![]() |
![]() |
Your cart is empty |
||
Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
Cycling Book of the Year - Cross British Sports Book Awards When the 'Iron Curtain' descended across Europe, Dieter Wiedemann was a hero of East German sport. A podium finisher in The Peace Race, the Eastern Bloc equivalent of the Tour de France, he was a pin-up for the supremacy of socialism over the 'fascist' West. Unbeknownst to the authorities, however, he had fallen in love with Sylvia Hermann, a girl from the other side of the wall. Socialist doctrine had it that the two of them were 'class enemies', and as a famous athlete Dieter's every move was pored over by the Stasi. Only he abhorred their ideology, and in Sylvia saw his only chance of freedom. Now, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, he plotted his escape. In 1964 he was delegated, once and once only, to West Germany. Here he was to ride a qualification race for the Tokyo Olympics, but instead committed the most treacherous of all the crimes against socialism. Dieter Wiedemann, sporting icon and Soviet pawn, defected to the other side. Whilst Wiedemann fulfilled his lifetime ambition of racing in the Tour de France, his defection caused a huge scandal. The Stasi sought to 'repatriate' him, with horrific consequences both for him and the family he left behind. Fifty years on, and twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dieter Wiedemann decided it was time to tell his story. Through his testimony and that of others involved, and through the Stasi file, which has stalked him for half a century, Herbie Sykes uncovers an astonishing tale. It is one of love and betrayal, of the madness at the heart of the cold war, and of the greatest bike race in history.
Histories of Portugal's transition to democracy have long focused on the 1974 military coup that toppled the authoritarian Estado Novo regime and set in motion the divestment of the nation's colonial holdings. However, the events of this "Carnation Revolution" were in many ways the culmination of a much longer process of resistance and protest originating in universities and other sectors of society. Combining careful research in police, government, and student archives with insights from social movement theory, The Revolution before the Revolution broadens our understanding of Portuguese democratization by tracing the societal convulsions that preceded it over the course of the "long 1960s."
One of the most crucial issues to affect national policy in the
state of Israel is that of relations between its Jewish and Arab
citizens. The confrontation of October 2000 demonstrated the
explosive potential of the unresolved dilemmas posed by these
relations.
In September 2009 Dmitrii Medvedev unveiled the term that was to become the defining objective of his presidency: 'modernization.' The contributors to this book, drawn from the leading scholars in Russian affairs, focus on the contested nature of the concept of modernization and the obstacles that arose in attempting to carry it out.
The enfranchisement of women in Charles de Gaulle's France in 1944 is considered a potent element in the nation's self-crafted, triumphant World War Two narrative: the French, conquered by the Germans, valiantly resisted until they rescued themselves and built a new democracy, honoring France's longstanding liberal traditions. Kelly Ricciardi Colvin's Gender and French Identity after the Second World War, 1944-1954 calls that potent element into question. By analyzing a range of sources, including women's magazines, trials, memoirs, and spy novels, this book explores the ways in which culture was used to limit the power of the female vote. It exposes a wide network of constructed behavioral norms that supported a conservative vision of French identity. Taken together, they depicted men as virile Resistors for French democracy and history, and women as solely domestic support. Indeed Colvin shows that women's access to the vote emerged alongside an explosion of cultural messages that encouraged them to retreat into the home, to find mates, to have 'millions of beautiful babies', in the words of de Gaulle, and not to challenge patriarchy in any way. This is a vital study for understanding the nature of postwar France and women's history in 20th-century Europe.
The French Army's war in Algeria has always aroused passions. This
book does not whitewash the atrocities committed by both sides;
rather it shifts the focus to the conflict itself, a perspective
assisted by the French republic's belated official admission in
1999 that what happened in Algeria was indeed a war. Each
contributor made use of the increasingly liberalised French
archives of the war since the early 1990s. The book re-evaluates
counter-terrorism in the cities; the methods used in the "battle
for hearts and minds" in the villages of the interior; the hitherto
neglected roles of French air and naval power in supporting the
army's counter-insurgency offensives against the Armee de
Liberation Nationale; and the battles that France decisively lost
for both world opinion and for support from her major Western
allies.
