Let's Chat About Democracy is a patriotic children's book exploring forms of government in a treehouse. Readers are provided with the Pledge of Allegiance, Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is the second book in the Let's Chat Books series following Let's Chat About Economics released in 2014.

Children are economists, it's time to chat about it! Economics is the study of choices people make to be happy. Kids do this each day when they decide which shirt to wear, which TV show to watch or what to eat for lunch. In making these choices, they are using the economic principles of scarcity, supply, demand, opportunity costs and diminishing returns. Now is the perfect time to chat with your child about economics and prominent economist Dr. Arthur Laffer shows you how to get started. Written for families of elementary-age children, Let's Chat About Economics identifies and illustrates basic economic principles through familiar scenarios. This book provides a framework for adults (parents, grandparents and teachers) to discuss economics with young children and continue these observations and conversations throughout life. Children will recognize economics in action through everyday examples like shopping for groceries, planning a family trip, saving allowance and buying the latest, must-have tech gadget. When children understand the basic economic principles, they have a solid foundation of how the world works and can apply the same reasoning to make choices that serve their goals and unique purpose. Don't waste another minute, start chatting about economics with the children in your life today!

2019 SPE Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention From the home of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project and non-profit community organization Padres Unidos, the Chapman University Padres Unidos Partnership presents this truly unique coffee table textbook, Let’s Chat: Cultivating Community University Dialogue – A Coffee Table Textbook on Partnerships. The volume presents a collection of community stories, concepts and analyses that highlight the journey of border crossings between two co-existing neighbors: a non-profit community organization and a university. Stories from community residents and faculty members represent how they disrupted the barriers that typically divide us by reconceptualizing how universities and communities can work together to reshape the intellectual landscape and reconfigure power differentials. Written with and by the community, this book represents a break-away genre that privileges the “voices of the people” (Freire), accompanied by academic voices, in a format that is accessible, aesthetic and attractive to both community and university audiences. Cafecitos punctuate each chapter to elicit dialogue, reflection and action towards defining and developing community university partnerships. This book will be useful to: • academics interested in partnerships, public pedagogy, and community-based research • students involved in community engagement/service learning • community organizations • immigrant families who reveal their wisdom in stories about self, others, and community building within the Chapman University Padres Unidos partnership Let’s Chat presents valuable content in a new and unique format that makes it perfect for courses in: Service in Action; Leadership, Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility; Community-Based Research Methods; Introduction to Asset-Based Community Development; Community Service Internship; Community Leadership of Tomorrow; Becoming and Agent of Change; Cultural Diversity in American Education; Diversity and Equity in Education; Social and Philosophical Aspects of Education; Education and Economic Development. Perfect for courses such as: Service in Action Practicum, Leadership, Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility, Community-Based Research Methods, Introduction to Asset-Based Community Development, Community Service Internship, Community Leadership of Tomorrow, Becoming an Agent of Change, Cultural Diversity in American Education, Diversity and Equity in Education, Social and Philosophical Aspects of Education, and Education and Economic Development.

This “excellent study of activist politics in the United States over the past century” challenges the conventional wisdom about participatory democracy (Times Literary Supplement). Freedom Is an Endless Meeting offers vivid portraits of American experiments in participatory democracy throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on meticulous research and more than one hundred interviews with activists, Francesca Polletta upends the notion that participatory democracy is worthy in purpose but unworkable in practice. Instead, she shows that social movements have often used bottom-up decision making as a powerful tool for political change. Polletta traces the history of democracy from early labor struggles and pre-World War II pacifism, through the civil rights, new left, and women’s liberation movements of the sixties and seventies, and into today’s faith-based organizing and anti-corporate globalization campaigns. In the process, she uncovers neglected sources of democratic inspiration—such as Depression-era labor educators and Mississippi voting registration workers—as well as practical strategies of social protest. Polletta also highlights the obstacles that arise when activists model their democracies after nonpolitical relationships such as friendship, tutelage, and religious fellowship. She concludes with a call to forge new kinds of democratic relationships that balance trust with accountability, respect with openness to disagreement, and caring with inclusiveness. For anyone concerned about the prospects for democracy in America, Freedom Is an Endless Meeting will offer abundant historical, theoretical, and practical insights.

The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was startling, as was the victory of Donald Trump eight years later. Because both presidents were unusual and gained office backed by Congresses controlled by their own parties, their elections kick-started massive counter-movements. The Tea Party starting in 2009 and the "resistance" after November 2016 transformed America's political landscape. Upending American Politics offers a fresh perspective on recent upheavals, tracking the emergence and spread of local voluntary citizens' groups, the ongoing activities of elite advocacy organizations and consortia of wealthy donors, and the impact of popular and elite efforts on the two major political parties and candidate-led political campaigns. Going well beyond national surveys, Theda Skocpol, Caroline Tervo, and their contributors use organizational documents, interviews, and local visits to probe changing organizational configurations at the national level and in swing states. This volume analyzes conservative politics in the first section and progressive responses in the second to provide a clear overview of US politics as a whole. By highlighting evidence from the state level, it also reveals the important interplay of local and national trends.

. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.

Liberty. Freedom. Equality. Honesty. Respect. All of these values are important when electing our officials. Readers learn about democratic values and how they play a part in our elections.