{"title":"Michael E Kerr","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"transforming-unionism-book-michael-e-kerr-9780716533894","title":"Transforming Unionism","description":"In what is their centenary year, the Ulster Unionist Party has been left reeling from the 2005 Westminster general election results. The historic party of the union has but one remaining seat in the House of Commons, and as was predicted, Northern Ireland's electorate has abandoned the centre-ground parties in favour of the extremes. The DUP and Sinn Fein now hold the key to political progress - a scenario almost inconceivable when the Belfast Agreement was signed seven long years ago. So how did the UP become so out of touch with mainstream Unionist opinion? What could the party have done to hold its vote in the 2005 general election? Why did the British Government abandon Trimble after he had led Ulster Unionism from international isolation to being the driving force behind the Belfast Agreement? In Transforming Unionism Michael Kerr offers a view of the UP's electoral meltdown from inside Ulster Unionist Party Head Quarters, and unravels the last days of Trimble as Ulster Unionism's leader. Seen through the eyes of the campaign team, Kerr's daily journal, and interviews with the key players, this book dissects the 2005 campaign and the end of the Trimble project. Kerr evaluates where and why the UP leadership failed, lays out the different directions the party may now take, and offers a constructive analysis of what the Ulster Unionism must do if it is to rebuild its electoral base and emerge from the wreckage of one of the most torrid episodes in the party's 100-year history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49604298604817,"sku":"GOR002236534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49635724427537,"sku":"GOR002492261","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52301948813585,"sku":"GOR008955216","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0716533898.jpg?v=1751360297"},{"product_id":"virtuoso-book-michael-e-kerr-9781845492915","title":"Virtuoso","description":"Hailed in the 60's not only as the finest British pianist of his generation with a glittering international career and record contract with EMI Music, but as a musical genius of extraordinary ability. In 1973 at the pinnacle of his fame John Ogdon was struck down inexplicably by the first in a series of severe mental breakdowns. In this moving account his wife, concert pianist Brenda Lucas Ogdon, tells both of the happy years of touring, when success piled upon success and of the distressing years of illness with their long search for effective treatment. John died tragically and suddenly from undiagnosed Diabetes and Pneumonia, in 1989. He was mourned by countless friends and admirers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49646550188305,"sku":"GOR007326542","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51138173239569,"sku":"NIN9781845492915","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53475683402001,"sku":"GOR009444574","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845492919.jpg?v=1751217574"},{"product_id":"alawis-of-syria-book-michael-e-kerr-9781849043991","title":"The Alawis of Syria","description":"Throughout the turbulent history of the Levant the 'Alawis - a secretive, resilient and ancient Muslim sect - have aroused suspicion and animosity, including accusations of religious heresy. More recently they have been tarred with the brush of political separatism and com--plicity in the excesses of the Assad regime, claims that have gained greater traction since the onset of the Syrian uprising and subse--quent devastating civil war. The contributors to this book provide a com--plex and nuanced reading of Syria's 'Alawi communities - from loyalist gangs (Shabiha) to outspoken critics of the regime. Drawing upon wide-ranging research that examines the historic, political and social dynamics of the 'Alawi and the Syrian state, the current social identities, and relations to the Ba'ath party, the Syrian state and the military apparatus. The analysis also extends to Leba--non with a focus on the embattled 'Alawi community of Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli and state rela--tions with Hizballah amid the current crisis.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49654836592913,"sku":"GOR008455319","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/184904399X.jpg?v=1755498543"},{"product_id":"lebanon-book-michael-e-kerr-9781849042499","title":"Lebanon","description":"Lebanon is the prisoner of its geography and its history, a prize for invaders since ancient times, a small multi-denominational state still recovering from a bloody civil war in its search for political autonomy and stability. This book examines the country's recent past since 2005, when a mass movement agitated against Syrian dominance in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Also detailed are the role of Hezbollah and other political groups. The authors examine the changes that these events brought to Lebanon, be they lasting or ephemeral, and the challenges they represent for a state which, despite the resilience of its power-sharing system of government, remains hotly contested and unconsolidated. Sectarian tensions have escalated, predominantly between the Sunni and Shia communities, causing outbursts of street-based violence and paralysis in government. This two-bloc system has left Lebanon ungovernable, not simply due to deep-seated political differences, but because of the external linkages which ties the two blocs to their foreign patrons, namely the USA and Iran. As the Arab Spring develops, it also increases Hezbollah's significance to Iran as the embattled Assad regime struggles to quash the Syrian insurgency.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49655000039697,"sku":"GOR012313494","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49736800403729,"sku":"NGR9781849042499","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50658402009361,"sku":"GOR014027006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1849042497.jpg?v=1751155339"},{"product_id":"bowen-theory-s-secrets-book-michael-e-kerr-md-9780393708127","title":"Bowen Theory's Secrets","description":"A much-needed update to one of the most significant family therapy theories of the past century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49788771336465,"sku":"CIN0393708128G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53375012241681,"sku":"CIN0393708128A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393708128.jpg?v=1751229370"},{"product_id":"bowen-theory-s-secrets-book-michael-e-kerr-md-9781324052647","title":"Bowen Theory's Secrets","description":"Murray Bowen (1931–1990) was the first to study the family in a live-in setting and describe specific details about how families function as systems. Despite Bowen theory being based on research begun more than seventy years ago, the value of viewing human beings as profoundly emotionally-driven creatures and human families functioning as emotional units is more relevant than ever. This book, written by one of his closest collaborators, updates his still-radical theory with the latest approaches to understanding emotional development.   