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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945

Religion, Law, and the Land - Native Americans and the Judicial Interpretation of Sacred Land (Hardcover, New): Brian E. Brown Religion, Law, and the Land - Native Americans and the Judicial Interpretation of Sacred Land (Hardcover, New)
Brian E. Brown
R2,564 Discovery Miles 25 640 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Examining a series of court decisions made during the 1980s regarding the legal claims of several Native American tribes who attempted to protect ancestrally revered lands from development schemes by the federal government, this book looks at important questions raised about the religious status of land. The tribes used the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion as the basis of their claim, since governmental action threatened to alter the land which served as the primordial sacred reality without which their derivative religious practices would be meaningless. Brown argues that a constricted notion of religion on the part of the courts, combined with a pervasive cultural predisposition towards land as private property, marred the Constitutional analysis of the courts to deprive the Native American plaintiffs of religious liberty.

Brown looks at four cases, which raised the issue at the federal district and appellate court levels, centered on lands in Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and Arizona; then it considers a fifth case regarding land in northwestern California, which ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In all cases, the author identifies serious deficiencies in the judicial evaluations. The lower courts applied a conception of religion as a set of beliefs and practices that are discrete and essentially separate from land, thus distorting and devaluing the fundamental basis of the tribal claims. It was this reductive fixation of land as property, implicit in the rulings of the first four cases, that became explicitly sanctioned and codified in the Supreme Court's decision in "Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association" of 1988. In reaching such a position, the Supreme Court injudiciously engaged in a policy determination to protect government land holdings, and did so through a shocking repudiation of its own long established jurisprudential procedure in cases concerning the free exercise of religion.

The End of Empire - Dependencies Since 1948, Part 1: The West Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and... The End of Empire - Dependencies Since 1948, Part 1: The West Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and the Falklands (Hardcover)
Frederick Madden
R2,356 Discovery Miles 23 560 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

The eighth volume in Frederick Madden's monumental documentary history of the British Empire, this volume deals with some of the dependencies--the West Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar and the Falklands--since 1948. Using documentary materials, as in the earlier volumes, the book illustrates the progress toward self-government and independence, including, for instance, the development of communal tensions in Cyprus and the de facto division of the island, and the handing back of Hong Kong to China. The volume also includes Madden's valedictory summary and overview of the evolution of imperial government in the dependencies covered in these volumes, beginning with the Anglo-Norman empire of the 12th century. Along with the earlier volumes, this book provides a valuable resource for researchers interested in British imperialism.

My Revision Notes: AQA AS/A-level History: The Making of Modern Britain, 1951-2007 (Paperback): Peter Clements My Revision Notes: AQA AS/A-level History: The Making of Modern Britain, 1951-2007 (Paperback)
Peter Clements
R482 Discovery Miles 4 820 Ships in 9 - 17 working days

Exam Board: AQA Level: AS/A-level Subject: History First Teaching: September 2015 First Exam: June 2016 Target success in AQA AS/A-level History with this proven formula for effective, structured revision; key content coverage is combined with exam preparation activities and exam-style questions to create a revision guide that students can rely on to review, strengthen and test their knowledge. - Enables students to plan and manage a successful revision programme using the topic-by-topic planner - Consolidates knowledge with clear and focused content coverage, organised into easy-to-revise chunks - Encourages active revision by closely combining historical content with related activities - Helps students build, practise and enhance their exam skills as they progress through activities set at three different levels - Improves exam technique through exam-style questions with sample answers and commentary from expert authors and teachers - Boosts historical knowledge with a useful glossary and timeline

A Consequential President - The Legacy of Barack Obama (Hardcover): Michael D'Antonio A Consequential President - The Legacy of Barack Obama (Hardcover)
Michael D'Antonio
R819 R718 Discovery Miles 7 180 Save R101 (12%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Once a most unlikely candidate, Barack Obama's successful campaign for the White House made him a worldwide sensation and a transformative figure even before he was inaugurated. Elected as the Iraq War and Great Recession discouraged millions of Americans, Obama's promise of hope revived the national spirit. Had he only saved the economy, Obama would be considered a truly successful president. However he has achieved so much more, against ferocious opposition, that he can be counted as one of the most consequential presidents in history. With health care reform, he ended a crisis of escalating costs and inadequate access that threatened 50 million people. His energy policies drove down the cost of power generated by the sun, wind, and even fossil fuels. His climate change efforts produced the first treaty to address global warming in a meaningful way, and his diplomacy produced a dramatic reduction in the nuclear threat posed by Iran. Add the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the normalisation of relations with Cuba, and the "pivot" toward Asia, and his successes abroad match those at home. In A Consequential President, Michael D'Antonio tallies Obama's long record of achievement, both his major successes and less-noticed ones that nevertheless contribute to his legacy. Obama's greatest achievement came as he restored dignity and ethics to the office of the president, proof that he delivered the hope and change he promised.

