Liberal Illusion or City Lights

Liberal Illusion: Does Trade Promote Peace?

Author: Katherine Barbieri

U.S.-China relations and talk of regional economic cooperation in areas of conflict around the globe have made increasingly significant the question of whether international trade provides a path to peace. Scholars remain divided in the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence that they offer to shed light on this question. As policymakers advocate trade-based strategies as capable of achieving many foreign policy goals, the author of this book warns that we must first understand the real impact of commerce on interstate conflict.

In The Liberal Illusion, Katherine Barbieri examines a number of long-standing arguments both supportive and critical of the trade-promotes-peace hypothesis. Using an original database containing trade statistics that date back to 1870 and employing a number of methodological techniques, she conducts one of the most comprehensive assessments of the relationship between trade and conflict. She points to the dangers of relying upon policies whose results may depart dramatically from the assumed effects, and her findings will challenge those policymakers and scholars who have come to accept the liberal vision about the pacifying impact of trade. The provocative arguments in The Liberal Illusion contribute to our understanding of the relationship between trade and international conflict and will have important implications for future policy making.

Katherine Barbieri is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University.

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City Lights: Urban-Suburban Life in a Global Society

Author: E Barbara Phillips

The second edition of this successful urban studies text has been fully updated to highlight issues facing cities in an ever-shrinking global society. Skillfully blending perspectives from the social sciences with insights from the visual arts and humanities, this lively and imaginative text provides a comprehensive introduction to cities and how they work. Focusing on the U.S. city, it covers the major traditional topics, including urbanization and suburbanization, the two faces of community, spatial and social structure, economic base, and decision-making. In addition, the revised edition treats such specialized topics as personal space, and the impact of new technologies on architecture and politics.
Phillips takes the point of view that what you see depends on how you look at it and how you define an urban problem determines its solution. In systematic fashion, she shows how scholarly controversy and public debates over urban policy are rooted in deep-seated differences: differences in political ideologies, research methods, theoretical orientations, academic disciplines, and/or levels of analysis.
Phillips starts from several basic premises: no one has cornered the truth about cities (or anything else); even the loneliest town is linked in a worldwide system due to the urban-global interlock, and things urban-suburban are best understood in a broader context from an interdisciplinary outlook.
The book offers numerous case studies, photoessays, examples, and firsthand accounts of such interesting and timely subjects as ethnic identity, ZIP codes as neighborhoods, big cities in poor countries, women's space, alternative urban-suburban futures,multiculturalism, temporary or contingent work, the entanglement of race and class, gated communities, and local fiscal crisis, placing these issues in broad analytical contexts.
Developed and tested in the classroom, this rich and highly readable text features a wide range of illustrative materials and learning aids. Projects in each chapter and the books evenhanded approach to a variety of perspectives encourage students to develop their personal acquaintance with and knowledge about urban life. Excerpts from classic works, lists of key terms, and suggestions for further learning make this book a valuable tool for students in urban studies and a variety of urban-oriented courses, particularly urban sociology, city planning, urban politics, and urban history.

Table of Contents:

1	The Knowing Eye and Ear	3
2	Thinking About Cities	28
3	Posing the Questions	56
4	From Urban Specks to Global Cities	81
5	The Ties That Bind	117
6	Metropolitan Community	145
7	Making Connections	167
8	Movin' On	201
9	Identity Crisis	228
10	Social Ladders	261
11	Discovering the Rules	298
12	The Skeleton of Power	327
13	Bosses, Boodlers, and Reformers	365
14	Getting Things Done	387
15	Metropolitan Form and Space	415
16	A Sense of Place	451
17	Producing, Consuming, Exchanging	495
18	Blue-Collar, White-Collar Shirtless	520
19	Raising and Spending Money	554
	Finale: To Be Continued	574
	Brief Biographies	578
	Index	583