Since the crash of communism in Central and Southeastern Europe in 1989, almost everything in the region has changed - from politics to economics to popular culture to religion. There have been new challenges to confront and new dilemmas. This volume examines the political engagement of religious associations in the post-socialist countries of Central and Southeastern Europe, with a focus on disputes about property restitution, revelations about the collaboration of clergy with the communist-era secret police, intolerance, and controversies about the inclusion of religious instruction in the schools. Each of the countries in the region is analyzed with research grounded in on-site interviews, as well as extensive use of literature in local and Western languages.

This book is a comprehensive investigation, discussion, and analysis of the origins and development of the first civil war in the Sudan, which occurred between 1955 and1972. It was the culmination of ethnic, racial, cultural, religious, political, and economic problems that had faced the Sudan since the Turco-Egyptian conquest of the country in 1821. The hostilities between the Northern and Southern regions of the Sudan also involved foreign powers that had their own geopolitical interests in the country. The first Sudanese civil war is a classic example of intra-regional and inter-regional conflicts in Africa in the 20th century.

An exploration of the modern history of Bahrain and its international relations, Joyce investigates the country's relations with the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the USSR. Placing today's events in context, she covers the history of tension between Sunni and Shia Bahrainis and concludes with the still-unfolding events of the Arab spring.

In Northern Ireland, a once seemingly intractable conflict is in a state of transformation. Lee A. Smithey offers a grassroots view of that transformation, drawing on interviews, documentary evidence, and extensive field research. He offers essential models for how ethnic and communal-based conflicts can shift from violent confrontation toward peaceful co-existence.
Smithey focuses particularly on Protestant unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, who maintain varying degrees of commitment to the Protestant faith, the Crown, and and Ulster / British identity. He argues that antagonistic collective identities in ethnopolitical conflict can become less polarizing as partisans adopt new conflict strategies and means of expressing identity. Consequently, the close relationship between collective identity and collective action is a crucial element of conflict transformation. Smithey closely examines attempts in Protestant/unionist/loyalist communities and organizations to develop more constructive means of expressing collective identity and pursuing political agendas that can help improve community relations. Key leaders and activists have begun to reframe shared narratives and identities, making possible community support for negotiations, demilitarization, and political cooperation, while also diminishing out-group polarization.
As Smithey shows, this kind of shift in strategy and collective vision is the heart of conflict transformation, and the challenges and opportunities faced by grassroots unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland can prove instructive for other regions of intractable conflict.

The advent of the atomic bomb, the social and cultural impact of nuclear science, and the history of the British nuclear state after 1945 is a complex and contested story. British Nuclear Culture is an important survey that offers a new interpretation of the nuclear century by tracing the tensions between 'official' and 'unofficial' nuclear narratives in British culture. In this book, Jonathan Hogg argues that nuclear culture was a pervasive and persistent aspect of British life, particularly in the years following 1945. This idea is illustrated through detailed analysis of various primary source materials, such as newspaper articles, government files, fictional texts, film, music and oral testimonies. The book introduces unfamiliar sources to students of nuclear and cold war history, and offers in-depth and critical reflections on the expanding historiography in this area of research. Chronologically arranged, British Nuclear Culture reflects upon, and returns to, a number of key themes throughout, including nuclear anxiety, government policy, civil defence, 'nukespeak' and nuclear subjectivity, individual experience, protest and resistance, and the influence of the British nuclear state on everyday life. The book contains illustrations, individual case studies, a select bibliography, a timeline, and a list of helpful online resources for students of nuclear history.

This book provides an engaging account of the moral lives of young black South Africans once the struggle against apartheid ended and took away their object of political resistance. It shows how partial-parenting, partial-schooling, and pervasive poverty contributes to how a group of young people construct right and wrong and what rules govern their behavior.

