Decine di milioni di americani hanno deciso di ribellarsi al sistema politico in vigore da più di due secoli negli Stati Uniti e hanno scelto come leader Donald Trump. Il loro obiettivo è il sostanziale smantellamento della democrazia liberale nata dalla Rivoluzione americana. La crisi provocata da questi umori insurrezionalisti potrebbe avere degli esiti devastanti e senza precedenti, ma, in realtà, questa lotta tra liberali e antiliberali che sta lacerando la nazione è vecchia quanto la Repubblica. La Rivoluzione americana, infatti, forgiando per la prima volta nella storia del mondo un sistema che, sulla base di principi radicali, si impegnava e si impegna nella protezione dei diritti di tutti gli individui di fronte al governo e alla comunità, suscitò fin da subito una reazione ostile da parte degli schiavisti, di alcuni movimenti religiosi e di quei molti americani che cercavano di proteggere le gerarchie tradizionali dalla forza livellatrice dei principi liberali. Anche in seguito, questa ostilità non si è mai spenta e l'idea secondo cui tutti gli americani condividono lo stesso impegno verso i principi fondativi della nazione è sempre stata un gradevole mito, o forse una nobile bugia. In realtà, molti americani hanno sempre rifiutato l'affermazione dei Fondatori secondo cui tutti gli uomini sono creati uguali e dotati di diritti inalienabili come quello alla vita, alla libertà e alla ricerca della felicità. Costoro hanno sempre mantenuto il desiderio di vedere gli Stati Uniti in termini etno-religiosi, come una nazione bianca e protestante. Il movimento che sostiene

'In the early twenty-first century, courts have become versatile actors in the governance of many constitutional democracies, and judges play a variety of roles in politics and policy making. Assembling papers penned by an array of academic specialists on high courts around the world, and presented during a year-long Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar at the University of California, Berkeley, this volume maps the roles in governance that courts are undertaking and the ways in which they have come to matter in the political life of their nations. It offers empirically rich accounts of dramatic judicial actions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, exploring the political conditions and judicial strategies that have fostered those assertions of power, and evaluating when and how courts' performance of new roles has been politically consequential. By focusing on the content and consequences of judicial power, the book advances a new agenda for the comparative study of courts'--

Robert Kagan, the New York Times bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power and one of the country’s most influential strategic thinkers, reaffirms the importance of United States’s global leadership in this timely and important book.

Upon its initial publication, The World America Made became one of the most talked about political books of the year, influencing Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address and shaping the thought of both the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns. In these incisive and engaging pages, Kagan responds to those who anticipate—or even long for—a post-American world order by showing what a decline in America’s influence would truly mean for the United States and the rest of the world, as the vital institutions, economies, and ideals currently supported by American power wane or disappear. As Kagan notes, it has happened before: one need only to consider the consequences of the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I. This book is a powerful warning that America need not and dare not decline by committing preemptive superpower suicide.

What would the world look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times best-selling author and one of the country's most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane.
 
Although Kagan asserts that much of the current pessimism is misplaced, he warns that if America were indeed to commit “preemptive superpower suicide,” the world would see the return of war among rising nations as they jostle for power; the retreat of democracy around the world as Vladimir Putin's Russia and authoritarian China acquire more clout; and the weakening of the global free-market economy, which the United States created and has supported for more than sixty years. We've seen this before—in the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I.
 
Potent, incisive, and engaging, The World America Made is a reminder that the American world order is worth preserving, and America dare not decline.

Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors, by Heinz Bässler and Anna Köhler. Frontiers of Organic Conductors and Superconductors, by Gunzi Saito and Yukihiro Yoshida. Fullerenes, Carbon Nanotubes, and Graphene for Molecular Electronics, by Julio R. Pinzón, Adrián Villalta-Cerdas and Luis Echegoyen. Current Challenges in Organic Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion, by Cody W. Schlenker and Mark E. Thompson.- Molecular Monolayers as Semiconducting Channels in Field Effect Transistors, by Cherie R. Kagan. Issues and Challenges in Vapor-Deposited Top Metal Contacts for Molecule-Based Electronic Devices, by Masato M. Maitani and David L. Allara. Spin Polarized Electron Tunneling and Magnetoresistance in Molecular Junctions, by Greg Szulczewski.

Was Gettysburg a tactical success, or was the outcome determined by a far more mundane factor: access to fresh water? How did the need to spread information about the dead and wounded give rise to the U.S. Postal Service? Did President Lincoln really age so dramatically during the course of the war, or was a rare disease to blame for the shocking difference in images of him from before and during the war? From overlooked elements, such as the role of weather, health, and high emotions, to the world-changing effect of the rise of female workers, to the many 'firsts' including the introduction of standard time, pre-sized clothing, canned goods, toilets, and Santa Claus, The Untold Civil War reveals new facets of a seemingly well-known slice of American history, just in time to commemorate its 150th anniversary.
 
Dramatically illustrated with archival images and objects and compelling contemporary photography, this book delivers a surprise on every page: from precious personal mementos to forgotten battle sites; from newly recovered glass-plate negatives that reveal long-obscured photographic details to long-lost documents; this book adds a new dimension to our understanding of the Civil War and is a must-have for anyone with an interest in American history.
 