Reduced to its most fundamental level, Bowen theory explains how people begin a relationship very close emotionally but become more distant over time. The ideas also help explain why good people do bad things, and bad people do good things, and how family life strengthens some members while weakening others. Gaining knowledge about previously unseen specifics of family interactions reveals a hidden life of families. The hidden life explains how the best of intentions can fail to produce the desired result, thus providing a blueprint for change.    Part I of the book explains the core ideas in the theory. Part II describes the process of differentiation of self, which is the most important application of Bowen theory. People sometimes think of theories as \"ivory tower\" productions: interesting, but not necessarily practical. Differentiation of self is anything but; it has a well-tested real-world application. Part II includes four long case presentations of families in the public eye. They help illustrate how Bowen theory can help explain how families—three of which appear fairly normal and one which does not—unwittingly produce an offspring that chronically manifests some time of severely aberrant behavior.    Finally, the book proposes a new \"unidisease\" concept—the idea that a wide range of diseases have a number of physiological processes in common. In an Epilogue, Kerr applies Bowen theory to his family to illustrate how changes in a family relationship system over time can better explain the clinical course of a chronic illness than the diagnosis itself.    With close to four thousand hours of therapy conducted with about thirty-five hundred families over decades, Michael Kerr is an expert guide to the ins and outs of this most influential way of approaching clinical work with families.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51201728741649,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51201730085137,"sku":"NGR9781324052647","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1324052643.jpg?v=1750889776"},{"product_id":"our-side-of-the-house-book-michael-e-kerr-9780704381636","title":"Our Side of the House","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51474676187409,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51474678808849,"sku":"GOR001615269","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51939421520145,"sku":"GOR008609239","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/070438163X.jpg?v=1750784665"},{"product_id":"destructors-book-michael-e-kerr-9780716530992","title":"The Destructors","description":"The Destructors is the story of lost opportunities. In 1973, Northern Ireland's first Secretary of State, William Whitelaw, convinced rival unionist and nationalist leaders, such as Brian Faulkner and John Hume, to set aside irreconcilable differences and form a power-sharing executive at Stormont. The opponents of British policy in Northern Ireland - paramilitary organizations and the unionist politicians who were not central to Whitelaw's plans - sought to efface power-sharing from the constitutional options that would be open to Northern Ireland if the executive collapsed. And in May 1974 they succeeded, when the British government failed to protect the executive from an unconstitutional political strike led by the Ulster Workers' Council. Taking a fresh and dynamic look at what the idea of power-sharing meant to the different parties to the Northern Ireland conflict, The Destructors examines how the Northern Ireland Executive's fate was sealed when the policy of using power-sharing to regulate the troubles was abandoned by British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, following an ill-timed Westminster general election in February 1974. Drawing on previously unavailable British and Irish archival material, and over 40 interviews with politicians and officials central to a peace process that led to an Anglo-Irish settlement at Sunningdale in December 1973, author Michael Kerr re-examines why Northern Ireland's power-sharing experiment failed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51844956389649,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51844956520721,"sku":"GOR010632342","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780716530992.jpg?v=1753357262"},{"product_id":"imposing-power-sharing-book-michael-e-kerr-9780716533832","title":"Imposing Power Sharing","description":"This book is a comparative analysis of power sharing agreements and peace processes in Northern Ireland and Lebanon, examining parallel journeys both societies took through power sharing to civil war, returning to power sharing again. It criticises and builds on the consociational democracy literature and takes an international perspective, arguing that the external states with an interest in these ethno-national conflicts largely determined the outcome of their power sharing accords. It evaluates and contrasts the imposition of power sharing as a means to regulate ethnic conflict in a democratic environment with a non-democratic one. What makes the book unique is its ability to compare for the first time in print the ethnic conflicts and power-sharing agreements in both countries. The sources used are based on exclusive access in the UK, Ireland and Lebanon with over 125 interviews conducted for the book. This timely publication brings the situation in both parts of the world up to date and evaluates the costs and benefits of external intervention in divided societies by regional or international powers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52101556502801,"sku":"GOR005655185","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780716533832.jpg?v=1757093684"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-michael-e-kerr.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}