Masculinity, Labour, and Neoliberalism

Masculinity, Labour, and Neoliberalism (Charlie Walker & Steven Roberts eds., Palgrave Macmillan 2018).

This book explores the ways in which neoliberal capitalism has reshaped the lives of working-class men around the world. It focuses on the effects of employment change and of new forms of governmentality on men’s experiences of both public and private life. The book presents a range of international studies―from the US, UK, and Australia to Western and Northern Europe, Russia, and Nigeria―that move beyond discourses positing a ‘masculinity crisis’ or pathologizing working-class men. Instead, the authors look at the active ways men have dealt with forms of economic and symbolic marginalization and the barriers they have faced in doing so. While the focus of the volume is employment change, it covers a range of topics from consumption and leisure to education and family.

- Publisher's description

Computer Games and Immersive Entertainment: Next Frontiers in Intellectual Property Law

Computer Games and Immersive Entertainment: Next Frontiers in Intellectual Property Law (Chrissie Scelsi & Ross A. Dannenberg eds., ABA 2d ed. 2018).

A one-of-a-kind, cutting-edge resource, this book explores and discusses how to obtain traditional IP rights in the non-traditional settings of video game and immersive environments, and serves as a primer for practitioners researching these emerging legal issues. Each chapter covers important IP issues involved with computer games and immersive entertainment, including end-user license agreements, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, rights of publicity, and international considerations.

- Publisher's description                                 

Guns in Law

Guns in Law (Austin Sarat et al. eds., University of Massachusetts Press 2019).

Weapons have been a source of political and legal debate for centuries. Aristotle considered the possession of arms a fundamental source of political power and wrote that tyrants “mistrust the people and deprive them of their arms.” Today ownership of weapons—whether handguns or military-grade assault weapons—poses more acute legal problems than ever before. In this volume, the editors’ introduction traces the history of gun control in the United States, arguing that until the 1980s courts upheld reasonable gun control measures. The contributors confront urgent questions, among them the usefulness of history as a guide in ongoing struggles over gun regulation, the changing meaning of the Second Amendment, the perspective of law enforcement on guns and gun control law, and individual and relational perspectives on gun rights.

-Publisher's description

Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West

Heather Hansman, Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West (University of Chicago Press 2019).

The Green River, the most significant tributary of the Colorado River, runs 730 miles from the glaciers of Wyoming to the desert canyons of Utah. Over its course it meanders through ranches, cities, national parks, endangered fish habitats, and some of the most significant natural gas fields in the country, as it provides water for 33 million people. Stopped up by dams, slaked off by irrigation, and dried up by cities, the Green is crucial, overused, and at risk, now more than ever.

Fights over the river’s water, and what’s going to happen to it in the future, are longstanding, intractable, and only getting worse as the West gets hotter and drier and more people depend on the river with each passing year. As a former raft guide and an environmental reporter, Heather Hansman knew these fights were happening, but she felt driven to see them from a different perspective—from the river itself. So she set out on a journey, in a one-person inflatable pack raft, to paddle the river from source to confluence and see what the experience might teach her. Mixing lyrical accounts of quiet paddling through breathtaking beauty with nights spent camping solo and lively discussions with farmers, city officials, and other people met along the way, Downriver is the story of that journey, a foray into the present—and future—of water in the West.

- Publisher's description                                                       

Desert Gardens of Steve Martino

Caren Yglesias et al., Desert Gardens of Steve Martino (2018).

This survey of twenty-one gardens by Steve Martino, whose work blends colorful, man-made elements with native plants to reflect the sun-drenched beauty of the desert, is sure to inspire gardeners, landscapers, and admirers of California and the Southwest.

For more than thirty years, Steve Martino has been committed to the development and advancement of landscape architecture in the Southwest. His pioneering work with native plant material and the development of a desert-derived design aesthetic is widely recognized. A recurring theme of his work is the dramatic juxtaposition of man-made elements with ecological processes of the region. His love for the desert--the interplay of light and shadow, the colors, plants, and wildlife--inspires his work.

As Martino explains, "Gardens consist of two worlds, the man-made and the natural one. I've described my design style as 'Weeds and Walls'--nature and man. I use native plants to make the transition from a building to the adjacent natural desert." 

