Escape!

Young Adult Fiction

John Reid

The exciting events of this tale begin with young Russian emigre, Alexi Gertoff, meeting a mysterious boy on the streets of Amherst, Nova Scotia. The boy, who barely speaks English, turns out to be the son of Leon Trotsky, and he has come to town to spring his father from the wartime prison camp. Alexi and his family become involved in a dangerous attempt to reunite Trotsky with his wife and children. Based on the real-life imprisonment of Trotsky at the Amherst prison camp during the month of April… (more information)

A Land Without Gods

Process Theory, Maldevelopment and the Mexican Nahuas

Daniel Buckles, Jacques M. Chevalier

”A model of comprehensive, synthetic anthropology… Historically deep, ecologically subtle and symbolically rich while never slighting the key role of political economy.” —James C. Scott, Eugene Meyer Professor of POlitical Science, Yale University ”A masterpiece — anthropology at its best. While offering new insights into Nahua cosmology, this book speaks to critical issues of native production systems and rainforest environment subjected to predatory forces… (more information)

A New Notion: Two Works by C.L.R. James

The Invading Socialist Society and Every Cook Can Govern

Noel Ignatiev, C.L.R. James

C.L.R. James was a leading figure in the independence movement in the West Indies, and the black and working-class movements in both Britain and the United States. As a major contributor to Marxist and revolutionary theory, his project was to discover, document, and elaborate the aspects of working-class activity that constitute the revolution in today’s world. In this volume, Noel Ignatiev, author of How the Irish Became White, provides an extensive introduction to James’ life and thought… (more information)

A Threat from Within

A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism

Yakov M. Rabkin

His profound and extensive grounding in history and political science enabled the author to examine a variety of Judaic scholars whose views, however diverse, reflect the supremacy of Torah ethics over nationalism. I hope that their views, expressed mostly before the establishment of the State of Israel, will, in our post-Zionist times, help reduce anti-Semitism and show the way towards peace and security in the Middle East. —Rabbi Baruch Horovitz, Dean, Jerusalem Academy of Jewish Studies… (more information)

Aboriginal Oral Traditions

Theory, Practice, Ethics

Edited by Renate Eigenbrod, Renée Hulan

Oral traditions are a distinct way of knowing and the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved and transferred from generation to generation. The conference from which these essays were selected created an opportunity for people to come together and exchange information and experiences over three days. The scholarship may be grouped into three broad areas: oral traditions and knowledge of the environment, economy, education and/or health of communities; oral traditions and continuance of… (more information)

Accounting for Genocide

Canada’s Bureaucratic Assault on Aboriginal People

Dean Neu, Richard Therrien

Accounting for Genocide is an original and controversial book that retells the history of the subjugation and ongoing economic marginalization of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Its authors demonstrate the ways in which successive Canadian governments have combined accounting techniques and economic rationalizations with bureaucratic mechanisms—soft technologies—to deprive Native peoples of their land and natural resources and to control the minutiae of their daily economic and social… (more information)

Alternative Budgets

Budgeting as if People Mattered

John Loxley

Alternative budgets are becoming an increasingly popular form of political action both in Canada and internationally. They are a means of advancing an alternative social and economic perspective to the neo-conservative agenda of slashing social services, reducing the role of the government and cutting taxes for the rich, all in the name of “necessity.” Alternative budgets demonstrate that there really are more enlightened alternatives which are, at the same time, fiscally responsible… (more information)

Another World is Possible

Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum

Edited by William Fisher, Thomas Ponniah

The collection explains the history and significance of the World Social Forum, held each year in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and brings together the most important themes and voices expressed by the 30,000 members of citizens’ movements who take part. Their power emerges from the range of disparate activists and organizations — indigenous groups, trade unions, environmentalists, women’s organizations, church groups, students — that make up the global justice movement. This book… (more information)

Anti-Racist Feminism

Critical Race and Gender Studies

Edited by Agnes Calliste, George Dei

This collection adds to our understanding and critical engagement of how gendered and racially minoritized bodies can and do negotiate their identities and politics across several historical domains and contemporary spheres. The contributors explore the relational aspects of difference and the implications for re-conceptualizing anti-racism discourse and practice. The strength of this book lies in its centring the experience of racial minority women (and other racialized bodies) in a variety of… (more information)

Apostles of Greed

Capitalism and the Myth of the Individual in the Market

Allan Engler

”Provides a readable history of the eighteenth century origins of the ‘myth of the individual in the market,’ traces subsequent modifications of this idea, and details its contemporary revival...Like other religious relics, once removed from its ritual setting, the mythology of the individual in the market looks so tawdry and illogical one wonders how it became so potent.” - Libby Davis, Pacific Current (more information)

Arguing With Numbers–Workbook

Statistics for the Social Sciences

Paul Gingrich, Victor Thiessen

This book focuses on both constructing–and demolishing–arguments based on numbers. It brings a fresh approach to the study of statistics, one which will have students asking for more rather than avoiding the next statistics course. (more information)

Becoming an Ally, 2nd Edition

Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People

Anne Bishop

Praise for the first Edition: After my second reading of Becoming An Ally, I see many more reprints of the well-argued, well-researched, nonpolemical but gentle and helpful book. Absorbing the topic is made that much easier by the comfortable and yet authoritative tone Ms. Bishop uses. The book makes a good friend. It listens and teaches, and it urges courage and trust. Heather Haas Barclay, Ontario Association of Social Workers Western Branch Newsletter, Sept. 2001 This new edition is expanded… (more information)

Beyond Criminology

Taking Harm Seriously

Edited by Dave Gordon, Paddy Hillyard, Christina Pantazis, Steve Tombs

Beyond Criminology is an innovative, groundbreaking critique of conventional criminological approaches to social issues. The contributors make a broad analysis of social harm by examining the theoretical issues and then looking at harmful organizations, policies and experiences. Using this approach, the contributors show how social harm relates to social and economic inequalities that are the heart of the liberal state. Only once we have identified the causes of social harm, they argue, can we begin… (more information)

Beyond the Profits System

Possibilities for the Post-Capitalist Era

Harry Shutt

While many have claimed that no one could have foreseen the financial crisis, Harry Shutt was predicting just such a collapse as far back as 1998 in his book, The Trouble With Capitalism. In Beyond the Profits System, Shutt offers a radically different analysis to the mainstream, establishment commentators who have struggled to come to terms with the crisis. Arguing that we need to move away from a system based on compulsive addiction to growth and obsession with the profit motive, towards a collectivist… (more information)

Beyond Two Solitudes

Donald Smith

Beyond Two Solitudes offers a fresh approach in the present constitutional and political debate based on mutual respect and a desire to live together in harmony. The French edition has been hailed as a “lively and passionate account” (Voir) and as an “explosive book, a vibrant plea for a renewed country” (Radio-Canada) Donald Smith speaks from within, as an English Canadian who has learned French, moved to Quebec and successfully integrated into Francophone society. Beyond… (more information)

Black Canadians

History, Experience, Social Conditions

Joseph Mensah

This timely and overdue book brings into perspective the history, experience and social conditions of Black Canadians. It looks not just at recent Black immigrants to Canada but delves into their history. The first Black people came as slaves of the early European settlers. They were followed by Black loyalists and refugees from the civil war in the United States. But their numbers were small. It is only since the introduction of the “point system” in 1967 that Black people began to… (more information)

Blaming Children

Youth Crime, Moral Panics and the Politics of Hate

Bernard Schissel

This book argues that we are on the verge of an acute “moral panic” in this country that, if allowed to continue, willresult in the indictment of all adolescents, but especially those that are disadvantaged. Schissel explains the role of the media in this panic–its affiliation with information/political systems, with its readers/viewers, and with corporate Canada. The reality of youth crime is presented in stark contrast to the collective perception that youth crime is expanding… (more information)

Borders Matter

Homeland Security and the Search for North America

Daniel Drache

The great North American border has always been a blend of the porous and the “impermeable.” If the border, in all its aspects, is working well, then Canadian sovereignty will be effective and focused. When the fundamentals are neglected, sovereignty becomes threatened, and economic integration becomes the focus of debate. Borders Matter examines the importance of the US–Canada border against the background of the new pressures of increased security practices and the continuing… (more information)

