At midnight on 30 June 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty after 150 years of British rule. The moment when the British flag came down was dramatic enough but the ten years leading up to it were full of surprising incident and change. These 'Letters from Hong Kong', written by an Englishwoman who was involved in those events from 1987, are both an unusual historical record and a heartwarming account of women's domestic, intellectual and political activity. This epilogue brings Hong Kong up to date ten years after the Handover.

Nerve agents are the world's deadliest means of chemical warfare. Nazi Germany developed the first military-grade nerve agents and massive industry for their manufacture-yet, strangely, the Third Reich never used them. At the end of the Second World War, the Allies were stunned to discover this advanced and extensive programme. The Soviets and Western powers embarked on a new arms race, amassing huge chemical arsenals. From their Nazi invention to the 2018 Novichok attack in Britain, Dan Kaszeta uncovers nerve agents' gradual spread across the world, despite international arms control efforts. They've been deployed in the Iran-Iraq War, by terrorists in Japan, in the Syrian Civil War, and by assassins in Malaysia and Salisbury-always with bitter consequences. 'Toxic' recounts the grisly history of these weapons of mass destruction: a deadly suite of invisible, odourless killers.

Cuba has undergone dramatic changes since the collapse of European communism. The loss of economic aid and preferential trade with the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries forced the Cuban government to search out new ways of organizing the domestic economy and new commercial relations in an international system dominated by market economies. The resulting economic reforms have reverberated through Cuban society and politics, recreating social inequalities unknown since the 1950s and confronting the political system with unprecedented new challenges. The resulting ferment is increasingly evident in Cuban cultural expression, and the responses to adversity and scarcity have reshaped Cuban social relations. This completely revised and updated edition focuses on Cuba since Raul Castro took over the country's leadership in 2006. A Contemporary Cuba Reader brings together the best recent scholarship and writing on Cuban politics, economics, foreign relations, society, and culture in present-day Cuba. Ideally suited for students and general readers seeking to understand this still-contentious and controversial island, the book includes a substantive introduction setting the historical context, as well as part introductions and a chronology. Supplementary resources for students and professors are available here. Contributions by: Carlos Alzugaray Treto, Denise Blum, Philip Brenner, Michael J. Bustamante, Mariela Castro, Soraya M. Castro Marino, Maria Auxiliadora Cesar, Armando Chaguaceda, Margaret E. Crahan, Simon C. Darnell, Antonio Aja Diaz, Jorge I. Dominguez, Maria Isabel Dominguez, Tracey Eaton, H. Michael Erisman, Richard E. Feinberg, Reina Fleitas Ruiz, Edmundo Garcia, Graciela Gonzalez Olmedo, Conner Gorry, Katrin Hansing, Adrian H. Hearn, Ted A. Henken, Rafael Hernandez, Monica Hirst, Robert Huish, Marguerite Rose Jimenez, Antoni Kapcia, C. William Keck, Emily J. Kirk, John M. Kirk, Hal Klepak, Sinan Koont, Par Kumaraswami, Saul Landau, William M. LeoGrande, Sandra Levinson, Esteban Morales, Nancy Morejon, Blanca Munster Infante, Armando Nova Gonzalez, Manuel Orozco, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva, Philip Peters, Camila Pineiro Harnecker, Clotilde Proveyer Cervantes, Archibald Ritter, Ana M. Ruiz Aguirre, Daniel Salas Gonzalez, Jorge Mario Sanchez Egozcue, Ann Marie Stock, Julia E. Sweig, Carlos Varela, Sjamme van de Voort, and Maria del Carmen Zabala Arguelles.

Last Call for the African-American Church revisits the commandment Jesus left his followers to proclaim the gospel worldwide until his return, one that by all accounts is no longer a priority in the contemporary African-American church. Despite the presence of euphoric praise-and-worship celebrations and the proliferation of diverse ministries it advertises as "cutting edge," the implosion of missions has occurred in this church's pulpits and pews. Selected biblical foundations of missions are provided for those new to the parlance, and for others needing a refresher course. Along with conventional missions' distinctions, Chester Williams logs some concepts in the glossary he himself has constructed, for readers and for collegial review. They include the feminization of missions, rummage sale missions, missions without Jesus, and window dressing missions. For the most part, these concepts represent a radical departure from apostolic missions and are viewed as biblical tinkering and convolution, most importantly, as obstructions to the Great Commission-world harvesting.

