Student Politics in Communist Poland tackles the topic of student political activity under a communist regime during the Cold War. It discusses both the communist student organizations as well as oppositional, independent, and apolitical student activism during the forty-five-year period of Poland's existence as a Soviet satellite state. The book focuses on consecutive generations of students who felt compelled to act on behalf of their milieu or for what they saw as the greater national good. The dynamics between moderates and radicals, between conformists and non-conformists are analyzed from the points of view of the protagonists themselves. The book traces ideological evolutions, but also counter-cultural trends and transnational influences in Poland's student community as they emerged, developed, and disappeared over more than four decades. It elaborates on the importance of the Catholic Church and its role in politicizing students. The regime's higher education policies are discussed in relation to its attempts to control the student body, which in effect constituted an ever growing group of young people who were destined to become the regime's future elite in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres and thus provide it with the necessary legitimacy for its survival. The pivotal crises in the history of Communist Poland, those of 1956, 1968, 1980-1981, are treated with a special emphasis on the students and their respective role in these upheavals. The book shows that student activism played its part in the political trajectory of the country, at times challenging the legitimacy of the regime, and contributed in no small degree to the demise of communism in Poland in 1989. Student Politics in Communist Poland not only presents a chronological narrative of student activism, but it sheds light on lesser known aspects of modern Polish history while telling part of the life stories of prominent figures in Poland's communist establishment as well as its dissident and opposition milieux. Ultimately, it also provides insights into modern-day Poland and its elite, many of whose members laid the groundwork for their later careers as student activists during the communist period.

What's the real story behind the 2000 presidential election fiasco? Hanging Chads presents candid and insightful interviews with key figures in the post-election recount in Florida, which decided whether Al Gore or George W. Bush would win the closest presidential contest ever. The book features an introduction that clearly explains the often complex and convoluted legal manoeuvering that occurred during those tense thirty-six days of the recount, a timeline laying out the sequence of events, a cast of characters that identifies the key players on both sides, and a glossary of the court cases and legal terminology that came into play. Pleasants interviews the two main Florida lawyers, Dexter Douglass for Gore and Barry Richard for Bush, and discusses the decision-making process with three judges involved in key cases. The book includes the viewpoint of the press and key political players like Tom Feeney, the Florida legislature's Speaker of the House, and Mac Stipanovich, a key political advisor to Katherine Harris. In addition, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore explains why she chose the infamous butterfly ballot that sent the whole process into motion. Providing a unique and balanced insiders' view of one of the most important events in recent history, Hanging Chads is a must-have for students and historians of American politics.

Foreign policy dominated much of New Labour's time in office and has cast a consistently long shadow over British politics in the period since 1945. Robert Self provides a readable and incisive assessment of the key issues and events from the retreat from empire through the cold war period to humanitarian intervention and the debacle in Iraq. "" "British Foreign and Defence Policy Since 1945 "provides a comprehensive survey of British foreign and defence policy since the Second World War with a full assessment of New Labour's record and legacy.

1945 to 1980 marks an extensive period of mass migration of students, refugees, ex-soldiers, and workers from an extraordinarily wide range of countries to West Germany. Turkish, Kurdish, and Italian groups have been studied extensively, and while this book uses these groups as points of comparison, it focuses on ethnic communities of varying social structures-from Spain, Iran, Ukraine, Greece, Croatia, and Algeria-and examines the interaction between immigrant networks and West German state institutions as well as the ways in which patterns of cooperation and conflict differ. This study demonstrates how the social consequences of mass immigration became intertwined with the ideological battles of Cold War Germany and how the political life and popular movements within these immigrant communities played a crucial role in shaping West German society.

Alexander Clarkson studied Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford, where he completed his doctorate. He is currently Lecturer in the German and European Studies Departments at King's College London.

