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Books > Humanities > History > History of other lands
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2020 A New York Times Critic's Pick
2019 'A sobering account, told elegantly and eruditely.' Financial
Times 'Thant Myint-U is the greatest living historian of Burma.'
William Dalrymple Precariously positioned between China and India,
Burma's population has suffered dictatorship, natural disaster and
the dark legacies of colonial rule. But when decades of military
dictatorship finally ended and internationally beloved Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from long years of house arrest,
hopes soared. World leaders including Barack Obama ushered in waves
of international support. Progress seemed inevitable. As historian,
former diplomat, and presidential advisor, Thant Myint-U saw the
cracks forming. In this insider's diagnosis of a country at a
breaking point, he dissects how a singularly predatory economic
system, fast-rising inequality, disintegrating state institutions,
the impact of new social media, the rise of China next door,
climate change and deep-seated feelings around race, religion and
national identity all came together to challenge the incipient
democracy. Interracial violence soared and a horrific exodus of
hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fixed international
attention. Thant Myint-U explains how and why this happened, and
details an unsettling prognosis for the future. Burma is today a
fragile stage for nearly all the world's problems. Are democracy
and an economy that genuinely serves all its people possible in
Burma? In clear and urgent prose, Thant Myint-U explores this
question - a concern not just for the Burmese but for the rest of
the world - warning of the possible collapse of this nation of 55
million while suggesting a fresh agenda for change. 'A compelling
account of modern Burma's bloody history' Amitav Ghosh
I have no agenda,' US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
proclaimed at his Senate confirmation hearing: 'My job is to call
balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.' This declaration was in
keeping with the avowed independence of the judiciary. It also,
when viewed through the lens of Roberts's election law decisions,
appears to be false. With a scrupulous reading of judicial
decisions and a careful assessment of partisan causes and
consequences, Terri Jennings Peretti tells the story of the GOP's
largely successful campaign to enlist judicial aid for its
self-interested election reform agenda. Partisan Supremacy explores
four contemporary election law issues - voter identification,
gerrymandering, campaign finance, and the preclearance regime of
the Voting Rights Act - to uncover whether Republican politicians
and Republican judges have collaborated to tilt America's election
rules in the GOP's favor. Considering cases from Shelby County v.
Holder, which enfeebled the Voting Rights Act, to Crawford v.
Marion County Election Board, which upheld restrictive voter
identification laws, to Citizens United and McCutcheon, which
loosened campaign finance restrictions, Peretti lays bare the
reality of 'friendly' judicial review and partisan supremacy when
it comes to election law. She nonetheless finds a mixed verdict in
the redistricting area that reveals the limits of partisan control
over judicial decisions. Peretti's book helpfully places the
current GOP's voter suppression campaign in historical context by
acknowledging similar efforts by the postCivil War Democratic
Party. While the modern Democratic Party seeks electoral advantage
by expanding voting by America's minorities and youth, arguably
hewing closer to democratic principles, neither party is immune to
the powerful incentive to bend election rules in its favor. In view
of the evidence that Partisan Supremacy brings to light, we are
left with a critical and pressing question: Can democracy survive
in the face of partisan collaboration across the branches of
government on critical election issues?
To this day, Japan's modern ascendancy challenges many assumptions
about world history, particularly theories regarding the rise of
the west and why the modern world looks the way it does. In this
engaging new history, Brett L. Walker tackles key themes regarding
Japan's relationships with its minorities, state and economic
development, and the uses of science and medicine. The book begins
by tracing the country's early history through archaeological
remains, before proceeding to explore life in the imperial court,
the rise of the samurai, civil conflict, encounters with Europe,
and the advent of modernity and empire. Integrating the pageantry
of a unique nation's history with today's environmental concerns,
Walker's vibrant and accessible new narrative then follows Japan's
ascension from the ashes of World War II into the thriving nation
of today. It is a history for our times, posing important questions
regarding how we should situate a nation's history in an age of
environmental and climatological uncertainties.
