![]() |
![]() |
Your cart is empty |
||
Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General
This volume presents elite conflicts and political controversies in China from 1895 to 1978 as rooted in two diametrically opposed visions of leadership and political authority: a radical, charismatic model that instills absolute authority in the single leader whose "will" guides the polity and whose "word" is the basis of policy formulation, versus an institutional model in which authority inheres in organization and where "collective" leadership and decision-making govern the political realm. The former model in modern Chinese history entailed a "leader principle" and personality cult that began with Sun Yatsen and Chiang Kaishek in the Nationalist Party (KMT) and reached its peak with the leadership cult of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Mao Zedong, especially during the 1966-1976 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The latter model with its emphasis on "collective leadership" (jiti lingdao) and "administrative rationalism" began as a reaction among early members of the CCP against the promotion of the Sun and Chiang leadership cults and became a central governing principle in the Communist Party that served as official leadership doctrine beginning with the formation of the Party in 1921. While tensions over leadership issues were relatively muted in the pre-1949 period and early 1950s of CCP history as an apparent "compromise" was reached in which from 1943 onward a cult of the leader was promoted for propaganda purposes but with collegial decision-making governing inner Party decision-making, the mid-to-late 1950s saw this "compromise" among the top leadership come under increasing strain and finally break down. Devoted to a fundamentally different vision of a "socialist" China from other top leaders on a number of economic, social, and political fronts, Mao Zedong pushed his domination of the policy process that ultimately provoked a wholesale assault on the CCP apparatus throughout the country while the leader cult reached mythic proportions during the Cultural Revolution. Confronted by the possibility of civil war and generally opposed to the takeover of the polity by the radical Gang of Four led by his wife Jiang Qing, by the mid-1970s the aging great leader acquiesced to the rebuilding of the CCP along traditional, "institutional" lines.
During the Vietnam era, conscientious objectors received both sympathy and admiration from many Americans. It was not so during World War II. The pacifists who chose to sit out that war - some 72,000 men - were publicly derided as ""yellowbellies"" or extreme cowards. After all, why would anyone refuse to fight against fascism in ""the good war""?This book tells the story of one important group of World War II conscientious objectors: the men who volunteered for Civilian Public Service as U.S. Forest Service smoke jumpers. Based in Missoula, Montana, the experimental smoke-jumping program began in 1939, but before the project could expand, the war effort drained available manpower. In 1942, the Civilian Public Service volunteers stepped in. Smoke jumping soon became the Forest Service's first line of defense against wildfires in the West. Drawing on extensive interviews with World War II conscientious objectors and original documents from the period, Matthews vividly recreates the individual stories of Civilian Public Service smoke jumpers. He also assesses their collective contribution to the development of western wildfire management. By revealing an unknown dimension of American pacifism, Smoke Jumping on the Western Fire Line fills a gap in World War II history and restores the reputation of the brave men who, even in the face of public ostracism, held true to their beliefs and served their country with honor.
One can not understand the Sixties without understanding the Fifties. The Fifties were the first time the American youth had excess freedom. Before the 50's they worked on the family farm; dusk till dawn, slaved in the sweat shops, 12 ours a day, six days a week; starved in the depression; and fought not knowing it they would be alive the next day in World War II and the Korean War. Than, suddenly, came the fifties. First there were the beatniks lead by their spiritual leader Williams Burrough, than the "bad boys of rock and roll Elvis, Johnny Cochran, and Jerry Lee Lewis prevailed. This excess freedom, led to freedom to think, freedom to question, freedom to challenge. In the sixties, the peaceful non-violent Civil Rights Movement, progressed to the Black Power and the Black Panthers. The Civil Rights Movement was followed by the creeping involvement in Vietnam, first with military advisors, than massive troop deployments to Vietnam resulting in death, violence, destruction, and . then disillusion. And complementing the war, initially, the educational teach-ins led to massive antiwar demonstrations, to the Weathermen busting windows on Michigan Ave and planting bombs in the Capital. This all digressed to the " second civil war" which recently resurfaced with the Iraq War, I afraid now is progressing to the "third civil war." Throughout the book we follow the characters lives from romantic innocence to reality to Expressionism. Some fighting in Vietnam, some protesting the war, some marching for civil rights, friendships destroyed and than repaired. Some lives lost, some destroyed, some survived, but all caught up in the hubris characterized by a gross failure of governmental leadership. Those betrayed the most have their names on a black granite wall in Washington DC.
