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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Political oppression & persecution > General
Confronting the truths of Canada's Indian residential school system
has been likened to waking a sleeping giant. In The Sleeping Giant
Awakens, David B. MacDonald uses genocide as an analytical tool to
better understand Canada's past and present relationships between
settlers and Indigenous peoples. Starting with a discussion of how
genocide is defined in domestic and international law, the book
applies the concept to the forced transfer of Indigenous children
to residential schools and the "Sixties Scoop," in which Indigenous
children were taken from their communities and placed in foster
homes or adopted. Based on archival research, extensive interviews
with residential school Survivors, and officials at the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of Canada, among others, The Sleeping
Giant Awakens offers a unique and timely perspective on the
prospects for conciliation after genocide, exploring the
difficulties in moving forward in a context where many settlers
know little of the residential schools and ongoing legacies of
colonization and need to have a better conception of Indigenous
rights. It provides a detailed analysis of how the TRC approached
genocide in its deliberations and in its Final Report. Crucially,
MacDonald engages critics who argue that the term genocide impedes
understanding of the IRS system and imperils prospects for
conciliation. By contrast, this book sees genocide recognition as
an important basis for meaningful discussions of how to engage
Indigenous-settler relations in respectful and proactive ways.
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.
A FAMILY STORY AND THE TALE OF A NATION. Ai Weiwei - one of the
world's most famous artists and activists - weaves a century-long
epic tale of China through the story of his own life and that of
his father, Ai Qing, the nation's most celebrated poet.
'Engrossing...a remarkable story' Sunday Times Here, through the
sweeping lens of his own and his father's life, Ai Weiwei tells an
epic tale of China over the last 100 years, from the Cultural
Revolution to the modern-day Chinese Communist Party. Here is the
story of a childhood spent in desolate exile after his father, Ai
Qing, once China's most celebrated poet, fell foul of the
authorities. Here is his move to America as a young man and his
return to China, his rise from unknown to art-world superstar and
international rights activist. Here is his extraordinary account of
how his work has been shaped by living under a totalitarian regime.
It's the story of a father and a son, of exceptional creativity and
passionate belief, and of how two indomitable spirits enabled the
world to understand their country. 'A story of inherited resilience
and self-determination' Observer 'A majestic and exquisitely
serious masterpiece about his China... One of the great voices of
our time' Andrew Solomon 'Intimate, unflinching...an instant
classic' Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition
The British government has taken steps to halt the prosecution of
soldiers responsible for the deaths of civilians in Northern
Ireland, most of whom had no connection to paramilitary activities.
These killings were part of a ruthless dirty war that commenced in
1970 when Brigadier Frank Kitson, a counter-insurgency specialist,
was sent to Northern Ireland. Kitson had spent decades in Britain's
colonies refining old, and developing new, techniques which he
applied in Northern Ireland. He became the architect of a
clandestine war, waged against Nationalists while ignoring Loyalist
atrocities. Kitson and his colleagues were responsible for: * The
establishment of the clandestine Military Reaction Force (MRF)
which carried out assassinations on the streets of Belfast of
suspected IRA members; * They unleashed the most violent elements
of the Parachute Regiment [1 Para] to terrorise Nationalist
communities which, they adjudged, were providing support for the
Official and Provisional IRA; * Spreading black propaganda designed
to undermine Republican but not Loyalist paramilitary groups; *
Deployed psychological warfare techniques, involving the torture of
internees; * Sent Kitson's 'Private Army' - Support Company of 1
Para - to Derry where they perpetrated the Bloody Sunday massacre.
The British Widgery and Saville inquiries did not hold Kitson and
his elite troops accountable for Bloody Sunday. Kitson's Irish War
lays bare the evidence they discounted: Kitson's role in the events
leading up to and surrounding that massacre; evidence from a
deserter from 1 Para who joined the IRA; a deceitful MI5 agent; a
courageous whistle blower whom the British state tried to
discredit, and much more, all of which points to a motive for the
attack on the Bogside. This book unlocks the some of the key
secrets of the Dirty War that the British government is still
determined to cover-up.
Conquered in 1492 and colonized by invading Castilians, the city
and kingdom of Granada faced radical changes imposed by its
occupiers throughout the first half of the sixteenth century -
including the forced conversion of its native Muslim population.
