This is a profoundly original and entertaining history of France, from the first century bc to the present day, based on countless new discoveries and thirty years of exploring France on foot, by bicycle and in the library. Beginning with the Roman army's first recorded encounter with the Gauls and ending with the gilet jaunes protests in the era of Emmanuel Macron, each chapter is an adventure in its own right. Along the way, readers will find the usual faces, events and themes of French history - Louis XIV, the French Revolution, the French Resistance, the Tour de France - but all presented in a shining new light. Graham Robb's France: An Adventure History does not offer a standard dry list of facts and dates, but a panorama of France, teeming with characters, full of stories, journeys and coincidences, giving readers a thrilling sense of discovery and enlightenment. It is a vivid, living history of one of the world's most fascinating nations by a ceaselessly entertaining writer in complete command of subject and style.

"A readable and tightly argued political and social biography that provides numerous insights into Massachusetts' history on the eve of the revolution."
--"Historical Journal of Massachusetts"

"A candid and readable biography . . . [Walmsley] gives a vivid account of the descent of a controversial and sometimes misunderstood figure of the period."
"--Choice"

"Usefully emphasizes the economic and personal influences on the politics of Massachusetts."
-- "Religious Studies Review"

"A significant addition. Hutchinson definitely needed a more complete treatment than he heretofore had received and Walmsley has neatly provided it. A genuine pleasure to read."
--"Charles P. Neimeyer, author of America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army"

"Given the enduring fascination of the American Revolution, this fine biography of Thomas Hutchinson should find a wide and appreciative audience. Historian Stephen Walmsely's persuasive study of the loyalist governor of Massachusetts Bay portrays an honorable but unimaginative official who remains true to his aristocratic conception of duty but helpless to arrest the forces wrenching his native land away from Crown rule. Putting a human face on an epic conflict, Walmsley finds hutchinson's radical opponents motivated less by ideas and principles than by ambition, greed, and personal animus. Indeed, Walmsley's graphic description of the mob violence, deployed by the patriots to intimidate Hutchinson and subvert the rule of law, will leave readers pondering who were the villains and who the heroes in this superb reconsideration of the nation's origins."
--"Allen Matusow, Rice University"

Rarely in Americanhistory has a political figure been so pilloried and despised as Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts and an ardent loyalist of the Crown in the days leading up to the American revolution.

In this narrative and analytic life of Hutchinson, the first since Bernard Bailyn's Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography a quarter century ago, Andrew Stephen Walmsley traces Hutchinson's decline from well- respected member of Boston's governing class to America's leading object of revolutionary animus. Walmsley argues that Hutchinson, rather than simply a victim of his inability to understand the passions associated with a revolutionary movement, was in fact defeated in a classic political and personal struggle for power. No mere sycophant for the British, Hutchinson was keenly aware of how much he had to lose if revolutionary forces prevailed, which partially explains his evolution from near- Whig to intransigent loyalist. His consequent vilification became a vehicle through which the growing patriot movement sought to achieve legitimacy.

An entertaining and thought-provoking view of revolutionary events from the perspective of the losing side, Thomas Hutchinson and the Origins of the American Revolution tells the story of the American Revolution through the prism of one of its most famous detractors.

The primary objective of this book is to understand the nature of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. Boko Haram's goal of an Islamic Caliphate, starting in the Borno State in the North East that will eventually cover the areas of the former Kanem-Borno Empire, is a rejection of the modern state system forced on it by the West. The central theme of this volume examines the relationship between the failure of the state-building project in Nigeria and the outbreak and nature of insurgency. At the heart of the Boko Haram phenomenon is a country racked with cleavages, making it hard for Nigeria to cohere as a modern state. Part I introduces this theme and places the Boko Haram insurgency in a historical context. There are, however, multiple cleavages in Nigeria ethnic, regional, cultural, and religious and Part II examines the different state-society dynamics fuelling the conflict. Political grievances are common to every society; however, what gives Boko Haram the space to express such grievances through violence? Importantly, this volume demonstrates that the insurgency is, in fact, a reflection of the hollowness within Nigeria's overall security. Part III looks at the responses to Boko Haram by Nigeria, neighbouring states, and external actors. For Western actors, Boko Haram is seen as part of the "global war on terror" and the fact that it has pledged allegiance to ISIS encourages this framing. However, as the chapters here discuss, this is an over-simplification of Boko Haram and the West needs to address the multiple dimension of Boko Haram. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, insurgencies, African politics, war and conflict studies, and IR in general.

This book consists of a series of interrelated chapters analyzing why Iran, among all countries, has seen so many revolutionary movements in the past century; the degree to which its religion, Shi'ism, is revolutionary; and the history of revolutionary and resistance movements in the modern Muslim world. The author stresses historical change, such as the change of Twelver Shi'ism from political quietism to revolutionary opposition, and also previously unnoticed factors in revolution, such as the multi-urban character of all Iran's modern revolutions.

