The city of Belfast tends to be discussed in terms of its distinctiveness from the rest of Ireland, an industrial city in an agricultural country. However, when compared with another 'British' industrial port such as Bristol it is the similarities rather than the differences that are surprising. When these cities are compared with Dublin, the contrasts become even more painfully evident. This book seeks to explore these contrasting urban centres at the start of the twentieth century.

Hitler's 'thousand-year Reich' lasted barely longer than twelve brief and inglorious years, and yet had an impact on millions of ordinary lives scarcely comparable with any other episode in modern European history. Nazi Germany examines the origins and development of Nazism, the establishment of the dictatorship and the impact on Germany's economy, society and culture of the regime's single-minded drive towards war and genocide. The view from above, reflected in the movement's ideology, policy and legislation is complemented by the many, often conflicting, views from below, as described in the reports smuggled out of Germany by Socialist dissidents or overheard by the regime's spies and policemen. Tim Kirk depicts a society divided, where most were initially wary of Hitler and sceptical about his party and its promises, and where even enthusiastic admirers quickly became disgruntled; but where the majority complied and few were inclined to oppose or resist the regime, or its brutalities, until disillusionment set in and the prospect of defeat was imminent. Approachable and authoritative, this is an essential introduction to one of the most significant periods in German, and modern European, history.

Explore the Lives and Relationship of Two Great Leaders: Churchill and Roosevelt! Two captivating manuscripts in one book: - Winston Churchill: A Captivating Guide to the Life of Winston S. Churchill - Franklin Roosevelt: A Captivating Guide to the Life of FDR Any general biography of Churchill and Roosevelt will provide an overview of their greatest achievements, but Winston and Franklin had other goals and desires that are often ignored and forgotten. What were they? They both had a family-a childhood and children of their own-and a phenomenal political career. This book will examine their relationship as well as their individual lives.

Utilizing a wealth of British diplomatic records and other sources this study offers fresh insights into the whole period of US political and economic domination in Cuba from 1898 until the eventful early period of the Cuban Revolution after 1959, when the hitherto close USa "Cuban relationship fell apart. It investigates two British attempts to agree a commercial treaty with Cuba, and the contentious sales of arms and Leyland buses before and after the Fidel Castro-led Revolution. The book outlines Britain's economic decline through two world wars, but also the country's importance as a second market for Cuban sugar and cigar exports. It demonstrates how British governments and diplomats in Havana sought to protect their interests in Cuba, including railway and insurance companies, always sensitive to the reactions of the United States a " a vital transatlantic ally with a significant stake in the Caribbean island.

The Kingfish and the Constitution is an in-depth analysis of the poisonous relationship that evolved between Huey "Kingfish" Long, legendary governor of Louisiana, and the state's daily newspapers. Long's political battle over the newspaper tax in the Louisiana legislature in 1934 and the subsequent battle over the constitutionality of his attempt at censorship by taxation culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grosjean v. American Press Co. in 1936, a landmark decision that laid the basis for the protection of modern freedom of the press in America. This fascinating study will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, constitutional law, and American history.

Ellis Wasson offers one of the first comprehensive studies of the European ruling class during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Distilling a wealth of recent research, Wasson analyses the role of aristocracy in modern times, focusing on the tensions that exist between egalitarian values and the way elites shape society. Wasson explodes myths and jettisons stereotypes in sweeping coverage that takes the story from the Congress of Vienna to Stalingrad. The study recounts the change from the genteel world of court balls to Cafe Society and finally on to Eurotrash. It also contrasts the paradox of continued aristocratic social power and cultural leadership with the gradual decline in their political authority. Aristocracy and the Modern World covers key topics, such as: - the fabulous wealth of the great magnates - the relationship between servants and masters - interaction with the middle classes - concepts of honour - culture, recreation and gender - local authority and national power. Lively and authoritative, the book reviews developments in Scandinavia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France, Italy and Spain as well as in Britain, Germany and Russia. It is essential reading for all those with an interest in modern European history.