Building a Better World 2nd Edition

An Introduction to Trade Unionism in Canada, 2nd edition

Errol Black, Jim Silver

Substantially revised and updated, this widely used introductory text emphasizes how values, objectives and activities of unions are shaped in the face of employer resistance and hostile governments. It includes an analysis of why workers form unions; organization and democracy; collective bargaining and grievances; historical development; and gains unions have achieved for their members and all working people. It also examines the challenges created by rapid economic and technological change, the… (more information)

Calculated Kindness

Global Restructuring, Immigration and Settlement in Canada

Edited by Rose Baaba Folson

It has often been the perception that Northern states admit immigrants out of generosity, offering security and shelter to people forced from their own countries because of political and economic circumstances. This collection—based on case studies with immigrants—quickly dispels this myth. Immigrants are admitted to serve economic or demographic interests. They also serve to pay back the receiving countries’ own historical and political indebtedness. It is the North that both… (more information)

Canada in Haiti

Waging War on the Poor Majority

Yves Engler, Anthony Fenton

While western leaders make speeches about building democracy, their actions speak louder than words. Based upon documents gathered using Access to Information requests, human rights investigations and in-country interviews, Canada in Haiti tells how Canada, the USA and France undermined the overthrow of Haiti’s elected government. In a country already the poorest in the western hemisphere, this has led to thousands of deaths, unimaginable suffering and further impoverishment. Canada in Haiti… (more information)

Canadian Critical Race Theory

Racism and the Law

Carol A. Aylward

The growth of the Critical Race Theory genre began in Canada when scholars of colour in Canada began to articulate a dissatisfaction with the existing Canadian legal discourse which failed to include an analysis of the role that “race” and racism has played in the political and legal structures of Canadian society. This book is about the role that race and racism play in the theory and practice of law. It shows how Canadian Black lawyers and others are beginning to seriously consider… (more information)

Capitalism Rebooted?

Work, Welfare, and the New Economy

Edited by Wayne Antony, Dave Broad

The so-called New Economy, based on huge advances in information and communication technologies, economic globalization and neoliberalism, promised to expand economic opportunities and growth, provide stimulating and well-paid jobs, reduce inequalities and develop the Third World. But the experiences of the past two decades have hardly been positive for workers and their families. While there have been significant economic and workplace changes, these changes have not been the boon to working people… (more information)

Challenge and Change

A History Of The Dalhousie School Of Nursing, 1949-1989

Peter Twohig

Challenge and Change offers an innovative perspective on Dalhousie University School of Nursing’s first four decades of growth and transition. This book draws on rich archival sources and oral interviews to critically examine the school. Its analysis is highly relevant to contemporary debates within the history of nursing and the education of nurse practitioners. Most importantly, this book situates university nursing schools within their many and varied contexts of community, health care… (more information)

Challenging Politics

COPE, Electoral Politics and Social Movements

Donna Vogel

Founded in 1968, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) claims to represent a coming together of “ordinary citizens” united around a program of people’s needs. As a municipal political party in Vancouver, COPE has attempted to voice the diverse issues and objectives of progressive movements in civic politics, and has placed itself in direct opposition to its chief opponent, the corporate-sponsored Non-Particisan Association (NPA). Challenging Politics is a history that… (more information)

Changing Tides

Gender, Fisheries and Globalization

Edited by Marian Binkley, Siri Gerrard, Christina Maneschy, Barbara Neis

Fisheries are among the most globalized economic sectors in the world. Relying largely on wild resources and employing millions of people and feeding many millions more, fisheries provide a unique vantage point from which to view contemporary globalization, which is co-occurring with a major ecological revolution triggered by resource degradation and associated with the development of intensive aquaculture. Globalization is intensifying the export orientation and use of joint ventures between rich… (more information)

Circleworks

Transforming Eurocentric Conciousness

Fyre Jean Graveline

This book is intended to contribute to both the theoretical debate and classroom practice in the field of education. It explores the legitimacy of Aboriginal, holistic paradigms within some of the diverse frameworks available to educators: experiential learning, feminist and anti-racist pedagogies are emphasized. It documents an effort to interrupt current Aboriginal/European power relations by evolving an alternative Aboriginal teaching model and enacting it within university classrooms. This work… (more information)

Collective Bargaining in Canada

Human Right or Canadian Illusion

John Brewin, Derek Fudge

”This study recounts how freedom of association and collective bargaining have been cut back across Canada since the 1980s. It poses an important challenge to policy makers: will Canada live up to its international obligations and treat freedom of association and collective bargaining as fundamental human rights? The challenge for the labour movement is to move workers’ rights onto the political agenda.” —Judy Fudge, Oscoode Law School ”Canada’s reputation as… (more information)

Constructing Danger

The Mis/Representation of Crime in the News

Christopher McCormick

This book examines different criminal topics through looking at actual news articles and analyzing how subtle distortions creep into crime coverage. The underlying perspective is that the news not only reports crime but socially constructs it, reproducing crime myths in the process. This book is sure to change the way you think about crime in the news. (more information)

Consuming Sustainability

Critical Social Analyses of Ecological Change

Edited by Debra Davidson, Kierstin Hatt

How do our consumption decisions affect ecosystems? Can we rely on governments to maintain environmental wellbeing? Do rural peoples “see” the environment differently from urban residents? Is sustainability possible? We are confronted with personal and political decisions every day that affect the environment, yet, we often do not know how to assess, much less understand, our individual role in them. In Consuming Sustainability, the authors examine several contemporary environmental… (more information)

Cops, Crime and Capitalism

The Law and Order Agenda in Canada

Todd Gordon

Framed within a Marxist class analysis that highlights the way in which state power and capitalist social relations are racialized and gendered, Gordon’s study locates law and order policing as a central moment of capitalist state power. He argues that, as with policing historically, crime-fighting is not the principal aim of contemporary law and order policing—rather the aim is the production of a new social order based on the severely diminished expectations of working people. Crime… (more information)

Criminalizing Women

Gender and (In)justice in Neoliberal Times

Edited by Gillian Balfour, Elizabeth Comack

This book introduces readers to the key issues addressed by feminists in their engagement with criminology over the past four decades. It explores the narratives of women’s lives as “errant females,” sex trade workers, “gang” members and drug traffickers to map out the connections between the choices women make and the conditions of their lives. It shows how criminalized women and girls have been disciplined, managed, corrected and punished as prisoners, patients, mothers… (more information)

Cultural Inclusion

Supporting Children to Value Diversity and Challenge Racial Prejudice

Cultural Inclusion brings together the knowledge, skills and understanding required for early childhood professionals and parents to respond proactively on issues of racism. Not only does it provide culturally appropriate care and education for children, it also supports equitable access for parents from culturally diverse back-grounds, and a range of programming activities and strategies for all children. This professional resource includes a 45-minute video (VHS, CD or DVD) and a training manual… (more information)

Decolonization and Empire

Contesting the Rhetoric and Reality of Resubordination in Southern Africa and Beyond

John S. Saul

What does Empire mean today? There is the unalloyed working of capitalism, the manufacture and exacerbation of a global hierarchy, reinforced by the “free” workings of the market, creating unequal windows of opportunity and material outcomes. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow, not exclusively along geographical lines (there are, after all, many poor in the global North and some rich in the global South) yet, nonetheless, principally along these lines. This hierarchy is… (more information)

Development Has a Woman’s Face

Insights from within the UN

Krishna Ahoojapatel

“The richness of Krishna Ahoojapatel’s analysis of the connections between women and the economy comes from the diversity of her engagements as a UN policymaker, an academic and an activist. Her analysis is therefore multidimensional. It is not a historical work, but captures four decades of changes in policies, in paradigms and in women’s lives. It is rare to see such different strands come together in one person and one book.” —Vandana Shiva, Founder/Director, Research… (more information)

Dismantling A Nation (Second Edition)

The Transition to Corporate Rule in Canada (second edition)

