Latin America is one of the most violent regions in the world. It has suffered waves of repressive authoritarian rule, organized armed insurgency and civil war, violent protest, and ballooning rates of criminal violence. But is violence hard-wired into Latin America? This is a critical reassessment of the ways in which violence in Latin America is addressed and understood. Previous approaches have relied on structural perspectives, attributing the problem of violence to Latin America's colonial past or its conflictual contemporary politics. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, this volume argues that violence is often rooted more in contingent outcomes than in deeply embedded structures. Addressing topics ranging from the root sources of violence in Haiti to kidnapping in Colombia, from the role of property rights in patterns of violence to the challenges of peacebuilding, The Politics of Violence in Latin America is an essential step towards understanding the causes and contexts of violence-and changing the mechanisms that produce it.

Popularly thought of as a recreational vehicle and one of the key ingredients of an ideal wilderness getaway, the canoe is also a political vessel. A potent symbol and practice of Indigenous cultures and traditions, the canoe has also been adopted to assert conservation ideals, feminist empowerment, citizenship practices, and multicultural goals. Documenting many of these various uses, this book asserts that the canoe is not merely a matter of leisure and pleasure; it is folded into many facets of our political life. Taking a critical stance on the canoe, The Politics of the Canoe expands and enlarges the stories that we tell about the canoe's relationship to, for example, colonialism, nationalism, environmentalism, and resource politics. To think about the canoe as a political vessel is to recognize how intertwined canoes are in the public life, governance, authority, social conditions, and ideologies of particular cultures, nations, and states. Almost everywhere we turn, and any way we look at it, the canoe both affects and is affected by complex political and cultural histories. Across Canada and the U.S., canoeing cultures have been born of activism and resistance as much as of adherence to the mythologies of wilderness and nation building. The essays in this volume show that canoes can enhance how we engage with and interpret not only our physical environments, but also our histories and present-day societies.

A rare classic in American social science, Edgar Thompson's 1932 University of Chicago dissertation, "The Plantation," broke new analytic ground in the study of the southern plantation system. Thompson refuted long-espoused climatic theories of the origins of plantation societies and offered instead a richly nuanced understanding of the links between plantation culture, the global history of capitalism, and the political and economic contexts of hierarchical social classification. This first complete publication of Thompson's study makes available to modern readers one of the earliest attempts to reinterpret the history of the American South as an integral part of global processes. In this Southern Classics edition, editors Sidney W. Minz and George Baca provide a thorough introduction explicating Thompson's guiding principles and grounding his germinal work in its historical context. Thompson viewed the plantation as a political institution in which the quasi-industrial production of agricultural staples abroad through race-making labor systems solidified and advanced European state power. His interpretation marks a turning point in the scientific study of an ancient agricultural institution, in which the plantation is seen as a pioneering instrument for the expansion of the global economy. Further, his awareness of the far-reaching history of economic globalization and of the conception of race as socially constructed predicts viewpoints that have since become standard. As such, this overlooked gem in American intellectual history is still deeply relevant for ongoing research and debate in social, economic and political history.

The Perfect Home for a Long Life responds to the anxieties of boomers and seniors about where to live when they grow old and their fears about ending up in a nursing home. This book is designed to help people plan their future by providing creative and concrete examples of the many ways they can organize their living arrangements to support lives of quality and fulfillment throughout their retirement years. Housing needs are as individual as the residents themselves, and The Perfect Home for a Long Life guides the reader to discover what their needs are and how to fulfill them. The Perfect Home for a Long Life looks at downsizing, modifying your home, and retirement communities, as well as innovative solutions such as cohousing, shared housing, supportive housing, along with a number of other creative options. The focus is on practical housing solutions and replicable ideas with insights into the benefits and challenges of each option. The ideas are illuminated through dozens of confidential interviews with seniors, who share insights into living arrangements that are working for them and why. Combining practical lived experiences with research, tips and resources, The Perfect Home for a Long Life is an essential guide for anyone experiencing retirement or planning for the future.

