Best Selling Books by Ron Johnston

From Votes to Seats is a study of the 14 general elections held between 1950 and 1997 in Britain. Arguing that the British electoral system treats political parties disproportionately, the authors show that the amount of bias in those elections results substantially increased over the period, benefiting Labour at the expense of the Conservatives. With the use of imaginative diagrams, this book examines the electoral process in detail, illustrating how it operates, while stressing the important role of tactical voting in the production of recent election results.

Seventeen obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Shackleton Bailey; James Barr; William Beasley; Lord Blake; Julian Budden; Lord Bullock; Robert Carson, Laurence Cohen; Charles Feinstein; Henry Gifford; Peter Holt; Emrys Jones; Robert Megarry; Edward Oates; Maurice Wiles; Brian Woledge; Austin Woolrych.

Explores the relationship between human and physical geography. All chapters updated in the new edition to reflect new literature and changes in the discipline. Chapter One systematically considers representations of geographical thought. The closing chapter develops an explicit argument about what has made human geography distinctive. Draws on a wide reading of the geographical literature produced during a fifty-year period characterised by both growth in the number of academic geographers and substantial shifts in conceptions of the discipline''s scientific rationale

Within an international framework, this work provides a fully comprehensive approach to the geographical coverage of elections. Numerous applications of ideas and concepts from human geography are incorporated into a new political context, illustrating the manner in which electoral patterns reflect and help produce the overall geography of a region or state. Discussions of various topics are well supported by numerous maps and diagrams which help clarify arguments and serve to define elections within their basic geographical context.

Eighteen obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: John Ackrill; Maurice Beresford; Malcolm Bowie; Peter Brunt; Norman Cohn; John Crook; Robert Davies; David Foxon; Terence Hutchison; Philip Jones; Michael Levey; John Macquarrie; Charles Moule; Anthony Nuttall; Alan Raitt; Joseph Trapp; William Watson; Bryan Wilson.

On Friday night, January 8, 1965, the 5-1 Churchville-Chili boys'' basketball team hosted Greece Arcadia in the Saints gym at approximately 8 p.m. It was the first game of the new year and would turn out to be school record-breaking as C-C won 101-55. 101 points, WOW! All 14 Saints on the roster played and scored. Ron Johnston, a junior non-starter and the author of this book, became a one-game wonder when he scored a game-high 16 points in almost two quarters of action on the hardwood. He couldn''t miss, draining seven straight perimeter shots in the "pre-3-pointer era." Thing is, Ron had a condition known as bronchiectasis that he has never revealed until this narrative now. Only his parents, immediate family, and doctors knew about it. The lung disease which he has had all his life has not hindered in any way his participating in athletics on both the prep and collegiate level. In fact, competing in sports, running, and walking have benefitted him. Ron never had a prep varsity basketball game like the school record-breaking January 8 one ever again. But this story is more than him being a "one-game wonder." ("Better a one-game wonder than not," he would tell you, laughing.) It''s also kind of a love story back in a time of teenage innocence. It''s about teammates, cheerleaders, classmates, coaches, teachers, soldiers, and...people. GOOD PEOPLE, who have gone on to have families and been successful in life. Being a newspaper sports editor/writer has been very helpful to Ron on this life journey. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy...and maybe you''d better have a box of Kleenex tissues handy. Because "One-Game Wonder" evokes emotion.

Sixteen obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Brian Barry; Michael Baxandall; Robert Black; Henry Chadwick; Nicolas Coldstream; Howard Colvin; Mary Douglas; Robin Du Boulay; Alan Everitt; Robert Latham; Geoffrey Lewis; Laurence Picken; Thomas Puttfarken; Karen Spärck Jones; Christopher Stead; Denis Twitchett.

Using information from the UK elections, this title shows how voters and parties are affected by, and seek to influence, both national and local forces, placing the analysis of electoral behaviour into its geographical context.

These essays trace the evolution of British geography as an academic discipline during the last hundred years, and stress how the study of the world we live in is fundamental to an understanding of its problems and concerns. Never before has such an ambitious and wide-ranging review been attempted, and never before has it been done with so much knowledge and passion. The principal themes covered in this volume are those of environment, place and space, and the applied geography of map-making and planning. The volume also addresses specific issues such as disease, urbanization, regional viability, and ethics and social problems. This lively and accessible work offers many insights into the minds and practices of today''s geographers.

Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom are elected to represent geographic constituencies; but how are these defined and what are the consequences for democracy? Tracing the UK’s system of parliamentary representation from its origins in the thirteenth century right through to the present, this comprehensive new survey reveals how a system initially designed to restrain the power of monarchs gradually evolved to serve their interests, then those of political parties before the twentieth century ‘settlement’ of an independent process for revising the constituency map. That settlement is now under pressure, with the traditional pattern of constituencies representing communities about to be replaced by one which elevates numbers above community. Advanced under the slogan of ‘making votes equal’, this new regime promises fairness yet, as the authors show, is destined to fail to address the disproportional and biased election results that have long been a feature of UK politics. Concluding with a detailed consideration of the ways in which various parts of the UK have embraced alternatives to first-past-the-post over the last two decades, this book serves as a timely reminder that the needs of political parties do not always coincide with those of us, the electors.

This volume contains 16 lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008-10. From romantic love in sub-Saharan Africa to the British industrial revolution, from John Donne to Arthur Miller, from surrealism to Chinese flower imagery, these lectures demonstrate unparalleled breadth and depth of scholarship.

Volume 154 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 17 Lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2007. From commemoration of the American Civil War, to an examination of our capacity as human beings to live in the world of imagination, and the opportunities and challenges which face cultural institutions in Britain today.

This volume contains 10 Lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008. From an exploration of the relationship between reason and identity, to an examination of social integration as the world becomes a more diverse place, to a consideration of the works of four great literary figures: King Alfred, Shakespeare, Wordsworth and W H Auden.