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Based on interviews and the voluminous materials in the archives of
the SED, the Stasi and central and regional authorities, this
volume focuses on several contrasting minorities (Jehovah's
Witnesses, Jews, 'guest' workers from Vietnam and Mozambique,
football fans, punks, and skinheads) and their interaction with
state and party bodies during Erich Honecker's rule over the
communist system. It explores how they were able to resist
persecution and surveillance by instruments of the state, thus
illustrating the limits on the power of the East German
dictatorship and shedding light on the notion of authority as
social practice.
Based on interviews and the voluminous materials in the archives of
the SED, the Stasi and central and regional authorities, this
volume focuses on several contrasting minorities (Jehovah's
Witnesses, Jews, 'guest' workers from Vietnam and Mozambique,
football fans, punks, and skinheads) and their interaction with
state and party bodies during Erich Honecker's rule over the
communist system. It explores how they were able to resist
persecution and surveillance by instruments of the state, thus
illustrating the limits on the power of the East German
dictatorship and shedding light on the notion of authority as
social practice.
The East German Ministry of State Security, popularly known as the
Stasi, was one of the largest and most intrusive secret police
systems in world history. So extensive was the system of
surveillance and control that in any given year throughout the
1970s and 1980s, about one in fifty of the 13 million East German
adults were working for the Stasi either as an officer or as an
informer. Drawing on original sources from the Stasi archives and
the recollections of contemporary witnesses, The Stasi: Myth and
Reality reveals the intricacies of the relationship between the
Stasi enforcers, its agents and its targets/victims, and
demonstrates how far the Stasi octopus extended its tentacles into
people's lives and all spheres of society. The origins and
developments of this vast system of repression are examined, as
well as the motivation of the informers and the ways in which they
penetrated the niches of East German society. The final chapters
assess the ministry's failure to help overcome the GDR's inherent
structural defects and demonstrate how the Stasi's bureaucratic
procedures contributed to the implosion of the Communist system at
the end of the 1980's.
The system transformation after German unification in 1990
constituted an experiment on an unprecedented scale. At no point in
history had one state attempted to redesign another without
conquest, bloodshed or coercion but by treaties, public policy and
bureaucratic processes. Unification was achieved by erasing the
eastern political and economic model. However, in the meantime it
has become clear that the same cannot be said about social
transformation. On the contrary, social and cultural attitudes and
differentiation have continued and resulted in deep divisions
between West and East Germany. After unification, the injustices of
politics seemed to have been replaced, in the eyes of most former
GDR citizens, by unexpected injustices in the personal spheres of
ordinary people who lost their jobs and faced unknown realities of
deprivation and social exclusion. These are the main concerns of
the contributors to this volume. Incorporating new research
findings and published data, they focus on key aspects of economic,
political, and social transformation in eastern Germany and
compare, through case studies, each area with developments in the
west.
A study of the powerful and much-feared East German Ministry of State Security from its establishment in 1950 to its fall in 1990. The Stasi was a central institution of the GDR, and this book illuminates the nature and operation of the entire East German regime, addressing one of the most important topics in modern German history. The emphasis is primarily on the key years under Erich Honecker, who was Head of State from 1976 and ousted in 1989. The book looks at all aspects of the control, operation and impact of the security police, their methods, targets, structure, accountability, and in particular the crucial question of how far they were an arm of the ruling communist party or were themselves a virtually autonomous political actor.
Las Vegas. October, 2003. Sandra Blake is dead. A bullet in her
forehead. Her ex-husband wants former private investigator Jack
Barnett to find the killer. The investigation leads Barnett into a
high-powered world of shady characters and a rising body count, all
for control of a seemingly unimportant slice of vacant land in a
seedy area of downtown Las Vegas. A mysterious case of wine rests
at the center of it all, and everyone wants it. Can Barnett find
the killer before the whole thing blows up in his face? THE
DOWNTOWN DEAL is a novel, the third hardboiled entry in the Jack
Barnett / Las Vegas series, once again dragging the reader
alongside the reluctant ex-PI down the darkest streets of Sin City,
USA.
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The Take (Paperback)
Mike Dennis
bundle available
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R457
Discovery Miles 4 570
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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In the world of small-time bookie Eddie Ryan, only the cop cars are
black and white. Everything else swirls in a kind of gray soup.
Overcome by greed, lust, and the survival instinct, Eddie takes
part in a high-stakes heist, stepping into a morally treacherous
world where no one can be trusted, and where life expectancy is
short. Set in the dim half-light of the Houston and New Orleans
demimondes, THE TAKE is a fast-paced, nerve-jangling ride. The book
also includes a preview of SETUP ON FRONT STREET, the first entry
in Mike Dennis' Key West Nocturnes Series, a group of novels
designed to lift the lid off Key West, revealing it as a true noir
city. The series takes the reader behind the margaritas and the
sunshine deep into the dark shadows and alleys where the tourists
never go.
