The rise and fall of the Voting Rights Act, from the triumph of its passage in 1965 to its evisceration by the Supreme Court in their 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally made good on the promise of the Fifteenth Amendment, which nearly a century before had granted Black Americans the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act was the crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, which had battled for years against voting laws that made it all but impossible for Black Americans to cast a ballot. The act was a resounding success, bringing Americans of all races and ethnicities into the democratic process. And then, in 2013, the Supreme Court brought this progress to a screeching halt with their decision in Shelby County v. Holder. In this book, Michael Miller and Kevin Morris offer a sweeping history of the Voting Rights Act and the attacks it has suffered.

Miller and Morris explain that central to the act's success was its requirement that states and localities with a history of discrimination get federal permission to change their voting rules-a novel approach known as "preclearance." It was this requirement that the Shelby County decision eviscerated. Miller and Morris trace the devastating effect of Shelby County, using advanced research techniques to prove that the decision unleashed racially discriminatory voting policies. The result is a nation in which Americans of color cast fewer ballots, and in which the ballots they do cast count for less. But the story does not end there: the Supreme Court continues to undermine what remains of the Voting Rights Act. What President Lyndon B. Johnson called "an American problem," formerly kept in check by a strong federal law, once again threatens voting rights.

A behind-the-scenes look at why Latinos-the largest immigrant group in the United States-make up a staggeringly low percentage of the elite US labor force.

Carla, Douglas, and Isabel each migrated to the United States from Latin American countries before they were teenagers. Each had big dreams-in medicine, business, and government-and each did what they were told to do to achieve their goals: work hard, stay in school, and follow the rules. Yet none of them reached the top of the labor market, and they are far from alone. Only one out of one hundred Latino immigrants who arrive in the United States as children will ever secure a job that requires a college degree and pays high wages.

To better understand why Latinos are more likely to have difficulty finding success in the labor market, sociologist A. Nicole Kreisberg's 1 in 100 shares stories directly from Latino immigrants experiencing this exclusion. Kreisberg argues that despite increasing access to higher education, Latino immigrant youth seldom land high-paying jobs. But contrary to what Americans might think, this is not the result of individual failure. Instead, these slim odds are the result of immigration laws, schools, and workplaces that interact in ways that systematically disadvantage so many Latinos. Kreisberg finds that stereotypes about Latino immigrants are activated in US schools, exacerbated in US colleges, and reinforced by employers' hiring decisions. And because most Americans cannot tell who is and who isn't an immigrant, the stereotypes harming immigrants often spill over to the 68 million Latinos living in the United States, including those born here as US citizens.

By tracing the school-to-work trajectories of child-arriving Latino immigrants and native-born Latinos, alongside the gatekeepers who structure their opportunities, 1 in 100 shows that the 99 who struggle are not the exception-they are the unfortunate norm.

Rigorous nonpartisan research on the effects of economic forces and public policy on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely recognized as drivers of economic dynamics and long-term prosperity. This volume of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy series brings rigorous new economic research to bear on a number of current policy issues. Andrew Fieldhouse and Karel Mertens quantify the social returns to public R&D and find that federal investments have yielded extraordinarily high productivity payoffs. They argue that cuts to non-defense R&D risk long-run damage to economic growth. Douglas Elmendorf, Glenn Hubbard, and Zachary Liscow examine the interaction of innovation-friendly growth-oriented policies with deficit reduction and conclude that while such policies alone cannot stabilize federal debt, they can meaningfully ease fiscal pressures. Nirupama Rao and Timothy Simcoe document the effectiveness of R&D tax credits while highlighting design challenges such as the need to ensure that credits stimulate additional research rather than subsidize activity that firms would have undertaken in their absence. Kyle Myers, Lauren Lanahan, and Evan Johnson analyze the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and show that small firms supported through SBIR pursue distinctive strategies compared to venture-backed startups. Pierre Azoulay, Daniel Gross, and Bhaven Sampat analyze indirect cost recovery, the system by which research universities are reimbursed for overhead. Fiona Paine, Richard Townsend, and Ting Xu assess restrictions on foreign investment in startups, weighing national security concerns against the costs to innovation ecosystems. Aaron Chatterji and Fiona Murray argue that geopolitics is fundamentally reshaping the economics of innovation, and distill the implications of this development for the approaches that are used in studying innovation policy.