Ideas and International Political Change - Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War (Hardcover, New): Jeffrey T.... Ideas and International Political Change - Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War (Hardcover, New)
Jeffrey T. Checkel
R1,565 Discovery Miles 15 650 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The remarkable, peaceful end of the Cold War dramatically-and unexpectedly-transformed international politics toward the end of the twentieth century. At the heart of this amazing change was the struggle over new and old ideas. Drawing on rich data from interviews with key Soviet architects of "new thinking" and of Gorbachev-era policy reforms, Jeffrey Checkel offers an absorbing historical narrative of political change in the late Soviet period, along with theoretical insights into the effect of ideas on state behavior. International structure and domestic institutions account for variations from country to country in how ideas influence state policy, Checkel argues. While a changing international political environment creates opportunities for the carriers of new ideas, these entrepreneurs must operate within domestic institutional settings that sharply affect their ability to influence policy. In the late Soviet period, entrenched assumptions about international politics were close to breaking down, creating a rare opportunity for new thinking. Checkel draws on this analysis of policy change in Soviet Moscow at the end of the Cold War, as well as in post-Soviet Russia, to illuminate the role of ideas in international political change.

Between Blade and Bullet - The Mary Steinhauser Story (Hardcover): Margaret Franz Between Blade and Bullet - The Mary Steinhauser Story (Hardcover)
Margaret Franz; Photographs by Erica Franz
R922 R801 Discovery Miles 8 010 Save R121 (13%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days
Presidents of Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and Hispaniola - Conversations and Correspondence (Hardcover, New): Robert J.... Presidents of Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and Hispaniola - Conversations and Correspondence (Hardcover, New)
Robert J. Alexander
R2,574 Discovery Miles 25 740 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This book consists of notes of conversations by one of America's leading Latin Americanists, as well as his correspondence with more than two dozen presidents of the Central American republics, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In some cases, there are numerous conversations and letters with individual chief executives; in other instances, there are only individual conversations or notes on talks which the author heard. Each entry reflects the thinking of the person involved at the time of the interview or letter and many shed light on the activities of the individual presidents. Before the items dealing with each particular country, Alexander provides introductory notes, giving information on the individuals dealt with in that country as well as the circumstances of the letters and conversations. These materials, together with those contained in earlier volumes dealing with South America, provide students of 20th-century Latin America unique insight into its political leadership and its history from the 1940s onward.

Consuming Germany in the Cold War (Hardcover, illustrated edition): David F. Crew Consuming Germany in the Cold War (Hardcover, illustrated edition)
David F. Crew
R3,984 Discovery Miles 39 840 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Sitting in the ruins of the Third Reich, most Germans wanted to know which of the two post-war German states would erase the material traces of their wartime suffering most quickly and most thoroughly. Consumption and the quality of everyday life quickly became important battlefields upon which the East-West conflict would be fought. This book focuses on the competing types of consumer societies that developed over time in the two Germanies and the legacy each left. Consuming Germany in the Cold War assesses why East Germany increasingly fell behind in this competition and how the failure to create a viable socialist "consumer society" in the East helped lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. By the 1970s, East Germans were well aware that the regime's bombastic promises that the GDR would soon overtake the West had become increasingly hollow. For most East German citizens, West German consumer society set the standards that East Germany repeatedly failed to meet.By exploring the ways in which East and West Germany have functioned as each other's "other" since 1949, this book suggests some of the possibilities for a new narrative of post-war German history. While taking into account the very different paths pursued by East and West Germany since 1949, the contributors demonstrate the importance of competition and highlight the connections between the two German successor states, as well as the ways in which these relationships changed throughout the period. By understanding the legacy that forty-plus years of rivalry established, we can gain a better understanding of the current tensions between the eastern and western regions of a united Germany.

