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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General
When this book was published in Japanese in 1982 it was awarded the prestigious Jiro Osaragi Prize. It is an important contribution to the understanding of the mental and spiritual world of Japan just over two generations ago. The author argues that just as the period of isolation up to the middle of the 19th century was crucial for Japan's development, so the Second World War represented another crucial period for the country. These years were a period of intellectual isolation during which significant development took place.
Saionji Kinmochi was an aristocrat, a scholar and a progressive liberal politician who twice occupied the highest political office in the nation and who, during three decades, as adviser to three Emperors, coordinated and directed Japanese politics. His long life encompassed the emergence of the modern Japanese state, the establishment of the constitution, the integration of Japan into the inter-war, international community and the creation, and subsequent erosion of the democratic process. The story of his twilight years chronicles the conflicts between the goals of liberalism and internationalism which dominated Japanese politics in the 1920s and the right-wing militarism which held sway in the years leading to the Pacific War. He was a central figure in the turbulent, formative period of Japan's political ideology.
This major new book offers a comparative survey of management, labour and productivity politics in twentieth century Europe. The authors detailed assessments of industrial and political campaigns to raise productivity growth in Britain, Germany and Sweden during this century. Ranging from explorations of the high politics of the nation state and the impact of the Marshall plan on the European countries, to careful assessments of the productivity struggles which took place in the coal mining and metal working industries of modern Europe, each of these essays provides a rich context for understanding the rise and fall of the social democratic project in the reconstruction of Western Europe. The contributors critically assess claims that workers' participation in economic decision-making was a natural feature of modern production, while also emphasising the significance of economic reforms which were enacted in the post-war years. Management, Labour and Industrial Politics in Modern Europe offers a deeper understanding of the performance of the European economies and the politics of reconstruction by combining an analysis of state initiatives with an examination of the strategies pursued by management and labour in the key sectors of European industry in these decades.
Not all of the responses to fascism in the English speaking world were hostile. With the aim of providing a representative sample, Routledge here re-issues Norman Hillson's I Speak of Germany. First published in 1937, this is an account of the author's travels in Germany, and is largely sympathetic to the changes wrought by the regime. Like others adopting a similar position, the author believes that the terms of the Versailles treatment put Germany in an impossible position, and that the Nazis had inspired a recovery. Racial politics, whilst not ignored, are not seen as being at the heart of the programme ? ?obsession of race purity maybe a little absurd and quite impractical of realization?.
The extent to which Jews were being actively persecuted in Germany through the 1930's was a hotly debated issue, with many apologists downplaying the centrality of race in Nazi ideology. This book, first published in 1939, provided a clear counter argument to this position. Based on official German publications and reliable external reports, it details the many methods adopted by the Nazi party against the Jews.
This series, for AS and A2, is tailored to Edexcel's new exam specification. Packed full of exam tips and activities, students can be sure they will develop all the historical skills and understanding they need.
The Holocaust was the defining trauma of the 20th century. How do we begin to understand the Nazi drive to murder millions of people, or the determination of concentration camp prisoners to survive? This new and improved edition of Sources of the Holocaust brings together over 90 original Holocaust documents and testimonies to put the reader into direct contact with the genocide's human participants. From the origins of Christian antisemitism and the creation of monstrous 'Others' to the immediate aftermath of these crimes against humanity and the rise of right-wing ideologies in the 21st century, this book is structured both chronologically and thematically in order to clearly explain the ideas that made the Holocaust possible, how people mounted resistance at the time, and the Holocaust's legacy today. On top of this unparalleled access to the voices of the Holocaust, Steve Hochstadt's authoritative and scholarly commentaries on each source ensures readers gain a comprehensive understanding of this terrible episode in human history. Shocking and compelling, this carefully curated collection of primary sources is the definitive account of Holocaust experiences and vital reading for all scholars of modern European history.
The Vietnam War was one of the most heavily documented conflicts of the twentieth century. Although the events themselves recede further into history every year, the political and cultural changes the war brought about continue to resonate, even as a new generation of Americans grapples with its own divisive conflict. America and the Vietnam War: Re-examining the Culture and History of a Generation reconsiders the social and cultural aspects of the conflict that helped to fundamentally change the nation. With chapters written by subject area specialists, America and the Vietnam War takes on subjects such as women's role in the war, the music and the films of the time, the Vietnamese perspective, race and the war, and veterans and post-traumatic stress disorder. Features include:
Heavily illustrated and welcoming to students and scholars of this infamous and pivotal time, America and the Vietnam War is a perfect companion to any course on the Vietnam War Era.
