In "Skeptical," author Bob Moores describes his atheistic/humanistic philosophy and traces its roots back to early childhood epiphanies where he first began to question certain axiological teachings. He argues against creationism and religious fundamentalism and defends scientific naturalism, critical thinking, and a rational approach to understanding the world.

Moores attempts to show readers how recent scientific discoveries, especially in biology, are more exciting and uplifting than any form of biblical mythology. Using lay terms, he explains the significance of DNA and why a scientific theory is more than just a guess. He argues that modern humanistic values are superior in many ways to those venerated in ancient texts, and he shares his belief that humans are both the greatest threat and greatest hope for the preservation of life on Earth.

Moores hopes that "Skeptical" will challenge readers to consider views and information that may conflict with their comfort zones, allowing them to broaden their perspectives. He argues that if we are too protective of our own paradigms, if we stubbornly believe that our way is the only way, then the tribes of earth will never come together to solve the most urgent need of all our continued existence.

This book is the first comprehensive survey of resistance movements in Western Europe in World War II. Until now, most work on resistance has centred either on espionage networks, partisans and their external links, or on comparisons between national movements and theories of resistance. This book fills a major gap in the existing literature by providing an analysis of individual national historiographies on resistance, the debates they have engendered and their relationship to more general discussions of the occupation and postwar reconstruction of the countries concerned. Explaining the context, underlying motivations and development of resistance, contributors analyze the variety of movements and organizations as well as the extent of individual acts against the occupying power within individual states. While charting the growth of resistance activity as the war turned against the Axis, this book will also deal with the roles of specific groups and the theories which have been put forward to explain their behaviour. This includes patterns of Jewish resistance and the participation of women in what has largely been considered a male sphere. The conclusion then provides a comparative synthesis, and relates the work of the contributors to existing theories on the subject as a whole.This book will not only be core reading on courses on the social or military history of World War II but also, more generally, all courses covering the social and political history of Western European states in the twentieth century.

"Crises of Empire" offers a comprehensive and uniquely comparative analysis of the history of decolonization in the British, French and Dutch empires. By comparing the processes of decolonization across three of the major modern empires, from the aftermath of the First World War to the late 20th century, the authors are able to analyse decolonization as a long-term process. They explore significant changes to the international system, shifting popular attitudes to colonialism and the economics of empire.This new edition incorporates the latest developments in the historiography, as well as: - Increased coverage of the Belgian and Portuguese empires- New introductions to each of the three main parts, offering some background and context to British, French and Dutch decolonization- More coverage of cultural aspects of decolonization, exploring empire 'from below'- A new glossary, explaining key termsThis new edition of "Crises of Empire" is essential reading for all students of imperial history and decolonization. In particular, it will be welcomed by those who are interested in taking a comparative approach, putting the history of decolonization in a pan-European framework.

The exodus of refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s has received far more attention from historians, social scientists, and demographers than many other migrations and persecutions in Europe. However, as a result of the overwhelming attention that has been given to the Holocaust within the historiography of Europe and the Second World War, the issues surrounding the flight of people from Nazi Germany prior to 1939 have been seen as Vorgeschichte (pre-history), implicating the Western European democracies and the United States as bystanders only in the impending tragedy. Based on a comparative analysis of national case studies, this volume deals with the challenges that the pre-1939 movement of refugees from Germany and Austria posed to the immigration controls in the countries of interwar Europe. Although Europe takes center-stage, this volume also looks beyond, to the Middle East, Asia and America. This global perspective outlines the constraints under which European policy makers (and the refugees) had to make decisions. By also considering the social implications of policies that became increasingly protectionist and nationalistic, and bringing into focus the similarities and differences between European liberal states in admitting the refugees, it offers an important contribution to the wider field of research on political and administrative practices.

