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Books > Humanities > History
Specters of Revolution chronicles the subaltern political history of peasant guerrilla movements that emerged in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero during the late 1960s. The National Revolutionary Civic Association (ACNR) and the Party of the Poor (PDLP), led by schoolteachers Genaro Vazquez and Lucio Cabanas, respectively, organized popularly-backed revolutionary armed struggles that sought the overthrow of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Both guerrilla organizations materialized from a decades-long history of massacres and everyday forms of terror committed by local-regional political bosses and the Mexican federal government against citizen social movements that demanded the redemption of constitutional rights. The book reveals that these revolutionary movements developed after years of exhausting legal, constitutional pathways of redress (focused on issues of economic justice and electoral rights) and surviving several state-directed massacres throughout the 1960s. As such, the peasant guerrillas represented only the final phase of a social process with roots in the unfulfilled promises of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and the dual capitalist modernization-political authoritarian program adopted by the PRI after 1940. The history of the ACNR and PDLP guerrillas, and the brutal counterinsurgency waged against them by the PRI regime, challenges Mexico's place within the historiography of post-1945 Latin America. At the local and regional levels parts of Mexico like Guerrero experienced instances of authoritarian rule, popular political radicalization, and brutal counterinsurgency that fully inserts the nation into a Cold War Latin American history of state terror and "dirty wars." This study simultaneously exposes the violent underbelly that underscored the PRI's ruling tenure after 1940 and explodes the myth that Mexico constituted an island of relative peace and stability surrounded by a sea of military dictatorships during the Cold War.
Who were the Victorians? Were they self-confident imperialists
secure in the virtues of the home, and ruled by the values of
authority, duty, religion and respectability? Or were they
self-doubting and hypocritical prudes whose family life was
authoritarian and loveless? Ever since Lytton Strachey mocked
Florence Nightingale and General Gordon in Eminent Victorians, the
reputation of the Victorians, and of what they stood for, has been
the subject of vigorous debate.
This collection seeks to illustrate the ways in which Thomas Mann's 1924 novel, The Magic Mountain, has been newly construed by some of today's most astute readers in the field of Mann studies. The essays, many of which were written expressly for this volume, comment on some of the familiar and inescapable topics of Magic Mountain scholarship, including the questions of genre and ideology, the philosophy of time, and the ominous subjects of disease and medical practice. Moreover, this volume offers fresh approaches to the novel's underlying notions of masculinity, to its embodiment of the cultural code of anti-Semitism, and to its precarious relationship to the rival media of photography, cinema, and recorded sound.
On November 1, 1957, traffic officially opened on the Mackinac
Bridge. That was the culmination of 70 years of talking and
dreaming about a bridge across
The City: A World History tells the story of the rise and development of urban centers from ancient times to the twenty-first century. It begins with the establishment of the first cities in the Near East in the fourth millennium BCE, and goes on to examine urban growth in the Indus River Valley in India, as well as Egypt and areas that bordered the Mediterranean Sea. Athens, Alexandria, and Rome stand out both politically and culturally. With the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, European cities entered into a long period of waning and deterioration. But elsewhere, great cities-among them, Constantinople, Baghdad, Chang'an, and Tenochtitlan-thrived. In the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, urban growth resumed in Europe, giving rise to cities like Florence, Paris, and London. This urban growth also accelerated in parts of the world that came under European control, such as Philadelphia in the nascent United States. As the Industrial Revolution swept through in the nineteenth century, cities grew rapidly. Their expansion resulted in a slew of social problems and political disruptions, but it was accompanied by impressive measures designed to improve urban life. Meanwhile, colonial cities bore the imprint of European imperialism. Finally, the book turns to the years since 1914, guided by a few themes: the impact of war and revolution; urban reconstruction after 1945; migration out of many cities in the United States into growing suburbs; and the explosive growth of "megacities" in the developing world.
In Marblehead Myths, Legends and Lore, author Pam Peterson recounts the oral and written accounts that Marbleheaders have handed down over the past four hundred years. Here you will find stories of magic and witches, sailors, pirates and shipwrecks. Compiled with meticulous care, Marblehead Myths, Legends and Lore offers a diverse sampling of tales from one of New England's maritime treasures.
