![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Revolutions & coups
The Haitian Revolution has generated responses from commentators in fields ranging from philosophy to historiography to twentieth-century literary and artistic studies. But what about the written work produced at the time, by Haitians? This book is the first to present an account of a specifically Haitian literary tradition in the Revolutionary era. Beyond the Slave Narrative shows the emergence of two strands of textual innovation, both evolving from the new revolutionary consciousness: the remarkable political texts produced by Haitian revolutionary leaders Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and popular Creole poetry from anonymous courtesans in Saint-Domingue's libertine culture. These textual forms, though they differ from each other, both demonstrate the increasing cultural autonomy and literary voice of non-white populations in the colony at the time of revolution. Unschooled generals and courtesans, long presented as voiceless, are at last revealed to be legitimate speakers and authors. These Haitian French and Creole texts have been neglected as a foundation of Afro-diasporic literature by former slaves in the Atlantic world for two reasons: because they do not fit the generic criteria of the slave narrative (which is rooted in the autobiographical experience of enslavement); and because they are mediated texts, relayed to the print-cultural Atlantic domain not by the speakers themselves, but by secretaries or refugee colonists. These texts challenge how we think about authorial voice, writing, print culture, and cultural autonomy in the context of the formerly enslaved, and demand that we reassess our historical understanding of the Haitian Independence and its relationship to an international world of contemporary readers.
Peut-on se contenter d'un triomphalisme des Lumieres pour penser nos liens sociaux aujourd'hui? Ne faut-il pas reflechir sur un art d'heriter qui reglerait la passion democratique du neuf? La culture de la perte nait autour du 'moment 1800' - la formule, de Marcel Gauchet, designe l'epoque ou une nouvelle apprehension de l'historicite emerge. Souvent negligee mais neanmoins devenue une composante permanente de notre conscience historique, l'experience de la perte contribue a ce que la democratie se garde du presentisme en se rememorant l'heritage qui la fait vivre. Philip Knee examine cette experience chez quelques auteurs attentifs au destin du legs religieux apres la Revolution. Il rappelle comment Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal et Rousseau envisagent l'autorite avant 1789, puis aborde quatre facettes de la perte: la dynamique de rupture qui procede de la Revolution et le desarroi qu'elle engendre (Jouffroy); l'imperatif de resister a cette dynamique en redonnant vie a l'ordre perdu (Maistre, Bonald); l'effort de repenser la continuite de la tradition chretienne apres les Lumieres (Lamennais, Chateaubriand); la tentative de ruser avec la perte pour assurer a la liberte l'autorite dont elle a besoin (Tocqueville). Philip Knee se fait l'echo de ces ecrivains qui, obliges de se regarder eux-memes comme des acteurs du temps et d'admettre, fut-ce a contrecoeur, l'actualite des valeurs d'egalite et de liberte, insistent sur l'heritage d'une education chretienne seculaire sans laquelle ces valeurs, et la question democratique elle-meme, ne se seraient pas imposees.
Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize * One of The Economist's top history books of the year From one of our leading historians, an important new history of the Greek War of Independence-the ultimate worldwide liberal cause celebre of the age of Byron, Europe's first nationalist uprising, and the beginning of the downward spiral of the Ottoman Empire-published two hundred years after its outbreak As Mark Mazower shows us in his enthralling and definitive new account, myths about the Greek War of Independence outpaced the facts from the very beginning, and for good reason. This was an unlikely cause, against long odds, a disorganized collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most storied empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get. And they got it as Europeans and Americans embraced the idea that the heirs to ancient Greece, the wellspring of Western civilization, were fighting for their freedom against the proverbial Eastern despot, the Turkish sultan. This was Christianity versus Islam, now given urgency by new ideas about the nation-state and democracy that were shaking up the old order. Lord Byron is only the most famous of the combatants who went to Greece to fight and die-along with many more who followed events passionately and supported the cause through art, music, and humanitarian aid. To many who did go, it was a rude awakening to find that the Greeks were a far cry from their illustrious forebears, and were often hard to tell apart from the Ottomans. Mazower does full justice to the realities on the ground as a revolutionary conspiracy triggered outright rebellion, and a fraying and distracted Ottoman leadership first missed the plot and then overreacted disastrously. He shows how and why ethnic cleansing commenced almost immediately on both sides. By the time the dust settled, Greece was free, and Europe was changed forever. It was a victory for a completely new kind of politics-international in its range and affiliations, popular in its origins, romantic in sentiment, and radical in its goals. It was here on the very edge of Europe that the first successful revolution took place in which a people claimed liberty for themselves and overthrew an entire empire to attain it, transforming diplomatic norms and the direction of European politics forever, and inaugurating a new world of nation-states, the world in which we still live.
