Radicals Chasing Utopia

Download Radicals Chasing Utopia full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Radicals Chasing Utopia ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Radicals Chasing Utopia

Author : Jamie Bartlett
Publisher : Bold Type Books
ISBN 13 : 1568589875
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (685 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Radicals Chasing Utopia by : Jamie Bartlett

Download or read book Radicals Chasing Utopia written by Jamie Bartlett and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It's the hubris of every generation to think that they have arrived at the best way of living. But all the things we now take for granted, all the modern wisdoms we hold to be self-evident, were once derided as dangerous or foolish radical thinking." -- From the Prologue In Radicals Chasing Utopia, Jamie Bartlett, one of the world's leading thinkers on radical politics and technology, takes readers inside the strange and exciting worlds of the innovators, disrupters, idealists, and extremists who think we can do better-and believe they know how. Bartlett introduces us to some of the most influential movements today: techno-futurists questing for immortality, far-right groups seeking to close borders, militant environmentalists striving to save the planet by any means necessary, and psychedelic pioneers attempting to heal society with the help of powerful hallucinogens. The success of democratic societies hinges on our ability to listen to-and in some cases learn from-the radical movements in our midst. Their methods may be extreme, but in chasing utopia, these groups are challenging what is possible and previewing the world to come.

Chasing Utopia

Author : James Edward Cogan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781630508180
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (81 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Chasing Utopia by : James Edward Cogan

Download or read book Chasing Utopia written by James Edward Cogan and published by . This book was released on 2020-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the origins to concentrated power and socialism? How did socialism lead to today's politically correct speech, preferential relativism, and identity politics? Chasing Utopia tracks the evolution of sinister movements and people such as ancient Sparta, Plato's Republic, Rousseau, Marx, Gramsci and others, to explain how their ideas eventually formed America's progressive movement. From Woodrow Wilson's progressivism to the far-left 2020 progressive Democrats, utopian chasers seek to fundamentally transform the United States of America into a socialist state. Their deleterious goals include a green utopia via a mythical carbon problem. The last remaining hope for goodness and liberty, America, has been the antithesis of utopianism. America was formed by the three C's: Christian values, U.S. Constitutional rights, and Capitalism's free market principles. America is functioning as two diametrically opposed ideologies under one country. Which philosophy will prevail: the progressive horde Chasing Utopia or the last good society based in God-given, eternal rights? James Cogan is a patriot who loves the original essence of America rooted in the brilliance of its founding documents. He describes himself as part classical liberal, part traditional conservative. Cogan is a practicing Catholic who believes in: Faith, Family, and Freedom. Currently earning a Master's of Political Science from Liberty University, Cogan is also a business owner in Cleveland, Ohio.

Radicals

Author : Jamie Bartlett
Publisher : William Heinemann
ISBN 13 : 9781785150388
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Radicals by : Jamie Bartlett

Download or read book Radicals written by Jamie Bartlett and published by William Heinemann. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last few years the world has changed in unexpected ways. The power of radical groups and ideas is growing. What was once considered extreme is now the mainstream. But what is life like on the political fringes? What is the real power of radicals? Radicals is an exploration of the individuals, groups and movements who are rejecting the way we live now, and attempting to find alternatives. In it, Jamie Bartlett, one of the world's leading thinkers on radical politics and technology, takes us inside the strange and exciting worlds of the innovators, disruptors, idealists and extremists who think society is broken, and believe they know how to fix it. From dawn raids into open mines to the darkest recesses of the internet, Radicals introduces us to some of the most secretive and influential movements today: techno-futurists questing for immortality, far-right groups seeking to close borders, militant environmentalists striving to save the planet's natural reserves by any means possible, libertarian movements founding new countries, autonomous cooperatives in self-sustaining micro-societies, and psychedelic pioneers attempting to heal society with the help of powerful hallucinogens. As well as providing a fascinating glimpse at the people and ideas driving these groups, Radicals also presents a startling argument: radicals are not only the symptoms of a deep unrest within the world today, but might also provide the most plausible models for our future.

