Toward Better Governance in China takes a fresh look at the latest efforts made by Chinese leaders to promote governance-based reform. It asserts that the improvement of governance has now become one of the breakthrough points of the much anticipated political reform. Although the Chinese government continues to play down expectations about political reform, many small-scale reform experiments have been quietly undertaken by Chinese leaders at various levels in recent years, inclu...

Providing the tools for critical thinking, the sixth edition of Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political Science relies on statistical analysis, constitutional scholarship, and theoretical foundations to introduce the structure, process, and outcomes of the U.S. political system. Fully updated with coverage on the 2024 presidential election and its aftermath, the book explores historic and contemporary trends in U.S government including political polarization at all le...

The story of the music that accompanies the cinematic adventures of Ian Fleming's intrepid Agent 007 is one of surprising real-life drama. In The Music of James Bond, author Jon Burlingame throws open studio and courtroom doors alike to reveal the full and extraordinary history of the sounds of James Bond, spicing the story with a wealth of fascinating and previously undisclosed tales. Burlingame devotes a chapter to each Bond film, providing the backstory for the music (including...

The story of the music that accompanies the cinematic adventures of Ian Fleming's intrepid Agent 007 is one of surprising real-life drama. In The Music of James Bond, author Jon Burlingame throws open studio and courtroom doors alike to reveal the full and extraordinary history of the sounds of James Bond, spicing the story with a wealth of fascinating and previously undisclosed tales. Burlingame devotes a chapter to each Bond film, providing the backstory for the music (including...

Though many analyses of the 2012 presidential election have emerged, none can match this collection's depth, diversity, or ability to critically and soundly argue where American politics will go from this point forward. This volume includes some of the most recognized scholars in the field and innovative younger scholars who provide a fresh perspective on the election. It is a diverse and award winning group, including established and respected names in presidency studies, political psycho...

Providing the tools for critical thinking, the fifth edition of Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political Science relies on statistical analysis, constitutional scholarship, and theoretical foundations to introduce the structure, process, and outcomes of the U.S. political system. Interpretation and implications of the 2022 mid-term elections and full results of the 2020 census are included, as are discussions of:: the January 6th commission, major developments...

"To a faithful friend, straight are the roads and short."—Odin, from the Hávamál (c. 1000)Friendship was the most important social bond in Iceland and Norway during the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages. Far more significantly than kinship ties, it defined relations between chieftains, and between chieftains and householders. In Viking Friendship, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson explores the various ways in which friendship tied Icelandic and Norwegian so...

Death was supposed to be my end. Instead, it was just the beginning.I woke up in someone else’s body, inside the Shadow Academy, a school for elite warriors. Now they think I’m someone I'm not, and until I escape, I’ll have to play along.But things get complicated when strange powers awaken inside me, along with forgotten memories.Then there are the four Elite Shadows who hate me for some reason, but also think I’m their mate:Knox, the lethal assassin who he...

Exploring the role of fire in each of the five Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems, this book offers a unique view of the evolution of fire-adapted traits and the role of fire in shaping Earth's ecosystems. Analyzing these geographically separate but ecologically convergent ecosystems provides key tools for understanding fire regime diversity and its role in the assembly and evolutionary convergence of ecosystems. Topics covered include regional patterns, the ecological role of wildfires...

Murder seems to hound Wolf Mallory, so why should a routine skptracing job be any different?It always seems to involve a woman. Wolf's old classmate, Chicago PI Allison Grimaldi, asks for Wolf's help finding a man and the Honda Civic he's driving for repossession. Easy money and a friendly favor soon turns into an investigation of the man's murder…and finding the man's mysterious female companion, who may now have the car and a whole lot of trouble on her hands.

USING HIS FORMIDABLE SKILLS OF DECEPTION, JAMES BOND WORKS TO TAKE DOWN AN AMERICAN GANGThe Spangled Mob are no ordinary American gangsters.They prey on the addictions of the wealthy and treat the poor as collateral. Their ruthless desire for power and fierce brotherly loyalty make them deadly and invincible.Now James Bond must go deep undercover in his urgent new assignment: to destroy their millionaire masterminds, Jack and Seraffimo Spang.

Read by acclaimed narrator, Jon Culshaw!JAMES BOND IS PUT TO THE TEST AGAINST AN EGOTISTICAL SCIENTIST WITH NEFARIOUS AIMSDispatched by M to investigate the mysterious disappearance of MI6’s Jamaica station chief, Bond was expecting a holiday in the sun. But when he discovers a deadly centipede placed in his hotel room, the vacation is over.On this island, all suspicious activity leads inexorably to Dr. Julius No, a reclusive megalo...