This lucid and timely volume sheds a sober and thought-provoking light on the immense social and political changes that have taken place in the Middle East and North Africa over recent years. A range of emerging scholars and established academics at the cutting edge of their fields provide interpretations challenging conventional assumptions relating to governance, social placidity, the use of social media, state-driven reform, and the role of traditionally marginalised groups in these strategically vital regions. This volume offers a strong response to the often misinformed and underdeveloped mainstream conceptions of revolutionary change and reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Seeking to recast and re-evaluate the paradigms used to interpret change in the Arab, Persian and Turkish worlds, the chapters in this volume will spark debate and provide much needed clarity to the current issues rocking the Middle East and North Africa.
Europe's great powers formed two powerful coalitions against France, yet force of numbers, superior leadership, and the patriotic fervor of France's citizen-soldiers not only defeated each in turn, but closed the era of small, professional armies fighting for limited political objectives. This book chronicles the period that produced commanders such as Napoleon and Nelson, whose names remain by-words for excellence to this day. From Italy to Egypt, this work shows how Napoleon demonstrated his strategic genius and mastery of tactics in battles including Rivoli, the Pyramids and Marengo. It also demonstrates how Nelson's spectacular sea victories at the Nile and Copenhagen were foretastes of a century of British naval supremacy.
This book analyses the principal aspects of the relations between Soviet Russia (USSR) and Britain in the crucial phase of their formation, namely the period from 1917 to 1924. Using previously unavailable and largely unknown archival records and memoirs published by statesmen, diplomats and military commanders directly involved in the events, Evgeny Sergeev not only reconstructs the dynamics of the interaction between Moscow and London, but also strips its key episodes of common myths and stereotypes. The most debatable issues, to which this study draws its primary attention, include Britain's role in the Entente armed intervention against the Bolshevik regime as well as a series of reciprocate attempts to avoid political controversies, and London's contribution to humanitarian aid and the economic recovery of post-revolutionary Russia. Special consideration is also given to the impact of British diplomacy on the recognition of the USSR by other great powers like France, Italy, and Japan in the mid-1920s.
Internationally renowned as the greatest authority on the French Revolution, Georges Lefebvre combined impeccable scholarship with a lively writing style. His masterly overview of the history of the French Revolution has taken its rightful place as the definitive account. A vivid narrative of events in France and across Europe is combined with acute insights into the underlying forces that created the dynamics of the revolution, as well as the personalities responsible for day-to-day decisions during this momentous period. In tracing the web of intrigues and influences that transpired as the French Revolution, Lefebvre illuminates the fundamentals of historical interpretation and, at the same time, tells a story that will compel every reader.
This book compares the performances of four key non-state actors in the Arab-Israeli conflict ecosystem: the PLO, Hamas, Hizbullah, and Amal. It argues that it is not the assets a militant group has, but rather how it acquired them that matters in explaining the variation in these actors' abilities to militarily resist and politically recover from confrontations with far more powerful adversaries. Groups that rely on marketing campaigns to secure local support and regional patronage do far better than those that rely on coercion or even barter. The book develops a typology of organizations based on their foreign and domestic policies, which has interesting implications for other non-state actors, such as ISIS. It is based on field research in Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, and Syria, including interviews with members of a range of Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups, as well as politicians, UN staff, journalists, and members of the Jordanian and Israeli armies.
How and why cities have become the predominant sites for revolutionary upheavals in the contemporary world Examining the changing character of revolution around the world, The Revolutionary City focuses on the impact that the concentration of people, power, and wealth in cities exercises on revolutionary processes and outcomes. Once predominantly an urban and armed affair, revolutions in the twentieth century migrated to the countryside, as revolutionaries searched for safety from government repression and discovered the peasantry as a revolutionary force. But at the end of the twentieth century, as urban centers grew, revolution returned to the city-accompanied by a new urban civic repertoire espousing the containment of predatory government and relying on visibility and the power of numbers rather than arms. Using original data on revolutionary episodes since 1900, public opinion surveys, and engaging examples from around the world, Mark Beissinger explores the causes and consequences of the urbanization of revolution in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Beissinger examines the compact nature of urban revolutions, as well as their rampant information problems and heightened uncertainty. He investigates the struggle for control over public space, why revolutionary contention has grown more pacified over time, and how revolutions involving the rapid assembly of hundreds of thousands in central urban spaces lead to diverse, ad hoc coalitions that have difficulty producing substantive change. The Revolutionary City provides a new understanding of how revolutions happen and what they might look like in the future.
