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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General
This book argues that Franklin D. Roosevelt's work-of which the New
Deal was a prime example-was rooted in a definitive political
ideology tied to the ideals of the Progressive movement and the
social gospel of the late 19th century. Roosevelt's New Deal
resulted in such dramatic changes within the United States that it
merits the label "revolutionary" and ranks with the work of
Washington and Lincoln in its influence on the American nation. The
New Deal was not simply the response to a severe economic crisis;
it was also an expression of FDR's well-developed political
ideology stemming from his religious ideas and his experience in
the Progressive movement of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Third American Revolution describes
the unfolding of his New Deal response to the crisis of the
Depression and chronicles the bitter conservative opposition that
resisted every step in the Roosevelt revolution. The author's
analysis of Roosevelt's political thought is supported by FDR's own
words contained in the key documents and various speeches of his
political career. This book also documents FDR's recognition of the
dangers to democracy from unresponsive government and identifies
his specific motivations to provide for the general welfare.
Provides a chronology of FDR's career Contains photographs of FDR
and New Deal moments as well as edited versions of FDR's documents
and speeches Includes a bibliography of works and documents cited
In this book, Judy Kutulas complicates the common view that the
1970s were a time of counterrevolution against the radical
activities and attitudes of the previous decade. Instead, Kutulas
argues that the experiences and attitudes that were radical in the
1960s were becoming part of mainstream culture in the 1970s, as
sexual freedom, gender equality, and more complex notions of
identity, work, and family were normalized through popular
culture--television, movies, music, political causes, and the
emergence of new communities. Seemingly mundane things like
watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show, listening to Carole King songs,
donning Birkenstock sandals, or reading Roots were actually
critical in shaping Americans' perceptions of themselves, their
families, and their relation to authority. Even as these cultural
shifts eventually gave way to a backlash of political and economic
conservatism, Kutulas shows that what critics perceive as the
narcissism of the 1970s was actually the next logical step in a
longer process of assimilating 1960s values like individuality and
diversity into everyday life. Exploring such issues as feminism,
sexuality, and race, Kutulas demonstrates how popular culture
helped many Americans make sense of key transformations in U.S.
economics, society, politics, and culture in the late twentieth
century.
The year is 1932. In Rome, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini
unveils a giant obelisk of white marble, bearing the Latin
inscription MVSSOLINI DVX. Invisible to the cheering crowds, a
metal box lies immured in the obelisk's base. It contains a few
gold coins and, written on a piece of parchment, a Latin text: the
Codex fori Mussolini. What does this text say? Why was it buried
there? And why was it written in Latin? The Codex, composed by the
classical scholar Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (1867-1960), presents a
carefully constructed account of the rise of Italian Fascism and
its leader, Benito Mussolini. Though written in the language of
Roman antiquity, the Codex was supposed to reach audiences in the
distant future. Placed under the obelisk with future excavation and
rediscovery in mind, the Latin text was an attempt at directing the
future reception of Italian Fascism. This book renders the Codex
accessible to scholars and students of different disciplines,
offering a thorough and wide-ranging introduction, a clear
translation, and a commentary elucidating the text's rhetorical
strategies, historical background, and specifics of phrasing and
reference. As the first detailed study of a Fascist Latin text, it
also throws new light on the important role of the Latin language
in Italian Fascist culture.