Seeking Imperialism's Embrace - National Identity, Decolonization, and Assimilation in the French Caribbean (Hardcover):... Seeking Imperialism's Embrace - National Identity, Decolonization, and Assimilation in the French Caribbean (Hardcover)
Kristen Stromberg Childers
R2,732 Discovery Miles 27 320 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In 1946, at a time when other French colonies were just beginning to break free of French imperial control after World War II, the people of the French Antilles-the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe-voted to join the French nation as departments (Departments d'outre mer, or DOMs). For Antilleans, eschewing independence in favor of complete integration with the metropole was the natural culmination of a centuries-long quest for equality with France and a means of overcoming the entrenched political and economic power of the white minority on the islands, the Bekes. Disappointment with departmentalization set in quickly, however, as the equality promised was slow in coming and Antillean contributions to the war effort went unrecognized. In analyzing the complex considerations surrounding the integration of the French Antilleans, Seeking Imperialism's Embrace explores how the major developments of post-WWII history-economic recovery, great power politics, global population dynamics, the creation of pluralistic societies in the West, and the process of decolonization-played out in the microcosm of the French Caribbean. As the French government struggled to stem unrest among a growing population in the Antilles through economic development, tourism, and immigration to the metropole where labor was in short supply, those who had championed departmentalization, such as Aime Cesaire, argued that the "race-blind" Republic was far from universal and egalitarian. Antilleans fought against the racial and gender stereotypes imposed on them and sought both to stem the tide of white metropolitan workers arriving in the Antilles and also to make better lives for their families in France. Kristen Stromberg Childers argues that while departmentalization is often criticized as a weak alternative to national independence, the overwhelmingly popular vote among Antilleans should not be dismissed as ill-conceived. The disappointment that followed, she contends, reflects more on the broken promises of assimilation rather than the misguided nature of the vote itself.

South Vietnamese Soldiers - Memories of the Vietnam War and After (Hardcover): Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen South Vietnamese Soldiers - Memories of the Vietnam War and After (Hardcover)
Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen
R1,828 Discovery Miles 18 280 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Published on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, this book brings to life the experiences and memories of South Vietnamese soldiers-the forgotten combatants of this controversial conflict. South Vietnam lost more than a quarter of a million soldiers in the Vietnam War, yet the histories of these men-and women-are largely absent from the vast historiography of the conflict. By focusing on oral histories related by 40 veterans from the former Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, this book breaks new ground, shedding light on an essentially unexplored aspect of the war and giving voice to those who have been voiceless. The experiences of these former soldiers are examined through detailed firsthand accounts that feature two generations and all branches of the service, including the Women's Armed Forces Corps. Readers will gain insight into the soldiers' early lives, their military service, combat experiences, and friendships forged in wartime. They will also see how life became worse for most in the aftermath of the war as they experienced internment in communist prison camps, discrimination against their families on political grounds, and the dangers inherent in escaping Vietnam, whether by sea or land. Finally, readers will learn how veterans who saw no choice but to leave their homeland succeeded in rebuilding their lives in new countries and cultures. Relates the stories of South Vietnamese soldiers through a compelling narrative driven by oral histories Brings the experiences of these soldiers to life for the reader by sharing their compelling firsthand accounts Draws on a key oral history collection newly established at the National Library of Australia in 2013-2014 Provides fascinating insights into the soldiers' early years, their military service and experiences, and their post-war lives Conveys the strength of will and resilience that enabled these men and women to endure the hardships of war, the defeat of their armed forces, the loss of their country, and the challenges of becoming refugees and resettling in new lands

The South and America since World War II (Hardcover): James C. Cobb The South and America since World War II (Hardcover)
James C. Cobb
R738 Discovery Miles 7 380 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In this superb volume, James C. Cobb provides the first truly comprehensive history of the South since World War II, brilliantly capturing an era of dramatic change, both in the South and in its relationship with the rest of the nation.
Here is a panoramic narrative that flows seamlessly from the Dixiecrats to the "southern strategy," to the South's domination of today's GOP, and from the national ascendance of southern culture and music, to a globalized Dixie's allure for foreign factories and a flood of immigrants, to the roles of women and an increasingly visible gay population in contemporary southern life. The heart of the book illuminates the struggle for Civil Rights. Jim Crow still towered over the South in 1945, but Cobb shows that Pearl Harbor unloosed forces that would bring its ultimate demise. Growing black political clout outside the South and the contradiction of fighting racist totalitarianism abroad while tolerating it at home set the stage for returning black veterans to spearhead the NAACP's postwar assault on the South's racial system. This assault sparked not only vocal white resistance but mounting violence that culminated in the murder of young Emmett Till in 1955. Energized rather than intimidated, however, blacks in Montgomery staged the famous bus boycott, bringing the Rev. Martin Luther King to the fore and paving the way for the dramatic protests and confrontations that finally brought profound racial changes as well as two-party politics to the South.
As he did in the prize-winning The Most Southern Place on Earth and Away Down South, Cobb writes with wit and grace, showing a thorough grasp of his native region. Exhaustively researched and brimming with original insights, The South and America Since World War II is indeed the definitive history of the postwar South and its changing role in national life.

