Nine essaysists tackle what the prison abuse scandal means for America now and in the future and what it says about how Americans see themselves and how they are percieved by others.

America is a grotesquely polarized society and becoming more so all the time. This collection of pieces shows how the widening gap between rich and poor over the years has left the country increasingly divided between the gated communities on the one hand, and the trailer parks and tenements on the other.

Revised, updated and expanded edition.

Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty level wages. Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them in order to find out how anyone survives on six dollars an hour. So began a gruelling, hair-raising and darkly funny odyssey though the underworld of working America.

Uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although sixteenth-century Europeans began to view mass festivities as foreign and 'savage', the author shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greek's worship of Dionysus to the medieval practices of Christianity as a 'danced religion'.

Women have always been healers, and medicine has always been an arena of struggle between female lay practitioners and male professionals. This work explores two important phases in the male takeover of health care: the suppression of 'witches' in medieval Europe and the rise of the male medical profession in the United States.

Demonstrates that the assault on our freedoms pre-dates the 9/11 attacks. This book addresses the hard questions of individual freedom versus national security that are on the minds of Americans of all political stripes.

A sequel to Witches, Midwives, and Nurses , this work documents the tradition of American sexism in medicine before and after the turn of the century. Citing numerous 'treatments' and 'rest cures' perpetrated on women through the decades, it analyzes the biomedical rationales used to justify sex discrimination.

Explores the tyranny of positive thinking, and offers a history of how it came to be the dominant mode in the USA. This book argues that the insistence on being cheerful actually leads to a lonely focus inwards, a blaming of oneself for any misfortunes, and thus to political apathy. It reveals the dark side of the 'have a nice day' nation.

In a world shaped by mass migration and economic exchange on an ever- increasing scale, women are moving around the globe as never before. This anthology examines the unexplored consequences of globalization on the lives of women worldwide.

Talks about the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although sixteenth-century Europeans began to view mass festivities as foreign and 'savage', this book shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greek's worship of Dionysus to the medieval practices of Christianity as a 'danced religion'.

A startling and illuminating new theory about the origins of war and culture by one of America's most provocative writers and social critics.

Intrigued by reports of poverty and despair within America's white-collar corporate workforce, the author decided to infiltrate their world as an undercover reporter, and learn about the problems facing middle-class executives. Her story is funny, and delivers a warning about the future that faces corporate employees everywhere.