"These lively essays make for the rare collection that is greater than the sum of its parts. Bookended by a substantive Foreword and Afterword, they upend the standard 'diagnosis of nostalgia' found across the former Soviet bloc, refuting the popular conception that Eastern Europeans are somehow haunted by the past, and illustrating the repertoire of contemporary post-socialist cultural politics at its most sophisticated." . Bruce Grant, New York University

Although the end of the Cold War was greeted with great enthusiasm by people in the East and the West, the ensuing social and especially economic changes did not always result in the hoped-for improvements in people's lives. This led to widespread disillusionment that can be observed today all across Eastern Europe. Not simply a longing for security, stability, and prosperity, this nostalgia is also a sense of loss regarding a specific form of sociability. Even some of those who opposed communism express a desire to invest their new lives with renewed meaning and dignity. Among the younger generation, it surfaces as a tentative yet growing curiosity about the recent past. In this volume scholars from multiple disciplines explore the various fascinating aspects of this nostalgic turn by analyzing the impact of generational clusters, the rural-urban divide, gender differences, and political orientation. They argue persuasively that this nostalgia should not be seen as a wish to restore the past, as it has otherwise been understood, but instead it should be recognized as part of a more complex healing process and an attempt to come to terms both with the communist era as well as the new inequalities of the post-communist era.

Maria Todorova is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her publications include Bones of Contention: The Living Archive of Vasil Levski and the Making of Bulgaria's National Hero (2006), Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory (2004), Imagining the Balkans (1997), Balkan Family Structure and the European Pattern: Demographic Developments in Ottoman Bulgaria (1993).

Zsuzsa Gille is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of From the Cult of Waste to the Trash Heap of History: The Politics of Waste in Socialist and Post-Socialist Hungary (2007), and co-author of Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections and Imaginations in a Postmodern World (2000)."

B-Day, as it came to be known, finally arrived. It was a Friday. A school day. I identified with Cinderella as I watched Dad get ready for work. Holster, check. Gun, check. Billy club, check. Handcuffs, check. . . . Saturday morning I got up early. Dad was already gone. Back to work. Ushering the Beatles out of town. On the table . . . there were two small bars of soap, slightly used, the words "Coach House Inn" still legible. One book of matches with four missing. And a note from Dad, "From their room." . . . No one else's dad comes home from work with something that might, just might, have been intimate with a Beatle.
Growing up, Mel Miskimen thought that a gun and handcuffs on the kitchen table were as normal as a gallon of milk and a loaf of Mrs. Karl's bread. Her father, a Milwaukee cop for almost forty years was part Super Hero (He simply held up his hand and three lanes of traffic came to a screeching halt) and part Supreme Being (He could be anywhere at anytime. I never knew when or where he would pop up.) Miskimen's memoir, told in humorous vignettes, tells what it was like for a girl growing up with a dad who packed a lunch and packed heat.

Intellectual debates surrounding modernity, modernism, and fascism continue to be active and hotly contested. In this ambitious book, renowned expert on fascism Roger Griffin analyzes Western modernity and the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler and offers a pioneering new interpretation of the links between these apparently contradictory phenomena.
Using a wealth of examples, Griffin describes how modernism's roots lay in part in the fundamental human need to perceive a transcendent meaning and purpose to life--and to restore this purpose in times of experienced decay and social breakdown. This sense of revolution and rebirth provided the context in which fascism sought a new world based on the health and strength of the nation or race.
"Modernism and Fascism" is an original and fascinating synthesis of data and ideas which will be of interest to art and intellectual historians, specialists in the study of modernity and modernism, and experts in fascist studies. It also offers stimulating new insights to all those concerned with the many contemporary movements (e.g. Al-Qaeda, Christian fundamentalists) prepared to fight for their belief in the transcendental meaning of life against the inroads of an increasingly globalized materialism. This is a book which promises to have a resonance far beyond the already broad academic parameters of the project, and will inspire a new wave of scholarly interest in modernity.

This is a major contribution to scholarly debates on the chronology and nature of secularization in modern Britain. Combining historical and social scientific insights, it analyses a range of statistical evidence for the 'long 1950s', testing (and largely rejecting) Callum Brown's claims that there was a religious resurgence during this period.

