100 Books to Build a Better Scotland
Ideas shape people, and people shape nations. What ideas therefore are best to shape us and our nation? The 100 Books to Build a Better Scotland reading list tries to answer that question with a selection of the best texts on Scottish history, environmentalism, feminism, inequality, economics, and independence.
Related pages
The 100 Greatest British Politics Books
The 100 Best European History Books
The 100 Best Scottish History Books
1. The Scottish Nation: A Modern History
By Tom Devine
Part of a trilogy on Scottish history, T.M. Devine's The Scottish Nation: A Modern History traces the epic story of a nation from the Union with England to today's debates on the possibilities of Scottish independence.Drawing on extensive research and exploring everything from the high politics of the ... More »
2. The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
By Richard G. Wilkinson; Kate Pickett | 60% Off
It is a well-established fact that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. The Spirit Level, based on thirty years of research, takes this truth a step further. One common factor links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree ... More »
3. Yes: The Radical Case for Scottish Independence
The United Kingdom faces a historic turning point in 2014. A 'Yes' vote in the referendum on Scottish independence would see the break-up of the 300-year-old union, adding a constitutional crisis to a deep economic crisis. An accessible polemic written for progressives both north and south of the ... More »
4. Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition
By Alastair McIntosh | Used Price: 80% Off
Climate change is the greatest challenge that the world has ever faced. In this groundbreaking new book, Alastair McIntosh summarises the science of what is happening to the planet - both globally and using Scotland as a local case study. He moves on, controversially, to suggest that politics ... More »
5. Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won A Referendum But Lost Scotland
What does the future hold for Scotland? On September 18th, 2014, Scotland voted to stay in the Union. In this provocative new book, Iain Macwhirter argues that the UK will never be the same again. Disunited Kingdom explores Scotland’s political and cultural landscape in the immediate build up ... More »
6. Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress
It has long been recognized that an improved standard of living results from advances in technology, not from the accumulation of capital. It has also become clear that what truly separates developed from less-developed countries is not just a gap in resources or output but a gap in ... More »
7. Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish
Blossom: 1. A term given to flowers of stone fruit trees and some other plants that flower profusely in Spring. Blossoms provide pollen to bees, and initiate cross-pollination necessary for trees to reproduce by producing fruit. 2. A peak period or stage of development. Covering topics including housing, ... More »
8. Ill Fares the Land
By Tony Judt | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
A gift to the next generation of engaged citizens, from one of our most celebrated intellectuals. As the economic collapse of 2008 made clear, the social contract that defined postwar life in Europe and America-the guarantee of security, stability, and fairness-is no longer guaranteed; in fact, ... More »
9. The Nordic Model of Social Democracy
By Nik Brandal; Oivind Bratberg; Dag Einar Thorsen
Since the late 1920s, social democracy has been preeminent in the politics of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, through dominant parties and ideological hegemony of the center-left. The Nordic Model of Social Democracy relates the concept of the Nordic model to the guiding role of social democratic ideology in ... More »
10. On Glasgow and Edinburgh
Edinburgh and Glasgow enjoy a famously scratchy relationship. Resembling other intercity rivalries throughout the world, from Madrid and Barcelona, to Moscow and St. Petersburg, to Beijing and Shanghai, Scotland's sparring metropolises just happen to be much smaller and closer together-like twin stars orbiting a common axis. Yet their ... More »