The disastrous Buffalo Creek Treaty of 1838 called for the Senecas'
removal to Kansas (then part of the Indian Territory). From this
low point, the Seneca Nation of Indians, which today occupies three
reservations in western New York, sought to rebound. Beginning with
events leading to the Seneca Revolution in 1848, which transformed
the nation's government from a council of chiefs to an elected
system, Laurence M. Hauptman traces Seneca history through the New
Deal. Based on the author's nearly fifty years of archival
research, interviews, and applied work, Coming Full Circle shows
that Seneca leaders in these years learned valuable lessons and
adapted to change, thereby preparing the nation to meet the
challenges it would face in the post-World War II era, including
major land loss and threats of termination. Instead of emphasizing
American Indian decline, Hauptman stresses that the Senecas were
actors in their own history and demonstrated cultural and political
resilience. Both Native belief, in the form of the Good Message of
Handsome Lake, and Christianity were major forces in Seneca life;
women continued to play important social and economic roles despite
the demise of clan matrons' right to nominate the chiefs; and
Senecas became involved in national and international competition
in long-distance running and in lacrosse. The Seneca Nation also
achieved noteworthy political successes in this period. The Senecas
resisted allotment, and thus saved their reservations from breakup
and sale. They recruited powerful allies, including attorneys,
congressmen, journalists, and religious leaders. They saved their
Oil Spring Reservation, winning a U.S. Supreme Court case against
New York State on the issue of taxation and won remuneration in
their Kansas Claims case. These efforts laid the groundwork for the
Senecas' postwar endeavor to seek compensation before the Indian
Claims Commission and pursuit of a series of land claims and tax
lawsuits against New York State.
The Rarefied Air of the Modern examines technology, modern
identity, and history-making in Peru by telling the story of the
surprising success of Peruvian pilots in European aviation
competitions in 1910, and how their achievements generated great
optimism that this new technology could lift the country out of its
self-perceived backwardness. Though poor infrastructure, economic
woes, a dearth of technical expertise, and a ghastly number of
pilot deaths slowed the project after the first flights over Lima
in 1911, the image of intrepid Peruvian pilots inspired a new sense
of national possibility. Airplanes seemed to embody not just
technological progress but enlightened rationality, capitalist
enterprise, and nation-state aggrandizement. By 1928, three
commercial lines were transporting passengers, mail, and
merchandise from Lima to other parts of the country and South
America. This exploration of the fitful development of Peruvian
aviation illuminates how a Eurocentric modernizing vision has
served as a powerful organizing force in regions with ambivalent
relationships to the West. More broadly, it underscores the
important role that technology plays in larger, complex historical
processes. Even as politicians, businessmen, military officials,
journalists, and ruling oligarchs felt a special kinship with
Peru's aviation project, diverse socioeconomic groups engaged
aviation to challenge power asymmetries and historical silences
rooted in Peru's postcolonial past. Most observers at the time
considered airplanes a "universal" technology that performed the
same function in Europe, the United States, and Peru. In reality,
how Peruvians mobilized and understood airplanes reflected
culturally specific values and historical concerns.
In this revised edition of A Short History of the Spanish Civil
War, Julian Casanova tells the gripping story of the Spanish Civil
War. Written in elegant and accessible prose, the book charts the
most significant events and battles alongside the main players in
the tragedy. Casanova provides answers to some of the pressing
questions (such as the roots and extent of anticlerical violence)
that have been asked in the 70 years that have passed since the
painful defeat of the Second Republic. Now with a revised
introduction, Casanova offers an overview of recent
historiographical shifts; not least the wielding of the conflict to
political ends in certain strands of contemporary historiography
towards an alarming neo- Francoist revisionism. It is the ideal
introduction to the Spanish Civil War.
Vladimir Burtsev and the Struggle for a Free Russia examines the
life of the journalist, historian and revolutionary, Vladimir
Burtsev. The book analyses his struggle to help liberate the
Russian people from tsarist oppression in the latter half of the
19th century before going on to discuss his opposition to
Bolshevism following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Robert
Henderson traces Burtsev's political development during this time
and explores his movements in Paris and London at different stages
in an absorbing account of an extraordinary life. At all times
Vladimir Burtsev and the Struggle for Free Russia sets Burtsev's
life in the wider context of Russian and European history of the
period. It uses Burtsev as a means to discuss topics such as
European police collaboration, European prison systems,
international diplomatic relations of the time and Russia's
relationship with Europe specifically. Extensive original archival
research and previously untranslated Russian source material is
also incorporated throughout the text. This is an important study
for all historians of modern Russia and the Russian Revolution.
