Sex and the City, with its trendsetting fashions and frank discussions about sex, has been iconic from the get-go, and these collected essays analyze its commentary about modern-day society. Joanna di Mattia examines Carrie's reactions to her two most significant suitors, the sexually exciting Mr. Big and the romantically inclined Aiden.

This book is an optimistic prediction from a journalist with more than a decade's experience reporting for the Far Eastern Economic Review. Gilley argues, against Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, that China's culture is not alien to democratic possibilities and that democratization will result not from popular overthrow of the existing Communist one-party state but through gradual reform from above. He anticipates a "revolution in values" through which the elite will becomes more public-spirited and less self-interested.

Events over recent years have increased the global interest in Islam. This volume seeks to combat generalisations about the Muslim presence in Europe by illuminating its diversity across Europe and offering a more realistic, highly differentiated picture. It contends with the monist concept of identity that suggests Islam is the shared and main definition of Muslims living in Europe.

Crucial to understanding Islam is a recognition of the role of Muslim networks. The earliest networks were Mediterranean trade routes that quickly expanded into transregional paths for pilgrimage, scholarship, and conversion, each network complementing and reinforcing the others. This volume selects major moments and key players from the seventh century to the twenty-first that have defined Muslim networks as the building blocks for Islamic identity and social cohesion.

In the twenty-first century, America could be destroyed. The dangers are manifold: terrorism, judges who think they're God (and who are anti-God), rising economic challenges from China and India, and immigrants and young Americans who know little about American history and values. Can America survive?