The Confidence Trap

Author : David Runciman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691178135
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Confidence Trap written by David Runciman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why democracies believe they can survive any crisis—and why that belief is so dangerous Why do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. In The Confidence Trap, David Runciman shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them—and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything—a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.

Author : Russ Harris
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 0834827662
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Confidence Gap written by Russ Harris and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and mindfulness practices, this guide offers breakthrough insights and simple techniques for developing deep-seated, long-lasting confidence Too many of us miss out on opportunities in life because we lack self-confidence. Whether it’s public speaking, taking on a leadership role, or asking someone for a date, there are situations in which we just don't feel equipped to handle the challenges we face. Russ Harris offers a surprising solution to low self-confidence, shyness, and insecurity: Rather than trying to “get over” our fears, he says, the secret is to form a new and wiser relationship with them. Paradoxically, it’s only when we stop struggling against our fearfulness that we begin to find lasting freedom from it. Drawing on the techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a cutting-edge form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, The Confidence Gap explains how to: • Free yourself from common misconceptions about what confidence is and how to build it • Transform your relationship with fear and anxiety • Clarify your core values and use them as your inspiration and motivation • Use mindfulness to effectively handle negative thoughts and feelings. “This book could save you years of psychological struggle, yank you out of negative emotional patterns, and help propel you to a much happier, more productive life.” —Martha Beck, author and Oprah Winfrey’s life coach

Author : Russ Harris
Publisher : Exisle Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1921966343
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Happiness Trap written by Russ Harris and published by Exisle Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to ACT: the revolutionary mindfulness-based program for reducing stress, overcoming fear, and finding fulfilment – now updated. International bestseller, 'The Happiness Trap', has been published in over thirty countries and twenty-two languages. NOW UPDATED. Popular ideas about happiness are misleading, inaccurate, and are directly contributing to our current epidemic of stress, anxiety and depression. And unfortunately, popular psychological approaches are making it even worse! In this easy-to-read, practical and empowering self-help book, Dr Russ Harries, reveals how millions of people are unwittingly caught in the 'The Happiness Trap', where the more they strive for happiness the more they suffer in the long term. He then provides an effective means to escape through the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), a groundbreaking new approach based on mindfulness skills. By clarifying your values and developing mindfulness (a technique for living fully in the present moment), ACT helps you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life. Mindfulness skills are easy to learn and will rapidly and effectively help you to reduce stress, enhance performance, manage emotions, improve health, increase vitality, and generally change your life for the better. The book provides scientifically proven techniques to: reduce stress and worry; rise above fear, doubt and insecurity; handle painful thoughts and feelings far more effectively; break self-defeating habits; improve performance and find fulfilment in your work; build more satisfying relationships; and, create a rich, full and meaningful life.

Author : Margalit Fox
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1984853864
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Confidence Men written by Margalit Fox and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Great Escape for the Great War: the astonishing true story of two World War I prisoners who pulled off one of the most ingenious escapes of all time. FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR • “Fox unspools Jones and Hill’s delightfully elaborate scheme in nail-biting episodes that advance like a narrative Rube Goldberg machine.”—The New York Times Book Review Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during World War I, having survived a two-month forced march and a terrifying shootout in the desert, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, join forces to bamboozle their iron-fisted captors. To stave off despair and boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board and fakes elaborate séances for his fellow prisoners. Word gets around, and one day an Ottoman official approaches Jones with a query: Could Jones contact the spirit world to find a vast treasure rumored to be buried nearby? Jones, a trained lawyer, and Hill, a brilliant magician, use the Ouija board—and their keen understanding of the psychology of deception—to build a trap for their captors that will ultimately lead them to freedom. A gripping nonfiction thriller, The Confidence Men is the story of one of the only known con games played for a good cause—and of a profound but unlikely friendship. Had it not been for “the Great War,” Jones, the Oxford-educated son of a British lord, and Hill, a mechanic on an Australian sheep ranch, would never have met. But in pain, loneliness, hunger, and isolation, they formed a powerful emotional and intellectual alliance that saved both of their lives. Margalit Fox brings her “nose for interesting facts, the ability to construct a taut narrative arc, and a Dickens-level gift for concisely conveying personality” (Kathryn Schulz, New York) to this tale of psychological strategy that is rife with cunning, danger, and moments of high farce that rival anything in Catch-22.

Author : David Runciman
Publisher : Profile Books
ISBN 13 : 1782834125
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book How Democracy Ends written by David Runciman and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2018-05-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject.' Andrew Rawnsley, Observer Democracy has died hundreds of times, all over the world. We think we know what that looks like: chaos descends and the military arrives to restore order, until the people can be trusted to look after their own affairs again. However, there is a danger that this picture is out of date. Until very recently, most citizens of Western democracies would have imagined that the end was a long way off, and very few would have thought it might be happening before their eyes as Trump, Brexit and paranoid populism have become a reality. David Runciman, one of the UK's leading professors of politics, answers all this and more as he surveys the political landscape of the West, helping us to spot the new signs of a collapsing democracy and advising us on what could come next.

