Private Lives/Public Consequences

2009-06-30 Psychology

Author : William Henry Chafe
Release : 2009-06-30
Genre : Psychology
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 321/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Private Lives/Public Consequences by : William Henry Chafe

Download or read book Private Lives/Public Consequences written by William Henry Chafe. This book was released on 2009-06-30. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A political leader's decisions can determine the fate of a nation, but what determines how and why that leader makes certain choices? William H. Chafe, a distinguished historian of twentieth century America, examines eight of the most significant political leaders of the modern era in order to explore the relationship between their personal patterns of behavior and their political decision-making process. The result is a fascinating look at how personal lives and political fortunes have intersected to shape America over the past fifty years. One might expect our leaders to be healthy, wealthy, genteel, and happy. In fact, most of these individuals--from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Martin Luther King, Jr., from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton--came from dysfunctional families, including three children of alcoholics; half grew up in poor or only marginally secure homes; most experienced discord in their marriages; and at least two displayed signs of mental instability. What links this extraordinarily diverse group is an intense ambition to succeed, and the drive to overcome adversity. Indeed, adversity offered a vehicle to develop the personal attributes that would define their careers and shape the way they exercised power. Chafe probes the influences that forged these men's lives, and profiles the distinctive personalities that molded their exercise of power in times of danger and strife. The history of the United States from the Depression into the new century cannot be understood without exploring the dynamic and critical relationship between personal history and political leadership that these eight life stories so poignantly reveal.

Private Truths, Public Lies

1998-06-16 Business & Economics

Author : Timur Kuran
Release : 1998-06-16
Genre : Business & Economics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 139/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Private Truths, Public Lies by : Timur Kuran

Download or read book Private Truths, Public Lies written by Timur Kuran. This book was released on 1998-06-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one's wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. Drawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities. A common effect of preference falsification is the preservation of widely disliked structures. Another is the conferment of an aura of stability on structures vulnerable to sudden collapse. When the support of a policy, tradition, or regime is largely contrived, a minor event may activate a bandwagon that generates massive yet unanticipated change. In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency. Private Truths, Public Lies uses its theoretical argument to illuminate an array of puzzling social phenomena. They include the unexpected fall of communism, the paucity, until recently, of open opposition to affirmative action in the United States, and the durability of the beliefs that have sustained India's caste system.

Private, the Public, and the Published

2004-05 Language Arts & Disciplines

Author : Barbara Couture
Release : 2004-05
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Private, the Public, and the Published by : Barbara Couture

Download or read book Private, the Public, and the Published written by Barbara Couture. This book was released on 2004-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the 2003 "Rock the Vote" debate, one of the questions posed by a student to the eight Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination was "have you ever used marijuana?" Amazingly, all but one of the candidates voluntarily answered the question. Add to this example the multiple ways in which we now see public intrusion into private lives (security cameras, electronic access to personal data, scanning and "wanding" at the airport) or private self-exposure in public forums (cell phones, web cams, confessional talk shows, voyeuristic "reality" TV). That matters so private could be treated as legitimate--in some cases even vital--for public discourse indicates how intertwined the realms of private and public have become in our era. Reverse examples exist as well. Around the world, public authorities look the other way while individual rights are abused--calling it a private matter--or officials appeal to sectarian morés to justify discrimination in public policies. The authors of The Private, the Public, and the Published feel that scholarship needs to explore and understand this phenomenon, and needs to address it in the college classroom. There are consequences of conflating public and private, they argue--consequences that have implications especially for what is known as the public good. The changing distinctions between "private" and "public," and the various practices of private and public expression, are explored in these essays with an eye toward what they teach us about those consequences and implications.

Private Choices, Public Consequences

1998 Law

Author : Lynda Beck Fenwick
Release : 1998
Genre : Law
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Private Choices, Public Consequences by : Lynda Beck Fenwick

Download or read book Private Choices, Public Consequences written by Lynda Beck Fenwick. This book was released on 1998. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Private Choices, Public Consequences will open your eyes to both the amazing reproductive choices some people are making today and the far-reaching public consequences of their decisions."--BOOK JACKET.

Religion in Public and Private Life (Routledge Revivals)

2014-06-27 Religion

Author : Clarke E. Cochran
Release : 2014-06-27
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 31X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Religion in Public and Private Life (Routledge Revivals) by : Clarke E. Cochran

Download or read book Religion in Public and Private Life (Routledge Revivals) written by Clarke E. Cochran. This book was released on 2014-06-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious crosses the spheres of both the private life and the public institution. In a liberal democracy, public and private interests and goals prove to be inseparable. Clarke Cochran’s interdisciplinary study brings political theory and the sociology of religion together in a fresh interpretation of liberal culture. First published in 1990, this analysis begins with a reassessment of the nature of the "public" and the "private" in relation to the political. The controversy over religion and politics is examined in light of such contested issues of political life as sexuality, abortion, and the changing nature of the family. Clarifying a number of debates central to contemporary society, this timely reissue will be of particular value to students with an interest in the relationship between religious, society, and politics.

Popular eBooks

Private Lives/Public Consequences

Private Truths, Public Lies

Private, the Public, and the Published

Private Choices, Public Consequences

Religion in Public and Private Life (Routledge Revivals)

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