This book is among the first to map out China's strategic narratives in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Recognizing that the Chinese actors involved with and influencing Chinese foreign policy has continued to grow under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the authors shed light on the nuances and variations of distinctive sources of China's foreign policy with regard to the current war in Ukraine. They empirically analyse the nuances and variations of Chinese sources of foreign policy and illuminate China's possible course of action and role in response to current and future international security crises. In particular, the book seeks to answer the following questions: What strategic narratives have China's official sources of foreign policy disseminated concerning the war in Ukraine? What do Chinese MFA, media and think tank strategic narratives reveal about China's view of, identity in relation to and potential solutions for the conflict in Ukraine? To what extent are these narratives consistent and or competitive? The research argues that China's strategic narratives project different views, values and solutions to the current war, thereby reflecting the lack of a top-down masterplan on security issues and conflicts. In turn, China's contradictory strategic narratives provide evidence that China's foreign and security policy is a work in progress, raising the necessity to acknowledge some degree of uncertainty with respect to China's future intentions.

This book sheds new light on one of the most debated questions in economic history: Why did Britain lead the way in the First Industrial Revolution? It does so by examining Britain's technological breakthroughs, especially steam power, in a global comparative context.

From the early modern period to the beginning of the 20th century, the book explores how Britain pioneered the first general-purpose technology of the modern era and how it spread to five other economies: Italy, the Dutch Republic, China, the United States, and Belgium.

Using various methodological approaches, the authors trace delays and distinctive national trajectories in adopting British innovations. The result is a nuanced picture of technological invention, energy transitions, and the institutional factors that shaped industrialization across regions. This book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and students interested in the little and Great Divergence debates, technological change, and the global history of industrialization.

This book employs a structured, step-by-step approach to economic problem-solving. Each chapter begins with specific learning objectives, guiding students on what they should achieve. Key economic terms and concepts appear in lists, and brief overviews of each module help students connect with the material before diving in. The book highlights what students need to solve each problem and offers hints, enhancing their problem-solving skills.

Primarily targeting undergraduate students in intermediate microeconomics courses, this book also benefits those in more advanced courses. It aids in teaching, testing, and homework assignments, helping students prepare for tests and exams. Practical learning comes through visual aids like graphs and charts, making complex concepts easier to understand. With over 400 solved short answer and essay questions, and over 350 multiple-choice questions with explanations, students have extensive practice opportunities.

The "Requirement and Clue" feature directs students' attention to what is required and provides hints for solving each problem, addressing common issues students face in problem-solving. The case studies do not restrict themselves to any particular country, making it a versatile resource for economic thinkers worldwide. Suitable for use with major textbooks on intermediate microeconomics, the book enhances its utility as a supplementary resource.

Overall, the book fills a gap in intermediate microeconomics education by providing a comprehensive, practical, and structured approach to problem-solving. It serves as an invaluable tool for both students and professors, aiding in teaching, testing, and homework assignments.

This book brings together perspectives on privileged migration and highly skilled migration, illustrating how these concepts intersect with gender, ethnicity, and life course. Highly skilled migrants are often defined as those who have tertiary education, while privileged migrants possess agency and a relative position of power compared to local communities. Despite their relatively privileged status due to their occupations, these migrants face various barriers in their daily lives. Thus, experiences of privilege and precarity can coexist. Highly skilled migrants can encounter discrimination and employ cultural repertoires to navigate and mitigate these challenges. Drawing on over 70 interviews with highly skilled migrants in Czechia conducted in 2024, this book aims to uncover their lived experiences and coping strategies. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars in sociology and the social sciences more broadly. It will also be of interest to students in migration studies as well as to policymakers in Central and Eastern Europe.