Neville Chamberlain, the Conservative Prime Minister who pursued the doomed policy of appeasing Hitler, is one of the most reinterpreted of modern British Prime Ministers. Infamous on account of his declaration of having achieved ?peace for our time?, Neville Chamberlain has often been portrayed as a social reformer out of sync with the times in which he lived. In this new biography, Nick Smart offers a picture conditioned more by the opinions of contemporaries than by hindsight, examining Chamberlain's life, career, achievements and failures. Stressing that the system in which Chamberlain found himself operating had more impact on the historical developments than anything he did personally, Smart describes a man who was hardworking but ultimately out of his depth, destined to be remembered in history as the fall-guy to Winston Churchill's hero. Presenting Chamberlain's life and politics in a nuanced way, Nick Smart's biography is a must read for anyone interested in British politics and its impact on the international stage.
Owing to its mass appeal, revolutionary and violent nature, strong political impact, and multiple reverberations in contemporary politics, fascism was one of the most complex, and hotly debated movements of the twentieth century. Comparative Fascist Studies: New Perspectives brings together some of the leading experts in the field in order to provide an informative introduction to the most recent debates on fascist studies and the history of fascism across Europe. In his general, analytical introduction Constantin Iordachi focuses on transnational approaches to fascism, briefly reviewing the comparative method and its application to fascist studies. Concentrating on the interwar period, the book is divided into three parts, offering a synoptic overview of the latest developments in the field, exploring different definitions of fascism, and grounding these theoretical debates in their historical context. The three parts correspond to distinct methods and levels of comparison. They focus on:
This Reader provides a sample of authoritative works that have revolutionized the field in the last two decades, supplemented by recent challenging reinterpretations of key aspects of fascism. Chapters include works by: Zeev Sternhell, George L Mosse, Stanley G. Payne, Roger Griffin, Roger Eatwell, Robert O. Paxton, Michael Mann, Aristotle A. Kallis, Ian Kershaw, Emilio Gentile, Richard Steigmann-Gall, and Constantin Iordachi. Each extract also has an introduction and annotations to guide the student through the complex arguments. This Reader is the perfect informative introduction into debates on comparative fascist studies.
The first war between China and Japan in 1894/95 was one of the most fateful events, not only in modern Japanese and Chinese history, but in international history as well. The war and subsequent events catapulted Japan on its trajectory toward temporary hegemony in East Asia, whereas China entered a long period of domestic unrest and foreign intervention. Repercussions of these developments can be still felt, especially in the mutual perceptions of Chinese and Japanese people today. However, despite considerable scholarship on Sino-Japanese relations, the perplexing question remains how the Japanese attitude exactly changed after the triumphant victory in 1895 over its former role model and competitor. This book examines the transformation of Japan's attitude toward China up to the time of the Russo-Japanese War (1904/5), when the psychological framework within which future Chinese-Japanese relations worked reached its erstwhile completion. It shows the transformation process through a close reading of sources, a large number of which is introduced to the scholarly discussion for the first time. Zachmann demonstrates how modern Sino-Japanese attitudes were shaped by a multitude of factors, domestic and international, and, in turn, informed Japan's course in international politics. Winner of the JaDe Prize 2010 awarded by the German Foundation for the Promotion of Japanese-German Culture and Science Relations
In Panama in Black, Kaysha Corinealdi traces the multigenerational activism of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians as they forged diasporic communities in Panama and the United States throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on a rich array of sources including speeches, yearbooks, photographs, government reports, radio broadcasts, newspaper editorials, and oral histories, Corinealdi presents the Panamanian isthmus as a crucial site in the making of an Afro-diasporic world that linked cities and towns like Colon, Kingston, Panama City, Brooklyn, Bridgetown, and La Boca. In Panama, Afro-Caribbean Panamanians created a diasporic worldview of the Caribbean that privileged the potential of Black innovation. Corinealdi maps this innovation by examining the longest-running Black newspaper in Central America, the rise of civic associations created to counter policies that stripped Afro-Caribbean Panamanians of citizenship, the creation of scholarship-granting organizations that supported the education of Black students, and the emergence of national conferences and organizations that linked anti-imperialism and Black liberation. By showing how Afro-Caribbean Panamanians used these methods to navigate anti-Blackness, xenophobia, and white supremacy, Corinealdi offers a new mode of understanding activism, community, and diaspora formation.
Prue Smith spent much of her childhood in South Africa but as soon as World War Two ended she moved to England. It was only after apartheid ended that she returned to her roots, grateful that victory was secure over centuries of oppression.
This book is an examination of the image of Chicago in American popular culture between the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and Chicago's 1968 Democratic National Convention.
