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Books > Humanities > History > History of other lands
The Poisoners is a history of four devastating chapters in the making of the region, seen through the disturbing use of toxins and accusations of poisoning circulated by soldiers, spies, and politicians in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Imraan Coovadia’s fascinating new book exposes the secret use of poisons and diseases in the Rhodesian bush war and independent Zimbabwe, and the apparent connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States; the enquiry into the chemical and biological warfare programme in South Africa known as Project Coast, discovered through the arrest and failed prosecution of Dr Wouter Basson; the use of toxic compounds such as Virodene to treat patients at the height of the Aids epidemic in South Africa, and the insistence of the government that proven therapies like Nevirapine, which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, were in fact poisons; and the history of poisoning and accusations of poisoning in the modern history of the African National Congress, from its guerrilla camps in Angola to Jacob Zuma’s suggestion that his fourth wife collaborated with a foreign intelligence agency to have him murdered.
But The Poisoners is not merely a book of history. It is also a meditation, by a most perceptive commentator, on the meaning of race, on the unhappy history of black and white in southern Africa, and on the nature of good and evil.
Outside In presents the newest scholarship that narrates and
explains the history of the United States as part of a networked
transnational past. This work tells the stories of Americans who
inhabited the border-crossing circuitry of people, ideas, and
institutions that have made the modern world a worldly place.
Forsaking manifestos of transnational history and surveys of
existing scholarship for fresh research, careful attention to
concrete situations and transactions, and original interpretation,
the vigorous, accomplished historians whose work is collected here
show how the transnational history of the United States is actually
being written. Ranging from high statecraft to political ferment
from below, from the history of religion to the discourse of
women's rights, from the political left to the political right,
from conservative businessmen to African diaspora radicals, this
set of original essays narrates U.S. history in new ways,
emphasizing the period from 1870 to the present. The essays in
Outside In demonstrate the inadequacy of any unidirectional concept
of "the U.S. and the world," although they stress the worldly
forces that have shaped Americans. At the same time, these essays
disrupt and complicate the very idea of simple inward and outward
flows of influence, showing how Americans lived within
transnational circuits featuring impacts and influences running in
multiple directions. Outside In also transcends the divide between
work focusing on the international system of nation-states and
transnational history that treats non-state actors exclusively. The
essays assembled here show how to write transnational history that
takes the nation-state seriously, explaining that governments and
non-state actors were never sealed off from one another in the
modern world. These essays point the way toward a more concrete and
fully internationalized vision of modern American history.
The role of women in Iran has commonly been viewed solely through
the lens of religion, symbolized by veiled females subordinated by
society. In this work, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, an Iranian-American
historian, aims to explain how the role of women has been central
to national political debates in Iran. Spanning the 19th and 20th
centuries, the book examines issues impacting women's lives under
successive regimes, including hygiene campaigns that cast mothers
as custodians of a healthy civilization; debates over female
education, employment, and political rights; conflicts between
religion and secularism; the politics of dress; and government
policies on contraception and population control. Among the topics
she will examine are the development of a women's movement in Iran,
perhaps most publicly expressed by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
The narrative comes up to the present, looking at reproductive
rights, the spread of AIDS, and fashion since the Iranian
Revolution.
Nearing the end of his career as a ship surgeon, he agreed in 1817
to take a three year posting to St Helena. Stokoe set out for St
Helena on HMS Conqueror in 1817. At St Helena there was discord
following the Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe's
controversial decision to dismiss Napoleon's doctor, Barry O'Mara.
About this time, Napoleon asked that Mr Stokoe, who had once
attended him and who he understood was returning to St Helena,
might attend him again 'or would the Governor authorize some other
English doctor to come, providing he sign similar conditions as had
been accepted by Stokoe in the past.' Immediately after, Mr Stokoe
arrived at St Helena, was put under arrest and tried on varying
counts-seven in all. The whole was found proven. The third
indictment read, 'That he had signed a paper purporting to be a
bulletin of General Bonaparte's health, and divulged the same to
the General and his attendants contrary to orders, ' and the
seventh, 'That he had contrary to his duty, and the character of a
British Naval Officer, communicated to General Bonaparte or his
attendant an infamous and calumnious imputation cast upon
Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe. etc. by Barry O'Meara, late
surgeon in the Royal Navy' (also now dismissed) 'implying that Sir
Hudson Lowe had practiced with the said O'Meara to induce him to
put an end to the existence of General Bonaparte. ' Stokoe, though
dismissed the Navy, was put on half-pay. At Stokoe's treatment
Napoleon, enraged, refused the future services of British doctors.
