Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the...

The first book to cover the entirety of disability history, from pre-1492 to the present Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. Throughout the book, historian and disability scholar Kim E. Nielsen deftly illustrates how concepts of disability have deeply shaped the American...

"It may be taboo to say, but some groups in America do better than others.Why do some groups rise? Drawing on groundbreaking original research and startling statistics, The Triple Package uncovers the secret to their success. A superiority complex, insecurity, impulse control--these are the elements of the Triple Package, the rare and potent cultural constellation that drives disproportionate group success.Americans are taught that everyone is equal,...

When best friends Jenny and Addie start sixth grade, Jenny quickly discovers that Addie is interested in joining the Pops, the coolest seventh grade clique in school.

"It's the summer of 2013, and while New York swelters Isa and Gala scrape and hustle to get by. Among a rotating cast of artists, academics, and bad-mannered grifters, they discover that desires aren't for denying. But as money gets sparse and circumstances grow precarious, the pair struggle to convert social capital into something more tangible."--

When she returns for her junior year at Easton, Reed is primed to take over the Billings inner circle after Nicole is dethroned.

Vance, a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, provides an account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like...

"An accomplished photographer and the devoted mom of an adorable little boy, Allie Ross has just moved to an upscale DC suburb, the kind of place where parenting feels like a competitive sport. Allie's desperate to make a good first impression. Then she's framed for murder. It all starts at a neighborhood party when a local dad corners Allie and calls her by an old, forgotten nickname from her dark past. The next day, he is found dead. Soon, the police...

Frankie Stein was created in a laboratory, and when she enters Mount Hood High School camouflaged as a "normi," all she wants is to fit in, but it takes the help of another new student who believes that everyone should be treated equally before Frankie even has a chance.

Preface -- Introduction -- Constructing disability -- Bad-difference and mere-difference -- The value-neutral model -- Taking their word for it -- Causing disability -- Disability pride -- Bibliography -- Index. Elizabeth Barnes argues compellingly that disability is primarily a social phenomenon- a way of being a minority, a way of facing social oppression, but not a way of being inherently or intrinsically worse off. This is how disability is understood...