This collection offers a timely opportunity to re-examine both the coherence of the concept of an 'early Enlightenment', and the specific contribution of natural law theories to its formation. It reassesses the work of major thinkers such as Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Malebranche, Pufendorf and Thomasius, and evaluates the appeal and importance of the discourse of natural jurisprudence both to those working inside conventional educational and political structures and to those outside.

As Americans moved from farms and small towns to large cities, they tended to lose a hallmark of their earlier life: comparatively direct participation in the discourse of pragmatic affairs. The ubiquitous radio, which became a primary medium of communication during the Great Depression, tended to make Americans listeners more than speakers about important issues. Nevertheless, as the economic catastrophe of the time evoked desires in people to express their hopes and fears for the future, Americans nevertheless tended to be reticent. They instead bestowed leadership on speakers who articulated those hopes and fears on their behalf--particularly orators who effectively utilized radio. Possessed with the ability to deliver speeches exceptionally well and to phrase ideas so eloquently as to be admired by listeners, Father Charles E. Coughlin emerged as that surrogate spokesperson for many Americans. Moreover, because the medium of radio endowed his discourse with a credibility enhanced by his own ethos, he emerged as a persuader who fulfilled the mass media role known as opinion leadership. He also capitalized on the inherent advantages of orality as a significant factor that influenced how people responded to the myriad messages of the vast communication mosaic in which Americans lived at the onset of the electronic age. Father Coughlin exemplifies that speaker who achieves the role of an opinion leader in contemporary society.

At Home in the Institution examines space and material culture in asylums, lodging houses and schools in Victorian and Edwardian England, and explores the powerful influence of domesticity on all three institutional types.

Exploring the role of museums, galleries and curators during the upheaval of the Second World War, this book challenges the accepted view of a hiatus in museum services during the conflict and its immediate aftermath. Instead it argues that new thinking in the 1930s was realised in a number of promising initiatives during the war only to fail during the fragmented post-war recovery. Based on new research including interviews with retired museum staff, letters, diaries, museum archives and government records, this study reveals a complex picture of both innovation and inertia. At the outbreak of war precious objects were stored away and staff numbers reduced, but although many museums were closed, others successfully campaigned to remain open. By providing innovative modern exhibitions and education initiatives they became popular and valued venues for the public. After the war, however, museums returned to their more traditional, collections-centred approach and failed to negotiate the public funding needed for reconstruction based on this narrower view of their role. Hence, in the longer term, the destruction and economic and social consequences of the conflict served to delay aspirations for reconstruction until the 1960s. Through this lens, the history of the museum in the mid-twentieth century appears as one shaped by the effects of war but equally determined by the input of curators, audiences and the state. The museum thus emerges not as an isolated institution concerned only with presenting the past but as a product of the changing conflicts and cultures within society.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a uniquely reluctant and distinctly German Lutheran revolutionary. In this volume, the author, an Anglican priest and historian, argues that Bonhoeffer's powerful critique of Germany's moral derailment needs to be understood as the expression of a devout Lutheran Protestant. Bonhoeffer gradually recognized the ways in which the intellectual and religious traditions of his own class - the Bildungsburgertum - were enabling Nazi evil. In response, he offered a religiously inspired call to political opposition and Christian witness-which cost him his life. The author investigates Bonhoeffer's stance in terms of his confrontation with the legacy of Hegelianism and Neo-Rankeanism, and by highlighting Bonhoeffer's intellectual and spiritual journey, shows how his endeavor to politicially reeducate the German people must be examined in theological terms.

Incorporating selective papers from a successful conference organised by The Polish Society, this book presents challenging and frequently revisionist views on a variety of controversial themes relating to the interwar Polish Republic, including its struggle over Upper Silesia, the question of national identity and its ethnic minorities, the significance of the Battle of Warsaw, the role of the press and its defence preparations in 1939. The volume thus makes a contribution to scholarly debate of a crucial period in Poland's recent history.

