Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. In such a context politics and democracy become irrelevant. In contrast, many of the contributions to this book conclude that there are real political choices to be made. Even though the economic context has changed, politics still matter.These studies are grounded in particular historical and national contexts, with each chapter linking broad theoretical and political debates to current and tangible examples. The contradictory aspects of globalization are highlighted as the volatility of the global economy creates a crisis of legitimacy for the advocates of neo-liberal policies, which are premised on stripping away the protections that nation-states used to provide their citizens. This situation creates important opportunities, as well as dangers, for trade union and democratic social movements.

Henry "Hank" Toohey, a thirteen-year-old altar boy, is an incessant smart-ass with a deep love of life...and other four-letter words. But with his foul mouth comes a heart of gold, and he's going to need it to get through the last weekend of summer 1984. Everyone up and down St. Patrick Street, Henry's claustrophobic Irish-Catholic block in Philadelphia -- with its seventy-eight row homes, seventy-eight skinny mile-high lawns, seventy-eight statues of saints, and seventy-eight Mondale-Ferraro signs -- knows that the Toohey family is falling apart. Henry's mailman father is having an affair with a neighbor lady right under his mother's nose. His big brother has been a drunken mess since his girlfriend died. And his little sister is counting on him to keep her laughing through it all. But Henry has a plan to pull the family back together: He'll propose to his chain-smoking fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Grace McClain, at a neighborhood wedding. To prepare, he and his ragtag group of friends pinball around the streets, making elaborate plans for his proposal, riding bikes, rating breasts, bothering the local merchants, talking trash about Mike Schmidt and Bob Seger, and kissing behind the seafood-store dumpster. Gritty, giddy, and bursting with Henry's boundless energy, Green Grass Grace is a heart-thumping rocket ride back to adolescence that is riotously funny and tragic at the same time.

Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. In such a context politics and democracy become irrelevant. In contrast, many of the contributions to this book conclude that there are real political choices to be made. Even though the economic context has changed, politics still matter.These studies are grounded in particular historical and national contexts, with each chapter linking broad theoretical and political debates to current and tangible examples. The contradictory aspects of globalization are highlighted as the volatility of the global economy creates a crisis of legitimacy for the advocates of neo-liberal policies, which are premised on stripping away the protections that nation-states used to provide their citizens. This situation creates important opportunities, as well as dangers, for trade union and democratic social movements.

Henry "Hank" Toohey, a thirteen-year-old altar boy, is an incessant smart-ass with a deep love of life...and other four-letter words. But with his foul mouth comes a heart of gold, and he's going to need it to get through the last weekend of summer 1984. Everyone up and down St. Patrick Street, Henry's claustrophobic Irish-Catholic block in Philadelphia -- with its seventy-eight row homes, seventy-eight skinny mile-high lawns, seventy-eight statues of saints, and seventy-eight Mondale-Ferraro signs -- knows that the Toohey family is falling apart. Henry's mailman father is having an affair with a neighbor lady right under his mother's nose. His big brother has been a drunken mess since his girlfriend died. And his little sister is counting on him to keep her laughing through it all. But Henry has a plan to pull the family back together: He'll propose to his chain-smoking fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Grace McClain, at a neighborhood wedding. To prepare, he and his ragtag group of friends pinball around the streets, making elaborate plans for his proposal, riding bikes, rating breasts, bothering the local merchants, talking trash about Mike Schmidt and Bob Seger, and kissing behind the seafood-store dumpster. Gritty, giddy, and bursting with Henry's boundless energy, Green Grass Grace is a heart-thumping rocket ride back to adolescence that is riotously funny and tragic at the same time.