Publisher Description

Brandeis University is the United States' only Jewish-sponsored nonsectarian university, and while only being established after World War II, it has risen to become one of the most respected universities in the nation. The faculty and alumni of the university have made exceptional contributions to myriad disciplines, but they have played a surprising formidable role in American politics. Stephen J. Whitfield makes the case for the pertinence of Brandeis University in understanding the vicissitudes of American liberalism since the mid-twentieth century. Founded to serve as a refuge for qualified professors and students haunted by academic antisemitism, Brandeis University attracted those who generally envisioned the republic as worthy of betterment. Whether as liberals or as radicals, figures associated with the university typically adopted a critical stance toward American society and sometimes acted upon their reformist or militant beliefs. This volume is not an institutional history, but instead shows how one university, over the course of seven decades, employed and taught remarkable men and women who belong in our accounts of the evolution of American politics, especially on the left. In vivid prose, Whitfield invites readers to appreciate a singular case of the linkage of political influence with the fate of a particular university in modern America.

A provocative study of fragmentation in education, showing how teachers can escape the rigidity of the school system to pursue a new theory of education.

Written with a hint of 'larrikinism' this book discusses the raging battle between left and right that has engulfed the free world. In a technology-driven world, being time poor and confronting massive rises in the cost of living, society has been pounded into submission by three life-changing events simultaneously. Climate change, the covid-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd have taken the world and its globilised village to the edge of a precipice. Should it topple over due to an economic collapse or the rise of China, life as we know it will be irreversibly changed. How we deal with this calamity before us all, depends on our individual knowledge of and respect for socialism and capitalism. There has never been a more important time to know the differences between left and right, how these features got us to today, and how they can help us tomorrow. If the task before humankind all wasn't hard enough, we all have to contend with wokeness and a derangement within certain sections of the community. Who said "life wasn't meant to be easy."

You are here because you are in a lot of pain. Your heart has been broken into a million pieces and the person that you love is gone. This is a really hard place to be and nobody wants to be here. The book starts where you are, as the author documents the experience of being left by his wife. Then it blazes a path to help you through the process of solitude, discovery, and healing. The book is simple, straightforward, and full of vulnerability and honesty. It skips the arrogant and condescending nature of many self-help books, and instead speaks from the heart. Mr. Vineberg imbues the text with his heart and soul, sharing hard-earned wisdom that stems from his own introspection and suffering. Left Alone to Learn is about love, respect, and intimate relationships. It offers essential insights into the nature of human interactions. It fortifies your spirit and soothes your heartache. It is direct and to the point, and most importantly - it works!

Taking in an array of cultural references from the contemporary art world, to cat memes, Stranger Things, the Kardashian-Jenners, Mad Men, Run the Jewels, and video gaming, Can the Left Learn to Meme? argues that there is positivity in millennial-era cultural production. Utilising Adorno’s unswerving yet understated hope in spite of the odds, Mike Watson embraces the abstraction of the new media landscape as millennials refuse to surrender to cynicism, by out-weirding even the world at large. They pose a radical alternative to the right wing approach of Steve Bannon and the conservative psychology of Jordan Peterson. Here, the cultural elitism of the art world is contrasted with the anything-goes approach of millennial culture. The left avant-garde dream of an art-for-all is with us, though you won't find it in museums. It is time the left learned to meme, challenging conventions along the way.

Learning the Left examines the ways in which young people and adults learned (and continue to learn) the tenets of liberal politics in the United States through the popular media and the arts from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This collection of essays foregrounds mass culture as an educational site; it is hoped that this focus on the history of the civic functions of the popular media and arts will begin a much-needed conversation among a variety of scholars, notably historians of education.