By Human Rights Watch

The 101-page report, “From Bad to Worse: The Deterioration of Media Freedom in Greece,” documents the hostile environment for independent media and journalists since the New Democracy government took office in July 2019, including harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and abusive lawsuits, all of which contribute to self-censorship and chill media freedom. Human Rights Watch also found the use of state funds to sway coverage, and editorial influence over public media, further exacerbating this climate. These conditions undermine freedom of expression and the public’s right to information.

Human Rights Watch, May 8, 2025, p. 101

By Human Rights Watch

The 155-page report, “The Gig Trap: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US” focuses on seven major companies operating in the US: Amazon Flex, DoorDash, Favor, Instacart, Lyft, Shipt, and Uber. These companies claim to offer gig workers “flexibility” but often end up paying them less than state or local minimum wages. Six of the seven companies use algorithms with opaque rules to assign jobs and determine wages, meaning that workers do not know how much they will be paid until after completing the job.

Human Rights Watch, May 12, 2025, p. 155

By Human Rights Watch

The 67-page report, “‘The Strategy Is to Break Us’: The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Costa Rica,” documents the US expulsions, which came after the US government held migrants and asylum seekers in abusive detention conditions – sometimes for weeks on end – while denying them due process and the right to seek asylum. The report also details Costa Rica’s months-long arbitrary detention of third-country nationals expelled from the US, as well as the mixed messages the Costa Rican government has given those third-country nationals.

Human Rights Watch, May 22, 2025, p. 67

By Human Rights Watch

The 69-page report, “‘They’re Putting Our Lives at Risk’: How Uganda’s Anti-LGBT Climate Unleashes Abuse,” documents the actions by Ugandan parliament members, government institutions, and other authorities that culminated in the enactment of the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act. Human Rights Watch found that the law has ramped up already existing abuse and discrimination against LGBT people to unprecedented heights. They also detailed the rights violations enabled by the law and the devastating impact it has had on the lives of LGBT people, activists, allies, and their families in Uganda.

Human Rights Watch, May 26, 2025, p. 69

By Human Rights Watch

The 98-page report, “‘They’re Ruining People’s Lives’: Bans on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth in the US,” documents the devastating consequences of these bans for transgender youth, including increased anxiety, depression, and, in seven reported instances, suicide attempts. Human Rights Watch found that these laws contribute to an increasingly hostile, anti-trans climate, compelling youth to hide their identities and socially withdraw. The bans also destabilize health care systems and undermine civil society and create geographic and financial challenges in accessing care. The impact has intensified since early 2025, when the administration of President Donald Trump took a series of executive actions escalating federal attacks on transgender rights.

Human Rights Watch, June 3, 2025, p. 98

By Human Rights Watch

The 93-page report, “Hunted From Above: Russia’s Use of Drones to Attack Civilians in Kherson, Ukraine” and an accompanying web feature, document how Russian forces appear to be deliberately or recklessly carrying out drone strikes against civilians and civilian objects with these mostly inexpensive commercially available drones. The attacks spread terror among the civilian population and cause them to fear leaving their homes, and have caused the depopulation of the two areas being targeted in Kherson.

Human Rights Watch, June 3, 2025, p. 93

By  Robert Louis Stevenson. Edited by Sidney Colvin and Colin Heston

“The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Parts XI–XIV”, collected in Volume XXV of the Swanston Edition of Stevenson’s works, brings to a close one of the most remarkable collections of literary correspondence in the English language. Edited with meticulous care and deep personal insight by Sidney Colvin, this final volume continues the chronicle of Stevenson’s life through his own words, offering readers a profound and intimate view of the author’s final years and enduring legacy.

These concluding parts of Stevenson’s letters span the last phase of his life, primarily focused on his time in Samoa, where he had settled permanently in 1890. Despite his ongoing battle with chronic illness, Stevenson remained intellectually and creatively active, producing some of his most mature and reflective work. His letters from this period are rich in philosophical insight, literary commentary, and political observation, particularly concerning the colonial tensions in the South Pacific and his advocacy for the Samoan people.

The correspondence in this volume is addressed to a wide and varied circle: family members, literary peers, publishers, and political figures. These letters reveal a man who, though physically isolated, remained deeply engaged with the world. They are filled with Stevenson’s characteristic wit, warmth, and eloquence, but also with a growing sense of urgency and introspection as he approached the end of his life.

Sidney Colvin’s editorial contributions are especially valuable in this volume. As Stevenson’s close friend and literary executor, Colvin provides detailed introductions, annotations, and contextual commentary that illuminate the personal and historical background of each letter. His work ensures that readers not only follow the narrative of Stevenson’s life but also understand the broader cultural and political forces at play during this period.

