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Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
An intimate portrait of the postwar lives of Korean children and
women Korean children and women are the forgotten population of a
forgotten war. Yet during and after the Korean War, they were
central to the projection of US military, cultural, and political
dominance. Framed by War examines how the Korean orphan, GI baby,
adoptee, birth mother, prostitute, and bride emerged at the heart
of empire. Strained embodiments of war, they brought Americans into
Korea and Koreans into America in ways that defined, and at times
defied, US empire in the Pacific. What unfolded in Korea set the
stage for US postwar power in the second half of the twentieth
century and into the twenty-first. American destruction and
humanitarianism, violence and care played out upon the bodies of
Korean children and women. Framed by War traces the arc of intimate
relations that served as these foundations. To suture a fragmented
past, Susie Woo looks to US and South Korean government documents
and military correspondence; US aid organization records; Korean
orphanage registers; US and South Korean newspapers and magazines;
and photographs, interviews, films, and performances. Integrating
history with visual and cultural analysis, Woo chronicles how
Americans went from knowing very little about Koreans to making
them family, and how Korean children and women who did not choose
war found ways to navigate its aftermath in South Korea, the United
States, and spaces in between.
From Revolution to Revolution (1973) examines England, Scotland and
Wales from the revolution of 1688 when William became King, to the
American Revolution of 1776. In this period lies the roots of
modern Britain, as it went from being underdeveloped countries on
the fringe of European civilization to a predominating influence in
the world. This book examines the union of the island, development
of an organized public opinion and national consciousness, as well
as Parliament and its factions, the landed and business classes.
Views on religion, art, architecture and the changing face of the
countryside are also examined, as is the tension between London and
the rest of the island. The important issues of colonial expansions
in Ireland, America, India and Africa are also analysed.
The Court and the Country (1969) offers a fresh view and synthesis
of the English revolution of 1640. It describes the origin and
development of the revolution, and gives an account of the various
factors - political, social and religious - that produced the
revolution and conditioned its course. It explains the revolution
primarily as a result of the breakdown of the unity of the
governing class around the monarchy into the contending sides of
the Court and the Country. A principal theme is the formation
within the governing class of an opposition movement to the Crown.
The role of Puritanism and of the towns is examined, and the
resistance to Charles I is considered in relation to other European
revolutions of the period.
A Nation of Change and Novelty (1990) ranges broadly over the
political and literary terrain of the seventeenth century,
examining the importance of the English Revolution as a decisive
event in English and European history. It emphasises the historical
significance of the English Revolution, exploring not only its
causes but also its long term consequences, basing both in a broad
social context and viewing it as a necessary condition of England's
having nurtured the first Industrial Revolution.
Reflections on the Puritan Revolution (1986) examines the damage
done by the Puritans during the English Civil War, and the enormous
artistic losses England suffered from their activities. The
Puritans smashed stained glass, monuments, sculpture, brasses in
cathedrals and churches; they destroyed organs, dispersed the
choirs and the music. They sold the King's art collections,
pictures, statues, plate, gems and jewels abroad, and broke up the
Coronation regalia. They closed down the theatres and ended
Caroline poetry. The greatest composer and most promising scientist
of the age were among the many lives lost; and this all besides the
ruin of palaces, castles and mansions.
A History of Political Thought in the English Revolution (1954)
examines the large range of political doctrines which played their
part in the English revolution - a period when modern democratic
ideas began. The political literature of the period between 1645,
when the Levellers first seized upon the revolution's wider
implications, and 1660, when Charles II restored the monarchy to
power, is here studied in detail.
"Dining by Rail" is James D. Porterfield's book of history and
recipes from America's golden age of railroad cuisine. Porterfield
is a devotee of railroad history and a gourmet cook, and while
preparing this book he sorted through 7,500 railroad recipes. Full
of authentic menus and classic recipes like Lobster Newburg,
deviled eggs and blanc mange, " Dining by Rail" is the book for
anyone who has ever dreamed of returning to the days of glamorous
travel.
Numerous studies concerning transitional justice exist. However,
comparatively speaking, the effects actually achieved by measures
for coming to terms with dictatorships have seldom been
investigated. There is an even greater lack of transnational
analyses. This volume contributes to closing this gap in research.
To this end, it analyses processes of coming to terms with the past
in seven countries with different experiences of violence and
dictatorship. Experts have drawn up detailed studies on
transitional justice in Albania, Argentina, Ethiopia, Chile,
Rwanda, South Africa and Uruguay. Their analyses constitute the
empirical material for a comparative study of the impact of
measures introduced within the context of transitional justice. It
becomes clear that there is no sure formula for dealing with
dictatorships. Successes and deficits alike can be observed in
relation to the individual instruments of transitional justice -
from criminal prosecution to victim compensation. Nevertheless, the
South American states perform much better than those on the African
continent. This depends less on the instruments used than on
political and social factors. Consequently, strategies of
transitional justice should focus more closely on these contextual
factors.
Helen Hunt Jackson's famous expos chronicles the oppression and
murder the Native American peoples suffered throughout the 18th and
19th centuries. This book was published in 1885, at a time when the
final conflicts between the United States and the Native American
populations were being fought. The concept of allotted reservations
as a means of settling land disputes had by then been underway for
decades. At this point in time, the colonial settlers from Europe
had spent over a century driving back the native inhabitants of
North America. Jackson casts her examination over the preceding
century, cataloging the systematic process through which the Native
American populace was suppressed, killed and robbed of their lands
and heritage. Each separate tribe is considered, such as the
Cherokees, Sioux and the Delawares: for each we are given a
cultural profile, before Jackson details the interactions -
peaceful and hostile - each respective tribe had with the incipient
European settlers.
The Mixtec peoples were among the major original developers of
Mesoamerican civilization. Centuries before the Spanish Conquest,
they formed literate urban states and maintained a uniquely
innovative technology and a flourishing economy. Today, thousands
of Mixtecs still live in Oaxaca, in present-day southern Mexico,
and thousands more have migrated to locations throughout Mexico,
the United States, and Canada. In this comprehensive survey, Ronald
Spores and Andrew K. Balkansky--both preeminent scholars of Mixtec
civilization--synthesize a wealth of archaeological, historical,
and ethnographic data to trace the emergence and evolution of
Mixtec civilization from the time of earliest human occupation to
the present.
The Mixtec region has been the focus of much recent archaeological
and ethnohistorical activity. In this volume, Spores and Balkansky
incorporate the latest available research to show that the Mixtecs,
along with their neighbors the Valley and Sierra Zapotec,
constitute one of the world's most impressive civilizations,
antecedent to--and equivalent to--those of the better-known Maya
and Aztec. Employing what they refer to as a "convergent
methodology," the authors combine techniques and results of
archaeology, ethnohistory, linguistics, biological anthropology,
ethnology, and participant observation to offer abundant new
insights on the Mixtecs' multiple transformations over three
millennia.
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