Available for the first time in a stand-alone volume, the classic essay that envisions liberalism not as the triumphant endpoint of political progress, or even a cohesive ideology, but rather as a precarious guardrail against abuses of power.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many hailed the supposed triumph of liberal democracy as the "end of history." But Judith Shklar offers a sober and cautionary perspective. Far from an inevitable or permanent political order, liberalism was as fragile as it was essential: always threatened by the abusive political forces against which it offered imperfect but necessary defense. Shklar's vision of a bulwark in the face of cruelty, rather than a venerable ideology of freedom or individual autonomy, powerfully rejects conceptions of liberalism that were easy targets of critique from both left and right.

With its focus on the thin line dividing our political system from authoritarianism, The Liberalism of Fear is as relevant today as it was on its initial publication. Democratic institutions, from the courts to the ballot, are under attack from within, and marginalized groups are even more vulnerable to state-sanctioned violence. Now as before, our faith in the liberal order seems to be fueled above all by a fear of the alternatives. This is as it should be, according to Shklar: Properly conceived, liberalism is a means of survival, not the road to utopia.

A new foreword by Mark Lilla places this classic study in its historical context and solidifies its importance during a precarious moment. A perfect entryway into Shklar's large and influential body of work, The Liberalism of Fear is both an essential addition to any scholar's library and a powerful note of warning.

Why autocratic leaders have adopted gender-equality reforms as a way to legitimize their rule

Authoritarian governments are often seen as attacking gender equality. Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made well-publicized critiques of feminism. But, as Elin Bjarnegard and Paer Zetterberg show in this book, autocratic regimes are also actively adopting gender-equality reforms, surpassing some democracies in their embrace of such policies. Why have leaders of countries known for violating human rights become unlikely champions of gender equality? Bjarnegard and Zetterberg argue that gender serves as a versatile tool for autocrats seeking to legitimize their rule, deflecting attention from authoritarian practices by promoting policies that seem liberal and even democratic. They call this strategy of political misdirection autocratic genderwashing.

Drawing on data from authoritarian governments in countries including Rwanda, Nicaragua, Singapore, and Uganda, Bjarnegard and Zetterberg show how gender equality policies interact with noncoercive authoritarian strategies to claim legitimacy for autocratic rule. They describe autocratic genderwashing as political theater, shining a spotlight on specific reforms and accomplishments-domestic violence legislation, increased numbers of women in parliament, the creation of women's policy agencies-while leaving authoritarian practices in the dark. Considering the question of whether autocratic genderwashing is successful as a legitimation strategy, Bjarnegard and Zetterberg find that it is more convincing to international audiences than to domestic ones.

A playful and irreverent argument for-and practical guide to-writing in a rich and extraordinary style

When it comes to literary style, the commonplace wisdom of composition classrooms, newsrooms, and editorial offices has long been that less is more. Students are taught that the best prose is that which eschews ornamentation and rhetorical flourish. But what if sometimes more is more? In Praise of Purple Prose playfully and cheekily contests a century worth of convention that rejects the baroque and byzantine as "purple prose," making the case that fun and joy in language can be as important as concision and comprehension. Part style guide and part manifesto, the book rewrites the rules on writing.

Ed Simon encourages writers to embrace the extraordinary, to call upon the classical rhetorical devices, and to relish in the richness of description and the erudition of allusion. He demonstrates that serpentine syntax, eccentric diction, and idiosyncratic punctuation, when used judiciously, can express the complexity of experience, bring out the pleasures of language, and help readers develop a unique voice in a world where AI threatens to make everyone sound alike. To illustrate its arguments, the book features examples of extraordinary prose from dozens of writers, including John Donne, Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, Salman Rushdie, Marilynne Robison, and Zadie Smith.