Stephen McBride, John Shields

This new edition is reorganized to make it a more usable text and updated to include the Liberal government’s pursuit of neo-liberal policies. William K. Carroll, Sociology, University of Victoria, said of the first edition: “All the aspects of the neo-conservative policy matrix–privatization, deregulation, NAFTA, the obsession with deficits, attacks on collective bargaining, the cutbacks to social programs, the weakening of federal powers–are carefully analyzed as elements… (more information)

Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice

Building Transformative, Politicized Social Work

Donna Baines

Exploring how to translate anti-oppressive theory into everyday social work practice and how to “do” politicized, transformative social work, this book brings together ten authors with extensive backgrounds in social justice and front line practice. Drawing on practice vignettes, personal experiences and case work examples, the authors focus on social work practice in a variety of settings, including child welfare, mental health, addictions, clinical therapy, women’s service, community… (more information)

Doing Missionary Work

The World Bank and the Diffusion of Financial Practices

Dean Neu, Elizabeth Ocampo

The more things change, the more they remain the same: the image of David Livingstone toiling in Africa has been replaced by the image of a well-dressed World Bank bureaucrat travelling by jet, dropping in to consult with governments in the developing world before returning home. Likewise, the tools of missionary work have changed. While the promise of betterment and salvation remains, a testament that talks about planning mechanisms, performance indicators and financial reports has replaced the… (more information)

Ecofeminism

Maria Mies, Vandana Shiva

Two authors, one an economist, the other a physicist and philosopher, come together in this book on a controversial environmental agenda. Using interview material, they bring together women’s perspectives from North and South on environmental deterioration and develop and new way of approaching this body of knowledge which is at once practical and philosophical. Do women involved in environmental movements see a link between patriarchy and ecological degradation? What are the links between… (more information)

Ecology and Social Work

Toward a New Paradigm

John Coates

Social work, with few exceptions, has neglected to give serious consideration to the consequences of environmental devastation and the changes which a shift toward ecological sustainability will demand. If it is to remain viable, social work must become a positive pro-active force in the creation of a socially just and sustainable community. Coates critiques the assumptions, values and beliefs of the dominant world view which supports most economic and social activity. He reviews and critiques social… (more information)

Economics for Everyone

A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism

Jim Stanford

Economics is too important to be left to economists. This brilliantly concise and readable book provides nonspecialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn’t). Jim Stanford’s book is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wage labour are explored, and their importance in everyday life is revealed. Stanford answers questions… (more information)

Empire with Imperialism

The Global Dynamics of Neoliberal Capitalism

Mauro Casadio, James Petras, Luciano Vasapollo, Henry Veltmeyer

This work calls into question the assertion that global capitalism functions as an autonomous empire ruled only by the market and multinational corporations. In contrast, it is argued, the role of the imperial state is central in regard to the form taken by capitalist development. Within the context of a broad discussion that takes us from Latin America to Russia and China, to Iraq and around the world, this work analyzes the economic base of imperial power and actions of the state in the maintenance… (more information)

Energy Security and Climate Change

A Canadian Primer

Cy Gonick

Peak oil and climate change were mere hypotheses only a few years ago. This book brings together some of Canada’s and the world’s leading authorities to explore the origins of twin crises of our times and to evaluate the various solutions being advanced. What emerges is an engrossing discussion that is critical, sophisticated and plain spoken, challenging and controversial. Energy Security and Climate Change will be of interest to those seeking an introduction to the issues, as well… (more information)

Environmental Illness in Nova Scotia, 1983-2003

David T. Janigan

Nova Scotia was the first Canadian province to be faced with a large-scale demand for workers’ compensation in a single institution, Camp Hill Medical Centre, Halifax. More than half of the 1100 workers complained of environmental illnesses (or the WHO’s idiopathic environmental intolerances) blamed on the poor indoor air quality, which was exhaustively investigated. In response, the Province established three outpatient facilities, one permanent, and overlapping and following these… (more information)

Fair Future

Resources Conflicts, Security and Global Justice

Wolfgang Sachs, Tilman Santarius

This is a book that cuts across the outdated divide of North and South to address the twin global questions of our age: social justice and environmental sustainability. It asks how the material needs of the poor can be met on a planet already exhibiting signs of acute environmental stress. By laying out fundamentals of shared analytical understanding, ethical commitment and practical institutional and policy changes, the authors provide the necessary intellectual and moral platform for progress… (more information)

Feminism and the Politics of Difference

Sneja Gunew, Anna Yeatman

Among the issues posed for feminism by the politics of difference are ones of voice and representation; who is authorised to speak for whom? Increasingly, “western: feminism is being challenged to confront the multiple characters of dominations and exploitation, usually conceived of as gender, class, race and ethnicity. This innovative and timely collection reveals exciting contemporary theorising raising and exploring the problems posed by identity politics and the possibilities for… (more information)

Feminist Post-Development Thought

Rethinking Modernity, Post-Colonialism and Representation

Kriemild Saunders

Is development still women’s best hope of social progress and equality? In this groundbreaking collection with its diverse perspectives feminist thinkers explore whether Third World women ought to continue along the path of development or abandon full-scale modernization and seek post-development alternatives instead. It represents the first attempt to ascertain the possibilities, and limitations, of the post-development path for women. (more information)

From Clients to Citizens

Communities Changing the Course of Their Own Development

Edited by Gordon Cunningham, Alison Mathie

Communities worldwide act on their own initiative, drawing on their own resources of leadership and solidarity and, in spite of poverty, to achieve their own goals. Development practitioners have too often viewed poor communities as helpless and disadvantaged and have encouraged their dependency. Yet if instead communities are recognized as having social and cultural as well as material assets, then their capacity to negotiate external assistance on their own terms will be strengthened. &ldquo… (more information)

Gendered Intersections

An Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies

Edited by Lesley Biggs, Pamela Downe

Gendered Intersections covers the gaps left by more traditional types of scholarship on gender. Its reach is broad and eclectic—a strength that neatly uncovers silences about every-day life. —Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Chair of Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University The editors of this provocative and insightful set of readings wisely bring together critical pieces on the most interesting issues currently affecting the lives of women, men, and children. In drawing upon… (more information)

Global Capitalism & American Empire

Sam Gindin, Leo Panitch

The American Empire has usually come in through the back door rather than the front door: its own empire of business was made plausible and attractive by the American state’s insistence that it was not imperialistic. The USA presented itself as the scourge of the old colonialism, spreading democracy and freedom of opportunity, rather than an old-style Empire of armed conquest. Its informal empire, uniquely combining, as Thomas Jefferson put it, ‘extensive empire with self-government… (more information)

Global Ecology

A New Arena of Political Conflict

Edited by Wolfgang Sachs

Behind the public’s hope of effective action by governments on environmental issues lie a complex terrain of conceptual confusion, conflicts of interest and philosophical dispute. This is hwy some of the world’s leading environmental thinkers have come together in this volume to probe critically the new languages being developed by the environmental professionals. The examine the contradictions inherent in the fashionable notion of sustainable development. They explore the emerging… (more information)

Globalization Unmasked

Imperialism in the 21st Century

James Petras, Henry Veltmeyer

In this book, the authors contend that “globalization” is little more than imperialism in a new form. They argue that the “inevitability” of globalization and the adjustment or submission of peoples all over the world to free market capitalism depends on the capacity of the dominant and ruling classes to bend people to their will and convince people that their interests are the people’s interests. A key element in theorizing about globalization and in organizing to… (more information)

Grassroots Leaders Building Skills

The Henson College Certificate in Community Development

Anne Bishop

“Empowerment is the word. I’ve been forced to break out of my own circle and see more. I have a direction now in my community, more involvement in activism.”—student evaluating the Henson College Certificate in Community Development. This course was designed to sharpen social analysis and develop skills in leaders of low-income and marginalized communities in Nova Scotia. Taught by two experienced community workers and funded by two major Canadian foundations, it graduated… (more information)

Guantãnamo North

Terrorism and the Administration of Justice in Canada

Robert Diab

Long List selection for the 2009 George Ryga Award After September 11th, the Canadian government made significant amendments to the law, arguing that terrorism made extraordinary measures necessary. In a nation with a high regard for human rights and civil liberties, non-citizens with suspected links to terrorism are being held indefinitely without charge on secret evidence. The scope of state secrecy now extends to almost anything relating to national security. The courts have found these and… (more information)

Health Policy Reform–Driving the Wrong Way?

