Two months after the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration, in the midst of what it perceived to be a state of emergency, authorized the indefinite detention of noncitizens suspected of terrorist activities and their subsequent trials by a military commission. Here, distinguished Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben uses such circumstances to argue that this unusual extension of power, or "state of exception," has historically been an underexamined and powerful strategy that has the potential to transform democracies into totalitarian states.
The sequel to Agamben's Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, State of Exception is the first book to theorize the state of exception in historical and philosophical context. In Agamben's view, the majority of legal scholars and policymakers in Europe as well as the United States have wrongly rejected the necessity of such a theory, claiming instead that the state of exception is a pragmatic question. Agamben argues here that the state of exception, which was meant to be a provisional measure, became in the course of the twentieth century a normal paradigm of government. Writing nothing less than the history of the state of exception in its various national contexts throughout Western Europe and the United States, Agamben uses the work of Carl Schmitt as a foil for his reflections as well as that of Derrida, Benjamin, and Arendt.
In this highly topical book, Agamben ultimately arrives at original ideas about the future of democracy and casts a new light on the hidden relationship that ties law to violence.
About this product: An internationally bestselling thriller, The Exception dissects the nature of evil and the paranoia that drives ordinary people to commit unthinkable acts.
Four women work together for a small nonprofit in Copenhagen that disseminates information on genocide. When two of them receive death threats, they immediately believe that they are being stalked by Mirko Zigic, the Serbian torturer and war criminal they recently profiled in their articles. Yet as tensions mount among the women, their suspicions turn away from Zigic and toward each other. The threats increase, and soon the office becomes a battlefield in which each of the women's move is suspect.
About this product: Neoliberalism is commonly viewed as an economic doctrine that seeks to limit the scope of government. Some consider it a form of predatory capitalism with adverse effects on the Global South. In this groundbreaking work, Aihwa Ong offers an alternative view of neoliberalism as an extraordinarily malleable technology of governing that is taken up in different ways by different regimes, be they authoritarian, democratic, or communist. Ong shows how East and Southeast Asian states are making exceptions to their usual practices of governing in order to position themselves to compete in the global economy. As she demonstrates, a variety of neoliberal strategies of governing are re-engineering political spaces and populations. Ong’s ethnographic case studies illuminate experiments and developments such as China’s creation of special market zones within its socialist economy; pro-capitalist Islam and women’s rights in Malaysia; Singapore’s repositioning as a hub of scientific expertise; and flexible labor and knowledge regimes that span the Pacific.
Ong traces how these and other neoliberal exceptions to business as usual are reconfiguring relationships between governing and the governed, power and knowledge, and sovereignty and territoriality. She argues that an interactive mode of citizenship is emerging, one that organizes people—and distributes rights and benefits to them—according to their marketable skills rather than according to their membership within nation-states. Those whose knowledge and skills are not assigned significant market value—such as migrant women working as domestic maids in many Asian cities—are denied citizenship. Nevertheless, Ong suggests that as the seam between sovereignty and citizenship is pried apart, a new space is emerging for NGOs to advocate for the human rights of those excluded by neoliberal measures of human worthiness.
About this product: Now in paperback, the national bestseller that challenges the corporate and political hypocrisy that has silenced America n Exception to the Rulers, award-winning journalist Amy Goodman exposes the lies, corruption, and crimes of the power elite-an elite that is bolstered by large media conglomerates who obscure the truth. Her goal is 'to go where the silence is, to give voice to the silenced majority,' and she is fond of quoting Margaret Mead: 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' This book informs and empowers people to act on that principle.
"He brings something ancient and compelling . . . a kind of rare Sephardic wisdom, a brilliance traveling at the speed of Los Angeles light. He is one of America's very best poets. A true visionary."-Tomaz Salamun
"Angel's poems are deceptively quiet, deceptively calm. Beneath their carefully constructed surfaces, they are wild, even intimidating. The power of restraint in poetry cannot be overestimated. . . . These poems burn from within."-Carol Muske-Dukes, LA Times
With the publication of his award-winning volumes, Anxious Latitudes, Neither World, and Twice Removed, Ralph Angel has won the admiration of readers of contemporary poetry for the extraordinary abstract lyricism of his poems. There is a superb grace, speculative intelligence, and a wry philosophical wisdom to Angel's poetry. There are few poets so accomplished at creating an elegant yet innovative and provocative voice. Now, in Ralph Angel's Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 19862006, we find ourselves again in the presence of poetry that will move us even closer to a new and renewed promise of the American sublime. As Mark Doty has written, "These are the poems of a casual, down-to-earth philosopher who's been spun around and turned inside out by loss, by the desolation of life in the late [and early] hours of the century. . . . Angel's poems are stamped indelibly with the mark of a unique, shaping imagination, and they're fresh with news of how it feels to live right now. He creates himself and his poems' characters, strange people in a strangely familiar place. We recognize them, of course, as well we might since they are ourselves and the city where they live is ours.