The exodus of refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s has received far more attention from historians, social scientists, and demographers than many other migrations and persecutions in Europe. However, as a result of the overwhelming attention that has been given to the Holocaust within the historiography of Europe and the Second World War, the issues surrounding the flight of people from Nazi Germany prior to 1939 have been seen as Vorgeschichte (pre-history), implicating the Western European democracies and the United States as bystanders only in the impending tragedy. Based on a comparative analysis of national case studies, this volume deals with the challenges that the pre-1939 movement of refugees from Germany and Austria posed to the immigration controls in the countries of interwar Europe. Although Europe takes center-stage, this volume also looks beyond, to the Middle East, Asia and America. This global perspective outlines the constraints under which European policy makers (and the refugees) had to make decisions. By also considering the social implications of policies that became increasingly protectionist and nationalistic, and bringing into focus the similarities and differences between European liberal states in admitting the refugees, it offers an important contribution to the wider field of research on political and administrative practices.

Frank Caestecker read history at the University of Ghent and worked as an eligibility officer for UNHCR and the Belgian asylum institution. He completed his graduate studies at the European University Institute in Florence and is now affiliated to the University of Ghent and the University College Ghent, focusing his research on alien policy in the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries and the influence this policy has on migration dynamics.

Bob Moore is Professor of Twentieth-Century European History at the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively on the History of the Second World War, and specifically on the Holocaust, the Netherlands, and Prisoners of War. He is currently completing a book about the rescuers of Jews in Western Europe during the Nazi occupation.

This second volume ranges in time from the proclamation of the German Empire in 1870 to the end of the Second World War and provides a guide to the surviving private papers of over 1000 statesmen, politicians and diplomats who played a part in the shaping of modern Europe.;There is material on such major themes as the pre-1914 rivalries of the Great Powers, the Versailles Settlement and the coming of the Second World War.;The geographical coverage ranges from Scandinavia to Italy and from Tsarist Russia to Republican Spain. Information is included on archives from institutions as diverse as the League of Nations in Geneva and the Hoover Institution in California.;Chris Cook has been co-author of all six volumes of the series and Bob Moore is author of "Refugees from Nazi Germany in the Netherlands, 1933-40".

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, Western Europe witnessed the emergence of a 'mass' society. Grand social processes such as urbanisation, industrialisation and democratisation blurred the previous sharp distinctions that had divided society. This massive transformation is central to our understanding of modern society. Comparing the British and Dutch experience of mass society in the twentieth century, this book considers five major areas: politics, welfare, media, leisure and youth culture. In each section, two well-known specialists - one from each country - look at the conditions in the rise of a mass society, and show how there were distinctively British and Dutch conditions in the rise of a mass society. Drawing on history, cultural studies and sociology, the authors bring new insight into the development of modern European society.

Auschwitz. Treblinka. The very names of these Nazi camps evoke unspeakable cruelty. Sobibor is less well known, and this book discloses the horrors perpetrated there.Established in German-occupied Poland, the camp at Sobibor began its dreadful killing operation in May 1942. By October 1943, approximately 167,000 people had been murdered there. Sobibor is not well documented and, were it not for an extraordinary revolt on 14 October 1943, we would know little about it. On that day, prisoners staged a remarkable uprising in which 300 men and women escaped. The author identifies only forty-seven who survived the war.Sent in June 1943 to Sobibor, where his wife and family were murdered, Jules Schelvis has written the first book-length, fully documented account of the camp. He details the creation of the killing centre, its personnel, the use of railways, selections, forced labour, gas chambers, escape attempts and the historic uprising.In documenting this part of Holocaust history, this compelling and well-researched account advances our knowledge and understanding of the Nazi attempt to annihilate the European Jews.Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

This book chronicles the escapes attempted by Belgian soldiers and civilians from Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War. Insofar as is practical, the authors have tried to let the subjects speak for themselves by making extensive use of their testimonies preserved in archives in Belgium and the United Kingdom. The book begins with the stories of soldiers who managed to evade capture in the summer of 1940 and returned home, and the few that decided to continue the fight and joined the Allied forces in the United Kingdom. It also includes the prisoners of war who managed to escape from camps or Arbeitskommando inside the Reich and provides a detailed analysis of their narratives; their motivation for going on the run, their choices on when and how to travel and the many obstacles they encountered along the way. Most escapees were content to return home, with some then joining resistance organizations, but a small minority were committed to joining the Allies and further chapters recount their attempts to reach Spain and Switzerland, and the additional problems they encountered in those neutral states. Final chapters reflect on the penalties inflicted on prisoners of war who were recaptured and on the escapees’ struggle for recognition in the post-war world.

