Kenneth Kitts offers entry into the highly political, behind-closed-doors world of blue-ribbon investigative commissions convened in the aftermath of national security crises.   Ranging from Pearl Harbor to the September 11 terrorist attacks, Kitts takes the reader into the "backroom" to watch as presidents, their advisers, and commission members confront an armory of pressures.    More >

You can't win the presidency without winning the South, or so the saying goes—but what does "winning the South" actually entail? How is the southern electoral landscape distinct? Presidential Elections in the South offers a comprehensive examination of the trends driving election outcomes in the region since 1948. The authors assess the electoral significance of everything    More >

Burke's detailed and comprehensive account of the four presidential transitions from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton explores how each president-elect prepared to take office and carefully links those preparations to the performance and effectiveness of the new administration. Enriched by interviews with the key participants, this sobering tale of the difficulties that new presidents have    More >

In countries as diverse as Brazil, Ecuador, France, Russia, South Africa, and the United States, presidents have come to dominate the politics and political cultures of their nations. Michael Mezey offers a comprehensive cross-national study of the presidency, tracing the historical and intellectual roots of executive power and exploring in detail the contemporary forces that have driven a turn    More >

From jubilant sports fans celebrating a victory to angry political protestors, crowds create volatile situations that can all too often result in violence or property destruction. Preventing Crowd Violence offers a lucid examination of crowd behavior and of law enforcement tactics designed to deescalate tensions and promote cooperative interactions.    More >

An anthology presents 8 previously unpublished studies on the use of situational crime prevention in urban mass transit systems. Marcus Felson et al.'s evaluation of 1991-1992 modifications in New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal—involving situational prevention combined with environmental measures—indicates that the changes made the huge complex much less of a crime    More >

Markets for agricultural commodities in developing countries are changing rapidly. Population growth, rural-urban migration, technological innovation, environmental concerns, and policy shifts—both domestic and international—are but a few of the more prominent factors introducing new pressures to which markets must respond. This book addresses the critical task of understanding these    More >

This acclaimed textbook insightfully frames the problem of crime in relation to class, race, gender, culture, and history.    More >

The media frequently hype the notion that US prisons, overcrowded and understaffed, are deadly places. Are they correct? How many people actually die in prison, and from what causes? Who are the victims? The perpetrators? How reliable are the available data?  Joshua Long addresses these questions in his rich, in-depth study of killing and dying in carceral settings. Incorporating numerous    More >

Through the centuries, prisons were closed institutions, full of secrets and shrouded in mystery. But modern media culture has opened the gates. Dawn Cecil explores decades of popular culture—from Golden Age Hollywood films to YouTube videos, from newspapers to beer labels, hip-hop music, and children's books—to reveal how prison imagery shapes our understanding of who commits    More >