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Books > History > World history > From 1900
This book focuses on the generation of the sixties and seventies in
Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine, a milieu of writers who lived through the
Thaw and the processes of de-Stalinization and re-Stalinization.
Special attention is paid to KGB operations against what came to be
known as the dissident milieu, and the interaction of Ukrainians,
Jews, and Russians in the movement, their persona friendships,
formal and informal interactions, and the ways they dealt with
repression and arrests. This study demonstrates that the KGB
unintentionally facilitated the transnational and intercultural
links among the Kharkiv multi-ethnic community of writers and their
mutual enrichment. Post-Khrushchev Kharkiv is analyzed as a
political space and a place of state violence aimed at combating
Ukrainian nationalism and Zionism, two major targets in the
1960s-1970s. Despite their various cultural and social backgrounds,
the Kharkiv literati might be identified as a distinct bohemian
group possessing shared aesthetic and political values that emerged
as the result of de-Stalinization under Khrushchev. Archival
documents, diaries, and memoirs suggest that the 1960s-1970s was a
period of intense KGB operations, "active measures" designed to
disrupt a community of intellectuals and to fragment friendships,
bonds, and support among Ukrainians, Russians, and Jews along
ethnic lines domestically and abroad.
First published in 1990, Songs of the Doomed is back in print -- by popular demand! In this third and most extraordinary volume of the Gonzo Papers, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson recalls high and hideous moments in his thirty years in the Passing Lane -- and no one is safe from his hilarious, remarkably astute social commentary. With Thompson's trademark insight and passion about the state of American politics and culture, Songs of the Doomed charts the long, strange trip from Kennedy to Quayle in Thompson's freewheeling, inimitable style. Spanning four decades -- 1950 to 1990 -- Thompson is at the top of his form while fleeing New York for Puerto Rico, riding with the Hell's Angels, investigating Las Vegas sleaze, grappling with the "Dukakis problem," and finally, detailing his infamous lifestyle bust, trial documents, and Fourth Amendment battle with the Law. These tales -- often sleazy, brutal, and crude -- are only the tip of what Jack Nicholson called "the most baffling human iceberg of our time." Songs of the Doomed is vintage Thompson -- a brilliant, brazen, bawdy compilation of the greatest sound bites of Gonzo journalism from the past thirty years.
This new biography of Joseph R. McCarthy shows how the Wisconsin
Senator's campaign against American Communists prized sensation
above truth. McCarthy often put aside his hunt for Reds while he
pursued his anti-communist critics. He fought foes not just with
noisy accusations but with covert gossip. He was gullible enough
that some con artists managed to lure him on wild goose chases. The
man who charged others with being "dupes" was sometimes one
himself. Historian Fried's book builds on over a decade's research
in a multitude of sources, many of them newly opened--not just
McCarthy's own papers but those of forty-seven Senate colleagues,
plus records of journalists, observers, and activists. It brings to
light such theatrical episodes as a CIA "op" against McCarthy as
well as Joe's quixotic search for Soviet security chief Lavrenti
Beria in Spain. The resulting multi-focal perspective on the
political and institutional setting in which McCarthy operated with
such abandon is full of drama.
This book examines Sato Naotake's remarkable and long career at the
crossroads of Imperial Japan, emphasizing his integrity and
realistic approach to diplomacy, which were particularly evident in
his role in maintaining the Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union
and in promoting the United Nations.
The rock and roll music that dominated airwaves across the country
during the 1950s and early 1960s is often described as a triumph
for integration. Black and white musicians alike, including Chuck
Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis, scored
hit records with young audiences from different racial groups,
blending sonic traditions from R&B, country, and pop. This
so-called "desegregation of the charts" seemed particularly
resonant since major civil rights groups were waging major battles
for desegregation in public places at the same time. And yet the
centering of integration, as well as the supposition that
democratic rights largely based in consumerism should be available
to everyone regardless of race, has resulted in very distinct
responses to both music and movement among Black and white
listeners who grew up during this period. This book traces these
distinctions using archival research, musical performances, and
original oral histories to determine the uncertain legacies of the
civil rights movement and early rock and roll music in a supposedly
post-civil rights era.
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Hardcover
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R366
Discovery Miles 3 660
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