The point of departure for distinguished historian Richard C. Thornton's insightful new assessment of the Reagan administration is Reagan's overwhelming re-election in 1984. His first-term policies had placed the United States in the ascendancy over the Soviet Union, and he sought to capitalize on that success by bringing the Cold War to an end on favorable terms. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, proved increasingly unable to bear the costs of supporting its empire and client state and adopted a strategy of detente. Its new leader Mikhail Gorbachev personified the new stance, and his rise to power in 1985 galvanized the U.S. administration's detente faction in renewed opposition to Reagan's strategy and advocacy of accommodation with Moscow.

When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, he found America's economy, defense, and global position weakened to the point of collapse. The previous seven years of attempted detente with the Soviet Union had resulted in the worst foreign policy failures in American history. As the distinguished diplomatic historian Richard C. Thornton shows in this thorough reassessment of Reagan's presidency, written for the 40th anniversary of his election, the new president was determined to rebuild American economic and military power and to restore the Western Alliance. Reagan's "Victory Program" supported anti-Soviet resistance movements in communist countries, attacked the financial underpinnings of the Soviet economy, and boldly challenged the Soviet Union's forward positions around the world. The deployment of Pershing II missiles to Europe in 1983 restored the balance of power in Europe and, combined with the U.S. military buildup, reestablished strategic equilibrium between the United States and the Soviet Union by the end of Reagan's first term. As America faces a host of new challenges in the world today, this reexamination will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

Spain’s American empire began as the serendipitous outgrowth of the search for a shortcut to China. That search derived from two mid-fifteenth-century developments: the Ming Dynasty’s decision to adopt a silver standard for its medium of exchange and the Ottoman Turks’ capture of Constantinople in 1453. China’s great demand for silver and the disruption of the Silk Road drove the need to find alternative access to China. King John II of Portugal sent explorers southward along the coast of Africa and thence to the Orient, but Ferdinand and Isabella sent Christopher Columbus westward, believing he would find a shorter route. A persistent if disorderly push by Spanish conquistadors led to the discovery of previously unknown civilizations, including the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas. The search for a short-cut to China became bound up with the seizure of the riches held by native populations. Although the conquistadors were vastly outnumbered, their superior technology—steel swords, armor, war horses, and firearms—concomitant with diseases that accompanied them, enabled them to subdue native American peoples and confiscate their wealth. The aftermath was fraught with complications and strife. Crown- appointed governors came into conflict with the conquistadors. Distances were great, and the governors tended to place their interests over those of the King. Cortez conquered the Aztecs despite the governor’s attempts to prevent his campaign. Bureaucratic interference bedeviled Francisco Pizzaro’s campaign against the Incas, which, nonetheless, contributed more to the wealth of his country than any other conquistador’s exploits. Ultimately, the vast wealth of the Americas would fuel Spain and its Empire for nearly two centuries.

This practical guide enables readers to recognize, assess, and defend against gray behaviors-attempts to persuade listeners using fallacious arguments. It provides valuable tools for communicating successfully in a wide variety of public and professional contexts. The book examines 20 wide-ranging logical fallacies, cognitive errors, and rhetorical devices that may take place in persuasive communication, and discusses how to assess and respond the behavior of a speaker who may be disingenuously attempting to manipulate the listener-or who may simply be mistaken. Drawing upon research and insights from communication, psychology, business management, and human resources, it considers fallacies in reasoning not just as abstract formulas, but as a feature of communication encounters such as negotiations, interviews, public debates, and personal conversations. Each form of fallacious reasoning is exemplified by dialogues in both professional settings (such as interviewing and personnel assessment), as well as everyday interactions in public discourse. The book then provides self-assessment tests to ensure the reader can evaluate the grey behavior in these encounters. This book provides research-based skills and insights that will benefit students and professionals in fields ranging from communication, politics, management, human resources, organizational psychology, journalism, and anyone else looking to develop critical interaction skills.

It is the purpose of this work to provide an integrated analytical framework that will serve as a guide to further study of the vast and complex subject of Chinese Communist politics. The outpouring of materials from U.S., Soviet, Chinese Communist, and Chinese Nationalist sources in recent years has greatly enriched our fund of knowledge about China. For the historian of Chinese politics the new data have provided answers to hitherto unresolved problems and raised questions about seemingly settled issues. Although it is now possible to piece together the main outlines of the struggle for power in China, obviously no single volume can presume to encompass all aspects of the story.

