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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Political oppression & persecution > General
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Ruin Star
(Paperback)
Matt Wright; Illustrated by James L. Cook
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R369
Discovery Miles 3 690
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Published in Poland after World War II, this collection of concentration camp stories shows atrocious crimes becoming an unremarkable part of a daily routine. Prisoners eat, work, sleep, and fall in love a few yards from where other prisoners are systematically slaughtered. The will to survive overrides compassion, and the line between the normal and the abnormal wavers, then vanishes. Borowski, a concentration camp victim himself, understood what human beings will do to endure the unendurable. Together, these stories constitute not only a masterpiece of Polish - and world - literature but stand as cruel testimony to the level of inhumanity of which man is capable.
"Wyman's book is the only one that comprehensively, and
sensitively, depicts the plight of the postwar refugees in Western
Europe." M. Mark Stolarik, University of Ottawa "This is a
fascinating and very moving book." International Migration Review
"Wyman has written a highly readable account of the movement of
diverse ethnic and cultural groups of Europe's displaced persons,
1945-1951. An analysis of the social, economic, and political
circumstances within which relocation, resettlement, and
repatriation of millions of people occurred, this study is equally
a study in diplomacy, in international relations, and in social
history. . . . A vivid and compassionate recreation of the events
and circumstances within which displaced persons found themselves,
of the strategies and means by which people survived or did not,
and an account of the major powers in response to an unprecedented
human crisis mark this as an important book." Choice "Wyman
interviewed some eighty DPs as well as employees of various
agencies who served them; he cites a broad range of published
primary sources, secondary sources, and some archival material. . .
. This book presents a useful overview and should stimulate further
research." Journal of American Ethnic History"
'This elegantly written, erudite book is essential reading for all
of us, whatever our identifications' - Lynne Segal Antisemitism is
one of the most controversial topics of our time. The public,
academics, journalists, activists and Jewish people themselves are
divided over its meaning. Antony Lerman shows that this is a result
of a 30-year process of redefinition of the phenomenon, casting
Israel, problematically defined as the 'persecuted collective Jew',
as one of its main targets. This political project has taken the
notion of the 'new antisemitism' and codified it in the flawed
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's 'working definition'
of antisemitism. This text is the glue holding together an
international network comprising the Israeli government, pro-Israel
advocacy groups, Zionist organisations, Jewish communal defence
bodies and sympathetic governments fighting a war against those who
would criticise Israel. The consequences of this redefinition have
been alarming, supressing free speech on Palestine/Israel,
legitimising Islamophobic right-wing forces, and politicising
principled opposition to antisemitism.
Ingrid Betancourt's story - her exemplary courage, spirit and
resilience - has captured the world's imagination. A politician and
presidential candidate celebrated for her determination to combat
the corruption and climate of fear endemic in Colombia, in 2002 she
was taken hostage by FARC, a terrorist guerrilla organisation. She
was held captive in the depths of the jungle for six and a half
years, chained day and night for much of that time, constantly on
the move and enduring gruelling conditions. She was freed and
reunited with her children and relatives in 2008. It is
Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this important and
deeply moving book, telling in her own words the extraordinary
drama of her capture and eventual rescue, and describes her fight
to survive, mentally and physically. As she confronts the horror of
what she went through, her story also goes beyond the specifics of
her own confinement to offer an intensely intelligent, thoughtful
and compassionate reflection on what it means to be human.
Revelations about U.S policies and practices of torture and abuse
have captured headlines ever since the breaking of the Abu Ghraib
prison story in April 2004. Since then, a debate has raged
regarding what is and what is not acceptable behavior for the
world's leading democracy. It is within this context that Angela
Davis, one of America's most remarkable political figures, gave a
series of interviews to discuss resistance and law, institutional
sexual coercion, politics and prison. Davis talks about her own
incarceration, as well as her experiences as "enemy of the state,"
and about having been put on the FBI's "most wanted" list. She
talks about the crucial role that international activism played in
her case and the case of many other political prisoners.
Throughout these interviews, Davis returns to her critique of a
democracy that has been compromised by its racist origins and
institutions. Discussing the most recent disclosures about the
disavowed "chain of command," and the formal reports by the Red
Cross and Human Rights Watch denouncing U.S. violation of human
rights and the laws of war in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq,
Davis focuses on the underpinnings of prison regimes in the United
States.
'Anyone interested in the future of autocracy should buy it' Anne
Applebaum, author of Twilight of Demoracy **Shortlisted for the
Moore Prize for Human Rights Literature** A devastating account of
China's genocide of the Uyghurs, by a leading Uyghur activist and
Time #100 nominee Nury Turkel was born in a 're-education' camp in
China at the height of the Cultural Revolution. He spent the first
several months of his life in captivity with his mother, who was
beaten and starved while pregnant with him, whilst his father
served a penal sentence in an agricultural labour camp. Following
this traumatic start - and not without a heavy dose of good fortune
- he was later able to travel to the US for his undergraduate
studies in 1995 and was granted asylum in the country in 1998
where, as a lawyer, he is now a tireless and renowned activist for
the plight of his people. Part memoir, part call-to-action, No
Escape will be the first major book to tell the story of the
Chinese government's terrible oppression of the Uyghur people from
the inside, detailing the labour camps, ethnic and religious
oppression, forced sterilisation of women and the surveillance tech
that have made Xinjiang - in the words of one Uyghur who managed to
flee - 'a police surveillance state unlike any the world has ever
known'.
