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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
A spasm of extreme radicalism that rocked China to its foundations in the mid- to late 1960s, the Cultural Revolution has generated a vast literature. Much of it, however, is at a birds-eye level, and we have very few detailed accounts of how it worked on the ground. Long after the event, Tan Hecheng, now a retired Chinese writer and editor, was sent to Daoxian, Mao's home county, to report on the official investigation into the massacre that took place there during the Cultural Revolution. In The Killing Wind, Tan recounts how over the course of 66 days in 1967, over 9,000 Chinese "class enemies" were massacred in the Daoxian, in the Hunan Province. The killings were unprovoked and carried out with incredible, stomach-churning brutality, which is documented here in excruciating detail. But although this could easily be just a compendium of horrors, it's also a meditation on memory, moral culpability, and the failure of the Chinese government to come to terms with the crimes of the Maoist era. Tan interweaves the story of his research with the recollections of survivors and reflections on the long-term consequences of the Cultural Revolution. Akin to Jan Gross's Neighbors, about the Holocaust in a Polish town, The Killing Wind likewise paints a single episode in extraordinary detail in order to make a broader argument about the long term consequences flowing from one of the twentieth century's greatest human tragedies.
This book is the first extensive research on the role of poetry during the Iranian Revolution (1979) and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). How can poetry, especially peaceful medieval Sufi poems, be applied to exalt violence, to present death as martyrdom, and to process war traumas? Examining poetry by both Islamic revolutionary and established dissident poets, it demonstrates how poetry spurs people to action, even leading them to sacrifice their lives. The book's originality lies in fresh analyses of how themes such as martyrdom and violence, and mystical themes such as love and wine, are integrated in a vehemently political context, while showing how Shiite ritual such as the pilgrimage to Mecca clash with Saudi Wahhabi appreciations. A distinguishing quality of the book is its examination of how martyrdom was instilled in the minds of Iranians through poetry, employing Sufi themes, motifs and doctrines to justify death. Such inculcation proved effective in mobilising people to the front, ready to sacrifice their lives. As such, the book is a must for readers interested in Iranian culture and history, in Sufi poetry, in martyrdom and war poetry. Those involved with Middle Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies, Literary Studies, Political Philosophy and Religious Studies will benefit from this book. "From his own memories and expert research, the author gives us a ravishing account of 'a poetry stained with blood, violence and death'. His brilliantly layered analysis of modern Persian poetry shows how it integrates political and religious ideology and motivational propaganda with age-old mystical themes for the most traumatic of times for Iran." (Alan Williams, Research Professor of Iranian Studies, University of Manchester) "When Asghar Seyed Gohrab, a highly prolific academician, publishes a new book, you can be certain he has paid attention to an exciting and largely unexplored subject. Martyrdom, Mysticism and Dissent: The Poetry of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) is no exception in the sense that he combines a few different cultural, religious, mystic, and political aspects of Iranian life to present a vivid picture and thorough analysis of the development and effect of what became known as the revolutionary poetry of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This time, he has even enriched his narrative by inserting his voice into his analysis. It is a thoughtful book and a fantastic read." (Professor Kamran Talattof, University of Arizona)
As Jimmy Carter ascended to the presidency the heir apparent to Democratic liberalism, he touted his background as a born-again evangelical. Once in office, his faith indeed helped form policy on a number of controversial moral issues. By acknowledging certain behaviors as sinful while insisting that they were private matters beyond government interference, J. Brooks Flippen argues, Carter unintentionally alienated both social liberals and conservative Christians, thus ensuring that the debate over these moral "family issues" acquired a new prominence in public and political life. The Carter era, according to Flippen, stood at a fault line in American culture, religion, and politics. In the wake of the 1960s, some Americans worried that the traditional family faced a grave crisis. This newly politicized constituency viewed secular humanism in education, the recognition of reproductive rights established by "Roe v. Wade," feminism, and the struggle for homosexual rights as evidence of cultural decay and as a challenge to religious orthodoxy. Social liberals viewed Carter's faith with skepticism and took issue with his seeming unwillingness to build on recent progressive victories. Ultimately, Flippen argues, conservative Christians emerged as the Religious Right and were adopted into the Republican fold. Examining Carter's struggle to placate competing interests against the backdrop of difficult foreign and domestic issues--a struggling economy, the stalled Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, disputes in the Middle East, handover of the Panama Canal, and the Iranian hostage crisis--Flippen shows how a political dynamic was formed that continues to this day.