Drawing on the history of the British gentry to explain the
contrasting sentiments of American small farmers and plantation
owners, James L. Huston's expansive analysis offers a new
understanding of the socioeconomic factors that fueled sectionalism
and ignited the American Civil War. This groundbreaking study of
agriculture's role in the war defies long-held notions that
northern industrialization and urbanization led to clashes between
North and South. Rather, Huston argues that the ideological chasm
between plantation owners in the South and family farmers in the
North led to the political eruption of 1854-56 and the birth of a
sectionalized party system. Huston shows that over 70 percent of
the northern population-by far the dominant economic and social
element-had close ties to agriculture. More invested in
egalitarianism and personal competency than in capitalism, small
farmers in the North operated under a free labor ideology that
emphasized the ideals of independence and mastery over oneself. The
ideology of the plantation, by contrast, reflected the conservative
ethos of the British aristocracy, which was the product of immense
landed inequality and the assertion of mastery over others. By
examining the dominant populations in northern and southern
congressional districts, Huston reveals that economic interests
pitted the plantation South against the small-farm North. The
northern shift toward Republicanism depended on farmers, not
industrialists: While Democrats won the majority of northern farm
congressional districts from 1842 to 1853, they suffered a major
defection of these districts from 1854 to 1856, to the antislavery
organizations that would soon coalesce into the Republican Party.
Utilizing extensive historical research and close examination of
the voting patterns in congressional districts across the country,
James Huston provides a remarkable new context for the origins of
the Civil War.
"A Companion to Mediterranean History" presents a wide-ranging
overview of this vibrant field of historical research, drawing
together scholars from a range of disciplines to discuss the
development of the region from Neolithic times to the present.
Provides a valuable introduction to current debates on
Mediterranean history and helps define the field for a new
generationCovers developments in the Mediterranean world from
Neolithic times to the modern eraEnables fruitful dialogue among a
wide range of disciplines, including history, archaeology, art,
literature, and anthropology
In what has become the era of the mass shooting, we are routinely
taken to scenes of terrible violence. Often neglected, however, is
the long aftermath, including the efforts to effect change in the
wake of such tragedies. On April 16, 2007, thirty-two Virginia Tech
students and professors were murdered. Then the nation's deadliest
mass shooting by a lone gunman, the tragedy sparked an
international debate on gun culture in the United States and safety
on college campuses. Experiencing profound grief and trauma, and
struggling to heal both physically and emotionally, many of the
survivors from Virginia Tech and their supporters put themselves on
the front lines to advocate for change. Yet since that April,
large-scale gun violence has continued at a horrifying pace.In
After Virginia Tech, award-winning journalist Thomas Kapsidelis
examines the decade after the Virginia Tech massacre through the
experiences of survivors and community members who have advocated
for reforms in gun safety, campus security, trauma recovery, and
mental health. Undaunted by the expansion of gun rights, they have
continued their national leadership despite an often-hostile
political environment and repeated mass violence. Kapsidelis also
focuses on the trauma suffered by police who responded to the
shootings, and the work by chaplains and a longtime police officer
to create an organization dedicated to recovery. The stories
Kapsidelis tells here show how people and communities affected by
profound loss ultimately persevere long after the initial glare and
attention inevitably fade. Reaching beyond policy implications,
After Virginia Tech illuminates personal accounts of recovery and
resilience that can offer a ray of hope to millions of Americans
concerned about the consequences of gun violence.
In the early 1930s Chlotilde R. Martin of Beaufort, South Carolina,
wrote a series of articles for the Charleston News and Courier
documenting the social and economic transformation of the
lowcountry coast as an influx of wealthy northerners began buying
scores of old local plantations. Her articles combined the
name-dropping chatter of the lowcountry social register with
reflections on the tension between past and present in the old rice
and cotton kingdoms of South Carolina. Edited by Robert B. Cuthbert
and Stephen G. Hoffius, Northern Money, Southern Land collects
Martin's articles and augments them with photographs and historical
annotations to carry their stories forward to the present day. As
Martin recounted, the new owners of these coastal properties ranked
among the most successful businessmen in the country and included
members of the Doubleday, Du Pont, Hutton, Kress, Whitney,
Guggenheim, and Vanderbilt families. Among the later owners are
media magnate Ted Turner and boxer Joe Frazier. The plantation
houses they bought and the homes they built are some of the most
important architectural structures in the Palmetto State--although
many are rarely seen by the public. In some fifty articles drawn
from interviews with property owners and visits to their newly
acquired lands, Martin described almost eighty estates covering
some three hundred thousand acres of Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton,
Colleton, and Berkeley counties. Martin's lively sketches included
stories of wealthy young playboys who brought Broadway showgirls
down for decadent parties, tales of the first nudist colony in
America, and exchanges with African American farmhands who wanted
to travel to New York to see their employers' primary homes, which
they had been assured were piled high with gold and silver. In the
process, Martin painted a fascinating landscape of a southern
coastline changing hands and on the verge of dramatic
redevelopment. Her tales, here updated by Cuthbert and Hoffius,
will bring modern readers onto many little-known plantations in the
southern part of South Carolina and provide a wealth of knowledge
about the history of vexing tensions between development and
conservation that remain a defining aspect of lowcountry life.