"Rebel Hearts" is a detailed and revealing account of the psychological underworld of Irish Republicanism. Kevin Toolis has investigated the lives of men and women who, for the 25 years of the IRA's war with Britain formed the backbone of its effort. Each chapter explores the world in which history and the republican (and loyalist) interpretation of it dominate lives and deaths). This book does not seek to explain the roots of the conflict in Northern Ireland in a direct historical narrative form, but constructs, and reconstructs, its history through a series of connected and detailed individual portraits. The book is updated with two new chapters.
The Reign of Terror continues to fascinate scholars as one of the bloodiest periods in French history, when the Committee of Public Safety strove to defend the first Republic from its many enemies, creating a climate of fear and suspicion in revolutionary France. R. R. Palmer's fascinating narrative follows the Committee's deputies individually and collectively, recounting and assessing their tumultuous struggles in Paris and their repressive missions in the provinces. A foreword by Isser Woloch explains why this book remains an enduring classic in French revolutionary studies.
Combining reference entries and examination of primary documents from the Russian Revolution, this book gives students a better understanding of how and why political forces fought to reshape the Russian empire 100 years ago-and provides keen insights into the Soviet Union that resulted. This invaluable reference guide provides an understanding of the social, political, and economic forces and events in Russia that led to the 1905 Russian Revolution in which leftists radicals disposed of the Czar and his regime. It addresses key developments such as the formation of the provisional government, the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, and the Russian Civil War-connected, evolutionary historical events that fundamentally reshaped Russia into the Soviet Union. This book serves students and general readers seeking a single source that provides in-depth coverage of the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Beyond the reference entries, the book contains primary documents that cover the key events, people, and issues that emerged during Russia's revolutions and Civil War. These documents give readers a more detailed understanding of how the Bolsheviks used calls for greater "democracy" to gain support for their revolution, how the Bolsheviks used terror and control as means to maintain their power once the Bolshevik Revolution took place, and why the Bolsheviks believed such extreme measures were needed. Also included is a chronology of major events from 1890 through 1923 and a bibliography that serves as a starting point for more directed research. Provides a detailed history of the Russian Revolution, addressing events from the abdication of Czar Nicholas II to the Bolshevik Revolution Gives readers a more complete understanding of how the Bolsheviks fought during the Civil War to maintain and solidify the success of their revolution Includes a substantial collection of primary documents that offers keen insights into what key actors thought and how these individuals behaved during the historical period
This edited volume brings together global perspectives on twenty-first century Arab revolutions to theoretically and methodologically link these contemporary uprisings to resistance and protest movements worldwide, above all in the Americas. In their analyses of these transformations, the international contributors engage in an exploration of a variety of themes such as social movements and cultures of resistance, geopolitical economics, civic virtue, identity building, human rights, and foreign economic and political influence. What is the historical significance of these revolutions? What are the implications beyond the Middle East? And how are struggles in other regions of the world being influenced by these events? These heretofore largely unanswered questions are addressed in this collection, developed from presentations at a 2013 international conference on the "Arab Revolutions and Beyond" at York University, Toronto, Canada.
Nearly two years since it first erupted in Tunisia, the popular uprisings of the "Arab Spring" continue to shake the foundations of decades of authoritarian rule across the Middle East and North Africa. While their precise nature or the political, economic, and strategic implications for the region and the rest of the world have yet to be assessed, there is no doubt that they will be profound. With deep economic ties to the Middle East, Korea feels the impact of the political changes currently taking place in the region acutely, and the two regions' futures remain deeply intertwined. This timely project on the Arab Spring was initiated to provide The Asan Institute's own assessment of the changes currently taking place in the region and their significant implications for South Korea. The Asan Institute for Policy Studies is an independent think tank located in Seoul, South Korea, that provides innovative policy solutions and spearheads public discourse on many of the core issues that Korea, East Asia, and the global community face. The goal of the institute is not only to offer policy solutions but also to train experts in public diplomacy and related fields in order to strengthen Korea's capacity to better tackle some of the most pressing problems affecting the country, the region and the world today.
'The Quiet Before is a fascinating and important exploration of how ideas that change the world incubate and spread.' Steven Pinker 'Filled with insightful analysis and colourful storytelling... Rarely does a book give you a new way of looking at social change. This one does.' Walter Isaacson Why do some radical ideas make history? We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas fuelling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can imagine alternate realities. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that they might soon go extinct. The Quiet Before is a grand panorama, stretching from the seventeenth-century correspondence that jump-started the scientific revolution to the encrypted apps used by epidemiologists fighting the pandemic in the shadow of an inept administration. Beckerman shows that defining social movements - from decolonization to feminism - thrive when they are given the time and space to gestate. Today, we are replacing these productive, private spaces with monolithic platforms. Why did the Arab Spring fall apart and Occupy Wall Street never gain traction? Has Black Lives Matter lived up to its full potential? Beckerman reveals what this new social media ecosystem still needs - from patience to focus - and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas again. Lyrical and profound, The Quiet Before looks to the past to help us imagine a different future.
