Double Standard; Social Policy In Europe And The United States

By James W. Russell
"Analyzes how and why social policy and welfare evolved differently in Western Europe and the United States, in a new edition that includes the most recent statistical information, an analysis of the 2010 health-care reform in the United States and a discussion of the social consequences of the recent recession in the U.S. and Europe. "  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

American Plastic; Boob Jobs, Credit Cards And The Quest For Perfection

By Laurie Essig
"Essig (Sociology/Middlebury Coll.; Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other, 1999) looks at the American obsession with plastic surgery and the cultural and economic forces that drive it.
"In the first decade of the twenty-first century," writes the author, "Americans had more than 10 million surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures"—at a cost of around $12.5 billion annually. Few Americans, it seems, especially aging women who make up the bulk of cosmetic-procedure customers, have not at least contemplated breast implants, liposuction, face-lifts, Botox injections and even vaginal rejuvenation. Plastic surgery is no longer seen as a luxury but a necessity. The reasons for this are complex and interconnected, writes Essig. As photography, the beauty industry, advertising and celebrity culture developed, an unreal and unobtainable image of (white) female beauty was internalized and thus sought after by most American women. While improvements in medical technology made plastic surgery safer and cheaper, two seminal events from the Reagan era contributed greatly to its mass popularity—allowing doctors to advertise their services and the deregulation of credit. Suddenly, plastic surgery was more visible to potential customers, who could pay for their plastic procedures with credit cards. Massive consumer debt ensued, not only for plastic surgery but for any consumer product that might make us happy. As the American economy declined in the late-'90s, many searched for personal solutions to problems that were essentially structural. If we could not remake the economy, we could remake ourselves, a line of logic that followed the quintessential American ethic of the endless possibility of personal reinvention. Thus, we have become trapped in an endless cycle of debt. The author suggests that we should resist the endless demands for perfect beauty and demand the regulation of banking and medical industries.
Will likely be controversial, but Essig offers fascinating and troubling insights into the American psyche."   (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

After The Ice; Life, Death and Geopolitics In the New Arctic

By Alun Anderson
The goal of this book is to present an analysis and synthesis of the probable impacts of current climate change in the Arctic. In particular, this involves a drastic reduction in both the area and thickness of the sea ice; such changes affect the inhabitants of the Arctic, including humans, as well as raise a number of important geopolitical and economic issues. Anderson is a biologist by training with considerable experience in the Arctic and in editing scientific literature. His 17-chapter book is divided into six main sections: "People," "Ice," "Borders," "Animals," "Oil and Ships," and "Finale." The decreasing amount of sea ice (discussed in chapters 4-6) has raised the possibility that commercial vessels could transit the Arctic and link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans; this raises the question of ownership of the Arctic (addressed in chapters 7-8) and the dangers of shipping (chapter 14). The reduction in sea ice also increases the prospects of drilling for oil (chapters 12-13). This clearly written work raises in a single source many critical problems about the future of the Arctic. Includes 38 pages of reference materials and a small number of black-and-white maps."  (Choice Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking

By Anand Giridharadas
"Giridharadas (columnist, International Herald Tribune) is a first-generation American whose parents migrated from India in the 1970s to "beat the odds of a bad system" in their native country. In a reverse migration, the author now reports on the way in which that system has changed. He argues that there has been a psychological change in India and a revolution in private life as well. Like a morality play, each chapter reflects a different inner quality, while woven together in the narrative are bits of the author's family history. The portraits—a Mumbai migrant worker, a lower-caste entrepreneur who owns finishing schools, the industrialist Mukesh Ambani, a septuagenarian Marxist poet, single working women, and the saga of two brothers—show the myriad ways in which India has changed and yet remains the same."  (LJ Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

Tabloid Medicine; How The Internet Is Being Used To Hijack Medical Science for Fear and Profit

