Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wiggins

The introduction of Calculating Race positions the process of racial formation in the context of the risk society. The relationship between race and risk stretches back to the transatlantic slave trade, an era in which enslaved Africans were insured during their voyage across the Middle Passage. Calculating Race begins with a striking account of an uprising on the ship Thames, preserved as a historical record of how the nascent insurance trade of the early modern period viewed enslaved persons as both at risk and a risk. By insuring enslaved persons against the risk of mortality and insuring the ships that carried them against insurrection, maritime slave insurance established a complex relationship between enslaved Africans and risk even before they came to the Americas. This introduction sets the stage for this relationship and previews the intersection of risk and race in the United States over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Worldview ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
James A. Scherer

A number of church activities in the United States and in various Third World nations bring issues involving the separation of Church and State once again to the fore. Certainly any serious inquiry into the relationship of the U.S. Government and American missionary groups abroad—particularly with regard to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—must first consider the historical record. Only after a thorough examination of the inconsistencies and constradictions between theory and practice over the nation's more than two hundred-year history can one hope to assess present policies. This, then, is just such an historical overview.


Author(s):  
Mercè Oliva ◽  
Óliver Pérez-Latorre ◽  
Reinald Besalú

This article aims to identify the relationship between video games and neoliberal values. To fulfil this aim, it analyses the covers of the 20 top-selling video games in the United States each year from 2010 to 2014 (a total of 80 different games). Video game covers are a type of paratext, that is, texts that accompany another text to promote it and to guide its reading. Thus, video game covers choose and highlight some of the games’ features over others, and by doing that they construct a discourse. In this article, it is argued that regardless of genre, the covers analysed convey and promote neoliberal values, such as freedom and choice, entrepreneurship, consumption and accumulation of goods, customization, novelty, individualism and meritocracy. This promotion of neoliberal values is combined with an appeal to the concerns of ‘risk society’. Thus, the covers of the top-selling video games play on fears linked to the new context created by the economic crisis while at the same time legitimizing the neoliberal ideal of the ‘enterprising self’ as a model for dealing with it.


Author(s):  
Brian McNeil

The United States and Nigeria have a long history, stretching back to the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century and continuing today through economic and security partnerships. While the relationship has evolved over time and both countries have helped to shape each other’s histories in important ways, there remains a tension between hope and reality in which both sides struggle to live up to the expectations set for themselves and for each other. The United States looks to Nigeria to be the model of progress and stability in Africa that the West African state wants to become; Nigeria looks to American support for its development and security needs despite the United States continuously coming up short. There have been many strains in the relationship, and the United States and Nigeria have continued to ebb and flow between cooperation and conflict. Whatever friction there might be, the relationship between the United States and Nigeria is important to analyze because it offers a window to understanding trends and broad currents in international history such as decolonization, humanitarianism, energy politics, and terrorism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 1002-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barret Rush ◽  
Katie Wiskar ◽  
Clark Fruhstorfer ◽  
Leo Anthony Celi ◽  
Keith R. Walley

Objective: The impact of chronic exposure to air pollution on mortality in patients with sepsis is unknown. We attempted to quantify the relationship between air pollution, notably excess ozone, and particulate matter (PM), with in-hospital mortality in patients with sepsis nationwide. Methods: The 2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) was linked with ambient air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency for both 8-hour ozone exposure and annual mean 2.5-micron PM (PM2.5) pollution levels. A validated severity of illness model for sepsis using administrative data was used to control for sepsis severity. Results: The records of 8 023 590 hospital admissions from the 2011 NIS sample were analyzed. Of these, there were 444 928 patients who met the Angus definition of sepsis, treated in hospitals for which air pollution data were available. The cohort had an overall mortality of 11.2%. After adjustment for severity of sepsis, increasing exposure to ozone pollution was associated with increased risk of mortality (odds ratio [OR]: 1.04 for each 0.01 ppm increase, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.05; P < .01). Particulate matter was not associated with mortality (OR: 0.99 for each 5 µg/m3 increase, 95% CI: 0.97-1.01; P = .28). When stratified by sepsis source, ozone pollution had a higher impact on patients with pneumonia (OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.04-1.08; P < .01) compared to those patients without pneumonia (OR: 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01-1.03; P < .01). Conclusion: Exposure to increased levels of ozone but not particulate air pollution was associated with higher risk of mortality in patients with sepsis. This association was strongest in patients with pneumonia but persisted in all sources of sepsis. Further work is needed to understand the relationship between ambient ozone air pollution and sepsis outcomes.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa L. Beeble ◽  
Deborah Bybee ◽  
Cris M. Sullivan

While research has found that millions of children in the United States are exposed to their mothers being battered, and that many are themselves abused as well, little is known about the ways in which children are used by abusers to manipulate or harm their mothers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that perpetrators use children in a variety of ways to control and harm women; however, no studies to date have empirically examined the extent of this occurring. Therefore, the current study examined the extent to which survivors of abuse experienced this, as well as the conditions under which it occurred. Interviews were conducted with 156 women who had experienced recent intimate partner violence. Each of these women had at least one child between the ages of 5 and 12. Most women (88%) reported that their assailants had used their children against them in varying ways. Multiple variables were found to be related to this occurring, including the relationship between the assailant and the children, the extent of physical and emotional abuse used by the abuser against the woman, and the assailant's court-ordered visitation status. Findings point toward the complex situational conditions by which assailants use the children of their partners or ex-partners to continue the abuse, and the need for a great deal more research in this area.


