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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > Political leaders & leadership
Leonid Brezhnev was leader of the Soviet Union from 1964-1982, a longer period than any other Soviet leader apart from Stalin. During Brezhnev's time Soviet power seemed at its height and increasing. Living standards were rising, the Soviet Union was a nuclear power and successful in its space missions, and the Soviet Union's influence reached into all part of the world. Yet, as this book, which provides a comprehensive overview and reassessment of Brezhnev's life, early political career and career as leader, shows, the seeds of decline were sown in Brezhnev's time. There was a huge over-commitment of resources to the Soviet industrial-military complex and to massively expensive foreign policy overstretch. At the same time there was a failure to deliver on citizens' rising expectations, and an overconfident ignoring of dissidents and their demands. The book will be of great interest to Russian specialists, and also to scholars of international relations and world history.
During the Second World War, Churchill's cigar was such an important beacon of resistance that MI5, together with the nation's top scientists, tested the Prime Minister's supplies on mice rather than risk sabotage. Today Winston Churchill and his cigar remains a global icon, memorialised by a 107 foot statue of a cigar in Australia, while his cigar stubs are treasured as relics. Using original archival research and exclusive interviews with Churchill's staff, Stephen McGinty, an award-winning journalist, explores Churchill's passion for cigars and the solace they brought. He also examines Churchill's lasting friendship with Antonio Giraudier, the Cuban businessman who for twenty years stocked Churchill's humidor, before fleeing Castro's revolution.
Co-authored by Churchill's great-grandson - an international public speaker on the life and times of Sir Winston and the impact he still has on the world today.
'Your country needs you. Your world needs you. Your time is now.' Our politics is a mess. Leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. Governments that lie, and seek to undermine our democratic values. Policies that serve the interests of the privileged few. It's no surprise that so many of us feel frustrated, let down and drawn to ask, 'But what can I do?' That question is the inspiration behind this book. It's a question regularly posed to Alastair Campbell, not least in reaction to The Rest is Politics, the chart-topping podcast he presents with Rory Stewart. His answer, typically, is forthright and impassioned. We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. If we think things need to change, then we need to change them, and that means getting involved. But What Can I Do? provides each of us with the motivation and the tools to make a difference. Opening with an acute analysis of our polarised world and the populists and extremists who have created it, it goes on to show how we can effect change for the better. It explains how we can develop our skills of advocacy and persuasion. It draws on Alastair's long experience to offer practical tips on putting together and leading a campaign team. It provides priceless advice on developing confidence and coping with criticism and setbacks. And it sets out the practical steps by which we can become political players ourselves. Part call to arms, part practical handbook, But What Can I Do? will prove required reading for anyone who wants to make a difference.
* A unique take on how school principals can manage their overwhelming day-to-day demands while still fighting for long-term success and stability at school. * Offers strategies and practices that can be adapted by school leaders across a variety of distinct K-12 contexts. * Can serve as an ideal resource for professional development sessions or book study groups among school staff.
* Places Nixon in broad economic, political, cultural/social, and foreign policy contexts in which he operated * Take a thematic approach to the presidency * Examines Nixon's legacy * Synthesizes existing literature o the topic * Contains primary source documents including speeches and signing statements from Nixon himself
Though in recent months Putin s popularity has frayed at the edges, the dearth of comparably powerful and experienced political leaders leaves no doubt that he will continue to be a key political figure. During his tenure as Russia s President and subsequently as Prime Minister, Putin transcended politics, to become the country s major cultural icon. This book examines the nature of his iconic status. It explores his public persona as glamorous hero, endowed with vision, wisdom, moral and physical strength the man uniquely capable of restoring Russia s reputation as a global power. In analysing cultural representations of Putin, the book assesses the role of the media in constructing and disseminating this image and weighs the Russian populace s contribution to the extraordinary acclamation he enjoyed throughout the first decade of the new millennium, challenged only by a tiny minority.