Six thematic chapters—such as 'Characters,' 'Connections,' and 'A War of Firsts'—present a short introductory essay followed by approximately 30 self-contained stories that detail surprising, little-known, and fresh aspects of the war. Themes both large and small will be explored and contextualized, painting a fascinating portrait of our national character and showcasing the enduring impact of the Civil War.

Robert Kagan, bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power, masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries in the coming decades. Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. The world remains “unipolar,” but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict. Kagan challenges them to choose whether we want to shape history or let others shape it for us.

In Italia quasi ogni dibattito riformatore sulla giustizia ha come modello giudiziario quello americano cosiddetto 'adversarial': sistema dominato dalle parti, selezione politica dei giudici, forte impronta imprenditoriale degli avvocati, presenza della giuria. Il libro di Kagan costituisce un utile strumento di conoscenza approfondita del mondo di common law nordamericano. Il contraddittorio, vero fulcro del legalismo americano, non è soltanto presente e determinante nella giustizia civile e penale ma lo è anche in tutte le altre aree dove si esercita una responsabilità civile e nella pubblica amministrazione. Utilizzando una miriade di dati derivanti da ricerche sul campo l'autore descrive il reale funzionamento del sistema americano, ne ricostruisce l'evoluzione, ne valuta pregi e difetti, offrendo una grande lezione per tutti coloro che quel sistema vogliono imitare. Il sistema adversarial - che origina da alcune particolarità americane: frammentazione e decentramento del potere politico e della pubblica amministrazione, imprenditorialità degli avvocati, politicizzazione dei giudici -si rivela un sistema inefficiente, dai costi molto alti, dalla crescente imprevedibilità negli esiti e a continuo rischio di disparità di trattamento.

Most Americans believe the United States had been an isolationist power until the twentieth century. This is wrong. In a riveting and brilliantly revisionist work of history, Robert Kagan, bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power, shows how Americans have in fact steadily been increasing their global power and influence from the beginning. Driven by commercial, territorial, and idealistic ambitions, the United States has always perceived itself, and been seen by other nations, as an international force. This is a book of great importance to our understanding of our nation's history and its role in the global community.

After years of mutual resentment and tension, there is a sudden recognition that the real interests of America and its European allies are diverging sharply and that the trans-atlantic relationship itself has changed, possibly irreversibly. Europe sees the United States as high-handed, unilateralist, and unnecessarily belligerent; the United States sees Europe as spent, unserious, and weak. The anger and mistrust on both sides are hardening into incomprehension. Author Robert Kagan reached incisively into this impasse to force both sides to see themselves through the eyes of the other. Tracing the widely differing histories of Europe and America since the end of World War II, he makes clear how for one the need to escape a bloody past has led to a new set of transnational beliefs about power and threat, while the other has evolved into the guarantor of that 'postmodern paradise' by dint of its might and global reach.

American methods of policy implementation and dispute resolution are more adversarial and legalistic when compared with the systems of other economically advanced countries. Americans more often rely on legal threats and lawsuits. American laws are generally more complicated and prescriptive, adjudication more costly, and penalties more severe. In a thoughtful and cogently argued book, Robert Kagan examines the origins and consequences of this system of 'adversarial legalism.'

Kagan describes the roots of adversarial legalism and the deep connections it has with American political institutions and values. He investigates its social costs as well as the extent to which lawyers perpetuate it. Ranging widely across many legal fields, including criminal law, environmental regulations, tort law, and social insurance programs, he provides comparisons with the legal and regulatory systems of western Europe, Canada, and Japan that point to possible alternatives to the American methods.

Kagan notes that while adversarial legalism has many virtues, its costs and unpredictability often alienate citizens from the law and frustrate the quest for justice. This insightful study deepens our understanding of law and its relationship to politics in America and raises valuable questions about the future of the American legal system.

Year by year, law seems to penetrate ever larger realms of social, political, and economic life, generating both praise and blame. Nonet and Selznick's Law and Society in Transition explains in accessible language the primary forms of law as a social, political, and normative phenomenon. They illustrate with great clarity the fundamental difference between repressive law, riddled with raw conflict and the accommodation of special interests, and responsive law, the reasoned effort to realize an ideal of polity.

To make jurisprudence relevant, legal, political, and social theory must be reintegrated. As a step in this direction, Nonet and Selznick attempt to recast jurisprudential issues in a social science perspective. They construct a valuable framework for analyzing and assessing the worth of alternative modes of legal ordering. The volume's most enduring contribution is the authors' typology-repressive, autonomous, and responsive law. This typology of law is original and especially useful because it incorporates both political and jurisprudential aspects of law and speaks directly to contemporary struggles over the proper place of law in democratic governance.

In his new introduction, Robert A. Kagan recasts this classic text for the contemporary world. He sees a world of responsive law in which legal institutions-courts, regulatory agencies, alternative dispute resolution bodies, police departments-are periodically studied and redesigned to improve their ability to fulfill public expectations. Schools, business corporations, and governmental bureaucracies are more fully pervaded by legal values. Law and Society in Transition describes ways in which law changes and develops. It is an inspiring vision of a politically responsive form of governance, of special interest to those in sociology, law, philosophy, and politics.