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Books > History > World history > From 1900
Concentrating on the politics of the Habsburg Monarchy's
self-proclaimed "cultural mission" in occupied Bosnia in the period
from 1878 to the outbreak of war in 1914, Taming Balkan Nationalism
addresses two related issues: the impact of "Europeanization" in a
backward society and the crystallization of the identities which
have since dominated Bosnian life.
On the basis of wide reading in the Austrian, Hungarian, and south
Slav sources, including the Hungarian-language papers of the two
leading administrators of Bosnia, Benjamin von Kallay and Istvan
Burian, Robin Okey provides fresh and wide-ranging perspectives on
a whole range of issues, including the "Orientalist" assumptions of
Austrian policy, the struggle of administrators for the moral high
ground with nascent Serb and Croat intelligentsias, Kallay's
controversial policy of the "Bosnian nation," and the strategy and
personality of the intriguing Burian. He also opens up the hitherto
unexplored background to student terrorism in the secondary schools
of pre-1914 Bosnia, from which the assassin of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand was to emerge.
Beyond this immediate historical context, the book also sheds much
light on wider issues such as the construction of Serb and Croat
nationhood in Bosnia, the beginnings of the Europeanization of
Bosnian Muslims, and the new divisions created by the rapid pace of
social, economic, and intellectual change as the nineteenth turned
into the twentieth century.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, is often remembered
as a pliant instrument of American power during the Cold War. In
this book Roham Alvandi offers a revisionist account of the shah's
relationship with the United States by examining the partnership he
forged with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. Based
on extensive research in the British and U.S. archives, as well as
a wealth of Persian-language diaries, memoirs and oral histories,
this study restores agency to the shah as an autonomous
international actor and suggests that Iran evolved from a client to
a partner of the United States under the Nixon Doctrine. Nixon,
Kissinger, and the Shah offers a detailed account of three key
historical episodes in the Nixon-Kissinger-Pahlavi partnership that
shaped the global Cold War far beyond Iran's borders. First, the
book examines the emergence of Iranian primacy in the Persian Gulf
as the Nixon administration looked to the shah to fill the vacuum
created by the British withdrawal from the region in 1971. Then it
turns to the peak of the partnership after Nixon and Kissinger's
historic 1972 visit to Iran, when the shah succeeded in drawing the
United States into his covert war against Iraq in Kurdistan.
Finally, the book focuses on the decline of the partnership under
Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, through a history of the failed
negotiations from 1974 to 1976 for an agreement on U.S. nuclear
exports to Iran. Taken together, these three episodes map the rise
of the fall of Iran's Cold War partnership with the United States
during the decade of superpower detente, Vietnam, and Watergate.
Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa carefully
examines US policy towards the southern African region between
1974, when Portugal granted independence to its colonies of Angola
and Mozambique, and 1984, the last full year of the Reagan
administration's Constructive Engagement approach. It focuses on
the role of Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, the key facilitator
of international diplomacy towards the dangerous neighborhood
surrounding his nation. The main themes include the influence of
race, national security, economics, and African agency on
international relations during the height of the Cold War. Andy
DeRoche focuses on key issues such as the civil war in Angola, the
fight against apartheid, the struggle for Namibia's independence,
the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, and bilateral US/ Zambian
relations. The approach is traditional diplomatic history based on
archival research in Zambia and the USA as well as interviews with
key players such as Kaunda, Mark Chona, Siteke Mwale, Vernon
Mwaanga, Chester Crocker, and Frank Wisner. The result offers an
important new insight into the nuances of US policy toward southern
Africa during the hottest days of the Cold War.