Mid-twentieth-century Florida was a state in flux. Changes exemplified by rapidly burgeoning cities and suburbs, the growth of the Kennedy Space Center during the space race, and the impending construction of Walt Disney World overwhelmed the outdated 1885 constitution. A small group of rural legislators known as the "Pork Chop Gang" controlled the state and thwarted several attempts to modernize the constitution. Through court-imposed redistribution of legislators and the hard work of state leaders, however, the executive branch was reorganized and the constitution was modernized. In Making Modern Florida, Mary Adkins goes behind the scenes to examine the history and impact of the 1966-68 revision of the Florida state constitution. With storytelling flair, Adkins uses interviews and detailed analysis of speeches and transcripts to vividly capture the moves, gambits, and backroom moments necessary to create and introduce a new state constitution. This carefully researched account brings to light the constitutional debates and political processes in the growth to maturity of what is now the nation's third largest state.

Cuba has undergone dramatic changes since the collapse of European communism. The loss of economic aid and preferential trade with the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries forced the Cuban government to search out new ways of organizing the domestic economy and new commercial relations in an international system dominated by market economies. The resulting economic reforms have reverberated through Cuban society and politics, recreating social inequalities unknown since the 1950s and confronting the political system with unprecedented new challenges. The resulting ferment is increasingly evident in Cuban cultural expression, and the responses to adversity and scarcity have reshaped Cuban social relations. This completely revised and updated edition focuses on Cuba since Raul Castro took over the country's leadership in 2006. A Contemporary Cuba Reader brings together the best recent scholarship and writing on Cuban politics, economics, foreign relations, society, and culture in present-day Cuba. Ideally suited for students and general readers seeking to understand this still-contentious and controversial island, the book includes a substantive introduction setting the historical context, as well as part introductions and a chronology. Supplementary resources for students and professors are available here. Contributions by: Carlos Alzugaray Treto, Denise Blum, Philip Brenner, Michael J. Bustamante, Mariela Castro, Soraya M. Castro Marino, Maria Auxiliadora Cesar, Armando Chaguaceda, Margaret E. Crahan, Simon C. Darnell, Antonio Aja Diaz, Jorge I. Dominguez, Maria Isabel Dominguez, Tracey Eaton, H. Michael Erisman, Richard E. Feinberg, Reina Fleitas Ruiz, Edmundo Garcia, Graciela Gonzalez Olmedo, Conner Gorry, Katrin Hansing, Adrian H. Hearn, Ted A. Henken, Rafael Hernandez, Monica Hirst, Robert Huish, Marguerite Rose Jimenez, Antoni Kapcia, C. William Keck, Emily J. Kirk, John M. Kirk, Hal Klepak, Sinan Koont, Par Kumaraswami, Saul Landau, William M. LeoGrande, Sandra Levinson, Esteban Morales, Nancy Morejon, Blanca Munster Infante, Armando Nova Gonzalez, Manuel Orozco, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva, Philip Peters, Camila Pineiro Harnecker, Clotilde Proveyer Cervantes, Archibald Ritter, Ana M. Ruiz Aguirre, Daniel Salas Gonzalez, Jorge Mario Sanchez Egozcue, Ann Marie Stock, Julia E. Sweig, Carlos Varela, Sjamme van de Voort, and Maria del Carmen Zabala Arguelles.

In this book, James B. Greenberg and Thomas K. Park take an anthropological approach to the economic history of the past one thousand years and define credit as a potentially transformative force involving inequalties, rather than an exchange of equal valued commodites. Guiding readers through the medieval period all the way to the modern day, and tracking through the Mediterranean and Europe, Greenberg and Park reorient financial history and position social capital and ethical thought at its center. They examine the multicultural origins of credit and finance, from banking to credit cards and predatory lending, and bringing us up to date, they explore the forces that led to the collapse of global credit markets in 2007-2008. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, history, economics, religion, and sociology.