A Critical Guide to the Global ‘Health Reform’ Industry

John Lister

John Lister has provided the definitive critique of market-oriented health care ‘reforms’ that the World Bank has been promoting at least since 1993. His book is a critical contribution to the struggle for equity-oriented, rights-based approaches to health systems in rich and poor countries alike.— Ronald Labonte, Canadian Research Chair and Ted Schrecker, Senior Policy Researcher, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa John Lister’s book is a powerful, worldwide… (more information)

History in the Making

Raymond Williams, Edward Thompson and Radical Intellectuals, 1936-1956

Steven Woodhams

For a generation of political activists growing up in the 1930s opposing fascism was a priority. The policy of appeasing Hitler and the non-partisan stance of the Labour Party in the face of the Spanish Civil War made the Communist Party an attractive alternative. From this generation emerged key figures in academia and publishing: Eric Hobsbawm, Ralph Miliband, John Saville, Martin Eve, Dorothy and Edward Thompson and Raymond Williams. Woodhams studies the experiences of this generation, the motives… (more information)

Identity, Place, Knowledge

Social Movements, Contesting Globalization

Janet M. Conway

Grassroots organizations have long been involved in the education and mobilization of local populations. Through the development of coalition formation, broad-based campaign-organizing and popular and activist education, information and experiences are shared amongst activists and interested individuals. Janet M. Conway looks at how social justice organizations struggle to build momentum when many of the groups are disparate and the development of ideas are often articulated through actions. Conway… (more information)

Illusion or Opportunity

Civil Society and the Quest for Social Change

Henry Veltmeyer

The failure of development strategies in the past few decades has given rise to a worldwide movement in the direction of “another development.” This is a form of development that is social as well as economic, oriented towards people’s basic needs, people-centred and initiated from below. It is human in scale and form, equitable and socially more inclusive, capacitating and empowering of the poor, sustainable in terms of both the environment and livelihoods, participatory and community… (more information)

In the Other Room

Entering the Culture of Motherhood

Fiona Nelson

Becoming a mother impacts every aspect of a woman’s life. Often, it is other mothers with whom a new mother is able to articulate, debate and negotiate dimensions of her mothering experiences, from the physical/social aspects of pregnancy, through the daily work of new mothering, to the competing cultural constructions of motherhood. A diverse group of first-time mothers discussed and examined their experiences with what many have called “the mommies’ club.” Through interactions… (more information)

Industry and Society in Nova Scotia

An Illustrated History

Edited by James E. Candow

In 1990 the steam locomotive Samson was relocated to its current home in Stellarton’s Museum of Industry, where it was dismantled, conserved, re-assembled and put on display as the centerpiece of the Museum’s permanent collection. It is now the oldest surviving locomotive in Canada, and one of the oldest in the world. Samson, Hercules and John Buddle arrived in Nova Scotia in September 1839, the most conspicuous evidence yet that this British North American province had joined the industrial… (more information)

Inside Capitalism

An Introduction to Political Economy

Paul Phillips

These days almost anyone is bound to be depressed by the litany of economic woes we are told are besieging Canada. At the same time, mainstream economists, politicians and business leaders claim that workers’ wages must fall, the social safety net must be stripped away, taxes must be cut and environmental regulations must be relaxed. “There Is No Alternative” if Canada is to be competitive. But is this the case? If we are to even begin to respond to this new economic mantra we… (more information)

Inventing Tax Rage

Misinformation in the National Post

Larry Patriquin

During the National Post’s first year of publication, it claimed that Canada’s supposedly exorbitant taxes were causing great damage to the economy and had produced a form of “tax rage” among the middle class. In contrast, Larry Patriquin suggests that the paper’s writers were engaged in a dubious form of “reasoning” in order to promote an ideology that mostly benefits the wealthy. This involved presenting the Post’s aspiration for tax cuts as the &… (more information)

Japan at Century’s End

Changes, Challenges and Choices

Edited by Hugh Millward, James Morrison

A timely compilation of 21 essays on the wide range of issues confronting Japan in the late 1990s. The authors provide a mainly Canadian perspective on domestic and international politics, the economy, business, technology, social issues, the environment, and more. The six major sections are introduced by the editors, and a comprehensive index allows cross-referencing of all topics. (more information)

John Saville

Memoirs from the Left

John Saville

John Saville has been one of the most influential writers of the second half of the twentieth century in the field of British Labour History. He was a Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Hull. He has written or edited over twenty books including 1848, The Consolidation of the Capitalist State, and the Dictionary of Labour Biography. His political memoirs touch upon: • Early life; joining the Communist Party at the LSE, travels in France and Nazi Germany • Stories… (more information)

Juggernaut Politics

Understanding Predatory Globalisation

Jacques B. Gelinas

This book explains the global economy and uncovers the facts behind the hype. Globalisation is not a vehicle without a driver, or an irresistible and inevitable force of nature, as political leaders and pundits would have us believe. Juggernaut Politics identifies the actual institutions and people controlling the system and explains how the globalisation machine really works. It exposes the hidden face of the unregulated global market and its unequal trade treaties and domination by big money.… (more information)

Language and Hegemony in Gramsci

Peter Ives

Language and Hegemony in Gramsci demonstrates how Gramsci’s writings on language illuminate his entire social and political thought. It documents Gramsci’s concern with language from his university studies in linguistics, where he initially derived his famous concept of hegemony, to his last prison notebook. Hegemony has been seen as Gramsci’s most important contribution, but without knowledge of its linguistic roots, it is often misunderstood. It is only from the vantage point… (more information)

Liquid Gold

Energy Privatization in British Columbia

John Calvert

Secure, affordable, reliable energy has been one of British columbia’s most important competitive advantages and a key contributor to the province’s prosperity. BC’s energy costs have been based on the actual cost of production. Under new government policy, future energy will not be generated by BC hydro, but will be purchased from private energy producers. John Calvert shows how BC’s successful public energy system is being supplanted by a deregulated private electrical… (more information)

Locating Law (Second Edition)

Race / Class / Gender / Sexuality Connections (2nd Edition)

Edited by Elizabeth Comack

One primary concern within the study of law has been to understand the law/society relation. Underlying this concern is the belief that law has a distinctly social basis; it both shapes and is shaped by the society in which it operates. This book explores the law/society relation by locating law within the nexus of race/class/gender/sexuality relations in society. Recognizing that inequalities along these lines exist in society raises important questions: What role has law historically played in… (more information)

Making Space for Indigenous Feminism

Edited by Joyce Green

The majority of scholarly and activist opinion by and about Aboriginal women claims that feminism is irrelevant for them. Yet, there is also an articulate, theoretically informed and activist constituency that identifies as feminist. By and about Aboriginal feminists, this book provides a powerful and original intellectual and political contribution demonstrating that feminism has much to offer Aboriginal women in their struggles against oppression. The contributors are from Canada, the USA, Sami… (more information)

Manufacturing Guilt (2nd edition)

Wrongful Convictions in Canada

Barrie Anderson, Dawn Anderson

Manufacturing Guilt, 2nd edition, updates the cases presented in the first edition and includes two new chapters: one concerning the case of James Driskell and another regarding Dr. Charles Smith, whose role in forensic pathology evidence led to several wrongful convictions. In this new edition, the authors demonstrate that the same factors at play in the criminalization of the powerless and marginalized are found in cases of wrongful conviction. Contrary to popular belief, wrongful convictions… (more information)

Market and Society

An Introduction to Economics

Jeanne Baillargeon

This book offers the reader an opportunity to learn about the major ideas of formal, classical microeconomics. It allows the reader to put a critical perspective on economics and their immediate and long-term impact on people. The theoretical “free market” model, as it was understood and described by the early liberal economists, is compared with the functioning of the “real” market today. The state intervenes to strengthen or weaken the power of some of the major economic… (more information)

Men and Power

Edited by Joseph Kuypers

Ten men examine how masculinity in contemporary society is connected to power. The questions these authors ask and answer are critical. What is power? Is power always “at someone else’s expense” or can power be healthy and affirming? How is masculinity constructed to include power? Who suffers and who benefits from this gendered power? How are men both beneficiaries and victims of the cultural expectation to be powerful. And what are the alternatives if men seek to reject this… (more information)