First president of his generation. Second president to be impeached. Bill Clinton led the nation during eight years of unprecedented economic prosperity and peace, creating millions of new jobs, swapping deficit for surplus, and advancing his agenda of social programs. Yet he was riddled with scandal. This encyclopedia of more than 230 alphabetical entries covers all the major events, issues, and personalities of the Clinton administration, including full treatments of his impeachment, Whitewater, Travelgate, Monica, key members of his administration, Congressional opponents, foreign and domestic policy, elections, laws, terms and catchphrases, and national and foreign events that impacted Clinton's presidency. This balanced account is a perfect reference for students of, detractors from, and supporters of, William Jefferson Clinton. Among the domestic issues covered are health care reform, gays in the military, abortion, gun control, and welfare reform. Also included are the many foreign policy issues Clinton dealt with such as Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. Numerous charts, tables, and graphs provide vital statistical information about legislation, the economy, federal spending, election returns, and crime during the Clinton years. A chronology of events and many photos accompany the text. Thorough cross-referencing will aid researchers, as will bibliographies of print and Internet sources following each entry.
The end of the Second World War in Europe gave way to a gigantic
refugee crisis. Thoroughly prepared by Allied military planners,
the swift repatriation of millions of former forced laborers,
concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war nearly brought this
dramatic episode top a close. Yet in September 1945, the number of
displaced persons placed under the guardianship of Allied armies
and relief agencies in occupied Germany amounted to 1.5 million. A
costly burden for the occupying powers, the Jewish, Polish,
Ukrainian, Yugoslav and Baltic DPs unwilling to return to their
countries of origin presented a complex international problem.
Massed in refugee camps stretched from Northern Germany to Sicily,
the DPs had become long-term asylum seekers.
This book breaks new ground by connecting two central problems faced by the Federal Republic of Germany prior to reunification in 1990, both of them rooted in the Second World War. Domestically, the country had to integrate eight million expellees forced out of their homes in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of the lost war. Externally, it had to re-establish relations with Eastern Europe, despite the burdens of the Nazi past, the expulsions, and the ongoing East-West struggle in the Cold War. This study shows how the long-term consequences of the expellee problem significantly hindered West German efforts to develop normal ties to the East European states. In particular, it emphasizes a point largely overlooked in the existing literature: the way in which the political integration of the expellees into the Federal Republic had unanticipated negative consequences for the country's Ostpolitik.
West German Industrialists and the Making of the Economic Miracle investigates the mentality of post-war German (heavy) industrialists through an analysis of their attitudes, thinking and views on social, political and, of course, economic matters at the time, including the 'social market economy' and how they saw their own role in society, with this investigation taking place against the backdrop of the 'economic miracle' and the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s. The book also includes an assessment of whether the self-declared, new 'aristocracy of merit' justified its place in society and carried out its actions in a new spirit of political responsibility. This is an important text for all students interested in the history of Germany and the modern economic history of Europe.
During a one-hundred-day period in 1994, Hutus murdered between half a million and a million Tutsi in Rwanda. The numbers are staggering; the methods of killing were unspeakable. Utilizing personal interviews with trauma survivors living in Rwandan cities, towns, and dusty villages, We Cannot Forget relates what happened during this period and what their lives were like both prior to and following the genocide. Through powerful stories that are at once memorable, disturbing, and informative, readers gain a critical sense of the tensions and violence that preceded the genocide, how it erupted and was carried out, and what these people faced in the first sixteen years following the genocide.
Kelley provides an examination of Hillary Rodham Clinton's rhetorical responses to mediated versions of crises in the Clinton Administration. She begins by examining the historical First Lady, and then looks at mediated political realities in general as well as those of the Clinton presidency. Kelley also examines the rhetorical management of political crises and the crises management style of First Ladies, including Florence Harding and Eleanor Roosevelt. The book focuses on the analysis of Hillary Rodham Clinton's rhetorical management of crises in her husband's Administration, including health care, Travelgate, Whitewater, and allegations of sexual misconduct. Kelley's approach is grounded in Kenneth Burke's framework of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation through rhetorical identification. She concludes with speculation regarding both the degree of success of Hillary Clinton's efforts as well as the implications of those efforts to rhetorical and political communication and feminist theory. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers of the presidency and the role of the First Lady, political communication, and feminist studies.
Using archival materials from all three nations, this first comparative study of French and Italian relations with the United States during the early Cold War shows that French and Italian ambitions of status, or prestige, crucially affected the formation of the Western Alliance. While attention to outside appearances had a long historic tradition for both European nations, the notion was compounded by their humiliation in World War II and their consequent fear of further demotion. Only by promoting an American hegemony over Europe could France and Italy aspire respectively to attain continental leadership and equality with the other great European powers. For its part, Washington carefully calibrated concessions of mere status with the more substantial issues of international roles. A recent trend in both U.S. and European historiography of the Cold War has emphasized the role that America's allies had in shaping the post-World War II international system. Combining diplomatic, strategic, economic, and cultural insights, and reassessing the main events from post-war reconstruction to the Middle Eastern crises of the late 1950s, Brogi reaches two major conclusions: that the United States helped the two allies to recover enough self-esteem to cope with their own decline; and that both the French and the Italian leaders, with constant pressure from Washington, progressively adapted to a notion of prestige no longer based solely on nationalism, but also on their capacity to promote, or even master, continental integration. With this focus on image, Brogi finally suggests a background to today's changing patterns of international relations, as civilizational values become increasingly important at the expense of more familiar indices of economic and military power.