Using new archival material, Lawrence Tal examines how Jordan remained stable during the volatile period between 1955 and 1967. Tal asserts that Jordan's security was due primarily to the cohesion of its National Security Establishment, a ruling coalition of security and foreign policy professionals that included the monarchy, the political elite, and the military.

The Polish crisis in the early 1980s provoked a great deal of reaction in the West. Not only governments, but social movements were also touched by the establishment of the Independent Trade Union Solidarnosc in the summer of 1980, the proclamation of martial law in December 1981, and Solidarnosc's underground activity in the subsequent years. In many countries, campaigns were set up in order to spread information, raise funds, and provide the Polish opposition with humanitarian relief and technical assistance. Labor movements especially stepped into the limelight. A number of Western European unions were concerned about the new international tension following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the new hard-line policy of the US and saw Solidarnosc as a political instrument of clerical and neo-conservative cold warriors. This book analyzes reaction to Solidarnosc in nine Western European countries and within the international trade union confederations. It argues that Western solidarity with Solidarnosc was highly determined by its instrumental value within the national context. Trade unions openly sided with Solidarnosc when they had an interest in doing so, namely when Solidarnosc could strengthen their own program or position. But this book also reveals that reaction in allegedly reluctant countries was massive, albeit discreet, pragmatic, and humanitarian, rather than vocal, emotional, and political.

Although seen widely as the 20th century's great religious war, as a conflict between the god-fearing and the godless, the religious dimension of the Cold War has never been subjected to a scholarly critique. This unique study shows why religion is a key Cold War variable. A specially commissioned collection of new scholarship, it provides fresh insights into the complex nature of the Cold War. It has profound resonance today with the resurgence of religion as a political force in global society.

Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s offers an in-depth analysis of the relationship between gender and contemporary consumer cultures in post-authoritarian Southern European societies. The book sees a diverse group of international scholars from across the social sciences draw on 14 original case studies to explore the social and cultural changes that have taken place in Spain, Portugal and Greece since the 1960s. This is the first scholarly attempt to look at the countries' similar political and socioeconomic experiences in the shift from authoritarianism to democracy through the intersecting topics of gender and consumer culture. This comparative analysis is a timely contribution to the field, providing much needed reflection on the social origins of the contemporary economic crisis that Spain, Portugal and Greece have simultaneously experienced. Bringing together past and present, the volume elaborates on the interplay between the current crisis and the memory of everyday life activities, with a focus on gender and consumer practices. Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s firmly places the Southern European region in a wider European and transatlantic context. Among the key issues that are critically discussed are 'Americanization', the 'cultural revolution of the Long 1960s' and representations of the 'Model Mrs Consumer' in the three societies. This is an important text for anyone interested in the modern history of Southern Europe or the history of gender and consumer culture in modern Europe more generally.

The rapprochment between France and the Federal Republic of Germany five years after the end of World War II was the cornerstone of all subsequent Western European history. Their previous hostility was a basis for arms races and wars--their friendship, the foundation for continually widening European economic and now political community. The unexpected reunification of Germany in 1990 sent shock waves through the French political class. Julius W. Friend explains the present French-German relationship, first investigating the recent past, then laying out the problems of the present and foreseeable future. Each chapter follows the history of the French-German relationship in the postwar period, covering the DeGaulle-Adenauer collaboration, the economic power of West Germany and its policy toward the East (and their effects on France), socialist governments in both countries, and French reactions toward the events of late 1989 in East Germany--and the initial reticence of the French to accept German reunification. The book concludes with the widely posed question of whether France is the big loser in regard to the recent events in Germany. Are France and Germany together still the linchpin of a stable Europe and the European Community? Do the countries still need each other? Friend's volume attempts to answer these and other intriguing questions, suggesting a European agenda for the next decade. The Linchpin is essential reading for political scientists, European studies scholars and students, and others examining the dynamics of a crucial inter-country relationship in the new Europe.