Chasing Utopia

Author : Jennifer Wood
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1291690360
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (916 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Chasing Utopia by : Jennifer Wood

Download or read book Chasing Utopia written by Jennifer Wood and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2018 the world was thrown into a recession so severe that governments could not work out a solution. Desperation and poverty inspired social networks to create a world that ran on the principles of anarchism. This was ended only by the rise of CorpGroup, an Eastern initiative that created the new Eco-World Order. Through a series of encounters, the boundaries of time are erased to offer a captivating insight into the complications of love and friendship. Jess Rivington and the people in her life offer a contrasting account of the world we know and life after the tipping point. In a population which believes segregation is fundamental to their development, there is no desire to question the underlying principles of the Eco-World Order. Jess alone must challenge the system and rescue the man she loves by ending his days as a white slave in another District. In persuading modern society that there is still a place for humanitarian assistance, she must prepare to lose everything.

Everything You Love Will Burn

Author : Vegas Tenold
Publisher : Bold Type Books
ISBN 13 : 1568589956
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (685 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Everything You Love Will Burn by : Vegas Tenold

Download or read book Everything You Love Will Burn written by Vegas Tenold and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dark story of the shocking resurgence of white supremacist and nationalist groups, and their path to political power Six years ago, Vegas Tenold embedded himself among the members of three of America's most ideologically extreme white nationalist groups-the KKK, the National Socialist Movement, and the Traditionalist Workers Party. At the time, these groups were part of a disorganized counterculture that felt far from the mainstream. But since then, all that has changed. Racially-motivated violence has been on open display at rallies in Charlottesville, Berkeley, Pikesville, Phoenix, and Boston. Membership in white nationalist organizations is rising, and national politicians, including the president, are validating their perceived grievances. Everything You Love Will Burn offers a terrifying, sobering inside look at these newly empowered movements, from their conventions to backroom meetings with Republican operatives. Tenold introduces us to neo-Nazis in Brooklyn; a millennial Klanswoman in Tennessee; and a rising star in the movement, nicknamed the "Little Fü by the Southern Poverty Law Center, who understands political power and is organizing a grand coalition of far-right groups to bring them into the mainstream. Everything You Love Will Burn takes readers to the dark, paranoid underbelly of America, a world in which the white race is under threat and the enemy is everywhere.

The People Vs Tech

Author : Jamie Bartlett
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1524744379
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (247 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The People Vs Tech by : Jamie Bartlett

Download or read book The People Vs Tech written by Jamie Bartlett and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-04-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Dark Net comes a book that explains all the dangers of the digital revolution and offers concrete solutions on how we can protect our personal privacy, and democracy itself. The internet was meant to set us free. But have we unwittingly handed too much away to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists? And, in light of recent data breach scandals around companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, what does that mean for democracy, our delicately balanced system of government that was created long before big data, total information, and artificial intelligence? In this urgent polemic, Jamie Bartlett argues that through our unquestioning embrace of big tech, the building blocks of democracy are slowly being removed. The middle class is being eroded, sovereign authority and civil society is weakened, and we citizens are losing our critical faculties, maybe even our free will. The People Vs Tech is an enthralling account of how our fragile political system is being threatened by the digital revolution. Bartlett explains that by upholding six key pillars of democracy, we can save it before it is too late. We need to become active citizens, uphold a shared democratic culture, protect free elections, promote equality, safeguard competitive and civic freedoms, and trust in a sovereign authority. This essential book shows that the stakes couldn't be higher and that, unless we radically alter our course, democracy will join feudalism, supreme monarchies and communism as just another political experiment that quietly disappeared.

American Girls in Red Russia

Author : Julia L. Mickenberg
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022625612X
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis American Girls in Red Russia by : Julia L. Mickenberg

