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Books > History > World history > From 1900
While it is generally known that Mahatma Gandhi had great affection
for Jawaharlal Nehru and that this was one of the most important
factors in the latter succeeding him as the leading figure in the
Indian National Congress and becoming the Prime Minister of India,
it is seldom realized that the relationship between the two was one
of the most determining factors in the history of the Congress and
consequently in that of modern India, both before and after the
achievement of Independence. To bring all this into focus has been
the main objective of this work. Part one of the book consists of
the texts of letters exchanged between Gandhi and Nehru and part
two shows the impact of the Gandhi-Nehru relationship on the
history of the Indian National Congress. Some of the moving
writings of Nehru on Gandhi after the latter's passing away,
showing Nehru's deep attachment to the master, follow. The
introduction not only sums up the materials in two parts, but also
discusses the impact of the Gandhi-Nehru relationship on the
history of India during the Nehru Era. The book will be of
tremendous interest to the general public as well as to scholars of
modern Indian history in general and of Gandhi and Nehru in
particular.
The fall of 2016 saw the release of the widely popular First World
War video game Battlefield 1. Upon the game's initial announcement
and following its subsequent release, Battlefield 1 became the
target of an online racist backlash that targeted the game's
inclusion of soldiers of color. Across social media and online
communities, players loudly proclaimed the historical inaccuracy of
black soldiers in the game and called for changes to be made that
correct what they considered to be a mistake that was influenced by
a supposed political agenda. Through the introduction of the
theoretical framework of the 'White Mythic Space', this book seeks
to investigate the reasons behind the racist rejection of soldiers
of color by Battlefield 1 players in order to answer the question:
Why do individuals reject the presence of people of African descent
in popular representations of history?
The history of travel has long been constructed and described
almost exclusively as a history of "European", male mobility,
without, however, explicitly making the gender and whiteness of the
travellers a topic. The anthology takes this as an occasion to
focus on journeys to Europe that gave "non-Europeans" the
opportunity to glance at "Europe" and to draw a picture of it by
themselves. So far, little attention has been paid to the questions
with which attributes these travellers endowed "Europe" and its
people, which similarities and differences they observed and which
idea(s) of "Europe" they produced. The focus is once again on
"Europe", but not as the starting point for conquests or journeys.
From a postcolonial and gender historical view, the anthology's
contributions rather juxtapose (self-)representations of "Europe"
with perspectives that move in a field of tension between
agreement, contradiction and oscillation.
In 1965, the United States invaded the Dominican Republic for the
third time. The invasion spurred waves of emigration and brought a
million and a half Dominicans and their uniquely complex ideas
about ethnic cultural identity to the United States. Often, those
ideas clashed with American cultural notions and caused a great
deal of unrecognized emotional trauma for Dominican immigrants.
This clash was particularly problematic for those who arrived in
the early 1960s before "identity" was a fashionable topic of
discussion. Although scholarship is now saturated with the issue of
ethnic cultural identity, there is a shortage of material about
Dominican Americans' specific experiences. This book examines one
Dominican American's developing self-knowledge about what it means
to have left the Dominican Republic as a child during a time of war
and to have arrived and grown up in an often hostile American
society. It describes and analyzes the cycle of loss, yearning,
recognition, and understanding, as framed by key cultural events
and experiences that mark the process of negotiating and
constructing a "Dominican American" identity in the diaspora.
This book analyzes the first of the vast popular uprisings in the
countries of Eastern Bloc-the revolt of West Bohemian City of
Pilsen against the currency reform on June 1, 1953. The text is the
first complex critical monograph on this topic. In the
methodological field the research is inspired by the theories of
so-called new social movements. Therefore, the book frames the
Pilsen revolt into the context of previous protest actions that had
taken place in the examined region after the establishment of
communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. Thus, the text deals with
all the conflicts occurred within the years 1948-1953. This method
enables the author to study several protest cultures which operated
on a long-term base in various parts of the society and which-each
of them in a different way-affected the course of the Pilsen
revolt. So, the work provides not only the detailed critical
description of June 1953 events but also their cultural genealogy.
