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In this fully revised and updated third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to urgent questions regarding the world's newest superpower and offer a framework for understanding China's meteoric rise from developing country to superpower.
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Should marijuana be legalized? The latest Gallup poll reports that exactly half of Americans say "yes"; opinion could not be more evenly divided. Marijuana is forbidden by international treaties and by national and local laws across the globe. But those laws are under challenge in several countries. In the U.S., there is no short-term prospect for changes in federal law, but sixteen states allow medical use and recent initiatives to legalize production...
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Artificial Intelligence is likely to greatly increase our aggregate wealth, but it will also upend our labor markets, reshuffle our social order, and strain our private and public institutions. Eventually it may alter how we see our place in the universe, as machines pursue goals independent of their creators and outperform us in domains previously believed to be the sole dominion of humans. Whether we regard them as conscious or unwitting, revere...
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"This book offers the most up-to-date examination of climate change's foundational science, implications for our future, and clean energy solutions that can mitigate its effects. It offers authoritative answers to the topic's most vexing questions: how will climate change impact you and your family in the coming decades? What are the future implications for owners of coastal property? Should you plan on retiring in South Florida or the U.S. Southwest...
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"The book provides fundamental information about the origins, evolution, and current affairs of the Russian state and society. The story begins with Russia's geographic endowment, proceeds through its experiences as a kingdom and empire, and continues through the USSR's three-quarters of a century, and finally the shocking breakup of that regime a generation ago. Chapters on the failed attempt to reform Communism under Mikhail Gorbachev, the halting...
6) Vaccines
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Immunization is regarded by many as one of the greatest advances in modern civilization. The widespread use of vaccines has led to increases in life expectancy, reductions in the occurrence of childhood diseases, and is generally credited with saving millions of lives annually. But since their discovery two centuries ago, vaccines have been dogged by pockets of persistent distrust among those who are skeptical of their science or who find compulsory...
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"This book is an effort to explain how China's economy got to where it is today, where it might be headed in the coming years, and what China's rise means for the rest of the world. It is intended to be useful to the general reader, who has an intelligent interest in China and its global impact but not necessarily a specialized background in either China or economics. Since the first edition was published in 2016 China's relevance to the world has...
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December 17, 2016 marked the sixth anniversary of the outbreak of the Arab uprisings. In the six years since Muhammad Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia, igniting the uprisings which continue today, the entire Middle East landscape has changed in ways that were unimaginable before. In spite of the early hype about the "Arab Spring" and the prominence observers gave to calls for the downfall of regimes and an end to their abuses, most of the protests...
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Around 1900, physicists started to discover particles like electrons, protons, and neutrons, and with these discoveries believed they could predict the internal behavior of the atom. However, once their predictions were compared to the results of experiments in the real world, it became clear that the principles of classical physics and mechanics were far from capable of explaining phenomena on the atomic scale. With this realization came the advent...
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In this book, Todd Sandler educates and demystifies terrorism and its myriad aspects for educated readers, who want to gain an understanding of one of the main security problems confronting the world today. Based on a wealth of past research, current thinking about terrorism and the practice of counterterrorism are elucidated.
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Virtually everyone has taken antibiotics. They can be lifesavers -- and they can be useless. What are they? How are they used? And what happens as the effectiveness of antibiotics continues to decline? Antibiotics: What Everyone Needs to Knowa. examines the personal and societal implications of our planet's most important -- and frequently misused -- medications. In a question-and-answer format, it unpacks the most complicated aspects of this issue,...
12) Antiquities
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The destruction of ancient monuments and artworks by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has shocked observers worldwide. Yet iconoclastic erasures of the past date back at least to the mid-1300s BCE, during the Amarna Period of ancient Egypt's eighteenth dynasty. Far more damage to the past has been inflicted by natural disasters, looters, and public works.
Art historian Maxwell Anderson's Antiquities: What Everyone...
13) The Arctic
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Conversations defining the Arctic region often provoke debate and controversy-for scientists, this lies in the imprecise and imaginary line known as the Arctic Circle; for countries like Canada, Russia, the United States, and Denmark, such discussions are based in competition for land and resources; for indigenous communities, those discussions are also rooted in issues of rights. These shifting lines are only made murkier by the threat of global...
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Many of us read books every day, either electronically or in print. We remember the books that shaped our ideas about the world as children, go back to favorite books year after year, give or lend books to loved ones and friends to share the stories we've loved especially, and discuss important books with fellow readers in book clubs and online communities. But for all the ways books influence us, teach us, challenge us, and connect us, many of us...
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No conflict in the world has lasted as long, generated as many news headlines, or incited as much controversy as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, despite, or perhaps because of, the degree of international attention it receives, the conflict is still widely misunderstood. While Israelis and Palestinians and their respective supporters trade accusations, many outside observers remain confused by the conflict's complexity and perplexed by the...
16) North Korea
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In this book, former North Korea lead foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Seoul, Patrick McEachern, unpacks the contentious and tangled relationship between the Koreas in an approachable question-and-answer format. While North Korea is famous for its militarism and nuclear program, South Korea is best known for its economic miracle, familiar to consumers as the producer of Samsung smartphones, Hyundai cars, and even K-pop music and K-beauty....
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The opioid epidemic is responsible for longest sustained decline in U.S. life expectancy since the time of World War I and the Great Influenza. In 2017, nearly 50,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose - with an estimated 2 million more living with opioid addiction every day. The Opioid Epidemic: What Everyone Needs to Know? is an accessible, nonpartisan overview of the causes, politics, and treatments tied to the most devastating health crisis...
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The term "gender" was first distinguished from "sex" in the 1950s when psychologists began to discuss the idea of "gender roles," behaviors and responsibilities given to people by a society rather than flowing from their biology. Since then, leaders across disciplines have sought to better understand the roles of biology, psychology, and culture on gender. New language has emerged alongside rich scientific inquiry and research. Increased visibility...
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No topic is more polarizing than guns and gun control. From a gun culture that took root early in American history to the mass shootings that repeatedly bring the public discussion of gun control to a fever pitch, the topic has preoccupied citizens, public officials, and special interest groups for decades. In this thoroughly revised second edition of The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know? noted economist Philip J. Cook and political scientist...
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"In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association determined that hoarding disorder (HD) is a diagnosable mental health condition. This disorder has been studied only in the past three decades, although information about this surprisingly common problem has been accumulating at a great rate in recent years. In fact, published papers about hoarding have increased from 3 during the first half of the 1990s to 319 in first half of the current decade (2010-2015)....