Surrendering to Utopia is a critical and wide-ranging study of anthropology's contributions to human rights. Providing a unique window into the underlying political and intellectual currents that have shaped human rights in the postwar period, this ambitious work opens up new opportunities for research, analysis, and political action. At the book's core, the author describes a "well-tempered human rights"--An orientation to human rights in the twenty-first...

There was a time when humanity looked in the mirror and saw something precious, worth protecting and fighting for indeed, worth liberating. But now we are beset on all sides by propaganda promoting a radically different viewpoint. According to this idea, human beings are a cancer upon the Earth, a species whose aspirations and appetites are endangering the natural order. This is the core of anti-humanism. Merchants of Despair traces the pedigree of...

Over the course of a long career, Brian Morris has created an impressive body of engaging and insightful writings, from social anthropology and ethnography to politics, history, and philosophy-that have made these subjects accessible to the layperson without sacrificing analytical rigor. But until now, the essays collected here, originally published in obscure journals and political magazines, have been largely unavailable to the broad readership...

Joshua Mitchellis Professor of Government at Georgetown University, where he teaches the history of political thought. This book is an exploration of Plato's Republic that bypasses arcane scholarly debates. Plato's Fable provides refreshing insight into what, in Plato's view, is the central problem of life: the mortal propensity to adopt defective ways of answering the question of how to live well. How, in light of these tendencies, can humankind...

"Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives. Highlighting the historical development and continued relevance of borders, Alexander Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an imminent borderless world, underscoring the...

Recent research in Africa has shown a wide range of political systems, from small societies of wandering hunters to large states of several million people comparable with mediaeval European feudal kingdoms. In between are many societies in which a central government is lacking; the political system is based upon a balance of power between many small groups, which with their lack of classes or specialized political offices, have been called 'ordered...