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Books > History > European history > General
Poland pioneered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Domestic reforms and the negotiated abdication of ruling elites in 1989 have structured the country's politics in the 1990s. But the division between the communist and Solidarity camps continues to cause problems for a potential reform coalition aiming to complete modernization through the restructuring required for EU membership. Secular-Catholic and rural-urban conflicts, as well as the growing regional split between the north-west and south-east, have fragmented political life and the party system. Nevertheless, Poland has made remarkable steps in the consolidation of democracy and the development of her political system, whilst maintaining social stability; she is also successfully transcending her historical security dilemma of open Western and Eastern frontiers and stronger, aggressive neighbours, by embedding herself in Europe through membership of NATO and the EU. Poland is overcoming her historical problems and is well on the way to modernization and the achievement of full security but the global democratic capitalism is now challenging the strong cultural traditions of this thousand-year-old nation.
In the 25 years since the revelation of the so-called 'Ultra secret', the importance of codebreaking and signals intelligence in the diplomacy and military operations of the Second World War has become increasingly evident. Studies of wartime signals intelligence, however, have largely focused on Great Britain and the United States and their successes against, respectively, the German Enigma and Japanese Purple cipher machines. Drawing upon newly available sources in Australia, Britain, China, France and the United States, the articles in this volume demonstrate that the codebreaking war was a truly global conflict in which many countries were active and successful. They discuss the work of Australian, Chinese, Finnish, French and Japanese codebreakers, shed new light on the work of their American and British counterparts, and describe the struggle to apply technology to the problems of radio intercept and cryptanalysis. The contributions also reveal that, for the Axis as well as the Allies, success in the signals war often depended upon close collaboration among alliance partners.
In the 25 years since the revelation of the so-called 'Ultra secret', the importance of codebreaking and signals intelligence in the diplomacy and military operations of the Second World War has become increasingly evident. Studies of wartime signals intelligence, however, have largely focused on Great Britain and the United States and their successes against, respectively, the German Enigma and Japanese Purple cipher machines. Drawing upon newly available sources in Australia, Britain, China, France and the United States, the articles in this volume demonstrate that the codebreaking war was a truly global conflict in which many countries were active and successful. They discuss the work of Australian, Chinese, Finnish, French and Japanese codebreakers, shed new light on the work of their American and British counterparts, and describe the struggle to apply technology to the problems of radio intercept and cryptanalysis. The contributions also reveal that, for the Axis as well as the Allies, success in the signals war often depended upon close collaboration among alliance partners.
This Handbook is the key reference for contemporary historical and political approaches to gender in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Leading scholars examine the region's highly diverse politics, histories, cultures, ethnicities, and religions, and how these structures intersect with gender alongside class, sexuality, coloniality, and racism. Comprising 51 chapters, the Handbook is divided into six thematic parts: Part I Conceptual debates and methodological differences Part II Feminist and women's movements cooperating and colliding Part III Constructions of gender in different ideologies Part IV Lived experiences of individuals in different regimes Part V The ambiguous postcommunist transitions Part VI Postcommunist policy issues With a focus on defining debates, the collection considers how the shared experiences, especially communism, affect political forces' organization of gender through a broad variety of topics including feminisms, ideology, violence, independence, regime transition, and public policy. It is a foundational collection that will become invaluable to scholars and students across a range of disciplines including Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Central-Eastern European and Eurasian Studies.
This book is a collection of case studies that provides fresh insights into the history of political activism in Europe's long 1970s. It covers the full spectrum of such groups, from the far left to the neofascist right, and from the various parts of Europe, including East and West. The chapters in this book push the boundaries of our knowledge with regard to transnational spaces. For many political activists at the time, identifying with a 'transnational' or 'global' protest movement provided both legitimacy for their claims and stood for the promise of sweeping change. Existing research has often reproduced such perceptions. This book goes beyond such an approach by distinguishing between different forms of transnational spaces. More specifically, it recognizes important differences between imagined spaces of solidarity and belonging, spaces of knowledge circulation and spaces of social experience and political action. Each chapter uses this new framework and analyses the interrelationship and significance of each of these three spaces. Beyond Transnationalism will be of particular interest to historians, political scientists and educators. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Review of History.
Providing an intellectual biography of Pope Pius II, this book offers an understanding of the formation of the concept of ‘European’ ensuring students studying the formation of modern Europe, intellectual history and the history of early modern political thought, and cultural studies have a better understanding of how this concept was formed and disseminated. This volume will be in demand for students of a wide range of topics because it will demonstrate to them how important it is to understand how and when this concept of ‘Europe’ and being ‘European was formed to better understand the later revolutions, slave trade, Empire building and wars. This book is authored by Nancy Bisaha who has expertise on Renaissance humanism and identity and has authored another book Pope Pius II. It contains close readings of his letters, orations, histories, autobiography, and other works.
