Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Americans call the Second World War "the Good War." But before it even began, America's ally Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens-and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war's end, German and Soviet killing sites fell behind the Iron Curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness. ? Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single story. With a new afterword addressing the relevance of these events to the contemporary decline of democracy, Bloodlands is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history and its meaning today.

This volume analyzes the effects of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 on the Baltic States and Eastern Europe. This Nazi-Soviet non-aggression treaty catapulted into worldwide consciousness this summer as a 370-mile human Freedom chain denied its legitimacy. Stretching across Baltic nation-states, the chain's human links proclaimed the password Freedom. Secret protocols contained in this Treaty led to fifty years of Soviet occupation. In the atmosphere of glasnost and peristroika, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians now demand restoration of their human and national rights and decolonization. While the news media focuses upon these events, this volume details the historical causes of the Treaty, its contemporary consequences, and its present day challenge.

With the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia put aside their ideological difference and practiced expedient politics. Eastern Europe and the Baltic States were partitioned into German and Russian spheres of influence. This fifty year old pact continues to effect the Baltic States. It focuses our attention sharply on the consequences of secret deals made without regard to national and human rights. On the frontline of Soviet defense, the Baltic challenge to the Soviet Union has worldwide implications. After decades of denying their existence, the Soviet Union in August, 1989, finally admitted that the secret protocols of 1939 were an historical fact. However, they continued to deny that the protocols had any bearing on the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union. As of this writing, it seems evident that notwithstanding the era of glasnost, the Soviet government still lacks the determination to state the truth: that the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania was an act of aggression, carried out against the will of sovereign peoples.

Tracing the monetary history of Europe, this study explores the impact of change in the availability and use of bullion, in the form of money, on the economic evolution of Europe. The Romans fostered economic prosperity through the accumulation of bullion and circulation of accredited currency. Over time, shortages of species rendered the Roman coinage worthless. As a result, commercial activities contracted, causing the breakdown of the Roman economic and political systems. Lack of liquidity in the early Middle Ages limited commercial activities, and promoted conditions sustaining dependency on land, thereby enabling feudalism to flourish. In the late 10th century, discovery of rich silver mines in Central Europe increased the circulation of coinage, promoting trade and demographic urbanization. The augmentation of silver resources continued to boost economic prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 14th century, decrease in mine output induced severe scarcity of bullion. Lack of currency caused the contraction of economic activities, leading to food shortages, famines, depopulation, and the eventual breakdown of the feudal economic order. Continuous shortage of bullion in the 15th century forced the reintroduction of barter trade and limited commercial activities. Scarcity of precious metals induced the Portuguese to venture into Africa. African gold provided them with the incentive and capital for expeditions of discovery to the East, but the lack of sufficient bullion prevented them from monopolizing the eastern trade. In the 16th century the influx of species from the mines of central Europe and America ended the European bullion famine and gave rise to economicprosperity.

In August 1941 Winston Churchill (1874-1965) and President Roosevelt (1882-1945) met secretly on HMS Prince of Wales, moored just off the coast of Newfoundland. H. V. Morton and Howard Spring (author of Fame is the Spur) were invited to accompany the Prime Minister and his entourage, a trip, which was not without its hazards. Only a handful of people knew Churchill had left Britain and in America the press merely reported that Roosevelt was enjoying a few days' away from Washington, fishing. The Prince of Wales set off from Scrabster on 4th August 1941 and reached her destination at Newfoundland on 9th August 1941. A routine was quickly established on board and the crew soon became used to the Prime Minister's timetable and requirements, especially his regular film nights. Together with the Prime Minister's bodyguard, Thompson, a number of key personnel accompanied Churchill on this mission, including Lord Beaverbrook who joined the ship by flying to Newfoundland's Placentia Bay. The Atlantic Treaty, whilst not achieving all that Churchill had hoped for, was a key document in the development of the war and post-war strategy.Churchill had hoped that at the resolution of the meeting America would join the war during the summer of 1941 but this was not to be. America did finally join the war in December 1941 following the Japanese attack on the US base at Pearl Harbour. H. V. Morton's account was not released for publication until 1943 and subsequently numerous documents have been made available at the National Archives. Atlantic Meeting is a unique account of the events leading up to Churchill's discussions with Roosevelt and a fascinating account of the practicalities - and occasionally humour - involved in such a perilous journey.

