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Books > History > European history > 1750 to 1900
How Soviet scientists and pseudoscientists pursued telepathic research, cybernetic simulations, and mass hyptonism over television to control the minds of citizens. In October 1989, as the Cold War was ending and the Berlin Wall about to crumble, television viewers in the Soviet Union tuned in to the first of a series of unusual broadcasts. "Relax, let your thoughts wander free..." intoned the host, the physician and clinical psychotherapist Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky. Moscow's Channel One was attempting mass hypnosis over television, a therapeutic session aimed at reassuring citizens panicked over the ongoing political upheaval-and aimed at taking control of their responses to it. Incredibly enough, this last-ditch effort to rally the citizenry was the culmination of decades of official telepathic research, cybernetic simulations, and coded messages undertaken to reinforce ideological conformity. In Homo Sovieticus, the art and media scholar Wladimir Velminski explores these scientific and pseudoscientific efforts at mind control. In a fascinating series of anecdotes, Velminski describes such phenomena as the conflation of mental energy and electromagnetism; the investigation of aura fields through the "Aurathron"; a laboratory that practiced mind control methods on dogs; and attempts to calibrate the thought processes of laborers. "Scientific" diagrams from the period accompany the text. In all of the experimental methods for implanting thoughts into a brain, Velminski finds political and metaphorical contaminations. These apparently technological experiments in telepathy and telekinesis were deployed for purely political purposes.
The classical distinctions between "strategy," "operations," and "tactics" in warfare derive from two basic sources-Carl von Clausewitz and Antoine-Henri de Jomini, both veterans of the Napoleonic wars who translated their experiences into books outlining general precepts about the nature and rules of military engagement. Nearly two centuries after the publication of these works, Jomini has been all but forgotten, but Clausewitz's On War remains perhaps the most significant work of military theory ever written. He has become a global brand, one constantly refreshed by a flow of books and articles debating his ideas and arguing what he truly meant in various passages of On War. The masterwork appears in an array of translations sweeping from Arabic to Vietnamese. Military staff colleges the world over use Clausewitz's text, largely to prepare their officers for staff positions and higher command. Military historian Donald Stoker here offers an incisive biography of Carl von Clausewitz, sketching out his life and career and exploring the various causes that led to the formulation of his theories about war. Though On War remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1831, Clausewitz's devoted wife, Marie, organized the papers he had left behind and arranged for their publication. The ten volumes of Clausewitz's collected works appeared from 1832-1837, with On War encompassing the first three volumes. Stoker considers both the merits and detriments of the works, but also pays careful attention to the life and experiences of Clausewitz himself. In doing so, he notes that those discussing Clausewitz's legacy as a theorist today have largely forgotten what was most important to him: being a soldier, and one of renown. Clausewitz is often remembered merely as staff officer, someone pushing papers and not in the midst of battle. Though Stoker notes that Clausewitz certainly spilled his share of ink, he also spilled blood - his as well as that of the enemy. He experienced the mass warfare of his age at its most intense and visceral. He knew what it was like to be wounded, to be a prisoner, to have friends killed and wounded, to suffer hunger and thirst, and to have the heat and cold try to kill him after the enemy's best efforts had failed. Success on the field of battle-success meaning victory as well as distinguishing one's self above one's comrades, who are also brave and daring men - this, Stoker shows, is what drove Clausewitz. Stoker also considers the continuing relevance of Clausewitz's work today, particularly focusing on its effect on strategic thinking in American foreign policy. The result is a brilliant reassessment of both the man and his legacy, one that adds to our understanding of Clausewitz and his place in today's military and political landscape.
In this volume, scholars examine the role of the body as a primary site of political signification in 17th- and 18th-century France.;Some essays focus on the sacralization of the king's body through a gendered textual and visual rhetoric. Others show how the monarchy mastered subjects' minds by disciplining the body through dance, music, drama, art and social rituals. The last essays in the volume focus on the unmaking of the king's body and the substitution of a new, republican body. Throughout, the authors explore how race and gender shaped the body politic under the Bourbons and during the Revolution.;This study expands our conception of state power and demonstrates that seemingly apolitical activities like the performing arts, dress and ritual contribute to the state's hegemony. The text aims to be a valuable resource for students and scholars of history, literature, music, dance and performance studies, gender studies, art history and political theory.