Ralph Angel is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Anxious Latitudes; Neither World, which received the 1995 James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets; and Twice Removed; as well as a translation of Federico García Lorca's Poem of the Deep Song.
Angel's poems have appeared in scores of magazines and anthologies, both here and abroad, and recent literary awards include a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the 2003 Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Mr. Angel is the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Redlands, and a member of the MFA Program in Writing faculty at Vermont College. Originally from Seattle, he lives in Los Angeles.
About this product: I'm a huge fan of this author's work and confess I probably wouldn't have tried a Bombshell title if she hadn't written one. Wow. Okay, now I'm sold. Imagine the pace of the TV show Alias, the smart, emotional whammy of Buffy, and add characters you care about every minute. Did I mention humor and yummy leading man?
My only complaint? It's over too soon. MORE!!!!!
About this product: In 1949, lawyer, historian, and journalist Carey McWilliams stepped back to assess the state of California at the end of its first one hundred years--its history, population, politics, agriculture, and social concerns. As he examined the reasons for the prodigious growth and productivity that have characterized California since the Gold Rush, he praised the vitality of the new citizens who had come from all over the world to populate the state in a very short time. But he also made clear how brutally the new Californians dealt with "the Indian problem," the water problem, and the need for migrant labor to facilitate California's massive and highly profitable agricultural industry. As we look back now on 150 years of statehood, it is particularly useful to place the events of the past fifty years in the context of McWilliams's assessment in California: The Great Exception. Lewis Lapham has written a new foreword for this edition.
"Still the single best analysis of California's distinctive path of economic and social development, by the state's most accurate observer." --Richard Walker, University of California, Berkeley
"The classic account of the titanic social conflicts that have shaped California as a unique state-nation on the Pacific." --Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz
About this product: Tired of being beaten by an honest game of golf, self-proclaimed hacker Henry Beard figured that he didn't need a new swing--his game just needed a new set of rules. With The Official Exceptions to the Rules of Golf, he created a bible for the sensible golfer who doesn't have time to lose.
You'll learn how to cope with pesky influences: missed shots and lost balls that wreak havoc on your score. Did you search unsuccessfully for your ball in the fairway? Don't panic. All you have to do is declare that it is a Ball Missing in Fairway But Obviously Not Lost (Exception #6) and drop another ball into the approximate spot where it must have landed. What could make more sense?
Filled with fair rules, this is the book that every practical golfer must have.
About this product: Customer Expectation Management (CEM) is a business approach that identifies and shapes customer expectations, and once set by the company, those expectations are met without exception.
Seemingly simple ideas are often the most powerful, and the hardest to uncover. In the 20th century, it was Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives. In the 21st century, it's Management by Expectation. Author Terry Schurter reveals the simple, yet powerful, idea of defining your business, not in terms of the goods and services you provide, but in terms of "customer expectations." Schurter explicitly links corporate strategy down into every niche and corner of the enterprise to ensure that your business sets and meets customer expectations --without exception. Providing clear and actionable guidelines, along with examples from FedEx, Virgin Mobile, Best Buy and a budget airline, he explains what companies can do to increase the customer pipeline, convert higher percentages of that pipeline to profitability, and extend the duration of the customer relationship where profitability is at its peak. ______________________________
This must-read book gives us powerful insights about the need to do no more, or less, than meet customer expectations --every time. It has great advice about how easy it can be to do that and become a hyper-competitive business. --Roger Tregear, Leonardo Consulting, Canberra, Australia
Simply working harder at existing approaches - even excellent ones - may not be enough to retain demanding customers. As price differentials narrow and product features are quickly copied, business survival requires an unrelenting focus upon identifying and delivering additional and differentiating value for customers. Terry Schurter provides a manifesto for all those who are seeking to inspire a greater focus upon the experience of customers. --Colin Coulson, Thomas, Professor of Direction and Leadership, University of Lincoln. Author, Winning Companies, Winning People
About this product: What happens when a thug robs a thug? It was one thing for broke and hungry William Earl Holly, an ex-con, four months fresh out of state prison, to rob, Monica Sparks, Queen City dope girl on the low, by taking her coke, cash, and chromed-out Benz 190. But it was another thing altogether when William put his hands on her child in the process. In the eyes of Monica and her thugged-out associates, that was a fatal mistake. One that they were all determined to have William answer for. But first, William had to be found. Follow new author, Kareem Tomblin as he weaves an exciting tale about revenge and how one negative action can destroy the lives of those involved due to retaliation. As Monica search for William, drama ensues and the hood will never be the same.
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