By Robert Goldberg
"Goldberg offers a 21st-century spin on Mark Twain's warning: "Beware of health books. You may die of a misprint." The late humorist's advice especially applies to the Internet, asserts Goldberg, a former fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and cofounder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. Assigning blame in part to Americans who insist on getting their information "fast, hassle-free, and on their own terms," Goldberg argues that biased Web sources influence patients' responses to drugs like the arthritis pain reliever Vioxx and cholesterol-lowering statin Crestor. In the case of the diabetes drug Avandia, an article written in 2007 by Dr. Steven Nissan criticizing the FDA for its slow response to risks of the drug drove down sales and continues to unfairly dog and "dominate the online environment." He also criticizes the "never-ending vaccine debate" about the disproven link between the MMR shot and autism in children--specifically, the group SafeMinds, which continues to promote the debunked theory. Online alternative-medicine advocates and bloggers aside, there's no arguing Goldberg's fundamental message: better to research drugs, diseases, and medical care the old-fashioned way--honest discussion with a doctor." (PW Reviews) Check Our Catalog

No More Dirty Looks; The Truth About Your Beauty Products

By Siobhan O'Connor
"It started with a harmless quest for perfect wash-and-go hair. Every girl wants it, and Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt finally found it in a fancy salon treatment. They were thrilled—until they discovered that the magic ingredient was formaldehyde.Shocked, O’Connor and Spunt left no bottle unturned. If it went on their body (and thus, was absorbed into their skin and bloodstream), they researched it. As it turns out, many of those unpronounceable ingredients in your self-tanner and leave-in conditioner are not regulated and the “natural” on your face wash doesn’t mean what you think it does.
Now, with the help of top scientists, dermatologists, and makeup artists, the authors share their compelling findings and the easy way to detoxify your beauty regimen. No More Dirty Looks also reveals the safest, most effective products on the market and time-tested home recipes. Finally, you don’t need to sacrifice health for beauty—because coming clean is the best look yet."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

When A Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind...Or Destroy It

By Jonathon Watts
"Traversing all of China, beginning in the mountainous northern Himalayan regions and ending in tropical southern Guangdong Province, Watts, (Asia environment correspondent, Guardian) explores a country mired in deep environmental crisis. A country that is on the brink of superpower status, the Chinese state is at the same time delicately balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability. With an accumulation of more than 300 interviews with residents across the country, Watts meticulously examines case studies of horrendous environmental degradation of wildlife refuges, industrial wastelands, greenhouse gases, water exploitation, melting glaciers, cancer villages, science parks, and coal-liquefaction mines. Whether well-intentioned or not, the Chinese government's experiments with alternative energy sources and biodiversity have had far greater adverse effects, as decision making is often at the mercy of local developers and bureaucracies more interested in profits than environmental protection. VERDICT Recommended for those interested in Chinese current affairs, travel memoir, or environmental policy."  (LJ Reviews)   Check Our Catalog

C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat To Democracy

By Jeff Sharlett
"Even after the sexual affairs of several congressmen brought the Fellowship (and its D.C. residence on C Street) into the light, most Americans have still never heard of this elitist fundamentalist organization. Even those who have will have trouble getting their heads around a mostly faceless organization whose goal is to convert the world to a trickle-down Christianity, as Sharlet calls it, where God has chosen the leaders (them) and everyone else follows. With our leaders somehow prechosen, it makes it easier to forgive their transgressions (the Fellowship, for example, has no problem working with heads of state like Haiti's Papa Doc Duvalier and those in present-day Uganda, who advocate the death penalty for homosexuals).That this heavily financed, multilayered organization has been operating for decades—and today is actively implanted within the U.S. military—makes this well-documented, probing investigation even more mind-bending. Mostly, those in the Fellowship don't talk. Maybe now the discussion will start. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: When the affairs of Fellowship members Senator John Ensign R-Nev. and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford broke, Sharlet's book The Family became a best-seller. His follow-up is sure to attract similar attention."  (Booklist Reviews)   Check Our Catalog