From an early age, Brice H. Goldsborough exhibited an unending curiosity about the world around him; he was interested in almost anything mechanical, was inquisitive about weather patterns, and yearned to know more about aerodynamics. This lifelong quest for information led him to found Pioneer Instrument Company in New York in 1919, a firm that eventually became one of the world's largest producers of reliable aviation instruments. In this biography, author Robert Dye, Goldsborough's great-nephew, tells the story of a man who became an expert in meteorology, navigation, and aircraft instrument design and changed the course of aviation history. Based on personal letters, articles, and news clippings, "A Pioneer in Aviation" follows Goldsborough's life as a teen, his time in the navy studying electricity, and his accomplishments, such as establishing China's first offshore radio station and supervising the construction of Haiti's first radio station. Detailing one of aviation's unsung heroes, "A Pioneer in Aviation" shows the man who designed, built, and installed the instrument panel for "The Spirit of St. Louis" and flew with Charles Lindbergh during September 1927 and how he came to be associated with other great names in aviation history such as Glenn Curtiss, Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Igor Sikorsky.
"Dramatic and startling" -- The Guardian. Witness Barack Obama as you've never seen him before -- as feminist, communist, fashion model, Jew, Muslim terrorist, Messiah, Superman, George Washington, President Roosevelt, Julius Caesar and Hindu deity Lord Shiva. Obama: 101 Best Covers shows America's ex-president in all these guises and more, on the front pages of the world's leading print publications. NEW BARACK PHOTO BIOGRAPHY During his two terms in the White House, former US President Barack Obama amassed more newspaper and magazine covers than any other in history. This new post-presidency legacy book brings you the best 101 examples from around the world, in a special commemorative edition celebrating the startling event that was the 2008 election of America's first African American leader. It presents a unique visual biography of the background and accomplishments of his historic presidential campaign. OBAMA & NEW YORK TIMES Featured titles within this definitive collection include Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Ebony, Essence, Vibe, The Guardian and The New York Times, amongst others. Many of the covers featuring the 44th US president were flattering. He never looked better than when he featured on the front of The New York Times or Rolling Stone. (See pages 40 and 69 of the Obama book). DREAMS OF AUDACITY & HOPE Many Barack Obama biography and legacy books have been written by different authors in recent years. His autobiography, Dreams Of My Father, as well as his memoir, The Audacity Of Hope, detail Obama's life story better than any biography by another author could, while the photographic portraits offered in Obama books by Pete Souza and Peter Baker reveal the intimate access they had to the White House's first African American president during his two administrations. But this new legacy book enters the Barack Obama story in 2004 with his very first cover, for Black Enterprise, and then tracks Obama's US presidential campaigns and elections of 2008 and 2012 through a further 100 amazing covers. THE CALL OF HISTORY 2008 Amongst the print media, Barack Obama was a publishing sensation - a fact borne out by the volume of covers his portrait graced during his eight-year American presidency. They range from graphic illustrations to photographs of Obama giving speeches while on the campaign trail, right through to intimate studio portraits. Many depict him as the chosen one, the Messiah even. Obama was the one who, out of the many, answered the call of history many thought would never come, while exercising power that no other African American leader before him has ever wielded on the political and presidential stage. OBAMA: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT IN WORDS The text for the Obama covers book discusses the design, typography, photography and political context of each cover portrait, bringing to life this unique portrait of the world's most famous man. BARACK: 4 COVERS FOR NO. 44 Obama: 101 Best Covers, is available in FOUR collectable editions, each with a different cover. As a souvenir, gift or inspirational Black History Month purchase for 2018, this is one the best Obama books with which to celebrate the former US president's tenure in the White House. NEW OBAMA BOOK: SUMMARY - Available in FOUR editions. - A bespoke souvenir -- EIGHT years in the making. - Features amazing covers you've never seen before. ONLINE BOOK CATEGORIES 2020 Biography & Autobiography History - African American Art, Architecture & Photography
This book explores Soviet prosecution records to tell the hidden story of ordinary citizens who were arrested for expressing discontent during the Khrushchev and Brezhnev years.
