Mark Pendergrast – författare

Atlanta is on the verge of either tremendous rebirth or inexorable decline. The perfect storm for failed American urban policies, Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the entire country; urban renewal attempts that unwittingly destroyed neighborhoods; highways arrogantly blasted through the city center; the longest commutes in the nation; suburban sprawl that impairs the environment even as it erodes the urban tax base and exacerbates a long history of racial injustice. While many cities across America suffer from some or all of these problems,, nowhere but Atlanta have they so dangerously collided.City on the Verge is a dramatic story which reveals a troubled American city daring to imagine a better future even as it struggles to define how such a future will look. The most promising symbol of Atlanta's potential for rebirth is the Beltline. A twenty-two mile ring of defunct rail lines, running through forty neighborhoods that encircle Atlanta's downtown, the Beltline is being transformed into a stunning pedestrian walkway and street-car line. The hope of its backers is that it will spur redevelopment, urban activism, community organizing, and environmental awareness. Many see it is a model for the next American city: walkable and accessible, diverse both economically and racially. If it works, I will be a remarkable turn of events: the Beltline's rail beds once served to segregate the city by race. Yet as with all projects of massive social change, the Beltline faces countless obstacles and fierce opponents, including from those who see the Beltline serving to displace the city's poorer black residents with wealthier white ones. But by daring to confront these challenges head on, and to plan so far into the future, Atlanta's Beltline exemplifies the very best American cities have to offer its citizens. City on the Verge is the remarkable story of a city using its greatest obstacles as tools to remake its entire way of life. If Atlanta can reinvent itself using the very tools that heralded its decline transforming divisive railways into new public transit, decaying housing stock into a thriving tax base, abandoned industry into new centers for innovation then the city can serve as a model for countless other cities left behind in recent years. City on the Verge offers a moving narrative of ordinary Americans taking charge of their local communities and daring to dream of a better future for all.

In the 1990s, a faddish pseudoscience, repressed memory theory, destroyed millions of American families by creating false memories of childhood sexual abuse. At the time, Mark Pendergrast published his widely acclaimed book Victims of Memory, exposing the false nature of the science and counselling techniques that were alienating teenagers and grown children from their families. In Memory Warp, Pendergrast revisits that subject, updating his research and describing where it stands now, in 2017. All notable scientific researchers in the field of memory now agree that repressed-memory theory is misguided and harmful--that the "memories" produced are false, and that those accused--mostly parents and other family members and caregivers--have suffered greatly from false allegations of horrible crimes against their own children. But does that mean that the scourge is now behind us? Unfortunately, no. The disproven theories of repressed memory continue to resurface throughout American cultural life and, although usually more subtly, in the work of therapists. In this new book, Pendergrast provides a lively social history of our recent past, documenting how this incredible juggernaut of pseudoscience, which caused so much harm, came to be. But more importantly, the book also shows how these misguided theories continue to fester. And how, if we fail to learn from the lurid history of this movement, we may face another outbreak. Many authoritative books have appeared on this subject over the years, including those of memory researchers who have confirmed Pendergrast's conclusions. But Memory Warp is the first to describe the threat that continues to exist today.

The fizzy, "marvellously entertaining" (Los Angeles Times) story of the world's favourite beverageFor God, Country and Coca-Cola is the definitive history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it. From its origins as a patent medicine in Reconstruction Atlanta through its rise as the dominant consumer beverage of the American century, the story of Coke is as singular, appealing, and effervescent as the drink itself. Mark Pendergrast recounts more than a hundred years of the Coca-Cola Company with verve and a historian's eye for the telling detail, aligning Coke's success with the emergence of that other great American innovation-modern capitalism. With vivid portraits of the colourful cast of entrepreneurs, hustlers, swindlers, ad men, and con men who have made Coca-Cola the most recognized trademark in the world-and with a new afterword bringing the story up to today-this is business history at its best: authoritative, enlightening, and fun. Like Coke itself, For God, Country and Coca-Cola is "The Real Thing."

First published in 1999, Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks and the coffee crisis of the 21st century. Mark Pendergrast uses coffee production, trade, and consumption as a window through which to view broad historical themes: the clash and blending of cultures, slavery, the rise of brand marketing, global inequities, fair trade, revolutions, health scares, environmental issues, and the rediscovery of quality.As the scope of coffee culture continues to expand,Uncommon Grounds remains more than ever a brilliantly entertaining guide to one of the world's favorite drinks.

"What does compassionate capitalism look like? Mark Pendergrast shows us in this enlightening story of tribal life, opium, missionaries, market trends, a Thai antiques dealer, a mining entrepreneur and coffee." Abigail Carroll, author of Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal The Akha hill tribe of Thailand has a long, tumultuous history. Politics, economics, violence, prejudice, and deforestation consistently worked against the Akha's desire to move away from their dependency on opium production and create a stable future for their children. That all changed in 2006 when prominent businessman John Darch met entrepreneur Wicha Promyong. Their meeting resulted in the establishment of an equal partnership business venture that goes beyond Fair Trade: the Doi Chaang Coffee Company. Beyond Fair Trade tells the story of the growth of this unique partnership, its successes and challenges, and the people behind it.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the concept of repressed memories. It provides a history and context that documents key events that have had an effect on the way that modern psychology and psychotherapy have developed. Chapters provide an overview of how human memory functions and works and examine facets of the misguided theories behind repressed memory. The book also examines the science of the brain, the reconstructive nature of human memory, and studies of suggestibility. It traces the present-day resurgence of a belief in repressed memories in the general public as well as among many clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, “body workers,” and others who offer counseling. It concludes with legal and professional recommendations and advice for individuals who deal with or have dealt with the psychotherapeutic practice of repressed memory therapy. Topics featured in this text include: The modern diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (once called MPD)The “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s and its relation to repressed memory therapy.The McMartin Preschool Case and the “Day Care Sex Panic.”A historical overview from the Great Witch Craze to Sigmund Freud’s theories, spanning the 16th to 19th centuries.An exploration of the cultural context that produced the repressed memory epidemic of the 1990s.The repressed memory movement as a religious sect or cult.The Repressed Memory Epidemic will be of interest to researchers and clinicians as well as undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies, religion, and anthropology.