Mining Town Crisis

Globalization, Labour and Resistance in Sudbury

Edited by David Leadbeater

Sudbury is the largest hardrock mining centre in North America and among the largest in the world. Given the enormous mineral wealth that exists in the Sudbury Basin, one might think that prosperity would abound and that cultural, educational, health and social-welfare institutions would be of the highest order, existing within a well-maintained and attractive physical infrastructure. But this is not the Sudbury that people know. This book explores key aspects of Sudbury’s economic, health… (more information)

Mothering for the State

The Paradox of Fostering

Baukje (Bo) Miedema

Foster care is the most important component of child welfare services in Canada. Currently, foster care services are portrayed negatively with a continuous stream of stories in the media about poor foster care services. But who are foster care givers and what happens to a family when a foster child enters their family? Baukje (Bo) Miedema’s research reveals that the most important care giver in foster care is the foster mother. Why do these women care for seriously traumatized children on… (more information)

Muriel Duckworth

A Very Active Pacifist

Marion Douglas Kerans

”Muriel is an extraordinary woman whose life and work has enriched many–through her faith and her practice. A feminist, a pacifist and a compassionate Canadian, her life is an example of what love and selfless intelligence can do.”–Ursula M. Franklin C.C. FRSC ”Muriel Duckworth inspires me. She is living, walking proof that age need not destroy one’s commitment to progressive social ideals. Muriel is a true humanitarian who freely gives herself to others regardless… (more information)

My Union, My Life

Jean-Claude Parrot and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers

Jean-Claude Parrot

Jean-Claude Parrot was National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers for fifteen years and its chief negotiator for eighteen. During that time he provided the leadership which built what became Canada’s most militant and democratic union. When Pierre Trudeau decided to make the post office a crown corporation Parrot was there to guide the transition. He was also there to oversee the merger of the various postal unions into “one union for all.” As well as Jean-Claude… (more information)

Neo-Liberalism or Democracy?

Economic Strategy, Markets and Alternatives for the 21st Century

Arthur MacEwan

This book explores important alternatives to the neo-liberal ideology of free trade. MacEwan subjects some of the central tenets of modern economics to close scrutiny. He argues that current policies are delivering neither sustained economic growth nor many of the other things fundamental to people’s well-being. MacEwan argues forcefully that it is possible to construct a democratically controlled economic strategy which both delivers growth and meets everyone’s needs on a basis of equality… (more information)

Nova Scotia

A Pocket History

John Reid

Before it was known as Nova Scotia, the province formed part of Mi’kma’ki and then of Acadie. This book provides a concise history of the province to the beginning of the 21st century. “The history of Nova Scotia,” says the author, “is not quaint. It is made up of the efforts of people of many backgrounds to make their way as best they could. Sometimes they succeeded, often they fell short. The reasons for either outcome were always complex. This book tries to sort… (more information)

Open for Business/Closed to People

Mike Harris’s Ontario

Edited by Diana Ralph, Andre Regimbald, Neree St-Amand

For anyone concerned about Mike Harris’s neo-conservative “Common Sense Revolution,” this book is a must. It chronicles Harris’s first year as premier and the emerging resistance movement. Part 1 puts the Harris “revolution” in context, exposing its underlying transnational corporate agenda and the previous right-wing U.S. and British governments on which it draws. It demonstrates how the smoke screen of populism and fiscal responsibility hides a fundamental attack… (more information)

Out There/In Here

Masculinity, Violence and Prisoning

Elizabeth Comack

Elizabeth Comack explores the complicated connections between masculinity and violence in the lives of men incarcerated at a provincial prison. Moving between the spaces of ‘out there’ and ‘in here,’ the discussion traces the men’s lives in terms of their efforts to ‘do’ masculinity and the place of violence in that undertaking. In drawing out these connections, similarities with the lives of other men become apparent. In the process, we also learn that… (more information)

Palestine/Israel

Peace or Apartheid? Occupation, Terrorism and the Future, Updated Edtion

Marwan Bishara

In this incisive new book, Marwan Bishara, a leading Palestinian commentator, analyses where Palestinian/Israeli situation eight yearson from the Oslo Accords of 1993. He lays out the causes of the Second Intifada and argues that peace without justice is impossible. Running counter to the prevailing support for the Oslo process, this book shows how this was in fact doomed from the start. However, Marwan Bishara also invites the reader to look ahead. Examining the demographic, political and security… (more information)

Paradise Lost at Sea

Rethinking Cruise Vacations

Ross Klein

Paradise Lost at Sea reveals the hidden realities of a cruise vacation and of an industry that prefers to keep its downsides hidden by taglines that are frequently used in advertising and media campaigns. Cruise authority Ross A. Klein rings the alarm about cruise ship safety and the risk to passengers of sexual assault, onboard crime and injury, and death from accidents at sea. He reveals the industry’s dubious environmental performance and its impact on the efforts of governments and the… (more information)

Partners for Progress

A Canada-Africa Venture in University Building

Edited by Michael J. Larsen, James H. Morrison

Education is the only self-generating energy source ever discovered by human beings, and higher education has proven to be the most effective and efficient route to our social, cultural and economic growth and well-being. Tragically, the poorer nations of the developing world must send many of their most promising students abroad for higher education only to lose them to the brighter prospects of the developed world. This was a dilemma known all too well to the people of The Gambia, West Africa.… (more information)

Pieces of a Puzzle

Perspectives on Child Sexual Abuse

Edited by Linda Burnside, Diane Hiebert-Murphy

This collection presents various “pieces” towards a comprehensive understanding of child sexual abuse and is intended for practitioners, researchers and students interested in contemporary perspectives on this issue. The volume offers a description of current Canadian research and intervention efforts on topics including treatment for child victims, understanding mothers of children who have been sexually abused, grooming patterns of offenders, a family systems approach to treatment,… (more information)

Playing Left Wing

From Rink Rat to Student Radical

Yves Engler

What makes a student radical? Can students in the 21st century play a part in changing the world? What were those troublemakers thinking when they blocked former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking at Concordia University in Montreal? Playing Left Wing answers these and other questions by telling the story of how a former junior hockey player became media spokesperson for the “most radical” university students in Canada. An entertaining read, Playing Left Wing is… (more information)

Possibilities and Limitations

Multicultural Policies and Programs in Canada

Edited by Carl James

In this work, contributors from a variety of academic disciplines write about the extent to which multicultural policies and programs facilitate cultural freedom and equality of opportunities for ethnic and racial minority group Canadians. Areas explored are: (a) the federal multicultural policy and its articulated discourse, intentions and outcomes in today’s Canada; (b) how ethnic, racial and religious minorities and immigrants have fared in a society with official multiculturalism; (c)… (more information)

Power and Resistance 4th ed.

Critical Thinking about Canadian Social Issues (4th edition)

Edited by Wayne Antony, Les Samuelson

How do we make sense of poverty, globalization, violence between men and women, youth politics, barriers to Aboriginal economic development, privatization of universities, and the like? These are just some of the questions taken up in Power and Resistance. The contributors to this book use a variety of analytical approaches. Yet, each shares a conviction that the social, economic and political issues confronting Canadians are shaped by the social inequalities that continue to plague us. At the same… (more information)

Prison Voices

Edited by Richard Jaccoma, Lee Weinstein

Prison Voices is an inmate-written book, made to encourage reading and writing in prisons. Within these pages twelve convict-authors reveal the dramatic details of their lives and their struggles. Some of the pieces are uplifting and hopeful; others breathtaking, steeped in remorse. At times the words we read are most shocking in the precision of the author’s self-reflection; at other times exasperating in what they reveal of the author’s self-destructiveness. Fill free to see a review… (more information)

Protest and Globalisation

Prospects for Transnational Solidarity

Edited by James Goodman

Protest and Globalisation describes the formation of transnational strategies, particularly between “First” and “Third” worlds, by developing theoretical perspectives and examining practical issues encountered by movements that challenge corporate globalisation. In this way, the authors provide a deeper understanding of global protest movements and suggest models for these transnational movements. (more information)