This volume is the first to compare the position of Catholic minorities in England and the Dutch Republic. Looking beyond the tales of persecution that have dominated traditional historiography, the contributors focus on the realities of Catholic existence. Thematically organized, the book explores Catholicism as a minority culture that resorted to unorthodox means, both to retain its own identity, and to survive in a hostile political environment. It examines ritual, material culture, international networks, and above all relations: between laity and clergy, men and women, Catholics and Protestants. By highlighting differences as well as similarities between the English and Dutch experiences, "Catholic Communities in Protestant States" will help both undergraduate readers and specialists to rethink the history of Catholicism and the consequences of minority status for religious communities.

Now available in paperback, this volume compares the position of Catholic minorities in England and the Dutch Republic. Looking beyond the tales of persecution that have dominated traditional historiography, the contributors focus on the realities of Catholic existence. Thematically organised, the book explores Catholicism as a minority culture that resorted to unorthodox means, both to retain its own identity, and to survive in a hostile political environment. It examines ritual, material culture, international networks, and above all relations: between laity and clergy, men and women, Catholics and Protestants By highlighting differences as well as similarities between the English and Dutch experiences, 'Catholic communities in Protestant states' will help both undergraduate readers and specialists to rethink the history of Catholicism and the consequences of minority status for religious communities. -- .

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch and English emerged as the world's leading trading nations, building their prosperity largely upon their maritime successes. During this period both nations strongly contested for maritime supremacy and colonial dominance, yet by the nineteenth century, it was Britain who had undoubtedly come out on top of this struggle, with a navy that dominated the seas and an empire of unparalleled size. This volume examines the colonial development of these two nations at a crucial period in which the foundations for the modern nineteenth and twentieth century imperial state were laid. The volume consists of ten essays (five by British and five by Dutch scholars) based on papers originally delivered to the Fourteenth Anglo-Dutch Historical Conference, 2000. The essays are arranged into five themes which take a strongly comparative approach to explore the development of the British and Dutch colonial empires in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These themes examine the nature of Anglo-Dutch relations, the culture of imperialism and perceptions of the overseas world, the role of sea power in imperial expansion, the economics of colonial expansion and the extension of the metropolitan state to the colonies. Taken together, these essays form an important collection which will greatly add to the understanding of the British and Dutch colonial empires, and their relative successes and failures.

Millions of servicemen of the belligerent powers were taken prisoner during World War II. Until recently, the popular image of these men has been framed by tales of heroic escape or immense suffering at the hands of malevolent captors. For the vast majority, however, the reality was very different. Their history, both during and after the War, has largely been ignored in the grand narratives of the conflict. This collection brings together new scholarship, largely based on sources from previously unavailable Eastern European or Japanese archives. Authors highlight a number of important comparatives. Whereas for the British and Americans held by the Germans and Japanese, the end of the war meant a swift repatriation and demobilization, for the Germans, it heralded the beginning of an imprisonment that, for some, lasted until 1956. These and many more moving stories are revealed here for the first time.