This second edition of Developing Organizational Simulations provides a concise source of information on effective and practical methods for constructing simulation exercises for the assessment of psychological characteristics relevant to effectiveness in work organizations. Incorporating new additions such as the multiple ways technology can be used in the design, delivery, scoring, and evaluating of simulation exercises, as well as the delivery of feedback based on the results, this book is user-friendly with practical how-to guidance, including many graphics, boxes, and examples. This book is ideal for practitioners, consultants, HR specialists, students, and researchers in need of guidance developing organizational simulations for personnel selection, promotion, diagnosis, training, or research. It is also suited for courses, workshops, and training programs in testing and measurement, personnel selection, training and development, and research methodology.

Written by three leading scholars with vast experience in the science and practice of assessment centers (ACs), this is the first volume to comprehensively integrate variations of the assessment center method with alternative talent management strategies. A useful reference guide, it examines the many ways in which organizations can apply the assessment center method to achieve their talent management goals. It provides balanced and in-depth coverage of theory, research, and practice pertaining to the dimension-, task-, and multifaceted-perspectives on the AC method. Ideal for researchers, practitioners, and students alike, and well suited for courses in testing and measurement, personnel selection, HR planning and staffing, training and development, and organizational change, Assessment Center Perspectives for Talent Management Strategies is a complete and up-to-date account of the assessment center method.

The People's Republic of China is changing. It is modernizing, shifting ideological gears, becoming realistic about development needs and goals, and moving away from its isolationist past toward a much more open and pragmatic assessment of its present and future position in the world. In the post-Mao period, China also seems to be willing to engage, albeit reluctantly, in the painful internal reshuffling of priorities and functions necessary to speed development. But change has not been easy: there have been major problems, both domestic and international. Richard Thornton puts the events of the past eight years in China into historical perspective in this updated and expanded version of his textbook on China's political history since 1917 (first published in 1973 as China: The Struggle for Power, 1917-1972). With the additional material, the book now stands as the most detailed account available. Professor Thornton deals with every significant issue that has confronted the leaders of revolutionary China and discusses the origins of the People's Republic. How did communism first take root in China? How did Mao first gain control of the Communist movement? What were the ingredients of Mao's victory and emergence as the undisputed master of the most populous country in the world? What was the origin of the Sino-Soviet alliance and what caused its collapse in the fifties? And in what sense were the tumultuous events of the Cultural Revolution of the sixties a prelude to the emergence of the new pragmatism and the Sino-U.S. rapprochement in the seventies? There has been very little stability in China's recent past, but Professor Thornton points out that there has been a historical logic in the sequence of China's history. An awareness of this logic is vital to understanding China's future.

The theme permeating this book on assessment centers is "continuity and change," describing what has remained the same and what has changed in the 50-year history of the assessment center method. One of the important changes explored is the evolution of the goals of assessment center programs and the ways in which assessment centers and their component parts have been used. "Assessment Centers in Human Resource Management" clearly differentiates between assessment centers used for prediction, diagnoses, and development.
In addition, this book explores:
*assessment centers and human resource management;
*court cases involving assessment centers;
*innovations in assessment center operations;
*cross-cultural considerations including diversity of the workforce; and
*assessor training.
The target audience for the text includes students who are learning about assessment centers, practitioners including human resource managers and consultants who may be considering the implementation of assessment centers, and academicians who are researching the method and wish to understand current issues.

