Dangerous Talk examines the 'lewd, ungracious, detestable, opprobrious, and rebellious-sounding' speech of ordinary men and women who spoke scornfully of kings and queens. Eavesdropping on lost conversations, it reveals the expressions that got people into trouble, and follows the fate of some of the offenders. Introducing stories and characters previously unknown to history, David Cressy explores the contested zones where private words had public consequence. Though 'words were but wind', as the proverb had it, malicious tongues caused social damage, seditious words challenged political authority, and treasonous speech imperilled the crown. Royal regimes from the house of Plantagenet to the house of Hanover coped variously with 'crimes of the tongue' and found ways to monitor talk they deemed dangerous. Their response involved policing and surveillance, judicial intervention, political propaganda, and the crafting of new law. In early Tudor times to speak ill of the monarch could risk execution. By the end of the Stuart era similar words could be dismissed with a shrug. This book traces the development of free speech across five centuries of popular political culture, and shows how scandalous, seditious and treasonable talk finally gained protection as 'the birthright of an Englishman'. The lively and accessible work of a prize-winning social historian, it offers fresh insight into pre-modern society, the politics of language, and the social impact of the law.

First published by Cornell in 1971, The Fear of Conspiracy brings together eighty-five speeches, documents, and writings the authors of which range from George Washington to Stokely Carmichael that illustrate the role played in American history by the fear of conspiracy and subversion. This book, documenting two centuries of conspiracy-mongering (1763-1966), highlights the American tendency to search for subversive enemies and to construct terrifying dangers from fragmentary and highly circumstantial evidence."

This book of magic and politics uses quotes from classic books to show the connections between the two throughout history.

At the end of World War II, J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of America's preeminent physicists. For his work as director of the Manhattan Project, he was awarded the Medal for Merit, the highest honor the U.S. government can bestow on a civilian. Yet, in 1953, Oppenheimer was denied security clearance amidst allegations that he was "more probably than not" an "agent of the Soviet Union." Determined to clear his name, he insisted on a hearing before the Atomic Energy Commission's Personnel Security Board.In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer contains an edited and annotated transcript of the 1954 hearing, as well as the various reports resulting from it. Drawing on recently declassified FBI files, Richard Polenberg's introductory and concluding essays situate the hearing in the Cold War period, and his thoughtful analysis helps explain why the hearing was held, why it turned out as it did, and what that result meant, both for Oppenheimer and for the United States.Among the forty witnesses who testified were many who had played vitally important roles in the making of U.S. nuclear policy: Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Vannevar Bush, George F. Kennan, and Oppenheimer himself. The hearing provides valuable insights into the development of the atomic bomb and the postwar debate among scientists over the hydrogen bomb, the conflict between the foreign policy and military establishments over national defense, and the controversy over the proper standards to apply in assessing an individual's loyalty. It reveals as well the fears and anxieties that plagued America during the Cold War era.

The story of North Korea's information underground and how it inspires people to seek better lives beyond their country's borders One of the least understood countries in the world, North Korea has long been known for its repressive regime. Yet it is far from being an impenetrable black box. Media flows covertly into the country, and fault lines are appearing in the government's sealed informational borders. Drawing on deeply personal interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, ranging from propaganda artists to diplomats, Jieun Baek tells the story of North Korea's information underground-the network of citizens who take extraordinary risks by circulating illicit content such as foreign films, television shows, soap operas, books, and encyclopedias. By fostering an awareness of life outside North Korea and enhancing cultural knowledge, the materials these citizens disseminate are affecting the social and political consciousness of a people, as well as their everyday lives.

Examining the relationship between sedition and liberal democracies, particularly in India, this book looks at the biography of sedition laws, its contradictory position against free speech, and democratic ethics. Recent sedition cases registered in India show that the law in its wide and diverse deployment was used against agitators in a community-based pro-reservation movement, group of university students for their alleged 'anti-national' statements, anti-liquor activists, and anti-nuclear movement, to name a few. Set against its contemporary use, this book has used sedition as a lens to probe the fate of political speech in liberal democracy. The lived reality of the law of sedition in changing anthropological sites is juxtaposed with its positivist existence. Anushka Singh uses a comparative framework keeping in focus the Indian experience backed by fieldwork in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi, and includes a comparative perspective from England, the USA, and Australia to contribute to debates on sedition within liberal democracies at large, especially in the wake of the proliferation of counter-terror legislations.