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A riveting account of a forgotten holocaust: the slaughter of over one hundred thousand Ukrainian Jews in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century. 'Exhaustive, clearly written, deeply researched' - The Times 'A meticulous, original and deeply affecting historical account' - Philippe Sands, author of East West Street Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their Jewish neighbors with impunity, burned down their houses, ripped apart their Torah scrolls, sexually assaulted them, and killed them. Largely forgotten today, these pogroms - ethnic riots - dominated headlines and international affairs in their time. Aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty years later, these dire predictions would come true. Drawing upon long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders, acclaimed historian Jeffrey Veidlinger shows for the first time how this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. Through stories of survivors, perpetrators, aid workers, and governmental officials, he explains how so many different groups of people came to the same conclusion: that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems.

A comprehensive analysis of political violence in Weimar Germany with particular emphasis on the political culture from which it emerged. "Today's readers, living in what Charles Maier calls 'a new epoch of vanished reassurance', will find this book absorbing and troubling."-The Historian The Prussian province of Saxony-where the Communist uprising of March 1921 took place and two Combat Leagues (Wehrverbande) were founded (the right-wing Stahlhelm and the Social Democratic Reichsbanner)-is widely recognized as a politically important region in this period of German history. Using a case study of this socially diverse province, this book refutes both the claim that the Bolshevik revolution was the prime cause of violence and the argument that the First World War's all-encompassing "brutalization" doomed post-1918 German political life from the very beginning. The study thus contributes to a view of the Weimar Republic as a state in severe crisis but with alternatives to the Nazi takeover. From the introduction: After the phase of civil war, political violence assumed a distinctly limited form. It was no longer aimed at killing or wounding as many opponents as possible; instead, it served political parties and organizations as an instrument for exerting pressure in the struggle over control of the street. This development was driven by the Combat Leagues (Wehrverbande) of all political camps, who, with their uniforms and marches, injected militaristic elements into the political culture. However, since the violence they perpetrated followed a political and not a military logic, it was, as I will show, in principle controllable and did not pose a fundamental threat to the political order, not even in 1932, that particularly turbulent year before Hitler's assumption of power.

This volume offers a full account of the December 1989 revolution that toppled the Communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. Based on the author's personal investigation and interviews, extensive screening of the Romanian and international press, and critical examination of sources and interpretations, it offers a full and objective analysis of a complex, often puzzling series of events. Nestor Ratesh explores the economic, social, and human disaster that led to the uprising, and then chronicles the seven days of the revolution from its inception in the western city of Timisoara to its climax in Bucharest on December 22, 1989, when Ceausescu fled the city. The bloody and confused aftermath is examined from different angles, with surprising details and telling portraits of the main players, some of whom the author knows personally. Ratesh skeptically scrutinizes the revelations, hints, and rumors of conspiracies that reportedly either caused the revolution--or hijacked it. Evidence available so far points toward a genuinely spontaneous popular uprising during which large segments of the army and secret police slowly realized that the fall of the regime was imminent. They first blinked, then searched for ways to save themselves--forcing Ceausescu to flee and bringing into power both new and old politicians who represented change to the masses but maintained relative stability in the power structure. The paradox that an essentially anti-Communist revolution would produce a regime controlled by former Communists has dominated most of the developments since then. The book concludes by examining the ensuing months of dislocation and commotion. Clearly the December revolution remains unfulfilled, entangled in a myriad of contradictions, obstacles, intrigues, lies, rivalries, ineptitude, and plain wrongdoing.

This book offers a thematic analysis of the phenomenon of revolution. The twentieth century has been witness to a number of historic revolutions, beginning with the Mexican and the Russian revolutions at the turn of the century and leading up to the Iranian and Nicaragua revolutions in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite their fundamental differences, these and the revolutions before them are characterized by parallel developments and processes. The focus of this book is to discern those social and political dynamics that bring about revolutions, determine their nature and overall direction, and in turn facilitate the emergence and success of revolutionary leaders and their attempts at institutionalizing their newly-won powers.

Kamrava adds valuable insights into prevalent notions and theories concerning revolutions. There are, the author argues, several conditions necessary for the appearance and success of revolutionary movements. They include a weak state structure, a mobilizable society, and specific groups whose aim it is to overthrow the political system. Once the leaders of the revolution have been determined, they try to institutionalize their powers, in both the post-revolutionary state and society.

This book treats two basic subjects: (1) royalist explanations of the causes of the French Revolution, and (2) royalist defenses of royalist political positions. The royalists began with a simplistic conspiracy theory of history--the Old Regime was right. But then they came up with increasingly sophisticated explanations, thereby making an important contribution to historical explanation. In political thought, they eventually offered a tempered defense of the Old Regime, a call for political elitism in the face of the chaos unleashed by the Revolution, and an early explanation of the organic theory of history, a true contribution to political thought.