This book explores the complicated relationship between Hamilton Harbour and the people who came to reside on its shores. From the time of European settlement through to Hamilton’s rise as an industrial city, townsfolk struggled with nature, and with one another, to champion their vision of “the bay” as a place to live, work, and play. The authors bring to life the personalities and power struggles, drawing on a rich collection of archival materials. Along the way, they challenge readers to consider how moral and political choices being made about the natural world today will shape the cities of tomorrow.

A rural physician learns that a former doctor at his clinic committed a shocking crime, leading him to uncover an undiagnosed mental health crisis in our broken prison system--a powerful true story expanding on one of the most popular This American Life episodes of all time. When family physician Dr. Benjamin Gilmer began working at the Cane Creek clinic in rural North Carolina, he was following in the footsteps of a man with the same last name. His predecessor, Dr. Vince Gilmer, was beloved by his patients and community--right up until the shocking moment when he strangled his ailing father and then returned to the clinic for a regular day of work after the murder. He'd been in prison for nearly a decade by the time Benjamin arrived, but Vince's patients would still tell Benjamin they couldn't believe the other Dr. Gilmer was capable of such violence. The more Benjamin looked into Vince's case, the more he knew that something was wrong. Vince knew, too. He complained from the time he was arrested of his "SSRI brain," referring to withdrawal from his anti-depressant medication. When Benjamin visited Vince in prison, he met a man who was obviously fighting his own mind, constantly twitching and veering off into nonsensical tangents. Enlisting This American Life journalist Sarah Koenig, Benjamin resolved to get Vince the help he needed. But time and again, the pair would come up against a prison system that cared little about the mental health of its inmates--despite an estimated one third of them suffering from an untreated mental illness. In The Other Dr. Gilmer, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer tells of how a caring man was overcome by a perfect storm of rare health conditions, leading to an unimaginable crime. Rather than get treatment, Vince Gilmer was sentenced to life in prison--a life made all the worse by his untrustworthy brain and prison and government officials who dismissed his situation. A large percentage of imprisoned Americans are suffering from mental illness when they commit their crimes and continue to suffer, untreated, in prison. In a country with the highest incarceration rates in the world, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer argues that some crimes need to be healed rather than punished.

In 1921, prominent lawyer and Nova Scotia Black leader James R. Johnston’s vision of a place welcoming of Black children came to reality. In an era of segregation and overt racism that saw most orphanages refuse to take in Black children, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children fulfilled an important role. But despite its good intentions, today the Home is mostly known for a troubling past. Former residents launched a class action lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered at the Home over a period of several decades. In The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children: The Hurt, The Hope, and The Healing, author Wanda Taylor interviews former residents participating in the lawsuit and upcoming public inquiry and connects their stories to her own relationship with the Home. The former residents in this book provide an unsettling, and sometimes graphic, description of what life was like inside the Home and describe the many ways the government system designed to protect them instead exacerbated a culture of abuse and neglect.

“Nonviolence is not the recourse of the weak but actually calls for an uncommon kind of strength; it is not a refraining from something but the engaging of a positive force,” renowned peace activist Michael Nagler writes. Here he offers a step-by-step guide to creatively using nonviolence to confront any problem and to build change movements capable of restructuring the very bedrock of society. Nagler identifies some specific tactical mistakes made by unsuccessful nonviolent actions such as the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the Occupy protests and includes stories of successful nonviolent resistance from around the world, including an example from Nazi Germany. And he shows that nonviolence is more than a tactic—it is a way of living that will enrich every area of our lives.

Here is a clear, wide-ranging introduction to the worldwide state of human health. Starting with a brief history of modern medical progress, Shereen Usdin then untangles the knot created by poverty and globalization to show that where you live, how wealthy you are, and your gender all have a bearing on the diseases you may encounter in your lifetime - and your prospects for prevention, treatment, and ultimately, survival. Pulling no punches, Usdin also blows the whistle on the political economy of illness and how keeping people sick means more money for the pharmaceutical, tobacco, and food industries. This No-Nonsense Guide is a must-read for anyone who wants a clear sense of how healthy our global family really is.