Though Martino's work is deeply connected to the natural world, he also has a flair for the dramatic, which is apparent from his lively color selections, sculptural use of plants, and keen attention to lighting, shadows, and reflections. Boldly colored stucco walls frame compelling views of the desert and sky, expanding the outdoor living area while solving common site problems such as lack of privacy or shade. Interspersed are custom structures molded in translucent fiberglass in vivid hues--colorful arbors, outdoor showers, and internally lit benches.

- Publisher's description                  

A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy

Russell Muirhead (Dartmouth College) and Nancy L. Rosenblum (Harvard University), A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2019).

“Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new―conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government with the election of Donald Trump. In A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum show how the new conspiracism differs from classic conspiracy theory, why so few officials speak truth to conspiracy, and what needs to be done to resist it.”

 – Publisher’s Description

The Right to Do Wrong: Morality and the Limits of Law

Mark Osiel (University of Iowa College of Law), The Right to Do Wrong: Morality and the Limits of Law (Harvard University Press, 2019).

“Much of what we could do, we shouldn’t—and we don’t. We have a free-speech right to be offensive, but we know we will face outrage in response. We may declare bankruptcy, but not without stigma. Moral norms constantly demand more of us than the law requires, sustaining promises we can legally break and preventing disrespectful behavior the law allows.

Mark Osiel takes up this curious interplay between lenient law and restrictive morality, showing that law permits much wrongdoing because we assume that rights are paired with informal but enforceable duties. . . .For the most part, this system has worked. The Right to Do Wrong collects vivid case studies and social scientific research to explore how resistance to the exercise of rights picks up where law leaves off and shapes the legal system in turn.”

– Publisher’s description

Urban Gardening and The Struggle for Social and Spatial Justice

Chiara Certomà (Ghent University), Susan Noori, and Martin Sondermann (Academy for Spatial Planning and Research), Urban Gardening and The Struggle for Social and Spatial Justice (Manchester University Press, 2019).

“This is the first book which explicitly addressed the issues of urban gardening and spatial justice. As urban gardening, initiatives have mushroomed worldwide, they have targeted a wide range of disparate goals, the majority of which are proven to be socio-political, rather than merely environmental, ecological, or economic. By combining scholarly perspectives with real cases, the essays in this collection focus on how urban gardening practices are able to address the most fundamental issues of spatial justice, social cohesion, inclusiveness, social innovations, and equity in cities.”

 – Publisher’s description

Conformity: The Power of Social Influences

Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard University), Conformity: The Power of Social Influences (New York University Press 2019).

“Bestselling author Cass R. Sunstein reveals the appeal and the danger of conformity. We live in an era of tribalism, polarization, and intense social division — separating people along lines of religion, political conviction, race, ethnicity, and sometimes gender. How did this happen? In Conformity, Cass R. Sunstein argues that the key to making sense of living in this fractured world lies in understanding the idea of conformity — what it is and how it works — as well as the countervailing force of dissent.”

 – Publisher’s description

Rationing the Constitution: How Judicial Capacity Shapes Supreme Court Decision-Making

Andrew Coan (University of Arizona School of Law), Rationing the Constitution: How Judicial Capacity Shapes Supreme Court Decision-Making (Harvard University Press 2019).

“Compared with the vast machinery surrounding Congress and the president, the Supreme Court is a tiny institution that can resolve only a small fraction of the constitutional issues that arise in any given year. Rationing the Constitution shows that this simple yet frequently ignored fact is essential to understanding how the Supreme Court makes constitutional law.

Due to the structural organization of the judiciary and certain widely shared professional norms, the capacity of the Supreme Court to review lower-court decisions is severely limited. From this fact, Andrew Coan develops a novel and arresting theory of Supreme Court decision-making. In deciding cases, the Court must not invite more litigation than it can handle. On many of the most important constitutional questions—touching on federalism, the separation of powers, and individual rights—this constraint creates a strong pressure to adopt hard-edged categorical rules, or defer to the political process, or both. . . . The limits of judicial capacity also substantially constrain the Court’s much touted—and frequently lamented—power to overrule democratic majorities. As Rationing the Constitution demonstrates, the Supreme Court is David, not Goliath.”

– Publisher’s description

Guilty Pleasures: Comedy and Law in America

Laura Little (Temple University Law School), Guilty Pleasures: Comedy and Law in America (Oxford University Press 2019).

“Professor Laura Little has written one of the most interesting, original, and entertaining books that I have read in a long time. She examines how humor is treated by the law in a serious and careful manner, but at the same time reveals the humor about the law in cartoons and jokes. I learned a great deal from the book and also no book about law has caused me to laugh so much.”

 – Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law