Stalin's Citizens - Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War (Hardcover): Serhy Yekelchyk Stalin's Citizens - Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War (Hardcover)
Serhy Yekelchyk
R2,005 Discovery Miles 20 050 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The first study of the everydayness of political life under Stalin, this book examines Soviet citizenship through common practices of expressing Soviet identity in the public space. The Stalinist state understood citizenship as practice, with participation in a set of political rituals and public display of certain "civic emotions" serving as the marker of a person's inclusion in the political world. The state's relations with its citizens were structured by rituals of celebration, thanking, and hatred-rites that required both political awareness and a demonstrable emotional response. Soviet functionaries transmitted this obligation to ordinary citizens through the mechanisms of communal authority (workplace committees, volunteer agitators, and other forms of peer pressure) as much as through brutal state coercion. Yet, the population also often imbued these ceremonies-elections, state holidays, parades, mass rallies, subscriptions to state bonds-with different meanings: as a popular fete, an occasion to get together after work, a chance to purchase goods not available on other days, and even as an opportunity to indulge in some drinking. The people also understood these political rituals as moments of negotiation whereby citizens fulfilling their "patriotic duty " expected the state to reciprocate by providing essential services and basic social welfare. Nearly-universal passive resistance to required attendance casts doubt on recent theories about the mass internalization of communist ideology and the development of "Soviet subjectivities. "The book is set in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv during the last years of World War II and immediate postwar years, the period best demonstrating how formulaic rituals could create space for the people to express their concerns, fears, and prejudices, as well as their eagerness to be viewed as citizens in good standing. By the end of Stalin's rule, a more ossified routine of political participation developed, which persisted until the Soviet Union's collapse.

P.A.T.C.O. and Reagan - AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY: The Air Traffic Controllers' Strike of 1981 (Hardcover): Evelyn S. Taylor P.A.T.C.O. and Reagan - AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY: The Air Traffic Controllers' Strike of 1981 (Hardcover)
Evelyn S. Taylor
R540 Discovery Miles 5 400 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

P.A.T.C.O. AND REAGAN: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY - The Air Traffic Controllers' Strike of 1981 - documents those ominous days leading up to, including, andafter the fateful strike and consequent firing of over 11,000 federal employees by the President of the United States in August, 1981. Relying onprimary White House research materials available in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library archives, the book concludes that both the strike and thedismissal were not only predictable, but inescapable scenarios, given the resolute and tenacious personalities of the leaders involved. It discussesin length, the compounding effects that the strike had on its members, society at large, and the White House.

P.A.T.C.O. AND REAGAN explores the motivations behind the strikers' controversial actions and the corresponding rationales of their opponents, whichincluded just about everybody else. It highlights the heightened emotions that fueled the union's expectations before the strike and drove its ferventquest for redemption after the strike. The union's inability to comprehend how the strike would be perceived ultimately doomed its efforts andcondemned it to a collision course with the Reagan Administration, the general public, and even its own membership . As a consequence, organized laborin the United States would never be the same.

Galula - The Life and Writings of the French Officer Who Defined the Art of Counterinsurgency (Hardcover): AA Cohen Galula - The Life and Writings of the French Officer Who Defined the Art of Counterinsurgency (Hardcover)
AA Cohen
R2,105 Discovery Miles 21 050 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This comprehensive analytical biography is the definitive work on the life and writings of history's most significant counterinsurgency doctrinaire, David Galula, elucidating the context for his reflections and examining the present and future applicability of his treatise for scholars and practitioners alike. The product of years of extensive research made possible by exclusive access to Galula's personal papers as well as first-hand accounts from colleagues, family members, and friends, this book traces Galula's life from early childhood until death, describing his upbringing, education, and military career in the tumultuous historical context of his era. The author-a former counterinsurgency practitioner himself-pays particular attention to how the Chinese Revolution and the Algerian War affected Galula's views, and identifies Galula's mentors and the schools of thought within the French military that greatly influenced his writings. A conclusion illuminates the contemporary and likely future validity of his works. In the epilogue, the author speaks to Galula's influence over modern military thought and U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine. This book is essential reading for individuals with an interest in counterinsurgency, Galula's writings, or Galula himself, such as military officers and civilian administrators undertaking counterinsurgency courses and training.