Traveling in Europe in August 1938, one year before the outbreak of
World War II, David Kurtz, the author's grandfather, captured three
minutes of ordinary life in a small, predominantly Jewish town in
Poland on 16 mm Kodachrome colour film. More than seventy years
later, through the brutal twists of history, these few minutes of
home-movie footage would become a memorial to an entire community,
an entire culture that was annihilated in the Holocaust. Three
Minutes in Poland traces Glenn Kurtz's remarkable four year journey
to identify the people in his grandfather's haunting images. His
search takes him across the United States to Canada, England,
Poland, and Israel. To archives, film preservation laboratories,
and an abandoned Luftwaffe airfield. Ultimately, Kurtz locates
seven living survivors from this lost town, including an eighty six
year old man who appears in the film as a thirteen year old boy.
Painstakingly assembled from interviews, photographs, documents,
and artifacts, Three Minutes in Poland tells the rich, funny,
harrowing, and surprisingly intertwined stories of these seven
survivors and their Polish hometown. Originally a travel souvenir,
David Kurtz's home movie became the sole remaining record of a
vibrant town on the brink of catastrophe. From this brief film,
Glenn Kurtz creates a riveting exploration of memory, loss, and
improbable survival, a monument to a lost world.
This book discusses WWI-era music in a historical context,
explaining music's importance at home and abroad during WWI as well
as examining what music was being sung, played, and danced to
during the years prior to America's involvement in the Great War.
Why was music so important to soldiers abroad during World War I?
What role did music-ranging from classical to theater music, rags,
and early jazz-play on the American homefront? Music of the First
World War explores the tremendous importance of music during the
years of the Great War-when communication technologies were
extremely limited and music often took the place of connecting
directly with loved ones or reminiscing via recorded images. The
book's chapters cover music's contribution to the war effort; the
variety of war-related songs, popular hits, and top recording
artists of the war years; the music of Broadway shows and other
theater productions; and important composers and lyricists. The
author also explores the development of the fledgling recording
industry at this time. Provides an excellent resource for students
investigating music during the First World War as well as for
adults interested in WWI-era history or music of the pre-twenties
Documents the variety of reasons songs were sung by soldiers in
wartime-to cheer themselves up, boost courage, poke fun at or
stimulate hatred of their enemies, or express grievances or protest
against the war or against authority Covers stage music of the WWI
era, including music hall (British), vaudeville, revues, operettas,
and musicals
This book explores the diverse ways in which Holocaust
representations have influenced and structured how other genocides
are understood and represented in the West. Rebecca Jinks focuses
in particular on the canonical 20th century cases of genocide:
Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Using literature, film,
photography, and memorialisation, she demonstrates that we can only
understand the Holocaust's status as a 'benchmark' for other
genocides if we look at the deeper, structural resonances which
subtly shape many representations of genocide. Representing
Genocide pursues five thematic areas in turn: how genocides are
recognised as such by western publics; the representation of the
origins and perpetrators of genocide; how western witnesses
represent genocide; representations of the aftermath of genocide;
and western responses to genocide. Throughout, the book
distinguishes between 'mainstream' and other, more nuanced and
engaged, representations of genocide. It shows how these mainstream
representations - the majority - largely replicate the
representational framework of the Holocaust, including the way in
which mainstream Holocaust representations resist recognising the
rationality, instrumentality and normality of genocide, preferring
instead to present it as an aberrant, exceptional event in human
society. By contrast, the more engaged representations - often, but
not always, originating from those who experienced genocide - tend
to revolve around precisely genocide's ordinariness, and the
structures and situations common to human society which contribute
to and become involved in the violence.
