In Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-1922), Sigrid Undset interweaves political, social, and religious history with the daily aspects of family life to create a colorful, richly detailed tapestry of Norway during the fourteenth-century. The trilogy, however, is more than a journey into the past. Undset's own life—her familiarity with Norse sagas and folklore and with a wide range of medieval literature, her experiences as a daughter, wife, and mother, and her deep religious faith—profoundly influenced her writing. Her grasp of the connections between past and present and of human nature itself, combined with the extraordinary quality of her writing, sets her works far above the genre of "historical novels." This new translation by Tina Nunnally—the first English version since Charles Archer's translation in the 1920s—captures Undset's strengths as a stylist. Nunnally, an award-winning translator, retains the natural dialog and lyrical flow of the original Norwegian, with its echoes of Old Norse legends, while deftly avoiding the stilted language and false archaisms of Archer's translation. In addition, she restores key passages left out of that edition.

Undset's ability to present a meticulously accurate historical portrait without sacrificing the poetry and narrative drive of masterful storytelling was particularly significant in her homeland. Granted independence in 1905 after five hundred years of foreign domination, Norway was eager to reclaim its national history and culture. Kristin Lavransdatter became a touchstone for Undset's contemporaries, and continues to be widely read by Norwegians today. In the more than 75 years since it was first published, it has also become a favorite throughout the world.

Loretta Czernis applies her sociological training in document analysis to study one government prescription for what ails Canadians. The "Report of the Task Force on Canadian Unity" rewrote Canada by reinventing patriotism, essentially inviting Canadians to imagine a new Canada. The "Report" itself is the product of what she calls the "federal writing machine" which exists to continually rewrite and thus reinvent Canada. Czernis' contextual reading of the "Report" occurs on two levels: reading technically, she examines the "Report"'s anonymous writing style that asks readers to imitate its own conclusions (be patriotic, buy a flag, shop at home). Gestural reading invites reading as performance. Canadians are invited to participate in reshaping Canada by reading Canada allegorically, as a social body, capable of changing its form. What a document may intend is not always the same as what is read into it. Mistakes can and do occur in the reading. Czernis suggests that these "mistakes" constitute a significant form of resistance to the anonymous writing machine. "Weaving a Canadian Allegory" will be of special interest to Canadianists, sociologists and to those involved in cultural, political and textual studies.

Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco (1713-1785) is remembered today not only as colonial New Mexico's preeminent religious artist, but also as the cartographer who drew some of the most important early maps of the American West. His "Plano Geographico" of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin, revised by his hand in 1778, influenced other mapmakers for almost a century. This book places the man and the map in historical context, reminding readers of the enduring significance of Miera y Pacheco. Later Spanish cartographers, as well as Baron Alexander von Humboldt, Captain Zebulon Montgomery Pike, and Henry Schenck Tanner, projected or expanded upon the Santa Fe cartographer's imagery. By so doing, they perpetuated Miera y Pacheco's most notable hydrographic misinterpretations. Not until almost seventy years after Miera did John Charles Fremont take the field and see for himself whither the waters ran and whither they didn't.

Explores the dynamics between Orthodoxy and politics in Romania, providing an accessible narrative on church-state relations from the establishment of the state in 1859 to the rise of Ceau?escu in 1965. The book argues that Romanian national communism had an ally in a strong Church, and analyzes religious diplomacy with actors in the West.

This book draws on the latest archival releases - including those from the secret world of British intelligence - to offer the first comprehensive analysis of Anglo-Turkish relations during the Second World War, with a particular emphasis on Turkey's place in the changing relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union.