In the context of their war experience in the First World War, the changes and developments of the Executive branch of the Royal Navy between the world wars are examined and how these made them fit for the test of the Second World War are critically assessed.
Social change advocates won a remarkable series of victories during the 20th century. This study examines both successful and unsuccessful efforts, ranging from the women's suffrage movement of the 1910s to the divisive debate between Gore and Nader supporters during the 2000 election. Halpern details the ingredients essential to shaping progressive campaigns. While left-wing activists sustained grass roots movements and worked with allies in left-center coalitions, trade unions energized by progressive activists gave the efforts institutional weight with crucial assistance from Democratic presidents committed to liberalism. Frequently facing repression, left-wingers nevertheless managed to pass their values on to their children, who in turn sustained new sets of social movements. Leftists worked alongside other progressives to form left-center coalitions on issues such as Civil Rights and labor law reform. Influenced by liberalism, Roosevelt, Johnson, and Kennedy gave crucial assistance to the social change process. Shying away from liberalism, Carter and Clinton and Vice President Gore failed to provide comparable assistance, disappointing progressive activists and unions and leading to important setbacks. Whether the Democratic Party will once again seek to elect a president with a liberal vision to assist a revitalized labor movement, a newly energized left, and left-center coalitions in the social change process remains to be seen.
This book: covers the essential content in the new specifications in a rigorous and engaging way, using detailed narrative, sources, timelines, key words, helpful activities and extension material helps develop conceptual understanding of areas such as evidence, interpretations, causation and change, through targeted activities provides assessment support for A level with sample answers, sources, practice questions and guidance to help you tackle the new-style exam questions. It also comes with three years' access to ActiveBook, an online, digital version of your textbook to help you personalise your learning as you go through the course - perfect for revision.
Interweaving American history, dramatic family chronicle and searing episodes of memoir, On Juneteenth recounts the origins of the holiday that celebrates the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. A descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the 1850s, Annette Gordon-Reed, explores the legacies of the holiday. From the earliest presence of black people in Texas-in the 1500s, well before enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown-to the day in Galveston on 19 June 1865, when General Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery, Gordon-Reed's insightful and inspiring essays present the saga of a "frontier" peopled by Native Americans, Anglos, Tejanos and Blacks that became a slaveholder's republic. Reworking the "Alamo" framework, Gordon-Reed shows that the slave-and race-based economy not only defined this fractious era of Texas independence, but precipitated the Mexican-American War and the resulting Civil War. A commemoration of Juneteenth and the fraught legacies of slavery that still persist, On Juneteenth is a stark reminder that the fight for equality is on-going.
"The West" is a central idea in German public discourse, yet historians know surprisingly little about the evolution of the concept. Contrary to common assumptions, this volume argues that the German concept of the West was not born in the twentieth century, but can be traced from a much earlier time. In the nineteenth century, "the West" became associated with notions of progress, liberty, civilization, and modernity. It signified the future through the opposition to antonyms such as "Russia" and "the East," and was deployed as a tool for forging German identities. Examining the shifting meanings, political uses, and transnational circulations of the idea of "the West" sheds new light on German intellectual history from the post-Napoleonic era to the Cold War.
Every year, thousands of women attempt to kick their smoking habit
because it is an unhealthy, expensive addiction. And every year,
thousands do not quit because of nicotine cravings and because
smoking has an image which is almost as addictive as the cigarette
itself. It is seductive and alluring - but where does this image
come from, and has it always been so deadly? In "Smoke Signals,"
Tinkler charts women's changing relationship to tobacco from the
1880s to the 1980s during which smoking transformed from a male
practice to one enjoyed by both sexes. Focusing on the feminization
of cigarette smoking, the author unravels the role of visual
culture and the impact of social, economic, medical and
technological changes. Drawing on women's own photographs,
alongside images from magazines, newspapers, television and film,
this book provides a detailed and stimulating exploration of the
role of visual culture in the history of women and smoking.