11. How Corrupt is Britain?
By David Whyte
Banks accused of rate-fixing. Members of Parliament cooking the books. Major defense contractors investigated over suspect arms deals. Police accused of being paid off by tabloids. The headlines are unrelenting these days. Perhaps it’s high time we ask: just exactly how corrupt is Britain? David Whyte brings ... More »
12. Economics: The User's Guide
In his bestselling 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang brilliantly debunked many of the predominant myths of neoclassical economics. Now, in an entertaining and accessible primer, he explains how the global economy actually works—in real-world terms. Writing with irreverent wit, a deep ... More »
13. Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay
By John Lanchester | Under $1.00
We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone's money and we're all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a ... More »
14. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution
By David Harvey
Long before Occupy, cities were the subject of much utopian thinking. They are the centers of capital accumulation as well as of revolutionary politics, where deeper currents of social and political change rise to the surface. Do the financiers and developers control access to urban resources or do ... More »
15. The Welfare State: A Very Short Introduction
By David Garland | Used Price: 60% Off
Welfare states vary across nations and change over time. And the balance between markets and government; free enterprise and social protection is perennially in question. But all developed societies have welfare states of one kind or another - they are a fundamental dimension of modern government. And even ... More »
16. Great Scottish Speeches
By David Torrance; John Maclean; Jimmy Reid
Some Great Scottish Speeches were the result of years of contemplation. Some flourished in heat of the moment. Whatever the background of the ideas expressed, the speeches not only provide a snapshot of their time, but express views that still resonate in Scotland today, whether you agree with ... More »
17. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
By Noam Chomsky | Used Price: 70% Off
Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy—one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, "propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state," ... More »
18. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
By Mark Blyth | Used Price: 50% Off
Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013Governments today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the financial crisis. We ... More »
19. Women, Work and A Citizens Basic Income
By Ailsa McKay
Current debates concerning the future of social security provision in advanced capitalist states have raised the issue of a citizen’s basic income (CBI) as a possible reform package: a proposal based on the principles of individuality, universality and unconditionality which would ensure a minimum income guaranteed for all ... More »
20. The Theory of Moral Sentiments
By Adam Smith | Used Price: 60% Off
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith's first and in his own mind most important work, outlines his view of proper conduct and the institutions and sentiments that make men virtuous. Here he develops his doctrine of the impartial spectator, whose hypothetical disinterested judgment we must use to ... More »
21. Bad News for Refugees
By Emma Briant; Pauline Donald; Greg Philo
Bad News for Refugees analyses the political, economic and environmental contexts of migration and looks specifically at how refugees and asylum seekers have been stigmatised in political rhetoric and in media coverage.Through forensic research it shows how hysterical and inaccurate media accounts act to legitimise political action which ... More »
22. A Nation Changed?: The SNP and Scotland Ten Years On
A Nation Changed? provides the first detailed and wide-ranging analysis of the SNP in office. It looks at how Scotland has changed and not changed during that time, and the challenges that lie ahead. The book examines the SNP's record, its role as a government and as a ... More »
23. A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830
By T. C. Smout | Under $1.00
('By far the most stimulating, the most instructive and the most readable account of Scotch history that I have read! This splendid work carries us from Knox to Neilson, from the hot gospel of Calvin to the hot-blast of the smelting process -- and, incidentally, seeks to explain ... More »
24. Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens
By Nicholas Shaxson | Used Price: 60% Off
A thrilling ride inside the world of tax havens and corporate mastermindsWhile the United States experiences recession and economic stagnation and European countries face bankruptcy, experts struggle to make sense of the crisis. Nicholas Shaxson, a former correspondent for the Financial Times and The Economist, argues that tax ... More »
25. Small Nations in a Big World: What Scotland Can Learn
By Michael Keating; Malcolm Harvey | 70% Off
Small northern European states have been a major point of reference in the Scottish independence debate. For nationalists, they have been an 'arc of prosperity' while in the aftermath of the financial crash, unionists lampooned the 'arc of insolvency'.Both characterisations are equally misleading. Small states can do well ... More »
26. The People's Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again
By Peter Geoghegan | Used Price: 70% Off