Survivors is the first examination of how more than half of the Jews in Western Europe survived the Holocaust. The widely differing rates of Jewish mortality have long vexed historians, who have traditionally concentrated on explaining this problem through national studies or by using a comparative approach, concentrating on the role of perpetrators, victims, and circumstances. In contrast, Survivors emphasizes the factors that helped Jews to avoid deportation, either through escape or by going underground. Taken as a whole, it book provides the first comprehensive study of Jewish survival in Western Europe in all its forms.
Firstly, the book focuses on the escape routes used by Jews fleeing from the Nazis, and the disparate networks that ran them, including the routes from France into Spain and Switzerland, but also the lesser know history of the escape of Norwegian Jewry and the famous rescue from Denmark in 1943. Few of these networks were exclusively devoted to helping Jews -- in fact, most of them helped all manner of people, including Allied aircrew, escaping Prisoners of War, and political opponents. Moreover, they were not exclusively the product of the Second World War -- as Bob Moore shows, many had linkages with resistance in the First World War, and indeed to opposition to state power stretching back centuries.
The second half of the book is devoted to three national case studies (France, Belgium, and the Netherlands) that focus on the interrelationship between Jewish self-help and the individuals and organizations that assisted in hiding them, including the Christian churches. These case studies serve to highlight the very different circumstances and structures pertaining in these three countries and how this had a direct bearing on levels of survival. Separate chapters then deal with the case of child rescue and the motivations of those involved in this most contentious of issues. Finally, the spotlight is turned on cases where Jews were saved, either directly or indirectly, by the Nazis themselves - and on the vexed question of Jews who survived by collaborating with the arrest and deportation of their co-religionists.

The Second World War between the European Axis powers and the Allies saw more than twenty million soldiers taken as prisoners of war. While this total is inflated by the unconditional surrender of all German forces in Europe on 8 May 1945, it nonetheless highlights the fact that captivity was one of the most common experiences for all those in uniform - even more common than frontline service. Despite this, and the huge literature on so many aspects of the war, prisoner of war histories have remained a separate and sometimes isolated element in the wider national chronicles of the conflict constructed in the post war era. Prisoners of every nationality had their own narratives of military service and captivity. While it is impossible to encompass their collective histories, let alone the individual experiences of all twenty million prisoners in a single volume, Bob Moore uses a series of case studies to highlight the key elements involved and to introduce, analyse, and refine some of the major debates that have arisen in the existing historiography. The study is divided into three broad sections: captivity in Eastern and Western Europe during the war itself, comparative studies of specific categories of prisoners, and the repatriation and reintegration of prisoners after the war.

In the Netherlands, the myth that resistance to Nazi occupation was high among all sectors of the population has retained a strong hold, and yet many Dutch Jews fell victim to deportation and annihilation in the camps of Eastern Europe. How could a country that prided itself on its tolerance, adherence to legal norms, and democratic government have been the site of such an enormous tragedy? Even while Nazi arrests of Jews were taking place, Arnold Douwes, a gardener and restless adventurer, headed a clandestine network of resistance and rescue. Douwes had spent time in the United States and France and was arrested several times by the police after his return to the Netherlands in 1940. Keenly aware that he was doing something important, he started a diary in the summer of 1943. He hid some 35 small notebooks in jam jars at safe houses in the vicinity of his base in Nieuwlande (Drenthe). After the war, he dug the notebooks up and transcribed them, adding several postwar sections with scrupulous notations. Bob Moore has translated Douwes's diary into English for the first time, and he and co-editor Johannes Houwink ten Cate have added a historical and contextual introduction, annotations, and a glossary for readers who may not be familiar with Dutch technical terms or places. Organized chronologically, and remaining largely as Douwes originally wrote it, the diary sheds light on the successes-and failures-of this important Dutch rescue network.

In "Skeptical," author Bob Moores describes his atheistic/humanistic philosophy and traces its roots back to early childhood epiphanies where he first began to question certain axiological teachings. He argues against creationism and religious fundamentalism and defends scientific naturalism, critical thinking, and a rational approach to understanding the world.

Moores attempts to show readers how recent scientific discoveries, especially in biology, are more exciting and uplifting than any form of biblical mythology. Using lay terms, he explains the significance of DNA and why a scientific theory is more than just a guess. He argues that modern humanistic values are superior in many ways to those venerated in ancient texts, and he shares his belief that humans are both the greatest threat and greatest hope for the preservation of life on Earth.