The book comprises the history of a major part of the Essex coastline in Tendring Hundred before the development of seaside resorts from the mid 19th century onwards (the resorts were covered in VCH Essex Volume XI, to which this is the second part of a companion volume). It includes analyses of how the economy of the coastal communities from agriculture through fishing to smuggling was moulded by proximity to the sea. It includes a major exploration of the history of the Soken, a significant area of special legal jurisdiction (a liberty or soke) and of administrative and social organization. The Soken was owned in the Middle Ages by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, London, and later passed to lay owners, notably the Catholic-leaning Darcy family of St Osyth priory, the Savage family, and the Earls of Rochford (Nassau de Zuylestein) and their descendants. Additionally, it includes the first full modern accounts of the large parishes of Kirby-le-Soken, Thorpe-le-Soken and Walton-le-Soken (later the site of the seaside resort of Walton on the Naze). Before the Norman Conquest these had once formed a large 'multiple' estate owned by St Paul's Cathedral, and only gradually developed into separate parishes and manors over the course of the Middle Ages. All had coastlines to Hamford Water or the North Sea, and contain many important marshland nature reserves and SSSI. The London Clay cliffs on the open coast at Walton, especially the large promontory known as the Naze with its cap of Red Crag, form a unique coastal landscape of international geological and biological importance. It served as an important coastal landmark for sailors and a Trinity House navigation tower built in 1720 still stands.

Globalization, innovation, market share, identifying visionary leaders and, particularly, talent management ...are just some of the issues that benefit from using assessment and development centres. Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management focuses on topics that influence the design of the assessment centre in terms of the competencies being assessed, the exercises that are used and the nature of the event, so that they can deliver what is required; often to change organizational culture and values. Practical examples and case studies are sprinkled throughout the book as international contributors explore cross-cultural implications, and consider how the design, development and use of assessment centres should be adapted to different cultures. Some of the world's leading researchers and practitioners outline their research into new applications for assessment centre methods, showing how they have used it to design and implement specific assessment and development centres. This is a book from which practitioners can see how science informs good practice, and scholars will find the 32 chapters a rich source of ideas for conducting research into emerging issues in the field.

An important contribution to the social, cultural and economic history of seaside resorts. From the 1820s the Essex seaside towns of Walton, and later Clacton and Frinton, were promoted as high-class residential and holiday resorts. After a slow start, hampered by poor communications and low demand, growth was stimulated by steam-ship companies which landed visitors on newly built piers in Walton and Clacton and by the railways that reached Walton in 1867, Clacton in 1882 and Frinton in 1888. The contemporary emphasis upon the health advantagesof the seaside also led to the establishment of many convalescent homes. However, working-class excursionists newly attracted to Clacton, and to a lesser extent Walton, then irrevocably changed the social tone of the resorts. By the 1920s and 1930s Clacton was a commercialized holiday destination and the funfair-style facilities of its pier rivalled those of any other resort. Nearby Jaywick was established as a cheap and cheerful chalet development. While Walton remained popular with families, Frinton continued as a "select" resort, with building development and commerce strictly controlled. The town remains famous for its wide unspoilt greensward facing the sea and its resistance to any threats to its exclusive character. Camping, caravanning and holiday camps replaced the traditional seaside holiday after 1945, but from the later 1960s the increase in overseas holidays led to a steep decline ofthe seaside resorts. The economy has, however, since diversified with large dormitory-style housing developments, light industry and new shopping centres, and the coast becoming increasingly popular for retirement homes. Thisvolume presents an authoritative account of the growth and development of these towns on the so-called "Sunshine Coast".

This second edition of Developing Organizational Simulations provides a concise source of information on effective and practical methods for constructing simulation exercises for the assessment of psychological characteristics relevant to effectiveness in work organizations. Incorporating new additions such as the multiple ways technology can be used in the design, delivery, scoring, and evaluating of simulation exercises, as well as the delivery of feedback based on the results, this book is user-friendly with practical how-to guidance, including many graphics, boxes, and examples. This book is ideal for practitioners, consultants, HR specialists, students, and researchers in need of guidance developing organizational simulations for personnel selection, promotion, diagnosis, training, or research. It is also suited for courses, workshops, and training programs in testing and measurement, personnel selection, training and development, and research methodology.

Written by three leading scholars with vast experience in the science and practice of assessment centers (ACs), this is the first volume to comprehensively integrate variations of the assessment center method with alternative talent management strategies. A useful reference guide, it examines the many ways in which organizations can apply the assessment center method to achieve their talent management goals. It provides balanced and in-depth coverage of theory, research, and practice pertaining to the dimension-, task-, and multifaceted-perspectives on the AC method. Ideal for researchers, practitioners, and students alike, and well suited for courses in testing and measurement, personnel selection, HR planning and staffing, training and development, and organizational change, Assessment Center Perspectives for Talent Management Strategies is a complete and up-to-date account of the assessment center method.

