"Looking at a neglected period in the social history of modernization, David Levine investigates the centuries that followed the year 1000, when a new kind of society emerged in Europe. New commercial routines, new forms of agriculture, new methods of information technology, and increased population densities all played a role in the prolonged transition away from antiquity and toward modernity.At the Dawn of Modernity highlights both "top-down"...

"After living in San Francisco for 15 years, journalist Gordon Young found himself yearning for his Rust Belt hometown: Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors and "star" of the Michael Moore documentary Roger & Me. Hoping to rediscover and help a place that once boasted one of the world's highest per capita income levels, but is now one of the country's most impoverished and dangerous cities, he returned to Flint with the intention of buying...

"In this riveting book, authors and authorities on modern day slavery Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter expose the disturbing phenomenon of human trafficking and slavery that exists now in the United States. In The Slave Next Door we find that slaves are all around us, hidden in plain sight: the dishwasher in the kitchen of the neighborhood restaurant, the kids on the corner selling cheap trinkets, the man sweeping the floor of the local department store....

"What leads to national progress? The growing consensus in the social sciences is that neither capital flows, nor the savings rate, nor diffuse values are the key, but that it lies in the quality of a nation's institutions. This book is the first comparative study of how real institutions affect national development. It seeks to examine and deepen this insight through a systematic study of institutions in five Latin American countries and how they...

The Human Race is a compelling adventure documentary set in the Kimberley Region - an ancient, remote and spectacular landscape in North Western Australia. Three men from different continents begin the race on the rim of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, the second largest meteorite crater in the world, and finish in the small coastal town of Wyndham.. Australian Aboriginal elder, 72 year old Jack Jugarie, travels with little more than his Dreamtime knowledge...

After the Kosovo war devastates a young couple’s homeland and their dreams for a normal life, they set out unexpectedly from the Balkans, along a wild journey to rebuild their lives anew in America. Arriving in California amidst the peak of a housing boom that would soon burst, the film reveals their trials and tribulations over five years of turbulent economic, political and personal tides to reveal an unorthodox depiction of the American immigrant...

Arguing the World is the story of four brilliant and engaging men caught up in the central struggles of our time. This enthralling film creates a vivid picture of intellectual life in the 20th century. For more than half a century, Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and Irving Kristol have all passionately believed that ideas can change the world-especially their ideas. And they have been fighting over those ideas ever since they entered New...

The U.S. and other countries may not be able to replicate Finland’s educational system, but they can level the playing field by making adjustments that contribute to equality in policies, curricula, and pedagogy. Focus on gender-based equity, looking at areas where real progress is being made as well as institutionalized gender inequalities masked by egalitarian values..

A member of the Oprah Winfrey Documentary Club, the film Sons of Perdition follows three teenagers who escape from the chokehold of the secretive and unconventional polygamist FLDS religion and find themselves without family or money, struggling to make a future outside the constraints of the only existence they've ever known. Utilizing secret religious sermons and haunting testimony, the film also details the plight of the tyrannical prophet Warren...

Using the story of the most successful commercial brand in world history, The Cola Conquest is a revealing examination of popular culture in America and the exportation of American commercialism around the globe. Beginning its inquiry in 1895, The Cola Conquest traces the evolution of commercial supply and demand, and how this dynamic was birthed and shaped through a century of mass urbanization and industrialization. An eye opening critique of the...