At the heart of racist attitudes and behaviors is anti-Black
racism, which simply put, is the disregard and disdain of Black
life. Anti-Black racism negatively impacts every aspect of the
lives of Black people. Edited by renowned scholar and psychologist
Kevin Cokley, Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black
Racism explores the history and contemporary circumstances of
anti-Black racism, offers powerful personal anecdotes, and provides
recommendations and solutions to challenging anti-Black racism in
its various expressions. The book features chapters written by
scholars, practitioners, activists, and students. The chapters
reflect diverse perspectives from the Black community and writing
styles that range from scholarly text supported by cited research
to personal narratives that highlight the lived experiences of the
contributors. The book focuses on the ways that anti-Black racism
manifests and has been confronted across various domains of Black
life using research, activism, social media, and therapy. In the
words of Cokley: "It is my hope that the book will provide a
blueprint for readers that will empower them to actively confront
anti-Blackness wherever it exists, because this is the only way we
will progress toward making Black lives matter." Making Black Lives
Matter is a book that is meant to be shared! The goal for Cognella
for publishing this book is to amplify the voices of those who need
to be heard and to provide readers free access to critical
scholarship on topics that affect our everyday lives. We're proud
to provide free digital copies of the book to anyone who wants to
read it. So, we encourage you to spread the word and share the book
with everyone you know.
Palestine Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Winner 2022 'Roy is
humanely and professionally committed in ways that are unmatched by
any other non-Palestinian scholar' - Edward W. Said Gaza, the
centre of Palestinian nationalism and resistance to the occupation,
is the linchpin of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the key to
its resolution. Since 2005, Israel has deepened the isolation of
the territory, severing it almost completely from its most vital
connections to the West Bank, Israel and beyond, and has
deliberately shattered its economy, transforming Palestinians from
a people with political rights into a humanitarian problem. Sara
Roy unpacks this process, looking at US foreign policy towards the
Palestinians, as well as analysing the trajectory of Israeli policy
toward Gaza, which became a series of punitive approaches meant not
only to contain the Hamas regime but weaken Gazan society. Roy also
reflects on Gaza's ruination from a Jewish perspective and
discusses the connections between Gaza's history and her own as a
child of Holocaust survivors. This book, a follow up from the
renowned Failing Peace, comes from one of the world's most
acclaimed writers on the region.
Kim Yong shares his harrowing account of life in a labor camp--a
singularly despairing form of torture carried out by the secret
state. Although it is known that gulags exist in North Korea,
little information is available about their organization and
conduct, for prisoners rarely escape both incarceration and the
country alive. Long Road Home shares the remarkable story of one
such survivor, a former military official who spent six years in a
gulag and experienced firsthand the brutality of an unconscionable
regime. As a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army, Kim Yong
enjoyed unprecedented privilege in a society that closely monitored
its citizens. He owned an imported car and drove it freely
throughout the country. He also encountered corruption at all
levels, whether among party officials or Japanese trade partners,
and took note of the illicit benefits that were awarded to some and
cruelly denied to others. When accusations of treason stripped Kim
Yong of his position, the loose distinction between those who
prosper and those who suffer under Kim Jong-il became painfully
clear. Kim Yong was thrown into a world of violence and terror,
condemned to camp No. 14 in Hamkyeong province, North Korea's most
notorious labor camp. As he worked a constant shift 2,400 feet
underground, daylight became Kim's new luxury; as the months wore
on, he became intimately acquainted with political prisoners,
subhuman camp guards, and an apocalyptic famine that killed
millions. After years of meticulous planning, and with the help of
old friends, Kim escaped and came to the United States via China,
Mongolia, and South Korea. Presented here for the first time in its
entirety, his story not only testifies to the atrocities being
committed behind North Korea's wall of silence but also illuminates
the daily struggle to maintain dignity and integrity in the face of
unbelievable hardship. Like the work of Solzhenitsyn, this rare
portrait tells a story of resilience as it reveals the dark forms
of oppression, torture, and ideological terror at work in our world
today.
"When the plane landed, they untied my blindfold. I found there
were women and children on one side and men on the other side of
the plane. They were saying, 'They are talking us to Mogadishu.'
The Kenyans who brought me there were still here. I was crying and
screaming and telling them to let me go as I had my passport and
that I was from Dubai and they should send me back. One man tried
to keep me quiet by saying, 'You are coming with us.' In total
there were twenty-two women and children. Apart from me and another
lady, everyone else was three to eight months pregnant."--2007
statement to Cageprisoners
Following the 2005 bombing of London's transportation
infrastructure, Tony Blair declared that "the rules of the game
have changed." Few anticipated the extent to which global
counterterrorism would circumvent cherished laws, but profiling,
incommunicado detention, rendition, and torture have become the
accepted protocols of national security. In this book, Asim Qureshi
travels to East Africa, Sudan, Pakistan, Bosnia, and the United
States to record the testimonies of victims caught in
counterterrorism's new game. Qureshi's exhaustive efforts reveal
the larger phenomenon that has changed the way governments view
justice. He focuses on the profiling of Muslims by security
services and concurrent mass arrests, detaining individuals without
filing charges, domestic detention policies in North America, and
the effect of Guant?namo on global perceptions of law and
imprisonment.
Naomi Mitchison's account of the life and work of the Afrikaner
lawyer and political activist Bram Fischer (1908-1975) was first
published in 1973, two years before his death. She writes from the
perspective of her own experience - gained during regular visits
and a commitment to Southern Africa, particularly Botswana, from
the 1960s onwards - to present the key elements and actors in the
story of the country and the peoples of South Africa. Above all, of
Bram Fischer, who gave up a life of privilege to oppose,
professionally and underground, the Government's 'monstrous policy'
of apartheid.
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