Markets and fairs played a fundamental part in the commerce of the Mediterranean region in the Roman period. But where were they held, and what commodities were sold there? Using evidence from archaeology, inscriptions, and literary sources, Dr Frayn builds up a detailed and enlivening picture of stalls and stallholders, profiteering, and price control in ancient Italy, and invites comparison with medieval and modern practices. Besides the macella, or permanent markets in towns, Dr Frayn also looks at the much more numerous nundinae, or local markets, held every eight days, and the many fairs and festivals throughout Italy where retailing took place, often associated with shrines and characterized by religious motifs. The book includes a discussion of the economic and social effects of markets and fairs, including their relation to geography, demography, and modern `central place theory'. There is also a chapter on market law, which can be traced from the ius commercii to the supervision of weights, measures, and pricing. As trade contacts widened, and merchandise grew more diverse, markets and marketing evolved with increasing complexity into a highly developed system, which in the wake of conquest came to influence larger areas of inter-regional trade.
From Harmond Husband's rebellious roots that led him to settle in and establish the village of Somerset to the Meyers family of maple fame, Pulling includes images from many of Somerset's treasured boroughs. As the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor wound its way through central Pennsylvania and coal mining towns like Boswell and Jerome sprang up across the countryside, Somerset County changed and evolved with the times. Pulling revives the lost memories of curiosities like the ?Ship of the Alleghenies? and extols the virtues of the snowmakers at the Seven Springs resort. She also recounts the tragic accident at the Quecreek mine that trapped nine miners for more than three days, and shares the sorrow and mourning of the community of Shanksville?forever changed on September 11. Join Sister Pulling as she relives the triumphs and tragedies, the heroes and headliners of this historic mountain county.
This book explores the impact of brutalist aesthetics on contemporary capitalism, emphasizing the blurring of natural and artificial realms and advocates Afro-diasporic thought as a solution for societal transformation. Eminent social and critical theorist Achille Mbembe invokes the architectural aesthetic of brutalism in his latest book to describe society’s current moment, caught up in the pathos of demolition and production on a planetary scale. Just as brutalist architecture creates an affect of overwhelming weight and destruction, Mbembe contends that contemporary capitalism crushes and dominates all spheres of existence. In our digital, technologically focused era, capitalism has produced a becoming-artificial of humanity and the becoming-human of machines. This blurring of the natural and artificial presents a planetary existential threat in which contemporary society’s goal is to precipitate the mutation of the human species into a condition that is at once plastic and synthetic. Mbembe argues that Afro-diasporic thought presents the only solution for breaking the totalizing logic of contemporary capitalism: repairing that which is broken, developing a new planetary consciousness, and reforming a community of humans in solidarity with all living things.
Photos filled with the forlorn faces of hungry and impoverished
Americans that came to characterize the desolation of the Great
Depression are among the best known artworks of the twentieth
century. Captured by the camera's eye, these stark depictions of
suffering became iconic markers of a formative period in U.S.
history. Although there has been an ample amount of critical
inquiry on Depression-era photographs, the bulk of scholarship
treats them as isolated art objects. And yet they were often joined
together with evocative writing in a genre that flourished amid the
period, the documentary book. American Modernism and Depression
Documentary looks at the tradition of the hybrid, verbal-visual
texts that flourished during a time when U.S. citizens were
becoming increasingly conscious of the life of a larger nation.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Oregons legendary bridge engineer Conde B. McCullough designed a first-rate collection of aesthetic bridges on the Oregon Coast Highway to enhance an already dramatic and beautiful landscape. The six largest of these, at Gold Beach, Newport, Waldport, Florence, Reedsport, and Coos Bay, eliminated the last ferries on the Oregon Coast Highway between the Columbia River and California. McCullough planned to build one bridge each year after completion of the Rogue River Bridge at Gold Beach in 1932, but the tightening grip of the Depression threatened his plans. In 1933, McCullough and his staff worked day and night to finish plans for the remaining five bridges, and in early 1934, the Public Works Administration funded simultaneous construction of them. The combined projects provided approximately 630 jobs, but at least six workers perished during construction. After the bridges were complete, Oregon coast tourism increased by a dramatic 72 percent in the first year.
Your guide to the people, places and events that made Gainesville the thriving city and educational center it is today. Gainesville, Florida, was established in the early 1850s in an area of Alachua County known for cotton farming, cattle and citrus. It soon became known for education, with many fine private schools. The arrival of the railroads made it a crossroads town that grew to be the state's fourth-largest city. The arrival in 1906 of what became the University of Florida gave Gainesville the major state-supported institution of higher education, and thereafter the city and the university were inextricably entwined. The city has grown to be a comfortable place to live, and the university is now one of the largest in the nation, with an international reputation for academics and sports.Local historian and UF Law School graduate Steve Rajtar leads you through the decades with words and pictures. An A-to-Z street guide is included to help you explore the historic homes, churches and other sites of historic Gainesville on your own.
