Author: JANUSZ BUGAJSKI As the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008 demonstrated in no uncertain terms, Russia has developed into a neo-imperialist power seeking to restore its spheres of dominance, to undermine the emergence of a wider Europe, and to prevent the development of a coherent transatlantic community. Under the Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev presidencies, the Russian Federation has set for itself an ambitious foreign policy goal of counterbalancing U.S. influence and curtailing the expansion of Western multinational institutions. This strategys key component is to raise Russias global stature and to diminish Americas role by undermining the NATO alliance and neutralizing the European Union. The Georgian conflict demonstrates that Moscow is prepared to use military force to achieve its strategic objectives. Janusz Bugajski explores how the Russian authorities have systematically sought to undermine Western interests through sustained diplomatic campaigns, increasing control over energy supplies, escalating political subversion, and the recent military campaign in the Caucasus. He provides evidence that the notion of a strategic partnership between Washington and Moscow is premature at best and a dangerous deception at worst. The struggle between the Western democratic model and the Russian authoritarian alternative will have a lasting impact on Americas global alliances.

Author: By Elizabeth L. Eisenstein There is a longstanding confusion of Johann Fust, Gutenberg's one-time business partner, with the notorious Doctor Faustus. The association is not surprising to Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, for from its very early days the printing press was viewed by some as black magic. For the most part, however, it was welcomed as a divine art by Western churchmen and statesmen. Sixteenth-century Lutherans hailed it for emancipating Germans from papal rule, and seventeenth-century English radicals viewed it as a weapon against bishops and kings. While an early colonial governor of Virginia thanked God for the absence of printing in his colony, a century later, revolutionaries on both sides of the Atlantic paid tribute to Gutenberg for setting in motion an irreversible movement that undermined the rule of priests and kings. Yet scholars continued to praise printing as a peaceful art. They celebrated the advancement of learning while expressing concern about information overload.In Divine Art, Infernal Machine, Eisenstein, author of the hugely influential The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, has written a magisterial and highly readable account of five centuries of ambivalent attitudes toward printing and printers. Once again, she makes a compelling case for the ways in which technological developments and cultural shifts are intimately related. Always keeping an eye on the present, she recalls how, in the nineteenth century, the steam press was seen both as a giant engine of progress and as signaling the end of a golden age. Predictions that the newspaper would supersede the book proved to be false, and Eisenstein is equally skeptical of pronouncements of the supersession of print by the digital.The use of print has always entailed ambivalence about serving the muses as opposed to profiting from the marketing of commodities. Somewhat newer is the tension between the perceived need to preserve an ever-increasing mass of texts against the very real space and resource constraints of bricks-and-mortar libraries. Whatever the multimedia future may hold, Eisenstein notes, our attitudes toward print will never be monolithic. For now, however, reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

Author: Olivier Zunz Five historians uncover the ties between people's daily routines and the all-encompassing framework of their lives. They trace the processes of social construction in Western Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa, and China, discussing both the historical similarities and the ways in which individual history has shaped each area's development. They stress the need for a social history that connects individuals to major ideological, political, and economic transformations.

Author: Richard A. Couto with Stephanie C. Eken A brilliant piece of work, and one that not only adds new dimensions to our thinking about leadership but also tailors it to the community health field with wonderful and inspiring stories. --Meredith Minkler, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley The importance of the programs so vividly described in this important book-what they stand for, what they have accomplished, what it takes to make them work-cannot be overstated. Besides the powerful narrations of 'ordinary people' confronting very real and human situations, their accounts describe effective strategies that work, even in the most difficult situations. The verification of how actual change can take place at the grass-roots level is especially relevant in this post-September 11 era. --Edward J. Eckenfels,Emeritus Professor, Rush Medical College Democracy needs the extraordinary efforts of ordinary people. The experiences of the twelve creative community health leaders, which this book presents, provide excellent examples of innovative democratic leadership. Selected from recipients of awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program, the leaders range from Lorelei DeCora, who works to control the diabetes epidemic among Native Americans, to Judy Panko Reis, an advocate for accessible health care for women with disabilities, to Ron Brown, who helps recovering addicts at Odyssey House in Flint, Michigan. These activists work with people-Native Americans, migrant workers, Central American refugees, disabled persons, inner-city residents, and the rural poor-who have too little of the social goods, such as education, housing, and health care, that others take for granted. Their action conveys the conviction that the fullest form of democracy calls each of us to leadership for improved forms of community, including a health care system for all. Not only is this book rich in issues of health care delivery, political economy, and social justice, but it also contains much about the strategies of community organizing and program development. Health professionals in all institutional settings will find that the stories get to the heart of why they entered and remain in a helping profession, community organizers will find practical political lessons, and all readers will find a higher standard for democratic practice. To Give Their Gifts recaptures the neglected narratives of democracy. It places community and mutual responsibility for one another at the center of democratic leadership, explains health care as social justice, and asserts the belief that everyone has the gifts--and the right--to contribute to community.