This book is Stokoe's own defense, another book with damning
evidence against the notorious Governor-Sir Hudson Lowe
As a nuclear engineer, Zsolt StanA k lived for decades in the
fascinating world of atoms, nuclear reactions and reactors and was
continually surrounded by the language of the trade. One day, it
dawned on him that there was also another world a " the everyday
life of people a " that was inspiring and often amusing. His
stories and books spring from this revelation and deal with absurd
situations and common human challenges. Many of his stories are now
available in English at www.amazon.co.uk and an electronic version
of this book is available at www.kosmas.cz. A true Czechoslovak,
fluent in both the Czech and Slovak languages, Zsolt StanA k
absorbed both cultures in his formative years. He was born and
spent his early youth in KoA!ice, Slovakia, and later studied
nuclear physics and engineering in Prague, Czech Republic. His work
often took him to Vienna, Austria, where the International Atomic
Energy Agency is located and where a " between 1993 and retirement
in 2006 a " he held the position of information manager. At
present, he lives in Alhaurin de la Torre, Spain. He has two
children, Danny and Lucie, three grandchildren, Anetka, David and
NatA!lka and two greatgrandchildren, MatAE j and Marek. To learn
more about Zsolt StanA k, please visit his website at
www.stanik.name and www.kosmas.cz
Pendley has accumulated over 1,700 years of history - from: Ancient
Britons and Romans, who settled this area at least some 1,700 years
ago, to England's last great heathen King, the warlike and
impressively vigorous, Penda, who seems to have given his name to
this area, sired a child when he was aged 77 and died, in battle,
aged 80; The Anglo-Saxon nun, Eddeva, via William the Conqueror's
half-brother, Robert, to Sir Robert Whittingham, who demolished
mediaeval Pendley and built the first manor house in its place; The
Verneys and the sixteenth century's changeable politics to the
Andersons, who facilitated the initially illicit union which was to
produce US President, George Washington; The Harcourts who, in the
end, didn't care about Pendley and let the old manor house be
destroyed, and the trade-wealthy Grouts with their illegitimate
heir, Lawrence Williams, who secured his family's fortune by
marrying into his own family and then buying Pendley; His son, JG -
supervisor of the building of the new manor house, a successful
agriculturalist who also shepherded his brother's children and, so,
secured the future of Pendley for a century - to Dorian, the last
of the Williams' line at Pendley; The short-term ownership of David
Evans and the Grass Roots Partnership to the current owner, Vinu
Bhattessa, who's turned the place into a hotel and conference
centre. Along the way, Pendley Manor acquired some peacocks, a
famous Shakespeare Festival, a couple of ghosts and a host of
stories. Many of these are unrecorded but some, at least, have come
down to us through the ages - and these are told within this book.
The book follows the development of a Welsh town and neighbourhood
from its early beginnings in the 16th century through to the
present day, and shows the effects on its development by the growth
of Religion, Industry, Commerce and the War years up to the present
day.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
The result of 30 years of genealogical sleuthing is a book which
does not easily fit into any one particular genre. the main theme
is four famous dog men from Gilling West who were national giants
in their time. Rich Henry Brown, a co-director of Shoolbred and Co.
in London sold bull dogs to royalty while Tom raper was the Prince
of Slippers for the Waterloo Cup. George Raper was Britain's
greatest dog judge and journalist who bred out the Yorkshire
terrier in Victorian times and crossed the Atlantic on over thirty
occasions. He also famously won foot races running backwards.
Although two inns, The White Swan and the Angel Inn in Gilling
West, are a starting point the story moves to the Green Tree Inn in
Darlington, home of Britain's earliest dog shows. There are many
fascinating anecdotes of Dales incidents in times past which trace
both of the author's parents to Gilling. Not least is the
scandalous story of a Gilling man's married daughter who ran away
from her family to start a life with a famous actor James Herbert
Standing. The final chapter is where the author, a well-known
mountaineer shows how his hunting, shooting and fishing ancestors
bred a generation which spread from Richmond, Yorkshire to make
their name in a modern new world after the Second World War.
