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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Political oppression & persecution > General
How does gendered power work? How does it circulate? How does it become embedded? And most importantly, how can we challenge it? Heather Savigny highlights five key traits of cultural sexism - violence, silencing, disciplining, meritocracy and masculinity - prevalent across the media, entertainment and cultural industries that keep sexist values firmly within popular consciousness. She traces the development of key feminist thinkers before demonstrating how the normalization of misogyny in popular media, culture, news and politics perpetuates patriarchal values within our everyday social and cultural landscape. She argues that we need to understand why #MeToo was necessary in the first place in order to bring about impactful, lasting and meaningful change.
After more than 50 years, some of the secrets behind the post-war kidnappings in Berlin remain classified. Following Second World War, West Berlin residents found themselves as prime targets for kidnapping by communist agents. Lurid press accounts of these abductions left Berliners frightened and intimidated. The central connection of American intelligence agencies (CIC, CIA) to most of these cases, however, was not well known at the time. Delving into these various kidnapping cases, Smith discovers a distinct profile for the abductees. Almost all were former residents of East Germany and, as such, had an intelligence value for the Americans. This connection in turn made them prime targets for Soviet and East German intelligence units. Examination of the climate of fear in West Berlin reveals the complexity of politics in the early Cold War. Many targeted individuals had Nazi pasts-a factor that the Americans took great pains to conceal. At one point, the United States even risked a diplomatic rupture with West Germany when American authorities went so far as to block prosecutions of a German citizen in German courts for aiding in the kidnapping of a number of West Berliners. Exactly why Washington was so willing to go to extreme lengths in this case remains unknown, but Smith's research sheds new light on the clash between East and West in one troubled city.
Robben Island is a low-lying outcrop of rock and sand guarding the entrance to South Africa's Table Bay. Although it is just a few kilometres long and a barely swimmable distance from Cape Town, it may well be the most significant historical site in South Africa today.;Paradoxically it symbolises both the repressiveness of the apartheid state and the strength of those who opposed it. While interpretations of the island's history have focused mainly on its role as political prison and on the well-known prisoners held there, such as Nelson Mandela, the island has been put to many and varied uses over the last 500 years: as pantry, hospital, mental asylum, military camp as well as prison. In spite of these various roles there are continuities in its history. Above all, the island has served mainly as repository for those who were considered dangerous to the South African social order. A history of the island provides therefore an off-shore echo of the history of the mainland.
The war in Chechnya left us with some of the most harrowing images in recent times: a modern European city bombed to ruins while its citizens cowered in bunkers; mass graves; mothers combing the hills for their missing sons. The product of investigative and on-the-scene reporting by two established journalists, Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal's captivating book recounts the story of the Chechens' violent struggle for independece, and the Kremlin politics that precipitated it. Exploring Chechnya's complex and bloody history, the work is also a portrait of Russia's failed attempt to make the transition to a democratic society. "A harrowing glimpse into the destabilization caused by the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the troubled road to independence
and democracy faced by its non-Russian members."
This book proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of immigration. It examines four major issues informing current sociological studies of immigration: mechanisms and effects of international migration, processes of immigrants assimilation and transnational engagements, and the adaptation patterns of the second generation.
The diversity of Kurdish communities across the Middle East is now recognized as central to understanding both the challenges and opportunities for their representation and politics. Yet little scholarship has focused on the complexities within these different groups and the range of their experiences. This book diversifies the literature on Kurdish Studies by offering close analyses of subjects which have not been adequately researched, and in particular, by highlighting the Kurds' relationship to the Yazidis. Case studies include: the political ideas of Ehmede Xani, "the father of Kurdish nationalism"; Kurdish refugees in camps in Iraq; the perception of the Kurds by Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire and the Turks in modern Western Turkey; and the important connections and shared heritage of the Kurds and the Yazidis, especially in the aftermath of the 2014 ISIS attacks. The book comprises the leading voices in Kurdish Studies and combines in-depth empirical work with theoretical and conceptual discussions to take the debates in the field in new directions. The study is divided into three thematic sections to capture new insights into the heterogeneous aspects of Kurdish history and identity. In doing so, contributors explain why we need to pay close attention to the shifting identities and the diversity of the Kurds, and what implications this has for Middle East Studies and Minority Studies more generally.
