With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, in The Diamond Queen Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch - and to the monarchy, chronicling the Queen's pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself. Arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, Marr dissects the Queen's political relationships, crucially those with her Prime Ministers; he examines her role as Head of the Commonwealth, and her deep commitment to that Commonwealth of nations; he looks at the drastic changes in the media since her accession in 1952 and how the monarchy - and the monarch - have had to change and adapt as a result. Indeed he argues that under her watchful eye, the monarchy has been thoroughly modernized and made as fit for purpose in the twenty-first century as it was when she came to the throne and a 'new Elizabethan age' was ushered in.

The protest movements that followed the Second World War have recently become the object of study for various disciplines; however, the exchange of ideas between research fields, and comparative research in general, is lacking. An international and interdisciplinary dialogue is vital to not only describe the similarities and differences between the single national movements but also to evaluate how they contributed to the formation and evolution of a transnational civil society in Europe. This volume undertakes this challenge as well as questions some major assumptions of post-1945 protest and social mobilization both in Western and Eastern Europe. Historians, political scientists, sociologists and media studies scholars come together and offer insights into social movement research beyond conventional repertoires of protest and strictly defined periods, borders and paradigms, offering new perspectives on past and present processes of social change of the contemporary world.

The establishment of the Communist social model in one part of Germany was a result of international postwar developments, of the Cold War waged by East and West, and of the resultant partition of Germany. As the author argues, the GDR's 'new' society was deliberately conceived as a counter-model to the liberal and marketregulated system. Although the hopes connected with this alternative system turned out to be misplaced and the planned economy may be thoroughly discredited today, it is important to understand the context in which it developed and failed. This study, a bestseller in its German version, offers an in-depth exploration of the GDR economy's starting conditions and the obstacles to growth it confronted during the consolidation phase. These factors, however, were not decisive in the GDR's lack of growth compared to that of the Federal Republic. As this study convincingly shows, it was the economic model that led to failure.

"The New India" looks critically at various constructions of the Indian citizen from 1991 to 2007, the period when economic liberalization became established government policy. Liberalization generated complex social and economic tensions, and Chowdhury reveals howthese tensions shaped images of the citizen in cultural narratives of the time--in films, literary texts, corporate advertisements, political documents, and citizens' responses to the privatization of public space. Examining differing images of citizenship and its rules and rituals in these narratives, Chowdhury sheds light on the complex interactions between culture and political economy in the New India.

An examination of the nature of middle power diplomacy in the post-Cold War era. As the rigid hierarchy of the bipolar era wanes, the potential ability of middle powers to open segmented niches opens up. This volume indicates the form and scope of this niche-building diplomatic activity from a bottom up perspective to provide an alternative to the dominant apex-dominated image in international relations.

The communist German Democratic Republic, founded in 1949 in the Soviet-occupied zone of post-war Germany is, for many people, epitomized by the Berlin Wall; Soviet tanks and surveillance by the secret security police, the Stasi, appear to be central. But is this really all there is to the GDR(1)s history? How did people come to terms with their situation and make new lives behind the Wall? When the social history of the GDR in the 1960s and 1970s is explored, new patterns become evident. A fragile stability emerged in a period characterized by 'consumer socialism', international recognition and detente. Growing participation in the micro-structures of power, and conformity to the unwritten rules of an increasingly predictable system, suggest increasing accommodation to dominant norms and conceptions of socialist 'normality'. By exploring the ways in which lower-level functionaries and people at the grass roots contributed to the formation and transformation of the GDR from industry and agriculture, through popular sport and cultural life, to the passage of generations and varieties of social experience the contributors collectively develop a more complex approach to the history of East Germany.

Eurasia remains a zone of confrontation between the United States and Russia. Over the last decade, this confrontation has reached the Middle East, and, extending through Central Asia to China and points further afield, it has acquires global dimensions. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eurasia and the territories on Russia's periphery acquired increased geopolitical importance. After a decade of euphoria at what seemed to be new freedoms and another decade adjusting to new realities, the last ten years have witnessed a struggle between Putin's Russia and America of Cold War proportions. Gradually, Moscow redefined its geopolitical priorities and reclaimed a sphere of influence over the newly independent countries of Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and has projected power into Ukraine and the three Caucasian republics. This is now a battleground between Russia and the United States. Since the end of the Cold War, relations between Washington and Moscow fluctuated from open and amicable to cool and suspicious. Presently, they seem to be contradictory and difficult to grasp, though it is certain that Russia is doing everything to keep the "Near Abroad" under its control while harassing American interests globally wherever it can. As of 2019, Russia has just won a new battle in Syria that may reconfigure the geopolitical balance of the entire Middle East. What we need the most in this situation is honest and competent leaders capable of wrestling with politics as well as with ethical and moral issues that both influence and reflect international politics.