In September 1958, Guinea claimed its independence, rejecting a constitution that would have relegated it to junior partnership in the French Community. In all the French empire, Guinea was the only territory to vote "No." Orchestrating the "No" vote was the Guinean branch of the Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA), an alliance of political parties with affiliates in French West and Equatorial Africa and the United Nations trusts of Togo and Cameroon. Although Guinea's stance vis-a-vis the 1958 constitution has been recognized as unique, until now the historical roots of this phenomenon have not been adequately explained.
Clearly written and free of jargon, "Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea" argues that Guinea's vote for independence was the culmination of a decade-long struggle between local militants and political leaders for control of the political agenda. Since 1950, when RDA representatives in the French parliament severed their ties to the French Communist Party, conservative elements had dominated the RDA. In Guinea, local cadres had opposed the break. Victimized by the administration and sidelined by their own leaders, they quietly rebuilt the party from the base. Leftist militants, their voices muted throughout most of the decade, gained preeminence in 1958, when trade unionists, students, the party's women's and youth wings, and other grassroots actors pushed the Guinean RDA to endorse a "No" vote. Thus, Guinea's rejection of the proposed constitution in favor of immediate independence was not an isolated aberration. Rather, it was the outcome of years of political mobilization by activists who, despite Cold War repression, ultimately pushed the Guinean RDA tothe left.
The significance of this highly original book, based on previously unexamined archival records and oral interviews with grassroots activists, extends far beyond its primary subject. In illuminating the Guinean case, Elizabeth Schmidt helps us understand the dynamics of decolonization and its legacy for postindependence nation-building in many parts of the developing world.
Examining Guinean history from the bottom up, Schmidt considers local politics within the larger context of the Cold War, making her book suitable for courses in African history and politics, diplomatic history, and Cold War history.

The Cold War remains one of the twentieth century's defining events, possessing broad political, social, and material implications that continue to have impact. In this book, Todd Hanson presents nine case studies of archaeological investigations conducted at famous-and some not so famous-historic American Cold War sites, including Bikini Atoll, the Nevada Test Site, and the Cuban sites of the Soviet Missile Crisis. By examining nuclear weapons test sites, missile silos, submarine bases, fallout shelters, and more, Hanson illustrates how archaeology can help strip away myths, secrets, and political rhetoric to better inform our understanding of the conflict's formative role in the making of the contemporary American landscape. Addressing modern ramifications of the Cold War, Hanson also looks at the preservation of atomic heritage sites, the atomic tourism phenomenon, and the struggles of atomic veterans.

Revolutionary feminism is resurging across the world. But what were its origins? In the early 1970s, the International Feminist Collective began to organise around the call for recognition of the different forms of labour performed by women. They paved the way for the influential and controversial feminist campaign 'Wages for Housework' which made great strides towards driving debates in social reproduction and the gendered aspects of labour. Drawing on extensive archival research, Louise Toupin looks at the history of this movement between 1972 and 1977, featuring unpublished conversations with some of its founders including Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa, as well as activists from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. Encompassing rich theoretical traditions, including autonomism, anti-colonialism and feminism, whilst challenging both classical Marxism and the mainstream women's movement, the book highlights the power and originality of the campaign. Among their many innovations, these pathbreaking activists approached gender, sexuality, race and class together in a way that anticipated intersectionality and had a radical new understanding of sex work.

This book presents absorbing and critical expert perspectives on the post-truth phenomenon that has infiltrated the U.S. political system, media, and populace. Deception in politics is nothing new, but the quantity of unsubstantiated statements in America today is unprecedented. False notions, fake news, "alternative facts," and opinions are being pitched from sources including the White House, Congress, and the American population via Twitter, Facebook, and online news sites as well as print, television, and radio. Such a widespread spectacle instantly captures the attention of people nationwide, but disagreement has the nation almost bordering on civil war over the definition of "the truth" and what this book calls "post-truth." In this text, C.G. Prado and expert contributors present varied perspectives on post-truth, its authoritarian implications for the nation, and how we can approach information to differentiate between truth and post-truth. Speaking to general readers, students, and scholars alike, chapters include text on the historical and social events that initiated and developed post-truth and why some people are more prone than others to accept and perpetuate post-truth. They also discuss post-truth as a threat to democracy. Analyzes Trump-administration-generated mistruths in a discussion of post-truth America Presents varied concerns, perspectives, and thought-provoking topics in clear, accessible, and engaging words Explains the historical and social circumstances that led to post-truth Details why some people are more apt to embrace and spread post-truth Outlines actions to defeat post-truth