Jack Robinson made his name as a much-sought-after fashion and celebrity photographer during the 1960s and early 1970s, and his work is well documented in hundreds of pages of Vogue, Harper' Bazaar, and Life, as well as other publications. However, his personal life remains virtually unknown. In this study of Robinson and his photography, Howard Philips Smith takes an in-depth look at Robinson's early life in New Orleans, where he discovered his passion for painting, photography, and the Dixie Bohemian life of the French Quarter. A Sojourn in Paradise: Jack Robinson in 1950s New Orleans features more than one hundred photographs taken by the artist, accompanied by detailed commentary about Robinson's life in New Orleans and excerpts from interviews with the people who knew him when he lived there. Robinson's photographs of New Orleans reveal the genesis of two unique and fascinating facets of the city's history and culture: the creation of the first gay Carnival krewes who would make their own unique contribution to the rich cultural history of the city and the formation of the Orleans Gallery, one of the earliest centers of the contemporary art movement blossoming in 1950s America. This detailed study of Jack Robinson's early life and photography illustrates the contributions of a gifted, gay artist whose quiet spirit and constant interior struggle found refuge in New Orleans, the city where he was able to find himself, for a time, free from society's grip and open to exploring life on his own terms.

In 1949, Margaret Norquay moved with her new husband, a minister with the United Church of Canada, to Mayerthorpe, in northern Alberta, a village in the centre of what was in those days a pioneer hinterland. "Broad Is the Way" is a collection of stories from their seven years there. Told with affection and gentle humour, the stories cover the challenges, heartaches, and delights of a young community and a minister and his wife in a very new marriage. Topics include the experience of orphan children sent to work on Western farms, manoeuvring for a restroom downtown for farmers' wives in need of a place to change their babies while their husbands did business, dealing with the RCMP over liquor found in the church basement, and the generosity of spirit shown by the community to the Norquays. Throughout the book, Margaret Norquay's indomitable spirit and determination are evident and illustrate her passionate belief in making positive change and having fun while doing it.

Adolph Sutro was forever seeking challenges. Emigrating from Prussia to the U.S. at age 20, the California gold rush lured him west. At the Comstock Lode in Nevada, he conceived an idea for a tunnel to drain the hot water that made the mines perilous and inefficient. But he would have to overcome both physical obstacles and powerful opposition by the Bank of California to realize his vision. Back in San Francisco, Sutro bought one twelfth of the city, including the famous Cliff House perched over the Pacific Ocean. When it burned to cinders on Christmas Day, 1894, he built a massive, eight-story Victorian replacement. He used his expertise in tunneling and water solutions to create the world's largest enclosed swimming structure, the Sutro Baths-six glass-covered heated saltwater pools with capacity of 1,000 swimmers. Other challenges followed but Sutro was not invincible. After a two-year term as mayor of San Francisco, he succumbed to debilitating strokes which left him senile. His death in 1898 started disputes among his heirs-six children by his wife and two by his mistress-that lasted more than a decade.

Forgotten Lives explores the lives and work of Lenin's sisters, Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia, and the role they played in the Russian Revolution. It traces their early revolutionary careers and contributions to the underground movement, their work for the Party and the State after October 1917, and their relationship with Lenin and Stalin.

In this ground-breaking collection, a team of leading experts offer a detailed examination of under-researched aspects of Soviet political repression in the 1930s. Drawing on archival documents and materials that have received little attention in Western historiography, much of the information detailed here is in English for the first time.

This book shows how the totalitarian ideology of the Soviet period shaped the practices of Soviet theatre for youth. It weaves together politics, pedagogy and aesthetics to reveal the complex intersections between theatre and its socio-historical conditions. It paints a picture of the theatrical developments from 1917 through to the new millennium.

Our understanding of the dynamics of Communist systems was substantially improved by taking political culture into account. But how much does the concept of political culture add to our empirical understanding of post-Communist Russia? The book's contributors engage with theoretical debates between political culture and competing 'rational choice' and institutionalist approaches to post-Soviet politics, and provide illustrative empirical studies of civic participation, views of national identity, the Russian criminal justice system and political violence.

Studies of seventeenth-century New Mexico have largely overlooked the soldiers and frontier settlers who formed the backbone of the colony and laid the foundations of European society in a distant outpost of Spain's North American empire. This book, the final volume in the Coronado Historical Series, recognizes the career of Juan Dominguez de Mendoza, a soldier-colonist who was as instrumental as any governor or friar in shaping Hispano-Indian society in New Mexico. Dominguez de Mendoza served in New Mexico from age thirteen to fifty-eight as a stalwart defender of Spain's interests during the troubled decades before the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Because of his successful career, the archives of Mexico and Spain provide extensive information on his activities. The documents translated in this volume reveal more cooperative relations between Spaniards and Pueblo Indians than previously understood.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
The first full account of how the Cold War arms race finally came to a close, this riveting narrative history sheds new light on the people who struggled to end this era of massive overkill, and examines the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today.
Drawing on memoirs, interviews in both Russia and the US, and classified documents from deep inside the Kremlin, David E. Hoffman examines the inner motives and secret decisions of each side and details the deadly stockpiles that remained unsecured as the Soviet Union collapsed. This is the fascinating story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and a previously unheralded collection of scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies changed the course of history.