The Indus civilization flourished for half a millennium from about
2600 to 1900 BC, when it mysteriously declined and vanished from
view. It remained invisible for almost four thousand years, until
its ruins were discovered in the 1920s by British and Indian
archaeologists. Today, after almost a century of excavation, it is
regarded as the beginning of Indian civilization and possibly the
origin of Hinduism. The Indus: Lost Civilizations is an accessible
introduction to every significant aspect of an extraordinary and
tantalizing 'lost' civilization, which combined artistic
excellence, technological sophistication and economic vigour with
social egalitarianism, political freedom and religious moderation.
The book also discusses the vital legacy of the Indus civilization
in India and Pakistan today.
'Engrossing ... grips you and doesn't let go.' The Spectator
'Waterdrinker's gift for savage comedy and his war correspondent's
eye have few contemporary equivalents.' The Times A thrilling
escapade through the Soviet Union of the '90s and early 2000s by a
tour guide turned smuggler turned novelist, that tells the
unputdownable story of modern Russia. One day, in 1988, a priest
knocks on Pieter Waterdrinker's door with an unusual request: will
he smuggle seven thousand bibles into the Soviet Union? Pieter
agrees, and soon finds himself living in the midst of one of the
biggest social and cultural revolutions of our time, working as a
tour operator ... with a sideline in contraband. During the next
thirty years, he witnesses, and is sometimes part of, the seismic
changes that transform Russia into the modern state we know it as
today. This riveting blend of memoir and history provides startling
insight into the emergence of one of the world's most powerful and
dangerous countries, as well as telling a nail-biting,
laugh-out-loud adventure story that will leave you on the edge of
your seat.
This book sheds new light on the political economy of Russia under
Putin's rule. The author, a former EU diplomat, presents a
historical review of the Russian economy and 60 years of
state-communist mismanagement, followed by oligarchic
privatization. The book offers profound insights into Putin's rule
and the power mechanics of the state-dominated management of the
Russian economy. It identifies and assesses the lack of rule of
law, together with an arbitrary and often corrupt administration
that systematically discourages entrepreneurship and the emergence
of an independent middle class. Furthermore, the book discusses
Russia's budgetary policy, its dependence on the export of natural
resources, state-owned enterprises and their privileges, and
Russia's external trade. This hard-hitting, substantial analysis
debunks the myth of Russia's economic might and is a must read for
anyone seeking to understand the economic realities of the Eurasian
continent, or considering doing business with Russia.
Many disenchanted Kashmiris continue to demand independence or
freedom from India. Written by a leading authority on Kashmir's
troubled past, this book revisits the topic of independence for the
region (also known as Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K), and explores
exactly why this aspiration has never been fulfilled. In a rare
India-Pakistan agreement, they concur that neither J&K, nor any
part of it, can be independent. Charting a complex history and
intense geo-political rivalry from Maharaja Hari Singh's leadership
in the mid-1920s to the present, this book offers an essential
insight into the disputes that have shaped the region. As tensions
continue to rise following government-imposed COVID-19 lockdowns,
Snedden asks a vital question: what might independence look like
and just how realistic is this aspiration? -- .
Of the over four dozen lighthouses that once marked the jagged
shoreline of North Carolina, only nine still stand, watching over
300 miles of coast. These beacons are cherished monuments of North
Carolina history. In addition to warning ships to safer waters,
they now draw thousands of visitors each year. With this book,
cofounders of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society Cheryl
Shelton-Roberts and Bruce Roberts provide a well-researched,
human-centered, and beautifully illustrated history of these
towering structures. The authors offer stories-including the
misadventures of Civil War spies and the threat of looming German
U-boats off the North Carolina coast-that provide important context
and meaning to the history of North Carolina's lighthouses. From
Cape Fear to Currituck Beach, every still-standing lighthouse is
lovingly described alongside their architects, builders, and
keepers and the sailors who depended on the lighthouses to keep
them from harm.