With the summer of 2012 marking half a century of independence for Algeria, the Algerian War has been brought into discussions in France once more, where parallels between the past and present are revealed. This analysis takes an in-depth look at the war from 1954 to 1962 and the response from the French left. Drawing from documents and interviews, it offers a full account of not only the role of the revolutionary left in giving political and practical solidarity to the Algerian liberation struggle, but also that of the Trotskyists during that period. Including a section on how the war has been reflected in fiction, this volume is sure to interest academics across various fields.

Composer and cultural official Nicolas Nabokov (1903-78) led an unusual life even for a composer who was also a high-level diplomat. Nabokov was for nearly three decades an outstanding and far-sighted player in international cultural exchanges during the Cold War, much admired by some of the most distinguished minds of his century for the range of his interests and the breadth of his vision. Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music follows Nabokov's life through its fascinating details: a privileged Russian childhood before the Revolution; exile, first to Germany, then to France; the beginnings of a promising musical career, launched under the aegis of Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes with Ode in 1928; his twelve-year "American exile" during which he occupied several academic positions; his return to Europe after the war to participate in the denazification of Germany; his involvement in anti-Stalinist causes in the first years of the Cold War; his participation in the Congress for Cultural Freedom; his role as cultural adviser to the Mayor of Berlin and director of the Berlin Festival in the early 1960s; the resumption of his American academic and musical career in the late 1960s and 1970s. Nabokov is unique not only in that he was involved on a high level in international cultural politics, but also in that his life intersected at all times with a vast array of people within, and also well beyond, the confines of classical music. Drawing on a vast array of primary sources, Vincent Giroud's first-ever biography of Nabokov will be of interest readers interested in twentieth-century music, Russian music, Russian emigration, and the Cold War, particularly in its cultural aspects. Musicians and musicologists interested in Nabokov as a composer, or in twentieth century Russian composers in general, will find in the book information not available anywhere else.

This is a superb new study of Japanese culture in the post-war period, focusing on a handful of filmmakers who created movies for a politically conscious audience. Out of a background of war, occupation and the legacies of Japan's post-defeat politics there emerged a dissentient group of avant-garde filmmakers who created a counter-cinema that addressed a newly constituted, politically conscious audience. While there was no formal manifesto for this movement and the various key filmmakers of the period (Oshima Nagisa, Imamura Shohei, Yoshida Yoshishige, Hani Susumu, Wakamatsu Koji and Okamoto Kihachi) experimented with very different conceptions of visual style, it is possible to identify a sensibility that motivated many of these filmmakers: a generational consciousness based on political opposition that was intimately linked to the student movements of the 1950s, and shared experiences as Japan's first generation of post-war filmmakers artistically stifled by a monopolistic and hierarchal commercial studio system that had emerged reinvigorated in the wake of the 'red purges' of the late-1940s. "Politics, Porn and Protest: Japanese Avant-Garde Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s" provides a much needed overview of these filmmakers and reconsiders the question of dissent in the cultural landscape of Japan in the post-war period.

Evolution and Power: China's Struggle, Survival, and Success, edited by Xiaobing Li and Xiansheng Tian, brings together scholars from multiple disciplines to provide a comprehensive look at China s rapid socio-economic transformation and the dramatic changes in its political institution and culture. Investigating subjects such as party history, leadership style, personality, political movements, civil-military relations, intersection of politics and law, and democratization, this volume situates current legitimacy and constitutional debates in the context of both the country s ideology, traditions, and the wider global community. The contributors to this volume clarify key Chinese conceptual frameworks to explain previous subjects that have been confusing or neglected, offering case studies and policy analyses connected with power struggles and political crises in China. A general pattern is introduced and developed to illuminate contemporary problems with government accountability, public opposition, and political transparency. Evolution and Power provides essential scholarship on China s political development and growth.

