Chronicling the underappreciated black tradition of bearing arms for self-defense, law professor Nicholas Johnson presents an array of examples reaching back to the pre-Civil War era that demonstrate a willingness of African American men and women to use firearms when necessary to defend their families and communities. From Frederick Douglass's advice to keep a good revolver handy as defense against slave catchers to the armed self-protection of Monroe, North Carolina, blacks against the KKK chronicled in Robert Williams's Negroes with Guns, it is clear that owning firearms was commonplace in the black community. Johnson points out that this story has been submerged because it is hard to reconcile with the dominant narrative of nonviolence during the civil rights era. His book, however, resolves that tension by showing how the black tradition of arms maintained and demanded a critical distinction between private self-defense and political violence. In the last two chapters, Johnson addresses the unavoidable issue of young black men with guns and the toll that gun violence takes on many in the inner city. He shows how complicated this issue is by highlighting the surprising diversity of views on gun ownership in the black community. In fact, recent Supreme Court affirmations of the right to bear arms resulted from cases led by black plaintiffs. Surprising and informative, this well-researched book strips away many stock assumptions of conventional wisdom on the issue of guns and the black freedom struggle.

Johnson's savagely funny book] is a grunt's-eye view of fear and loathing, arrogance and insanity in a dysfunctional, dystopian closed community. It's like M*A*S*H on ice, a bleak, black comedy.--The Times of London

Steampunk Victorian England is brought to life in this rousing tale of murder and intrigue featuring literature's greatest detective: Sherlock Holmes. In an era of boilers and coal, inventor Samuel Brown finds himself persecuted for daring to apply his genius to the development of a Kerosene powered internal combustion engine. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are tasked with uncovering the source of the conspiracy, and quickly find themselves in the web of a mysterious network capable of applying pressure at every turn. Among the henchmen in their opposition are several characters from England's history with infamy to match the great sleuth's acclaim. Not all is as it seems, but this Sherlock is equipped with brass enhancements, and has no qualms against fighting fire with scalding vapor and a rapier-quick mind. Excitement and adventure abound as Sherlock Holmes enters the world of Steampunk and finds the setting quite compatible with his unique and varied talents.

This book applies cutting-edge economic analysis and social science to unpack the rich complexities and paradoxes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The book takes the reader on a bold, refreshing, and informative tour through its technological drivers, its profound impact on human ecosystems, and its potential for sustainable human development. The overarching message to the reader is that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is not merely something to be feared or survived; rather, this dramatic collision of technologies, disciplines, and ideas presents a magnificent opportunity for a generation of new pioneers to rewrite accepted rules and find new avenues to empower billions of people to thrive. This book will help readers to discern the difference between disruption and transformation.

The reader will come away from this book with a deeply intuitive and highly contextual understanding of the core technological advances transforming the world as we know it. Beyond this, the reader will clearly appreciate the future impacts on our economies and social structures. Most importantly, the reader will receive an insightful and actionable set of guidelines to assist them in harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution so that both they and their communities may flourish.

The authors do not primarily seek to make prescriptions for government policy, but rather to speak directly to people about what they can do for themselves, their families, and their communities to be future-proofed and ready to adapt to life in a rapidly evolving world ecosystem.

This book applies cutting-edge economic analysis and social science to unpack the rich complexities and paradoxes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The book takes the reader on a bold, refreshing, and informative tour through its technological drivers, its profound impact on human ecosystems, and its potential for sustainable human development. The overarching message to the reader is that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is not merely something to be feared or survived; rather, this dramatic collision of technologies, disciplines, and ideas presents a magnificent opportunity for a generation of new pioneers to rewrite accepted rules and find new avenues to empower billions of people to thrive. This book will help readers to discern the difference between disruption and transformation.

The reader will come away from this book with a deeply intuitive and highly contextual understanding of the core technological advances transforming the world as we know it. Beyond this, the reader will clearly appreciate the future impacts on our economies and social structures. Most importantly, the reader will receive an insightful and actionable set of guidelines to assist them in harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution so that both they and their communities may flourish.

The authors do not primarily seek to make prescriptions for government policy, but rather to speak directly to people about what they can do for themselves, their families, and their communities to be future-proofed and ready to adapt to life in a rapidly evolving world ecosystem.

We are the only species able to talk ourselves into difficulties that would not otherwise exist, from divorce to war. Here's a book full of practical suggestions on how to use our language to improve our lives.

Notwithstanding the Internet, YouTube, and smart phones, TV remains a major influence in the lives of American children and their parents. Former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson's How to Talk Back to Your Television Set, when first published, was praised by everyone from Tom Smothers to William Buckley, from John Kenneth Galbraith to Fred Friendly, among others. The technology may have changed, but many of the problems have only become worse. Fortunately, many of the potential solutions remain the same. This reissue of the book lays out what you can do -- plus what we learned from Forty Years of Wandering in the Wasteland.

Democracies are under attack in many countries including our own. Wannabe dictators feel threatened by democracies' existence. Their destructive efforts are abetted by democracies' citizen apathy. This book examines the institutions, the columns that support democracy. They include such institutions as independent media, K-12 and higher education, respected, independent judges, accessible voting systems, and public libraries. These institutions support both an active citizenry and meaningful checks on executives' abuses. This book calls Americans to action - with suggestions. It also contains the author's columns - an example of citizen use of the column of democracy called media.

Catfish Strategy: The power of Positive Poking is memoir and story, revelation and explanation, comedy and critique with inspiration to citizen action by a Washington insider who took on the shipping and broadcasting industries.

Former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson, whose How to Talk Back to Your Television Set helped spark a media reform movement, is back with more complaints and suggestions for understanding and improving the mass media. Whatever your first priority, he urges, everyone's second priority should be media reform.

The Role of Animals in Emerging Viral Diseases presents what is currently known about the role of animals in the emergence or re-emergence of viruses including HIV-AIDS, SARS, Ebola, avian flu, swine flu, and rabies. It presents the structure, genome, and methods of transmission that influence emergence and considers non-viral factors that favor emergence, such as animal domestication, human demography, population growth, human behavior, and land-use changes.

When viruses jump species, the result can be catastrophic, causing disease and death in humans and animals. These zoonotic outbreaks reflect several factors, including increased mobility of human populations, changes in demography and environmental changes due to globalization. The threat of new, emerging viruses and the fact that there are no vaccines for the most common zoonotic viruses drive research in the biology and ecology of zoonotic transmission.

In this book, specialists in 11 emerging zoonotic viruses present detailed information on each virus's structure, molecular biology, current geographic distribution, and method of transmission. The book discusses the impact of virus emergence by considering the ratio of mortality, morbidity, and asymptomatic infection and assesses methods for predicting, monitoring, mitigating, and controlling viral disease emergence.