Military Crisis Management - U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965 (Hardcover, New): Herbert G. Schoonmaker Military Crisis Management - U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965 (Hardcover, New)
Herbert G. Schoonmaker
R2,295 Discovery Miles 22 950 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This account of the 1965 Dominican intervention is a case study in U.S. crisis management. Herbert Schoonmaker analyzes the role and management of U.S. military forces in the Dominican crisis. Like other Cold War interventions, the Dominican intervention demonstrated the use of rapidly reacting, joint military forces to achieve limited political objectives. It also represents a good vehicle for analyzing U.S. civilian-military relationships during this kind of military operation. At the same time the civil strife continued in Santo Domingo, U.S. military forces engaged in a variety of duties, both combat and peacekeeping, and did so while the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and U.S. government teams attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Such a complex environment, Schoonmaker argues, necessitated tight civilian control of the engaged armed forces and required restraint in carrying out their combat duties. In addition to the political-military factors, Schoonmaker also focuses on the joint army-navy-air aspects of the operation. He concentrates on the uniqueness of the intervention which makes the lessons learned from it applicable in some circumstances, but not in others. A study of the Dominican intervention is important because of its implications for defense needs and structure in a time of tight military budgets. The author also outlines the problems associated with quick-reacting forces and indicates the necessity for efficient intelligence, communications, logistics, and command and control. This book is must reading for military theoreticians and strategists, historians, and political scientists.

Just Tell the Truth - A Narrative History of Black Men Told from the Inside (Hardcover): Cliff Harrington Just Tell the Truth - A Narrative History of Black Men Told from the Inside (Hardcover)
Cliff Harrington
R512 R475 Discovery Miles 4 750 Save R37 (7%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Cliff Harrington, an African American journalist and editor, grew up during a time when strong factions of proud black men were respected, admired, and loved. Even though the black men around him were not perfect, Harrington eventually grew to understand their thought processes and behaviors. In "Just Tell the Truth, " Harrington provides an insider's glimpse into the history of the African American men who set high standards, worked hard, and mentored a younger generation.

In a time when attending church was required, lying was prohibited, and respect for others was expected, black men knew unequivocally who they were and did not care how the world-particularly white America-perceived them. As Harrington narrates the fascinating history of the men who were smart enough to know they could not change the world but were determined to teach a younger generation valuable life lessons, he shares captivating insight into the daily lives of African American males who intensely believed that all who followed them would live a better life.

"Just Tell the Truth" shares one man's compelling observations about a time when African American men were strong and wise leaders in their homes, neighborhoods, and across the nation.

Remapping Second-Wave Feminism - The Long Women's Rights Movement in Louisiana, 1950 - 1985 (Hardcover): Janet Allured Remapping Second-Wave Feminism - The Long Women's Rights Movement in Louisiana, 1950 - 1985 (Hardcover)
Janet Allured
R2,278 Discovery Miles 22 780 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Scholars of second-wave feminism often center their research on northern thought and political activity and usually overlook the vibrant pockets of actiVism that existed elsewhere. In Remapping Second-Wave Feminism, Janet Allured attempts to reshape the national narrative by focusing on the grassroots women's movement in the South, particularly in Louisiana. This book delves into unexplored origins of the feminist movement. While acknowledging the ways that the fight for African American civil rights produced the women's liberation movement in the South-and subsequently in the North- Allured also locates other wellsprings of the movement that were particularly important to southern change-seekers, especially preexisting women's organisations such as the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, and liberal churches. For many southern feminists, being part of a faith tradition that emphasised social justice reform is what ultimately propelled them into working for gender equality. Allured highlights key figures in Louisiana; divisions based on regional, sexual, and ideological differences; access to abortion; lawsuits that had national implications that emanated from southern women; and the fight against sexual assault and domestic violence. Through detailed archival and oral history research, she has forged a new path, making this a foundational work for the eld. Remapping Second-Wave Feminism will amend how we reflexively view feminism as a northern phenomenon, giving proper due to the southern contribution.