The black community in the Ann Arbor area includes Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Second Baptist Church, Brown Chapel, the Ann Arbor Community Center, the old Jones School, and other well-remembered places. The photographs representing this history follow the progress of the African American community from 1857, when the Rev. J. M. Gregory gathered together a small congregation at 504 High Street, to 1996, when Dr. Homer Neal assumed leadership of the University of Michigan as its interim president. This integral but little-known part of Ann Arbor area history is preserved in Another Ann Arbor.
?In the fall of the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty, when the American cause wore a very gloomy aspect in the Southern States, Colonels Arthur and William Campbell, hearing of the advance of Colonel Ferguson along the mountains in the State of North Carolina... formed a plan to intercept him.? ?Ensign Robert Campbell On October 7, 1780, American Patriot and Loyalist soldiers battled each other at Kings Mountain, near the border of North and South Carolina. With over one hundred eyewitness accounts, this collection of participant statements from men of both sides includes letters and statements in their original form?the soldiers? own words? unedited and unabridged. Rife with previously unpublished details of this historic turning point in the American Revolution, these accounts expose the dramatic happenings of the battle, including new perspectives on the debate over Patriot Colonel William Campbell's bravery during the fi ght. Robert M. Dunkerly's work is an invaluable resource to historians studying the fl ow of combat, genealogists tracing their ancestors and anyone interested in Kings Mountain and the Southern Campaign.
"None of that people should be spared, not even the babe in its cradle." With these chilling words, the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan declared his intention to destroy the Ismailis, one of the most intellectually and politically significant Muslim communities of medieval Islamdom. The massacres that followed convinced observers that this powerful voice of Shi'i Islam had been forever silenced. Little was heard of these people for centuries, until their recent and dramatic emergence from obscurity. Today they exist as a dynamic and thriving community established in over twenty-five countries. Yet the interval between what appeared to have been their total annihilation, and their modern, seemingly phoenix-like renaissance, has remained shrouded in mystery. Drawing on an astonishing array of sources gathered from many countries around the globe, The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation is a richly nuanced and compelling study of the murkiest portion of this era. In probing the period from the dark days when the Ismaili fortresses in Iran fell before the marauding Mongol hordes, to the emergence at Anjudan of the Ismaili Imams who provided a spiritual centre to a scattered community, this work explores the motivations, passions and presumptions of historical actors. With penetrating insight, Shafique N. Virani examines the rich esoteric thought that animated the Ismailis and enabled them to persevere. A work of remarkable erudition, this landmark book is essential reading for scholars of Islamic history and spirituality, Shi'ism and Iran. Both specialists and informed lay readers will take pleasure not only in its scholarly perception, but in its lively anecdotes, quotations of delightful poetry, and gripping narrative style. This is an extraordinary book of historical beauty and spiritual vision.
This inquiry into the technical advances that shaped the 20th
century follows the evolutions of all the principal innovations
introduced before 1913 (as detailed in the first volume) as well as
the origins and elaborations of all fundamental 20th century
advances. The history of the 20th century is rooted in amazing
technical advances of 1871-1913, but the century differs so
remarkably from the preceding 100 years because of several
unprecedented combinations. The 20th century had followed on the
path defined during the half century preceding the beginning of
World War I, but it has traveled along that path at a very
different pace, with different ambitions and intents. The new
century's developments elevated both the magnitudes of output and
the spatial distribution of mass industrial production and to new
and, in many ways, virtually incomparable levels. Twentieth century
science and engineering conquered and perfected a number of
fundamental challenges which remained unresolved before 1913, and
which to many critics appeared insoluble. This book is organized in
topical chapters dealing with electricity, engines, materials and
syntheses, and information techniques. It concludes with an
extended examination of contradictory consequences of our admirable
technical progress by confronting the accomplishments and perils of
systems that brought liberating simplicity as well as overwhelming
complexity, that created unprecedented affluence and equally
unprecedented economic gaps, that greatly increased both our
security and fears as well as our understanding and ignorance, and
that provided the means for greater protection of the biosphere
while concurrently undermining some of the keybiophysical
foundations of life on Earth.
Texas and California are the leaders of Red and Blue America. As the nation has polarized, its most populous and economically powerful states have taken charge of the opposing camps. These states now advance sharply contrasting political and policy agendas and view themselves as competitors for control of the nation's future. Kenneth P. Miller provides a detailed account of the rivalry's emergence, present state, and possible future. First, he explores why, despite their many similarities, the two states have become so deeply divided. As he shows, they experienced critical differences in their origins and in their later demographic, economic, cultural, and political development. Second, he describes how Texas and California have constructed opposing, comprehensive policy models-one conservative, the other progressive. Miller highlights the states' contrasting policies in five areas-tax, labor, energy and environment, poverty, and social issues-and also shows how Texas and California have led the red and blue state blocs in seeking to influence federal policy in these areas. The book concludes by assessing two models' strengths, vulnerabilities, and future prospects. The rivalry between the two states will likely continue for the foreseeable future, because California will surely stay blue and Texas will likely remain red. The challenge for the two states, and for the nation as a whole, is to view the competition in a positive light and turn it to productive ends. Exploring one of the primary rifts in American politics, Texas vs. California sheds light on virtually every aspect of the country's political system.