Beyond Borders: A History of Mexican Migration to the United States details the origins and evolution of the movement of people from Mexico into the United States from the first significant flow across the border at the turn of the twentieth century up to the present day. * Considers the issues from the perspectives of both the United States and Mexico * Offers a reasoned assessment of the factors that drive Mexican immigration, explains why so many of the policies enacted in Washington have only worsened the problem, and suggests what policy options might prove more effective * Argues that the problem of Mexican immigration can only be solved if Mexico and the United States work together to reduce the disequilibrium that propels Mexican immigrants to the United States

The past fifteen years have seen a major evolution in French society and the way it views culture. Cultural Policy and Socialist France offers a multi-faceted approach to determining what role the Socialist Party has had in that change through a detailed evaluation of the policies of the Ministry of Culture under President Francois Mitterrand and Minister of Culture Jack Lang.

The book examines, compares, and contrasts the African American and Oromo movements by locating them in the global context, and by showing how life chances changed for the two peoples and their descendants as the modern world system became more complex and developed. Since the same global system that created racialized and exploitative structures in African American and Oromo societies also facilitated the struggles of these two peoples, this book demonstrates the dynamic interplay between social structures and human agencies in the system. African Americans in the US and Oromos in the Ethiopian Empire developed their respective liberation movements in opposition to racial/ethnonational oppression, cultural and colonial domination, exploitation, and underdevelopment. By going beyond its focal point, the book also explores the structural limit of nationalism, and the potential of revolutionary nationalism in promoting a genuine multicultural democracy.

In Designing US Economic Policy, W. Robert Brazelton analyzes the Second World War. As the world struggled to recover from the massive wartime expenditure, it was essential that economic policy not repeat the mistakes of the prewar era that sparked the new 1930s Depression. These new policies included Truman's New Deal, which helped shape both the economic and social climate of the US today.

The experience of one region over 25 years within the European Union forms the basis of an examination of how the EU impacts on a region's economy, on its society and on its own particular problems. In the case of Northern Ireland, inclusion in the European Union has coincided with the most sustained campaign of political terrorism in western Europe. Specialist contributors to this book consider what difference the European dimension has made to the region over the quarter century since 1973.

In Killing Hope, William Blum, author of the bestselling Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, provides a devastating and comprehensive account of America's covert and overt military actions in the world, all the way from China in the 1940s to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and - in this updated edition - beyond. Is the United States, as it likes to claim, a global force for democracy? Killing Hope shows the answer to this question to be a resounding 'no'.

The EU today is at a crossroads: either it becomes a great supranational union or it goes back to being an array of separate independent states. Alberto Martinelli and Alessandro Cavalli draw a grand fresco of the society in which the European Union is taking shape. Long-term social and cultural trends and main current developments in economics and politics are synthetically outlined. Key questions of identity and nationalism, immigration and inequality, welfare and economic governance, are thoroughly analysed. Main cleavages, conflicts of interest and different visions of member states, as well as institutional reforms and crisis management strategies are critically discussed. A detailed proposal for advancing the process of political integration concludes the volume.

This extensively researched empirical analysis of the GDR in the years 1971-1989 challenges current historical interpretations of GDR history. It focuses on four social groups-- youth, women, writers and Christians--to highlight the stability of this socialist society until 1987. The strength of the regime is shown to have been based on a continuously negotiated process of give-and-take involving major parts of the population.

Most scholars agree that 1968 was a watershed in U.S. political history. And Senator Eugene McCarthy's anti-Vietnam War presidential campaign was a main catalyst for the year's events. McCarthy's near upset of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the first presidential primary in New Hampshire dramatically illustrated the divisions within the Democratic party, brought Senator Robert F. Kennedy into the race, led to Johnson's withdrawal, and undercut the radical New Left antiwar movement. This work has two main purposes. First, it seeks to delineate Eugene McCarthy's conservative-liberal ideology and, in so doing, contrast it to the ideology of the New Left antiwar movement. And second, it seeks to describe the historical context, causes, important events, and effects of McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign.

At certain times of the day - at sunrise, and sunset - the outlines of prehistoric fields, barrows and hill-forts in the British landscape may be thrown into relief. Such 'shadow sites', best seen from above, and captured by an airborne camera, are both examples of, and metaphors for, a particular way of seeing the landscape. At a time of rapid modernisation and urbanisation in mid-twentieth-century Britain, an archaeological vision of the British landscape reassured and enchanted a number of writers, artists, photographers, and film-makers. From John Piper, Eric Ravilious and Shell guide books, to photographs of bomb damage, aerial archaeology, and The Wizard of Oz, Kitty Hauser delves into evocative interpretations of the landscape and looks at the affinities between photography as a medium to capture traces of the past as well as their absence.

Drawing on newly released government papers, John Gearson assesses the development of Harold Macmillan's foreign policy during the Berlin Wall Crisis. Tracing the bitter alliance disputes of the crisis, Dr Gearson shows how Macmillan's attempts to chart an independent course, crucially undermined his standing with his European partners and revealed his confused approach to European security. Berlin is placed at the centre of consideration of British foreign policy, making this book an important contribution to the historiography of the period.