Told for the first time, the riveting story of how common people-miners, cooks, former soldiers-shook off the intimidation of Serbian strongman Slobadan Milosevic and overthrew, peacefully, his tyrannical regime. Based on numerous interviews with participants, from the man in the street to top officials in the Serbian regime, The Fall of Milosevicrecounts the exhilaration, fear and chaos of a population rising in opposition to a tyrant, the “Butcher of the Balkans.” As the people gather in protest, behind the scenes the pillars of Milosevic’s regime crumble as politicians, military officers, and the police desert a leader no longer legitimate in the eyes of the people. This is the story of individuals facing down fear and rising up for democracy.

The Jack Cade Rebellion of 1450 was an uprising of the commons of England-most of whom were from Kent, Norfolk, and Essex-that culminated in a battle on London Bridge. The rebel force, led by a mysterious man known as Jack Cade, protested King Henry VI's ineffectiveness as a leader, the over-taxation of the working classes, the crown's failed attempts to secure French territories, and the corrupt bureaucrats and church officials. This book collects, for the first time, primary documents related to the rebellion that have been translated into Present-Day English or glossed for ease of reading. The sources included in this book comprise the rebels' petitions, entries from medieval and early modern chronicles, letters and formal correspondences, official government documents, and political poems of the fifteenth century. Students interested in urban history, popular rebellions, medieval and early modern studies, legal studies, criminal justice, Shakespeare, and artistic expressions of protest will find these primary sources invaluable.

Bringing together experts across Latin America, North America, and Spain, The Cambridge Companion to Latin American Independence innovatively revisits Latin American independence within a larger regional, temporal, and thematic framework to highlight its significance for the Age of Atlantic Revolutions. The volume offers a synthetic yet comprehensive tool for understanding and assessing the most current studies in the field and their analytical contributions to the broader historiography. Organized thematically and across different regions of the Iberian Peninsula and Spanish and Luso America, the essays deepen well-known conclusions and reveal new interpretations. They offer analytical interventions that produce new questions on periodization, the meaning of anti-colonialism, liberalism, and republicanism, as well as the militarization of societies, public opinion, the role of sciences, labor regimes, and gender dynamics. A much-needed addition to the existing scholarship, this volume brings a transnational perspective to a critical period of history in Latin America.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Since at least the mid-seventeenth century, the concept of revolution has been an important tool both for those seeking to bring about political change and for those trying to understand it. And it is as relevant today as it has ever been. This volume re-evaluates our understanding of the history of revolutionary thought by examining a selection of key texts. These range from the 17th to the 20th century, and are carefully chosen to include both constitutional documents and theoretical works by figures such as James Harrington, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maximilian Robespierre, Peter Kropotkin and Deng Xiaoping Each chapter engages with a particular revolutionary moment via a specific text, usually an extract of around 300 words, and considers the significance of the text for the history of revolutionary thought. The structure of the book allows readers to make connections and comparisons across the different revolutionary texts and moments, thereby providing a broader, deeper and more nuanced understanding of revolutions. Stimulating, accessible and interdisciplinary, Revolutionary Moments will appeal to students and researchers in the history of political thought and intellectual history, and beyond.

This book, first published in 1980, is a comprehensive study of the radical theatre movement in Britain from 1968 to 1978. The essays are based on first-hand interviews, with each section being introduced with a summary of key events before detailing the artists under examination.

By the late 1960s, in a Europe divided by the Cold War and challenged by global revolution in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, thousands of young people threw themselves into activism to change both the world and themselves. This new and exciting study of "Europe's 1968" is based on the rich oral histories of nearly 500 former activists collected by an international team of historians across fourteen countries. Activists' own voices reflect on how they were drawn into activism, how they worked and struggled together, how they combined the political and the personal in their lives, and the pride or regret with which they look back on those momentous years. Themes explored include generational revolt and activists' relationship with their families, the meanings of revolution, transnational encounters and spaces of revolt, faith and radicalism, dropping out, gender and sexuality, and revolutionary violence. Focussing on the way in which the activists themselves made sense of their revolt, this work makes a major contribution to both oral history and memory studies. This ambitious study ranges widely across Europe from Franco's Spain to the Soviet Union, and from the two Germanys to Greece, and throws new light on moments and movements which both united and divided the activists of Europe's 1968.

The essays in this collection, drawn from a Hofstra University bicentennial conference on the French Revolution, seek to come to terms, often from conflicting points of view, with the complex relationship between events and their representations. The question 'How did the lived experience that eventually became known as the French Revolution come to be organized?' provides a common thread for the collection. Individual chapters examine the Revolution from the vantage points of theology and philosophy, theater and literature, as well as politics and history.