A deaf-mute woman waiting for her brother to pick her up in front of shop window is arrested by two members of the Saudi "morality police" (mutawas) on suspicion of prostitution. They report their allegation to the governor of Riyadh, who accepts it without question and passes sentence. The next Friday she is stoned to death in public. A German woman married to a Saudi man makes the mistake of taking a taxi downtown without a male escort. For her "crime" she is arrested, raped, and thrown into prison. Later her German-Saudi baby son is taken away and she is deported to Cyprus without passport and money. A Syrian truck driver is accused of stealing the truck he is driving. As a consequence, both of his hands are amputated. Are these incredible but true incidents merely aberrations, the result of a few power-crazed officials acting outrageously outside the reach of a generally law-abiding society? Unfortunately, they are all too common in the theocratic police state that is contemporary Saudi Arabia. As the author vividly recounts in this shocking expose, in the wealthy Saudi oil kingdom there is no such thing as secular law or modern courts. Instead, Saudi princes create the laws, based on Sharia, Islamic law derived from the Koran and Hadith, and the muttawas act as judges, enforcers, and executioners. The author lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for many years. A fluent speaker of Arabic, he was told about the many appalling incidents reported in this book by victims and their friends and relatives. He cross-checked all the accounts here given through multiple interviews. Amazingly, in some cases, the actual victimizers themselves openly, often with condescending and smug contempt, corroborated the events. This revealing portrait of intolerance and social oppression presents an image that foreign reporters never see in the carefully controlled Saudi kingdom.
Examining the complex nature of state apologies for past injustices, this title probes the various functions they fulfil within contemporary democracies. Cutting-edge theoretical and empirical research and insightful philosophical analyses are supplemented by real-life case studies, providing a normative and balanced account of states saying 'sorry'.
While it is true that genocide prevention is not what tends to land on the front pages of national newspapers today, it is what prevents the worst headlines from ever being made. However, despite the post-Holocaust consensus that "never again " would the world allow civilians to be victims of genocide, the reality is that history is closer than ever to repeating itself. As many as 170 million civilians across the world have been victims of genocide and mass atrocity in the 20th century. Now that we have entered the 21st century, little light has arisen from the darkness as civilians still find themselves under brutal attack in the Sudan, Burma, Syria, the Central African Republic, Burundi, and a score of other countries in the world as they find themselves beset by state fragility and extremist identity politics. Drawing on over two decades of primary research and scholarship from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide is grounded in the belief that preventing mass atrocity is an achievable goal, but only if we have the collective will to do so. This groundbreaking book from one of the foremost leaders in the field presents a fascinating continuum of research-informed strategies to prevent genocide from ever taking place; to avert further atrocities once mass murder occurs; and to prevent further turmoil once a society learns how to rebuild itself. Dr. James Waller challenges each of us to accept our responsibilities as global citizens - in whichever role and place we find ourselves - and to think critically about one of the world's most pressing human rights issues in which there are no sidelines, only sides.
From Protest to Challenge Volume 4: Political Profiles, 1882–1990, in Jacana’s second edition of the six volumes of From Protest to Challenge, profiles over six hundred individual activists who played important political roles during the century before the abolition of apartheid in 1990. Among those included are John Dube, Clements Kadalie, Albert Luthuli, Steve Biko, Beyers Naude and Joe Slovo, as well as Ellen Kuzwayo, Jay Naidoo, Robert McBride, P.K. Leballo and Patricia de Lille. These books are a wonderful resource for future generations of scholars. The publication of the Vol. 4 completes the series.
Roaming the countryside in caravans, earning their living as
musicians, peddlers, and fortune-tellers, the Gypsies and their
elusive way of life represented an affront to Nazi ideas of social
order, hard work, and racial purity. They were branded as
"asocials," harassed, and eventually herded into concentration
camps where many thousands were killed. But until now the story of
their persecution has either been overlooked or distorted.