A witty yet moving narrative worked up from sketched biographical fragments, 1913 is an intimate vision of a world that is about to change forever. The stuffy conventions of the nineteenth century are receding into the past, and 1913 heralds a new age of unlimited possibility. Kafka falls in love; Louis Armstrong learns to play the trumpet; a young seamstress called Coco Chanel opens her first boutique; Charlie Chaplin signs his first movie contract; and new drugs like cocaine usher in an age of decadence. Yet everywhere there is the premonition of ruin - the number 13 is omnipresent, and in London, Paris and Vienna, artists take the omen and act as if there were no tomorrow. In a Munich hotel lobby, Rilke and Freud discuss beauty and transience; Proust sets out in search of lost time; and while Stravinsky celebrates the Rite of Spring with industrial cacophony, an Austrian postcard painter by the name of Adolf Hitler sells his conventional cityscapes.
On 1 September 1909, a telegram from American explorer Frederick Cook caused perhaps the biggest sensation in polar exploration history. With no word from Cook for over a year and many assuming he was dead, here came the news that not only had he survived his Arctic expedition, but he had claimed one of the great prizes in exploration by becoming the first person to reach the North Pole. Cook was instantly transformed into one of the heroes of the age. And with his boat due to arrive in Copenhagen a few days later, the world's journalists scrambled to get there in time to meet him. One of those journalists was Philip Gibbs, a young reporter for the Daily Chronicle in London, who had a chance encounter in a Copenhagen cafe that led to him getting an exclusive interview with Cook before he reached land. But Gibbs left the interview doubting Cook's story, and so in his subsequent article he decided to gamble both his career and his reputation by making it clear he thought Cook might be lying. Gibbs's article made him the most unpopular man in Copenhagen, and marked the start of a frantic six days during which Copenhagen showered Cook with accolades while Gibbs tried to prove his claim was untrue. The Explorer and the Journalist is the story of the explorer who was determined to prove he really had reached the Pole, and the journalist who was convinced he was a fraud. It was a confrontation from which only one of them would emerge with his reputation intact...
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of events in 1956, that were a major turning point in the history of communist-ruled Eastern Europe, this book contains a selection of some of the most recent research on those momentous events and their memory and legacy.
"Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism" is the first historical study of the P.O.U.M. to appear in English. Drawing from his multi-volume work on the subject, which was published in Spanish and Catalan, Victor Alba has collaborated with Stephen Schwartz to produce a condensed and amplified study that is far more than a translation. Outside Spain, the political movement known as the Workers Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxist or P.O.U.M.) is chiefly known as the revolutionary group with which George Orwell fought during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. The events in which the P.O.U.M. found itself at the center of conflict between Iberian revolutionaries and Soviet interests remain a controversial topic for historians and other writers. This book presents a detailed picture of the organization and its main antecedent, the Workers' and Peasants' Bloc, in the context of a stimulating working class political culture. Those interested in Catalan history as well as historians of Western European Marxism and the Spanish Civil War will find this book useful. It will also be of interest to those concerned with Orwell and his experience in Spain. A fitting tribute to the P.O.U.M.'s great struggle against Stalinism, "Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism" will surely stand out among the array of books that have been published on the Spanish Civil War period as a definitive study.
In The People's Zion, Joel Cabrita tells the transatlantic story of Southern Africa's largest popular religious movement, Zionism. It began in Zion City, a utopian community established in 1900 just north of Chicago. The Zionist church, which promoted faith healing, drew tens of thousands of marginalized Americans from across racial and class divides. It also sent missionaries abroad, particularly to Southern Africa, where its uplifting spiritualism and pan-racialism resonated with urban working-class whites and blacks. Circulated throughout Southern Africa by Zion City's missionaries and literature, Zionism thrived among white and black workers drawn to Johannesburg by the discovery of gold. As in Chicago, these early devotees of faith healing hoped for a color-blind society in which they could acquire equal status and purpose amid demoralizing social and economic circumstances. Defying segregation and later apartheid, black and white Zionists formed a uniquely cosmopolitan community that played a key role in remaking the racial politics of modern Southern Africa. Connecting cities, regions, and societies usually considered in isolation, Cabrita shows how Zionists on either side of the Atlantic used the democratic resources of evangelical Christianity to stake out a place of belonging within rapidly-changing societies. In doing so, they laid claim to nothing less than the Kingdom of God. Today, the number of American Zionists is small, but thousands of independent Zionist churches counting millions of members still dot the Southern African landscape.