Detailing two years in the life of a British political officer charged with establishing and maintaining British rule in the Kurdish district of Arbil in Iraq, this personal account provides a thorough discussion of Kurdish society from the viewpoint of Captain William Rupert Hay. Chronicling the British government's desperate attempts to establish a civil administration in Iraq just after World War I, Two Years in Kurdistan shows how, as member of the Indian Political Service, Captain Hay attempted to bring British rule to his corner of Iraq.
The essays in this book concern manifestations of political violence in the democracies of interwar Europe. While research in this area usually focuses on the countries that fell to fascism, the authors demonstrate that violence remained a part of political competition in the democratic regimes of Western Europe too.
The beginning of filmmaking in the German colonies coincided with colonialism itself coming to a standstill. Scandals and economic stagnation in the colonies demanded a new and positive image of their value for Germany. By promoting business and establishing a new genre within the fast growing film industry, films of the colonies were welcomed by organizations such as the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (German Colonial Society). The films triggered patriotic feelings but also addressed the audience as travelers, explorers, wildlife protectionists, and participants in unique cultural events. This book is the first in-depth analysis of colonial filmmaking in the Wilhelmine Era.
For students of U.S. history, The Reagan Revolution explores how a Hollywood upstart and eventual conservative leader became one of the most successful and influential presidents in U.S. history-one whose presidency helped to define the end of the Cold War. This book covers Ronald Reagan's long rise to the presidency and the conservative political revolution he brought about in the 1980s. Spurning the moderate values and policies Republicans had previously championed, Reagan's revolution continues to play an outsized role in America's political life. This important reference book gives browsers and readers alike an opportunity to focus on many of the intertwined issues of the 1980s: abortion, gay rights, law and order, the Cold War, tax cuts, de-industrialization, the Religious Right, and the political divisions that made Reagan's legislative victories possible. The book opens with a concise biography covering Reagan's rise from radio personality and actor to governor and president. Subsequent chapters cover politics and policy. Chapters also include an important review of Reagan's legendary public relations operations ("morning in America" and the perfection of the television photo op) and the ways in which 1980s popular culture influenced and was influenced by his presidency. This section portrays Reagan as a product of Hollywood who keenly understood the importance of public opinion and creating a positive image. Explains the making of foreign and public policy, including the political dynamic that shapes it, in an easy-to-understand manner Serves as a rich trove of primary source documents, including policy documents and such presidential and pre-presidential speeches as Reagan's 1964 speech supporting Barry Goldwater and his first California gubernatorial inaugural address Provides an overview of the evolution of presidential power Outlines a chronological narrative of Ronald Reagan's life Includes four narrative chapters on foreign policy, economic policy, social policy, and presidential public relations and popular culture Assesses the legacies of the Reagan Revolution in the conclusion
Crime and Punishment in Russia surveys the evolution of criminal justice in Russia during a span of more than 300 years, from the early modern era to the present day. Maps, organizational charts, a list of important dates, and a glossary help the reader to navigate key institutional, legal, political, and cultural developments in this evolution. The book approaches Russia both on its own terms and in light of changes in Europe and the wider West, to which Russia's rulers and educated elites continuously looked for legal models and inspiration. It examines the weak advancement of the rule of the law over the period and analyzes the contrasts and seeming contradictions of a society in which capital punishment was sharply restricted in the mid-1700s, while penal and administrative exile remained heavily applied until 1917 and even beyond. Daly also provides concise political, social, and economic contextual detail, showing how the story of crime and punishment fits into the broader narrative of modern Russian history. This is an important and useful book for all students of modern Russian history as well as of the history of crime and punishment in modern Europe.
An updated and expanded revision of a popular book published in 1981, American Political Trials examines the role of politicized criminal trials and impeachments in U.S. history from the early colonial era to the late 20th century. Each chapter focuses on a trial representative of a particular era in the American past. The emphasis is on cases that resulted from political persecution, but the book also shows how defendants have exploited the judicial process to advance their political objectives. All of the chapters appearing in the earlier book have been updated. In addition, the volume includes new chapters on the 1637 trial of Anne Hutchinson and the 1989 trial of Lt. Col. Oliver North for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. The book also includes an updated bibliographical essay.
