Must the strip mall and the eight-lane highway define 21st century American life? That is a central question posed by critics of suburban and exurban living in America. Yet despite the ubiquity of the critique, it never sticks-Americans by the scores of millions have willingly moved into sprawling developments over the past few decades. Americans find many of the more substantial criticisms of sprawl easy to ignore because they often come across as snobbish in tone. Yet as Thad Williamson explains, sprawl does create real, measurable social problems. Utilizing a landmark 30,000-person survey, he shows that sprawl fosters civic disengagement, accentuates inequality, and negatively impacts the environment. Yet, while he highlights the deleterious effects of sprawl on civic life in America, he is also evenhanded. He does not dismiss the pastoral, homeowning ideal that is at the root of sprawl, and is sympathetic to the vast numbers of Americans who very clearly prefer it. Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship is not only be the most comprehensive work in print on the subject, it will be the first to offer an empirically rigorous critique of the most popular form of living in America today.

Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship: The Civic Costs of the American Way of Life

Politics & Social Sciences

Williamson, Thad

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

Must the strip mall and the eight-lane highway define 21st century American life? That is a central question posed by critics of suburban and exurban living in America. Yet despite the ubiquity of the critique, it never sticks-Americans by the scores of millions have willingly moved into sprawling developments over the past few decades. Americans find many of the more substantial criticisms of sprawl easy to ignore because they often come across as snobbish in tone. Yet as Thad Williamson explains, sprawl does create real, measurable social problems. Utilizing a landmark 30,000-person survey, he shows that sprawl fosters civic disengagement, accentuates inequality, and negatively impacts the environment. Yet, while he highlights the deleterious effects of sprawl on civic life in America, he is also evenhanded. He does not dismiss the pastoral, homeowning ideal that is at the root of sprawl, and is sympathetic to the vast numbers of Americans who very clearly prefer it. Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship is not only be the most comprehensive work in print on the subject, it will be the first to offer an empirically rigorous critique of the most popular form of living in America today.

When pundits refer to the death of community, they are speaking of a number of social ills, which include, but are not limited to, the general increase in isolation and cynicism of our citizens, widespread concerns about declining political participation and membership in civic organizations, and periodic outbursts of small town violence. Making a Place for Community argues that this death of community is being caused by contemporary policies that, if not changed, will continue to foster the decline of community. Increased capital flow between nations is not at the root of the problem, however, increased capital flow within our nation is. Small towns shouldn't have to hope for a prison to open nearby and downtown centers shouldn't sit empty as suburban sparwl encroaches, but they do and it's a result of widely agreed upon public policies.

Making a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a Global Era

Alperovitz, Gar

Imbroscio, David

Routledge

Making a Place for Community

Business & Money

Economics

The National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives announces the publication of What Comes Next? Proposals For a Different Society, a 190 page annotated bibliography which assembles and critically assesses over 75 recently proposed alternatives to the current political-economic regime. Authored by NCESA research associate Thad Williamson, the book discusses contemporary American liberalism and the response to "globalization"; proposals for market socialism, participatory planning, and semi-planned economies; ecological visions; utopian fiction writers; as well as proposals to reform or reconstruct society from political theorists, theologians, feminist thinkers, and independent writers. The book will serve as a valuable guide and introduction to current discussions of long-term political and economic alternatives, and is suitable for classroom use.