What are you willing to do to survive? What are you willing to endure if it means you might live? 'Achingly moving, gives much-needed hope . . . Deserves the status both as a valuable historical source and as a stand-out memoir' Daily Express 'A story that needs to be heard' 5***** Reader Review Entering Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp, Franci was expected to die. She refused. In the summer of 1942, twenty-two-year-old Franci Rabinek - designated a Jew by the Nazi racial laws - arrived at Terezin, a concentration camp and ghetto forty miles north of her home in Prague. It would be the beginning of her three-year journey from Terezin to the Czech family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, to the slave labour camps in Hamburg, and finally to Bergen Belsen. Franci, a spirited and glamorous young woman, was known among her fellow inmates as the Prague dress designer. Having endured the transportation of her parents, she never forgot her mother's parting words: 'Your only duty to us is to stay alive'. During an Auschwitz selection, Franci would spontaneously lie to Nazi officer Dr Josef Mengele, and claim to be an electrician. A split-second decision that would go on to endanger - and save - her life. Unpublished for 50 years, Franci's War is an astonishing account of one woman's attempt to survive. Heartbreaking and candid, Franci finds the light in her darkest years and the horrors she faces instill in her, strength and resilience to survive and to live again. She gives a voice to the women prisoners in her tight-knit circle of friends. Her testimony sheds new light on the alliances, love affairs, and sexual barter that took place during the Holocaust, offering a compelling insight into the resilience and courage of ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. Above all, Franci's War asks us to explore what it takes to survive, and what it means to truly live. 'A candid account of shocking events. Franci is someone many women today will be able to identify with' 5***** Reader Review 'First-hand accounts of life in Nazi death camps never lose their terrible power but few are as extraordinary as Franci's War' Mail on Sunday 'Fascinating and traumatic. Well worth a read' 5***** Reader Review
This work examines the environment and events of the spring 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy. The author argues that the mass movement, which climaxed in Beijing, can be understood only if attention is given to the external environment that provided both opportunities and constraints to the interactions of participating groups, to the shifting participants and their goals and interests, and to the historical and cultural factors which guided the behavior of those participants (on both the student and government sides). Unlike other works on this topic, The Struggle for Tiananmen describes and analyzes the movement from its inception to its end--presenting the entire process, providing information from both the authorities and non-student participants, identifying the interactions between external events and the movement, and placing the particular event in the larger context of social movements. This work will be of interest to scholars and laymen alike in contemporary history, Chinese studies, sociology, and political science.
Genocide results from the culmination of conflicts over identity. A
group of people that feels threatened by extinction resorts to
genocide as a pathologically defensive reaction. This poses a
security dilemma that can only be broken by quelling the feelings
of threat and fear that prompt mass violence. In order to prevent
genocide, it is essential to understand the internal dynamics of
identity conflict. It is also important to intervene at the early
stages of identity conflict; the parties involved require external
help to ease tensions.
The Jehovah's Witnesses endured intense persecution under the Nazi regime, from 1933 to 1945. Unlike the Jews and others persecuted and killed by virtue of their birth, Jehovah's Witnesses had the opportunity to escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs. The vast majority refused and throughout their struggle, continued to meet, preach, and distribute literature. In the face of torture, maltreatment in concentration camps, and sometimes execution, this unique group won the respect of many contemporaries. Up until now, little has been known of their particular persecution.
This text examines the political importance of moral opposition to authoritarian rule in Chile, 1973-90, as a challenge to the government's systematic human rights' violations. It was initially led by the Catholic Church, whose primate founded an organization to defend human rights: the Vicariate of Solidarity (1976-92). The book assesses the impact of moral opposition as a force for redemocratization by tracing the history and achievements of the Vicariate. It also argues that such moral matters are often underestimated in regime transition analysis.
This volume introduces the reader to an important set of newcomers to America. Two overview chapters introduce the U.S. refugee program and the general patterns in resettlement and adaptation. The chapters cover the origins of the program, its development through successive waves of refugees and layers of legislation, the life experiences that refugees bring with them, the problems they must confront, and the ways they rebuild their lives. The heart of the book, however, is Part II, which provides chapters on the largest groups of refugees who have resettled since World War II. Each chapter examines the cultural and social context from which the refugees came, traces their initial and long-term encounters with American society, and assesses their future prospects. The refugee groups covered include Afghans, ethnic Chinese from Southeast Asia, Cubans, Eastern European refugees, Ethiopians and Eritreans, Haitians, Hmong, Iranians, Khmer, Lao, Soviet Jews, and Vietnamese. The final section of the book provides additional comparative documentation on the refugee experience. Separate chapters review the major federal agency statistics, examine public attitudes toward refugees, and outline the broader global refugee problem. The book concludes with a review of film documentaries on refugee adaptation and an annotated bibliography introducing the extensive information now available on refugees in the United States.
A well-balanced and detailed look at the East German Ministry for State Security, the secret police force more commonly known as the Stasi. "This is an excellent book, full of careful, balanced judgements and a wealth of concisely-communicated knowledge. It is also well written. Indeed, it is the best book yet published on the MfS."-German History The Stasi stood for Stalinist oppression and all-encompassing surveillance. The "shield and sword of the party," it secured the rule of the Communist Party for more than forty years, and by the 1980s it had become the largest secret-police apparatus in the world, per capita. Jens Gieseke tells the story of the Stasi, a feared secret-police force and a highly professional intelligence service. He inquires into the mechanisms of dictatorship and the day-to-day effects of surveillance and suspicion. Masterful and thorough at once, he takes the reader through this dark chapter of German postwar history, supplying key information on perpetrators, informers, and victims. In an assessment of post-communist memory politics, he critically discusses the consequences of opening the files and the outcomes of the Stasi debate in reunified Germany. A major guide for research on communist secret-police forces, this book is considered the standard reference work on the Stasi.