19 September 2014. The ballots are in, and the votes are counted. Scotland has either chosen to remain part of the United Kingdom, or to form a new independent state.The result is black and white, but the conversations, people and places that animated Scotland's journey to the referendum ... More »
27. The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Approach
By Robin Hahnel | Used Price: 80% Off
The ABCs of Political Economy is an accessible introduction to modern political economy. While informed by the work of Marx, Keynes, Veblen, Kalecki and other great political economists, Robin Hahnel teaches the reader the essential tools necessary to understand economic issues today from a modern perspective, searching ... More »
28. Living in Scotland: Social and Economic Change since 1980
By Lindsay Paterson; Frank Bechhofer; David McCrone
Shortlisted for the Saltire Society/NLS Scottish Research Book of the Year Award, 2005Living in Scotland gives an account of the key social changes in Scottish society, describing how it has been transformed over the last two to three decades. Drawing on a uniquely wide range of data from ... More »
29. How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor
In this refreshingly revisionist history, Erik S. Reinert shows how rich countries developed through a combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investment—rather than through free trade. Yet when our leaders lecture poor countries on the right path to riches they do so in almost perfect ignorance of ... More »
30. Scotland: a New History
By Michael Lynch | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
Columba, Bannockburn, Robert Bruce, the nobles, Home Rule, Kenneth mac Alpin, the Wars of Independence, the union of the crowns, Mary, Queen of Scots, the Convenanters, the Reformation, Flodden, the industrial revolution, James VI, Thomas Chalmers, the union of parliaments, John Knox, the Canmore dynasty, Glencoe, the Enlightenment, ... More »
31. The Political Economy of European Welfare Capitalism
By Daniel Wincott; Colin Hay | 50% Off
A state-of-the-art assessment of welfare provision, policy and reform at national and at EU level which spans the whole of Europe - East, West and Central. Uniquely broad-ranging in scope, and covering the latest research findings and theoretical debates, it provides a genuinely comparative overview text for students ... More »
32. And the Judges Said...: Essays
By James Kelman
In this collection of essays James Kelman discusses a diverse range of isssues literary, artistic, political and philosophical - from the asbestos scandal and destruction of the steel industry in Scotland to Chomsky's role in 20th-century thinking, racism in Britain and an absorbing essay on Franz Kafka More »
33. Gender in Scottish History Since 1700
By Lynn Abrams; Eleanor Gordon; Deborah Simonton
Scottish history is undergoing a renaissance. Everyone agrees that an understanding of our nation's history is integral to our experience of its present and the shaping of the future.But the story of Scotland's past is being told with little reference to gendered identities. Not only are women largely ... More »
34. Troublemakers: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Scotland
By Kevin Dunion | Used Price: 80% Off
Troublemakers is a provocative argument from prominent environmentalist Kevin Dunion for a sustained challenge to environmental injustice in Scotland.Pollution, disturbance and fears of ill health affect the daily life of many Scots, particularly from the most disadvantaged or vulnerable groups in society. They are expected to put up ... More »
35. Independence: An Argument for Home Rule
By Alasdair Gray | Used Price: 80% Off
Gray argues that a truly independent Scotland will only ever exist when people in every home, school, croft, farm, workshop, factory, island, glen, town and city feel that they too are at the centre of the world. Independence asks whether widespread social welfare is more possible in small ... More »
36. Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe
By the early 1980s the average American had a lower standard of living than the average Norwegian or Dane. Standards of living in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria also rivaled those in the United States. How have seven small democracies achieved economic success and what can ... More »
37. NHS Plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care
By Allyson M. Pollock | Used Price: 50% Off
Universal, comprehensive health care, equally available to all and disconnected from income and the ability to pay, was the goal of the founders of the National Health Service. This book, by one of the NHS’s most eloquent and passionate defenders, tells the story of how that ideal has ... More »
38. The New Industrial State
By John Kenneth Galbraith | 90% Off
With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. ... More »
39. Red Scotland!: The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, C. 1872 to 1932
By William Kenefick | Used Price: 70% Off
An excellent resource for teaching and learning, this book explores the rise and decline of left radicalism in Scotland c.1872 to 1932. A journey through these turbulent times observes the response of Scottish artisans to legal restrictions on trade-union activities in the 1870s, trade union formation among the ... More »
40. Before the Oil Ran Out: Britain, 1977-87
By Ian Jack | Under $1.00
This revised edition contains a collection of feature articles which delivers an absorbing account of Britain's changing face during the Thatcher years. Ian Jack paints a timely portrait of an increasingly divided nation. He has received Granada TV's Journalist of the Year Award. More »