A time of great hardship, the Second World War became a consequential episode in the history of Soviet childhood policies. The growing social problem of juvenile homelessness and delinquency alerted the government to the need for a comprehensive child protection programme. Nevertheless, by prioritizing public order over welfare, the Stalinist state created conditions that only exacerbated the situation, transforming an existing problem into a nation-wide crisis. In this comprehensive account based on exhaustive archival research, Olga Kucherenko investigates the plight of more than a million street children and the state's role in the reinforcement of their ranks. By looking at wartime dislocation, Soviet child welfare policies, juvenile justice and the shadow world both within and without the Gulag, Soviet Street Children and the Second World War challenges several of the most pervasive myths about the Soviet Union at war. It is, therefore, as much an investigation of children on the margins of Soviet society as it is a study of the impact of war and state policies on society itself.
This collection of original essays by prominent historians from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Germany provides new insight into the social, political and intellectual components of German conservatism from its origins in the late-18th century through to the end of the Third Reich. The essays combine fresh empirical research with new theoretical and historiographical perspectives to provide the basis for a collective reassessment of the role that conservatism has played in Germany's national development. The collection thus serves to fill a prominent gap in the existing body of secondary literature on modern German history and to provide the history of German conservatism with the sort of detailed attention that German liberalism and socialism have recently received.
The Mexican expropriation of British and American properties in March 1938 marked the first time any oil-producing country successfully stood up to foreign companies who claimed to own oil properties in that country and who had the support of their respective governments. Totally reliant on overseas oil at a time when war seemed imminent, British officials responsible for policy toward Mexico immediately emphasized the importance of preventing other oil-exporting nations from following Mexico's lead. Washington also sought to make an example of Mexico--one that would guarantee respect for U.S. businesses operating abroad. Although both Washington and London wanted to return to the pre-expropriation status quo, Washington was unwilling to work with London to achieve this goal, and Washington's attitude paralleled its reaction to British efforts to get U.S. support on certain defense issues during this critical period. The resulting Anglo-American strife over how to handle Mexico was also consistent with Anglo-American commercial competition and the oil rivalry in Mexico early in the century.
Herbert Hoover, as Secretary of Commerce, and Benjamin Strong, as Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, played a critical role in the formulation of American monetary policy during the 1920s. Yet little attention has been given to the relationship between them--at first cooperative, then increasingly one of conflict and factionalism--or to the impact of that relationship on policy formulation. This book sheds new light on their roles in policy making and relates those roles to larger conflicts over where policy should be made, how the Federal Reserve System should be structured, and the balance that should be struck between international, national, and regional considerations. Focusing on the Hoover-Strong relationship from a political rather than a purely economic perspective, the book's scope includes both domestic and international aspects of Federal Reserve policy formulation. New sources have enabled the author to provide both fresh details and a broader interpretation. Elaborating on the belief that the Depression resulted from policies developed during the autumn of 1927, the author contends that the foundation for those policies was laid with America's decision to underwrite the Dawes plan, the decision to underwrite England's return to the gold standard, and the involvement in European monetary stabilization--all issues over which Hoover and Strong disagreed.
Originally published in Italian in 1980, Gli Stati Uniti e il fascismo: Alle origini dell'egemonia Americana in Italia is regarded today as a crucial text on the relationship between the United States and Italy during the interwar years. Aside from the addition of two new prefaces - one by the author and one by the book's translator, Molly Tambor - the original text has remained unchanged, so that Anglophone readers now have the opportunity to engage with this classic work. By analyzing the enduring relationship between the United States - especially its financial establishment - and fascist Italy up until Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia in 1935, this book provides answers to some key questions about the interconnectedness of America's rise to hegemonic global financial power in the twentieth century and its support of Italian fascism during this time.
Until very recently Germany has frequently been characterized as
the 'country without revolution', and the catastrophies of its
recent history have been attributed to the lack of successful
modernizing impulses. This series of essays by leading German
scholars explores the effects of revolutions upon German history
from 1789 to 1989 - the date of Germany's 'peaceful revolution' -
and discusses the fundamental questions of reform and revolution,
the effects of war, counter-revolution and defeat on the social
process of modernization. The book not only examines the
revolutions of 1789, 1848, 1918 and 1989, but equally focuses on
the great reform periods, the 'revolutions from above'. It analyzes
the significance of World War I for revolutionizing German society,
the nature of the 'national-socialist revolution', and the effects
of the 1945 defeat on new beginnings in a divided Germany. It
offers, on the basis of up-to-date research, stimulating debates
about fundamental problems of German history.