Wildfire Loose - The Week Maine Burned (Paperback): Joyce Butler Wildfire Loose - The Week Maine Burned (Paperback)
Joyce Butler
R378 Discovery Miles 3 780 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In October 1947, Maine experienced the worst fire disaster in its history. Climaxing months of drought, fires raged across more than 200,000 acres. Nine communities were practically leveled and four others severely damaged. Fifteen people lost their lives. Wildfire Loose describes how the fires started and spread so quickly through rural villages, down Millionaire's Row in Bar Harbor, and across southern Maine beach resorts. Originally published in 1979, it remains the definitive account of "The Week Maine Burned."

Reconstructing the Cold War - The Early Years, 1945-1958 (Hardcover): Ted Hopf Reconstructing the Cold War - The Early Years, 1945-1958 (Hardcover)
Ted Hopf
R1,808 Discovery Miles 18 080 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

General answers are hard to imagine for the many puzzling questions that are raised by Soviet relations with the world in the early years of the Cold War. Why was Moscow more frightened by the Marshall Plan than the Truman Doctrine? Why would the Soviet Union abandon its closest socialist ally, Yugoslavia, just when the Cold War was getting under way? How could Khrushchev's de-Stalinized domestic and foreign policies at first cause a warming of relations with China, and then lead to the loss of its most important strategic ally? What can explain Stalin's failure to ally with the leaders of the decolonizing world against imperialism and Khrushchev's enthusiastic embrace of these leaders as anti-imperialist at a time of the first detente of the Cold War?
It would seem that only idiosyncratic explanations could be offered for these seemingly incoherent policy outcomes. Or, at best, they could be explained by the personalities of Stalin and Khrushchev as leaders. The latter, although plausible, is incorrect. In fact, the most Stalinist of Soviet leaders, the secret police chief and sociopath, Lavrentii Beria, was the most enthusiastic proponent of de-Stalinized foreign and domestic policies after Stalin's death in March 1953.
Ted Hopf argues, instead, that it was Soviet identity that explains these anomalies. During Stalin's rule, a discourse of danger prevailed in Soviet society, where any deviations from the idealized version of the New Soviet Man, were understood as threatening the very survival of the Soviet project itself. But the discourse of danger did not go unchallenged. Even under the rule of Stalin, Soviet society understood a socialist Soviet Union as a more secure, diverse, and socially democratic place. This discourse of difference, with its broader conception of what the socialist project meant, and who could contribute to it, was empowered after Stalin's death, first by Beria, then by Malenkov, and then by Khrushchev, and the rest of the post-Stalin Soviet leadership. This discourse of difference allowed for the de-Stalinization of Eastern Europe, with the consequent revolts in Poland and Hungary, a rapprochement with Tito's Yugoslavia, and an initial warming of relations with China. But it also sowed the seeds of the split with China, as the latter moved in the very Stalinist direction at home just rejected by Moscow. And, contrary to conventional and scholarly wisdom, a moderation of authoritarianism at home, a product of the discourse of difference, did not lead to a moderation of Soviet foreign policy abroad. Instead, it led to the opening of an entirely new, and bloody, front in the decolonizing world.
In sum, this book argues for paying attention to how societies understand themselves, even in the most repressive of regimes. Who knows, their ideas about national identity, might come to power sometime, as was the case in Iran in 1979, and throughout the Arab world today.

Sounds German - Popular Music in Postwar Germany at the Crossroads of the National and Transnational (Hardcover): Kirkland A.... Sounds German - Popular Music in Postwar Germany at the Crossroads of the National and Transnational (Hardcover)
Kirkland A. Fulk
R2,509 Discovery Miles 25 090 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

For decades, Germany has been shaped and reshaped by the sounds of popular music-whether viewed as uniquely German or an ideological invader from abroad. This collected volume brings together leading figures in the field of German Studies, popular music studies, and cultural studies at large to survey the sociopolitical impact of music on conceptions of the German state and national identity, gender and sexuality, and transnational cultural production and consumption, expanding on the ways in which sounds, technologies, media practices, and exchanges of popular music provide a unique glimpse into the cultural dynamics of postwar Germany.

