Washington University Press Search Results Page

Taiwan in Dynamic Transition

Nation Building and Democratization

By Ryan Dunch, Ashley Esarey, Thomas B. Gold

Following a remarkable transition from authoritarian rule to robust democracy, Taiwan has grown into a prosperous but widely unrecognized nation-state for which no uncontested sovereign space exists. Increasingly vigorous assertions of Taiwanese identity expose the...

A Secular Need

Islamic Law and State Governance in Contemporary India

By Jeffrey A. Redding

Whether from the perspective of Islamic law’s advocates, secularism’s partisans, or communities caught in their crossfire, many people see the relationship between Islamic law and secularism as antagonistic and increasingly discordant. In the United States...

Top-Down Democracy in South Korea

By Erik Mobrand

While popular movements in South Korea rightly grab the headlines for forcing political change and holding leaders to account, those movements are only part of the story of the construction and practice of democracy. In...

Sensitive Space

Fragmented Territory at the India-Bangladesh Border

By Jason Cons

Enclaves along the India-Bangladesh border have posed conceptual and pragmatic challenges to both states since Partition in 1947. These pieces of India inside of Bangladesh, and vice versa, are spaces in which national security, belonging,...

Concrete Mama

Prison Profiles from Walla Walla

By Ethan Hoffman, Dan Berger

Journalists John McCoy and Ethan Hoffman spent four months inside the walls of the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla in 1978, just as Washington, once a leader in prison reform, abandoned its focus on...

Stars for Freedom

Hollywood, Black Celebrities, and the Civil Rights Movement

By Emilie Raymond

From Oprah Winfrey to Angelina Jolie, George Clooney to Leonardo DiCaprio, Americans have come to expect that Hollywood celebrities will be outspoken advocates for social and political causes. However, that wasn’t always the case. As...

Organic Sovereignties

Struggles over Farming in an Age of Free Trade

By Guntra A. Aistara

This first sustained ethnographic study of organic agriculture outside the United States traces its meanings, practices, and politics in two nations typically considered worlds apart: Latvia and Costa Rica. Situated on the frontiers of the...

Making New Nepal

From Student Activism to Mainstream Politics

By Amanda Thérèse Snellinger

One of the most important political transitions to occur in South Asia in recent decades was the ouster of Nepal’s monarchy in 2006 and the institution of a democratic secular republic in 2008. Based on...

Planning on the Edge

Vancouver and the Challenges of Reconciliation, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development

By Penny Gurstein

Vancouver is heralded around the world as a model for sustainable development. In Planning on the Edge, nationally and internationally renowned planning scholars, activists, and Indigenous leaders assess whether this reputation is warranted. While recognizing...

High

Drugs, Desire, and a Nation of Users

By Ingrid Walker

Whether drinking Red Bull, relieving chronic pain with oxycodone, or experimenting with Ecstasy, Americans participate in a culture of self-medication, using psychoactive substances to enhance or manage our moods. A “drug-free America” seems to be...

Putting Family First

Migration and Integration in Canada

By Harald Bauder

When migrants reach their new home, we often interpret their settlement and integration as an individual process driven largely by the labour market. But family plays a crucial role. Putting Family First investigates the experience...

Seeking the Court's Advice

The Politics of the Canadian Reference Power

By Kate Puddister

Can Parliament legalize same‑sex marriage? Can Quebec unilaterally secede from Canada? Can the federal government create a national firearms registry? Each of these questions is contentious and deeply political, and each was addressed by a...

The New NDP

Moderation, Modernization, and Political Marketing

By David McGrane

The New NDP is the definitive account of the evolution of the New Democratic Party’s political marketing strategy in the early twenty‑first century. In 2011, the federal NDP achieved its greatest electoral success – becoming...

The Political Economy of Resource Regulation

An International and Comparative History, 1850–2015

By Andreas R. D. Sanders, Pal Thonstad Sandvik, Espen Storli

Industrialist John Paul Getty famously quipped, “The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.” Throughout history, natural resources have been sources of wealth and power and catalysts for war and peace. The...

Gendered Mediation

Identity and Image Making in Canadian Politics

By Angelia Wagner, Joanna Everitt

Despite decades of women’s participation in politics, the gender identities of Canadian politicians continue to attract media and public attention and shape the way they are perceived and evaluated. Gendered Mediation takes an original approach...

Resisting Rights

Canada and the International Bill of Rights, 1947-76

By Jennifer Tunnicliffe

From 1948 to 1966, the United Nations worked to create a common legal standard for human rights protection around the globe. Resisting Rights analyzes the Canadian government’s changing policy toward this endeavour from the 1940s...

Doing Politics Differently?

Women Premiers in Canada's Provinces and Territories

By Sylvia Bashevkin

Women have reached the highest levels of political office in Canada’s provinces and territories, but what difference has their rise to the top made? In Doing Politics Differently? leading researchers from across the country assess...

Delivering Policy

The Contested Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Canada

By Francesca Scala

Are assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) a medical issue or a matter of public policy, subject to restrictions? Francesca Scala employs the concept of boundary work to explain the protracted debates that ensued when Canada appointed...

Give and Take

The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy

By Shirley Tillotson

A book about tax history that’s a real page-turner? Give and Take is full of surprises. A Canadian millionaire who embraced the new federal income tax in 1917. A socialist hero who deplored the burden...

Governing the Social in Neoliberal Times

By Deborah Brock

Neoliberalism is most commonly associated with free trade, the minimal state, and competitive individualism. But it is not simply national economies that are being neoliberalized – it is us. Inspired by Michel Foucault and other...