Punched Drunk

Alcohol, Surveillance and the LCBO 1927–1975

Gary Genosko, Scott Thompson

In this critical study of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Scott Thompson and Gary Genosko expose the stakes and consequences of the enormous bureaucracy behind the administrative surveillance of alcohol consumption in Ontario. Since its inception in 1927, the LCBO subjected alcohol consumption to its disciplinary gaze and generated knowledge about the drinking population. This book details how the LCBO tracked all alcohol consumption and capitalized on technological advances in order to generate… (more information)

Racism and Justice

Critical Dialogue on the Politics of Identity, Inequality and Change

Edited by Singh Bolaria, Sean P. Hier, Daniel Lett

The essays in this volume explore the prospect for post-raciality. It is common to find the prefix “post” treated as an epochal synonym for “after” or “beyond,” as somehow distinct from what came before. But the post as post-racial politics is better conceptualized in terms of a set of interrelated institutional and cultural changes that can neither be separated from historical relations nor which are reducible to the past. This volume presents a set of essays… (more information)

Ralph Miliband and the Politics of the New Left

Michael Newman

Ralph Miliband (1924–94) was a key 20th-century political thinker. His books The State in Capitalist Society (Quartet) and Parliamentary Socialism (Merlin) influenced a generation of the left and provided a focus for academic debate. Miliband’s life and work were devoted to the attempt to define and apply an independent form of socialism. As a result of his published works, teaching and role in political movements, he became the most influential socialist political theorist writing… (more information)

Realizing Hope

Life Beyond Capitalism

Michael Albert

Something is profoundly wrong with capitalism. Vast inequalities of wealth and power won’t take the world to a better future. “What is the alternative?” is a question echoing all around the globe. Michael Albert has wrestled with this question for many years, and his answer regarding economics has captured the imagination of many. Participatory Economics—“Parecon” for short—Albert’s proposed economic system to replace capitalism, rejects competitive… (more information)

Recipes for Success

A Celebration of Food Security Work in Canada

Edited by Anna Maria Kirbyson

Recipes for Success is a review and celebration of the unfolding story of the food security movement in Canada. Food banks and the growth in food security initiatives are a community-based response to a growing food crisis in our country. This book is a place to take stock of the breadth and depth of food security activity in Canada and to recognize the role we all play in responding to social needs. (more information)

Reclaiming Self

Issues and Resources for Women Abused by Intimate Partners

Edited by Carolyn Goard, Leslie M. Tutty

Abuse of women by intimate partners is a significant problem in Canadian society. The critical issues facing abused women include the resources, such as shelters, and support groups available to assist them in being safe. This book considers the many aspects of supporting and providing safety for women who experience abuse. The authors focus on the impact of government policies, such as the criminal justice response and child protection services, on a woman’s ability to safely leave an abusive… (more information)

Reinventing Political Science

A Feminist Approach

Jill Vickers

This book provides an alternate version of political science for students who want to make space for themselves and for the political activities they want to study. Vickers presents a framework which builds bridges between political science and feminism, allowing for a women-centred analysis of both formal and informal politics. It incorporates radical redefinitions of politics which can open up space to study identity politics, oppression, exploitation and the struggles against sexism, racism,… (more information)

Renewing Socialism

Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination, New edition

Leo Panitch

This new edition adds an in-depth interview to seven key essays. The interview asks: What impact is American imperialism having on left strategies in various parts of the world today? What common interests work for solidarity and against divisions of race, gender and class? As Green parties turn towards market socialism, what space is left for a red-green anti-capitalist coalition? Can new socialist parties avoid mistakes of communist and social democratic parties in the twentieth century? The… (more information)

Research Is Ceremony

Indigenous Research Methods

Shawn Wilson

Indigenous researchers are knowledge seekers who work to progress Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing in a modern and constantly evolving context. This book describes a research paradigm shared by Indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia, and demonstrates how this paradigm can be put into practice. Relationships don’t just shape Indigenous reality, they are our reality. Indigenous researchers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony that… (more information)

Restructuring and Resistance: Canadian Public Policy in the Age of Global Capitalism

Edited by Mike Burke, Colin Mooers, John Shields

This collection surveys major areas of neoliberal policy restructuring by various levels of Canadian government. Unlike other academic studies it also considers theoretical and practical issues connected with movements of resistance against the neo-liberal agenda. Part one situates these developments theoretically in the context of globalizing capitalism and the changing role of the state, the labour market, policy formation and federalism. Section two examines six major areas of policy restructuring… (more information)

Revolution In The Americas

B.H. Barlow

What is revolution? In this text Barry Barlow traces the emergence of modern revolution from the early 1500s. After setting the stage by comparing and contrasting the main revolutionary movements from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, he goes on to look specifically at the revolutionary movements in Latin America during this century. “this is a thoroughly fascination, well written, and carefully argues manuscript. We need this book in a number of courses in a number of disciplines… (more information)

Ruling Canada

Corporate Cohesion and Democracy

Jamie Brownlee

Ruling Canada critically examines Canada’s “economic elite”—a collection of the country’s richest and most powerful individuals, many of whom preside over Canada’s largest corporations. Brownlee argues that this corporate elite is increasingly unified and class conscious. As a direct result, a broad array of state policies and programs have been cut and/or implemented which serve the interests of this elite minority at the expense of most Canadian citizens. Business… (more information)

Seeds of Fire

Social Development in the Era of Globalism

Elizabeth Whitmore, Maureeen Wilson

Wilson and Whitmore, two activists with a history of “walking the talk” of working for social justice, offer a well researched, provocative wake up call for everyone concerned with the survival of democracy in the next millennium. Seeds of Fire inspires allies of popular movements for the work of the next century. -Patricia Maguire, Faculty of Education, Western New Mexico University. It balances theory with examples of what the authors call “accompaniment,” an engaged and… (more information)

Shrinking the State

Globalization and Public Administration

Bryan Evans, John Shields

This book provides a political economy perspective on recent changes within Canadian public administrative practice and structure, revealing the theoretical and practical underpinnings of neo-liberal public administration. It also addresses itself to the search for more democratic alternatives. This work is intended to serve as a text for courses in public administration and Canadian government and politics. The role of globalization, state fiscal crisis, economic restructuring and the ideological… (more information)

Social Economy

Health and Welfare in Four Canadian Provinces

Edited by Louise Tremblay, Yves Vaillancourt

The fundamental principles of the social economy are solidarity, democratic organization of work, and user and community participation. Based on a three-year study carried out by researchers at the Université du Québec “ Montréal, Université de Moncton, the University of Ottawa and the University of Regina, the essays here testify to the value and diversity of the social economy sector in four Canadian provinces. Researchers explore the realities of the third sector… (more information)

Social Perspectives on Death and Dying (2nd edition)

Jeanette Auger

While death is an inevitable happening in all our lives, the perspectives that we hold about death and dying are socially constructed. This text takes us through the maze of issues, both social and personal, which surround death and dying in our country. The author invites us not to just peek at issues of death and dying but to open our eyes wide and examine how Canadian cultures deal with those concepts. In this new updated edition, Auger challenges us to examine our own thoughts, feelings and… (more information)

Society, State and Market

A Guide to Competing Theories of Development

Edited by John Martinussen

This major new textbook has been specifically written for students of development studies. It provides a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary picture of development research over the past generation, and is organized around four major themes: economic development and underdevelopment, politics and the state, socio-economic development and the state and civil society and the development process. It is the only textbook in this field to present the full range of theoretical approaches and current… (more information)

Solutions That Work

Fighting Poverty in Winnipeg

Edited by Jim Silver

The explosive and dramatic growth of poverty in Winnipeg, and strategies for combating poverty, are the subject of this collection. Some of the chapters discuss the severity and the consequences of poverty; others describe policy solutions, with a particular emphasis on community-based solutions. Included are chapters on: the growth and incidence of poverty in Winnipeg; the impact of poverty on, and community economic development strategies being developed by, Winnipeg’s Aboriginal community… (more information)