Vietnam-on-the-Potomac (Hardcover, New): Moya A. Ball Vietnam-on-the-Potomac (Hardcover, New)
Moya A. Ball
R2,562 Discovery Miles 25 620 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This intriguing volume examines how the small group communication of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and their key advisors influenced the decisions to escalate the war in Vietnam from January 1961 to July 1965. Using an historical-critical research method, Moya Ann Ball traces the Vietnam decisions from the combative rhetoric of Kennedy's presidential campaign through the creation of a small group communication culture in the Kennedy administration, which, sustained and reinforced in the Johnson administration, became the motivating force behind the decisions to overtly escalate the war in July 1965. Ball asserts that this small group communication culture was formed by the convergence of such characteristics as the decision-making group's assembly effect, the group's reaction to situational demands, the sharing of dramatic communication, and normative behavior. The analysis is based on primary sources (many of them declassified through the author's efforts) from the Kennedy and Johnson Libraries, and on correspondence and interviews with advisors such as McGeorge Bundy, Robert S. McNamara, Walt W. Rostow, Dean Rusk, and James C. Thomson. Contrary to current literature, Ball uncovers that: Kennedy was not the "natural leader" of the Vietnam decision-making group, but became the leader in death that he had not been in life; the decision makers' communication rooted them rhetorically to a combat position from which it seemed impossible to move; Johnson stalled on overt action in Vietnam and, rather than leading his advisors, was led by them; and the decisions to escalate the war emerged in a "context of discovery" in the Kennedy administration and then were rationalized in a "context ofjustification" in the Johnson administration. Vietnam-on-the-Potomac will prove invaluable to communication specialists, political scientists, and historians.

Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War (Hardcover): Kevin Ruane Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War (Hardcover)
Kevin Ruane 1
R1,650 R1,541 Discovery Miles 15 410 Save R109 (7%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War, and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career - his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons. Kevin Ruane shows how Churchill went from regarding the bomb as a weapon of war in the struggle with Nazi Germany to viewing it as a weapon of communist containment (and even punishment) in the early Cold War before, in the 1950s, advocating and arguably pioneering "mutually assured destruction" as the key to preventing the Cold War flaring into a calamitous nuclear war. While other studies of Churchill have touched on his evolving views on nuclear weapons, few historians have given this hugely important issue the kind of dedicated and sustained treatment it deserves. In Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War, however, Kevin Ruane has undertaken extensive primary research in Britain, the United States and Europe, and accessed a wide array of secondary literature, in producing an immensely readable yet detailed, insightful and provocative account of Churchill's nuclear hopes and fears.

Hamtramck - Soul of a City (Hardcover): Greg Kowalski Hamtramck - Soul of a City (Hardcover)
Greg Kowalski
R719 R638 Discovery Miles 6 380 Save R81 (11%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days
The Folly and the Glory - America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945-2020 (Paperback): Tim Weiner The Folly and the Glory - America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945-2020 (Paperback)
Tim Weiner
R453 R428 Discovery Miles 4 280 Save R25 (6%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days
Chinese vs. Western Perspectives - Understanding Contemporary China (Hardcover): Jinghao Zhou Chinese vs. Western Perspectives - Understanding Contemporary China (Hardcover)
Jinghao Zhou
R3,312 Discovery Miles 33 120 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

China is on the rise in the globalized world. The relationship between China and the United States has become the most important global issue in the twenty-first century. It is urgent to understand what is happening in China and where China is heading. However, there are many misconceptions about China in the West, which affect Westerners' ability to objectively understand China, and, ultimately influence the making of foreign policy toward China. The author attempts to challenge the misconceptions coming from both Western societies and China, and offer an integrated picture of contemporary China through systematically examining the major aspects of contemporary Chinese society and culture with the most recent data, and presents convincing arguments in eighteen chapters for spurring mutual understanding between China and the West. The author intends this book to be an interdisciplinary and comprehensive guide to China for a general audience, and it covers a wide variety of topics, including history, family, population, Chinese women, economy, environmental issues, politics, religion, media, U.S.-China relations, and other subjects. This book demonstrates the author's extensive research and thoughtful examination of many sides of controversial issues related to China with a nice balance of Western and Chinese scholarship. This is one of the few that are authored by scholars who originate from China and have their professional career in the United States, but it is distinctive from the rest of studies on this subject in that the author is committed to examining today's China from Chinese as well as Western perspectives. This is not only a scholarly book, but also is suitable for general classes on China.

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