Recommendations based on "The Social Distance Between Us: How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain"

Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

A cursory reading of the history of U.S. colleges and universities reveals that violence, vice, and victimization – campus crime – has been part of collegiate life since the Colonial Era. It was not until the late 1980s – some 250 years later – that campus crime suddenly became an issue on the public stage. Drawing from numerous mass media and scholarly sources and using a theoretical framework grounded in social constructionism, The Dark Side of the Ivory Tower chronicles how four groups of activists – college student advocates, feminists, victims and their families, and public health experts – used a variety of tactics and strategies to convince the public that campus crime posed a new danger to the safety and security of college students and the Ivory Tower itself, while simultaneously convincing policymakers to take action against the problem. Readers from a range of disciplinary interests, campus security professionals, and informed citizens will find the book both compelling and valuable to understanding campus crime as a newly constructed social reality.

Do you wish you could do more to change the world but don't know how? Do you ever look around at the many charities asking for donations and feel overwhelmed? This inspiring and uplifting book explores the effectiveness of charity and calls for more radical giving if we want to contribute to a better world. During a period when British society seems more divided than ever, and our decision makers are even more disconnected from the issues that keep us awake at night, Giving Back highlights the people and movements taking on some of the most challenging social issues of our time. A respected figure in philanthropy, Derek A. Bardowell presents a unique insight into what's going on inside the world of giving and where we can best make a difference. From redefining the role of charity itself to reimagining philanthropy through a reparative lens, Bardowell introduces a radical new take on how social problems, from climate change to racial injustice, can be tackled in modern society by all of us. Filled with lively insights and moving stories, Giving Back is here to break down the walls of charitable giving. If you loved Factfulness, Lost Connections, and What White People Can Do Next, this book will challenge some of your truths and change the way you give. What people are saying about Derek A. Bardowell: 'Personal, political, powerful.' Bernardine Evaristo 'Important and timely... Deeply felt and illuminating... Essential reading for everyone committed to fairness and equality in life.' Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars 'A valuable act of remembrance... While wealth may confer privileges, it doesn't rid you of melanin or exempt you from prejudice.' Colin Grant, Guardian 'Bardowell does an excellent and passionate job of refracting the issues.' Financial Times 'I absolutely loved it!... Such a good read on so many levels.' Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars

“Dan Ariely is a genius at understanding human behavior: no economist does a better job of uncovering and explaining the hidden reasons for the weird ways we act.” — James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of CrowdsBehavioral economist and New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely returns to offer a much-needed take on the irrational decisions that influence our dating lives, our workplace experiences, and our temptation to cheat in any and all areas. Fans of Freakonomics, Survival of the Sickest, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Tipping Point will find many thought-provoking insights in The Upside of Irrationality.

A pioneering exploration of the differences between the brain’s right and left hemispheres and their effects on society, history, and culture—“one of the few contemporary works deserving classic status” (Nicholas Shakespeare, Times, UK)“Persuasively argues that our society is suffering from the consequences of an over-dominant left hemisphere losing touch with its natural regulative ‘master’ the right. Brilliant and disturbing.”—Salley Vickers, a Guardian Best Book of the Year“I know of no better exposition of the current state of functional brain neuroscience.”—W. F. Bynum, Times Literary SupplementWhy is the brain divided? The difference between right and left hemispheres has been puzzled over for centuries. Drawing upon a vast body of brain research, the renowned psychiatrist, author, and thinker Iain McGilchrist reveals that the difference between the two sides is profound—two whole, coherent, but incompatible ways of experiencing the world. The detail-oriented left hemisphere prefers mechanisms to living things and is inclined to self-interest, while the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity.In the second part of his book, McGilchrist takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists from the ancient to the modern, from Aeschylus to Magritte. He ultimately argues that, despite its inferior grasp of reality, the left hemisphere is increasingly taking precedence in today’s world—with potentially disastrous consequences.

This book, a contribution to general criminological theory, suggests that the key to why some societies have higher crime rates than others lies in the way different cultures go about the social process of shaming wrongdoers. Shaming can be counterproductive, making crime problems worse. But when shaming is done within a cultural context of respect for the offender, it can be extraordinarily powerful, efficient, and just form of social control.

Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin? Why does recalling the Ten Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn't possibly be caught? Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup? Why do we go back for second helpings at the unlimited buffet, even when our stomachs are already full? And how did we ever start spending $4.15 on a cup of coffee when, just a few years ago, we used to pay less than a dollar?When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're in control. We think we're making smart, rational choices. But are we?In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes, Ariely discovers. We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable making us predictably irrational.From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, Ariely explains how to break through these systematic patterns of thought to make better decisions. Predictably Irrational will change the way we interact with the world one small decision at a time.

“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review   Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters.   “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker   “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University

'A fantastically timely book written by one of the smartest thinkers in Britain' Piers Morgan'Impassioned, scholarly and succinct' The TimesFree speech is the bedrock of all our liberties, and yet in recent years it has come to be mistrusted. A new form of social justice activism, which perceives language as potentially violent, has prompted a national debate on where the limitations of acceptable speech should be drawn. Governments throughout Europe have enacted 'hate speech' legislation to curb the dissemination of objectionable ideas, Silicon Valley tech giants are collaborating to ensure that they control the limitations of public discourse, and campaigners in the US are calling for revisions to the First Amendment.However well-intentioned, these trends represent a threat to the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died to secure. In this incisive and fascinating book, Andrew Doyle addresses head-on the most common concerns of free speech sceptics, and offers a timely and robust defence of this most foundational of principles.

'Thank god for Richard Sennett ... essential reading for all students of the city' Anna Minton, Prospect'Constantly stimulating ideas from a veteran of urban thinking' Jonathan Meades, GuardianIn Building and Dwelling, Richard Sennett distils a lifetime's thinking and practical experience to explore the relationship between the good built environment and the good life. He argues for, and describes in rich detail, the idea of an open city, one in which people learn to manage complexity. He shows how the design of cities can enrich or diminish the everyday experience of those who dwell in them.The book ranges widely - from London, Paris and Barcelona to Shanghai, Mumbai and Medellin in Colombia - and draws on classic thinkers such as Tocqueville, Heidegger, Max Weber, and Walter Benjamin. It also draws on Sennett's many decades as a practical planner himself, testing what works, what doesn't, and why. He shows what works ethically is often the most practical solution for cities' problems. This is a humane and thrilling book, which allows us to think freshly about how we live in cities.'Sennett is my kind of urbanist. He sees the modern city. He reads its secrets as he walks down the street, kicking over the detritus of the past ... There is no alternative to the planner, but please a planner who has read Sennett's book' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times