This book presents an original new history of the most important conflict in European affairs during the 1930s, prior to the events that produced World War II the Spanish Civil War. It describes the complex origins of the conflict, the collapse of the Spanish Republic, and the outbreak of the only mass worker revolution in the history of Western Europe. Stanley Payne explains the character of the Spanish revolution and the complex web of republican politics, while also examining in detail the development of Franco's counterrevolutionary dictatorship. Payne gives attention to the multiple meanings and interpretations of war and examines why the conflict provoked such strong reactions in its own time, and long after. The book also explains the military history of the war and its place in the history of military development, the non-intervention policy of the democracies, and the role of German, Italian, and Soviet intervention, concluding with an analysis of the place of the war in European affairs and in comparative perspective of revolutionary civil wars of the twentieth century."

Drawing on new primary source evidence, this volume evaluates ancient Rome's influence on an English intellectual tradition from the 1850s to the 1920s as politicians, scientists, economists and social reformers addressed three fundamental debates of the period - Empire, Nation, and City. These debates emerged as a result of political, economic and social change both in the Empire and Britain, and coalesced around issues of degeneracy, morality, and community. As ideas of political freedom were subsumed by ideas of civilization, best preserved by technocratic governance, the political and historical focus on Republican Rome was gradually displaced by interest in the Imperial period of the Roman emperors. Moreover, as the spectre of the British Empire and Nation in decline increased towards the turn of the nineteenth century, the reception of Imperial Rome itself was transformed. By the 1920s, following the end of World War I, Imperial Rome was conjured into a new framework echoing that of the British Empire and appealing to the surging nationalistic mood.

Shin Kanemaru (1914-1996) served as a key power broker at the national level in Japan from the 1970s until the early 1990s. He was at the heart of the '1955 system' of conservative political rule. Though never Prime Minister himself, he controlled or strongly influenced the administrations of five Japanese Prime Ministers.

During the interwar years France experienced severe political polarization. At the time many observers, particularly on the left, feared that the French right had embraced fascism, generating a fierce debate that has engaged scholars for decades, but has also obscured critical changes in French society and culture during the 1920s and 1930s. This collection of essays shifts the focus away from long-standing controversies in order to examine various elements of the French right, from writers to politicians, social workers to street fighters, in their broader social, cultural, and political contexts. It offers a wide-ranging reassessment of the structures, mentalities, and significance of various conservative and extremist organizations, deepening our understanding of French and European history in a troubled yet fascinating era.

"There are suggestive and interesting contributions ... Historians of modern France and historians interested in the cultural aspects of war will find much to engage with in this stimulating collection." . French History

France experienced four major conflicts in the fifty years between 1914 and 1964: two world wars, and the wars in Indochina and Algeria. In each the role of myth was intricately bound up with memory, hope, belief, and ideas of nation. This is the first book to explore how individual myths were created, sustained, and used for purposes of propaganda, examining in detail not just the press, radio, photographs, posters, films, and songs that gave credence to an imagined event or attributed mythical status to an individual, but also the cultural processes by which such artifacts were disseminated and took effect.

Reliance on myth, so the authors argue, is shown to be one of the most significant and durable features of 20th century warfare propaganda, used by both sides in all the conflicts covered in this book. However, its effective and useful role in time of war notwithstanding, it does distort a population's perception of reality and therefore often results in defeat: the myth-making that began as a means of sustaining belief in France's supremacy, and later her will and ability to resist, ultimately proved counterproductive in the process of decolonization."

"Waging a counterinsurgency war and justified by claims of 'an agreement between Guatemala and God, ' Guatemala's Evangelical Protestant military dictator General Rios Montt incited a Mayan holocaust: over just 17 months, some 86,000 mostly Mayan civilians were murdered. Virginia Garrard-Burnett dives into the horrifying, bewildering murk of this episode, the Western hemisphere's worst twentieth-century human rights atrocity. She has delivered the most lucid historical account and analysis we yet possess of what happened and how, of the cultural complexities, personalities, and local and international politics that made this tragedy. Garrard-Burnett asks the hard questions and never flinches from the least comforting answers. Beautifully, movingly, and clearly written and argued, this is a necessary and indispensable book."
-- Francisco Goldman, author of The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?
"Virginia Garrard-Burnett's Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit is impressively researched and argued, providing the first full examination of the religious dimensions of la violencia - a period of extreme political repression that overwhelmed Guatemala in the 1980s. Garrard-Burnett excavates the myriad ways Christian evangelical imagery and ideals saturated political and ethical discourse that scholars usually treat as secular. This book is one of the finest contributions to our understanding of the violence of the late Cold War period, not just in Guatemala but throughout Latin America."
--Greg Grandin, Professor of History, New York University
Drawing on newly-available primary sources including guerrilla documents, evangelical pamphlets, speech transcripts, and declassified US government records, Virginia Garrard-Burnett provides aa fine-grained picture of what happened during the rule of Guatelaman president-by-coup Efrain Rios Montt. She suggests that three decades of war engendered an ideology of violence that cut not only vertically, but also horizontally, across class, cultures, communities, religions, and even families. The book examines the causality and effects of the ideology of violence, but it also explores the long duree of Guatemalan history between 1954 and the late 1970s that made such an ideology possible. More significantly, she contends that self-interest, willful ignorance, and distraction permitted the human rights tragedies within Guatemala to take place without challenge from the outside world."