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2016 This book examines six summits spanning the beginning and the end of the Cold War. Using declassified documents from U.S., British, and other archives, Chris Tudda shows how the Cold War developed from an ideological struggle between capitalism and communism into a truly global struggle. From Potsdam in 1945, to Malta in 1989, the nuclear superpowers met to determine how to end World War II, manage the arms race, and ultimately, end the Cold War. Meanwhile, the newly independent nations of the "Third World," including the People's Republic of China, became active and respected members of the international community determined to manage their own fates independent of the superpowers. The six summits - Potsdam (1945), Bandung (1955), Glassboro (1967), Beijing (1972), Vienna (1972), and Malta (1989) - are here examined together in a single volume for the first time. An introductory essay provides a historiographical analysis of Cold War summitry, while the conclusion ties the summits together and demonstrates how the history of the Cold War can be understood not only by examining the meetings between the superpowers, but also by analyzing how the developing nations became agents of change and thus affected international relations.

This unique guide to the French Fourth and Fifth Republics is a comprehensive reference work that includes over 250 entries on a variety of topics--ranging from politics and economics to foreign and defense policy to social and cultural history. It is an interdisciplinary work that will serve as a handy reference tool for those seeking information on contemporary France.

The contributors represent a number of fields, including history, political science, literature, and language. Entries are on both specific events or people and broad thematic topics, such as political, economic, social, and intellectual trends, which help to provide an overview of France since World War II and to place individual entries in a specific context. The volume also includes a short chronology and appendixes classifying entries by categories and listing presidents and prime ministers of the Fourth and Fifth Republics. Each entry concludes with a short bibliography of additional sources.

The US intelligence community as it currently exists has been deeply influenced by the press. Although considered a vital overseer of intelligence activity, the press and its validity is often questioned, even by the current presidential administration. But dating back to its creation in 1947, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has benefited from relationships with members of the US press to garner public support for its activities, defend itself from its failures, and promote US interests around the world. Many reporters, editors, and publishers were willing and even eager to work with the agency, especially at the height of the Cold War. That relationship began to change by the 1960s when the press began to challenge the CIA and expose many of its questionable activities. Respected publications went from studiously ignoring the CIA's activities to reporting on the Bay of Pigs, CIA pacification programs in Vietnam, the CIA's war in Laos, and its efforts to use US student groups and a variety of other non-government organizations as Cold War tools. This reporting prompted the first major congressional investigation of the CIA in December 1974. In The Rising Clamor: The American Press, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Cold War, David P. Hadley explores the relationships that developed between the CIA and the press, its evolution over time, and its practical impact from the creation of the CIA to the first major congressional investigations of its activities in 1975--76 by the Church and Pike committees. Drawing on a combination of archival research, declassified documents, and more than 2,000 news articles, Hadley provides a balanced and considered account of the different actors in the press and CIA relationships, how their collaboration helped define public expectations of what role intelligence should play in the US government, and what an intelligence agency should be able to do.

Brucan, a former Romanian ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, provides the first social history of the remarkable transition from communism to capitalism in Russia and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He begins with an examination of the old social structure in communist societies, which used to be cosmetically advertised by the party and officialdom, paying particular attention to the nomenklatura, who have miraculously transformed themselves into big businessmen and bankers. A chapter is devoted to the decline of the working class, whom Brucan shows to be the big loser in the revolution. He then examines the new social stratification, illustrating how the new classes are taking shape under the conditions created by market reform. The symbiosis between capital and power is analyzed in depth, and Ambassador Brucan concludes his study with a look at the direction the social transformations are pushing these societies, particularly the separate paths being followed by Russia and Eastern Europe. This is an important study for researchers, scholars, and policy makers involved with Russia and Eastern Europe.

The 1960s were a particularly turbulent period, and the events of those years continue to interest and influence American society. This bibliography records and documents the most significant happenings of that decade. The volume spans the years between 1960 and the resignation of President Nixon in 1974. It includes citations for more than 1300 books related to that period. Some of the books were written during the 1960s and directly influenced people of that time. Others were written afterward, and analyze and interpret the events of the decade. The entries are arranged in topical chapters, and each citation is accompanied by a descriptive and evaluative annotation. The volume begins with an introduction that overviews and discusses the major events and trends of the time. The 17 topical chapters that follow treat virtually every aspect of life in the 1960s. The first few chapters include general works on the underlying social, political, and economic conditions that served to define the decade. Other chapters discuss works on the presidencies, social protests, the impact of the Vietnam war, the cultural revolution, and trends in art, music, literature, and religion. The bibliography concludes with author, title, and subject indexes that add to its value as a reference tool.