Songlines to Satellites

Indigenous Communication in Australia, the South Pacific and Canada

Michael Meadows, Helen Molnar

Songlines to Satellites explores the developmental history and policy environments of the Indigenous media sectors in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific Island countries and Canada. Helen Molnar and Michael Meadows detail how communication technologies have been pioneered by Indigenous communities and used as cultural, social and political resources. Songlines to Satellites is based on interviews with hundreds of Indigenous people in Australia, the South Pacific and Canada, over a thirteen… (more information)

Stickin’ to the Union

Local 2224 vs. John Buhler

Doug Smith

Stickin’ to the Union tells the story of the nine-month battle that the workers at Versatile Industries fought with their employer, the eccentric millionaire John Buhler, in the winter of 2001. Buhler, who had just bought the Versatile tractor plant with a $32-million government loan, provoked a strike by demanding a gutting of benefits and seniority provisions in the union contract. The union surprised all by charging Buhler with bargaining in bad faith and won a $6-million dollar labour-… (more information)

System In Crisis

The Dynamics of Free Market Capitalism

James Petras, Henry Veltmeyer

In the late 1960s the operating world capitalist system hit a snag, exposing cracks that went to its very foundations. At first, this crisis was viewed as part of a normal business cycle of capital accumulation in which markets become saturated. The reaction created a mass of unemployed workers, reduced purchasing power and consumption capacity which initiated a further downward cycle of disinvestment and recession. The efforts to revitalize the capitalist system included the restructuring of world… (more information)

Tech High

Globalization and the Future of Canadian Education

Edited by Marita Moll

This collaboration of critical essays on the computerization of Canada’s schools examines the current technological revolution in the broader perspective of globalization and the neo-liberal agenda. The authors question the assumptions that technologically-enhanced education will save money, help students and teachers, and create a generation of well-paid knowledge workers. Computers may inform, but only teachers can help students analyze and interpret this information. The authors call for… (more information)

Telling Tales

Living the Effects of Public Policy

Kate Bezanson, Sheila Neysmith

Telling Tales offers a sharp and compelling critique of neoliberal policies that erode incomes, increase surveillance, and further endanger those with the fewest resources. This is an excellent book that should be widely read by those with an interest in social policy and issues of poverty and marginalization. —Patricia M. Evans, School of Social Work, Carleton University This remarkable book makes policy come alive. The authors peal away the complex, compounding and cumulative impact… (more information)

The Aid Triangle

Recognising the Human Dynamics of Dominance, Justice and Identity

Stuart C. Carr, Malcolm MacLachlan, Eilish McAuliffe

The Aid Triangle focuses on the human dynamics of international aid, from impoverished farmers to aid workers, donor diplomats to multilateral bureaucrats, celebrities to activists, and to the unconcerned and uninvolved. This timely work illustrates how the aid system incorporates power relationships, and therefore relationships of dominance. It explores how such dominance can be both a cause and a consequence of injustice and how the experience of injustice is both a challenge and a stimulus to… (more information)

The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy

Yves Engler

Shortlisted for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction in the Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards This book could change how you see Canada. Most of us believe this country’s primary role has been as peacekeeper or honest broker in difficult-to-solve disputes. But, contrary to the mythology of Canada as a force for good in the world, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy sheds light on many dark corners: from troops that joined the British in Sudan in 1885 to gunboat diplomacy… (more information)

The Communist Manifesto

Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx

An English translation by Samuel Moore of the original maifesto of the Communist Party, published in London in 1848. (more information)

The Dirt

Industrial Disease and Conflict at St. Lawrence, Newfoundland

Rick Rennie

In the cemeteries of St. Lawrence and several neighbouring towns on the south coast of Newfoundland lie the remains of some 200 workers, killed by the dust and radiation that permeated the area’s fluorspar mines. The Dirt chronicles the many forces that created this disaster and shaped the response to it, including the classic ‘jobs or health’ dilemma, the contentious process of determining the nature and extent of industrial disease and the desire of employers to ‘externalize… (more information)

The Economics Anti-Textbook

A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Microeconomics

Rod Hill, Tony Myatt

Mainstream textbooks present economics as an objective science free from value judgments. The Anti-Textbook argues that this is a myth–one that is not only dangerously misleading but also bland and boring. Challenging the mainstream textbooks’ assumptions, arguments, models and evidence, this book puts the controversy and excitement back into economics to reveal a fascinating and a vibrant field of study–one which is more an ‘art of persuasion’ than it is a science.… (more information)

The Gardens of Their Dreams

Desertification and Culture in World History

Brian Griffith

Over the past 7,000 years, a desert slowly spread through the center of the Old World. Our ancestors watched as patches of desolation appeared in the landscape like holes in worn-out cloth. The affected regions had been wastelands before in previous arid ages, but this time human civilizations were on hand to intensify the effect. Eventually, the “true deserts” came to resemble the moon or the sandstorm plains of Mars. Where the web of life is stripped to the bone, this is how it looks… (more information)

The Global Food Economy

The Battle for the Future of Farming

Tony Weis

The modern food industry is a paradox: surplus “food mountains” sit alongside global malnutrition; the developed world subsidized its own agriculture while pressurizing the developing to liberalize at any cost; and an increasingly aggressive export competition is accompanied by a growing reliance on imports in many countries. The WTO’s uneven application of neoliberal economics to food production is relatively new, and the consequences of mounting deficits, rising “food miles… (more information)

The Illusion of Inclusion

Women In Post Secondary Education

Jackie Stalker

Women have had limited access to some higher education in Canada for over a century, but their participation has never been equal to that of men. Both as students and as faculty, women continue to be discriminated against on Canadian campuses in ways ranging from the most systemic and institutional to the most interpersonal and subjective. Contributors to this anthology explore and explain various dimensions of the “illusion of inclusion,” the contradiction between the widespread belief… (more information)

The Mi’kmaw Concordat

James (Sekej) Youngblood Henderson

This important work, written primarily as a Native Studies text, fills a large gap in the history of Native peoples in the Americas. It is a fascinating multidisciplinary journey covering intellectual history, law, political science, religious studies, and Mi’kmaw legends, oral history and perceptions from the arrival in America by Columbus and other Europeans in the fifteenth century to the Mi’kmaw Concordat in the early seventeenth century. There is virtually nothing else in print… (more information)

The Nature of Human Brain Work

An Introduction to Dialectics

Joseph Dietzgen, Larry Gambone

Called by Marx “The Philosopher of Socialism,” Joseph Dietzgen was a pioneer of dialectical materialism and a fundamental influence on anarchist and socialist thought who we would do well not to forget. Dietzgen examines what we do when we think. He discovered that thinking is a process involving two opposing processes: generalization, and specialization. All thought is therefore a dialectical process. Our knowledge is inherently limited however, which makes truth relative and… (more information)

The Perils of Progress

The Health and Environment Hazards of Modern Technology, and What You Can Do About Them

John Ashton, Ron Laura

The Perils of Progress calls on the latest scientific research to challenge our society’s largely unquestioned commitment to new technologies. While these have undoubtedly brought many benefits, the authors argue that industrial society’s reliance on every latest technology as a cure-all for our problems is seriously misplaced-in some cases dangerously so. Clearly written, comprehensive in its coverage and meticulously researched, their book introduces the reader to a vast array of health… (more information)

The Poetics of Anti-Racism

Edited by Nuzhat Amin, George Dei, Meredith Lordan

The sense of white entitlement is seen through discourses of “what about us” when issues of race and equity are raised in the classrooms of the dominant. Even when race issues are grudgingly acknowledged there is the politics of moral distancing apparent in the dominant body “playing the race card” through evocations of “merit,” “excellence” and “meritocracy.” This book deals with linguistic racism and the centrality of language in the… (more information)

The Politics of Restorative Justice

A Critical Introduction

Andrew Woolford

This book invites the reader to reconsider restorative justice and its politics. Through an examination of restorative themes, theories and practices, three distinct ways in which politics affect restorative justice are explored. First, restorative justice is situated in a context in which political actors, as well as structural forces, either enable or obstruct its practice. Second, restorative justice is understood as a contributor to political power in that its practice helps govern individual… (more information)