Moores hopes that "Skeptical" will challenge readers to consider views and information that may conflict with their comfort zones, allowing them to broaden their perspectives. He argues that if we are too protective of our own paradigms, if we stubbornly believe that our way is the only way, then the tribes of earth will never come together to solve the most urgent need of all our continued existence.

Free of The Organization, Michael Nelson becomes James Collins and settles into the idyllic town of Durango, Colorado. Although Durango appears to be a peaceful community, life moves along, and sometimes life calls for the special skills he possesses, bringing him back to the world he thought he had left behind. His quiet existence as a bookstore owner is shattered by his being found, necessitating another move - this time to the hectic world of Las Vegas, where a new name and a new life lead to adventure, intrigue, and love. He plunges headlong into confrontations with the worst the neon sin city has to offer, some of them appreciate him, others fear him, and still others want him gone - permanently.

As the youngest recruit in the highly secret Organization, he was trained to be one of the most lethal men in the world. This is the gripping, world-spanning journey of a young man who never belonged.

At 14 he discovered life. At 15 he learned about love. At 17 he lost his world. At 18 his life changed forever in this story that that is not easily forgotten.

This book is the first comprehensive survey of resistance movements in Western Europe in World War II. Until now, most work on resistance has centred either on espionage networks, partisans and their external links, or on comparisons between national movements and theories of resistance. This book fills a major gap in the existing literature by providing an analysis of individual national historiographies on resistance, the debates they have engendered and their relationship to more general discussions of the occupation and postwar reconstruction of the countries concerned.
Explaining the context, underlying motivations and development of resistance, contributors analyze the variety of movements and organizations as well as the extent of individual acts against the occupying power within individual states. While charting the growth of resistance activity as the war turned against the Axis, this book will also deal with the roles of specific groups and the theories which have been put forward to explain their behaviour. This includes patterns of Jewish resistance and the participation of women in what has largely been considered a male sphere. The conclusion then provides a comparative synthesis, and relates the work of the contributors to existing theories on the subject as a whole.
This book will not only be core reading on courses on the social or military history of World War II but also, more generally, all courses covering the social and political history of Western European states in the twentieth century.

During World War II, captured service personnel of all the belligerent powers found themselves incarcerated as prisoners of war. Although the number of POWs ran into the millions, comparatively little has been written about them. This timely collection examines individual prisoners' experiences, but also provides an overview and synthesis of some of the most heated debates in the field.
Casting new light on the racial and ideological assumptions of captors, authors show how axis powers and the Japanese dealt with Black African and African American troops who were taken prisoner. Political considerations are shown to have proven weightier than, in many cases, heinous crimes against humanity. Also highlighted is the history of Italian POWs in allied hands, the treatment of axis prisoners in Britain and the complex story of Free and Vichy French servicemen fighting each other in Africa.
This important book will be essential and compulsive reading for students and scholars of the Second World War and will signpost areas worthy of further inquiry for many years to come.

Auschwitz. Treblinka. The very names of these Nazi camps evoke unspeakable cruelty. Sobibor is less well known, and this book discloses the horrors perpetrated there.Established in German-occupied Poland, the camp at Sobibor began its dreadful killing operation in May 1942. By October 1943, approximately 167,000 people had been murdered there. Sobibor is not well documented and, were it not for an extraordinary revolt on 14 October 1943, we would know little about it. On that day, prisoners staged a remarkable uprising in which 300 men and women escaped. The author identifies only forty-seven who survived the war.Sent in June 1943 to Sobibor, where his wife and family were murdered, Jules Schelvis has written the first book-length, fully documented account of the camp. He details the creation of the killing centre, its personnel, the use of railways, selections, forced labour, gas chambers, escape attempts and the historic uprising.In documenting this part of Holocaust history, this compelling and well-researched account advances our knowledge and understanding of the Nazi attempt to annihilate the European Jews.Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.