During the decade of the 1940s Greece experienced harsh German/Italian/Bulgarian occupation, the emergence of a powerful resistance movement and civil war between communist and nationalists. This critical period in the country's modern history is graphically illustrated through contemporary documents, many of them translated from Greek, many of them difficult to access. This annotated documentary collection, which is prefaced by a substantial introduction, affords a penetrating insight into the history of the 1940s from a variety of perspectives.

Who is this Vladimir Putin? Who is this man who suddenly--overnight and without warning--was handed the reigns of power to one of the most complex, formidable, and volatile countries in the world? How can we trust him if we don't know him?
"First Person" is an intimate, candid portrait of the man who holds the future of Russia in his grip. An extraordinary compilation of over 24 hours of in-depth interviews and remarkable photographs, it delves deep into Putin's KGB past and explores his meteoric rise to power. No Russian leader has ever subjected himself to this kind of public examination of his life and views. Both as a spy and as a virtual political unknown until selected by Boris Yeltsin to be Prime Minister, Putin has been regarded as man of mystery. Now, the curtain lifts to reveal a remarkable life of struggles and successes. Putin's life story is of major importance to the world.

Centred on the dramatic premiership of Terence O'Neill, Northern Ireland at the Crossroads examines the most hopeful decade for Ulster Unionism this century. O'Neill's bold ambition to reach out to catholics inspired optimism but also massive political instability. Though concerned with the drama and personalities of high politics, this book has much to say on popular attitudes in one of the world's most politicised societies. New light is shed on Paisleyism, discrimination and the civil rights movement.

***AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4*** A beautifully written exploration of the world of Edwardian folk music, and its influence on the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams In January 1905 the young Vaughan Williams, not yet one of England's most famous composers, visited King's Lynn, Norfolk, to find folk songs 'from the mouths of the singers'. He had started collecting in earnest little more than a year before but was now obsessed with saving these indigenous tunes before they were lost forever. An old fisherman, James 'Duggie' Carter, performed 'The Captain's Apprentice', a brutal tale of torture sung to the most beautiful tune the young composer had ever heard. The Captain's Apprentice is the story of how this mysterious song 'opened the door to an entirely new world of melody, harmony and feeling' for Vaughan Williams. With this transformational moment at its heart, the book traces the contrasting lives of the well-to-do composer and a forgotten King's Lynn cabin boy who died at sea, and brings fresh perspectives on Edwardian folk-song collectors, the singers and their songs. While exploring her own connections to folk song, via a Hebridean ancestor, a Scottish ballad learnt as a child and memories of family sing-songs, the author makes the unexpected discovery that Vaughan Williams has been a hidden influence on her musical life from the beginning - an experience she shares with generations of twentieth-century British schoolchildren. Published for Vaughan Williams's 150th birthday in August, this evocative, sensitive look at the great composer will also be read on BBC Radio 4. 'Her gift is a work of love and infinite care' KEGGIE CAREW, author of Dadland 'I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and its weaving of biography, social history and folk song' STEVE ROUD, author of Folk Song in England

Resilient Europe is a study of European history. It analyzes the evolution of Europe from Bismarck's 2nd Reich to the re-unification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Empire in Europe and the emergence of the European community as one of the major powers on the world stage.