Download or read book American Girls in Red Russia written by Julia L. Mickenberg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you were an independent, adventurous, liberated American woman in the 1920s or 1930s where might you have sought escape from the constraints and compromises of bourgeois living? Paris and the Left Bank quickly come to mind. But would you have ever thought of Russia and the wilds of Siberia? This choice was not as unusual as it seems now. As Julia L. Mickenberg uncovers in American Girls in Red Russia, there is a forgotten counterpoint to the story of the Lost Generation: beginning in the late nineteenth century, Russian revolutionary ideology attracted many women, including suffragists, reformers, educators, journalists, and artists, as well as curious travelers. Some were famous, like Isadora Duncan or Lillian Hellman; some were committed radicals, though more were just intrigued by the “Soviet experiment.” But all came to Russia in search of social arrangements that would be more equitable, just, and satisfying. And most in the end were disillusioned, some by the mundane realities, others by horrifying truths. Mickenberg reveals the complex motives that drew American women to Russia as they sought models for a revolutionary new era in which women would be not merely independent of men, but also equal builders of a new society. Soviet women, after all, earned the right to vote in 1917, and they also had abortion rights, property rights, the right to divorce, maternity benefits, and state-supported childcare. Even women from Soviet national minorities—many recently unveiled—became public figures, as African American and Jewish women noted. Yet as Mickenberg’s collective biography shows, Russia turned out to be as much a grim commune as a utopia of freedom, replete with economic, social, and sexual inequities. American Girls in Red Russia recounts the experiences of women who saved starving children from the Russian famine, worked on rural communes in Siberia, wrote for Moscow or New York newspapers, or performed on Soviet stages. Mickenberg finally tells these forgotten stories, full of hope and grave disappointments.

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

Author : Kristen R. Ghodsee
Publisher : Bold Type Books
ISBN 13 : 1568588895
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (685 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism by : Kristen R. Ghodsee

Download or read book Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism written by Kristen R. Ghodsee and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2018-11-20 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spirited, deeply researched exploration of why capitalism is bad for women and how, when done right, socialism leads to economic independence, better labor conditions, better work-life balance and, yes, even better sex. In a witty, irreverent op-ed piece that went viral, Kristen Ghodsee argued that women had better sex under socialism. The response was tremendous — clearly she articulated something many women had sensed for years: the problem is with capitalism, not with us. Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives. She tackles all aspects of a woman's life - work, parenting, sex and relationships, citizenship, and leadership. In a chapter called "Women: Like Men, But Cheaper," she talks about women in the workplace, discussing everything from the wage gap to harassment and discrimination. In "What To Expect When You're Expecting Exploitation," she addresses motherhood and how "having it all" is impossible under capitalism. Women are standing up for themselves like never before, from the increase in the number of women running for office to the women's march to the long-overdue public outcry against sexual harassment. Interest in socialism is also on the rise -- whether it's the popularity of Bernie Sanders or the skyrocketing membership numbers of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's become increasingly clear to women that capitalism isn't working for us, and Ghodsee is the informed, lively guide who can show us the way forward.

The Presidential Fringe

Author : Mark Stein
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 1640121234
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Presidential Fringe by : Mark Stein

Download or read book The Presidential Fringe written by Mark Stein and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-02 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This offbeat slice of American history places the story of our great republic beneath an unexpected lens: that of fringe candidates for president of the United States. Mark Stein explores how their quest for our nation's highest office helped to amplify voices otherwise quashed during their day. His careening tour through elections past includes the efforts of true pioneers in the quest for social equality in our country: the first woman to run for president, Victoria Woodhull in 1872; the first African American to run for president, George E. Taylor in 1904; and the first openly gay cross-dressing candidate for president, Joan Jett Blakk in 1992. But The Presidential Fringe also takes a look at those who would jest their way into the Oval Office, from comedians such as Will Rogers and Gracie Allen to Pat Paulsen and Stephen Colbert. Along the way, Stein shows how even seemingly zany candidates, such as "Live Forever" Jones, Vegetarian Party candidate John Maxwell, Flying Saucer Party candidate Gabriel Green, or, most recently, Vermin Supreme, provide extraordinary insights of clarity into who we were when they ran for president and how we became who we are today. Ultimately, Stein's examination reveals that it was often precisely these fringe candidates who planted the seeds from which mainstream candidates later harvested genuine, positive change. Written in Stein's direct and witty style, The Presidential Fringe surveys and portrays an American landscape rife with the unlikely, unassuming, unexpected, and (in a few cases) unbalanced presidential hopefuls who, in their own way, have contributed to this nation's founding quest to form a more perfect Union.