The chaotic events leading up to Mitt Romney's defeat in the 2012 election indicated how far the Republican Party had rocketed rightward away from the center of public opinion. Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government and force a U.S. debt default. Tea Party activists mounted primary challenges against Republican officeholders who appeared to exhibit too much pragmatism or independence. Moderation and compromise were dirty words in the Republican presidential debates. The GOP, it seemed, had suddenly become a party of ideological purity.
Except this development is not new at all. In Rule and Ruin, Geoffrey Kabaservice reveals that the moderate Republicans' downfall began not with the rise of the Tea Party but about the time of President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address. Even in the 1960s, when left-wing radicalism and right-wing backlash commanded headlines, Republican moderates and progressives formed a powerful movement, supporting pro-civil rights politicians like Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton, battling big-government liberals and conservative extremists alike. But the Republican civil war ended with the overthrow of the moderate ideas, heroes, and causes that had comprised the core of the GOP since its formation. In hindsight, it is today's conservatives who are "Republicans in Name Only."
Writing with passionate sympathy for a bygone tradition of moderation, Kabaservice recaptures a time when fiscal restraint was matched with social engagement; when a cohort of leading Republicans opposed the Vietnam war; when George Romney--father of Mitt Romney--conducted a nationwide tour of American poverty, from Appalachia to Watts, calling on society to "listen to the voices from the ghetto." Rule and Ruin is an epic, deeply researched history that reorients our understanding of our political past and present.
Today, following the Republicans' loss of the popular vote in five of the last six presidential contests, moderates remain marginalized in the GOP and progressives are all but nonexistent. In this insightful and elegantly argued book, Kabaservice contends that their decline has left Republicans less capable of governing responsibly, with dire consequences for all Americans. He has added a new afterword that considers the fallout from the 2012 elections.

Seven leading specialists present chapters devoted to key themes in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics. Those themes include: the personal versus the institutional in the political process; legitimacy and legitimation; and change and collapse of a mono-organizational society. While the book focuses on these major themes, individual chapters deal with wide-ranging and even unusual cases: Graeme Gill analyzes the legitimating functions of Moscow's architecture, Sheila Fitzpatrick uses the archives to draw a picture of Stalin 'the boss' dealing with his closest colleagues, Eugene Huskey provides a detailed description of post-Soviet Russian pantouflage, and Archie Brown and Peter Reddaway present their different takes on Gorbachev and the Soviet collapse. Stephen Fortescue provides an overview of policy-making processes from Lenin and Putin, and Leslie Holmes updates the concept of goal-rational legitimacy.

In 1999, the first new "Star Wars" movie in sixteen years came to theater screens worldwide. Leading up to the release of the film, the hype and media coverage reached epic proportions. "The Phantom Menace" graced every cover from Vanity Fair to Newsweek to Entertainment Weekly. Fans began camping in line for more than a month in Los Angeles just to be first to see the new film."Anticipation" tells the real-life story of a movie that faced expectations unlike those of any other film in history, but had the advantage of years of anticipation and excitement from eager fans and the public. "The Phantom Menace" deserves a place in film history not only as the most anticipated film ever made, but also for its place as the first film presented to the public with digital projection technology, its status as one of the highest grossing films ever made, and the unbelievable devotion of thousands of fans who demonstrated the great meaning movies can have to people of all ages and social backgrounds.

Based on the heart-breaking true story of Cilka Klein, Cilka's Journey is a million copy international bestseller and the sequel to the No.1 bestselling phenomenon, The Tattooist of Auschwitz 'She was the bravest person I ever met' Lale Sokolov, The Tattooist of Auschwitz In 1942 Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, and forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival. After liberation, Cilka is charged as a collaborator by the Russians and sent to a desolate, brutal prison camp in Siberia known as Vorkuta, inside the Arctic Circle. Innocent, imprisoned once again, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, each day a battle for survival. Cilka befriends a woman doctor, and learns to nurse the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under unimaginable conditions. And when she tends to a man called Alexandr, Cilka finds that despite everything, there is room in her heart for love. Cilka's Journey is a powerful testament to the triumph of the human will. It will move you to tears, but it will also leave you astonished and uplifted by one woman's fierce determination to survive, against all odds. Don't miss Heather Morris's next book, Stories of Hope. Out now. - - - - - - - - 'Her truly incredible story is one to be read by everyone.' Sun 'Cilka's extraordinary courage in the face of evil and her determination to survive against the odds will stay with you long after you've finished reading this heartrending book.' Sunday Express 'Her courage and determination to survive makes for a heartrending read.' Daily Mirror