Making the Best of Things is a record of the experiences of its
author, Len Williams, over a period of more than thirty years. His
narrative opens with a vivid and engaging memoir of childhood and
adolescence in Camberwell during the 1910s and early 1920s, and
culminates in a personal and anecdotal history of the Second World
War, during which he served with the Auxiliary Fire Service and
with an RAF Maintenance Unit (60 MU) based in Yorkshire and other
parts of England. The central chapters are concerned with the
changing fortunes of the Williams family during the 1920s and
1930s, offering an evocative account of the era of the Depression
from the perspective of one who toiled, with little hope of
advancement, as part of London's army of shopworkers. Williams
presents these memoirs as a candid history of his family, and more
particularly as his testimony with regard to an extraordinary and
disturbing family secret uncovered in the wake of his father's
death. The scope of the work quickly broadens, however, to form a
rich and detailed panorama of his surroundings in Camberwell, one
that pays special attention to the places he knew intimately,
including Stobart Mansions, Kimpton Mission, the United Kingdom Tea
Company and the Camberwell Green branch of the Royal Arsenal
Cooperative Society. Making the Best of Things is a meticulous and
absorbing recreation of a lost world, offering masterful
descriptions of the rituals and routines of ordinary life as
Williams knew it, as well as first-hand accounts of many of the
more momentous episodes in London's history, including Zeppelin
raids, Armistice Night, the General Strike and the Blitz. This new
edition, which collects these memoirs into a single volume for the
first time, features editorial notes, an index, and a series of
appendices relating to Williams's father and other members of his
family. Making the Best of Things is also copiously illustrated
with photographs and maps.
This book is open access and available on
www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.
Greg Burgess's important new study explores the short life of the
High Commission for Refugees (Jewish and Other) Coming from
Germany, from its creation by the League of Nations in October 1933
to the resignation of High Commissioner, James G. McDonald, in
December 1935. The book relates the history of the first stage of
refugees from Germany through the prism of McDonald and the High
Commission. It analyses the factors that shaped the Commission's
formation, the undertakings the Commission embarked upon and its
eventual failure owing to external complications. The League of
Nations and the Refugees from Nazi Germany argues that, in spite of
the Commission's failure, the refugees from Nazi Germany and the
High Commission's work mark a turn in conceptions of international
humanitarian responsibilities when a state defies standards of
proper behaviour towards its citizens. From this point on, it was
no longer considered sufficient or acceptable for states to respect
the sovereign rights of another if the rights of citizens were
being violated. Greg Burgess discusses this idea, amongst others,
in detail as part of what is a crucial volume for all scholars and
students of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and modern Jewish history.
How can we understand what caused World War I? What role did
Germany play? This book encourages us to re-think the events that
led to global conflict in 1914.Historians in recent years have
argued that German leaders acted defensively or pre-emptively in
1914, conscious of the Reich's deteriorating military and
diplomatic position. Germany and the Causes of the First World War
challenges such interpretations, placing new emphasis on the idea
that the Reich Chancellor, the German Foreign Office and the Great
General Staff were confident that they could win a continental war.
This belief in Germany's superiority derived primarily from an
assumption of French decline and Russian weakness throughout the
period between the turn of the century and the eve of the First
World War. Accordingly, Wilhelmine policy-makers pursued offensive
policies - at the risk of war at important junctures during the
1900s and 1910s.The author analyses the stereotyping of enemy
states, representations of war in peacetime, and conceptualizations
of international relations. He uncovers the complex role of ruling
elites, political parties, big business and the press, and contends
that the decade before the First World War witnessed some critical
changes in German foreign policy. By the time of the July crisis of
1914, for example, the perception of enemies had altered, with
Russia - the traditional bugbear of the German centre and left -
becoming the principal opponent of the Reich. Under these changed
conditions, German leaders could now pursue their strategy of
brinkmanship, using war as an instrument of policy, to its logical
conclusion.
From the St. Lawrence to the Yser With the 1st Canadian
Brigade
by Frederic C. Curry
"Crumps"-the Plain Story of a Canadian Who Went
by Louis Keen
Two first hand accounts in one value edition
When the First World War broke out, the view of the British Empire
by those who built it, colonised it and spread its influence over
the globe was that of a strong closely bonded family held together
by common origin and purpose. There could be little doubt that the
peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries would
quickly rally to a flag they considered their own as readily as
they had done in the past-particularly during the war in South
Africa just a decade and a half previously. These young,
enthusiastic, mostly citizen armies were comprised in the main of
the flower of the country's young manhood. In Canada these first
came from the members of the Canadian Militia, though such was the
demand to 'do ones bit' that this was quickly absorbed by
quantities of volunteers from the community at large eager to take
up arms in the service of the 'mother country.' These two first
accounts concern men of the First Canadians who join, train, sail
to Europe and throw themselves into the early battles with the
German Army in Belgium and France. They make absorbing reading as
perspectives of the infantry war from the Canadian viewpoint and
represent great value in this special two-in-one edition. Available
in softcover and hardback with dustwrapper.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the slogan "The Arsenal of
Democracy" to describe American might during the grim years of
World War II. The man who financed that arsenal was his Secretary
of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr. This is the first book to
focus on the wartime achievements of this unlikely hero--a dyslexic
college dropout who turned himself into a forceful and efficient
administrator and then exceeded even Roosevelt in his determination
to defeat the Nazis.