Pulitzer Prize -winning reporter and dean of Trumpologists David Cay Johnston reveals years of eye-popping financial misdeeds by Donald Trump and his family. While the world watched Donald Trump's presidency in horror or delight, few noticed that his lifelong grifting quietly continued. Less than forty minutes after taking the oath of office, Trump began turning the White House into a money machine for himself, his family, and his courtiers. More than $1.7 billion flowed into Donald Trump's bank accounts during his four years as president. Foreign governments rented out whole floors of his hotel five blocks from the White House while lobbyists conducted business in the hotel's restaurants. Payday lenders and other trade groups moved their annual conventions to Trump golf resorts. And individual favor seekers joined his private Mar-a-Lago club with its $200,000 admission fee in hopes of getting a few minutes with the President. Despite earning more than $1 million every day he was in office, Trump left the White House as he arrived-hard up for cash. More than $400 million in debt comes due by 2024, and Trump still lacks the resources to pay it back. "Few people are as well positioned to write an expose of the former president as Johnston" (The Washington Post), and The Big Cheat offers a guided tour of how money flowed in and out of Trump's hundreds of enterprises, showing in simple terms how a corrupt president used our government for his benefit, even putting national security at risk. Johnston details the four most recent years of the corruption that has defined the Trump family since 1885 and reveals the costs of Trump's extravagant lifestyle for American taxpayers.
In this lively, authoritative collection, Thomas J. McInerney presents famous and lesser-known speeches, letters, and other important documents from every U.S. president from George Washington to Barack Obama. Whether printed in full or excerpted, these history-making documents are an invaluable resource as well as a fascinating browse. Including familiar documents such as the Emancipation Proclamation, to personal correspondence such as a letter from George H.W. Bush to his children, this collection brings together the famous statements that came to represent each administration with intimate glimpses into the thought processes of various presidential leaders. Now in its second edition, "Presidential Documents "has been re-designed to increase its usefulness in the classroom. Part openers introduce each era of the American presidency with a concise political and historical overview, highlighting the challenges each leader faced, and placing the documents in context. Whether used as a complement to an American history survey text or as a collection of primary documents for courses on the American Presidency, "Presidential Documents" provides an engrossing look at the work of the leaders of the United States, in all their complexity.
**AN ECONOMIST AND THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022** 'Essential and definitive' CATHERINE BELTON, author of PUTIN'S PEOPLE We are in a new era. From Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro to Erdogan, Xi and Modi, self-styled strongmen have become a central feature of global politics. At home, they claim to be standing up for ordinary people against 'globalist' elites; abroad, they posture as the embodiment of their nation. And everywhere they go, they encourage a cult of personality. How and why did this new style of authoritarian leadership arrive? How likely is it to lead the world into war and economic collapse? And what liberal forces are in place, not only to keep these strongmen in check but to reverse the trend? The Age of the Strongman explores these essential questions and offers a bold new portrait of our world. 'TIMELY, LASER-SHARP... A MUST-READ' PETER FRANKOPAN 'FORCEFUL... A BOOK WHOSE SIGNIFICANCE IS ENHANCED BY UNPREDICTABLE EVENTS' MISHA GLENNY 'WIDE-RANGING AND ASTUTE' THE ECONOMIST
The book offers a four-part leadership framework to systematically assess the leadership acumen of 8 US presidents since Watergate. The book offers readers a methodical way to compare the leadership skills of 8 recent US presidents along four dimensions of leadership: vision, execution, management, and decision-making. The book extends leadership lessons learned by recent US presidents to leaders in other sectors. The book provides practical "takeaways" for all leaders in four dimensions of leadership.
* Only synthesis of presidential transitions written by an historian * No direct competition * A synthetic work that brings in important archival research to strengthen its offering * Examining the transitions sheds light on how foreign policies are formulated in the United States government
Harnessing Formative Data for K-12 Leaders prepares school and district leaders to re-evaluate how real-time formative data can inform policy, planning, and professional development. The importance of effective formative data use has escalated since the expansion of distance learning and the integration of digital education tools, which have impacted the consistency, accuracy, availability, and actionability of data points that leaders rely on. This book's strategic insights into actionable, organizational-level formative data use will yield differentiated supports for schools to foster greater academic outcomes, a culture of equity and social-emotional well-being, and students' readiness for college, career, and lifelong learning. Each chapter includes connections to social justice, best practices for applying data points and field-tested tips for technology integration, and a host of interactive planning guides to support implementation.
This book examines how efforts to exert accountability in crises affect public trust in governing institutions. Using Sweden as the case study, this book provides a framework to analyse accountability in crises and looks at how this affects trust in government. Crises test the fabric of governing institutions. Threatening core societal values, they force elected officials and public servants to make consequential decisions under pressure and uncertainty. Public trust in governing institutions is intrinsically linked to the ability to hold decision-makers accountable for the crucial decisions they make. The book presents empirical evidence from examination of the general bases for accountability in public administration, and at the accountability mechanisms of specific administrative systems, before focusing on longer term policy changes. The author finds that within the complex web of bureaucratic and political moves democratic processes have been undermined across time contributing to misplaced and declining trust in governing institutions. Accountability in Crises and Public Trust in Governing Institutions will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of public policy, political leadership and governance.