Free Spirit

Author : Joshua Safran
Publisher : Hachette Books
ISBN 13 : 1401304958
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Free Spirit by : Joshua Safran

Download or read book Free Spirit written by Joshua Safran and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Unforgettable Journey Through an Unconventional Childhood When Joshua Safran was four years old, his mother--determined to protect him from the threats of nuclear war and Ronald Reagan -- took to the open road with her young son, leaving the San Francisco countercultural scene behind. Together they embarked on a journey to find a utopia they could call home. InFree Spirit, Safran tells the harrowing, yet wryly funny story of his childhood chasing this perfect life off the grid--and how they survived the imperfect one they found instead. Encountering a cast of strange and humorous characters along the way, Joshua spends his early years living in a series of makeshift homes, including shacks, teepees, buses, and a lean-to on a stump. His colorful youth darkens, however, when his mother marries an alcoholic and abusive guerrilla/poet. Throughout it all, Joshua yearns for a "normal" life, but when he finally reenters society through school, he finds "America" a difficult and confusing place. Years spent living in the wilderness and discussing Marxism have not prepared him for the Darwinian world of teenagers, and he finds himself bullied and beaten by classmates who don't share his mother's belief about reveling in one's differences. Eventually, Joshua finds the strength to fight back against his tormentors, both in school and at home, and helps his mother find peace. But Free Spirit is more than just a coming-of-age story. It is also a journey of the spirit, as he reconnects with his Jewish roots; a tale of overcoming adversity; and a captivating read about a childhood unlike any other.

Power Shift

Author : Sally Armstrong
Publisher : House of Anansi
ISBN 13 : 1487006802
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (87 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Power Shift by : Sally Armstrong

Download or read book Power Shift written by Sally Armstrong and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author, journalist, and human rights activist Sally Armstrong argues that humankind requires the equal status of women and girls. The facts are indisputable. When women get even a bit of education, the whole of society improves. When they get a bit of healthcare, everyone lives longer. In many ways, it has never been a better time to be a woman: a fundamental shift has been occurring. Yet from Toronto to Timbuktu the promise of equality still eludes half the world’s population. In her 2019 CBC Massey Lectures, award-winning author, journalist, and human rights activist Sally Armstrong illustrates how the status of the female half of humanity is crucial to our collective surviving and thriving. Drawing on anthropology, social science, literature, politics, and economics, she examines the many beginnings of the role of women in society, and the evolutionary revisions over millennia in the realms of sex, religion, custom, culture, politics, and economics. What ultimately comes to light is that gender inequality comes at too high a cost to us all.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Author : Chris Hedges
Publisher : Knopf Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307363007
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by : Chris Hedges

Download or read book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt written by Chris Hedges and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With illustrations by award-winning comic artist Joe Sacco, Chris Hedges portrays a suffering nation on the cusp of widespread revolt and addresses Occupy Wall Street in his first book since the international protests began. In the tradition of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Hedges and Sacco travel to the depressed pockets of the United States to report on recession-era America. What they find in Camden, New Jersey, the devastated coalmines of West Virginia, on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota, and in undocumented farmworker colonies in California is a thriving neofeudalism. With extraordinary on-the-ground reportage and illustration, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt provides a terrifying glimpse of a future for America and the nations that follow her lead--a future that will be avoided with nothing short of revolution.

Chaotic Neutral

Author : Ed Burmila
Publisher : Bold Type Books
ISBN 13 : 1645030040
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (45 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Chaotic Neutral by : Ed Burmila

Download or read book Chaotic Neutral written by Ed Burmila and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2022-09-20 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A recent history of the Democratic Party that identifies its chronic errors—the “pathologies” of the New Democratic mindset—and argues urgently against a return to the status quo Why did the Democrats initially abandon their principles, and why haven’t they been able to grasp that they need a new strategy in the face of decades of diminishing returns? In Chaotic Neutral, political scientist Ed Burmila breaks it to us, tracing the party’s metamorphosis from bold defender of labor rights, civil rights, and a robust social safety net to a timorous, ideology-free, regulation-averse lifestyle brand. Chaotic Neutral tracks the evolution (or devolution) of the Democratic Party from the New Deal era to Biden’s status-quo candidacy and the pandemic, when, even in the midst of a national crisis, the Democrats could not manage to pass sweeping progressive legislation. It is a timely analysis and, simultaneously, a timeless one that pinpoints why Dem politicians act like also-rans even when they’re in power. Burmila doesn’t pull any punches as he describes the Democrats’ brand of futility politics, but he also doesn’t claim that all is futile, instead laying out a potent strategy for how the party might abandon its lesser-of-two-evils strategy and shift back into drive.