41. Fear: The History of a Political Idea
By Corey Robin | Used Price: 80% Off
For many commentators, September 11 inaugurated a new era of fear. But as Corey Robin shows in his unsettling tour of the Western imagination--the first intellectual history of its kind--fear has shaped our politics and culture since time immemorial. From the Garden ... More »
42. The Predator State
By James K. Galbraith | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
Now available in paperback, this timely book challenges the cult of the free market that has dominated all political and economic discussion since the Reagan revolution. Even many liberals have felt the need to genuflect before the altar of free markets, but in The Predator State, progressive ... More »
43. Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters
By Hans Blix | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
In 2002 Dr. Hans Blix, then chief United Nations weapons inspector, led his team on a search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Before the United ... More »
44. The Origins of Scottish Nationhood
The traditional view of the Scottish nation holds that it first arose during the Wars of Independence from England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Although Scotland was absorbed into Britain in 1707 with the Treaty of Union, Scottish identity is supposed to have remained alive in the ... More »
45. Environment, labour and capitalism at sea
This book explores how fishers make the sea productive through their labour, using technologies ranging from wooden boats to digital GPS plotters to create familiar places in a seemingly hostile environment. It shows how their lives are affected by capitalist forces in the markets they sell to, forces ... More »
46. Leftism Reinvented: Western Parties from Socialism to Neoliberalism
Left-leaning political parties play an important role as representatives of the poor and disempowered. They once did so by promising protections from the forces of capital and the market’s tendencies to produce inequality. But in the 1990s they gave up on protection, asking voters to adapt to a ... More »
47. Out of Bounds: Women in Scottish Society, 1800-1945
By Esther Breitenbach; Eleanor Gordon | 90% Off
Women are said to have been absent in conventional accounts of Scottish history, but "Out of Bounds" aims to show they were far from passive. Describing their vocal and active part in social, public and institutional life, it tries to refute the view of women as confined to ... More »
48. Philosophers of Peace and War: Kant, Clausewitz, Marx, Engles and Tolstoy
By W. B. Gallie | Used Price: 70% Off
Intellectual eminence apart, what did Kant, Clausewitz, Marx and Engels, and Tolstoy have in common? Professor Gallic argues that they made contributions to 'international theory' - to the understanding of the character and causes of war and of the possibility of peace between nations - which were of ... More »
49. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights
By Will Kymlicka | Under $1.00
The increasingly multicultural fabric of modern societies has given rise to many new issues and conflicts, as ethnic and national minorities demand recognition and support for their cultural identity. This book presents a new conception of the rights and status of minority cultures. It argues that certain "collective ... More »
50. Why Not Socialism?
By G. A. Cohen | Used Price: 60% Off
Is socialism desirable? Is it even possible? In this concise book, one of the world's leading political philosophers presents with clarity and wit a compelling moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles in its way are exaggerated. There ... More »
51. SNP: The History of the Scottish National Party
By Peter Lynch
Although the Scottish National Party (SNP) has existed since 1934, no full-length history of the Scottish National Party was written until the first edition of this book in 2002. This second edition further traces the fortunes of the SNP since 2002, particularly since 2007 when it became the ... More »
52. Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
In this lucid and compelling account, Alex Carey documents the 20th century history of corporate propaganda as practiced by U.S. businesses, and its export to and adoption by other western democracies, chiefly the United Kingdom and Australia. The collection examines how and why the business elite has successfully ... More »
53. The Transformation of Scotland: The Economy Since 1700
By Tom Devine; George C. Peden; Clive H. Lee
This is the first comprehensive history of the Scottish economy over the last three centuries to appear in a generation. Written by leading scholars in the field, it presents 'state of the art' research in an accessible style to all those interested in understanding the historical context of ... More »
54. The Poor Had No Lawyers: Who Owns Scotland and How They Got it
An exploration into Scotland’s history to find out how and why landowners got their hands on the millions of acres of land that were once held in common, The Poor Had No Lawyers tells the story of how Scotland’s legal establishment and politicians managed to appropriate land through ... More »
55. Robert Bruce: And the Community of the Realm of Scotland
This classic edition is the definitive history of Robert Bruce's life and career, during Scotland's tumultuous coming of age in the Wars of Independence, and one of the twentieth century's bona-fide classics in historical writing. It tells the story of how Robert Bruce outwitted Edward I, defeated his ... More »
56. An Essay on the History of Civil Society
By Adam Ferguson | Used Price: 90% Off
Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society (first published in 1767) is a classic of the Scottish--and European--Enlightenment. Drawing on such diverse sources as classical authors and contemporary travel literature, Ferguson combines a subtle analysis of modern commercial society with a critique of its abandonment of ... More »
57. Scotland: A Very Short Introduction
By Rab Houston | Used Price: 80% Off
Scotland's past is too often seen through a film of myths and misconceptions. In this Very Short Introduction, Rab Houston explores the key themes from more than 1,000 years of Scotland's very real and very fascinating history. Covering everything from the Jacobites to devolution to the modern economy, ... More »
58. The Wallace Book
By Edward J. Cowan; Fiona Watson | 50% Off
Through his personality, ingenuity and ability, he initiated a resistance movement which ultimately secured the nation's freedom and independence. Yet, Wallace was reviled, opposed and eventually betrayed by the nobility in his own day to re-surface in the epic poetry of the fifteenth century as a champion and ... More »
59. The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All
A radical new approach to economic policy that addresses the symptoms and causes of inequality in Western society today Fueled by populism and the frustrations of the disenfranchised, the past few years have witnessed the widespread rejection of the economic and political order that Western countries built up ... More »
60. NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed - and How We Can Save It
By Raymond Tallis; Jacky Davis
The Coalition Government passed into law an unprecedented assault on the NHS. Doctors, unions, the media, even politicians who claimed to be stalwart defenders failed to protect it. Now the effect of those devastating reforms are beginning to be felt by patients - but we can still save ... More »
61. The Scottish Insurrection of 1820
By Peter Berresford Ellis; Seumas Mac a' Ghobhainn
The first full account of the Scottish insurrection of 1820 - the final, doomed challenge to the Act of Union of 1707, a potentially explosive threat to the British Crown, and the last concerted attempt by Scottish working class radicals to establish an independent Scottish Parliament. The authors ... More »
62. The Lure of Greatness: England's Brexit and America's Trump
By Anthony Barnett | Used Price: 50% Off
In 2016 two surprising explosions of popular contempt for the existing order drove Britain into Brexit and paved the way for Trump’s presidency of the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, proud regimes with global pretensions were levelled by justifiable revolts. But in the name of ... More »
63. The End of Nature
By Bill McKibben | Used Price: 80% Off
Reissued on the tenth anniversary of its publication, this classic work on our environmental crisis features a new introduction by the author, reviewing both the progress and ground lost in the fight to save the earth.This impassioned plea for radical and life-renewing change is today still considered a ... More »
64. Collieries, Communities and the Miners' Strike in Scotland, 1984-85
By Jim Phillips
This book analyses the 1984-85 miners' strike by focusing on its vital Scottish dimensions, especially the role of workplace politics and community mobilisation. The year-long strike began in Scotland, with workers defending the moral economy of the coalfields, and resisting pit closures and management attacks on trade unionism. ... More »
65. Hiroshima
By John Hersey | Used Price: 80% Off
"At, exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in ... More »
66. The Age of Extremes: 1914-1991
By Eric Hobsbawm | Used Price: 80% Off
Dividing the century into the Age of Catastrophe, 1914-1950, the Golden Age, 1950-1973, and the Landslide, 1973-1991, Hobsbawm marshals a vast array of data into a volume of unparalleled inclusiveness, vibrancy, and insight, a work that ranks with his classics The Age of Empire and The Age of ... More »
67. Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government
This is the first full-length presentation of a republican alternative to the liberal and communitarian theories that have dominated political philosophy in recent years. The latest addition to the acclaimed Oxford Political Theory series, Pettit's eloquent and compelling account opens with an examination of the traditional republican conception ... More »
68. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class
By Guy Standing | Used Price: 50% Off
Neo-liberal policies and institutional changes have produced a huge and growing number of people with sufficiently common experiences to be called an emerging class. In this book Guy Standing introduces what he calls the Precariat - a growing number of people across the world living and working precariously, ... More »
69. Ecological Economics
By Herman E. Daly; Joshua Farley
In its first edition, this book helped to define the emerging field of ecological economics. This new edition surveys the field today. It incorporates all of the latest research findings and grounds economic inquiry in a more robust understanding of human needs and behavior. Humans and ecological systems, ... More »
70. In Praise of Idleness
By Bertrand Russell | Used Price: 60% Off
Intolerance and bigotry lie at the heart of all human suffering. So claims Bertrand Russell at the outset of In Praise of Idleness, a collection of essays in which he espouses the virtues of cool reflection and free enquiry; a voice of calm in a world of maddening ... More »
71. Letters of Sidney, on Inequality of Property
By John Millar