As the contributors show, the French Revolution was more than a series of political events that took place in one European country at the end of the 18th century. Instead, it was a trans-historical, multi-national, and multi-cultural discourse. It served as a point of reference by which and through which a complex of cultural values and styles could be defined, and as a model (even a negative model) for the elaboration of ideologies, and of political and administrative strategies for bureaucracies around the world. An invaluable collection for all students of the Revolution and its impact.

Conspiratorial views of events abound even in our modern, rational world. Often such theories serve to explain the inexplicable. Sometimes they are developed for motives of political expediency: it is simpler to see political opponents as conspirators and terrorists, putting them into one convenient basket, than to seek to understand and disentangle the complex motivations of opponents. So it is not surprising to see that just when the French Revolution was creating the modern political world, a constant obsession with conspiracies lay at the heart of the revolutionary conception of politics. The book considers the nature and development of the conspiracy obsession from the end of the old regime to the Directory. Chapters focus on conspiracy and fears of conspiracy in the old regime; in the Constituent Assembly; by the king and Marie Antoinette; amongst the people of Paris; on attitudes towards the peasantry and conspiracy; on Jacobin politics of the Year II and the 'foreign plot'; on counter-revolutionary plots and imaginary plots; on Babeuf and the 'conspiracy of equals'; and finally on fear of conspiracy as an intellectual impasse in the revolutionary mentality. Inspired by recent debates, this book is a comprehensive survey of the nature of conspiracy in the French Revolution, with each chapter written by a leading historian on the question. Each chapter is an original contribution to the topic, written however to include the wider issues for the area concerned. There is an emphasis throughout on clarity and accessibility, making the volume suitable for a wide readership as well as undergraduates and advanced researchers -- .

The Revolutionary War was not a polite conflict between orderly troops and gentlemanly officers. Civilians on the home front suffered considerably. This account depicts the ugly side of the War for Independence, where roving bands of robbers, known as banditti, plagued the countryside in areas not fully under the control of either army.

Regardless of their political sympathies, American civilians lived in terror of these well-armed gangs of looters, who frequently engaged in torture, arson, and murder. The players in this sordid tale, chiefly motivated by greed, chose their victims indiscriminately and then returned to sanctuary. Many civilians fled their homes, leaving large sections of New York, Georgia, and the Carolinas as no-man's-land, where near anarchy and the complete disruption of civilian justice only abetted the success of the marauders.

Ward details the activities of the most prominent banditti and looks at the horrors and devastation of their actions. His account challenges readers to look beyond the set-piece battles and even past the guerrilla activities, to examine what life was like for those caught between the lines.

This book explores the constitutional debates of the Year 3 of the French Revolution (also known as Year 1 of the French Republic) and the drafts for the Declaration and the Constitution of 1793. It presents the revolutionaries' distinct view on human rights and the rights of the peoples, as well as their philosophical underpinnings. After discussing how contemporary legal history and theory, and political philosophy approached the revolutionary period, the book tackles the main topics covered during the debates and proposals. Starting with the issue of external relations and the sovereignty of the people and ending with natural rights and Republicanism, this book shows how apparently technical questions (such as what procedure should be implemented to declare a war) are intertwined with philosophical reflections on rights and with problems that were urgent at the time.

The Grenada Revolution in the Caribbean Present: Operation Urgent Memory is the first scholarly book from the humanities on the subject of the Grenada Revolution and the US intervention. It is simultaneously a critique, tribute, and memorial. It argues that in both its making and its fall, the 1979-1983 Revolution was a transnational event that deeply impacted politics and culture across the Caribbean and its diaspora during its life and in the decades since its fall. Drawing together studies of landscape, memorials, literature, music, painting, photographs, film and TV, cartoons, memorabilia traded on e-bay, interviews, everyday life, and government, journalistic, and scholarly accounts, the book assembles and analyzes an archive of divergent memories. In an analysis that is relevant to all micro-states, the book reflects on how Grenada's small size shapes memory, political and poetic practice, and efforts at reconciliation.

From the moment the United States seized Puerto Rico, in 1898, to the 1950s, the islanders employed various forms of resistance against American colonial rule. Starting in the 1930s a group of Nationalists was determined to free Puerto Rico, by armed struggle if necessary. A Nationalist revolution took full force in 1950. A commando of men and women attacked the governor's residence and assaulted police stations throughout the island. Others attempted to assassinate President Truman In Washington. In 1954, Dolores Lebron led three male companions in an attack on the U.S. House of Representatives in which five congressmen were shot for keeping Puerto Rico in bondage. Massive arrests followed and forty-one women were detained, two of whom were sentenced to life in prison. While the male Nationalists have been celebrated as heroes in Puerto Rico, the women have gone unmentioned This book seeks to rescue the stories of the women who gave up their freedom in the quest to liberate their homeland.