Belarus

Author : Piotra P. Murzionak
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793654921
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (936 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Belarus by : Piotra P. Murzionak

Download or read book Belarus written by Piotra P. Murzionak and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-18 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Belarus, a middle-sized nation with more than a thousand years of history, is not well known beyond periodic media headlines. Modern scholarly and popular literature covers only fragments from Belarus’s long history and current geopolitical, social, and cultural issues. Belarusian history in this book differs in many aspects from history and myths created by Russian scholars and propagated worldwide. The author argues for the existence of a Western-Ruthenian (Belarusian-Ukrainian) civilization as a sub-civilization of Western civilization and thus different from Eurasian civilization. With original, detailed. and critical views on Belarusian history from the ninth century to the present, it explores the latest information about Belarusian society regarding mentality, identity, religion, current elites, the Revolution of Hope 2020. It then analyzes the future prospects of Belarus based on an assessment of modern trends in human societal and political development. It provides detailed analysis of current activities of Belarusian national and ruling elites and their ideologies vis-à-vis the building of a nation-state.

The Politics and Technology of Cyberspace

Author : Danny Steed
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351265903
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (512 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Politics and Technology of Cyberspace by : Danny Steed

Download or read book The Politics and Technology of Cyberspace written by Danny Steed and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the problems surrounding cyber security and cyberspace, this book bridges the gap between the technical and political worlds to increase our understanding of this major security concern in our IT-dependent society, and the risks it presents. Only by establishing a sound technical understanding of what is and is not possible can a properly informed discussion take place, and political visions toward cyberspace accurately map and predict the future of cyber security. Combining research from the technical world that creates cyberspace with that of the political world, which seeks to understand the consequences and uses of cyberspace, Steed analyses and explains the circumstances that have led to current situations whereby IT-dependent societies are vulnerable to, and regularly victims of, hacking, terrorism, espionage, and cyberwar. Two fundamental questions are considered throughout the book: what circumstances led to this state of affairs? And what solutions exist for the future of cyberspace? In tackling these questions, Steed also analyses the emergent and increasingly competing political positions on offer to stabilise the landscape of cyberspace. This interdisciplinary work will appeal to researchers and students of Security Studies, Intelligence Studies, Strategic Studies and International Relations as well as cybersecurity practitioners charged with developing policy options.

The Deliberative Turn in Democratic Theory

Author : Antonino Palumbo
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031565134
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Deliberative Turn in Democratic Theory by : Antonino Palumbo

Download or read book The Deliberative Turn in Democratic Theory written by Antonino Palumbo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Everything Now

Author : Rosecrans Baldwin
Publisher : MCD
ISBN 13 : 0374721076
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Everything Now by : Rosecrans Baldwin

Download or read book Everything Now written by Rosecrans Baldwin and published by MCD. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER. NAMED A BEST CALIFORNIA BOOKS OF 2021 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES A provocative, exhilaratingly new understanding of the United States’ most confounding metropolis—not just a great city, but a full-blown modern city-state America is obsessed with Los Angeles. And America has been thinking about Los Angeles all wrong, for decades, on repeat. Los Angeles is not just the place where the American dream hits the Pacific. (It has its own dreams.) Not just the vanishing point of America’s western drive. (It has its own compass.) Functionally, aesthetically, mythologically, even technologically, an independent territory, defined less by distinct borders than by an aura of autonomy and a sense of unfurling destiny—this is the city-state of Los Angeles. Deeply reported and researched, provocatively argued, and eloquently written, Rosecrans Baldwin's Everything Now approaches the metropolis from unexpected angles, nimbly interleaving his own voice with a chorus of others, from canonical L.A. literature to everyday citizens. Here, Octavia E. Butler and Joan Didion are in conversation with activists and astronauts, vampires and veterans. Baldwin records the stories of countless Angelenos, discovering people both upended and reborn: by disasters natural and economic, following gospels of wealth or self-help or personal destiny. The result is a story of a kaleidoscopic, vibrant nation unto itself—vastly more than its many, many parts. Baldwin’s concept of the city-state allows us, finally, to grasp a place—Los Angeles—whose idiosyncrasies both magnify those of America, and are so fully its own. Here, space and time don’t quite work the same as they do elsewhere, and contradictions are as stark as southern California’s natural environment. Perhaps no better place exists to watch the United States’s past, and its possible futures, play themselves out. Welcome to Los Angeles, the Great American City-State.