Best known for his academt award-winning role as Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields", for Haing Ngor his greatest performance was not in Hollywood but in the rice paddies and labour camps of war-torn Cambodia. Here, in his memoir of life under the Khmer Rouge, is a searing account of a country's descent into hell. His was a world of war slaves and execution squads, of senseless brutality and mind-numbing torture; where families ceased to be and only a very special love could soar above the squalor, starvation and disease. An eyewitness account of the real killing fields by an extraordinary survivor, this book is a reminder of the horrors of war - and a testament to the enduring human spirit.
'An Intimate War' tells the story of the last thirty-four years of conflict in Helmand Province, Afghanistan as seen through the eyes of the Helmandis. In the West, this period is often defined through different lenses -- the Soviet intervention, the civil war, the Taliban, and the post-2001 nation-building era. Yet, as experienced by local inhabitants, the Helmand conflict is a perennial one, involving the same individuals, families and groups, and driven by the same arguments over land, water and power. This book -- based on both military and research experience in Helmand and 150 interviews in Pashto -- offers a very different view of Helmand from those in the media. It demonstrates how outsiders have most often misunderstood the ongoing struggle in Helmand and how, in doing so, they have exacerbated the conflict, perpetuated it and made it more violent -- precisely the opposite of what was intended when their interventions were launched. Mike Martin's oral history of Helmand underscores the absolute imperative of understanding the highly local, personal, and non-ideological nature of internal conflict in much of the 'third' world.
This book examines the range and complexity of unionist political
identities, ideas and beliefs in the non-English parts of the
United Kingdom in the mid-twentieth century. It discusses the
careers of eight politicians from Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland and uncovers the varieties of unionism that held the
multi-national UK together. Challenging the idea that Britain was
in the process of breaking up, it argues that the Union provided a
focus for loyalty in the United Kingdom that contributed to the
continuing formation of identities of Britishness.
The French Army's war in Algeria has always aroused passions. This book does not whitewash the atrocities committed by both sides; rather it focuses on the conflict itself, a perspective assisted by the French republic's official admission in 1999 that what happened in Algeria was indeed a war.
Since Gorbachev took office in 1985, every aspect of the Soviet past has been under scrutiny. Tens of millions of Soviet citizens are eagerly absorbing and debating the vast outpouring of novels, books and articles, and films and TV programmes, about their past. Much new information has appeared, often sensational, about how the Stalin regime worked and what it meant for top politicians, generals, intellectuals and ordinary citizens. Stalinists, Russian nationalists, democratic socialists and others are locked in bitter debate. Was the victory of Stalinism inevitable? Was there an alternative road to socialism? Even Lenin and his policies are now questioned. The Politburo itself is deeply divided about how far the debate should go and what conclusions should be drawn from it. The reconsideration about the past is part of the discussion about the way forward for Soviet society: how big should be the role of the market? How much freedom and democracy?
Leading authorities here analyze the historic special relationship between Britain and the United States since 1945. The opening chapters trace the development of the alliance and discuss the "special relationship within the special relationship" between Churchill and Roosevelt, Eden and Eisenhower, Macmillan and Kennedy, and Thatcher and Reagan. The contributors go beyond traditional rhetorical appeals to common language and heritage and consider the military, political, and economic links that bind the two countries.
The partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 was a defining moment which has powerfully shaped the destinies of people in the South Asian region. The birth of nation-states of India and Pakistan produced reverberations which were both immediate and long-term. This book focuses on the aftermath of partition and takes stock of its long term consequences. Earlier works on partition have portrayed it as a tragic and unintended consequence of decolonisation, or subordinated it to larger dramas surrounding the advent of independence. This book sees partition in its own terms. It argues that it was not a single event, but a trigger of processes which have left a deep imprint on state and society in the region. Where other books have looked only at the causes of partition, this book broadens the horizon by looking at its effects. It is constructed around two key motifs, the dislocations and disruptions as well as the long-term impact of partition on peoples, places and institutions. This book draws upon new theoretical insights and fresh bodies of data to historically reappraise partition in the light of its long aftermath. It uses a comparative approach by viewing South Asia in its to
Communities across America were thrown into upheaval during the 1960s, when thousands of young people began to publicly question the status quo. Grassroots social movements sprung up on hundreds of college campuses and often spread to surrounding towns, where participants debated race, the role of government, Vietnam, feminism, the cold war, and other issues of the day. Yet this dynamic did not occur in a vacuum: Americans that supported the status quo came together to oppose the activists, and joined a national debate on the meaning of citizenship and patriotism. Rusty L. Monhollon uncovers the voices of ordinary people on all sides of the political spectrum in the university town of Lawrence, Kansas. He reveals how Americans from a range of ideological and political perspectives responded to and tried to resolve political and social conflict in the 1960s. By focusing on a single community, Monhollon vividly demonstrates that the war at home reached deep into the nation's core, and affected the lives of ordinary citizens on a daily basis.
The proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) is a major concern and the Middle East is at the forefront of US-lead efforts to counter and control their spread. This vital book examines why states seek to gain WMD, a crucial issue in developing strategies against proliferation. Leading experts examine specific countries and the interplay among political, economic, cultural and regional factors driving decisions whether to acquire WMD. The result is enhanced understanding of the challenge proliferation poses to US strategy and policy and the wider international community.
Presented by Russian author and attorney Ilya Milyukov, Chronicles of the First and Second Chechen War presents the main events of the First (1994-1996) and Second (1999-2009) Wars in Chechnya, Russia's deadliest conflicts since World War II. The First War began in December 1994 and lasted for one year and nine months, ending in August 1996. There were two major urban battles - the Battle of the Chechen capital of Grozny from December 1994 to March 1995 and the Battle of Grozny in August 1996 - and two major battles in the rural areas, the Russian offensive in the Southern Chechnya in May and June 1995, and fighting in the foothills part of the Republic from February to May 1996. The Second War began in August 1999 and lasted much longer - until mid-April 2009, for almost ten years. It also included a major urban battle, and it again occurred in New Year's Eve - the Battle of Grozny in December 1999 - February 2000. There was also a major battle in the countryside - the Battle for the village of Komsomolskoye, located in Urus-Martanovsky District, in March 2000. And there were also two large attacks outside Chechnya -in Moscow in October 2002, and in the North Ossetian town of Beslan in September 2004. During these war, Russian federal troops took heavy losses, while the number of civilian deaths reached nearly 400,000 people. Milyukov's expert and meticulous chronicle lists the major events of these conflicts soberly and without editorial comment to document their events in all their brutality and horror.
This work provides an understanding of the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. These two interdependent wars were the greatest armed conflicts in Europe in the second half of the 20th century. This work provides an analysis of their successes and failures.
This study establishes a "Churchillian perspective" of politics that explains Winston Churchill's policies and actions during and following World War II. Using a new approach, Lambakis describes the principles informing Churchill's statesmanship and his basic strategies in dealing with the Soviet Union when the Cold War developed. It fills a gap in scholarship regarding the final years of Churchill's career. This study departs from mainstream views on Churchill and most postwar history and should thus be of real interest to political scientists, Churchill scholars, diplomatic historians, and students in European studies. |
![]() ![]() You may like...
Social Aging in a Delhi Neighborhood
Narender K. Chadha, John van Willigen
Hardcover
R2,755
Discovery Miles 27 550
Geometry and Topology of Manifolds…
Akito Futaki, Reiko Miyaoka, …
Hardcover
R3,682
Discovery Miles 36 820
Top Tips for Boaters - Over 300 Top Tips…
Loel Collins, Franco Ferrero
Paperback
R151
Discovery Miles 1 510
|