Childhood in a poor but happy family in1940s rural Ulster backwater is sometimes hilarious, sometimes spine-chilling. The narrative reveals many interesting aspects of history and is always entertaining.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Communism and the Cold War pervaded almost every aspect of American policy and concern. Eisenhower's Highway Act sought to strengthen America with the sort of roads system and military advantage Germany's Autobahn provided in World War II; Kennedy looked to space, the Peace Corps, and the schools to improve America's actual and perceived status in the eyes of the world; LBJ continually found concerns about Southeast Asia pressing in upon him notwithstanding his desire to found a new "Great Society" in the United States. However, despite the Cold War and demands of international politics, these three presidents were continually involved in critical debates about the domestic future of America, and their roles and victories in these debates have left deep impressions upon American society. This volume provides readers with access to the primary documents--both foreign and domestic--that reflect the debates that have had such a strong influence on shaping the United States. This resource covers thirty-two key issues and initiatives of the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson presidencies. An introductory overview of each president's administration provides a useful window through which to assess the specific debates and documents addressed, and each of these individual issues is also supplemented by a brief introductory discussion. Among the issues covered are: Eisenhower's attempt to establish a "new look" for national defense, the Eisenhower doctrine, and the National Defense Education Act; Kennedy's Alliance for Progress and Peace Corps programs, his role in Cuba, his plans for America in space, and his work on arms control and the Limited Test Ban Treaty; andJohnson's Civil Rights Act, Model Cities Program, war on poverty, and role in the ground and air wars in Vietnam. A timeline provides a chronological backdrop for the subject, and recommended readings following each section offer helpful direction for further study.
No modern U.S. president inherited a stronger, safer international position than Bill Clinton. In 1992, the Cold War was over, and the nation was at peace and focused on domestic issues. Despite this temporary tranquility, Clinton would soon be faced with a barrage of crises, including flare-ups of unrest in the Middle East, ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia, uneasy relations with Japan and China, persistent trouble in the Persian Gulf, the dissolution of the USSR, and disastrous situations in Somalia and Haiti. In this comprehensive and balanced examination of Clinton's foreign policy--the first such book to cover all the global focal points of his administration to date--William G. Hyland brilliantly shows the effects of combining this confusion with Clinton's unique personality characteristics. His first term was marked, in the author's analysis, by murky policy, unrealistic goals, and the mishandling of several crises. By the end of that term he learned some hard lessons, was able to alter his pattern of response, and reversed himself on some major aspects of foreign policy--all to benefit, in the author's view, the country and the world as a whole.
In the mid-1980s Mikhail Gorbachev's political and economic reforms promised a relaxation of tensions between the U.S.S.R. and the United States without disturbing the basic balance of power in Europe established after the Second World War. Then came the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the vast democratic revolution that swept the Soviet empire, creating a power vacuum east of Berlin. Could such an upheaval have been a natural and logical extension of the course of reform that Gorbachev began plotting in 1985? Gorbachev's Revolution argues persuasively that the end of Communism was never the goal of the Soviet leader but rather the unintended result of an intense and many-faceted struggle for power. Anthony D'Agostino demonstrates that the pervasive image of stable in-system reform in fact ignored evidence from history. Succession struggles in the U.S.S.R. were generally wars of ideas in which the victors got their way by challenging their opponents' interpretations of the past. Through political memoirs, newspaper accounts, and historical documents, Gorbachev's Revolution demonstrates once again that revolutionaries change the world not only according to their own designs but also according to the world's designs on them.
From twins torn away from their family and separated, to a girl shut in a basement, maltreated and malnourished, the world of Jewish children who were hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust becomes painfully clear in this volume. Psychiatrist Bluglass presents interviews with 15 adults who avoided execution in their childhoods thanks to being hidden by Christians, all of whom have since developed remarkably positive lives. All are stable, healthy, intelligent, and share a surprising sense of humor. Together, they show a profound ability to recover and thrive--an unexpected resilience. That their adjustment with such positive outcomes was possible after such harsh childhood experiences challenges a popular perception that inevitable physical and psychological damage ensues such adversity. Their stories offer new optimism, hope and grounds for research that may help traumatized children of today, and of the future, become more resilient. The book's core consists of these remarkable survivors' narratives, told in their own words. Also included are childhood and current pictures of each survivor, a list naming their rescuers (people who hid them), and a detailed bibliography.
Covering the period from the early 1950s to the end of the 20th century, this book presents a concise yet thorough historical analysis of the relationship between the European Union (and its predecessors) and the Middle East. The authors provide a survey of the evolution of the foreign policy mechanisms of the EU and an outline of the relevant aspects of modern Middle East history. They examine the relationship between the two regions from 1950 to the end of the Cold War, with special emphasis on the period following the 1973/4 oil crisis. They go on to look at the post-Cold War era discussing the conflict with Iraq and examining the EU's continuing involvement in the Middle East peace process. |
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