Author : Spencer Coursen
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250258154
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Safety Trap written by Spencer Coursen and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Threat management expert Spencer Coursen offers proactive strategies to protect yourself and your loved ones in the event of hostile encounters and emergency situations in The Safety Trap: A Security Expert’s Secrets for Staying Safe in a Dangerous World. Despite what the news and social media would have you believe, we have never lived in a safer time than we are now. Unfortunately, we live under a false sense of security enforced by authorities that only alleviates fears without reducing risk. We have placed our personal safety, and our responsibilities of guarding it, into the hands of people trained only to respond to crises, not actively prevent them. Our blind faith in institutions to protect us has only dulled our natural survival instincts. The truth is that when we feel safest is actually when we are in the most danger. This is the paradox of The Safety Trap. When you don’t expect danger, you simply fail to see the signs that something bad is about to happen. But the signs are always there, and staying safe is about training yourself to see them. In easy-to-implement methods of maintaining vigilance, assessing risk, and taking preventative measures, you’ll discover how to be alert without anxiety and know how to best protect and defend yourself on the job, in school, in public places, at home, and online. With Coursen’s simple formula of Awareness + Preparation = Safety as your guide—as well as real world examples of managing threats—you will learn how to develop the skills and confidence to reclaim your own security and avoid The Safety Trap.

Author : Alicia Menendez
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062838776
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Likeability Trap written by Alicia Menendez and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be nice, but not too nice. Be successful, but not too successful. Just be likeable. Whatever that means? Women are stuck in an impossible bind. At work, strong women are criticized for being cold, and warm women are seen as pushovers. An award-winning journalist examines this fundamental paradox and empowers readers to let go of old rules and reimagine leadership rather than reinventing themselves. Consider that even competent women must appear likeable to successfully negotiate a salary, ask for a promotion, or take credit for a job well done—and that studies show these actions usually make them less likeable. And this minefield is doubly loaded when likeability intersects with race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and parental status. Relying on extensive research and interviews, and carefully examined personal experience, The Likeability Trap delivers an essential examination of the pressure put on women to be amiable at work, home, and in the public sphere, and explores the price women pay for internalizing those demands. Rather than advising readers to make themselves likeable, Menendez empowers them to examine how they perceive themselves and others and explores how the concept of likeability is riddled with cultural biases. Our demands for likeability, she argues, hinder everyone’s progress and power. Inspiring, thoughtful and often funny, The Likeability Trap proposes surprising, practical solutions for confronting the cultural patterns holding us back, encourages us to value unique talents and styles instead of muting them, and to remember that while likeability is part of the game, it will not break you.

Author : David Runciman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691148155
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Political Hypocrisy written by David Runciman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-08 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical assessement of the problems of sincerity and truth in politics argues that we should accept hypocrisy as a fact of politics without resigning ourselves to it or embracing it, drawing on the lessons of such thinkers as Hobbes, Mandeville, Jefferson, Bentham, Sigwick, and Orwell.

Author : Tae Keller
Publisher : Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13 : 1524715700
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book When You Trap a Tiger written by Tae Keller and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL • WINNER OF THE ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE • #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? This uplifting story brings Korean folklore to life as a girl goes on a quest to unlock the power of stories and save her grandmother. Some stories refuse to stay bottled up... When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni's Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now they want it back. And when one of the tigers approaches Lily with a deal--return what her grandmother stole in exchange for Halmoni's health--Lily is tempted to agree. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice...and the courage to face a tiger. Tae Keller, the award-winning author of The Science of Breakable Things, shares a sparkling tale about the power of stories and the magic of family. "If stories were written in the stars ... this wondrous tale would be one of the brightest." —Booklist, Starred Review

Author : Ian Shapiro
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400836832
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Real World of Democratic Theory written by Ian Shapiro and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-22 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Ian Shapiro develops and extends arguments that have established him as one of today's leading democratic theorists. Shapiro is hardheaded about the realities of politics and power, and the difficulties of fighting injustice and oppression. Yet he makes a compelling case that democracy's legitimacy depends on pressing it into the service of resisting domination, and that democratic theorists must rise to the occasion of fashioning the necessary tools. That vital agenda motivates the arguments of this book. Tracing modern democracy's roots to John Locke and the American founders, Shapiro shows that they saw more deeply into the dynamics of democratic politics than have many of their successors. Drawing on Lockean and Madisonian insights, Shapiro evaluates democracy's changing global fortunes over the past two decades. He also shows how elusive democracy can be by exploring the contrast between its successful establishment in South Africa and its failures elsewhere--particularly the Middle East. Shapiro spells out the implications of his account for long-standing debates about public opinion, judicial review, abortion, and inherited wealth--as well as more recent preoccupations with globalization, national security, and international terrorism. Scholars, students, and democratic activists will all learn from Shapiro's trenchant account of democracy's foundations, its history, and its contemporary challenges. They will also find his distinctive democratic vision both illuminating and appealing.