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Books > History > World history > From 1900
In the first five months of the Great War, one million men
volunteered to fight. Yet by the end of 1915, the British
government realized that conscription would be required. Why did so
many enlist, and conversely, why so few? Focusing on analyses of
widely felt emotions related to moral and domestic duty, "Juvenile
Nation" broaches these questions in new ways."Juvenile Nation"
examines how religious and secular youth groups, the juvenile
periodical press, and a burgeoning new group of child
psychologists, social workers and other 'experts' affected
society's perception of a new problem character, the 'adolescent'.
By what means should this character be turned into a 'fit' citizen?
Considering qualities such as loyalty, character, temperance,
manliness, fatherhood, and piety, Stephanie Olsen discusses the
idea of an 'informal education', focused on building character
through emotional control, and how this education was seen as key
to shaping the future citizenry of Britain and the Empire."Juvenile
Nation" recasts the militarism of the 1880s onwards as part of an
emotional outpouring based on association to family, to community
and to Christian cultural continuity. Significantly, the same
emotional responses explain why so many men turned away from active
militarism, with duty to family and community perhaps thought to
have been best carried out at home. By linking the historical study
of the emotions with an examination of the individual's place in
society, Olsen provides an important new insight on how a
generation of young men was formed.
This book details the evolution of General George Marshall's
relationship with the atomic bomb-including the Manhattan Project
and the use of atomic weapons on Japan-as it emerged as the
ultimate weapon of mass destruction. The atomic bomb is not only
the most powerful weapon ever used in the history of warfare: it is
also the most significant in terms of its long-term impact on U.S.
military power and policy, and as the reason behind the conflict
that raged for four decades without actually happening-the Cold
War. General George C. Marshall played an instrumental role in the
development and use of the atomic bomb in World War II as well as
in issues involving nuclear weapons in the post-World War II
period. This book tells the story of Marshall's experience with the
atomic bomb from his early skepticism of its effectiveness as a
weapon, to his oversight of its development and deployment against
Japan in World War II, to his recognition of the bomb as a weapon
of such dire consequence that it should never be used again.
Intended for a general audience as well as scholars with specific
knowledge about the subject matter, this book presents a cohesive
account of General Marshall's involvement with nuclear weapons and
atomic power as Army chief of staff during World War II and as
secretary of state and secretary of defense in the early years of
the Cold War. Marshall's involvement with the use of nuclear
weapons is set in the context of the Allies' efforts to force Japan
to surrender and the initiation of the Cold War. Readers will gain
insight into Marshall's quest for obtaining a Japanese surrender;
his views on the use of the atomic bomb on Japan versus the use of
conventional weapons, including fire bombing or poison gas; his
interactions with Roosevelt and Truman on nuclear issues; and
Marshall's diplomatic skillfulness in dealing with the issues
surrounding the control and use of nuclear weapons as secretary of
state and secretary of defense in the post-World War II era. These
included consideration of the use of the atomic bomb during the
Berlin crisis and the Korean war. Presents a clear and concise
narrative of Marshall's interactions with nuclear weapons, from his
appointment to President Roosevelt's advisory committee in 1941 to
his tenure as President Truman's secretary of defense in 1950
Documents Marshall's role in pulling together the financial,
material, and human resources required for the Manhattan Project as
well as his collaboration with Secretary of War Henry Stimson and
Manhattan Project leader General Leslie Groves to produce the
atomic bomb Derives an accurate account of Marshall's involvement
with nuclear weapons through official documents, his
correspondence, the opinions of his peers, and personal interviews
he granted later in his life
The war for colonial Africa
This very substantial book, written by the two South African
official correspondents on the campaign, narrates the expedition in
1914-15 which led to the conquest of German South-West Africa (the
region now known as Namibia). One author accompanied the Northern
Army and the other, the Southern Army. During the 19th century the
great powers of Europe raced to establish themselves in all corners
of the globe for colonisation, trade and political influence. In
the 'great scramble for Africa, ' the British and German empires
had established themselves, by degrees, in the east and west of the
continent. In the years before the outbreak of the First World War
these colonies existed, more or less, in harmony but once
hostilities erupted German and British settlers found themselves
living in very close proximity to hostile forces. The British had
the advantage of numbers since colonisation had long been a policy,
though the Germans compensated for this measure with the abilities
of their military commanders and the expertise and quality of their
European and locally raised troops. (South Africa itself entered
the fray, its forces led by commanders who a little over a decade
earlier had led the Boer burghers in their attempts to form a
nation independent of the British Empire.) This campaign of
mobility was fought in the searing heat of a desert region and was
often a 'tip and run affair' as mounted troops traversed huge
tracts of inhospitable terrain. Those interested in the First World
War often find it's 'side-show' theatres fascinating because they
differed so completely from the war of stalemate and attrition on
the Western Front. This is a very thorough and comprehensive book
written by competent authors who experienced the campaign at first
hand and were well qualified to record both their personal
impressions and an informed overview of the events they witnessed.
