April 2023 MBR The Political Science Shelf

The Political Science Shelf

Handbook on Democracy and Security
Nicholas A. Seltzer, editor
Steven Lloyd Wilson, editor
Edward Elgar Publishing
9 Dewey Court, Northampton, MA 01060-3815
www.e-elgar.com
9781839100192, $270.00 HC / $65.00 ebook, 388pp

https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/handbook-on-democracy-and-security-9781839100192.html

Synopsis: Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by the team of N icholas A. Seltzer (Associate Professor, University of Nevada, Reno) and Steven Lloyd Wilson (Assistant Professor, Brandeis University, Massachusetts), "The Handbook on Democracy and Security" offers an insightful new interpretation of the topic that reframes the contemporary challenge of democracy away from competing ideologies or external existential threats, and centers on the security of democracy in the minds and lived experience of its citizens.

With a global focus, the contributors to "The Handbook on Democracy and Security" collectively provide a cutting edge understanding of contemporary developments in democratic breakdown, investigating the role of new media, social media and the Internet. Furthermore, the expert contributors explore how democracy is affected by the resurgence of populism, terrorism and migration alongside the decline of independent mass media and associated conspiracy theories.

"The Handbook on Democracy and Security" contributors further argues that the security of government by the people is best understood through the security of people and examines the analysis of democratic security.

Providing a diverse range of perspectives on how democratic breakdown occurs, "The Handbook on Democracy and Security" is an excellent read for political scientists interested in human security and the effect of social media on democracy. Policymakers interested in policy prescriptions and stabilizing democratic backsliding will also find this an illuminating and informative resource.

Critique: A seminal and impressively work of meticulous scholarship that is exceptionally well organized and presented, "The Handbook on Democracy and Security" is comprised of 19 informative and thought-provoking articles, making it especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Contemporary Political Science collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "The Handbook on Democracy and Security" is also available from Edward Elgar Publishing in a digital book format ($65.00).

A Mysterious Country
Norman Mailer, author
J. Michael Lennon, editor
John Buffalo Mailer, editor
Arcade Publishing
www.arcadepub.com
c/o Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
9781956763379, $28.99, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Country-Fragility-American-Democracy/dp/1956763376

Synopsis: Published on the centenary of Norman Mailer's birth, and co-edited by his son, John Buffalo Mailer and Professor J. Michael Lennon, "A Mysterious Country: The Grace and Fragility of American Democracy" a timely and urgent call to preserve our democracy.

From his bestselling first novel, The Naked and the Dead, to his last work, the study of American democracy was a lifelong project for Norman Mailer. It was his grand theme. Nearly all of his books touched on the pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses, the grace (to use his word) and fragility of the American experiment as well as the threats to it that ranged from autocratic leaders and a complacent citizenry, to violent protest and radical conservative assaults on it, to "soft fascism" and the ills of racism and poverty.

In the sharp and impassioned language of a political Cassandra and with the eye of a novelist and journalist, Norman Mailer explored the underlying psychological, social, and economic causes of the country's fragile polity and offered urgent prescriptions for its reinvigoration.

"A Mysterious Country" is a carefully selected collection of Mailer's most incisive (and sometimes remarkably prophetic) commentary on American democracy and what must be done to safeguard it. This anthology of his writings draws upon both published and unpublished sources, from Mailer's great works of narrative nonfiction and novels as well as essays, interviews, letters, speeches, and talk show appearances. It includes pungent remarks on every president from FDR through George W. Bush, as well as correspondence with several. Throughout, what shines through is Mailer's passion for our democratic project (as well as the freedom that comes with it) along with a keen awareness of its potential for failure, its virtues, and what is required of us to keep it intact.

Critique: An absolute 'must read' selection for the legions of Norman Mailer fans, "A Mysterious Country: The Grace and Fragility of American Democracy" is impressively timely and remarkably pertinent in view of our country's current (and hostile) political polarization that threatens to bring down and end the American experiment with democracy. While an exceptional and unreserved recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library Political Science collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, political activists, governmental policy makers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "A Mysterious Country: The Grace and Fragility of American Democracy" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99).

Editorial Note #1: Norman Mailer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer) was a giant of American letters and one of our most consequential public intellectuals of the postwar period. A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the National Book Award, he was an originator of new journalism and cofounder of the Village Voice. He was the author of twelve novels, among them The Naked and the Dead and Harlot's Ghost, and numerous works of nonfiction, many probing American politics and society, including The Armies of the Night, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, and TheExecutioner's Song, as well as several plays and screenplays. He was also a lifelong activist who ran for mayor of New York City in 1969. He died in 2007.

Editorial Note #2: J. Michael Lennon (https://jmichaellennon.com), Emeritus Professor of English at Wilkes University and chair of the editorial board of the Mailer Review, is the author or editor of several books about Norman Mailer, including his monumental authorized biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life; Selected Letters of Norman Mailer; and On God: An Uncommon Conversation, coauthored with Mailer. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, New York Review of Books, New York, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Times Literary Supplement, Provincetown Arts, Hippocampus, and Mailer Review. He teaches in the Maslow Family Graduate Creative Writing Program at Wilkes University, which he co-founded in 2005.

Editorial Note #3: John Buffalo Mailer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Buffalo_Mailer) is the son of Norman Mailer and also a screenwriter, journalist, playwright, actor, and producer. He is currently creative director for the development and production company Mailer Tuchman Media and is executive-producing a feature Showtime documentary about the life of his father. As a journalist, he has freelanced for Playboy, New York Magazine, ESPN Books, The Norman Mailer Review, The American Conservative, Vector, and Inked Magazine, among others.

The Low Point of Labor Resistance is Behind Us
Jack Barnes, author
Steve Clark, author
Mary-Alice Waters, author/editor
Pathfinder Press
www.pathfinderpress.com
9781604881455, $10.00, PB, 148pp

https://www.amazon.com/Low-Point-Labor-Resistance-Behind/dp/1604881453

Synopsis: A decades-long retreat by the working class and unions has come to an end, as owners of capital and their parties shift the burden of their crisis onto working people's backs. More and more workers (of all ages, skin colors, and both sexes) are saying, "Enough is enough!" They have begun to wield the collective power of the exploited producers in response.

With the publication of "The Low Point of Labor Resistance is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward", the team of Jack Barnes, Steve Clark, and Mary-Alice Waters draw from the trade union and broad political work of members and followers of the Socialist Workers Party to highlight the opportunities ahead for class-conscious workers.

"The Low Point of Labor Resistance is Behind Us" sets the course of action needed to forge a labor party built on unions that can and will fight for their members. And a mass proletarian vanguard able to lead the struggle to end capitalist rule, opening a future for humanity. The global order imposed by victors of the inter-imperialist slaughter of World War II is shattering, with explosive ramifications for workers and farmers worldwide.

Critique: Informatively analytical, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and politically inspiring, "The Low Point of Labor Resistance is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Political Science collections and for the personal reading lists of anyone with an interest in communism, socialism, class sociology, and the evolution of political parties.

Editorial Note #1: Jack Barnes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Barnes) is the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. He joined the SWP in May 1961 and has been a member of the party's National Committee since 1963 and a national officer since 1968.

Editorial Note #2: Mary-Alice Waters is a member of the Socialist Workers Party National Committee since 1967, is president of Pathfinder Press and editor of New International magazine. (https://www.pathfinderpress.com/collections/mary-alice-waters)

Editorial Note #3: Steve Clark (https://www.pathfinderpress.com/collections/steve-clark) is a member of the Socialist Workers Party National Committee since 1977, and editorial director of Pathfinder Press, as well as the managing editor of New International magazine.

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