During the California Gold Rush, many of the miners and merchants
who hoped to strike it rich in California left behind letters and
journals that provide valuable insights into one of the great
migrations in American history. Of all the journals and diaries
left behind, William B. Lorton's is perhaps the most informative
and complete. Although known to historians for decades, Lorton's
journal has never been published. In this volume, LeRoy and Jean
Johnson bring Lorton's writings to life with meticulous research
and commentary that broadens the context of his narrative. Lorton's
work is revealing and entertaining. It captures glimpses of a
growing Salt Lake City, the hardships of Death Valley, and the
extraordinary and mundane aspects of daily life on the road to
gold. With resilience and a droll sense of humor, Lorton shares
accounts of life-threatening stampedes, dangerous hailstorms,
mysteriously moving rocks, and slithering sidewinders. The
inclusion of images, maps, and the editors' detailed notes make
this a volume that will entertain and inform.
Although their total numbers in New Mexico were never large,
blacks arrived with Spanish explorers and settlers and played
active roles in the history of the territory and state. Here, Bruce
Glasrud assembles the best information available on the themes,
events, and personages of black New Mexico history.
The contributors portray the blacks who accompanied Cabeza de
Vaca, Coronado, and de Vargas and recount their interactions with
Native Americans in colonial New Mexico. Chapters on the
territorial period examine black trappers and traders as well as
review the issue of slavery in the territory and the blacks who
accompanied Confederate troops and fought in the Union army during
the Civil War in New Mexico. Eventually blacks worked on farms and
ranches, in mines, and on railroads, as well as in the military,
seeking freedom and opportunity in New Mexico's wide open spaces. A
number of black towns were established in rural areas. Lacking
political power because they represented such a small percentage of
New Mexico's population, blacks relied largely on their own
resources and networks, particularly churches and schools.
Counterculture flourished nationwide in the 1960s and 1970s, and
while the hippies of Haight-Ashbury occupied the public eye,
further off the beaten path in the Arkansas Ozarks a faction of
back to the landers were quietly creating their own counterculture
haven. In Hipbillies, Jared Phillips collects oral histories and
delves into archival resources to provide a fresh scholarly
discussion of this group, which was defined by anticonsumerism and
a desire for self-sufficiency outside of modern industry. While
there were indeed clashes between long haired hippies and
cantankerous locals, Phillips shows how the region has always been
a refuge for those seeking a life off the beaten path, and as such,
is perhaps one of the last bastions for the dream of
self-sufficiency in American life. Hipbillies presents a region
steeped in tradition coming to terms with the modern world.
You seriously mean to tell me that the ship is doomed?" asked Frank
Worsley, commander of the Endurance, stuck impassably in Antarctic
ice packs. "What the ice gets," replied Sir Ernest Shackleton, the
expedition's unflappable leader, "the ice keeps." It did not,
however, get the ship's twenty-five crew members, all of whom
survived an eight-hundred-mile voyage across sea, land, and ice to
South Georgia, the nearest inhabited island. First published in
1931, Endurance tells the full story of that doomed 1914-16
expedition and incredible rescue, as well as relating Worsley's
further adventures fighting U-boats in the Great War, sailing the
equally treacherous waters of the Arctic, and making one final (and
successful) assault on the South Pole with Shackleton. It is a tale
of unrelenting high adventure and a tribute to one of the most
inspiring and courageous leaders of men in the history of
exploration.
Lynching is often viewed as a narrow form of violence: either the
spontaneous act of an angry mob against accused individuals, or a
demonstration of white supremacy against an entire population
considered subhuman. However, in this new treatise, historian Guy
Lancaster exposes the multiple forms of violence hidden beneath the
singular label of lynching.Lancaster, who has written extensively
on racial violence, details several lynchings of Blacks by white
posses in post-Reconstruction Arkansas. Drawing from the fields of
history, philosophy, cognitive science, sociology, and literary
theory, and quoting chilling contemporary accounts, he argues that
the act of lynching encompasses five distinct but overlapping types
of violence. This new framework reveals lynching to be even more of
an atrocity than previously understood: that mobs did not disregard
the humanity of their victims but rather reveled in it; that they
were not simply enacting personal vengeance but manifesting an
elite project of subjugation. Lancaster thus clarifies and connects
the motives and goals of seemingly isolated lynch mobs, embedding
the practice in the ongoing enforcement of white supremacy. By
interrogating the substance of lynching, American Atrocity shines
new light on both past anti-Black violence and the historical
underpinnings of our present moment.
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