The Swanston Edition presents these letters with scholarly precision and literary sensitivity, making Volume XXV an essential resource for anyone interested in Stevenson’s life, Victorian literature, or the art of letter writing. The collection as a whole—spanning Volumes XXIII to XXV—offers a comprehensive and deeply human portrait of Stevenson, capturing his evolution from a restless young writer to a mature and morally engaged literary figure.

“The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Parts XI–XIV” is more than a conclusion to a correspondence—it is a culmination of a life lived with passion, intellect, and integrity. Through these final letters, Stevenson’s voice continues to resonate, offering insight, inspiration, and a lasting connection to one of literature’s most enduring spirits.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 296p.

By B. F. Skinner

This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it pictures a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1948, 320 pages

By John G. Bellamy

Murder in the sixteenth century, which to English men and women of that time meant planned slaying, usually with an element of stealth or with the victim taken unawares, was not then a common crime; rather the reverse. For example, Sir Thomas Smith, the knowledgeable Tudor legal commentator, tells us that murder by poisoning was virtually unknown in his day. Also writing in the reign of Elizabeth I was William Harrison, who, in a contribution to Holinshed's Chronicles that dealt with the criminal law, its penalties and its impact on society, stated that, although manslaughter and "bloudie robberies" occurred "now and then," "we do not often heare of horrible, merciless, and wilfull murthers."1 Nor do other writers of the period who touch on criminal law or on crime and public order indicate anything different. These brief indications of a relatively low murder rate are borne out by statistics to be garnered from the extant assize records of the late sixteenth century. Because of the existence of victims' corpses, murder may well have been among the most reported of felonies (that is, reported to officers of the law), yet in Sussex and Cheshire in Elizabeth's reign only about 5 percent of all persons put on trial for felony were suspected murderers, while the relatively high rate of 8 percent in Kent has to be set against the trivial 1 percent in Essex. The overall impression is that probably about 1 in every 20 indicted felons was believed to be a murderer.

History Press Limited, Dec 1, 2008, 212 pages

By W. E. WOODWARD

For about a hundred and fifty years Tom Paine has been a target for abuse. Much of it has come from ignorance, and the clods of mental dirt that are flung when Paine’s name is mentioned are often cast by people who have never read anything that he wrote, and who know nothing about him except his name, has been called an atheist, a hater of Christ and a man steeped in sin. These lying epithets have become so deeply imbedded in the minds of men and women that they may never be wholly effaced, for popular Eate^like "popular ^steem^—furnishes its own nourishment and grows with the pas- ~sage~bf time.

E.P. Dutton & Company, 1945, 368p.

By Francesco Bruno M.D.

Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan, Jordan, Italy, Malaysia, the United States (State of New York), Singapore, Sweden, and the United Kingdom participated. In each country, local researchers conducted the study following a plan developed for the whole project. The multidisciplinary methodology included four phases: a comparative analysis of antidrug legislation, preliminary national reports, eight vignettes administered to different groups to gain information on the perceptions of the justice system, and guided interviews conducted with drug addicts. The data were quantified, and evaluation scales were constructed for purposes of comparison. Binary automatic scoring was applied to data from the vignettes and interviews. The data are shown graphically in 97 tables. Three conclusions are emphasized. First, drug abuse is apparently both quantitatively and qualitatively more serious where the system is perceived as less harsh and more permissive. Second, a significant correlation exists between knowledge of the law and the efficacy of the system. Third, a close association exists between the abuse of drugs and criminal behavior. These points are important for policymakers to consider. The studies in New York, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are outlined. Attachments include a 560-item bibliography and a list of experts and researchers involved in the study. Other publications from the United Nations Social Defense Research Institute are also listed.

United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, 1984, 246p.

By George Caitlin

In this book I have endeavoured to provide a guide to political theory intelligible to the common reader, with quotations from the original sources sufficiently extensive to enable him to sample for himself the “taste” and “colour” of these writings. This history of theory has been placed against brief descriptions, as background, of the civilization of the times, as the reader passes down the avenues of thought from age to age. The stress, however, is upon modern times and upon past thought and problems so far as they bear upon the rival philosophies of these times. The scholar will know that I have said nothing new—it is not my intention—but the student will, I hope, find the book sufficiently complete, even if it is a general public for which it is written, which requires some guidance in the adventure of living as citizens in these perilous, as

WHITTLESEY HOUSE, 1939, 819p.

By Bula Matari

A GOOD while ago, some of my friends asked me what I was working at. When I told them that I wanted to write a life of Henry Morton Stanley and had, with this end in view, been studying the subject for several years, they were very much surprised. What, they inquired, could interest me in a man whose doings had been of little moment in his lifetime and would leave no con- spicuous traces in history—a man whose name had al- ready lapsed into oblivion?

Jacob Wassermann, LIVERIGHT•INC•PUBLISHERS, 1933, 375p.

