Debuting it its first edition, this book is organized around the approach that American politics can best be understood by examining the issues that reflect the ideas, principles, concerns, fears, morals and hopes of the American people. Debates, Differences and Divisions looks at twenty-five hot button issues affecting American politics and policy today. The author argues that these issues are the heart and soul of the American political system, serving as the basis for the disagreements that drive our political system into action.

Every year, leading social anthropologists meet to debate a motion at the heart of current theoretical developments in their subject and this book includes the first six of these debates, spanning the period from 1988 to 1993. Each debate has four principal speakers: one to propose the motion, another to oppose it, and two seconders. The first debate addresses the disciplinary character of social anthropology: can it be regarded as a science, and if so, is it able to establish general propositions about human culture and social life? The second examines the concept of society, and in the third debate the spotlight is turned on the role of culture in people's perception of their environments. The fourth debate focuses on the place of language in the formation of culture. The fifth takes up the question of how we view the past in relation to the present. Finally, in the sixth debate, the concern is with the cross-cultural applicability of the concept of aesthetics. With its unique debate format, Key Debates in Anthropology addresses issues that are currently at the top of the theoretical agenda, which register the pulse of contemporary thinking in social anthropology. It will be of value to students who are not only introduced to the different sides of every argument, but are challenged to join in and to develop informed positions of their own.

The essays in this volume represent the most recent thinking collected on the problematics of feminism and critical theory, engaging the question of the relationship between these terms and the differences within each in terms of the other. As a whole, this piece of an extended conversation within feminism suggests both the illusory comfort of generic demarcations and the discomforting power of the play of difference. The articles are theoretically wide-ranging and provocative, offering discussion of works by such authors as Nella Larsen, Frances Harper, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker.

Examining democracies from a comparative perspective helps us better understand why politics—or “who gets what, when, and how”—differs among democracies. In American Difference: American Politics from a Comparative Perspective, authors Lori M. Poloni-Staudinger and Michael R. Wolf take the reader through different aspects of democracy—political culture, institutions, interest groups, political parties and elections—and explore how the US is both different from and similar to other democracies. Used in conjunction with a textbook for courses in Introduction to American Politics, Introduction to Comparative Politics, or Introduction to Politics, this book will provide additional context and deepen students’ understanding of key political concepts.

The study of social division has dominated research within the social sciences since the nineteenth century. This book addresses the full range of social divisions while considering the nature of social division itself.