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.

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.

Beginning in 1948, the Soviet Union launched a series of wildly ambitious projects to implement Joseph Stalin's vision of a total "transformation of nature." Intended to increase agricultural yields dramatically, this utopian impulse quickly spread to the newly communist states of Eastern Europe, captivating political elites and war-fatigued publics alike. By the time of Stalin's death, however, these attempts at "transformation"-which relied upon ideologically corrupted and pseudoscientific theories-had proven a spectacular failure. This richly detailed volume follows the history of such projects in three communist states-Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia-and explores their varied, but largely disastrous, consequences.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When Charles de Gaulle declared that "it is because we are no longer a great power that we need a grand policy," he neatly summarized France's predicament on the world scene. In this compact and engaging history, author Frederic Bozo deftly recounts France's efforts to reconcile its proud history and global ambitions with a realistic appraisal of its capabilities, from the aftermath of World War II to the present. He provides insightful analysis of the nation's triumphs and setbacks through the years of decolonization, Cold War maneuvering, and European unification, as well as the more contemporary challenges posed by an increasingly multipolar and interconnected world.

This book meticulously follows the volatile and frequently threatening relationship between the Western powers and the Soviet Union with regard to Berlin. The authors begin their study at that point when the State Department first considered the fate of Berlin during World War II and take the reader through to the 1971 Four Power Agreement that governs the present operation of the city ending with their assessment of its implications for the future. The book provides an in-depth understanding of the 1971 agreement as well as the disputes and interests which defined the major powers' positions on Berlin and, to a large extent, determined the city's post-war fate. The authors examine in detail the negotiations that culminated in the Four Powers Agreement and include much heretofore unpublished information stemming from their personal roles in the negotiating process.

Sutterlin and Klein contend that after the extended period of dangerous tension and confrontation surrounding Berlin after World War II, the four powers have succeeded in defining a modus vivendi for Berlin that has substantially improved the conditions of life for the residents of West Berlin and removed the city as a serious hindrance to the normalization of East-West relations. The book also asserts that the agreement led to more constructive relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in dealing with other world problems. At the same time the authors view the sensitive areas of the quadripartite relationship from the perspective of the East and West Germans presenting a situation less than totally satisfactory. The book assesses the negotiations leading to the 1971 agreement as successful from the Western perspective, and probably from the Soviet Perspective as well. The authors contend that the particular negotiating procedure followed by Henry Kissinger and other U.S. representatives were needlessly deceptive and dangerous as a precedent.

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 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.

Since 1963, the state of Israel has awarded the title of "Righteous among the Nations" to individuals who risked their lives sheltering Jews during the Holocaust. This distinction remained solely an Israeli initiative until the late 1990s, when European governments began developing their own national categories, the most prominent of which was the "Righteous of France," honoring those who protected Jews during the Vichy regime. In National Policy, Global Memory, Sarah Gensburger uses this dramatic episode to lend a new perspective to debates over memory and nationhood. In particular, she works to combine two often divergent disciplines-memory studies and political science-to study "memory politics" as a form of public policy.

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.

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.

Moreland and Steed bring an overall analysis of presidential politics in the South together with a state-by-state analysis and updated data on the 1996 presidential elections in each southern state. The 1996 elections are placed within the context of recent party and electoral developments in the South, particularly as those relate to fundamental changes in the party system and the ascendancy of the Republican Party.

The South is a region undergoing significant partisan change, and that change has substantial implications for national politics. This volume analyzes the South's role in the 1996 presidential nomination process, issues as southerners saw them in 1996, and the role of third parties in the South. The volume also analyzes the results of the 1996 presidential election in each of the eleven states of the Old Confederacy. The 1996 elections are placed within the context of recent party and electoral developments in the South, particularly as those relate to fundamental changes in the party system and the ascendancy of the Republican Party.

This volume is unique in that there is no other analysis of the 1996 elections that has a southern regional focus. This is the fourth of a series of volumes on presidential elections in the South edited by Moreland and Steed, and together these studies constitute a valuable resource for those interested in Southern politics, presidential elections, and American political parties in general.

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.

Bringing together leading scholars from a range of nations, Rethinking Antifascism provides a fascinating exploration of one of the most vibrant sub-disciplines within recent historiography. Through case studies that exemplify the field's breadth and sophistication, it examines antifascism in two distinct realms: after surveying the movement's remarkable diversity across nations and political cultures up to 1945, the volume assesses its postwar political and ideological salience, from its incorporation into Soviet state doctrine to its radical questioning by historians and politicians. Avoiding both heroic narratives and reflexive revisionism, these contributions offer nuanced perspectives on a movement that helped to shape the postwar world.

As a nominally neutral power during the Second World War, Sweden in the early postwar era has received comparatively little attention from historians. Nonetheless, as this definitive study shows, the war-and particularly the specter of Nazism-changed Swedish society profoundly. Prior to 1939, many Swedes shared an unmistakable affinity for German culture, and even after the outbreak of hostilities there remained prominent apologists for the Third Reich. After the Allied victory, however, Swedish intellectuals reframed Nazism as a discredited, distinctively German phenomenon rooted in militarism and Romanticism. Accordingly, Swedes' self-conception underwent a dramatic reformulation. From this interplay of suppressed traditions and bright dreams for the future, postwar Sweden emerged.

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.

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.

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.

An innovative diplomatic and intellectual history of decolonization, post-colonial nation building and international human rights and development discourses, this study of the role of the ILO during 1940-70 opens up new perspectives on the significance of international organisations as actors in the history of the 20th century.