Written by Francisco Nunez Muley, one of Granada's New Christians,
this extraordinary letter lodges a clear-sighted, impassioned
protest against the unreasonable and strongly assimilationist laws
that required all Granadans to dress, speak, eat, marry, celebrate
festivals, and bury their dead exactly as the Castilian settler
population did. Rendered into faithful English prose by Vincent
Barletta, Nunez Muley's account is an invaluable example of how
Granada's former Muslims made active use of the written word to
challenge and openly resist the progressively intolerant policies
of the Spanish Crown. Timely and resonant - given current debates
concerning Islam, minorities, and cultural and linguistic
assimilation - this edition provides scholars in a range of fields
with a vivid and early example of resistance in the face of
oppression.
How was it possible to write history in the Soviet Union, under
strict state control and without access to archives? What methods
of research did these 'historians' - be they academic, that is
based at formal institutions, or independent - rely on? And how was
their work influenced by their complex and shifting relationships
with the state? To answer these questions, Barbara Martin here
tracks the careers of four bold and important dissidents: Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, Roy Medvedev, Aleksandr Nekrich and Anton
Antonov-Ovseenko. Based on extensive archival research and
interviews (with some of the authors themselves, as well as those
close to them), the result is a nuanced and very necessary history
of Soviet dissident history writing, from the relative
liberalisation of de-Stalinisation through increasing repression
and persecution in the Brezhnev era to liberalisation once more
during perestroika. In the process Martin sheds light onto late
Soviet society and its relationship with the state, as well as the
ways in which this dissidence participated in weakening the Soviet
regime during Perestroika. This is important reading for all
scholars working on late Soviet history and society.
This book is the story of an exceptional man: David Samaai. The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the life of Davy (as he was affectionately known by his peers) who began his career in the streets of a beautiful suburb called the Ou Tuin (Old Garden) on the banks of the picturesque Berg River. Due to the Group Areas Act of the apartheid government they were forced to leave their homes. They had
to move to the other side of the river to a new town: Paarl East.
Many thought that it was the end. On the contrary, it was anything but game set and match. Because of inspirational leadership, they managed to overcome apartheid and even excelled! David led by example. First, he conquered Wimbledon and then he led his community rebuilding their town, their schools, the mosque and the church. In fact, they rebuilt their entire lives.
Eventually it turned out to be a chronicle of the political emancipation of a community to which David Samaai was an inspiration, not because he was a legendary tennis player, a gifted musician or a committed school principal and teacher, but because he was and still is an example to any South African.
He left a legacy that with hard work and perseverance you can achieve your dream.
Acclaimed author Andrey Kurkov gives powerful insight into life in
Kyiv following the 2013 protests and before the 2022 Russian
invasion. -16 DegreesC, sunlight, silence. I drove the children to
school, then went to see the revolution. I walked between the
tents. Talked with rev olutionaries. They were weary today. The air
was thick with the smell of old campfires. Ukraine Diaries is
acclaimed writer Andrey Kurkov's first-hand account of the ongoing
crisis in his country. From his flat in Kyiv, just five hundred
yards from Independence Square, Kurkov can smell the burning
barricades and hear the sounds of grenades and gunshot. Kurkov's
diaries begin on the first day of the pro-European protests in
November 2013, and describe the violent clashes in the Maidan, the
impeachment of Yanukovych, Russia's annexation of Crimea and the
separatist uprisings in the east of Ukraine. Going beyond the
headlines, they give vivid insight into what it's like to live
through - and try to make sense of - times of intense political
unrest, on the path to the current crisis.
This is the first attempt to bring together diverse scholars, using
different lenses, to study South Africa’s Border War. As a book, it
is critical in approach, provides deeper reflection, and focuses
specifically on the SADF experience of the war. The result is a
more complex picture of the war’s dynamics and its legacies.
Although South Africa is a vastly different country today, the
study of the Border War opens a range of questions, also relevant
to contemporary deployments such as in Lesotho (1998) and the
Central African Republic (2013).
It includes the debate on participation in foreign conflicts; on
the deployment, design and preparation of appropriate, modern armed
forces and their use as foreign policy instruments in far-off
theatres; on military planning; and, as the historical
controversies regarding the battles at Cuito Cuanavale and Bangui
illustrate, on the interface between foreign campaigning and
domestic politics.
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