The image of western ranchers making a stand for their
"rights"-against developers, the government, "illegal"
immigrants-may be commonplace today, but the political power of the
cowboy was a long time in the making. In a book steeped in the
culture, traditions, and history of western range ranching,
Michelle K. Berry takes readers into the Cold War world of cattle
ranchers in the American West to show how that power, with its
implications for the lands and resources of the mountain states,
was built, shaped, and shored up between 1945 and 1965. After long
days working the ranch, battling human and nonhuman threats, and
wrestling with nature, ranchers got down to business of another
sort, which Berry calls "cow talk." Discussing the best new
machinery; sharing stories of drought, blizzards, and bugs; talking
money and management and strategy: these ranchers were building a
community specific to their time, place, and work and creating a
language that embodied their culture. Cow Talk explores how this
language and its iconography evolved and how it came to provide
both a context and a vehicle for political power. Using ranchers'
personal papers, publications, and cattle growers association
records, the book provides an inside view of how range cattle
ranchers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana
created a culture and a shared identity that would frame and inform
their relationship with their environment and with society at large
in an increasingly challenging, modernizing world. A multifaceted
analysis of postwar ranch life, labor, and culture, this innovative
work offers unprecedented insight into the cohesive political and
cultural power of western ranchers in our day.
On September 11, 1814, an American naval squadron under Master
Commandant Thomas Macdonough defeated a formidable British force on
Lake Champlain under the command of Captain George Downie,
effectively ending the British invasion of the Champlain Valley
during the War of 1812. This decisive battle had far-reaching
repercussions in Canada, the United States, England, and Ghent,
Belgium, where peace talks were under way. Examining the naval and
land campaign in strategic, political, and military terms, from
planning to execution to outcome, The Battle of Lake Champlain
offers the most thorough account written of this pivotal moment in
American history. For decades the Champlain corridor - a direct and
accessible invasion route between Lower Canada and the northern
United States - had been hotly contested in wars for control of the
region. In exploring the crucial issue of why it took two years for
the United States and Britain to confront each other on Lake
Champlain, historian John H. Schroeder recounts the war's early
years, the failed U.S. invasions of Canada in 1812 and 1813, and
the ensuing naval race for control of the lake in 1814. To explain
how the Americans achieved their unexpected victory, Schroeder
weighs the effects on both sides of preparations and planning,
personal valor and cowardice, command decisions both brilliant and
ill-conceived, and sheer luck both good and bad. Previous histories
have claimed that the War of 1812 ended with Andrew Jackson's
victory at the Battle of New Orleans. Schroeder demonstrates that
the United States really won the war four months before - at
Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. Through a comprehensive analysis of
politics and diplomacy, Schroeder shows that the victory at Lake
Champlain prompted the British to moderate their demands at Ghent,
bringing the war directly and swiftly to an end before Jackson's
spectacular victory in January 1815.
As early as 1947, Black parents in rural South Carolina began
seeking equal educational opportunities for their children. After
two unsuccessful lawsuits, these families directly challenged
legally mandated segregation in public schools with a third lawsuit
in 1950, which was eventually decided in Brown v. Board of
Education. Amidst the Black parents' resistance, Elizabeth Avery
Waring, a twice-divorced northern socialite, and her third husband,
federal judge J. Waties Waring, launched a rhetorical campaign
condemning white supremacy and segregation. In a series of
speeches, the Warings exposed the incongruity between American
democratic ideals and the reality for Black Americans in the Jim
Crow South. They urged audiences to pressure elected
representatives to force southern states to end legal segregation.
Wanda Little Fenimore employs innovative research methods to
recover the Warings' speeches that said the unsayable about white
supremacy. When the couple poked at the contradiction between
segregation and "all men are created equal," white supremacists
pushed back. As a result, the couple received both damning and
congratulatory letters that reveal the terms upon which segregation
was defended and the reasons those who opposed white supremacy
remained silent. Using rich archival materials, Fenimore crafts an
engaging narrative that illustrates the rhetorical context from
which Brown v. Board of Education arose and dispels the notion that
the decision was inevitable. The first full-length account of the
Warings' rhetoric, this multilayered story of social progress
traces the symbolic battle that provided a locus for change in the
landmark Supreme Court decision.
On August 8, 1942, 302 people arrived by train at Vocation,
Wyoming, to become the first Japanese American residents of what
the U.S. government called the Relocation Center at Heart Mountain.