The first book to analyze the distinct leader cults that flourished in the era of 'High Stalinism' as an integral part of the system of dictatorial rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Fifteen studies explore the way in which these cults were established, their function and operation, their dissemination and reception, the place of the cults in art and literature, the exportation of the Stalin cult and its implantment in the communist states of Eastern Europe, and the impact which de-Stalinisation had on these cults.

The great majority of the South's plantation homes have been destroyed over time, and many have long been forgotten. In "Lost Plantations of the South," Marc R. Matrana weaves together photographs, diaries and letters, architectural renderings, and other rare documents to tell the story of sixty of these vanquished estates and the people who once called them home.

From plantations that were destroyed by natural disaster such as Alabama's Forks of Cypress, to those that were intentionally demolished such as Seven Oaks in Louisiana and Mount Brilliant in Kentucky, Matrana resurrects these lost mansions. Including plantations throughout the South as well as border states, Matrana carefully tracks the histories of each from the earliest days of construction to the often contentious struggles to preserve these irreplaceable historic treasures. "Lost Plantations of the South" explores the root causes of demise and provides understanding and insight on how lessons learned in these sad losses can help prevent future preservation crises. Capturing the voices of masters and mistresses alongside those of slaves, and featuring more than one hundred elegant archival illustrations, this book explores the powerful and complex histories of these cardinal homes across the South.

In August 1972, military leader and despot Idi Amin expelled Asian Ugandans from the country, professing to return control of the economy to "Ugandan citizens." Within ninety days, 50,000 Ugandans of South Asian descent were forced to leave and seek asylum elsewhere; nearly 8,000 resettled in Canada. This major migration event marked the first time Canada accepted a large group of predominantly Muslim, non-European, non-white refugees.Shezan Muhammedi's Gifts from Amin documents how these women, children, and men-including doctors, engineers, business leaders, and members of Muhammedi's own family-responded to the threat in Uganda and rebuilt their lives in Canada. Building on extensive archival research and oral histories, Muhammedi provides a nuanced case study on the relationship between public policy, refugee resettlement, and assimilation tactics in the twentieth century. He demonstrates how displaced peoples adeptly maintain multiple regional, ethnic, and religious identities while negotiating new citizenship. Not passive recipients of international aid, Ugandan Asian refugees navigated various bureaucratic processes to secure safe passage to Canada, applied for family reunification, and made concerted efforts to integrate into-and give back to-Canadian society, all the while reshaping Canada's refugee policies in ways still evident today. As the numbers of forcibly displaced people around the world continue to rise, Muhammedi's analysis of policymaking and refugee experience is eminently relevant. The first major oral history project dedicated to the stories of Ugandan Asian refugees in Canada, Gifts from Amin explores the historical context of their expulsion from Uganda, the multiple motivations behind Canada's decision to admit them, and their resilience over the past fifty years.

This book examines the response of the Western Alliance to the Polish Crisis (1980-83). The author analyses the different views of Europe and the United States regarding enforcement in East-West relations and the opposition in Western Europe to the American approach. This case exemplifies the lasting differences in attitude within the Western Alliance.

In 1883, the Russian police established the Foreign Agentura in Paris. The bureau's brief: to forewarn Tsardom of terrorist plans and, if possible, to defuse acts of terrorism against high personages by revolutionaries operating under European sanctuary. As the revolutionary emigration expanded, the Foreign Agentura reacted by spreading its tentacles across Europe and England. With the help of their European colleagues, the Tsar's agents tackled and drove back this terrorist force, proving themselves invaluable in the evolution of political policing.