Best known to Americans as the ""singing cowboy,"" beloved
entertainer Gene Autry (1907-1998) appeared in countless films,
radio broadcasts, television shows, and other venues. While Autry's
name and a few of his hit songs are still widely known today, his
commitment to political causes and public diplomacy deserves
greater appreciation. In this innovative examination of Autry's
influence on public opinion, Michael Duchemin explores the various
platforms this cowboy crooner used to support important causes,
notably Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and foreign policy
initiatives leading up to World War II. As a prolific performer of
western folk songs and country-western music, Autry gained
popularity in the 1930s by developing a persona that appealed to
rural, small-town, and newly urban fans. It was during this same
time, Duchemin explains, that Autry threw his support behind the
thirty-second president of the United States. Drawing on a wealth
of primary sources, Duchemin demonstrates how Autry popularized
Roosevelt's New Deal policies and made them more attractive to the
American public. In turn, the president used the emerging motion
picture industry as an instrument of public diplomacy to enhance
his policy agendas, which Autry's films, backed by Republic
Pictures, unabashedly endorsed. As the United States inched toward
entry into World War II, the president's focus shifted toward
foreign policy. Autry responded by promoting Americanism, war
preparedness, and friendly relations with Latin America. As a
result, Duchemin argues, ""Sergeant Gene Autry"" played a unique
role in making FDR's internationalist policies more palatable for
American citizens reluctant to engage in another foreign war. New
Deal Cowboy enhances our understanding of Gene Autry as a western
folk hero who, during critical times of economic recovery and
international crisis, readily assumed the role of public diplomat,
skillfully using his talents to persuade a marginalized populace to
embrace a nationalist agenda. By drawing connections between
western popular culture and American political history, the book
also offers valuable insight concerning the development of leisure
and western tourism, the information industry, public diplomacy,
and foreign policy in twentieth-century America.
What began in spring 2020 as local protests in response to the
killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police quickly exploded into
a massive nationwide movement. Millions of mostly young people
defiantly flooded into the nation's streets, demanding an end to
police brutality and to the broader, systemic repression of Black
people and other people of color. To many observers, the protests
appeared to be without precedent in their scale and persistence.
Yet, as the acclaimed historian Elizabeth Hinton demonstrates in
America on Fire, the events of 2020 had clear precursors-and any
attempt to understand our current crisis requires a reckoning with
the recent past. Even in the aftermath of Donald Trump, many
Americans consider the decades since the civil rights movement in
the mid-1960s as a story of progress toward greater inclusiveness
and equality. Hinton's sweeping narrative uncovers an altogether
different history, taking us on a troubling journey from Detroit in
1967 and Miami in 1980 to Los Angeles in 1992 and beyond to chart
the persistence of structural racism and one of its primary
consequences, the so-called urban riot. Hinton offers a critical
corrective: the word riot was nothing less than a racist trope
applied to events that can only be properly understood as
rebellions-explosions of collective resistance to an unequal and
violent order. As she suggests, if rebellion and the conditions
that precipitated it never disappeared, the optimistic story of a
post-Jim Crow United States no longer holds. Black rebellion,
America on Fire powerfully illustrates, was born in response to
poverty and exclusion, but most immediately in reaction to police
violence. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson launched the "War on
Crime," sending militarized police forces into impoverished Black
neighborhoods. Facing increasing surveillance and brutality,
residents threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at officers, plundered
local businesses, and vandalized exploitative institutions. Hinton
draws on exclusive sources to uncover a previously hidden geography
of violence in smaller American cities, from York, Pennsylvania, to
Cairo, Illinois, to Stockton, California. The central lesson from
these eruptions-that police violence invariably leads to community
violence-continues to escape policymakers, who respond by further
criminalizing entire groups instead of addressing underlying
socioeconomic causes. The results are the hugely expanded policing
and prison regimes that shape the lives of so many Americans today.
Presenting a new framework for understanding our nation's enduring
strife, America on Fire is also a warning: rebellions will surely
continue unless police are no longer called on to manage the
consequences of dismal conditions beyond their control, and until
an oppressive system is finally remade on the principles of justice
and equality.