"This work by Janusz Bugajski should be considered mandatory reading for any student of Eastern Europe. The anatomy of the dissident movement of Czechoslovakia--its scope activities, affiliations at home and abroad--has been well documented and presented in a lucid manner. The author has also accumulated an impressive amount of facts, dates and documents. Failures and successes of Charter 77, as well as its future prospects, are described in a very balanced manner. It is an important study by a well-informed and self disciplined researcher and expert on Eastern Europe. It will be a great assistance to those interested in recent developments within the Soviet orbit." Jan Novak Consultant on Eastern Europe

Established in 1955, the Leipzig International Documentary Film Festival became a central arena for staging the cultural politics of the German Democratic Republic, both domestically and in relation to West Germany and the rest of the world. Screened Encounters represents the definitive history of this key event, recounting the political and artistic exchanges it enabled from its founding until German unification, and tracing the outsize influence it exerted on international cultural relations during the Cold War.

Mad Men, using the historical backdrop of the many events that came to demarcate the 1960s, has presented a beautifully-styled rendering of this tumultuous decade, while teasing out a number of themes that resonate throughout the show and connect to the contemporary discourses that dominate today's political landscape. The chapters of this book analyze the most important dimensions explored on the show, including issues around gender, race, prejudice, the family, generational change, the social movements of the 1960s, our understanding of America's place in the world, and the idea of work in the post-war period. Mad Men and Politics provides the reader with an understanding not only of the topics and issues that can be easily grasped while watching, but also contemplates our historical perspective of the 1960s as we consider it through the telescope of our current condition.

The 1960s counterculture challenged the mainstream practices that dominated the 1950s, producing such groups as the hippies, Diggers, the National Organization for Women, and the American Indian Movement, all of which demanded societal change. The A-Z entries in this volume provide fascinating details on notable persons who stirred alternative ideas such as Betty Friedan, Abbie Hoffman, Andy Warhol, and Stokely Carmichael; events such as Woodstock, the Moratorium, and various be-ins; and new directions in music, art, clothing, and language.

The Thatcher era was the most dramatic period in British politics since the 1940s. The Keynesian order established then was falling apart thirty years later and the time had come for radical change. As Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher proved to be the "Iron Lady" at home and abroad. Trade union power was crushed as her Governments strove to bring about an economic renaissance and to reshape the Welfare State, the Civil Service, and local government. This book analyses the politics of the Thatcher era in an incisive and challenging manner.

During the Cold War, few regions offered the American policy-makers a greater challenge than the Middle East. The Eisenhower administration's attempt to balance its Cold War requirements with the demands of the new forces of nationalism established the blueprint of America's policy toward the Middle East for the next four decades. In a richly comprehensive account, Dr. Takeyh employs new documentary evidence to reevaluate US policy toward the revolutionary Egyptian regime; the dynamics of the Anglo-American relations; the evolving nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict; and the Suez crisis and the Eisenhower Doctrine.

A recent coinage within international relations, "nation branding" designates the process of highlighting a country's positive characteristics for promotional purposes, using techniques similar to those employed in marketing and public relations. Nation Branding in Modern History takes an innovative approach to illuminating this contested concept, drawing on fascinating case studies in the United States, China, Poland, Suriname, and many other countries, from the nineteenth century to the present. It supplements these empirical contributions with a series of historiographical essays and analyses of key primary documents, making for a rich and multivalent investigation into the nexus of cultural marketing, self-representation, and political power.

The dangerous, decades-long arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War begged a fundamental question: how did these superpowers actually plan to survive a nuclear strike? In Armageddon Insurance, the first historical account of Soviet civil defense and a pioneering reappraisal of its American counterpart, Edward M. Geist compares how the two superpowers tried, and mostly failed, to reinforce their societies to withstand the ultimate catastrophe. Drawing on previously unexamined documents from archives in America, Russia, and Ukraine, Geist places these civil defense programs in their political and cultural contexts, demonstrating how each country's efforts reflected its cultural preoccupations and blind spots, and revealing how American and Soviet civil defense related to profound issues of nuclear strategy and national values. This work challenges prevailing historical assumptions and unearths the ways Moscow and Washington developed nuclear weapons policies based not on rational strategic or technical considerations, but in power struggles between different institutions pursuing their own narrow self-interests.

