Over the past forty years, congregations, businesses, other organizations, and communities across the United States have become increasingly divided along political and ideological lines.In When the Center Does Not Hold, David R. Brubaker, with contributions by colleagues Everett Brubaker, Carolyn Yoder, and Teresa J. Haase, offers relevant, practical mentorship on navigating polarized environments. Through easily accessible stories, they provide tools and processes that w...

The author of The Chalice and the Blade proposes a new economics based on care in this "impressive work that's . . . well argued, insightful and hopeful" ( Publishers Weekly).Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations provided the first explanation of the workings of modern economics. But with his focus on "the market" as the best mechanism for producing and distributing the necessities of life, Smith's concepts only told part of the story, leadin...

At a moment when our democratic abilities seem to have eroded, and political, economic, and technological forces have weakened the capacity for collective action, People, Power, Change is a once-in-a-generation book for anyone who wants to create real and lasting change. Marshall Ganz is one of the world's leading authorities on democratic organizing, and this book is the culmination of his decades of teaching, research, and work. In People, Power, Change, Ganz distills f...

The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too—and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing t...

When we think of family, we most often think of our sisters and brothers, our cousins and grandparents, rather than our world family or even our community connections. We still identify with our differences more than our similarities, unless it's convenient to do otherwise. Here, two seasoned authors tackle the question of family and what it means to us now and how it might change to help us address the problems that affect us all. Using specific examples throughout the work, they present ...

What qualities make a leader succeed in business or politics? In an era when the information revolution has dramatically changed the playing field, when old organizational hierarchies have given way to fluid networks of contacts, and when mistrust of leaders is on the rise, our ideas about leadership are clearly due for redefinition. With The Powers to Lead, Joseph S. Nye offers a sweeping look at the nature of leadership in today's world, in an illuminating blend of history, busi...

Philosopher Myisha Cherry teaches us the right ways to deal with wrongdoing in our lives and the worldSages from Cicero to Oprah have told us that forgiveness requires us to let go of negative emotions and that it has a unique power to heal our wounds. In Failures of Forgiveness, Myisha Cherry argues that these beliefs couldn’t be more wrong—and that the ways we think about and use forgiveness, personally and as a society, can often do more harm than good....

This book focuses on what learning our young people need if they are to become capable, responsible adults who are able to respond effectively to the crises we face today, and those that will arrive in the future.

Are your kids being indoctrinated in school?Unfortunately, it’s increasingly likely. From “social justice” to critical race theory, and from advocacy and activism campaigns to planned “action weeks,” teachers and schools nationwide are abandoning neutrality in the classroom, embracing political agendas and partisan aims, and expecting students to get on board.Meanwhile, students with doubts or misgivings decline to voice objections due to fears of lowered g...

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. People believe what they want to believe. It is a striking-yet all too familiar-fact about human beings that our belief-forming processes can be so distorted by fears, desires, and prejudices that an otherwise sensible person may sincerely uphold a false cla...

"Path-breaking . . . offers a rich, encompassing, global perspective on education . . . articulates an educationally-grounded vision of contemporary society." —David John Frank, University of California, IrvineOnly 150 years ago, the majority of the world's population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher education. What are the effects o...

Gold Nautilus Award Winner: "A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess we are in today and what we need to do." —George Halvorson, former CEO, Kaiser PermanenteWe are living in a time of mounting political segregation that threatens to tear us apart as a unified society. As we become increasingly tribal, the narratives of life that we get exposed to on a daily basis have become echo chambers in which we hear our beliefs reinforced an...