The Second Nagorno-Karabakh war - fought between Armenia and
Azerbaijan between September 24 and November 10, 2020
face=Calibri>- was the first war in history won primarily by
unmanned systems. This 44-day war resulted in a decisive military
victory for Azerbaijan. Armenia was outfought, outnumbered, and
outspent and lost even though they controlled the high ground in a
mountainous region that favored traditional defense. Azerbaijan's
alliance with Turkey, and close technological support from Israel,
strategically isolated Armenia. In addition, Turkey's posturing
influenced the Russians not to intervene to support Armenia. That
Azerbaijan attacked Armenia during the pandemic was an additional
factor. The fact that Azerbaijan won the war is not extraordinary,
considering the correlation of forces arrayed against Armenia. What
is exceptional is that this was the first modern war primarily
decided by unmanned weapons. In this war the Turkish-made BAYRAKTAR
TB2 Unmanned Air Combat Vehicle (UCAV) and the Israeli-made HAROP
Loitering Munition (LM) dominated the fighting and provided
Azerbaijan with a war-winning advantage.
Year round on Martha's Vineyard Island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts,
residents and vacationers have played basketball-almost since the
game was invented. The Oak Bluffs summer league on the Island was
innovative, ethnically diverse, welcomed female players, and
fostered thousands of friendships. President Obama, NBA All-Star
Kyrie Irving, and Family Matters sitcom star Jaleel White have all
played basketball on Martha's Vineyard, as did future college
stars, authors, war heroes, and entrepreneurs. Their stories touch
current events from World War I through the Civil Rights
Movement-and even include the filming of the blockbuster Jaws.
Martha's Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of
Race and Class follows the rich history of basketball on the Island
and tells the stories of the players and coaches themselves. During
the heyday of Martha's Vineyard basketball in the 1970s and '80s,
the courts provided a place for friendships that looked past social
class and race-a unique situation given that nearby cities such as
Boston were sites of violent demonstrations against integration.
Original interviews with those who were there not only reveal the
racial dynamics on Martha's Vineyard, but also relate amusing
anecdotes of encounters with celebrities that include Charles
Lindbergh, James Cagney, Frank Sinatra, and future star James
Taylor. Martha's Vineyard Basketball reveals little-known aspects
of the Island, shares the realities and triumphs of residents and
vacationers alike, and demonstrates the unifying power of
basketball. New Englanders, basketball fans, and those interested
in race and class relations will all find this book a noteworthy
account of a singular place.
The United Nations in International History argues for a new way of
examining the history of this central global institution by
integrating more traditional diplomacy between states with new
trends in transnational and cultural history to explore the
organization and its role in 20th- and 21st-century history. Amy
Sayward looks at the origins of the U.N. before examining a range
of organizations and players in the United Nations system and
analysing its international work in the key arenas of diplomacy,
social & economic development programs, peace-keeping, and
human rights. This volume provides a concise introduction to the
broad array of international work done by the United Nations,
synthesizes the existing interdisciplinary literature, and
highlights areas in need of further research, making it ideal for
students and beginning researchers.
From the "Great Arab Revolt" against Ottoman rule in World War I to
the upheavals of the Arab Spring, this text analyzes a century of
modern Arab history through the lens of three intertwined notions:
the idea of a single Arab nation, the reality of multiple Arab
states, and the competition between them over both concrete and
symbolic interests. These concepts are presented against the
background of Great Power involvement in the region, regional
issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Iran-Iraq war, and
the rise of political Islam. The evolution of regional Arab
politics is examined from its infancy at the beginning of the 20th
century to the profound challenges posed by the upheavals of the
Arab Spring, and through the emergence of multiple Arab states
organized under the League of Arab States, the pan-Arab heyday of
Gamal Abdel Nasser between 1955 and 1967, and the subsequent
consolidation of a multi-polar Arab state system. This history
highlights the changing nature of modern Arab identity, the
achievements and shortcomings of Arab state formation processes,
and the influence of enduring communal, tribal, religious and
ethnic identities on the modern Arab order. Altogether, these
factors help explain contemporary Arab realities and why the Arab
nationalist dream of achieving power and prosperity in line with an
idealized image of the past, has proven elusive. This failure, in
turn, has fueled both the recent upheavals and limited the
prospects for successful outcomes. This broad and readable
synthesis covers the political, economic, social, and cultural
history of the Arab region. By reexamining what "being Arab" means
today, politically and culturally, it will be a valuable text to
students seeking to understand the modern Middle East.