John Millar of Glasgow (1735-1801) was a Scottish philosopher and historian. He studied at Glasgow, where he became one of the most important followers of the founder of economics science, Adam Smith. In 1761 Millar became professor of civil law at Glasgow, and soon his lectures gained him ... More »
72. Solidarity: Hidden Histories and Geographies of Internationalism
In Solidarity, David Featherstone addresses a necessary and timely topic. Despite the frequency with which the word "solidarity" is invoked, it has in fact rarely been the subject of rigorous analysis. Instead, the forms that solidarities take are frequently taken as given. This book redresses this situation by ... More »
73. Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses
By Mark Curtis | Used Price: 50% Off
Britain is complicit in the deaths of ten million people. These are Unpeople - those whose lives are seen as expendable in the pursuit of Britain's economic and political goals. In Unpeople, Mark Curtis shows that the Blair government is deepening its support for many states promoting terrorism ... More »
74. Debating Scotland: Issues of Independence and Union in the 2014 Referendum
On 18 September 2014, Scotland held a referendum on the question: Should Scotland be an independent country? This is a most unusual event in modern democracies and engaged the political class, civil society, and the general public to an unprecedented degree, leading to an 85 per cent turnout ... More »
75. The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain
By John Eldridge; Jenny Kitzinger; Kevin Williams
The Mass Media and Power in Britain is a thorough, lievely introduction to the role, importance, and power of the mass media in contemporary British society. What is the mass media, and how does it help shape life in modern Britain? After introducing the student to discussions around ... More »
76. Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal
By Tristram Stuart | Under $1.00
The true cost of what the global food industry throws away. With shortages, volatile prices and nearly one billion people hungry, the world has a food problem—or thinks it does. Farmers, manufacturers, supermarkets and consumers in North America and Europe discard up to half of their food—enough to ... More »
77. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
By Joel Bakan | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world's dominant economic institution. Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends that today's corporation is a pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and ... More »
78. The Rule of Law
By Tom Bingham | Used Price: 60% Off
"The Rule of Law" is a phrase much used but little examined. The idea of the rule of law as the foundation of modern states and civilizations has recently become even more talismanic than that of democracy, but what does it actually consist of? In this brilliant short ... More »
79. Understanding Scotland: The Sociology of a Nation
Understanding Scotland has been recognised since publication as the key text on the sociology of Scotland. This wholly revised edition provides the first sustained study of post-devolution Scottish society. It contains new material on:* the establishment of the Scottish parliament in 1999* social and political data from the ... More »
80. The Bairns o' Adam: Story of the STUC
By Keith Aitken
Offering an account of the characters behind the movement and the great events - both industrial and political - which have shaped Scotland's past and present, this work traces the story of the STUC from its inception. More »
81. The Corporate Takeover of Ireland
By Kieran Allen | Used Price: 90% Off
A government by the people and for the people is an ideal of Irish politics. But it is fast disappearing as corporations take more control. The Corporate Takeover of Ireland examines the effects corporations have on Irish life and shows how democratic decision making has been subverted by ... More »
82. The Skye Bridge Story: Multi-national Interests and People Power
The story of the Skye Bridge tolls ran for more than ten years. It is a story that goes right to the heart of govenment policy - the Skye Bridge was the first Public Finance Initiative in the UK, where a public project is built by private capital ... More »
83. The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy
By Susan Strange | Used Price: 90% Off
Who is really in charge of the world economy? Not only governments, argues Susan Strange in The Retreat of the State. Big businesses, drug barons, insurers, accountants and international bureaucrats all encroach on the so-called sovereignty of the state. Professor Strange examines the implications of this rivalry and ... More »
84. The Sexual State: Sexuality and Scottish Governance 1950-80
By Roger Davidson; Gayle Davis
This important book fills a gap in the study of modern Scottish, and British, Society, providing as it does a vital perspective on Scotland's sexual history and its political and social context. It is unique in exploring the period from 1950 to 1980, covering the immediate post-war and ... More »
85. Guild and State: European Political Thought from the Twelfth Century to the Present
By Antony Black
Guild and State examines the values of social solidarity and fraternity that emerged from medieval guilds and city-communes, and the effect of traditional corporate organization of labor on socioeconomic attitudes and theories of the state. What ordinary guildsmen and townsmen thought about these issues can be ... More »
86. The European Union: A Very Short Introduction
By John Pinder; Simon Usherwood
