To borrow a hackneyed phrase, Nigeria has had a chequered political history before and since independence from British colonial rule on October 1, 1960. Two sets of actors - the civilian politicians and the military politicians - have been on the national political stage since January 15, 1966. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was one of them. In his eight years in power as president, or perhaps more correctly as military president, he affected the course of Nigeria's events, for better or for worse, in a way that few, if any, before him did. It is not possible to tell Nigeria's story without Babangida's part in it. The book is the story of IBB, the little orphan from Minna, Niger State and his meticulous rise to the top of his profession and the leadership of his country. Perhaps, more importantly, it is the story of Nigeria, its post-independence politics and power, told from the perspective of the actions and decisions of one of the main actors on the country's political stage. The events that shaped the Babangida era did not begin on August 27, 1985, the day he staged a palace coup against General Muhammadu Buhari. They began long before that. This book is the definitive story of the military, politics and power in Nigeria. ______________________________ Dan Agbese holds degrees in mass communications and journalism from the University of Lagos and Columbia University, New York, respectively. He is a former editor of The Nigeria Standard, the New Nigerian as well as former general manager of Radio Benue. Agbese was one of the founders of the trail-blazing weekly newsmagazine in Nigeria, Newswatch. He was until April 2010 the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including Nigeria their Nigeria, Fellow Nigerians, The Reporter's Companion, Style: A Guide to Good Writing and The Columnist's Companion: The Art and Craft of Column Writing. Agbese is also a highly-regarded newspaper columnist.

Despite the boycott Hamas was subjected to since its victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections, it has become a significant player on the international stage. It boasts a territory identifiable by its borders, internationally recognized cease-fire lines and effective authority over a population. This book, a study in international relations, shows how Hamas willingly mobilizes Palestinian internal issues to establish its legitimacy on a global scale, and at the same time, uses its relations with non-Palestinian players to compete against its political rivals on the Palestinian national stage. Leila Seurat reveals that Hamas's foreign and internal policy are strongly intertwined and centred mainly on Hamas's quest for recognition. The book then is a comprehensive diplomatic history of Palestine, focused on the political orientations of Hamas towards both Israel and other countries. Its coverage spans the movement's victory in 2006 up until more recent momentous events, including, Hamas' response to Trump's 'deal of the century' and Israel's announcement of the annexation of the Jordan Valley, as well as the proclamation of normalization accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the impact of Covid19. The book is based on Leila Seurat's extensive fieldwork and interviews with Hamas's leading officials across the West Bank, Gaza, Damascus, Geneva and Beirut in addition to recent video-conferences planned by various NGOs and attended by West Bank, Gaza and Diaspora Palestinians.

Prince, Pen, and Sword offers a synoptic interpretation of rulers and elites in Eurasia from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Four core chapters zoom in on the tensions and connections at court, on the nexus between rulers and religious authority, on the status, function, and self-perceptions of military and administrative elites respectively. Two additional concise chapters provide a focused analysis of the construction of specific dynasties (the Golden Horde and the Habsburgs) and narratives of kingship found in fiction throughout Eurasia. The contributors and editors, authorities in their fields, systematically bring together specialised literature on numerous Eurasian kingdoms and empires. This book is a careful and thought-provoking experiment in the global, comparative and connected history of rulers and elites.

In Cultural and Political Imaginaries in Putin's Russia scholars scrutinise developments in official symbolical, cultural and social policies as well as the contradictory trajectories of important cultural, social and intellectual trends in Russian society after the year 2000. Engaging experts on Russia from several academic fields, the book offers case studies on the vicissitudes of cultural policies, political ideologies and imperial visions, on memory politics on the grassroot as well as official levels, and on the links between political and national imaginaries and popular culture in fields as diverse as fashion design and pro-natalist advertising. Contributors are Niklas Bernsand, Lena Jonson, Ekaterina Kalinina, Natalija Majsova, Olga Malinova, Alena Minchenia, Elena Morenkova-Perrier, Elena Rakhimova-Sommers, Andrei Rogatchevski, Tomas Sniegon, Igor Torbakov, Barbara Toernquist-Plewa, and Yuliya Yurchuk.