The Post-Development Reader

Edited by Victoria Bawtree, Majid Rahnema

Most scholars and practitioners are now agreed that the world is on the threshold of a completely new era in the history of development. This reader brings together in a powerfully diverse, but ultimately coherent, statement some of the very best thinking on the subject by scholars and activists around the world. The contributors provide a devastating critique of what the mainstream paradigm has in practice done to the peoples of the world, and to their richly diverse and sustainable ways of living… (more information)

The Power to Criminalize

Violence, Inequality and Law

Gillian Balfour, Elizabeth Comack

Law’s power to criminalize—to turn a person into a criminal—is formidable. Traditional legal doctrine argues that law dispenses justice in an impartial and unbiased fashion. Critical legal theorists claim that law reproduces gender, race and class inequalities. The Power to Criminalize offers an analysis that acknowledges the tensions between these two views of law. Drawing from crown attorneys’ files on violent crime cases and interviews with defence lawyers, the authors… (more information)

The State in Capitalist Society

Ralph Miliband

Almost as soon as The State in Capitalist Society was published in 1969, it was recognized as one of the most important books in political science and sociology to have appeared since the Second World War. Four decades later, and in the wake of a neoliberal era almost universally characterized in terms of the re-treat of the state, “the massive scale of state intervention today makes the re-publication of Ralph Miliband’s classic study extremely timely. Its famous opening sentences… (more information)

The Westray Chronicles

A Case Study in Corporate Crime

Edited by Christopher McCormick

In this book authors from backgrounds as diverse as engineering to public relations are brought together to create a holistic picture of what happened at Westray. From an analysis of the geology of the underlying coal seam to an assessment of the difficulties of pinning legal responsibility on the company, the government or any of the managers, this book constitutes one of the few case studies of corporate crime in Canada. The contributors offer the reader challenging new ways to think about workplace… (more information)

The Women, Gender & Development Reader

Edited by Lynne Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff, Nalini Visvanathan

Third World women, long the undervalued and ignored actors in the development process, are now recognized by scholars, practitioners and policy makers alike as playing a critical role. This book is a comprehensive reader for undergraduates and development practitioners, presenting the best of the now vast body of literature that is grown up along side this acknowledgement. Five parts cover respectively a review of the history of the theoretical debates, the status of women in the household and family… (more information)

Thinking Ecologically

Environmental Thought, Values and Policy

Bruce Morito

Thinking Ecologically has two aims. The first is to describe the metaphysical, epistemological and valuational directions taken toward the environment in the history of Western thought. The second is to develop an approach to environmental thought based on the idea of attunement. Attunement steers us toward thinking ecologically, in contrast to merely thinking about ecology. Appeal to some Eastern and Aboriginal approaches is made to develop the idea of attunement. As such, it challenges some basic… (more information)

Tools for Change

A Handbook for Critical Development Studies

Edited by Henry Veltmeyer

This handbook is a guide to ‘critical development studies’ (CDS)—the study of international development from the standpoint of social change, a critical perspective. As such the handbook provides a set of tools for entering and understanding the nature and scope of the interdisciplinary field of development studies. It is organized as a set of 50 short course modules. Each module is written by a well-known research specialist in the area; and each (a) identifies the six most critical… (more information)

Transforming or Reforming Capitalism

Towards a Theory of Community Economic Development

Edited by John Loxley

Growing worldwide interest in community economic development has led to a blossoming of “how to” manuals,as well as analyses of co-operatives, development corporations, gender, financing, etc. Yet in all this discussion very little is said about the basic objective of CED: Is it designed to fill holes left by capitalism or is it intended to replace it? There is equally little on a theory of CED. This book draws on several disciplines—particularly economics, sociology and political… (more information)

Transforming the Field

Critical Antiracist and Anti-oppressive Perspectives for the Human Services Practicum

Narda Razack

The theoretical perspective is clearly presented and related to many different aspects of the field–field coordinators, field supervisors, falculty liason and students.... I think this book is a must read for all field coordinators in North America. Karen Schwartz, Carleton University This text focuses on field education in social work. It provides a framework and directions for responding to issues relating to racism and oppression. It also examines how power is embedded in every facet… (more information)

Turning the World Right Side Up

Science, Community and Democracy

John Kearney, Patrick Kerans

The focus of this book is on the un-sustainability of the system that economists, in the name of science, have foisted upon society. Corporations and the economists who act as their apologists, say the authors, are the cultural driving force in contemporary society. They are reductionists: they are locked into a single-minded pursuit of one narrow facet of human well-being. Framing their study within an analysis of contemporary neoliberalism, the authors explore new directions leading to a broad… (more information)

Under the Gaze

Learning to be Black in White Society

Jennifer Kelly

This book deals with the perceptions and experiences of Black Canadian high school students growing up in a White-dominated society. Using student narratives, the book gives an insight and understanding of the process of racialization as it relates to popular culture, gender, and relationship with peers. Student voices reveal a complex identity formation drawing on various sources and multiple meanings as they learn to be Black in a White society. (more information)

Up in Nipigon Country

Anthropology as a Personal Experience

Edward J. Hedican

Fieldwork, once regarded as an essential pillar of social anthropology, has come under attack, especially from the post-modern school. Hedigan argues that for many in the discipline, an anthropology without fieldwork would appear to be a hollow, meaningless experience, devoid of its central epistemological value. This book, drawing on the author’s fieldwork experience among Ojibwa people in Northern Ontario, explores post-modernism’s critique of fieldwork and fieldwork’s contribution… (more information)

Voices of Nova Scotia Community

A Written Democracy

Scott Milsom

From Birchtown and Harbourville, Kennetcook and Oxford, Lincolnville and Orangedale, these stories explore why the people of small communities across Nova Scotia value the quality of life they enjoy. The author ensures that it is the voices of the people who live in these communities that ring truest, allowing both neighbours and those visiting for the first time a better understanding of life in rural and small-town Nova Scotia. “The plain-spoken, visionary journalist Scott Milsom reminds… (more information)

We Were Not the Savages (3rd Edition) First Nations History

Collision between European and Native American Civilizations

Daniel N. Paul

As a person of First Nation ancestry I cannot help but wonder if the failure of Caucasian Americans and Canadians to reveal and teach about the horrors their ancestors carried out against North American First Nation Peoples is a deliberate cover-up, or an indication they hold within their minds a notion the life of a First Nation person is valueless—not worthy of human considerations. The latter is probably the more plausible, because it is an unchallengeable fact that the crimes against humanity… (more information)

White Femininity

Race, Gender & Power

Katerina Deliovsky

This book contributes to the emerging field of white studies — an examination of the notion that whiteness is not an invisible category, but is itself a category of race. Looking at hegemonic white femininity in particular, the author examines the ways in which white women are coerced and compelled to demonstrate an allegiance to whiteness through their choice of intimate partners,sexual orientation, participation in racial inequality and complicity with white feminine beauty standards. This… (more information)

With Child

Substance Use During Pregnancy, A Woman-Centred Approach

Edited by Susan C. Boyd, Lenora Marcellus

Drug use is among the behaviours that are associated with or a consequence of poverty. The contributors to this volume propose that those who provide services for pregnant drugusing women must recognize that care of women with social problems that affect pregnancy outcome should be approached in the same way as care for women with medical problems that have obstetric consequences. This book provides practitioners and researchers with valuable information about maternal drug use, best practices and… (more information)

Women in Trouble

Connecting Women’s Law Violation to their Histories of Abuse

Elizabeth Comack

This book addresses one of the more alarming findings to emerge about women in prison: the fact that 80 percent report histories of physical and sexual abuse. “Elizabeth allows the women in this book to speak their own truth. It’s a graphic, shocking, depressing and absolutely necessary account of the connections between histories of abuse and trouble with the law.” - Karen Toole-Mitchell, Winnipeg Free Press (more information)

You Must be a Basketball Player

Rethinking Integration in the University

Anthony Stewart

“Courageous and peerless, accessible and engaging, Stewart’s critique of the unseemly whiteness of the academy is a tour de force. His account of white academic privilege, homogeneity, cowardice, and hypocrisy with respect to matters of race and integration proceeds with keen insight and telling intellectual rigor. His analysis of white academia’s ‘theoretical’ evisceration of race and its practical and discursive actualities is nothing short of brilliant. The indictment… (more information)