Based on extensive research at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, NY,
author Peter Moreira describes Morgenthau's truly breathtaking
accomplishments: He led the greatest financial program the world
has ever seen, raising $310 billion (over $4.8 trillion in today's
dollars) to finance the war effort. This was largely done without
the help of Wall Street by appealing to the patriotism of the
average citizen through the sale of war bonds. In addition, he
championed aid to Britain before America entered the war; initiated
and oversaw the War Refugee Board, spearheading the rescue of
200,000 Jews from the Nazis; and became the architect of the 1944
Bretton Woods Conference, which produced the modern economic
paradigm.
The book also chronicles Morgenthau's many challenges, ranging from
anti-Semitism to the postwar "Morgenthau Plan" that was his
undoing.
This is a captivating story about an understated and often
overlooked member of the Roosevelt cabinet who played a pivotal
role in the American war effort to defeat the Nazis.
Her memoirs cover the pre WWII period of the 1930's in her birth
country, Bulgaria and her growing up in the German and Russian
cultures of her parents and that of Bulgaria. The uprooting of her
family because of WWII and subsequent events tells of the
increasing horrors and dislocations not only of her family but that
of countless others.
John Lucas has dedicated his nearly half-century of academic life
at Penn State University to researching and writing about his first
love of sport, track and field, and the Olympics. He has attended
every Summer Olympics since the 1960 Rome Games and has written
several books, including 'Future of the Olympic Games.' From his
over 200 monographs and articles, Lucas has selected a score of his
articles written since 1953 for this anthology. They cover the
range of his academic interests. (Hardcover) "In 1962, six years
before I first met him, John Lucas defended his doctoral
dissertation at the University of Maryland on "Pierre de Coubertin
and the Formative Years of the Modern Olympic Movement." Almost a
half century later, following 8 books and some 250 scholarly
articles on Olympic history, comes this book, "The Best of John
Lucas," compiled by the world's doyen of seriously researched,
thoroughly documented, and passionately written Olympic history. As
I have done, enjoy " (Dr. Robert Barney, founder of OLYMPICA: THE
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC STUDIES and past-president of the
North American Society for Sport History.)
Stacy Bannerman's husband, Lorin was a 43-year-old Sergeant First
Class in the reserve army who had never thought he'd be called upon
to wage war, but in October 2003 he was called to active duty as an
Infantry Mortar Platoon Sergeant. He had completed his duty and
commitment to the U.S. Army as of 22 June, 2004, but due to
President Bush's Stop Loss order, he was on the war's front-lines
until at least April 2005. Stacy Bannerman has a unique vantage
point for writing "When The War Came Home". On the one hand, she is
like the many thousands of women left behind while their reservist
husbands and partners are sent to fight in Iraq - for as
ill-equipped as their husbands are to wage war, the families left
behind are often even less equipped to cope. On the other hand,
Stacy Bannerman has the singular viewpoint of being a high-profile
career peace activist, who ultimately finds herself at odds with
her husband fighting on the front lines of Iraq in one of the most
dangerous assignments in the Army. Bannerman describes the
countdown to her husband's deployment, and documents her ongoing
struggle to reconcile her anti-war sentiments with the need to
support and honor her husband for the choice he made and for the
risks he's taking for his country.
Myths of the Cold War: Amending Historiographic Distortions
provides a corrective for the distortions and omissions of many
previous domestic and foreign (including Russian) studies of the
Cold War, especially those published since 2000. The "present
interest" motivation in Weeks's analysis is gaining a clear
understanding of the bi-polar, $4 trillion, nuclear-war-threatening
standoff that lasted over 40 years after World War II until the
demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. Without such knowledge and
understanding of this dangerous conflict, any future encounter of
the cold-war type with another nation-state is liable to be
construed in confusing ways just as the U.S.-Soviet Cold War was.