First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Catholic Reformation provides a comprehensive history of the
'Counter Reformation in early modern Europe. Starting from the
middle ages, Michael Mullett clearly traces the continuous
transformation of the Catholic religion in its structures, bodies
and doctrine. He discusses the gain in momentum of Catholic renewal
from the time of the Council of Trent, and considers the profound
effect of the Protestant Reformation in accelerating its
renovation.
In 1095 the First Crusade was launched, establishing a great military endeavour which was a central preoccupation of Europeans until the end of the thirteenth century. In Western warfare in the age of the Crusades, 1000-1300 John France offers a wide-ranging and challenging survey of war and warfare and its place in the development of European Society, culture and economy in the period of the Crusades. Placing the crusades in a wider context, this book brings together the wealth of recent scholarly research on such issues as knighthood, siege warfare, chivalry and fortifications into an accessible form. Western warfare in the age of the Crusades, 1000-1300 examines the nature of war in the period 1000-1300 and argues that it was primarily shaped by the people who conducted war - the landowners. John France illuminates the role of property concerns in producing the characteristic instruments of war: the castle and the knight. This authoritative study details the way in which war was fought and the reasons for it as well as reflecting on the society which produced the crusades.
An incisive account of modern Spain, from the death of Franco to the Catalan referendum and beyond Spain's transition to democracy after Franco's long dictatorship was widely hailed as a success, ushering in three decades of unprecedented progress and prosperity. Yet over the past decade its political consensus has been under severe strain. A stable two-party system has splintered, with disruptive new parties on the far left and far right. No government has had a majority since 2015. Michael Reid overturns the stereotypical view of Spain as a country haunted by its Francoist past. From Catalan separatism and the indignados movement to the Spanish economy's overdependence on tourism and small business, Spain's challenges can often seem unique. But Reid is careful to emphasize the many pressures it faces in common with its European neighbors-such as austerity, populism, and increasing polarization. The result is a penetrating yet rounded portrait of a vibrant country-one that is more often visited than understood.
The Fifth French Republic is a study of modern French politics and
history, discussing the five presidents who span from 1959 to the
present--Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, Valry Giscard
d'Estang, Fran5 ois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac.
The Pre-Industrial Cities Reader is designed to be used on its own or as a companion volume to the accompanying Pre-Industrial Cities: Open University textbook, in the same series. Compiled as a reference source for students, this reader is divided into three main sections, presenting key readings on: Ancient Cities, Medieval and Early Modern Cities, and Pre-Industrial Cities in China and Africa. Among the technologies discussed are: agricaultural innovations such as the heavy plough, water transport, the medieval road revolution, the first urban public transport, aqueducts, building materials such as brick and Roman concrete, weaponry and fortifications, water clocks, street lighting, and fire-fighting. Among the cities covered are: Uruk, Babylon, Thebes, Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Baghdad, Siena, Florence, Antwerp, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Hangzhou, Beijing and Hankou.
This work offers a comprehensive study of warfare and the Byzantine army in the social context. It deals with Byzantine attitudes to warfare, the effects of war on society as a whole both culturally and physically, as well as relationships between soldiers, leaders and society. It also examines the strategic situation of the empire and the state's response to external military pressures in the period from the late 6th-century to the late 12th-century. The strategic geography of the empire, communications, logistics, resources and manpower are also examined, as well as the army's strategic and tactical administrative evolution.
This work explores the construction of gender norms and examines how they were reflected and reinforced by legal institutional practices in Europe in this period. By taking a gendered approach, criminal prosecution and punishment are discussed in relation to the victims and perpretrators. This volume investigates various representations of femininity by assessing female experiences including wife-beating, divorce, abortion, prostitution, property crime and embezzlement at the work place. In addition, issues such as neglect, sexual abuse and the invention of the juvenile offender are analyzed.
An analysis of the part played by women in the Russian revolution. It aims to show that the extent of female activists' participation in the events of 1917 was far wider that has hitherto been thought.
The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a collection of vignettes
written by Soviet junior officers describing their experiences
fighting the Mujahideen guerrillas. The material was originally
collected and published by the Frunze Combined Arms Staff College
to serve as a text on combat against a guerrilla force in
mountain-desert terrain. It was originally intended for internal
use only and as such provides examples of both good and bad
military practice. The hard lessons learned are not specifically
'Russian' in nature and many of the same mistakes and successes
would apply equally to the American Army in Vietnam. Indeed, the
knowledge gained from these reports should also apply to future
conflicts involving civil war, guerrilla forces and rugged terrain.
