In 1831, the then twenty-seven year old Alexis de Tocqueville, was sent with Gustave de Beaumont to America by the French Government to study and make a report on the American prison system. Over a period of nine months the two traveled all over America making notes not only on the prison systems but on all aspects of American society and government. From these notes, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America", an exhaustive analysis of the successes...

This powerful and universallyacclaimed documentary explores the revolutionary movement fighting for democracy in Burma and depicts how young people, in particular, are affected by the human rights abuses of Burma's dictatorial military government.

This acclaimed documentary examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana -a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide - to follow a local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Short-Listed for Best Documentary Feature at the...

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist explains, with electrifying clarity, why some of her contemporaries have abandoned liberal democratic ideals in favor of strongman cults, nationalist movements, or one-party states. Across the world today, from the U.S. to Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege while different forms of authoritarianism are on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum argues...

"The Public and Its Problems" by John Dewey is a seminal work in political philosophy and social theory that explores the nature of democracy, the challenges it faces, and the role of the public in addressing societal problems. In this thought-provoking book, Dewey examines the relationship between democracy, individualism, and the collective responsibility of the public. Dewey begins by critiquing the traditional notion of the public as a mere aggregation...

"Our world is out of balance, says Henry Mintzberg, and the consequences are proving fateful: the degradation of our environment, the demise of our democracies, and the denigration of ourselves, with greed having been raised to some sort of high calling. But we can set things right. Mintzberg argues that a healthy society is built on three balanced pillars: a public sector of respected governments, a private sector of responsible enterprises, and...

Inspired by transcendentalism, Whitman's immortal collection includes some of the greatest poems of modern times, including his masterpiece, "Song of Myself." Shattering standard conventions, it stands as an unabashed celebration of body and nature. "The most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed."--Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walt Whitman was a poetic Visionary. He published the first edition of this monumental work in 1855...

"Today, democracy is the world's only broadly accepted political system, and yet it has become synonymous with disappointment and crisis. How did it come to this? In [this book], James Miller, author of the classic history of 1960s protest Democracy Is in the Streets, offers a lively, surprising, and urgent history of the democratic idea from its first stirrings to the present. A profound reckoning with a paradoxical phenomenon--the struggle of human...

Robert McChesney, author of the award-winning book of the same title, examines the impact of media consolidation on journalism and democracy. He argues that far from delivering on the promise of more choice and greater diversity, consolidation has undermined competition, resulting in an increasingly homogenized media landscape and a news media system high on sensationalism and low on information.

Looks at the need for democracy worldwide, and how the achievement of democracy can lead to world peace.