This book provides a comprehensive study of English police
constables walking the beat in the early part of the twentieth
century. Joanne Klein has mined a rich seam of archival evidence to
present a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of these
working-class men. The book explores how constables influenced law
enforcement and looks at the changing nature of policing during
this period. 'This book is greatly to be welcomed. Based on
research from little-known provincial police archives, it provides
a major addition to our knowledge of working-class life and work in
general, and the life and work of the English police officer in
particular. It explores police relations with the public, the
varied arrangements of the Bobby's domestic life, and the
vicissitudes of his working life from the moment that he first put
his uniform on, to when he finally took it off as a result of
death, dismissal, resignation or retirement. The book is just what
good history should be - well-researched, persuasively argued and a
pleasure to read.' Professor Clive Emsley, Open University. 'This
is an excellent book. It is well-written and extremely interesting,
filling a gap in an historical literature, which is dominated by
official and institutional perspectives, by illuminating the daily
and working lives of constables.' Professor Lucinda McCray Beier,
Appalachian State University
Born into poverty in Russian Poland in 1911, Zosa Szajkowski
(Shy-KOV-ski) was a self-made man who managed to make a life for
himself as an intellectual, first as a journalist in 1930s Paris,
and then, after a harrowing escape to New York in 1941, as a
scholar. Although he never taught at a university or even earned a
PhD, Szajkowski became one of the world's foremost experts on the
history of the Jews in modern France, publishing in Yiddish,
English, and Hebrew. His work opened up new ways of thinking about
Jewish emancipation, economic and social modernization, and the
rise of modern anti-Semitism. But beneath Szajkowski's scholarly
success lay a shameful secret. In the aftermath of the Holocaust,
the scholar stole tens of thousands of archival documents related
to French Jewish history from public archives and private synagogue
collections in France and moved them, illicitly, to New York.
There, he used them as the basis for his pathbreaking articles.
Eventually, he sold them, piecemeal, to American and Israeli
research libraries, where they still remain today. Why did this
respectable historian become an archive thief? And why did
librarians in the United States and Israel buy these materials from
him, turning a blind eye to the signs of ownership they bore? These
are the questions that motivate this gripping tale. Throughout, it
is clear that all involved-perpetrator, victims, and buyers-saw
what Szajkowski was doing through the prism of the Holocaust. The
buyers shared a desire to save these precious remnants of the
European Jewish past, left behind on a continent where six million
Jews had just been killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. The
scholars who read Szajkowski's studies, based largely on the
documents he had stolen, saw the treasures as offering an
unparalleled window into the history that led to that catastrophe.
And the Jewish caretakers of many of the institutions Szajkowski
robbed in France saw the losses as a sign of their difficulties
reconstructing their community after the Holocaust, when the
balance of power in the Jewish world was shifting away from Europe
to new centers in America and Israel. Based on painstaking
research, Lisa Leff reconstructs Szajkowski's story in all its
ambiguity by taking us backstage at the archives, revealing the
powerful ideological, economic and scientific forces that made
Holocaust-era Jewish scholars care more deeply than ever before
about preserving the remnants of their past.
In this analysis of the life of Arnost Frischer, an influential
Jewish nationalist activist, Jan Lanicek reflects upon how the
Jewish community in Czechoslovakia dealt with the challenges that
arose from their volatile relationship with the state authorities
in the first half of the 20th century. The Jews in the Bohemian
Lands experienced several political regimes in the period from 1918
to the late 1940s: the Habsburg Empire, the first democratic
Czechoslovak republic, the post-Munich authoritarian Czecho-Slovak
republic, the Nazi regime, renewed Czechoslovak democracy and the
Communist regime. Frischer's involvement in local and central
politics affords us invaluable insights into the relations and
negotiations between the Jewish activists and these diverse
political authorities in the Bohemian Lands. Vital coverage is also
given to the relatively under-researched subject of the Jewish
responses to the Nazi persecution and the attempts of the exiled
Jewish leadership to alleviate the plight of the Jews in occupied
Europe. The case study of Frischer and Czechoslovakia provides an
important paradigm for understanding modern Jewish politics in
Europe in the first half of the 20th century, making this a book of
great significance to all students and scholars interested in
Jewish history and Modern European history.
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