What Comes Next? Proposals for a Different Society

The National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives

More Than a Game provides a unique look at both North Carolina basketball and the phenomenon of sports fanhood in the United States. For serious North Carolina basketball fans, following the team is more than just another recreational activity -- it's an irreplaceable part of who they are. Every winter, Carolina fans habitually schedule their lives around the Tar Heels during the season. Many fans say that following the team is one of the most valuable and enduring attachments in their lives. 
But is this a good thing? What are the implications of so many people being so in love with Carolina basketball? Are there better and worse ways to be a fan? And why, exactly, does North Carolina basketball have such a hold on its loyal followers? 
Thad Williamson, a lifelong fan who also has covered North Carolina basketball as a journalist, probes his own fan history and those of hundreds of others to offer a unique perspective on those questions. In Part One, Williamson tells the story of how he grew up in Chapel Hill as a diehard Carolina basketball fan, and how the lessons learned from following the Tar Heels so closely impacted his life, his family, and the very town of Chapel Hill itself. For hard-core Tar Heel fans growing up during the Dean Smith era, Carolina basketball represented not just a winning basketball team, but a powerful example of the right way to do things. 
Williamson then turns to a detailed description of his five years covering the Tar Heels as a part-time journalist and columnist. Those five years, 1995 to 2000, coincided with the end of the Dean Smith era as well as Bill Guthridge's tenure as head coach. Williamson provides an insight-packed look at the many ups and downs of those five seasons. This section also discusses the tensions involved when on-the-court struggles coincided with the willingness of some fans to use the Internet and other outlets to voice criticisms of players and coaches. 
Part Two of the book examines more directly the pros and cons of being a Tar Heel fan and the role it plays in fans' lives. Williamson combines a theoretical discussion of those questions with two powerful, unique sources of evidence about Carolina fans. The first is the Fan Diaries Project carried out during the 2000-01 season. Fifteen hard-core North Carolina fans from all over the country spent the season recording their behavior, reactions, thoughts and emotions as fans in a diary format. In doing so, these fans combined to provide a telling and often entertaining portrait of how Carolina fans experience basketball season. 
The second source of evidence is the North Carolina Basketball Fan Survey. Over 600 fans completed a detailed, 86-question survey about both how they view North Carolina basketball and the role following the team plays in their lives. Williamson carefully examines this evidence to provide a thorough account of who North Carolina fans are, what they think, and how they behave. In the process, he shows how devotion to Carolina basketball can have both healthy and unhealthy consequences. 
Throughout the text, Williamson combines his observations with those of some of the hundreds of fans who participated in the book project, as well as observations from coaches Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Matt Doherty, and Phil Ford. An engaging narrative that asks all the hard questions, More Than a Game provides a powerful look at the phenomenon of North Carolina basketball. This is a book certain to stir the hearts and challenge the minds of Carolina fans everywhere.

More Than a Game: Why North Carolina Basketball Means So Much to So Many

Sports & Outdoors

Basketball

Dollars&Sense

The seventh edition of Real World Globalization is a provocative supplement to introductory and intermediate economics textbooks. Its seven chapters present progressive perspectives on international trade and finance, corporate power in the global economy, labor in the context of multinational expansion, and economic development. 
In addition, the seventh addition features a new chapter on the environment, health, and agriculture. 
Real World Globalization's accessible, jargon-free articles are drawn from the pages of Dollars &amp; Sense, the bimonthly popular economics magazine. Dollars &amp; Sense also publishes Real World Macro, Real World Micro, Current Economic Issues, Real World Banking, The Environment in Crisis, Introduction to Political Economy, and Unlevel Playing Fields: Understanding Wage Inequality and Discrimination.

Real World Globalization

Reuss, Alejandro

Winner, Jeanne

Politics & Government

The tenth edition of Real World Micro is a provocative supplement to introductory and intermediate economics textbooks. It features articles from Dollars &amp; Sense, the accessible and jargon-free economics magazine. 
Real World Micro critically examines topics in microeconomics such as market structure, economics and the environment, and job discrimination. The articles make complex topics come to life by providing concrete examples of how economic trends affect actual communities. 
In addition, this edition sheds light on recent government policy regarding welfare "reform" and globalization. 
Dollars &amp; Sense also publishes Real World Macro, a macroeconomics reader, Real World Banking, for money and banking courses, Real World Globalization, for courses in international economic relations, Current Economic Issues, Introduction to Political Economy, The Environment in Crisis, and Unlevel Playing Fields: Understanding Wage Inequality and Discrimination.

Real World Micro

Peters, Cynthia

Agia, Aziza

Yager, Jane

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