Examining how the press in Britain, Sweden and Finland responded to the Holocaust immediately after the Second World War, Holmila offers new insights into the challenge posed by the Holocaust for liberal democracies by looking at the reporting of the liberation of the camps, the Nuremberg trial and the Jewish immigration to Palestine.

The question of the Italian colonies played an important part in the breakdown of Allied cooperation after the Second World War. Britain and the United States were closely involved in this question, yet their respective roles have not received the detailed historical attention which they merit. Based on extensive research in British and American archives, this book will seek to analyse British and US policy on this question within its Cold War context.

Designed to meet the needs of high school and college students, this one-stop resource features narrative history, analysis, biographical profiles, key primary documents, and other reference tools on the Cold War. Based on the latest scholarship, Sibley provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of the Cold War, which lasted from 1945 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Following a historical overview, six essays, organized topically, examine the key themes that characterized the Cold War: its origins in the distrust among the World War II allies, the force of American anti-Communism, Washington's enhanced postwar global role, the competing objectives of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in pursuit of global influence, and the reasons why the Soviet Union did not survive the Cold War. A timeline of events, glossary of terms, biographical profiles of major players, and the text of 17 key documents necessary for student research on the Cold War provide valuable research tools. Following a timeline of events and narrative historical overview, six topical essays discuss the origins of the Cold War; McCarthyism and internal security in the United States; the Cold War in Asia; the Cold War in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa; the end of detente and revived hopes for Soviet-American relations ushered in by Gorbachev, and its denouement; and the legacies and implications of the Cold War. Documents include a variety of speeches, excerpts from the memoirs of leaders on both sides of the Cold War, as well as the text of key government documents. Each document is preceded by an explanatory introduction. An annotated bibliography of works suitable for students, and a selection of photographs enhance the value of this work.

"The hot book among Iraq strategists." --David Ignatius, "The Washington Post"
Lewis Sorley's important and influential book "A Better War" sheds light on the often neglected final years in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 and revises our knowledge of the war and its conclusion. Drawing on his exclusive access to still classified tape-recorded meetings of the highest levels of military command in Vietnam, Sorley highlights the dramatic differences in the conception, the conduct, and--at least for a time--the results after General Creighton Abrams succeeded to the top military post in 1968. Meticulously researched and movingly told, "A Better War" is an insightful history and a great human drama of purposeful and principled service in the face of an agonizing succession of lost opportunities--and it is never as important as it is now.
"A comprehensive and long-overdue examination of the immediate post-Tet offensive years." --"The New York Times"
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"The book is the missing link in the history of the Vietnam War. It opens the old arguments up again and shows them in a new light." --"Strategic Review"
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"["A Better War"] is an outstanding piece of work, historically important with its use of new evidence, intellectually challenging with its suggestion of new interpretations of events, and highly readable." --"Army"
Lewis Sorley, a third-generation graduate of West Point, also holds a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He has served in the U.S. Army, on staff at the Pentagon, and later as a senior civilian official of the Central Intelligence Agency. He lives in Maryland.

A haunting and beautiful limited edition book from the internationally respected photographer, Simon Norfolk. The war in Bosnia in the 1990s raised to common currency the terms 'ethnic cleansing,' and 'humanitarian intervention'. It brought back to Europe a barbarism not seen since the Second World War; and was the first war fought very much under the eyes of the media. It was also the first conflict fought by killers who knew, even before the war had finished, that a war crimes tribunal awaited them. Norfolk's photographs initially appear almost abstract. Yet through these still and beautiful images of ice, water, snow and the land, we can sense the arrogance of killers who believed they could conceal the brutal evidence of their crimes by reburying their victims in 'secondary graves'. But over time secrets escape, and the truth bleeds out.