An important contribution to the social, cultural and economic history of seaside resorts and their hinterland in Essex. The nine Essex parishes lying in a coastal district between St Osyth and the Naze headland at Walton encompass a number of distinct landscapes, from sandy cliffs to saltmarshes, recognised as environmentally significant. The landscape has constantly changed in response to changing sea levels, flooding, draining and investment in sea defences. Inland, there was an agriculturally fertile plateau based on London Clay, but with large areas of Kesgrave sands and gravels, loams and brickearths. Parts were once heavily wooded, especially at St Osyth. The district was strongly influenced by the pattern of estate ownership, largely held by St Paul's Cathedral from the mid-10th century.About 1118-19 a bishop of London founded a house of Augustinian canons at St Osyth, which became one of the wealthiest abbeys in Essex. Most other manors and their demesnes in the district were small and their demesne tenants were of little more than local significance. After the Reformation all of the former church lands in the district were granted to the royal servant Thomas Darcy, 1st baron Darcy of Chiche (d. 1558). Darcy built a great mansion, St Osyth Priory, on the site of the former abbey, which became the centre of his new estate. The area's economy was strongly affected by the coast and its many valuable natural resources, including the extraction or manufacture ofsand, gravel, septaria, copperas and salt, and activities such as fishing, tide milling, wrecking and smuggling. However, it remained a largely rural district and its wealth ultimately depended upon the state of farming. Until the eighteenth century it specialised in dairying from both sheep and cattle, but afterwards production shifted towards grain. The coastal area has produced significant evidence of early man and was heavily exploited and settled in prehistory. The medieval settlement pattern largely conformed to a typical Essex model, with a complex pattern of small villages, hamlets and dispersed farms, many located around greens or commons. The largest settlement wasthe nucleated village or small town at St Osyth, located outside the abbey gates, which had a formal market and wool fair in the Middle Ages.In the 19th and 20th centuries the coast witnessed the development of seaside resorts atWalton, Clacton and Frinton. Some overspill affected the surrounding more rural parishes, and from the 1920s new types of resort developed in the form of seaside camps, chalets and caravan parks.

The theme permeating this book on assessment centers is "continuity and change," describing what has remained the same and what has changed in the 50-year history of the assessment center method. One of the important changes explored is the evolution of the goals of assessment center programs and the ways in which assessment centers and their component parts have been used. "Assessment Centers in Human Resource Management" clearly differentiates between assessment centers used for prediction, diagnoses, and development.
In addition, this book explores:
*assessment centers and human resource management;
*court cases involving assessment centers;
*innovations in assessment center operations;
*cross-cultural considerations including diversity of the workforce; and
*assessor training.
The target audience for the text includes students who are learning about assessment centers, practitioners including human resource managers and consultants who may be considering the implementation of assessment centers, and academicians who are researching the method and wish to understand current issues.

Giving early years practitioners and students the confidence to effectively support scientific exploration and investigation with young children, this book explains the science behind young children's knowledge and understanding of the world. Linking theory to good early years practice, the emphasis throughout the book is on recognizing young children as competent, creative thinkers and building on their ideas. The reader is encouraged to think carefully about the role of the adult in supporting child-initiated learning and discovery by providing open ended resources, asking productive questions and observing carefully. The authors provide essential background information for all the key areas of scientific knowledge supported by practical ideas suitable for babies, toddlers and children aged 3 to 5 years. For each of these ideas, practice and theory are linked by highlighting the skills, attitudes and dispositions to observe and the questions to ask to challenge young children's thinking and plan for the next stages in their learning. Chapters cover: - the place of science in early years curricula in the UK - the processes of science and the role of the adult in supporting young children's scientific learning - using open ended resources to create a science-rich environment - essential background knowledge, covering all areas of early years science - ideas to use as starting points for exploration and investigation, indoors and outdoors - pointers for observational assessment and planning - suppliers of resources and equipment By making clear links to practice, and providing ideas to use with babies and toddlers as well as with 3-5 year old children, this book enables the reader to fully exploit the potential for exploration and investigation in any early years setting. Pat Brunton and Linda Thornton are both Education Consultants based in Cheltenham. They run their own training and consultancy company alc associates, and edit Early Years Update.