A young, headstrong, performer with white-hot talent. A president
of a small record company with big ambitions. A nervous nation
coping with a new, dangerous music. It's Memphis, 1958. It's rock
& roll, brother It's... CADILLAC'S COMIN'
What if a total stranger gave you $95,000 in cash as he lay dying
in the street? Do you keep it? Even after knowing who it really
belongs to? Ex-private investigator Jack Barnett is handed such an
envelope on a back street in Las Vegas. He needs the money, but as
he learns more about it, he is drawn deeper into the world of a
shady real estate mogul, whose reach extends all the way to a Texas
border town, where bribery is the way things get done. HARD CASH is
the second installment in Mike Dennis' Jack Barnett / Las Vegas
Series, pulling the reader down the darkest streets of Sin City,
USA. "Mike Dennis is a crafty writer and a huge asset to the world
of PI fiction." -- SONS OF SPADE
"Mike Dennis is a modern master of noir." MAX ALLAN COLLINS, author
of Road To Perdition It's hot in the Florida Keys in August. For
Teddy Myles, it's even hotter as he tries to outrun both the law
and his partners in crime. He flees to Key West to set up a new
identity and an escape to the Caribbean. But he meets up with Gail,
a sexy local, who has other things in mind for him. Soon, he finds
himself trapped into pulling one more job, this one for over a
million. His former partners are tracking him, the cops are onto
him, and a hurricane is coming. Time is running out, but will it be
on his side? MAN-SLAUGHTER is the third gripping novel in Mike
Dennis' Key West Nocturnes Series, designed to reveal Key West as a
true noir city.
"The ghost of Mike Hammer moves through these pages, as Dennis
nicely executes several unexpected twists and turns..." -- JONATHAN
WOODS, author of Bad Juju & Other Tales Of Madness And Mayhem
"Fans of Elmore Leonard should find Mike Dennis an author worth
watching - and worth reading." -- BOOKSANDPALS.com "His writing is
tight, to the point, like a line drawing." -- NOIR JOURNAL Jack
Barnett has had it with the private eye business. They took his
license away in LA, and fearing criminal prosecution, he split town
in the middle of the night and headed for Las Vegas, where anyone
can become anonymous. He swears off the business, but his money
runs low and when a man offers him $5000 to find his missing
daughter who has disappeared into the sex trade of Las Vegas, he
agrees. He soon wishes he hadn't when the haunting memory of a
woman from his past gets in the way. TEMPTATION TOWN is a
novelette, about 12,000 words, the first of the Jack Barnett series
from Mike Dennis. Set in the steaming underbelly of Las Vegas,
these tales of a reluctant ex-private investigator drag the reader
down the darkest streets of Sin City, USA, a town in constant need
of fresh blood for its own survival.
"THE GHOSTS HAVANA will keep you riveted. Author Dennis nails both
noir tone and thriller plotting perfectly " -- JEFFERY DEAVER "THE
GHOSTS OF HAVANA opens on a chill winter night in Key West, where
blood runs thick on the floor of a Duval Street nightclub. From
that noir beginning, Mike Dennis takes us on a thrill ride to
uncover a long hidden secret, a race against death. Dennis'
staccato prose keeps the pages turning to the surprising ending.
Unputdownable." --- JONATHAN WOODS, author of "Bad Juju & Other
Tales of Mayhem And Madness" "A relentlessly fast-paced conspiracy
thriller...Mike Dennis does a terrific job of revealing the seamy
side of Key West." -- HEATH LOWRANCE, author of "The Bastard Hand"
"The seamy, steamy side of Key West is the setting for Mike
Dennis's well-crafted, hard-hitting, muscular action novel.
Compelling, provocative, and tension-filled, THE GHOSTS OF HAVANA
will leave the reader reeling."--TOM PICCIRILLI, author of "The
Last Kind Words" *** The second exciting novel in Mike Dennis' Key
West Nocturnes series, THE GHOSTS OF HAVANA is a tale of old
vendettas that will not die. Mike Dennis continues to lift the veil
off Key West, revealing it as a true noir city, on a par with Los
Angeles, New Orleans, or Miami.
"Mike Dennis is a modern master of noir." -- MAX ALLAN COLLINS,
author of Road To Perdition "Dennis writes true noir." -- VICKI
HENDRICKS, author of Cruel Poetry "Noir with panache." -- CHARLIE
STELLA, author of Johnny Porno From the other side of the human
condition comes this collection of noir tales by Mike Dennis. 1.
FULLY LOADED It's 1984 and Biloxi, Mississippi has seen better
days. Sherry Lamar, used car saleswoman, is feeling the pinch. Then
one day, a stranger walks onto her small car lot and ushers her
into a world of steamy sex and murder. 2. THE DEVIL DRIVES A BIG
MERCEDES An incident between a seven-year-old boy and his two
younger sisters starts him on a downward spiral into self-doubt and
later, depravity, that will last his entire life. 3. BLOCK A famous
crime fiction novelist develops writer's block on her
novel-in-progress and is unable to continue, until a mysterious
early-morning phone caller claims to have the answers.
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