Playful and provocative, In Praise of Purple Prose will leave readers with a new appreciation for fancy prose and inspire writers to draw on all of the liveliest and most powerful resources of English in their work.

This book offers a comprehensive and structured exploration of how financial systems are being reshaped to support the net-zero transition. It guides readers through the evolving architecture of standards, instruments, and market mechanisms that underpin climate-aligned capital flows. Using an accessible but conceptually rigorous approach, it distinguishes climate finance from green and sustainable finance and examines key tools such as corporate and sovereign green bonds, blue finance, and carbon markets.

What sets this volume apart is its integrative perspective: it combines theoretical clarity, policy analysis, and empirical depth to trace the journey of climate finance from conception to implementation. It also explores underexamined topics such as carbon as an anchor asset and the role of climate finance in global monetary dynamics, including RMB internationalization.

Designed for scholars, graduate students, policymakers, and financial professionals, this book provides clear conceptual frameworks and evidence-based insights. It is particularly valuable for readers interested in finance-driven climate transitions and the institutional design of net-zero finance.

Key features include:

1. Provides a comprehensive analysis of climate finance instruments and regulatory systems.

2. Offers a structured treatment bridging theory, policy, and market practice.

Rus' and Mongol Rule presents the fullest examination in English to date of the economic and social history of Rus' from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries and the impact of Mongol rule. Lawrence N. Langer shows how the Mongols were a double-edged sword, encouraging trade while imposing a harsh tribute in silver, furs, and people. Among the topics examined are the Black Death, the demographic crisis and shortage of labor, taxation and administration, patterns of warfare, the growth of monasteries, the peasantry, and slavery.

Rus' and Mongol Rule begins with the Mongol conquest of Rus in 1237-1241 and ends with the death of Grand Prince Vasilli II and the ascension of his son, Ivan III "the Great" in 1462. Langer shows how the Rus' responded to the tribute by fashioning an administrative and taxation system that drew upon Mongol practice and Rus' tradition. Despite not attacking Novgorod, the Mongols had an enormous impact as the city reformed its administration to meet the demands of their tribute. Simultaneously the city was able to solidify its rights vis-a-vis the grand princes of Vladimir.

Langer gives particular attention to Novgorod and its administration. He also discusses Pskov, which often receives little scholarly attention. In concluding he discusses how the governmental apparatus of Rus evolved to include elements from the Mongols but also administrative practices not unlike those found in the medieval West as well as those traditions derived from Kyivan Rus.

Vagrancy in Modern Russian Law and Culture examines vagrancy in imperial Russia and the Soviet Union as a historical, legal, and cultural phenomenon. Beginning with vagrancy laws, Olga Seliazniova traces the rich cultural use of vagabondism that permeated nineteenth-century Russian and Soviet literature and art. Seliazniova analyzes laws, literary texts, paintings, and films, arguing that vagrant stories produced in the nineteenth century had a long-lasting impact on culture and were instrumental in shaping collective views on poverty, freedom, and mobility that persist in Russia today.

Historically, vagrancy in Russia was a serious criminal offense, as hundreds of legal decrees and hundreds of thousands of convicted vagrants prove. Seliazniova discusses why vagrants sparked Russian writers' interest and how representations of vagrants evolved over the nineteenth century. The Soviets claimed they eradicated vagrancy, but they simply renamed it and covertly continued arresting people. Vagrancy in Modern Russian Law and Culture shows how one country, despite the changes of its government through the centuries, consistently profited from the poor, using unhoused itinerant people as free laborers and soldiers.

