California Press: 1495 books
Stat-Spotting
A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data
Language: English
Release Date: September 14, 2013
Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the...
Why Geology Matters
Decoding the Past, Anticipating the Future
Language: English
Release Date: May 2, 2011
Volcanic dust, climate change, tsunamis, earthquakes—geoscience explores phenomena that profoundly affect our lives. But more than that, as Doug Macdougall makes clear, the science also provides important clues to the future of the planet. In an entertaining and accessibly written narrative, Macdougall...
The Face of the Earth
Natural Landscapes, Science, and Culture
Language: English
Release Date: August 22, 2011
This lively book sweeps across dramatic and varied terrains—volcanoes and glaciers, billabongs and canyons, prairies and rain forests—to explore how humans have made sense of our planet’s marvelous landscapes. In a rich weave of scientific, cultural, and personal stories, The Face of the Earth...
A Social Revolution
Politics and the Welfare State in Iran
Language: English
Release Date: August 8, 2017
For decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In A Social Revolution, Kevan Harris convincingly demonstrates how they are wrong. Previous studies...
The Book of Yokai
Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
Language: English
Release Date: January 14, 2015
Monsters, ghosts, fantastic beings, and supernatural phenomena of all sorts haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yokai, these creatures come in infinite shapes and sizes, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water spirits to shape-shifting foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers....
The Women in Blue Helmets
Gender, Policing, and the UN's First All-Female Peacekeeping Unit
Language: English
Release Date: June 28, 2016
*The Women in Blue Helmets *tells the story of the first all-female police unit deployed by India to the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia in January 2007. Lesley J. Pruitt investigates how the unit was originated, developed, and implemented, offering an important historical record of this unique...
Expectations of Modernity
Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt
Language: English
Release Date: October 1, 1999
Once lauded as the wave of the African future, Zambia's economic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s was fueled by the export of copper and other primary materials. Since the mid-1970s, however, the urban economy has rapidly deteriorated, leaving workers scrambling to get by. Expectations of Modernity...
Owners of the Map
Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility, and Politics in Bangkok
Language: English
Release Date: November 10, 2017
On May 19, 2010, the Royal Thai Army deployed tanks, snipers, and war weapons to disperse the thousands of Red Shirts protesters who had taken over the commercial center of Bangkok to demand democratic elections and an end to inequality. Key to this mobilization were motorcycle taxi drivers, who slowed...
by Trevor Paglen
Language: English
Release Date: September 19, 2012
Language: English
Release Date: September 19, 2012
Human civilizations' longest lasting artifacts are not the great Pyramids of Giza, nor the cave paintings at Lascaux, but the communications satellites that circle our planet. In a stationary orbit above the equator, the satellites that broadcast our TV signals, route our phone calls, and process...
God in the Tumult of the Global Square
Religion in Global Civil Society
Language: English
Release Date: September 9, 2015
How is religion changing in the twenty-first century? In the global era, religion has leapt onto the world stage, often in contradictory ways. Some religious activists are antagonistic and engage in protests, violent acts, and political challenges. Others are positive and help to shape an emerging...
Invisible Families
Gay Identities, Relationships, and Motherhood among Black Women
Language: English
Release Date: October 17, 2011
Mignon R. Moore brings to light the family life of a group that has been largely invisible—gay women of color—in a book that challenges long-standing ideas about racial identity, family formation, and motherhood. Drawing from interviews and surveys of one hundred black gay women in New York City,...
Cut Adrift
Families in Insecure Times
Language: English
Release Date: July 31, 2014
Cut Adrift makes an important and original contribution to the national conversation about inequality and risk in American society. Set against the backdrop of rising economic insecurity and rolled-up safety nets, Marianne Cooper’s probing analysis explores what keeps Americans up at night. Through...
Invisible Labor
Hidden Work in the Contemporary World
Language: English
Release Date: June 28, 2016
Across the world, workers labor without pay for the benefit of profitable businesses—and it's legal. Labor trends like outsourcing and technology hide some workers, and branding and employer mandates erase others. Invisible workers who remain under-protected by wage laws include retail workers who...
Uncorking the Past
The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages
Language: English
Release Date: October 30, 2009
In a lively tour around the world and through the millennia, Uncorking the Past tells the compelling story of humanity's ingenious, intoxicating quest for the perfect drink. Following a tantalizing trail of archaeological, chemical, artistic, and textual clues, Patrick E. McGovern, the leading authority...