The consequence of such misunderstanding in the historiographic
sense as well as in policy-making at the highest level is that the
populations of the contending powers will have distorted
conceptions of the reasons for the confrontation. The result of
this, in turn, is skewed tendentiousness that masks concrete,
underlying causes of intense inter-state contention. Practical
benefits thus flow from an unprejudiced analysis of the past Cold
War with Communist Russia. This understanding can help prevent a
future conflict, such as one with Communist China, which some
reputed sinologists are currently predicting, as well as one with
post-Soviet Russia. Conversely, if a new cold war is imposed on the
West, a clearer understanding of the post-World War II archetypical
Cold War will be edifying.
From the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 through the years
immediately after the collapse of the World Trade Center and
Pentagon in 2001, and within the administrations of George H. W.
Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush, soldiers' lives
underwent enormous changes. Without the benefit of national
conscription, these professionals, nurtured on stories of World War
II, Korea, and Vietnam, experienced repetitive tours of duty in one
combat zone after another to an extent the warriors of earlier eras
could never have imagined. They fought every kind of war during
this period; high-intensity mechanized war, air and heliborne
raids, peace-keeping activities, urban combat, counter-insurgency
operations, refugee support, and counter-narcotics operations. What
makes the story of this era's soldiers all the more compelling is
that these activities took place as the American military actually
decreased its military strength during the period, leading to more
and longer tours of duty. Some of the operations and issues covered
in this volume include: The "Be All That You Can Be Soldier" with
new roles for men and women and with new technology to learn The
Persian Gulf 1990-91, with Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm
Interventions, War, and Insurgency after Desert Storm The book also
includes a timeline to put dates and events in better perspective;
a comprehensive, topically arranged bibliography; and a thorough
index.
The revolutionary year of 1958 epitomizes the height of the social
uprisings, military coups, and civil wars that erupted across the
Middle East and North Africa in the mid-twentieth century. Amidst
waning Anglo-French influence, growing US-USSR rivalry, and
competition and alignments between Arab and non-Arab regimes and
domestic struggles, this year was a turning point in the modern
history of the Middle East. This multi and interdisciplinary book
explores this pivotal year in its global, regional and local
contexts and from a wide range of linguistic, geographic, academic
specialties. The contributors draw on declassified and multilingual
archives, reports, memoirs, and newspapers in thirteen
country-specific chapters, shedding new light on topics such as the
extent of Anglo-American competition after the Suez War, Turkey's
efforts to stand as a key pillar in the regional Cold War, the
internationalization of the Algerian War of Independence, and Iran
and Saudi Arabia's abilities to weather the revolutionary storm
that swept across the region. The book includes a foreword from
Salim Yaqub which highlights the importance of Jeffrey G. Karam's
collection to the scholarship on this vital moment in the political
history of the modern middle east.
Ireland, 1919: When Sinn Fein proclaims Dail Eireann the parliament
of the independent Irish republic, London declares the new assembly
to be illegal, and a vicious guerilla war breaks out between
republican and crown forces. Michael Collins, intelligence chief of
the Irish Republican Army, creates an elite squad whose role is to
assassinate British agents and undercover police. The so-called
'Twelve Apostles' will create violent mayhem, culminating in the
events of 'Bloody Sunday' in November 1920. Bestselling historian
Tim Pat Coogan not only tells the story of Collins' squad, he also
examines the remarkable intelligence network of which it formed a
part, and which helped to bring the British government to the
negotiating table.
The German Empire was founded in January 1871 not only on the basis
of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's "blood and iron" policy but also
with the support of liberal nationalists. Under Bismarck and Kaiser
Wilhelm II, Germany became the dynamo of Europe. Its economic and
military power were pre-eminent; its science and technology,
education, and municipal administration were the envy of the world;
and its avant-garde artists reflected the ferment in European
culture. But Germany also played a decisive role in tipping
Europe's fragile balance of power over the brink and into the
cataclysm of the First World War, eventually leading to the
empire's collapse in military defeat and revolution in November
1918.
With contributions from an international team of twelve experts in
the field, this volume offers an ideal introduction to this crucial
era, taking care to situate Imperial Germany in the larger sweep of
modern German history, without suggesting that Nazism or the
Holocaust were inevitable endpoints to the developments charted
here.
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