This book provides readers with a new angle to understand the progress of legal construction in China, by making a comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis of the translation of laws and regulations in China from the perspective of national governance. Although there is a growing awareness of the social functions of translation among scholars at home and abroad, there still lacks systematic and comprehensive studies on translation of Chinese laws and regulations. Therefore, guided by theories from disciplines such as jurisprudence, linguistics, translation, etc., this book aims to provide professional legal translators and general readers alike who are interested in this field with an integrated theoretical framework by focusing on the bi-directional interaction between legal translation and national governance. This book not only serves as a practical guide for readers to translate the related documents both accurately and appropriately, but more importantly, it depicts a panorama of China's national efforts of rule of law modernization through translation practices and answer the critical question of how the translation of laws and regulations in China contributes to the modernization of its national governance and how this tie can be further developed in the future.

A groundbreaking analysis of Frederick Douglass as constitutional theorist, showing how his vision, which prefigured today's originalism, melded history and natural rights to address the evil of slavery.

In his celebrated address "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass denounced America's hypocritical celebration of freedom. But he did not blame the nation's founding document for enabling the evil of slavery. Rather, he proclaimed that "interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a Glorious Liberty Document."

This was no mere rhetorical flourish. Examining Douglass not just as an activist but as a legal and political theorist, Until the Last Yoke Is Broken reveals that his abolitionism was guided by rigorous constitutional interpretation. Reconstructing Douglass's method from his speeches and writings, Bradley Rebeiro shows that his approach both anticipated and challenged aspects of contemporary originalism. Like today's originalists, Douglass saw historical meaning as central to constitutional analysis. But unlike today's originalism, Douglass's goes beyond simply asking how the Constitution was understood at its ratification. Instead, Douglass insisted that whenever a constitutional provision is ambiguous, the interpreter must adopt whatever meaning best agrees with the natural rights affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

Rebeiro also shows how Douglass balanced this constitutional vision with pragmatism during Reconstruction. When political tensions pitted the fate of black suffrage against women's suffrage, Douglass set aside the theoretically pure for the politically possible; as soon as black suffrage was secured, he returned to advocating for universal voting rights. "It was mine to stand for the freedom of people of all colors," Douglass wrote near the end of his life, "until in our land the last yoke was broken and the last bondsman was set free."

A novel meditation on how courts and bureaucracies function today and how they can be made better.

We live in a highly bureaucratic society, so much so that we often don't even see it. Although we think of bureaucracies and courtrooms as different kinds of institutions, as Robert P. Burns argues in Courts and Bureaucracies, their functions and everyday operations often blur together. Today, courts are being used to address numerous social problems that the government is unable or unwilling to tackle, and consequently, the courts frequently emphasize bureaucratic goals-such as efficiency and social control-over the adjudicatory functions that they are supposed to embody.

Drawing on social theory, philosophy, public administration, and law, Burns clarifies the role of courts in today's bureaucratic society and considers the distinctive contributions that specifically legal procedures can bring. After exploring the competing first principles of adjudication, Burns then examines our current administrative, civil, and criminal processes and describes new and looming changes to rules and practices that should affect our thinking about the rule of law and the role of the courts.

A broad reassessment-both philosophical and practical-of how criminal, civil, and administrative practices differ from one another and what benefits each bestows, Courts and Bureaucracies offers concrete suggestions for how we can better achieve the ideals already implicit in our judicial traditions and practices.

This book provides a comprehensive and systematic examination of the newly amended arbitration legal system in China.

It adopts an approach that integrates theoretical interpretation with practical case studies, focusing not only on the legislative intent and doctrinal foundations behind the legal provisions but also on their interpretation and application. Furthermore, it delves into the potential impacts of the new arbitration law on commercial arbitration practice within China. In addition to presenting the main content of the new arbitration law in full detail, this book includes essential materials on major developments in China ' s arbitration system in recent years, including judicial cases and scholarly perspectives. It also incorporates comparative insights from international arbitration, offering readers a reference that combines theoretical depth with practical value.

This book is intended for a diverse readership, including arbitration practitioners, academic researchers, corporate legal counsel, and judges, aiming to provide an authoritative and detailed resource for understanding the latest developments in China's arbitration system.