Interfaith marriage is a visible and often controversial part of American life--and one with a significant history. This is the first historical study of religious diversity in the home. Anne Rose draws a vivid picture of interfaith marriages over the century before World War I, their problems and their social consequences. She shows how mixed-faith families became agents of change in a culture moving toward pluralism. Following them over several generations, Rose tracks the experiences of twenty-six interfaith families who recorded their thoughts and feelings in letters, journals, and memoirs. She examines the decisions husbands and wives made about religious commitment, their relationships with the extended families on both sides, and their convictions. These couples--who came from strong Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish backgrounds--did not turn away from religion but made personalized adjustments in religious observance. Increasingly, the author notes, women took charge of religion in the home. Rose's family-centered look at private religious decisions and practice gives new insight on American society in a period when it was becoming more open, more diverse, and less community-bound.
"Modernity" was an inescapable fact of life for the first generation to come of age in the German Empire. Even the most extreme political opponents saw the chaotic transformation of all spheres of life in the wake of industrial capitalism as the central problem facing young men and women at the "fin de siecle." This fresh look at Wilhelmine perceptions of modernity challenges both the traditional emphasis on anti-modernism as a peculiarly German response that led to the rise of National Socialism, and the more recent post-Foucauldian studies on the "pathologies of modernity," which point instead to an unreflective faith in science and efficiency on the part of German progressives. Shifting the focus away from radical extremes on either side, Kevin Repp explores the more moderate agendas of hundreds of mainstream intellectuals and activists from diverse social backgrounds who sought to surmount the human costs of industrialization without relinquishing its positive potential. Repp combines detailed case studies of Adolf Damaschke, Gertrud Baumer, and Werner Sombart with an innovative prosopography of their milieu to show how leading reformers enlisted familiar tropes of popular nationalism, eugenics, and cultural pessimism in formulating pragmatic solutions that would be at once modern and humane. Easily obscured by radical voices on right and left, this quiet search for alternatives nevertheless succeeded in building a nationwide network of educational centers, associative ties, and institutions that substantially altered the landscape of Wilhelmine political culture in the decades before the First World War.
This is a translation of one of the very few Russian serfs' memoirs. Savva Purlevskii recollects his life in Russian serfdom and the lives of his grandparents, parents, and fellow villagers. He describes family communal life and the serfs' daily interaction with landlords and authorities. Purlevskii came from an initially prosperous family that later became impoverished. Early in his childhood, he lost his father. Purlevskii did not have a chance to gain a formal education. He lived under serfdom until 1831 when at the age of 30, he escaped his servitude.
The period 1750-1820 saw the death of royal absolutism, the rise and fall of successive revolutionary regimes, the consolidation of Napoleonic rule and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy after the Empire's final collapse. This volume examines the transformation of the French military profession during this momentous time. Based on a wealth of archival sources, it is as much a social history of ideas such as equality, talent and merit as a military history. It provides an analysis of shifts in the idea and practice of merit before, during and after 1789, crossing the chronological boundary of 1789 to bring the histories of the Old Regime, Revolution, Empire and Restoration together. It also makes available a comprehensive examination of the changes in military personnel and institutions that laid the basis for Napoleon's armies.
Birth of a National Icon examines the emergence of the intellectual in fin-desiecle France, setting this important phenomenon against the backdrop of an emerging mass democracy and concentrating on the key role played by the avant-garde.
Wellington's Men Remembered is a reference work which has been compiled on behalf of the Association of Friends of the Waterloo Committee and contains over 3,000 memorials to soldiers who fought in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo between 1808 and 1815, together with 150 battlefield and regimental memorials in 24 countries worldwide. Photographs of memorials are included in a CD Rom inserted in each
From the time of Bismarck's great rival Ludwig Windthorst to that of the first post-World War II Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, the Catholic community in Germany took a distinctive historical path. Although it was by no means free of authoritarian components, it was at times the most democratic pathway taken by organized political Catholicism anywhere in Europe. Challenging those who seek continuity in German history primarily in terms of its long march toward Nazism, this book crosses all the usual historical turning points from mid-nineteenth- to late-twentieth-century German history in search of the indigenous origins of postwar German democracy. Complementing recent studies of German Social Democracy, it links the postwar party system to the partisan traditions this new system transcended by documenting the attempts by reform-minded members of the old Catholic Center party to break out of the constraints of minority-group politics and form a democratic political party. The failure of those efforts before 1933 helped clear the way for Nazism, but their success after 1945 in founding the interdenominational Christian Democratic Union (CDU) helped tame political conservatism and allowed the emergence of the most stable democracy in contemporary Europe. Integrating those who needed to be integrated--the cultural and political conservatives--into a durable liberal order, this conservative yet democratic and interdenominational "catch-all" party broadened democratic sensibilities and softened the effect of religious tensions on the German polity and party system. By crossing traditional chronological divides and exploring the links between earlier abortive Catholic initiatives and the range of competing postwar visions of the new party system, this book moves Catholic Germany from the periphery to the heart of the issue of continuity in modern German history.