This book uses an innovative people-centered approach to the Kashmir problem to shed new light on why postcolonial partitions remain unfinished and why the wounds of postcolonial nation-state formation in South Asia continue to fester. "Kashmir" is viewed as a metaphor for the permanent internal wars of partition that mark the South Asian experience. Chapters sensitively bring Kashmiri voices to the fore to examine Kashmir in the national discourses of India and Pakistan, resistance in the Kashmiri imagination and the Kashmir conflict in a global context. The book foregrounds how the space of Kashmir as a cultural, historical and political sphere persists and continues to haunt the postcolonial national present as the people of Kashmir and their cultural, literary and artistic productions cannot be contained within the regnant paradigms of the nations across which the region is partitioned. Additionally, the book explores how long-term resolution would demand engagement with historical forces, political actors and social formations that exceed the nation-state. An important contribution to the study of this troubled region, this book will be of interest to academics and researchers of modern South Asian history and politics as well as comparative politics and international relations.
As the United States was drawn into the Second World War, pressure grew from a number of nations for India's independence. Prime Minister Churchill, in Britain's name, engaged deliberately in propaganda in the United States to persuade the American public and, through it, President Roosevelt that India should not be granted self-government at that time. Weigold adroitly unravels the reasons why this propaganda campaign was deemed necessary by Churchill, in the process, revealing the campaign's outcomes for nationalist Indians. In 1942 Sir Stafford Cripps went to India to offer limited self-government for the duration of the war. However, when negotiations between Churchill and his newly convened India Committee collapsed, the failure of the talks was publicized in the United States as a matter of Indian intransigence and not Britain's failure to negotiate-a spin of the news that critically affected public opinion. Relying upon extensive archival research, Weigold exposes the gap between Britain's propaganda account and both the official and unofficial records of the course the negotiations took. Weigold concludes that during the drafting, progress and planned failure of Cripps' Offer, this episode in the imperial endgame revolved around Churchill and Roosevelt, leaving Indian leaders without influence over their immediate political future.
These fourteen essays by leading Austrian historians and political scientists serve as a basic introduction to a small but sometimes trend-setting European country. They provide a basic up-to-date outline of Austria's political history, shedding light on economic and social trends as well. No European country has experienced more dramatic turning points in its twentieth-century history than Austria. This volume divides the century into three periods. The five essays of Section I deal with the years 1900-1938. Under the relative tranquility of the late Habsburg monarchy seethed a witch's brew of social and political trends, signaling the advent of modernity and leading to the outbreak of World War I and eventually to the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. The First Austrian Republic was one of the succession states that tried to build a nation against the backdrop of political and economic crisis and simmering civil war between the various political camps. Democracy collapsed in 1933 and an authoritarian regime attempted to prevail against pressures from Nazi Germany and Nazis at home. The two essays in Section II cover World War II (1938-1945). In 1938, Hitler's "Third Reich" annexed Austria and the population was pulled into the cauldron of World War II, fighting and collaborating with the Nazis, and also resisting and fleeing them. The seven essays of Section III concentrate on the Second Republic (1945 to the present). After ten years of four-power Allied occupation, Austria regained her sovereignty with the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. The price paid was neutrality. Unlike the turmoil of the prewar years, Austria became a "normal" nation with a functioning democracy, onebuilding toward economic prosperity. After the collapse of the "iron curtain" in 1989, Austria turned westward, joining the European Union in 1995. Most recently, with the advent of populist politics, Austria's political system has experienced a sea of change departing from its political economy of a huge state-owned sector and social partnership as well as Proporz. This informed and insightful volume will serve as a textbook in courses on Austrian, German and European history, as well as in comparative European politics.
The text represents a long journey in the debate that characterized the multifaceted political phenomenon of neofascism. From the end of the Second World War until the fall of the communist regimes, groups, parties and individuals have given life to a network of action and thought that has developed, above all, around three major themes that have characterized the thought of historical fascism and that we can find at different latitudes during the course of the long period of time under consideration. Racism, contempt for equality and democracy and an issue linked to the state as an element of modernity, these are the three levels of analysis around which the neofascist movement regroups, debates and acts. The meticulous reconstruction of that debate at a transnational level is the result of a long archival work with unpublished and illuminating papers on the issue of continuity between political cultures. The text can be easily read by students of Humanities and Social Sciences courses but it is also pleasant for fans of the subject.
This book analyzes the decay of Liberal politics in Spain as the regional version of the general crisis that engulfed most of Europe between 1916 and 1923. Romero enriches the important wider debate about this watershed period of European history when, in the face of unprecedented mass social protest and political mobilization, incumbent governing elites struggled to find a valid formula of social containment in the dawning of mass politics which also saw the spread of the radical new doctrines of Bolshevism and Fascism. Above all, this book examines Spain's "crisis of modernization," a process marked by complex social and political realignments through which the nature of civil society was profoundly altered. It resulted in an unprecedented spiral of violence and a polarization that firstly led to an authoritarian formula of social control in 1923, and ultimately to the outbreak of civil war in 1936. |
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