Comic books for adults have become one of the most novel and colourful forms of cultural expression in the Arab world today. During the last ten years, young Arabs have crafted stories explaining issues such as authoritarianism, resistance, war, sex, gender relations and youth culture. These are distributed through informal channels as well as independent bookstores and websites. Events like the annual Cairocomix festival in Egypt and the Mahmoud Kahil Award in Lebanon evidence the importance of this cultural phenomenon. Comics in Contemporary Arab Culture focuses on the production of these comics in Egypt and Lebanon, countries at the forefront of the development of the genre for adults. Jacob Hoigilt guides the reader through the emergence of independent comics, explores their social and political critique, and analyses their visual and verbal rhetoric. Analysing more than 50 illustrations, included here, he shows that Arab comics are revealing of the changing attitudes towards politics, social relations and even language. While political analysts often paint a bleak picture of the Arab world after 2011, this book suggests that art and storytelling continue to nourish a spirit of liberty and freedom despite political setbacks. Comics in Contemporary Arab Culture provides a fresh and original insight into the politics of the Middle East and cultural expression in the Arab World.

A new and innovative form of dissent has emerged in response to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Dubbed "electronic jihad", this approach has seen organized groups of Palestinian hackers make international headlines by breaching the security of such sites as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, AVG, Avira, Whatsapp, and BitDefender. Though initially confined to small clandestine groups, "hacktivism" is now increasingly being adopted by militant Palestinian parties, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who have gone so far as to incorporate hackers into their armed brigades. Digital Jihad is the first book to explore this rapidly evolving and still little understood aspect of the Palestinian resistance movement. Drawing on extensive interviews with hackers and other activists, it provides a unique and fascinating new perspective on the Palestinian struggle.

In this absorbing, up-to-the-minute book, acclaimed technology and politics analyst Micah Sifry sets the extraordinary story of WikiLeaks in the context of the international struggle for transparency.

Sifry argues that activists and open-source web projects have had a seismic impact on the way the world works, and describes how crowd-sourcing initiatives have analysed MPs' expenses, recorded political violence in Kenya and reduced bribery in India -with mixed reactions from political elites.

Fascinating, thoughtful and often eye-opening, this is an essential guide to the new age of transparency.

This book explores the impact of war and political crisis on the national identity of Jews, both in the multinational Habsburg monarchy and in the new nation-states that replaced it at the end of the First World War. Jews enthusiastically supported the Austrian war effort because it allowed them to assert their Austrian loyalties and Jewish solidarity at the same time. They faced a grave crisis of identity when the multinational state collapsed and they lived in nation-states mostly uncomfortable with ethnic minorities. This book raises important questions about Jewish identity, and about the nature of ethnic and national identity in general.

'An epic tale of love, dishonour, bravery, cowardice, betrayal and high-treason. Beautifully written. A stunning debut' Damien Lewis Playboy. Fascist. Strongman. Thief. Traitors. John Amery is a drunk and a fanatic, an exiled playboy whose frail body is riven by contradictions. Harold Cole is a cynical, murderous conman who desperately wants to be seen as an officer and a gentleman. Eric Pleasants is an iron-willed former wrestler; he is also a pacifist, and will not be forced into fighting other men's battles. William Joyce can weave spells when he talks, but his true gifts are for rage and hate. By the end of the Second World War, they will all have betrayed their country. The Traitors is the story of how they came to do so. Drawing on declassified MI5 files, it is a book about chaotic lives in turbulent times; idealism twisted out of shape; of torn consciences and abandoned loyalties; and the tragic consequences that treachery brings in its wake.

"Survivalists". The word conjures dark images: a little-travelled rural road, surly sleeveless extras from the film "Deliverance", shotguns cradled in their arms, a snarling Doberman on a rusty chain guarding a fortified shelter. We don't think to look for survivalists among movie executives or engineers, physicians or other professionals. But we should, as Richard G. Mitchell, Jr. shows in "Dancing at Armageddon". Mitchell takes us inside a movement that is increasingly occupying the national consciousness, into a compelling, hidden world, far more connected to the chaos of modern life than its caricature as a freakish antigovernment activity would suggest. Mitchell spent a dozen years among survivalists at public conferences, private meetings, and clandestine training camps across America. And yes, he did learn how to garrote an enemy. But more importantly, he found at work in survivalism a profound and meaningful critique of contemporary industrial society, a society in which the real evil is not repressive government but the far more insidious influence of a "Planet Microsoft" mentality with its abundance of empty choices. Survivalists, Mitchell shows us, are seeking resistance, not struggling against it; they are looking for ways to define themselves and test their talents in a society that is becoming devitalized and formless. "Dancing at Armageddon" is packed with firsthand stories of underground commerce, revolutionary plots, gunplay and other survivalist action, real and imagined. Fascinating and compulsively readable, it offers not only a rare view inside the movement but, through the movement, a unique understanding of contemporary culture.