The European Union (EU) stands out as a fascinatingly unique political organization. On the one hand, it has shown the potential for developing deep and wide-ranging cooperation between member states, going far beyond that found anywhere else in the world. On the other, it is currently in the ... More »
87. No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Scotland 1900-2015
By Christopher Harvie | Used Price: 50% Off
Epitomised by political, social and technological change this history appraises a fast-evolving century, from the outbreak of World War I up to the present and the politics of devolution and the age of the internet. The book begins with the devastating impact of World War I and Scotland's ... More »
88. Poll Tax Rebellion
By Danny Burns | Used Price: 80% Off
The gripping inside story of the biggest mass movement in British history, which at its peak involved over 17 million people. Using a combination of photos, text, and graphics, and drawing from the voices of activists and non-payers, it describes the everyday organization of local anti-poll tax groups ... More »
89. Reclaiming Work: Beyond the Wage-based Society
By Andre Gorz
Over the last twenty-five years, Western societies have beenreversing into the future. They are able neither to reproduce themselves in accordance with past norms, nor to exploit theunprecedented freedom offered by the savings in working time whichnew technology has generated. In this major new book, Andre Gorz argues ... More »
90. The Second Sex
By Simone de Beauvoir | Used Price: 50% Off
Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,â€Â and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness.  This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in ... More »
91. Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832-1914
By Sydney Checkland; Olive Checkland | 90% Off
This book celebrates the emergence of the Scots and Scotland from centuries of poverty and backwardness as the nineteenth century saw Scottish locomotives and ships working on land and sea throughout the world, and Scottish technology leading the way. It analyses the ways in which Scots retained their ... More »
92. Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
By James Scott
In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. He argues that centrally managed social plans derail when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not -- and cannot be -- ... More »
93. Crime, Justice and Society in Scotland
By Hazel Croall; Gerry Mooney; Mary Munro
Crime, Justice and Society in Scotland is an edited collection of chapters from leading experts that builds and expands upon the success of the 2010 publication Criminal Justice in Scotland to offer a comprehensive and critical overview of Scottish criminal justice and its relation to wider social inequalities ... More »
94. Scottish Politics
By Paul Cairney; Neil McGarvey
This textbook covers all the major features of Scottish politics and is informed by contemporary research and debates. It gives an account of Scottish government in a multi-level system and contains chapters on all the main political institutions. Coverage extends up until the initial performance of the Salmond ... More »
95. Democracy And Education
By John Dewey | Used Price: 50% Off
John Dewey's best-known and still-popular classic, Democracy and Education, is presented here as a new edition in Volume 9 of the Middle Works. Sidney Hook, who wrote the introduction to this volume, describes Democracy and Education: It illuminates directly or indirectly all the basic issues that are central ... More »
96. The Firth of Forth: An Environmental History
By T. C. Smout; Mairi Stewart | 50% Off
A rare portrait of one of Scotland’s major firths, this book shows how man has interacted with the environment throughout thousands of years. Combining a rich wildlife with a history of long and intense human activity around the estuary's shores and in its ... More »
97. Lairds, Land and Sustainability: Scottish Perspectives on Upland Management
By Jayne Glass; Martin Price; Charles Warren; Alister Scott
Scotland is at the heart of modern, sustainable upland management. Large estates cover vast areas of the uplands, with a long, complex and emotive history of ownership and use.In recent decades, the Scottish uplands have increasingly been the arena for passionate debates over large-scale land management issues. Crucially, ... More »
98. The Development of the West of Scotland 1750-1960
The economic and social problems of modern Scotland are at the centre of current debate about regional economic growth, social improvement and environmental rehabilitation. In this book, as relevant today as when it was first published in 1975, Anthony Slaven argues that the extent and causes of these ... More »
99. The Politics of Switzerland: Continuity and Change in a Consensus Democracy
By Hanspeter Kriesi; Alexander H. Trechsel
Despite Switzerland's small size, its political system is one of the most complex and fascinating among contemporary democracies. The rich, complex mixture of centuries-old institutions and the refined political arrangements that exist today constitute a veritable laboratory for social scientists and their students. Often presented as the paradigmatic ... More »
100. The Democratic Intellect
Scotland has always had a distinctive approach to higher education. From the inauguration of its first universities, the accent has been on first principles. This unified the approach to knowledge - even of mathematics and science - through a broad, philosophical interpretation. This generalist tradition, ... More »
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