Public Schools, Politics and Polarization offers a timely and deeply insightful examination of how political division shapes the governance, leadership, and daily realities of public education in the United States.Drawing on decades of academic research and real-world experience, John Bryan Starr uses a compelling case-study approach to explore how school districts function at local, state, and national levels. Through carefully documented examples-from superintend...

Understanding China: A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Political Culture is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to one of the most influential nations shaping the modern world. Written by respected scholar John Bryan Starr, this fully revised 4****th offers readers a clear, balanced, and deeply informed exploration of China's economy, political system, history, and social transformation.Drawing on decades of aca...

"A clearheaded, multidimensional tour of China's political, economic, and social landscapes." — Current History"Packed with facts and figures, but enlivened with firsthand observations. . . . An excellent introduction to China for anyone in search of solid but concise information about that complicated country." — The New York Times Book ReviewFor more than a decade, John Bryan Starr's indispensable guide has introduced un...

An authoritative account of five thousand years of Chinese history.**"Exquisitely written." —**GuardianMany nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's unrivaled, voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has composed a vital and illuminating overview of the nation's complex and vivid past.Keay's authoritative history examine...

The turbulent and chequered past of the world's most populous country is one of the most fascinating in world history, and relatively little known in the West. From the beginnings of Chinese prehistory right through to internet censorship with the 'Great Firewall of China', Gordon Kerr offers a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous country. A Short History of China provides an absorbing introduction to more than 4,000 years of Chinese history, telling the sto...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A tremendously entertaining legal thriller, filled with the kind of courtroom strategies, theatrics, and suspense that have won John Grisham acclaim as “an absolute master” (The Washington Post).After leaving a fast-track legal career and going on a serious bender, David Zinc is sober, unemployed, and desperate enough to take a job at Finley & Figg, a self-described “boutique law firm” that is anything but.Os...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SERIESTaking place nearly a century before the events of A Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms compiles the three official prequel novellas to George R. R. Martin's ongoing masterwork, A Song of Ice and Fire.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LOS ANGELES TIMES AND BUZZFEEDThese collected adventures recoun...

The winner of the Man Booker Prize, this "expertly written, perfectly constructed" bestseller (The Guardian) is now a Starz miniseries.It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: a wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an en...

Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalistWinner of the National Book Award in nonfiction.As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval.Age of Ambition provides a vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation.From abroad, we often see Chin...

Greatly revised and expanded, with a new afterword, this update to Martin Jacques’s global bestseller is an essential guide to understanding a world increasingly shaped by Chinese powerSoon, China will rule the world. But in doing so, it will not become more Western.Since the first publication of When China Rules the World, the landscape of world power has shifted dramatically. In the three years since the first edition was published, When Chin...

The downfall of Bo Xilai in China was more than a darkly thrilling mystery. It revealed a cataclysmic internal power struggle between Communist Party factions, one that reached all the way to China's new president Xi Jinping.The scandalous story of the corruption of the Bo Xilai family -- the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood; Bo's secret lovers; the secret maneuverings of Bo's supporters; the hasty trial and sentencing of Gu Kailai, Bo's wife -- was just the first rumble ...

Finalist for the 2015 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism Longlisted for the Lionel Gelber Award for the Best Non-Fiction book in the world on Foreign Affairs An Economist Book of the Year, 2014 A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice "One of the best analyses of the impact of Tiananmen throughout China in the years since 1989." --The New York Times Book Review On June 4, 1989, People's Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Beijing,...