'The political memoir of the decade' Sunday Times The #1 Sunday Times Bestseller What was it like to lead the Conservative Party back to power and form a coalition government? How does a Prime Minister turn around an economy, handle a migration crisis and respond to a rapidly changing Europe? Why call a referendum on Britain's EU membership? David Cameron answers these questions and more with a candour that extends beyond the events he faced to the people he encountered and, fascinatingly, to the things he got right and wrong. He talks too about what has happened in the four years since that momentous vote in what is the frankest insight yet into the inner workings of politics and the mind of one man who was at the heart of it.
The dramatic and meticulously researched new book from former criminal defence attorney and criminal investigator Seth Abramson into the complex web of ties surrounding Donald Trump, showing how Proof of Collusion was only the beginning of the story. In late 2015, international dealmaker and current cooperating witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation George Nader convened a secret meeting aboard a massive luxury yacht in the Red Sea. Nader pitched to several Middle Eastern leaders a plan for a new pro-US, pro-Israel alliance of Arab nations that would fundamentally alter the geopolitics of the Middle East while marginalising Iran, Syria and Turkey. To succeed, the plan would need a highly placed American politician willing to drop sanctions on Russia so that Vladimir Putin would in turn agree to end his support for Iran. The gathered leaders agreed their perfect American partner was Donald Trump, who had benefited immensely from his Saudi, Emirati and Russian dealings for many years, and who had, months earlier, become the only US presidential candidate to argue for a unilateral end to Russian sanctions. So begins New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson's explosive new book Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump's International Collusion Threatens American Democracy, a story of international intrigue whose massive cast of characters includes Israeli intelligence operatives, Russian oligarchs, Saudi death squads, American mercenary companies, Trump's innermost circle and several members of the Trump family - all part of a clandestine multinational agreement that takes us from Washington, DC and Moscow to the Middle Eastern capitals of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Jerusalem, Cairo, Tehran and Doha. Proof of Conspiracy is a chilling and unforgettable depiction of the dangers the world now faces.
First published in 2003, Decentring the Indian Nation examines the various centrifugal forces apparent in recent Indian politics. After achieving independence in 1947 India's elite opted to build a modern nation-state. This idea was carefully nurtured during the fight for freedom from British rule by the dominant Congress movement. In recent years, the idea of a centralised state has been challenged from a number of directions. Strong regional political movements have questioned the assumption that India's federal system requires a dominant centre. The related trend of identity-based mobilisation has challenged settled notions of Indian national identity. The authors discuss the idea that as a nation, India is becoming 'decentred', and consider the implications of this idea for the development of the Indian polity. This book will be of interest to students of politics, geography and development.
Winner of the George Washington Prize A fresh, original look at George Washington as an innovative land manager whose singular passion for farming would unexpectedly lead him to reject slavery. George Washington spent more of his working life farming than he did at war or in political office. For over forty years, he devoted himself to the improvement of agriculture, which he saw as the means by which the American people would attain the "respectability & importance which we ought to hold in the world." Washington at the Plow depicts the "first farmer of America" as a leading practitioner of the New Husbandry, a transatlantic movement that spearheaded advancements in crop rotation. A tireless experimentalist, Washington pulled up his tobacco and switched to wheat production, leading the way for the rest of the country. He filled his library with the latest agricultural treatises and pioneered land-management techniques that he hoped would guide small farmers, strengthen agrarian society, and ensure the prosperity of the nation. Slavery was a key part of Washington's pursuits. He saw enslaved field workers and artisans as means of agricultural development and tried repeatedly to adapt slave labor to new kinds of farming. To this end, he devised an original and exacting system of slave supervision. But Washington eventually found that forced labor could not achieve the productivity he desired. His inability to reconcile ideals of scientific farming and rural order with race-based slavery led him to reconsider the traditional foundations of the Virginia plantation. As Bruce Ragsdale shows, it was the inefficacy of chattel slavery, as much as moral revulsion at the practice, that informed Washington's famous decision to free his slaves after his death.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous and biggest democracy, celebrates her fiftieth year as an independent nation in October 2010. As the cliche states, 'As Nigeria goes, so goes Africa'. This book frames the socio-historical and political trajectory of Nigeria while examining the many dimensions of the critical choices that she has made as an independent nation. How does the social composition of interest and power illuminate the actualities and narratives of the Nigerian crisis? How have the choices made by Nigerian leaders structured, and/or have been structured by, the character of the Nigerian state and state-society relations? In what ways is Nigeria's mono-product, debt-ridden, dependent economy fed by 'the politics of plunder'? And what are the implications of these questions for the structural relationships of production, reproduction and consumption? This book confronts these questions by making state-centric approaches to understanding African countries speak to relevant social theories that pluralize and complicate our understanding of the specific challenges of a prototypical postcolonial state. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.