Author(s):  
Steven Hurst

The United States, Iran and the Bomb provides the first comprehensive analysis of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship from its origins through to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Starting with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, it analyses the policies of successive US administrations toward the Iranian nuclear programme. Emphasizing the centrality of domestic politics to decision-making on both sides, it offers both an explanation of the evolution of the relationship and a critique of successive US administrations' efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear programme, with neither coercive measures nor inducements effectively applied. The book further argues that factional politics inside Iran played a crucial role in Iranian nuclear decision-making and that American policy tended to reinforce the position of Iranian hardliners and undermine that of those who were prepared to compromise on the nuclear issue. In the final chapter it demonstrates how President Obama's alterations to American strategy, accompanied by shifts in Iranian domestic politics, finally brought about the signing of the JCPOA in 2015.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Andreu Espasa

De forma un tanto paradójica, a finales de los años treinta, las relaciones entre México y Estados Unidos sufrieron uno de los momentos de máxima tensión, para pasar, a continuación, a experimentar una notable mejoría, alcanzando el cénit en la alianza política y militar sellada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El episodio catalizador de la tensión y posterior reconciliación fue, sin duda, el conflicto diplomático planteado tras la nacionalización petrolera de 1938. De entre los factores que propiciaron la solución pacífica y negociada al conflicto petrolero, el presente artículo se centra en analizar dos fenómenos del momento. En primer lugar, siguiendo un orden de relevancia, se examina el papel que tuvo la Guerra Civil Española. Aunque las posturas de ambos gobiernos ante el conflicto español fueron sustancialmente distintas, las interpretaciones y las lecciones sobre sus posibles consecuencias permitieron un mayor entendimiento entre los dos países vecinos. En segundo lugar, también se analizarán las afinidades ideológicas entre el New Deal y el cardenismo en el contexto de la crisis mundial económica y política de los años treinta, con el fin de entender su papel lubricante en las relaciones bilaterales de la época. Somewhat paradoxically, at the end of the 1930s, the relationship between Mexico and the United States experienced one of its tensest moments, after which it dramatically improved, reaching its zenith in the political and military alliance cemented during World War II. The catalyst for this tension and subsequent reconciliation was, without doubt, the diplomatic conflict that arose after the oil nationalization of 1938. Of the various factors that led to a peaceful negotiated solution to the oil conflict, this article focuses on analyzing two phenomena. Firstly—in order of importance—this article examines the role that the Spanish Civil War played. Although the positions of both governments in relation to the Spanish war were significantly different, the interpretations and lessons concerning potential consequences enabled a greater understanding between the two neighboring countries. Secondly, this article also analyzes the ideological affinities between the New Deal and Cardenismo in the context of the global economic and political crisis of the thirties, seeking to understand their role in facilitating bilateral relations during that period.


Contention ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
AK Thompson

George Floyd’s murder by police on 26 May 2020 set off a cycle of struggle that was notable for its size, intensity, and rate of diffusion. Starting in Minneapolis, the uprising quickly spread to dozens of other major cities and brought with it a repertoire that included riots, arson, and looting. In many places, these tactics coexisted with more familiar actions like public assemblies and mass marches; however, the inflection these tactics gave to the cycle of contention is not easily reconciled with the protest repertoire most frequently mobilized during movement campaigns in the United States today. This discrepancy has led to extensive commentary by scholars and movement participants, who have often weighed in by considering the moral and strategic efficacy of the chosen tactics. Such considerations should not be discounted. Nevertheless, I argue that both the dynamics of contention witnessed during the uprising and their ambivalent relationship to the established protest repertoire must first be understood in historical terms. By considering the relationship between violence, social movements, and Black freedom struggles in this way, I argue that scholars can develop a better understanding of current events while anticipating how the dynamics of contention are likely to develop going forward. Being attentive to these dynamics should in turn inform our research agendas, and it is with this aim in mind that I offer the following ten theses.


2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (8) ◽  
pp. 288-296
Author(s):  
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani

In the first half of the 19th century scientific philosophers in the United States, such as Emerson and Thoreau, began to pursue the relationship between man and nature. Painters from the Hudson River School discovered the rural spaces to the north of New York and began to celebrate the American landscape in their paintings. In many places at this time garden societies were founded, which generated widespread support for the creation of park enclosures While the first such were cemeteries with the character of parks, housing developments on the peripheries of towns were later set in generous park landscapes. However, the centres of the growing American cities also need green spaces and the so-called «park movement»reached a first high point with New York's Central Park. It was not only an experimental field for modern urban elements, but even today is a force of social cohesion.


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