Red Star Over Malaya is an account of the inter-racial conflicts between Malays and Chinese during the final stages and the aftermath of the Japanese occupation. As Japanese forces retreated into the big cities, the Chinese guerrillas of the communist-led resistance movement, the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), emerged from the jungle and took control of some 70 per cent of the country's smaller towns and villages. The ensuing conflict involving the Malayan Communist Party, the Malay population and the British Military Administration marked a crucial stage in the history of Malaya. Based on extensive archival research in Malaysia, Great Britain, Japan and the United States, Red Star Over Malaya provides a riveting account of the way the Japanese occupation reshaped colonial Malaya, and of the tension-filled months that followed surrender. This book is fundamental to an understanding of social and political developments in Malaysia during the second half of the 20th century. First published in 1987, this book is a 'must' for any student of history in Southeast Asia. This edition contains a new foreword from the author.
During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, while key decisions were
debated by the victorious Allied powers, a multitude of smaller
nations and colonies held their breath, waiting to see how their
fates would be decided. President Woodrow Wilson, in his Fourteen
Points, had called for "a free, open-minded, and absolutely
impartial adjustment of all colonial claims," giving equal weight
to the opinions of the colonized peoples and the colonial powers.
Among those nations now paying close attention to Wilson's words
and actions were the budding nationalist leaders of four disparate
non-Western societies--Egypt, India, China, and Korea. That spring,
Wilson's words would help ignite political upheavals in all four of
these countries.
This definitive and thorough exploration of the causes and course of the Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945 provides new insights from hitherto unexploited archival sources. The strength of the book lies in encompassing the history of the Vietnamese Revolution in discussions of broader theoretical issues and in placing it within the context of international developments at the time. Two causal chains are established, one starting with the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930, the other with President Roosevelt's intense preoccupation from 1943 to 1945 with the future of French Indochina.
Based on primary sources, this volume studies the Palestinian Entity with special reference to the PLO in an integrated fashion, investigating the complex mutual influences of the development of the Palestinian national movement, the politics within the Arab arena and that of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It examines the commitment of the Arab world to the Palestinian national movement, in relation to the movement's dependence on the Arab position and on continued Arab support. Moshe Shemesh analyses the processes which led to the establishment of the PLO in 1964 and the take over of the PLO by the Palestinian fidai organisations in 1968-69. Dr. Shemesh also studies the development of the Palestinian national movement, especially in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, between 1968-74 under the leadership of the Fatah, which has become its 'backbone'. He analyses the significance of the PLO's turn in strategy of June 1974, and the resolutions of the Rabat Arab summit in October 1974, which recognised the PLO as 'the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people'.
In October 1944, the US Office of Strategic Services described the Irgun Tsvai Leumi - National Military Organization - as 'an underground, quasi-military organization with headquarters in Palestine ... fanatical Zionists who wish to convert Palestine and Transjordan into an independent Jewish state ... advocate the use of force both against the Arabs and the British to achieve this maximal political goal'. In 1925, Ze'ev Jabotinsky founded the Revisionist Zionism organization, whose secular, right-wing ideology would lead to the formation of the Irgun and, ultimately, of the Likud Party. Commencing operations in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1931, Irgun adopted a mainly guarding role, while facilitating the ongoing immigration of Jews into Palestine. In 1936, Irgun guerrillas started attacking Arab targets. The British White Paper of 1939 rejected the establishment of a Jewish nation, and as a direct consequence, Irgun guerrillas started targeting the British. The authorities executed captured Irgun operatives found guilty of terrorism, while deporting hundreds to internment camps overseas. As details of Jewish genocide - the Holocaust - emerged, Irgun declared war on the British in Palestine. Acts of infrastructural sabotage gave way to the bombing of buildings and police stations, the worst being the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem - the hub of British operations and administration - in July 1946, killing ninety-one. Freedom fighters or terrorists - Irgun was only dissolved when the independent Jewish state of Israel was born on 14 May 1948\. This is their story.
This projected ten-volume edition of Mao Zedong's writings provides abundant documentation in his own words regarding his life and thought. It has been compiled from all available Chinese sources, including the many new texts that appeared in 1993, Mao's centenary. |
You may like...
The History of the League of Empire…
Hugh McNeile, Rob Black
Hardcover
R1,035
Discovery Miles 10 350
Renegades - Born In The USA
Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen
Hardcover
(1)
|