Tracing the interwoven traditions of modern welfare states in Europe over five centuries, Thomas McStay Adams explores social welfare from Portugal, France, and Italy to Britain, Belgium and Germany. He shows that the provision of assistance to those in need has faced recognizably similar challenges from the 16th century through to the present: how to allocate aid equitably (and with dignity); how to give support without undermining autonomy (and motivation); and how to balance private and public spheres of action and responsibility. Across two authoritative volumes, Adams reveals how social welfare administrators, critics, and improvers have engaged in a constant exchange of models and experience locally and across Europe. The narrative begins with the founding of the Casa da Misericordia of Lisbon in 1498, a model replicated throughout Portugal and its empire, and ends with the relaunch of a social agenda for the European Union at the meeting of the Council of Europe in Lisbon in 2000. Volume 1, which focuses on the period from 1500 to 1700, discusses the concepts of 'welfare' and 'tradition'. It looks at how 16th-century humanists joined with merchants and lawyers to renew traditional charity in distinctly modern forms, and how the discipline of religious reform affected the exercise of political authority and the promotion of economic productivity. Volume 2 examines 18th-century bienfaisance which secularized a Christian humanist notion of beneficence, producing new and sharply contested assertions of social citizenship. It goes on to consider how national struggles to establish comprehensive welfare states since the second half of the 19th century built on the power of the vote as politicians, pushed by activists and advised by experts, appealed to a growing class of industrial workers. Lastly, it looks at how 20th-century welfare states addressed aspirations for social citizenship while the institutional framework for European economic cooperation came to fruition

In the early 1800's, on a Hebridean beach in Scotland, the sea exposed an ancient treasure cache: 93 chessmen carved from walrus ivory. Norse netsuke, each face individual, each full of quirks, the Lewis Chessmen are probably the most famous chess pieces in the world. Harry played Wizard's Chess with them in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Housed at the British Museum, they are among its most visited and beloved objects. Questions abounded: Who carved them? Where? Ivory Vikings explores these mysteries by connecting medieval Icelandic sagas with modern archaeology, art history, forensics, and the history of board games. In the process, Ivory Vikings presents a vivid history of the 400 years when the Vikings ruled the North Atlantic, and the sea-road connected countries and islands we think of as far apart and culturally distinct: Norway and Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, and Greenland and North America. The story of the Lewis chessmen explains the economic lure behind the Viking voyages to the west in the 800s and 900s. And finally, it brings from the shadows an extraordinarily talented woman artist of the twelfth century: Margret the Adroit of Iceland.

This is the first comprehensive analysis of the royal and princely courts of Europe as important places of Enlightenment. The households of European rulers remained central to politics and culture throughout the eighteenth century, and few writers, artists, musicians, or scholars could succeed without establishing connections to ruling houses, noble families, or powerful courtiers. Covering case studies from Spain and France to Russia, and from Scandinavia and Britain to the Holy Roman Empire, the contributions of this volume examine how Enlightenment figures were integrated into the princely courts of the Ancien Regime, and what kinds of relationships they had with courtiers. Dangers and opportunities presented by proximity to court are discussed as well as the question of what rulers and courtiers gained from their interactions with Enlightenment men and women of letters. The book focusses on four areas: firstly, the impact of courtly patronage on Enlightenment discourses and the work as well as careers of Enlightenment writers; secondly, the court as an audience to be catered for by Enlightenment writers; thirdly, the function of Enlightenment narratives and discourses for the image-making of rulers and courtiers; and fourthly, the role the interaction of courtiers and Enlightenment writers played for the formulation of reform policies.

Kkarakatsanis analyzes the processes through which a stable, consolidated, and fully democratic regime was brought into existence in the 1970s and early 1980s in Greece. Focusing primarily on the roles played by political elites during and in the decade after the transition to democracy, she analyzes how Greece moved from a long history of political instability and elite disunity to a consolidated democratic regime to which all major political actors were loyal and committed.

Four distinct transformations which forged the consensual unity required to establish a stable and consolidated democratic regime in Greece are rigorously and systematically examined: First, the modernization of the right from a questionable commitment to democracy before the 1967 dictatorship to a fully democratic stance in the post- 1974 period; second, the moderation of the communist left, which went from engaging in anti-democratic oppositional tactics for much of its history to loyalty towards the new democratic regime; third, the moderation of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement which went from a seemingly semi-loyal stance in the formative years of the transition to one of full loyalty once in the government; and fourth, the transformation of the military's attitudes and behavior, which led it to retreat from political involvement and to submit itself to civilian control. Recognizing that elites do not act within a political vacuum, however, she also analyzes elite interaction while paying careful attention to the relevant social, cultural, and international contexts, and to the linkages between elites and their respective social and political groups. Of particular interest to scholars and other researchers involved with contemporary politics in Southern Europe as well as democratic consolidation, elites, and political parties.