This work examines the conflict between movements and regimes using dynamic mathematical modeling methods. Most of the deaths from political violence in the world in this century have not been caused by war, but by conflict between governments and dissenters. It is hoped that scholars will improve their understanding of these conflicts, and thus help to reduce the costs.
In addressing the asylum controversy in Europe today, much of the literature assumes that asylum policies result from the struggle between national interest arguing to tighten asylum and humanitarianism arguing to loosen it. This book challenges this simple tug-of-war image by examining asylum in Germany, Switzerland, and Britain from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. The findings reveal the complex and often counter-intuitive roles national interest, international norms, and morality play in shaping asylum. It forces us to reconsider how we think about asylum and to explore alternatives to conventional assumptions.
This book tells the history of modern Argentina through the lens of political violence and ideology. It focuses on the theory and practice of the fascist idea in Argentine political culture throughout the twentieth century. It analyzes the connections between fascist theory and the Holocaust, antisemitism and the military junta's practices of torture and state violence (1976-1983), its networks of concentration camps and extermination. The destruction of the rule of law and military state terror represent the end road of the twisted historical path of Argentine and Latin American dictatorships. The book emphasizes the genocidal dimensions of the persecution of Argentine Jewish victims, explaining why they were disproportionately victimized by the military dictatorship. The Dirty War was not a real war, Federico Finchelstein argues, but an illegal militarization of state repression. This popularized term needs to be explained in terms of the fascist genealogies that The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War explores. From a historical perspective, the Dirty War did not feature two combatants but rather victims and perpetrators. In fact, the state made "war" against its citizens. This state sanctioned terror had its roots in fascist ideology, tracing a history from the fascist movements of the interwar war years to the concentration camps. Argentine fascism shaped the country's political culture. The Argentine road to fascism was shaped in the 1920s and 1930s and from then on continued to acquire many political and ideological reformulations and personifications, from Peronism (1943-1955) to terrorist right-wing organizations in the 1960s (especially Tacuara and the Triple A) to the last military dictatorship (1976-1983).
Salvadoran refugee women tell their stories of escape from El Salvador during some of the worst years of civil unrest (1979-1981) and their subsequent adaptation to refugee life in Costa Rica. These stories--called "testimonios"--are interwoven against the backdrop of their children's daycare center. The women's complex relationships with one another and the ambiguous nature of their interactions with the author as ethnographer are examined. The author's voice is used in the text to place the women in their historical and cultural context. The daily lives and the "testimonios" of the refugees serve as an eloquent expression of the multidimensional feminism that has developed in Latin America. In contrast to mainstream feminism in the United States that focuses primarily on the power relationships between men and women, the concern of Latin American feminism is with power asymmetries in socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and religion, as well as gender. The women, whose daycare center is supported by international funding, rely on their cultural traditions to survive in the face of tragedy and oppression.
Connell uncovers a little known World War II top secret program. The United States demanded that Latin American governments deport--or allow the United States to take--anyone of Japanese ancestry and place them in camps in Texas and New Mexico. The plan was to trade them for American civilians held by the Japanese. Although Peru was the most enthusiastic participant in this program, expelling nearly 5,000 Peruvian citizens of Japanese ancestry, other Latin American countries participated as well. Connell traces the reasons for prejudice and discrimination, the specific programs, and the post-war efforts of those held in American relocation camps to secure restitution. Through the wide use of oral interviews as well as documents, Connell shows the very human side of this effort, which in many ways parallels the discrimination Americans of Japanese ancestry faced during the war. This book provides a thorough and intriguing story of interest to general readers as well as scholars, students, and other researchers involved with World War II and Latin American history.
Real and Imagined Readers looks at an important period in South African literary history, marked by apartheid censorship and the extensive banning of intellectual and creative voices. Returning to the archive, this book offers a reader-centric view of the successive censorship laws, and the consequences of publication control on the world of books. Books and print culture created intersectional spaces of solidarity where ideas and knowledge were contested, mediated and translated into the socio-political domain. By focusing on these marginalised readers, Matteau Matsha sheds light on the reading cultures and practices that developed in the shadow of apartheid censorship, creating alternative literary spaces. Real readers engaged in an elusive dialogue with the censors' imagined readers, and definitions of literature and readerships emerged from this unusual connection, leading to the formation of literary conventions that inform reading politics to this day. By understanding reading as a complex and dynamic activity, this book stresses the importance of appreciating books in relation to the social context in which they are written and, most importantly, read. |
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