As Remembering St. Petersburg, Florida, More Sunshine City Stories unfolds, it is the dawn of 1913. North of Central Avenue the members of the St. Petersburg Women's Club are beginning to advance city improvements. South of Central Avenue black children are witnessing the opening of Davis Academy, an institution that will help prepare them to tear down the walls of hardship and prejudice. Within the past decade, author Scott Taylor Hartzell has chronicled the Sunshine City's history for the St. Petersburg Times and in his books, St. Petersburg: An Oral History and Remembering St. Petersburg, Florida, Sunshine City Stories. He has tirelessly promoted the city's history to middle school students, lecture audiences at Eckerd and St. Petersburg colleges, and numerous groups and civic organizations. This book furthers his efforts in grand fashion, offering a look at St. Petersburg's history that cannot be found anywhere else.
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, hidden in the northeast region of Georgia, lies - literally and figuratively - one of the Peach State's most treasured areas. Dahlonega, Georgia is known primarily as the site of the first major United States gold rush. But now, as the gold dust has settled, we can look back on the town's complex history - a history more valuable than its famous abundance of precious metal. Dahlonega, Georgia: A Brief History, is not to be confused with works focusing solely on the distant past. The most up-to-date account available, Dahlonega, Georgia even includes the famous 2006 discovery of gold underneath an old hotel. Anne Dismukes Amerson, author of "The Best of I Remember Dahlonega," once again brings vitality and passion to her account as she explores the intriguing history of this beautiful Georgia city.
In recent years, San Francisco has been synonymous with gay and lesbian pride, and the various achievements of the gay and lesbian community are personified in the city by the bay. The tumultuous and ongoing struggles for this community's civil rights from the 1950s to the present are well documented, but queer culture itself goes back much further than that, in fact all the way back to the California gold rush.
On June 29, 1776, Fr. Francisco Palou dedicated the first site of Mission San Francisco de Asis on the shores of Dolores Lagoon. At the time, it was a just a patch in the village of Chutchuii, the home of the Ohlone people, and Palou could never have foreseen the vibrant city that would eventually spring up around the humble settlement. The final mission building, popularly known as Mission Dolores and San Francisco's oldest complete structure, was dedicated on August 2, 1791, at what became Sixteenth and Dolores Streets. After the gold rush, the district around the mission began its dramatic evolution to the diverse area we know today, a bustling mix of immigrants from other states, Europe, and South and Central America.
Introduced in 1918 as an award for bravery in the field, the Military Medal was almost immediately open to women. During its 80 year existence, the Military Medal was awarded to women on only 146 occasions, the vast majority during the First World War. This volume provides the definitive roll of recipients together with citations, many of which were not available at the time, plus service and biographical detail. Over 80% of the entries are accompanied by a photograph. The vast majority of the recipients were British, but the medal was open to women of all nationalities and the names of French and United States recipients are recorded together with allied personnel from the Empire.
Orcas Island, the largest of the 172 islands in San Juan County, lies in the Salish Sea north of Puget Sound. Known as the "Gem of the San Juans" for her shimmering emerald hills bounded by 125 miles of rocky, tree-lined shore, Orcas was home to countless generations of Native Americans before the arrival of its first white settlers, formerly Hudson's Bay men who had hunted on the island, in the late 1850s. An international boundary dispute, popularly known as the Pig War, prevented early pioneers from settling land claims until the dispute was resolved by the German kaiser in 1872. Settlement grew slowly until improved steamship routes and increased commerce brought more tourists to the island. In 1906, Robert Moran built a fabulous estate, Rosario, now a world-class resort. Thousands of visitors have been coming to Orcas Island over the years to explore her forested hills, camp in Moran State Park or stay at one of the many historic resorts, and fish in the pristine waters surrounding this island paradise.
Folly Beach native Gretchen Stringer-Robinson takes the reader through a history of this delightful beach town covering the war years, the innocence of the fifties, the recession of the seventies, Hurricane Hugo and times in between. Visiting colorful characters and beautiful locations, this book will be enjoyed by both residents and visitors. |
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