Explores the ways television documents, satirizes, and critiques the political era of the Trump presidency. In American Television during a Television Presidency, Karen McNally and contributors critically examine the various ways in which television became transfixed by the Trump presidency and the broader political, social, and cultural climate. This book is the first to fully address the relationship between TV and a presidency consistently conducted with television in mind. The sixteen chapters cover everything from the political theater of televised impeachment hearings to the potent narratives of fictional drama and the stinging critiques of comedy, as they consider the wide-ranging ways in which television engages with the shifting political culture that emerged during this period. Approaching television both historically and in the contemporary moment, the contributors-an international group of scholars from a variety of academic disciplines-illuminate the indelible links that exist between television, American politics, and the nation's broader culture. As it interrogates a presidency played out through the lens of the TV camera and reviews a medium immersing itself in a compelling and inescapable subject, American Television during a Television Presidency sets out to explore what defines the television of the Trump era as a distinctive time in TV history. From inequalities to resistance, and from fandom to historical memory, this book opens up new territory in which to critically analyze television's complex relationship with Donald Trump, his presidency, and the political culture of this unsettled and simultaneously groundbreaking era. Undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of film and television studies, comedy studies, and cultural studies will value this strong collection.

An essential new reference work for students and general readers interested in the history, dynamics, and influence of evangelicalism in recent American history, politics, and culture. What makes evangelical or "born-again" Christians different from those who identify themselves more simply as "Christian"? What percentage of Americans believe in the Rapture? How are evangelicalism and Baptism similar? What is the influence of evangelical religions on U.S. politics? Readers of Evangelical America: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Religious Culture will learn the answers to these questions and many more through this single-volume work's coverage of the many dimensions of and diversity within evangelicalism and through its documentation of the specific contributions evangelicals have made in American society and culture. It also illustrates the Evangelical movement's influence internationally in key issues such as human rights, environmentalism, and gender and sexuality. Provides readers with an understanding of contemporary American evangelicalism's history, key individuals, organizations, and beliefs through detailed coverage of more than 180 topics Documents the diversity of the Evangelical movement under a common core umbrella of doctrinal beliefs Displays the breadth of American evangelical interaction in social and cultural issues and in debates in recent American history

This book explores the origins, conduct, and failure of Greek Cypriot nationalists to achieve the unification of Cyprus with Greece. Andrew Novo addresses the anti-colonial struggle in the context of: the competition for the nationalist narrative in Cyprus between the Left and Right, the duelling Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot nationalisms in Cyprus, the role of Turkey and Greece in the conflict on the island, and the concerns of the British Empire during its retrenchment following the Second World War. More than a narrative history of the period, an analysis of British policy, or a description of counter-insurgency operations, this book lays out an examination of the underpinnings of the enosis cause and its manifestation in action. It argues that the strategic myopia of the enosis movement shackled the cause, defined its conduct, and was the primary reason for its failure. Divided and occupied, Cyprus, and the world, deal with its unresolved legacy to this day.

In recent years there has been much interest in collective memory and commemoration. It is often assumed that when nations celebrate a historic day, they put aside the divisions of the present to recall the past in a spirit of unity. As Billig and Marinho show, this does not apply to the Portuguese parliament's annual celebration of 25 April 1974, the day when the dictatorship, established by Salazar and continued by Caetano, was finally overthrown. Most speakers at the ceremony say little about the actual events of the day itself; and in their speeches they continue with the partisan politics of the present as combatively as ever. To understand this, the authors examine in detail how the members of parliament do politics within the ceremony of remembrance; how they engage in remembering and forgetting the great day; how they use the low rhetoric of manipulation and point-scoring, as well as high-minded political rhetoric. The book stresses that the members of the audience contribute to the meaning of the ceremony by their partisan displays of approval and disapproval. Throughout, the authors demonstrate that, to uncover the deeper meanings of political rhetoric, it is necessary to take note of significant absences. The Politics and Rhetoric of Commemoration illustrates how an in-depth case-study can be invaluable for understanding wider processes. The authors are not content just to uncover unnoticed features of the Portuguese celebration. They use the particular example to provide original insights about the rhetoric of celebrating and the politics of remembering, as well as throwing new light onto the nature of party political discourse.