In 1950s Paris, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld were friends, the rising stars of the fashion world. But by the late sixties, the city was invaded by a new mood of liberation and hedonism, and dominated by intrigue, infidelities, addiction and parties. Each designer created his own mesmerizing world, so vivid and seductive that people were drawn to the power, charisma and fame, and it was to make them bitter rivals. "The Beautiful Fall" is a dazzling expose of an era and the story of the two men who were its essence and who remain its most singular survivors.
Covering territory from Russia in the east to Germany and Austria in the west, The Routledge History of East Central Europe since 1700 explores the origins and evolution of modernity in this turbulent region. This book applies fresh critical approaches to major historical controversies and debates, expanding the study of a region that has experienced persistent and profound change and yet has long been dominated by narrowly nationalist interpretations. Written by an international team of contributors that reflects the increasing globalization and pluralism of East Central European studies, chapters discuss key themes such as economic development, the relationship between religion and ethnicity, the intersection between culture and imperial, national, wartime, and revolutionary political agendas, migration, women's and gender history, ideologies and political movements, the legacy of communism, and the ways in which various states in East Central Europe deployed and were formed by the politics of memory and commemoration. This book uses new methodologies in order to fundamentally reshape perspectives on the development of East Central Europe over the past three centuries. Transnational and comparative in approach, this volume presents the latest research on the social, cultural, political and economic history of modern East Central Europe, providing an analytical and comprehensive overview for all students of this region.
Updated to incorporate recent scholarship on the subject, this new edition of Hugh Cunningham's classic text investigates the relationship between ideas about childhood and the actual experience of being a child, and assesses how it has changed over the span of 500 years. Through his engaging narrative Hugh Cunningham tells the story of the development of ideas from the Renaissance to the present, revealing considerable differences in the way Western societies have understood and valued childhood over time. His survey of parent/child relationships uncovers evidence of parental love, care and, in the frequent cases of child death, grief throughout the period, concluding that there was as much continuity as change in the actual relations of children and adults across these five centuries. Since the book's first publication in 1995, the volume of historical research on children and childhood has escalated hugely and is testimony to the level of concern provoked by the dominance of the negative narrative that originated in the 1970s and 1980s. A new epilogue revisits the volume from today's perspective, analysing why this negative narrative established dominance in Western society and considering how it has affected historical writing about children and childhood, enabling the reader to put both this volume and recent debates into context. Supported by an updated historiographical discussion and expanded bibliography, Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500 remains an essential resource for students of the history of childhood, the history of the family, social history and gender history.
From 1918 to 1939 one issue dominated French foreign and defence policy: the German problem. This work outlines France's strategies for protection and appeasement during this period and places inter-war relations in a larger European context. With contributions from scholars in the field, it examines: relationships with key countries such as Italy and Russia; the significance of inter-war France to 20th-century European integration; the historical context of the policies; and the setbacks and defeats of the period and how they should be evaluated.
The Magnificent Ride examines the social and religious dimensions of the Hussite revolutionary movement in 15th-century Bohemia. It argues that 'the magnificent ride' was, in fact, the first reformation, and not merely a precursor to the reformations of the 16th century. The religious revival which had begun in Prague in the later middle ages reached its zenith in the period between Jan Hus and the Council of Basel. This book reconstructs the Hussite myth and shows how that myth evolved into the historical phenomenon of heresy. Acts of heretical practice in Bohemia, condemnation of Jan Hus, defiance of ecclesiastical authority and attempts by the official church to deal with the dissenters are fascinating chapters in the history of late medieval Europe.
Genevra Sforza (ca. 1441-1507) lived her long life near the apex of Italian Renaissance society as wife of two successive de facto rulers of Bologna: Sante then Giovanni II Bentivoglio. Placed twice there without a dowry by Duke Francesco Sforza as part of a larger Milanese plan, Genevra served her family by fulfilling the gendered role demanded of her by society, most notably by contributing eighteen children, accepting many illegitimates born to Giovanni II, and helping arrange their future alliances for the success of the family at large. Based on contemporary archival research conducted across Italy, this biography presents Genevra as the object of academic study for the first time. The book explores how Genevra's life-story, filled with a multitude of successes appropriate for an elite fifteenth-century female, was transformed into a concordant body of misogynistic legends about how she destroyed the Bentivoglio and the city of Bologna. |
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