Barack Obama. The speculation about his religious life abounds. Is he a closet Muslim? Is he really a Christian? Does his faith have anything to do with his governing? As the picture of President Obama's faith has emerged over recent years, questions about the foundation of his beliefs continue to ignite debate. In this updated edition of his international bestseller "The Faith of Barack Obama," Stephen Mansfield explores the claims of Obama's detractors and supporters alike, while examining how the challenges of the presidency have shaped Obama's religious beliefs. This evenhanded account of the president's spiritual life provides a closer look at the people and events that have influenced his belief system. Mansfield analyzes Obama's friendship with the controversial Jeremiah Wright and also profiles the Christian leaders who have offered guidance and support during the president's challenging term. Mansfield takes you inside the religious life of Barack Obama,
introducing you to the type of preaching the president hears at
Camp David and even revealing details such as the content of the
daily devotional readings the president receives on his cell phone.
This fascinating study explains the faith elements within Obama's
politics, while acknowledging the questions about his beliefs that
remain unanswered. "You must read this perceptive and well written book. Then you will know why Barack Obama has such a passion for justice and equity, such a gift for filling people of different generations with a newfound hope that things can and will change for the better." ―ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
Although he left office nearly 20 years ago, Ronald Reagan remains a potent symbol for the conservative movement. The Bush administration frequently invokes Reagan's legacy as it formulates and promotes its fiscal, domestic, and foreign policies. His name is a watchword for campus conservatives who regard him in a way that borders on hero worship. Conservative media pundits often equate the term Reagan-esque with personal honor, fiscal rectitude, and unqualified success in dealing with foreign threats. But how much of the Reagan legacy is based on fact, how much on idealized myth? And what are the reasons - political and otherwise - behind the mythmaking? Deconstructing Reagan is a fascinating study of the interplay of politics and memory concerning our fortieth president. While giving credit where credit is due, the authors scrutinize key aspects of the Reagan legacy and the conservative mythology that surrounds it.
Benito Mussolini has persistently been described as an 'actor' - and also as a master of illusions. In her vividly narrated account of the Italian dictator's relationship with the theatre, Patricia Gaborik discards any metaphorical notions of Il Duce as a performer and instead tells the story of his life as literal spectator, critic, impresario, dramatist and censor of the stage. Discussing the ways in which the autarch's personal tastes and convictions shaped, in fascist Italy, theatrical programming, she explores Mussolini's most significant dramatic influences, his association with important figures such as Luigi Pirandello, Gabriele D'Annunzio and George Bernard Shaw, his oversight of stage censorship, and his forays into playwriting. By focusing on its subject's manoeuvres in the theatre, and manipulation of theatrical ideas, this consistently illuminating book transforms our understandings of fascism as a whole. It will have strong appeal to readers in both theatre studies and modern Italian history.
Neville Chamberlain, the Conservative Prime Minister who pursued the doomed policy of appeasing Hitler, is one of the most reinterpreted of modern British Prime Ministers. Infamous on account of his declaration of having achieved ?peace for our time?, Neville Chamberlain has often been portrayed as a social reformer out of sync with the times in which he lived. In this new biography, Nick Smart offers a picture conditioned more by the opinions of contemporaries than by hindsight, examining Chamberlain's life, career, achievements and failures. Stressing that the system in which Chamberlain found himself operating had more impact on the historical developments than anything he did personally, Smart describes a man who was hardworking but ultimately out of his depth, destined to be remembered in history as the fall-guy to Winston Churchill's hero. Presenting Chamberlain's life and politics in a nuanced way, Nick Smart's biography is a must read for anyone interested in British politics and its impact on the international stage. |
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