David Obey has in his nearly forty years in the U.S. House of Representatives worked to bring economic and social justice to America's working families. In 2007 he assumed the chair of the Appropriations Committee and is positioned to pursue his priority concerns for affordable health care, education, environmental protection, and a foreign policy consistent with American democratic ideals.
Here, in his autobiography, Obey looks back on his journey in politics beginning with his early years in the Wisconsin Legislature, when Wisconsin moved through eras of shifting balance between Republicans and Democrats. On a national level Obey traces, as few others have done, the dramatic changes in the workings of the U.S. Congress since his first election to the House in 1969. He discusses his own central role in the evolution of Congress and ethics reforms and his view of the recent Bush presidency--crucial chapters in our democracy, of interest to all who observe politics and modern U.S. history.

The election of 1980 represented not only a departure from a 44 year-long period of predominantly Democratic presidents, but also a change in the rules of American politics. Anthony Bennett takes us through the last five elections of the twentieth century, from Ronald Reagan's 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' in 1980 to Bill Clinton's 'Bridge to the twenty-first century' in 1996. Beginning with the fundamentals of process and terminology, Bennett devotes a chapter to each election - including the candidates, the conventions, and the campaigns - and then explains why the race turned out as it did. Finally, he explains how the system continued to evolve to its modern day state and how Reagan, Bush and Clinton built their winning coalitions.

Recent Iranian history has been full of unexpected turns. Whether it was the 1979 revolution, which resulted in the establishment of the first ever Islamic Republic in the history of the Muslim world, the rise to power of the reformist movement in 1997, or the emergence of the Green Movement, an opposition movement that took shape spontaneously in the days immediately following the presidential elections in June 2009, the world has been taken unawares at every juncture. This book brings together essays that both speculate on the import of the developments of 2009 and shed light on the complexities and the ever-changing dynamics of post-revolutionary Iran.

During his political career, Helmut Kohl used his own life story to promote a normalization of German nationalism and to overcome the stigma of the Nazi period. In the context of the cold war and the memory of the fascist past, he was able to exploit the combination of his religious, generational, regional, and educational (he has a PhD in History) experiences by connecting nationalist ideas to particular biographical narratives. Kohl presented himself as the embodiment of "normality": a de-radicalized German nationalism which was intended to eclipse any anti-Western and post-national peculiarities. This book takes a biographical approach to the study of nationalism by examining its manifestation in Helmut Kohl and the way he historicized Germany's past.

The pivotal years in the Chinese civil war, 1947-8, found America locked in battle with Mao Zedong and the Communists for the allegiance of China's democratic middle forces. The stakes were high for both sides. As the clouds of Cold War gathered, the US needed the liberals to provide legitimacy to Chiang Kai-shek's increasingly discredited-but staunchly anti-Communist-Nationalist government; the Communists needed the democrats so that the revolution under their leadership could advance from the countryside to the cities. In the polarized atmosphere then engulfing China, whoever lost the battle for the middle forces would face political isolation-and, ultimately, defeat. "China's Inevitable Revolution" explores this tumultuous and decisive battle. It tells the compelling story of assassination, repression, and protest in urban China. It reveals how America's fixation wtih the containing of Communism led in China to the constraining of democracy. In so doing, it demonstrates how America alienated the very democratic forces on which it pinned its hopes, thereby, ironically, contributing to the Communist victory.

This volume examines British and US attitudes towards the means and mechanisms for the facilitation of an Arab-Israeli reconciliation, focusing specifically on the refugee factor in diplomatic initiatives. It explains why Britain and the US were unable to reconcile the local parties to an agreement on the future of the Palestinian refugees.