that freedom of expression is valuable because human agency and identity emerge in discourse - in the joint activity of creating meaning. Moon recognizes that the social character of individual agency and identity is crucial to understanding not only the value of expression but also its potential for harm. The book considers a range of issues, including the regulation of advertising, hate speech, pornography, blasphemy, and public protest. The book also considers the shift to social media as the principal platform for public engagement, which has added to the ways in which speech can be harmful while undermining the effectiveness of traditional legal responses to harmful speech. The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression makes the case that the principal threat to public discourse may no longer be censorship, but it is rather the spread of disinformation, which undermines public trust in traditional sources of information and makes engagement between different positions and groups increasingly difficult.

From dodging flames as a child to dodging the secret police as a journalist, this is the story of a life spent leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of truth. Charlie Ndi Chia’s journey is a testament to the power of resilience, the importance of speaking truth to power, and the enduring spirit of journalism in Cameroon. Through arrests, detentions, and exile, he has fought tirelessly to expose corruption, hold those in power accountable, and give a voice to the voiceless. This memoir is a gripping account of one man’s unwavering commitment to journalistic integrity in the face of adversity. It is a story of courage, determination, and the unshakable belief in the power of the media to shape a better future for Cameroon. More than just a personal memoir, this book is a call to action for the next generation of journalists, a reminder that the fight for press freedom is a never-ending battle, but one worth fighting.

Journalism faces multiple threats today all over the world: economic decline, online disinformation, the rise of AI, authoritarian curbs on freedom of the press, and violence against journalists. In such a climate, it's more urgent than ever to ask what journalism is for. Drawing on his experience as a journalist and media commentator, and on interviews with journalists from the US to Myanmar, Jon Allsop examines key concepts that constitute journalism's role: good judgement, concern for truth and critical scrutiny of one or more communities. Along the way, he also considers the relationship between journalism and activism; whether journalists should aspire to change the world and whether they can be seen as champions of democracy.

A Break in the Future considers how activists keep hope alive and work toward future change when social movements fall apart and protests fail. Anthropologist Fuad Musallam investigates the endurance of political possibility in Beirut, Lebanon, between the Arab uprisings of 2010-11 and the Lebanese uprising of October 2019. Despite a regional collapse of political hope and a local inability to effect change in the context of political stasis, postponed elections, and the degradation of civil infrastructure, between every protest cycle a sizable number of people remained engaged and built toward future political opportunities. Through an analysis of activist strategies, Musallam explores the ways in which we grasp different phases of political (dis)engagement together. The book is motivated by a desire to better understand how to keep political possibility alive. To make sense of how possibility endures, this book looks at the ebb and flow of political engagement together, that is, not only at the peaks of recent mobilizations but also at the times in between when, at first glance, little seems to be happening on the ground. Musallam explores how activists cultivated and maintained their political subjectivity--the active and engaged sense of self that motivates political action--across the decade's high and low points. He finds this political subjectivity to be the product of heartbreak and defeat as much as victory, as it underlies several movements at any one time and can sustain activists through multiple setbacks.

In October 1978, a day that started like any other for Ali Mirsepassi - full of anti-Shah protests - ended in near death. He was stabbed and dumped in a ditch on the outskirts of Tehran for having spoken against Khomeini. In this book, Mirsepassi digs up this and other painful memories to ask: How did the Iranian revolutionary movement come to this? How did a people united in solidarity and struggle end up so divided? In this first-hand account, Mirsepassi deftly weaves together his insights as a sociologist of Iran with his memories of provincial life and radical activism in 1960s and 1970s Iran. Attentive to the everyday struggles Iranians faced as they searched for ways to learn about and make history despite state surveillance and censorship, The Loneliest Revolution revisits questions of leftist failure and Islamist victory and ultimately asks us all to probe the memories, personal and collective, that we leave unspoken.

From 1994 to 2006, William F. Schulz headed Amnesty International USA. During this time, he and the organization confronted some of the greatest challenges to human rights, including genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan; controversies over the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the use of torture by the United States after 9/11; as well as growing concern about inequities in the American justice system, from police misconduct to the death penalty. Drawing upon his encounters with tyrants, the inspiration of brave human rights heroes, and collaborations with celebrities ranging from Patrick Stewart to Salma Hayek, Schulz uses poignant narrative and amusing anecdotes to discuss the day-to-day realities of struggling with life-and-death human rights crises. In the process he ducks an assassination threat in Liberia; brings tears to the eyes of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland; and bests America's self-described "toughest sheriff" on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect.

A memoir of danger, oppression, and international politics by a survivor of the Eritrean dictatorship. A view into a secretive country and the uneasy alliances of Africa, and a story of family resilience.