In the following weeks and months, they would be joined by some
10,000 of the more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent,
two-thirds of them U.S. citizens, incarcerated as "domestic enemy
aliens" during World War II. Heart Mountain became a town with
workplaces, social groups, and political alliances-in short,
networks. These networks are the focus of Saara Kekki's Japanese
Americans at Heart Mountain. Interconnections between people are
the foundation of human societies. Exploring the creation of
networks at Heart Mountain, as well as movement to and from the
camp between 1942 and 1945, this book offers an unusually detailed
look at the formation of a society within the incarcerated
community, specifically the manifestation of power, agency, and
resistance. Kekki constructs a dynamic network model of all of
Heart Mountain's residents and their interconnections-family,
political, employment, social, and geospatial networks-using
historical "big data" drawn from the War Relocation Authority and
narrative sources, including the camp newspaper Heart Mountain
Sentinel. For all the inmates, life inevitably went on: people
married, had children, worked, and engaged in politics. Because of
the duration of the incarceration, many became institutionalized
and unwilling to leave the camps when the time came. Yet most
individuals, Kekki finds, took charge of their own destinies
despite the injustice and looked forward to the day when Heart
Mountain was behind them. Especially timely in its implications for
debates over immigration and assimilation, Japanese Americans at
Heart Mountain presents a remarkable opportunity to reconstruct a
community created under duress within the larger American society,
and to gain new insight into an American experience largely lost to
official history.
Historians have long been engaged in telling the story of the
struggle for the vote. In the wake of recent contested elections,
the suppression of the vote has returned to the headlines, as
awareness of the deep structural barriers to the ballot,
particularly for poor, black, and Latino voters, has called
attention to the historical roots of issues related to voting
access. Perhaps most notably, former state legislator Stacey
Abrams's campaign for Georgia's gubernatorial race drew national
attention after she narrowly lost to then-secretary of state Brian
Kemp, who had removed hundreds of thousands of voters from the
official rolls. After her loss, Abrams created Fair Fight, a
multimillion-dollar initiative to combat voter suppression in
twenty states. At an annual conference of the Organization of
American Historians, leading scholars Carol Anderson, Kevin M.
Kruse, Heather Cox Richardson, and Heather Anne Thompson had a
conversation with Abrams about the long history of voter
suppression at the Library Company of Philadelphia. This book is a
transcript of that extraordinary conversation, edited by Jim Downs.
Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections offers an enlightening,
history-informed conversation about voter disenfranchisement in the
United States. By gathering scholars and activists whose work has
provided sharp analyses of this issue, we see how historians in
general explore contentious topics and provide historical context
for students and the broader public. The book also includes a "top
ten" selection of essays and articles by such writers as journalist
Ari Berman, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight, and
civil rights icon John Lewis.
For years the legendary John Seigenthaler hosted A Word on Words on
Nashville's public television station, WNPT. During the show's
four-decade run (1972 to 2013), he interviewed some of the most
interesting and most impor tant writers of our time. These in-depth
exchanges revealed much about the writers who appeared on his show
and gave a glimpse into their creative pro cesses. Seigenthaler was
a deeply engaged reader and a generous interviewer, a true
craftsman. Frye Gaillard and Pat Toomay have collected and
transcribed some of the iconic interactions from the show.
Featuring interviews with: Arna Bontemps * Marshall Chapman * Pat
Conroy * Rodney Crowell * John Egerton * Jesse Hill Ford * Charles
Fountain * William Price Fox * Kinky Friedman * Frye Gaillard *
Nikki Giovanni * Doris Kearns Goodwin * David Halberstam * Waylon
Jennings * John Lewis * David Maraniss * William Marshall * Jon
Meacham * Ann Patchett * Alice Randall * Dori Sanders * John
Seigenthaler Sr. * Marty Stuart * Pat Toomay
In May 1944, with American forces closing in on the Japanese
mainland, the Fifth Fleet Amphibious Force was preparing to invade
Saipan. Control of this island would put enemy cities squarely
within range of the B-29 bomber. The navy had assembled a fleet of
landing ship tanks (LSTs) in the West Loch section of Pearl Harbor.
On May 21, an explosion tore through the calm afternoon sky,
spreading fire and chaos through the ordnance-packed vessels. When
the fires had been brought under control, six LSTs had been lost,
many others were badly damaged, and more than 500 military
personnel had been killed or injured. To ensure the success of
those still able to depart for the invasion--miraculously, only one
day late--the navy at once issued a censorship order, which has
kept this disaster from public scrutiny for seventy years.
"The Second Pearl Harbor" is the first book to tell the full story
of what happened on that fateful day. Military historian Gene
Salecker recounts the events and conditions leading up to the
explosion, then re-creates the drama directly afterward: men
swimming through flaming oil, small craft desperately trying to
rescue the injured, and subsequent explosions throwing flaming
debris everywhere. With meticulous attention to detail the author
explains why he and other historians believe that the official
explanation for the cause of the explosion, that a mortar shell was
accidentally detonated, is wrong.
This in-depth account of a little-known incident adds to our
understanding of the dangers during World War II, even far from the
front, and restores a missing chapter to history.
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