This anthology, drawn from the autobiographies of seven men and women whose lives spanned the 19th century, provides a rare glimpse of the everyday lives of workers in the age of early industrialization in France. These stories convey the ambitions, hardships and reversals of ordinary people struggling to gain a measure of respectability.;The workers' livelihoods are diverse: chair-maker, embroiderer, joiner, mason, silk weaver, machinist and seamstress. Their stories of daily activities, work life and popular politics are filled with lively, often poignant moments. We learn of dismal, unsanitary housing, disease, workplace accidents and terrible hardship, especially for the children of the poor. The autobiographies also illuminate the relationship between changes in working conditions and the forms of political participation and protest that occurred as the 19th century drew to a close.
Portraits were the most widely commissioned paintings in
18th-century France, but most portraits were produced for private
consumption, and were therefore seen as inferior to art designed
for public exhibition. The French Revolution endowed private values
with an unprecedented significance, and the way people responded to
portraits changed as a result. This is an area which has largely
been ignored by art historians, who have concentrated on art
associated with the public events of the Revolution. Seen from the
perspective of portrait production, the history of art during the
Revolution looks very different, and the significance of the
Revolution for attitudes to art and artists in the 19th century and
beyond becomes clearer.
The book provides an insight into the lives of Khusro Mirza Beg, a scion of a princely family of Georgia, who was adopted by Mir Karam Ali Khan Talpur, and Fareedun, also from Georgia, whose paths fatefully crossed thousands of miles away, in distant Sindh. The author traces the historical background that led to the author's ancestors migration from Georgia in the early 1800's to Sindh, and focuses on Khusro's life as a young man, and his relationship with the Mirs of Sindh, and continues with the family history until the twentieth century.
This study offers a rare perspective on the social and political crisis in late Imperial Russia. Mark D. Steinberg focuses on employers, supervisors and workers in the printing industry as it evolved from a state-dependent handicraft to a capitalist industry. He explores class relations and the values, norms and perceptions with which they were made meaningful. Using archival and printed sources, Steinberg examines economic changes, workplace relations, professional organizations, unions, strikes and political activism, as well as shop customs, trade festivals and everyday life. He describes efforts to build a community of masters and men united by shared interests and moral norms. The collapse of this ideal in the face of growing class conflict is also explored, giving a full view of an important moment in Russian history.
At Talavera an Anglo-Spanish army under Sir Arthur Wellesley combined with a Spanish army in operations against French-occupied Madrid. After fierce fighting the French army's attacks were repulsed several times before withdrawing from the field. Wellesley was ennobled as 'Viscount Wellington of Talavera' for the action. Napoleonic expert Digby Smith covers the uniforms, colours and standards, organization and tactics of the three armies involved, their orders of battle and losses. The strategic background to the battle, including Napoleon's disastrous 'management by puppet' policy, which was to bedevil the efforts of all French commanders in Spain and Portugal for the rest of the war. The artillery systems used are examined, including ballistic performance. The progress of the battle is analysed in detail, interspersed with personal accounts of participants at critical points. There will be a complete display of the losses involved as well as an account of the aftermath of the action and its effects on Wellesley's subsequent performance.
Drawing on the best contemporary scholarship, especially the innovations of French social history, Isser Woloch paints an unusually rich and detailed portrait of eighteenth-century European life and society. Among the new topics he covers are the family economy of the poor, popular culture and the circulation of books, changing patterns of crime and punishment, and the social history of military and religious institutions.
The Old Regime and the Revolution is Alexis de Tocqueville's great meditation on the origins and meanings of the French Revolution. One of the most profound and influential studies of this pivotal event, it remains a relevant and stimulating discussion of the problem of preserving individual and political freedom in the modern world. Alan Kahan's translation provides a faithful, readable rendering of Tocqueville's last masterpiece, and it includes notes and variants which reveal Tocqueville's sources and include excerpts from his drafts and revisions. The introduction by France's most eminent scholars of Tocqueville and the French Revolution, Francoise Melonio and the late Francois Furet, provides a brilliant analysis of the work. |
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