Winston Churchill is a renowned historical figure, whose remarkable
political and military career continues to enthral. This book
consists of short, highly readable chapters on key aspects of
Churchill's career. Written by leading experts, the chapters draw
on documents from Churchill's extensive personal papers as well as
cutting-edge scholarship. Ranging from Churchill's youthful
statesmanship to the period of the Cold War, the volume considers
his military strategy during both World Wars as well as dealing
with the social, political and economic issues that helped define
the Churchillian era. Suitable for those coming to Churchill for
the first time, as well as providing new insights for those already
familiar with his life, this is a sparkling collection of essays
that provides an enlightening history of Churchill and his era.
The slow collapse of the European colonial empires after 1945
provides one of the great turning points of twentieth century
history. With the loss of India however, the British under Harold
Macmillan attempted to enforce a 'second' colonial occupation -
supporting the efforts of Sir Andrew Cohen of the Colonial Office
to create a Central African Federation. Drawing on newly released
archival material, The Politics and Economics of Decolonization in
Africa offers a fresh examination of Britain's central African
territories in the late colonial period and provides a detailed
assessment of how events in Britain, Africa and the UN shaped the
process of decolonization. The author situates the Central African
Federation - which consisted of modern day Zambia, Zimbabwe and
Malawi - in its wider international context, shedding light on the
Federation's complex relationships with South Africa, with US
Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy and with the
expanding United Nations. The result is an important history of the
last days of the British Empire and the beginnings of a more
independent African continent.
Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan offers a fresh perspective on
gender politics by focusing on the Japanese housewife of the 1950s
as a controversial representation of democracy, leisure, and
domesticity. Examining the shifting personae of the housewife,
especially in the appealing texts of women's magazines, reveals the
diverse possibilities of postwar democracy as they were embedded in
media directed toward Japanese women. Each chapter explores the
contours of a single controversy, including debate over the royal
wedding in 1959, the victory of Japan's first Miss Universe, and
the unruly desires of postwar women. Jan Bardsley also takes a
comparative look at the ways in which the Japanese housewife is
measured against equally stereotyped notions of the modern
housewife in the United States, asking how both function as
narratives of Japan-U.S. relations and gender/class containment
during the early Cold War.
In the wake of its defeat in World War II, as Japan was forced to
remake itself from "empire" to "nation" in the face of an uncertain
global situation, literature and literary criticism emerged as
highly contested sites. Today, this remarkable period holds rich
potential for opening new dialogue between scholars in Japan and
North America as we rethink the historical and contemporary
significance of a number of important issues, including the meaning
of the American occupation both inside and outside of Japan, the
shifting semiotics of "literature" and "politics," and the origins
of crucial ideological weapons of the cultural Cold War. This
collection features works by Japanese intellectuals written in the
immediate postwar period. These writings-many appearing in English
for the first time-offer explorations into the social, political,
and philosophical debates among Japanese literary elites that
shaped the country's literary culture in the aftermath of defeat.
Fighter Pilot's Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold
War details author and Professor Mary Lawlor's unconventional
upbringing in Cold War America. Memories of her early life-as the
daughter of a Marine Corps and then Army father-reveal the personal
costs of tensions that once gripped the entire world, and
illustrate the ways in which bold foreign policy decisions shaped
an entire generation of Americans, defining not just the ways they
were raised, but who they would ultimately become. As a kid on the
move she was constantly in search of something to hold on to, a
longing that led her toward rebellion, to college in Paris, and to
the kind of self-discovery only possible in the late 1960s. A
personal narrative braided with scholarly, retrospective
reflections as to what that narrative means, Fighter Pilot's
Daughter zooms in on a little girl with a childhood full of
instability, frustration and unanswered questions such that her
struggles in growth, her struggles, her yearnings and eventual
successes exemplify those of her entire generation. From California
to Georgia to Germany, Lawlor's family was stationed in parts of
the world that few are able to experience at so young an age, but
being a child of military parents has never been easy. She neatly
outlines the unique challenges an upbringing without roots presents
someone struggling to come to terms with a world at war, and a home
in constant turnover and turmoil. This book is for anyone seeking a
finer awareness of the tolls that war takes not just on a nation,
but on that nation's sons and daughters, in whose hearts and minds
deeper battles continue to rage long after the soldiers have come
home.
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