This edition of the text is liberally enhanced by the inclusion of
many photographs taken on the campaign.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
While the coerced human experiments are notorious among all the
atrocities under National Socialism, they have been marginalised by
mainstream historians. This book seeks to remedy the
marginalisation, and to place the experiments in the context of the
broad history of National Socialism and the Holocaust. Paul
Weindling bases this study on the reconstruction of a victim group
through individual victims' life histories, and by weaving the
victims' experiences collectively together in terms of different
groupings, especially gender, ethnicity and religion, age, and
nationality. The timing of the experiments, where they occurred,
how many victims there were, and who they were, is analysed, as are
hitherto under-researched aspects such as Nazi anatomy and
executions. The experiments are also linked, more broadly, to major
elements in the dynamic and fluid Nazi power structure and the
implementation of racial policies. The approach is informed by
social history from below, exploring both the rationales and
motives of perpetrators, but assessing these critically in the
light of victim narratives.
In this groundbreaking volume, based on extensive research in
Chinese archives and libraries, Jan Kiely explores the
pre-Communist origins of the process of systematic thought reform
or reformation (ganhua) that evolved into a key component of Mao
Zedong's revolutionary restructuring of Chinese society. Focusing
on ganhua as it was employed in China's prison system, Kiely's
thought-provoking work brings the history of this critical
phenomenon to life through the stories of individuals who
conceptualized, implemented, and experienced it, and he details how
these techniques were subsequently adapted for broader social and
political use.
In 1932 Bolivia and Paraguay went to war over the Chaco region in
South America. The war lasted three years and approximately 52,000
Bolivians and Paraguayans died. Moving beyond the battlefields of
the Chaco War, this volume highlights the forgotten narratives of
the war. Studying the environmental, ethnic, and social realities
of the war in both Bolivia and Paraguay, the contributors examine
the conflict that took place between 1932 and 1936 and explore its
relationship with and impact on nationalism, activism and
modernity. Beginning with an overview of the war, the book goes on
to explore many new approaches to the conflict, and the
contributors address topics such as the environmental challenges
faced by the forces involved, the role of indigenous peoples, the
impact of oil nationalism and the conflict's aftermath. This is a
volume that will be of interest to anyone working on modern Latin
America and the relationship between war and society.
Thomas Ware served in the Army from March 1968 until March 1971. He
served in Dau Tieng, Vietnam. This is an accounting of his time in
Vietnam and his ensuing life as a result of experiences. The
injustices of the American Military system.
Based on 70 hours of interviews with Franz Stangl, commandant of Treblinka (the largest of the extermination camps), this book bares the soul of a man who continually found ways to rationalize his role in Hitler's final soulution.
Escape from Corregidor is the harrowing account of Edgar Whitcomb,
a B-17 navigator who arrives in World War II Philippines just
before its invasion by the Japanese. Whitcomb evades the enemy on
Bataan by fleeing to Corregidor Island in a small boat. He is
captured but later manages to escape at night in an hours-long swim
to safety. Captured once again weeks later, Whitcomb is imprisoned,
tortured and starved, before being transferred to China and
eventual freedom.
The Communist Temptation: Rolland, Gide, Malraux, and Their Times
traces the evolution of the committed left-wing public intellectual
in the interwar period, specifically in the 1930s, and focuses on
leading left-wing intellectuals, such as Romain Rolland, Andre
Gide, and Andre Malraux, and their relationships with communism and
the broader anti-fascist movement. In that turbulent decade, Paris
also welcomed a growing number of Russian, Austrian, Italian,
Dutch, Belgian, German, and German-speaking Central European
refugees-activists, writers, and agents, among them Willi
Munzenberg, Mikhail Koltsov, Eugen Fried, Ilya Ehrenburg, Manes
Sperber, and Arthur Koestler-and Paris once again became a hotbed
of international political activism. Events, however, signaled a
decline in the high ethical standards set by Emile Zola and the
Dreyfusards earlier in the twentieth century, as many pro-communist
intellectuals acted in bad faith to support an ideology that they
in all likelihood knew to be morally bankrupt. Among them, only
Gide rebelled against Moscow, which caused ideological lines to
harden to the point where there was little room for critical reason
to assert itself.
Presidential Image has become an integral part of the campaign,
presidency and legacy of Modern American presidents. Across the
20th century to the age of Trump, presidential image has dominated
media coverage and public consciousness, winning elections, gaining
support for their leadership in office and shaping their reputation
in history. Is the creation of the presidential image part of a
carefully conceived public relations strategy or result of the
president's critics and opponents? Can the way the media interpret
a presidents' actions and words alter their image? And how much
influence do cultural outputs contribute to the construction of a
presidential image? Using ten presidential case studies. this
edited collection features contributions from scholars and
political journalists from the UK and America, to analyse aspects
of Presidential Image that shaped their perceived effectiveness as
America's leader, and to explore this complex, controversial, and
continuous element of modern presidential politics.
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