The first comprehensive history of Bright Leaf tobacco culture of any state to appear in fifty years, Long Green: The Rise and Fall of Tobacco in South Carolina explores the advances and retreats of tobacco's influence in South Carolina from its beginnings in the colonial period to its heydey at the turn of the century, the impact of the Depression, the New Deal, World War II, and on to present-day controversies about health risks due to smoking. The book describes Pee Dee farmers' struggles against large manufacturers and attempts at industry reforms and covers the Tri-State Cooperative of the 1920s and the Hoover administration Federal Farm Bureau's program for tobacco that forged a lasting and successful partnership between tobacco growers and the U.S. government. The technological revolutions of the post-World War II era and subsequent tobacco economy hardships due to increasingly negative public perception of tobacco use are also highlighted. The book details the roles and motives of key individuals in the development of tobacco culture, including firsthand experiences as related by older farmers and warehousemen, and offers informed speculations on the future of tobacco culture. Long Green allows readers to better understand the full significance of this cash crop in the history and economy of South Carolina and the American South.
One can not understand the Sixties without understanding the Fifties. The Fifties were the first time the American youth had excess freedom. Before the 50's they worked on the family farm; dusk till dawn, slaved in the sweat shops, 12 ours a day, six days a week; starved in the depression; and fought not knowing it they would be alive the next day in World War II and the Korean War. Than, suddenly, came the fifties. First there were the beatniks lead by their spiritual leader Williams Burrough, than the "bad boys of rock and roll Elvis, Johnny Cochran, and Jerry Lee Lewis prevailed. This excess freedom, led to freedom to think, freedom to question, freedom to challenge. In the sixties, the peaceful non-violent Civil Rights Movement, progressed to the Black Power and the Black Panthers. The Civil Rights Movement was followed by the creeping involvement in Vietnam, first with military advisors, than massive troop deployments to Vietnam resulting in death, violence, destruction, and . then disillusion. And complementing the war, initially, the educational teach-ins led to massive antiwar demonstrations, to the Weathermen busting windows on Michigan Ave and planting bombs in the Capital. This all digressed to the " second civil war" which recently resurfaced with the Iraq War, I afraid now is progressing to the "third civil war." Throughout the book we follow the characters lives from romantic innocence to reality to Expressionism. Some fighting in Vietnam, some protesting the war, some marching for civil rights, friendships destroyed and than repaired. Some lives lost, some destroyed, some survived, but all caught up in the hubris characterized by a gross failure of governmental leadership. Those betrayed the most have their names on a black granite wall in Washington DC.
Considered an irredeemably flawed and catastrophic president during the Depression era, Herbert Hoover has been studied more objectively by postwar historians, with revisionist scholarship culminating in his rehabilitation as a practitioner of one variety of progressivism. Even Hoover's sharpest critics recognize many of his once unheeded accomplishments. This extensive bibliography, including more than 2600 entries, provides access to an astronomical amount of Hoover-related materials attesting to extraordinary public service and longevity. Selective in approach, the volume cites sources depicting the continuum of contemporary and historical viewpoints and includes all key writings in Hoover historiography. Following a brief introduction and chronology of Hoover's life, the work begins with chapters covering manuscript and archival sources, writings of Herbert Hoover, and biographical publications. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to his early years and to his mature years prior to his election. The Presidential election of 1928 is covered in chapter 6; chapter 7 cites sources on the Hoover Administration; and chapter 8 covers the election of 1932. Hoover's administration associates are covered in chapter 9, and his post-presidential years covered in chapter 10. Concluding chapters are devoted to Hoover's philosophy, the personal lives of the Hoovers, historiographical materials, and iconography of the Hoovers. The work also includes a section on periodicals and author and subject indexes. |
![]() ![]() You may like...
The Death Of Democracy - Hitler's Rise…
Benjamin Carter Hett
Paperback
![]()
|