This book provides an important study of a short-lived government making foreign policy in the shadow of an impending general election. It considers Britain's relations with the United States, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Robert Rosenstone was among the first 'postmodern' historians, and remains one of the most renowned. In this honest, revealing and often funny memoir, he shows us how he got there and why. Adventures of a Postmodern Historian chronicles Rosenstone's research journeys over half a century. Beginning in the 1960s, his offbeat trajectory took him on adventures through the police states of Franco Spain and the Soviet Union, to the Shinto shrines and Zen temples of Japan and ultimately to Hollywood. Alongside his own memoirs, Rosenstone reflects upon developments and changes within the realm of professional history, which in turn reflect the social, cultural, and intellectual shifts of the late 20th century. A pioneer of experimental and creative history, he suggests how the experience of the historian can inflect the written history, and provides a defence of innovation in historical writing that is both intellectually rigorous and entertaining. In doing so he offers a window into the state of history today - and points to exciting new ways of writing the past. This is a book about the craft of history, about both doing research and writing it. It should be required reading for all historians.

Today representative democracy is the dominant political system in the world. Britain played a prominent part in the democratization of the world through both its constitutional reforms at home and its power and influence abroad. In that process, Prime Ministers played a prominent role through their power and influence in government, Parliament and the country more generally. Quinault examines the stance of ten leading Prime Ministers - from the mid-nineteenth century until the twenty-first century - on the theory and practice of democracy. The attitude of each Prime Minister is assessed by considering their general views on democracy and their use of that term and concept in their discourse and thereby their role in advancing or resisting democratic political change. Particular attention is paid to their role in electoral reform, together with their stance on the composition and powers of the House of Lords and the role of the monarchy in the governing process. Their attitudes to the democratic aspects of some major international issues are also considered.

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The thrilling untold story of Cold War submarine espionage and an inside look at the U.S. Navy's "Silent Service""

"Stalking the Red Bear"--for the first time ever--describes the action principally from the perspective of a commanding officer of a "Sturgeon"-class nuclear submarine during the Cold War, taking readers closer to the Soviet target than any work on submarine espionage has ever done before.

This is the untold true story of a covert submarine espionage operation against the Soviet Union. Few individuals outside the intelligence and submarine communities knew anything about these top-secret missions, and with good reason: the curtain of secrecy surrounding submarine operations, beginning in World War II, is nearly impenetrable.

Cloaking itself in virtual invisibility to avoid detection, this "Sturgeon"-class boat went sub versus sub deep within Soviet-controlled waters north of the Arctic Circle, where the risks were extraordinarily high and anything could happen. Readers will know what it was like to carry out a covert mission aboard a nuke and experience the sights, sounds, and dangers unique to submarining.

This book tells the history of modern Argentina through the lens of political violence and ideology. It focuses on the theory and practice of the fascist idea in Argentine political culture throughout the twentieth century. It analyzes the connections between fascist theory and the Holocaust, antisemitism and the military junta's practices of torture and state violence (1976-1983), its networks of concentration camps and extermination. The destruction of the rule of law and military state terror represent the end road of the twisted historical path of Argentine and Latin American dictatorships. The book emphasizes the genocidal dimensions of the persecution of Argentine Jewish victims, explaining why they were disproportionately victimized by the military dictatorship. The Dirty War was not a real war, Federico Finchelstein argues, but an illegal militarization of state repression. This popularized term needs to be explained in terms of the fascist genealogies that The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War explores. From a historical perspective, the Dirty War did not feature two combatants but rather victims and perpetrators. In fact, the state made "war" against its citizens. This state sanctioned terror had its roots in fascist ideology, tracing a history from the fascist movements of the interwar war years to the concentration camps. Argentine fascism shaped the country's political culture. The Argentine road to fascism was shaped in the 1920s and 1930s and from then on continued to acquire many political and ideological reformulations and personifications, from Peronism (1943-1955) to terrorist right-wing organizations in the 1960s (especially Tacuara and the Triple A) to the last military dictatorship (1976-1983).

The eruption of Mount Pinatuba represented more than the smothering of America's Clark Air Force Base and many of President Corazon Aquino's development plans. It also served as a metaphor both for the collapse of Philippine-American base negotiations, presaging an end to nearly a century of strategic relations, and for Aquino's unsuccessful attempt to undo the colossal damage of the Marcos era and construct coherent development programmes. The story of the Aquino era is one of failing efforts to use the vast economic aid which poured into the country, and more successful efforts to put the lid on the communist insurgency in four-fifths of the nation's provinces. The reason for the success was that the unity of the security struggle went unmatched in the economic one, where it was every person for himself or herself. Even the presidential family had its fingers in the economic pie. This book explores the connections between two central functions of Third World governments - development and security - in an analysis of Corazon Aquino's six crisis-filled years as President of the Philippines. Information in the book is updated to reflect recent events, including the change of leaders