In this rich compilation, Emeka Nwosu takes the reader to a journey of the issues that have helped to shape discourses on various aspects of the Nigerian state and society. The articles, originally published in his weekly column in the premier Nigerian daily newspaper, ThisDay, not only show his perspectives on these issues when they were written but also reveal how discussions on some of those issues have evolved over time and how they have mutated today. Journalists, especially those who maintain regular columns, are often said to write 'history in a hurry'. For experienced writers like the author whose writings are research-based, it does not mean that what they write about is factually wrong but simply that their writings are infused with the passions and emotions that attended those issues as they unfolded. This collection is therefore not only informed commentaries on some of the issues that have shaped the contour of the Nigerian state and society over the years but a good trip on the passions and emotions that attended those discourses. The articles, 66 of them, are written with remarkable candour and gusto and therefore a delight to read. They form a very important contribution to the corpus of works on Nigerian politics and society. _____________________________________ Emeka Nwosu studied political science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and also holds a Master's degree in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the University of Lagos. He equally holds a certificate in journalism from the Centre for Foreign Journalists (CFJ), Reston, Virginia, USA. Mr. Nwosu who has over 20 years experience in journalism, worked for several years with the Daily Times of Nigeria, once Nigeria's flagship newspaper and rose to become the Group political editor of the paper as well as a Member of its Editorial Board. Between 1990 and 1994, he was the National Chairman, National Association of Political Correspondents. He was also the Special Assistant to the late Senate President Evan Enwerem on Media and Public Affairs (1999-2000) and Assistant Director in The Presidency (2000-2006). Besides his weekly column for ThisDay, he is also the Special Adviser to the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives on Research and Documentation

For decades, the writings of James MacGregor Burns have defined the central issues in our understanding of leadership. Their impact is illustrated here through ten chapters exploring Burns' research on presidential leadership and related issues of moral and effective leadership, the nature of social change and transformation, and the subtleties of the relationships between leaders and followers. Exploring history through the dynamics of leadership, this extraordinary volume outlines the dynamics of social change and transformation and illustrates how leaders shape followers' motivations. The transactional and transforming leadership of various US presidents are considered within broader questions of personal ethics, conflict and compromise, and historical contingency. The presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson in particular transformed American society and American politics. The essays in this book explore the several ways they fought for enduring human values using power resources that aroused and satisfied deep human motives and tested the limits of leadership effectiveness and morality. Students of leadership, the US Presidency, the American founding, and history more generally will find this book enlightening. Scholars and leaders in business, psychology and philosophy with also find much of value given James MacGregor Burns's insightful analysis across a wide field of disciplines. Contributors include: S.T. Allison, D. Bradburn, J.B. Ciulla, R.A. Couto, T.E. Cronin, G.R. Goethals, G.R. Hickman, E.J. Larso, G. Sorenson, P. Spero

This book discusses five cases of hatred politics on the margins of global capital: Turkey under Erdogan (assumed office in 2003), Hungary under Orban (assumed office in 2010), India under Modi (assumed office in 2014); the Philippines under Duterte (assumed office in 2016) and Brazil under Bolsonaro (assumed office in 2019). How did they come to power? What strategies of legitimation do they employ? What resistances do they face? Country case studies lay the foundation for a systematic comparison that illuminates the key dynamics of this novel political form. Analyses of their responses to the Covid-19 pandemic further shed light on their methods in a time of crisis and a chapter that considers the Trump presidency indicates how we can understand these leaderships given their pronounced counterpart in the Global North - and vice-versa. This is not a mere collection of texts commissioned from specialists, but the result of a two-year-long collective endeavor: an international taskforce to respond to a global phenomenon. Contributors are: Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos, Daniel Feldmann, Agnes Gagyi, Daniel Geary, Tamas Gerocs, Sefika Kumral, Cecilia Lero, Devika Misra, Ilhan Can Ozen and Aparna Sundar.

Known as the "savior of the Union" during the Civil War, General Grant went on to serve as the 18th president of the United States from 1869-1877. This first volume of his memoirs was completed just days prior to his death from throat cancer in 1885.

This book tells the story of 1960-a tumultuous, transitional year that unleashed the forces that eventually reshaped the American nation and the entire planet, to the joy of millions and the sorrow of millions more. In 1960, attitudes were changing; barriers were falling. It was a transitional year, during which the world as we know it today was beginning to take shape. While other books have focused on the presidential contest between Kennedy and Nixon, A New World to Be Won: John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and the Tumultuous Year of 1960 illuminates the emerging forces that would transform the nation and the world during the 1960s, putting the election in the broader context of American history-and world history as well. While the author does devote a large portion of this book to the 1960 presidential campaign, he also highlights four pivotal trends that changed life for decades to come: unprecedented scientific breakthroughs, ranging from the Xerox copier to new spacecraft for manned flight; fragmentation of the international power structure, notably the schism between the Soviet Union and China; the pursuit of freedom, both through the civil rights movement at home and the drive for independence in Africa; and the elevation of pleasure and self-expression in American culture, largely as a result of federal approval of the birth-control pill and the increasing popularity of illegal drugs. Photographs of key newsmakers and important events throughout the year A bibliography with a detailed listing of more than 400 sources, including oral histories, government publications, memoirs, and journals A comprehensive index by name and subject Footnotes for the full manuscript

Abraham Lincoln remains one of the greatest political figures in American history. Although his portrait and achievements as a statesman are well recorded, little is known about his personal life. This light and enjoyable biography, published at the beginning of the 20th century, fills this gap by portraying a more human and accessible Lincoln.