Its unique value lies in being the first English-language monograph to interpret China's newly amended Arbitration Law enacted in 2025, making it a timely and professional specialist work in the field. This book serves not only as an essential academic reference for studying the modernization of China's arbitration system but also contributes Chinese theoretical and practical insights to the global development of arbitration institutions.

Crime in the Colonial City explores how and where colonial law take its shape by turning to the eighteenth-century courts, homes, and streets of the Indian cities of Pondichery and Chandernagor, two bustling and diverse French-ruled towns. By uncovering the dramatic details of five criminal investigations, Danna Agmon reveals how experiences with French law in India allowed colonized residents and their allies to assert control over their own fates by exploiting the flexibility - and weakness - of the French legal system, itself an aspirational symbol of colonial state power.

In theory, all residents of the French-ruled towns in India, regardless of their national, linguistic, ethnic, or religious background, were subject to French legal codes and the French Crown's sovereignty and jurisdiction. Reality, however, was more flexible. Crime in the Colonial City provides a never-before gained understanding of the social fabric of French colonialism in India, while also exploring the limits of legal institutions in the making of imperial sovereignty.

A fascinating visual exploration of all things linguistic, tracing how words, sounds, scripts, norms, and borders are in constant flux

Did you know that more than 7,000 languages are spoken today, but that fifty percent of the world's people use only fifteen of them? Or that there are hundreds of separate sign languages? Or that a dog's bark is represented with wildly different sounds in English, Czech, and Thai? In The World Atlas of Language, Gaston Dorren, the international bestselling author of Lingo, Babel, and other books about languages, invites readers on a captivating journey that charts the geographical spread of languages and dialects around the world through the ages-and tells the incredible stories behind them in his unmistakable style. The result is an essential reference for anyone who loves how humans speak, write-and vary.

Organized by theme and richly illustrated throughout with full-color maps, timelines, and other graphics, this book traces the origins and evolutions of the world's languages and of the communities that nurture and live in them. From Old, Middle, and Modern English and the great linguistic variety of the Americas to the lingua francas of Africa and the many unique tongues that are about to fall silent, the atlas reveals an astonishing linguistic diversity.

• Features 100 full-color maps, timelines, and other graphics
• Tells engaging stories about the origins and evolutions of languages and how they have been carried around the world by nations, religions, and empires
• Includes sections on:

• An essential reference for readers interested in languages, words, and their histories

This book introduces research on computer games conducted in Japan, aimed at students and researchers of games and pop culture in Japan, and explains how to facilitate their studies and research.

Japan, along with the USA and Europe, has been a world leader in computer games. There are many users and companies, and the market is significant. In terms of game content, games developed in Japan have gained popularity outside of Japan and have influenced subsequent games. For this reason, a considerable amount of research on Japanese games has been conducted.

Most of the literature on Japanese games is written in Japanese, however. Therefore, it is difficult for students and researchers living outside of Japan, even if they are interested, to read the literature and to work jointly with Japanese researchers. As a result, there is a disconnection between overseas and Japanese researchers. This book is presented to help bridge that gap. In addition, by introducing Japanese game studies across multiple disciplines, the book makes it easier for readers to find research approaches that match their interests.

The book begins with an overview of Japanese game research to date. It then introduces research results unique to Japan, such as those on arcade games and Doujin (people who make games mainly as a hobby, groups of people with shared strong interests in games). It then introduces research institutions and academic societies in which readers can research game studies in Japan. In addition, it introduces ways to access and obtain relevant resources.

Readers will be better prepared to study in Japan or collaborate with Japanese researchers by reading this book. In addition, it will help readers to know in advance which fields and themes are easier or more difficult to research in Japan, thus preventing mismatches in study abroad and research exchange. The academic significance is that it provides an overview of research on games in Japan that has been conducted from a variety of perspectives and approaches. By using this as a basis, we can expect to promote international and cross-disciplinary game research.