Data Visualization, Part 2. New Directions for Evaluation, Number 140

Features updated material and a special foreword from Arianna for the UK audienceIt’s not an exaggeration to say that the hard-working, average citizen on an average income is an endangered species and that the American Dream of a secure, comfortable standard of living has become outdated. The USA is in danger of becoming a Third World nation.The evidence is all around: its industrial base is vanishing, taking with it the kind of jobs that have formed the backbone of America’s economy for more than a century; the education system is in shambles, making it harder for tomorrow’s workforce to acquire the information and training it needs to land good twenty-first-century jobs; its infrastructure – roads, bridges, water, and electrical systems – is crumbling; its economic system has been reduced to recurring episodes of Corporations Gone Wild; and its political system is broken, in thrall to a small financial elite using the power of the chequebook to control both parties. And America’s middle class, the driver of so much of the country’s economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing this democracy to confront the fear that it is slipping as a nation – that its children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living. It’s the dark flipside of the American Dream – an American Nightmare of their own making.Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of the must-read Huffington Post, has her finger on the pulse of America and unflinchingly tracks the gradual demise of the nation as an industrial, political, and economic leader. In the vein of her fiery bestseller Pigs at the Trough, Third World America points fingers, names names, and details who’s killing the American Dream. Calling on the can-do attitude that is part of America’s DNA, Huffington shows precisely what needs to be done to stop the free fall and keep the country from turning into a Third World nation. Third World America is required reading for anyone who is disturbed by the United States’ steady descent from twentieth-century superpower to backwater banana republic.

In a fast-moving world we’re often overloaded with differing opinions, conflicting data and changing advice. In this essential guide, Noreena Hertz offers practical steps to how to make better, smarter decisions.Most of us think we make decisions for the right reasons: we scour books, we talk over options with our friends, we search the internet, we ask experts, we look at data or we trust our guts. But how hard do we scrutinise those we listen to? How much do we interrogate the information they provide? Are we open to new ways of tackling problems? Or are we swayed by how we’ve made decisions in the past?Noreena Hertz reveals the extent to which life-altering, business-affecting, policy-determining, and also health-defining decisions are being made based on partial information, assumed wisdoms, corrupted data and insufficient scrutiny. She provides a clear, practical toolkit for how you can be a smarter decision-maker and better problem-solver. Whether knowing when to trust experts and when to trust the internet or how you can be unconsciously swayed by certain behaviours or phoney stats, this books instructs you how to make better choices and more accurate predictions – through your personal life, your work and all your decisions.

A hard-hitting expos? of the overwork culture and modern management techniques that seduce millions of people to hand over the best part of their lives to their employer.Work has come to increasingly dominate British national life. ‘Job intensification’ affects every shopfloor, office, classroom and hospital, as a cult of efficiency has driven a missionary magnetism of tighter deadlines and more exacting targets in the most exploitative and manipulative work culture developed since the Industrial Revolution.What do we get in return for this hard work? Stagnant wages, job insecurity, stress, exhaustion; the British workforce has not been so powerless for over a century. ‘Willing Slaves’ exposes the paradox that, though we’re all being exploited, it’s work that has come to give our lives meaning: religion, political causes, family life have become secondary. This book reveals how this astonishing fraud has been perpetrated, how millions of workers know they face burnout but believe ‘there is no alternative’.Bunting tells us how to take our lives back – and what will happen if we don’t.

A lively, engaging and counterintuitive exploration of success stories from across the globe, and what Michelle Obama referred to as ‘the flimsy difference between success and failure’.In this lively and counterintuitive exploration of success stories from across the globe, award-winning journalist Hamish McRae takes the reader on a fascinating journey in pursuit of the flimsy difference between triumph and failure. Why do some initiatives take off while others flounder? How have some communities managed to achieve so much while others struggle? What distinguishes the good companies from the bad?This thoughtful, engaging look at some of the world’s greatest success stories provides an optimistic and eminently practical guide to what works and why. What lessons can we learn from the surprisingly well-ordered Mumbai community made famous by ‘Slumdog Millionaire’? Why have Canadian manners helped Whistler become the most popular ski resort in North America? How has Zurich developed the world’s most admired anti-drug policies? And how has Hong Kong used gambling profits to help its residents enjoy the greatest level of economic freedom on the planet?Drawing life lessons from the great ideas put to work on every continent – from America to Europe, from Africa to Asia and Australasia – McRae’s stories are as surprising as they are inspiring. We are better placed now than we have ever been to make good choices about the future of our species and our planet. But if we are to face the many challenges ahead, we have to try to learn from each other. ‘What Works’ will leave you entertained, informed and, ultimately, enlightened as to what each of us can do to make successes of our businesses, our communities and our lives.

Previously published as ‘In the Skin of a Jihadist’Twenty year-old “M?lodie”, a recent convert to Islam, meets the leader of an ISIS brigade on Facebook. In 48 hours he has ‘fallen in love’ with her, calls her every hour, urges her to marry him, join him in Syria in a life of paradise – and join his jihad.Anna Erelle is the undercover journalist behind «Melodie». Created to investigate the powerful propaganda weapons of Islamic State, “Melodie” is soon sucked in by Bilel, right-hand man of the infamous Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An Iraqi for whose capture the US government has promised $10 million, al-Baghdadi is described by Time Magazine as the most dangerous man in the world and by himself as the caliph of Islamic State. Bilel shows off his jeep, his guns, his expensive watch. He boasts about the people he has just killed.With Bilel impatient for his future wife, “Melodie” embarks on her highly dangerous mission, which – at its ultimate stage – will go very wrong … Enticed into this lethal online world like hundreds of other young people, including many young British girls and boys, Erelle’s harrowing and gripping investigation helps us to understand the true face of terrorism.