A work delving into the end of the Romanov dynasty and the rise of the Bolsheviks by a foremost figure in the field of geopolitics in the early 20th century

For centuries the society and politics of Old Regime Europe relied on the strong connection between past, present, and future and on a belief in the unstoppable continuity of time. What happened during the eighteenth century when the Age of Revolutions claimed to cancel the previous social order and announced the dawn of a new era? This book explores how antiquarianism provided new political bodies with allegedly time-hallowed traditions and so served as a source of legitimacy for reshaping European politics. The love for antiquities forged a common language of political communication within a burgeoning public sphere. To understand why this happened, Marco Cavarzere focuses on the cultural debates taking place in the Italian states from 1748 until 1796. During this period, governments tried to establish regional "national cultures" through erudite scholarship, with the intent of creating new administrative and political centralization within individual Italian states. Meanwhile, other sectors of local societies used the tools of antiquarianism in order to offer a counter-narrative on these political reforms. Ultimately, this book proposes a localized way of reading antiquarian texts. Far from presenting timeless knowledge, erudition in fact gave voice to specific tensions which were linked to restricted political arenas and regional public opinion.

A work delving into the end of the Romanov dynasty and the rise of the Bolsheviks by a foremost figure in the field of geopolitics in the early 20th century

Commentaries of Caesar on the Gallic War. The original text reduced to the natural English order with a literal interlinear translation of the first seven books.

Commentaries of Caesar on the Gallic War. The original text reduced to the natural English order with a literal interlinear translation of the first seven books.

From the Occupy protests to the Black Lives Matter movement and school strikes for climate action, the twenty-first century has been rife with activism. Although very different from one another, each of these movements has created alliances across borders, with activists stressing that their concerns are not confined to individual nation states. In this book, Daniel Laqua shows that global efforts of this kind are not a recent phenomenon, and that as long as there have been borders, activists have sought to cross them. Activism Across Borders since 1870 explores how individuals, groups and organisations have fostered bonds in their quest for political and social change, and considers the impact of national and ideological boundaries on their efforts. Focusing on Europe but with a global outlook, the book acknowledges the importance of imperial and postcolonial settings for groups and individuals that expressed far-reaching ambitions. From feminism and socialism to anti-war campaigns and green politics, this book approaches transnational activism with an emphasis on four features: connectedness, ambivalence, transience and marginality. In doing so, it demonstrates the intertwined nature of different movements, problematizes transnational action, discusses the temporary nature of some alliances, and shows how transnationalism has been used by those marginalized at the national level. With a broad chronological perspective and thematic chapters, it provides historical context, clarifies terms and concepts, and offers an alternative history of modern Europe through the lens of activists, movements and campaigns.

Few philosophers are more often referred to and more often misunderstood than Machiavelli. He was truly a product of the Renaissance, and he was as much a revolutionary in the field of political philosophy as Leonardo or Michelangelo were in painting and sculpture. He watched his native Florence lose its independence to the French, thanks to poor leadership from the Medici successors to the great Lorenzo (Il Magnifico). Machiavelli was a keen observer of people, and he spent years studying events and people before writing his famous books. Descended from minor nobility, Machiavelli grew up in a household that was run by a vacillating and incompetent father. He was well educated and smart, and he entered government service as a clerk. He eventually became an important figure in the Florentine state but was defeated by the deposed Medici and Pope Julius II. He was tortured but eventually freed by the restored Medici. No longer employed, he retired to his home to write the books for which he is remembered. Machiavelli had seen the best and the worst of human nature, and he understood how the world operated. He drew his observations from life, and he was appropriately cynical in his writing, given what he had personally experienced. He was an outstanding writer, and his work remains fascinating nearly 500 years later.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, Western Europe witnessed the emergence of a 'mass' society. Grand social processes such as urbanisation, industrialisation and democratisation blurred the previous sharp distinctions that had divided society. This massive transformation is central to our understanding of modern society. Comparing the British and Dutch experience of mass society in the twentieth century, this book considers five major areas: politics, welfare, media, leisure and youth culture. In each section, two well-known specialists - one from each country - look at the conditions in the rise of a mass society, and show how there were distinctively British and Dutch conditions in the rise of a mass society. Drawing on history, cultural studies and sociology, the authors bring new insight into the development of modern European society.

The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world’s foremost political writers.

In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it?

It’s become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What’s more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy.

In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world’s most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray’s status as one of the world’s foremost political writers.