There exists considerable disagreement about whether the United States president has a direct and measurable influence over the economy. The analysis presented in Economic Actors, Economic Behaviors, and Presidential Leadership suggests that while the presidents have increased their rhetoric regarding the economy, they have not had much success in shaping it. Despite attempts to tailor rhetoric to influence specific actors, the presidents are incredibly ineffective. Considering this research, Arthur argues that the president s decision to address the economy so often must stem from a symbolic placation or institutional necessity that is intended to comfort constituencies or somehow garner electoral advocacy from the party s base. No other viable explanation exists given the lack of results presidents obtain from discussing the economy and their persistent determination to do so. This discrepancy suggests that presidential rhetoric on the economy is, at best, a tool used to appear concerned about the economy to everyone and toeing the party-line to their base. Moreover, it allows them to present the facade to their constituents that they are in control of a crucial facet of American life."

Azzam Tamimi introduces the thought of Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, the renowned Islamist political activist who heads Tunisia's most important Islamist political party, Ennahda, previously banned by the authoritarian regime of Zine Abidine Ben Ali, and now the main party in the tripartite government in Tunisia. Ghannouchi, who lived in exile for many years as he was hunted by the Tunisian regime, is also the leader of a school in modern Islamic political thought that advocates democracy and pluralism. While insisting on the compatibility of democracy with Islam, he believes that because of their secular foundations, contemporary forms of liberal democracy may not suit Muslim societies. Ghannouchi insists, however, that Islam is compatible with Western thought in matters concerning the system of government, human rights, and civil liberties. Tamimi does an excellent job in unpacking Ghannouchi the person, the political activist, and the scholar. His treatment of Ghannouchi’s ideology is unique and highlights why Ghannouchi is probably the deepest and most important Islamist intellectual of our time.

No cabe duda que la historia de los Estados Unidos es muy significativa, porque esta plagada de hechos sin precedentes, que marcaron el destino de la nacion mas poderosa del mundo, cuna de la democracia y la libertad. Pero en esa historia intervinieron una serie de hombres, todos lideres, que pusieron su mejor esfuerzo para dejar constancia de su paso por la silla presidencial. Evidentemente los resultados se han dejado ver, por ello, esta obra es interesante, ya que data de las biografias de cada uno de los presidentes, desde George Washington, hasta Barack Obama. "Residentes de la Casa Blanca" cita las fechas precisas de nacimiento, fallecimiento, duracion gubernamental, y hechos mas relevantes de los gobernantes, asi como una fotografia alusiva a cada mandatario. Seguramente, este opusculo sera muy interesante para aquellos que decidan ponerlo en sus manos, para saber como se levanto un erial en la primera potencia en el ambito internacional.

Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) wrote remarkably little about himself, but he has attracted the attention of many writers, politicians, and scholars, both during his lifetime and ever since. His controversial and provocative role in Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) wrote remarkably little about himself, but he has attracted the attention of many writers, politicians, and scholars, both during his lifetime and ever since. His controversial and provocative role in Irish and British affairs had him vilified as a murderer in The Times, and afterwards dramatically vindicated by the Westminster Parliament. It cast him as a romantic hero to the young James Joyce, and a self-serving opportunist to the journalists of the Nation. Parnell has been the subject of court cases, parliamentary enquiries and debates, journalism, plays, poems, literary analysis and historical studies. For the first time all these have been collected, catalogued and cross-referenced in one volume, an invaluable resource for scholars of late nineteenth century Ireland and Britain. Divided into fifteen chapters, including a biographical sketch, this volume contains information on manuscript and archival collections, printed primary sources, Parnell's writing, Parnell's speeches in the House of Commons and outside Parliament, contemporary journalism, contemporary writing, and contemporary illustrations on Irish affairs, and a substantial list of scholarly work, including biographies, books, articles, chapters, and theses.

Founding Fathers Four Pack includes the American classic The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, the lesser-known, concise Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, the biography Alexander Hamilton by Charles A. Conant and an insightful essay on John Jay by Elbert Hubbard.