By Massimo Salvadori

This small work was originally published in the United States for the use of undergraduate students. It was taken from lectures which formed part of the course on Modern European History which I gave in 1949-52 at Smith College in Massachusetts. There was no lack of voluminous works on communism ancient or modern, soviet or other. What did lack was a short introduction to the study of contemporary communism for the use of those who, without pretensions of becoming specialists in political science, want to form an adequately clear idea of a movement which at present affects all of humanity in one way or another.

Holt, 1952, 178 pages

By Paul Lewinson

The writer of this study has many indebtednesses to acknowledge for help in its prosecution. The greatest, it is hoped, is in some small measure discharged in the dedication. The study was begun at the London School of Economics. Intensive work was commenced on the 1865-1900 period at the Robert Brookings Graduate School in Washington (not to be confused with the present Brookings Institution), under the guidance of Professor William E. Dodd. A Social Science Research Council fellowship made possible the field trip and the questionnaire on which the last chapters are based. Many persons have given invaluable help on the form of the manuscript: the Faculty of the Brookings School, several Southerners white and Negro, and especially Jean Atherton Flexner, my “best friend and severest critic.” The scores of Southerners, many of them busy persons, who sacrificed time to discuss the local situation with the writer, would in some cases feel ill repaid were their names to be published here. Contacts with them were in many cases established through the cooperation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League; letters of introduction came also from Dr. Abraham Flexner, and from Mr. Will Alexander of the Interracial Cooperation Commission. The clipping files of Tuskegee Institute, a mine of valuable information in charge of Dr. Monroe Work, were opened to the writer.

Oxford University Press, 1932, 304 pages

By Madeline Levine, PhD

In this ground-breaking book on the children of affluence, a well-known clinical psychologist exposes the epidemic of emotional problems that are disabling America’s privileged youth, thanks, in large part, to normalized, intrusive parenting that stunts the crucial development of the self.

In recent years, numerous studies have shown that bright, charming, seemingly confident and socially skilled teenagers from affluent, loving families are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders&—rates higher than in any other socioeconomic group of American adolescents. Materialism, pressure to achieve, perfectionism, and disconnection are combining to create a perfect storm that is devastating children of privilege and their parents alike.

Harper Collins, Oct 13, 2009, 256 pages

By William Howard Taft

I came to Yale to assume my duties as Kent Professor of Law near the end of the school year, when it was not practical to add my courses of constitutional law to the then curriculum. It was suggested, therefore, that during the spring term, I prepare and deliver a course of lectures on some questions of modern government. This I did, making my text the preamble of the Constitution of the United States. In explaining the meaning of “We, the people,” used to describe the source of political power, I thought it relevant and important to discuss the proposed changes from our republican form of government to a more direct, democratic government, and this led me to consider the initiative, the referendum and the recall, and also the direct primary, which, while not necessarily involved with the other issues, properly su

Yaxe University Press, 1813, 290p.

By Robert A Dahl

Given a regime in which the opponents of the government cannot openly and legally organize into political parties in , order to oppose the government in free and fair elections, • what conditions favor or impede a transformation into IF ! regime in which they can? That is the question with which \ this book is concerned. j Concepts Since the development of a political system that allows for opposition, rivalry, or competition between a government and its opponents is an important aspect of democratization, this book is necessarily about one aspect of democratization. But the two processes—democratization and the development of public opposition—are not, in my view, identical. A full description of the differences could lead us into a tedious exploration of a semantic bog. To avoid this detour, I hope I may be allowed to indicate rather summarily some of my assumptions without much in the way of defense or elaboration. I assu

New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1971

By Gilbert E. Roe

The judiciary alone, of all our institutions of government, has enjoyed for many years almost complete freedom from hostile criticism. Until very recently, this branch of our government stood above the legislative and executive departments in popular esteem. Unresponsive, and unresponsible to the public the courts dwelt in almost sacred isolation. Within the last two or three years the public has begun to turn a critical eye upon the work of the judges. The people in their struggle to destroy special privilege and to open the way for human rights through truly representative government, found barrier after barrier placed across the way of progress by the courts. Gradually the judiciary began to loom up as the one formidable obstacle which must be overcome before anything substantial could be accomplished to free the public from the exactions of oppressive monoplies and from the domination of property interests.

B.W. Huebsch, 1912, 253 pages

By Edward Payson Powell

A study of sucession and nullification movements in the United States from the nullification resolutions of 1798 to the American Civil War. Powell proposes that the secession of the southern states in 1861 was not a unique event in American history, but the culmination of a tradition as old as the nation. Indeed, he argues, it was an expression of the "intense individualism which was the most potent factor in the creation of the republic" (Preface). Sensitive to the continued animosity between the North and South, Powell hoped that the historical context provided by his study would help to promote a spirit of reconciliation.

The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1897, 470p.