Going to War overturns conventional views of the role of public opinion, the armed forces, parliamentarians, NGOs and writers in the formation of British debates about impending wars. It shows the pressures and the reasons which have led to Britain's involvement in so many conflicts.

"Temptations of Power" examines the new security dilemma that confronted George W. Bush when terrorists proved for the first time on 9/11 that they could seriously wound even the greatest of military powers on its own soil. The authors argue that the response was influenced by neo-conservative exaggeration of the efficacy of military power and belief in the US ability to change the world. Jackson and Towle advocate for new politics--but not the kind Washington has adopted since 2001.

Britain has a culture which encourages interference overseas. It has been involved in more wars than most countries and founded many Non-Government Organisations. Going to War looks at how pressure groups, religious bodies, armchair strategists, science fiction writers, military officers, commentators and journalists have tried to influence public opinion, governments and Parliament to restrain or encourage overseas intervention. It shows how the old idea that the great majority were simple-minded enthusiasts for foreign incursions has been discrE pollsters, and conlcudes with an analysis of Britain's current involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, suggesting ways in which the governmental system could be modified to reflect public opinion and avoid foreign incursions in future.

Temptations of Power examines the new security dilemma which confronted President George W. Bush when terrorists proved for the first time on 9/11 that they could seriously wound even the greatest of military powers on its home ground. In their indictment, the authors argue that the response was influenced by neo-conservative exaggeration of the efficacy of military power and belief in the US ability to change the world and its own image. The new security dilemma needs to be addressed by new politics but not those Washington has adopted since 2001.

A remarkable chronicle that features one family's thirty-year plummet from prominence to poverty, A World Turned Upside Down follows the trials of the nineteenth-century planters that once dominated the southern banks of South Carolina's Santee River. Voluminous, literate, and rich in detail, the Palmer family letters and journal entries serve as a sustained narrative of the economic pressures and wartime tragedies that shattered the South's planter aristocracy. The Palmer papers offer insight into every aspect of daily plantation life: education, religion, household management, planting, slave-master relations, and social life. While the antebellum writings reveal the reinforcement of rigid attitudes about social, economic, political, and religious concerns, the wartime correspondence depicts the deterioration of those attitudes and of the Palmers' lifestyle. The letters tell of women sewing clothing for themselves and for soldiers, sending provisions to the troops, and "making do" with meager resources. The papers also describe problems facing the family patriarch - shortages, inflated Confederate currency, directives from the Confederate Congress on what to plant, and requisitioned labor - as he managed the plantations without the help of his sons and nephews. In addition to overwhelming material concerns, the Palmers chronicle the emotional impact of wartime casualties and of God's seeming indifference to the South and, more specifically, to the planters. At the close of the Civil War, the Palmers had no cash, horses, mules, seed, or human labor but plenty of debt, and their letters tell of unprofitable years of contract labor, experiences with sharecropping, and holdings that nevermatched prewar productivity. Of particular interest, they discuss the desertion and loss of slaves, the difficulties of adjusting to Reconstruction, the search for nonagricultural employment, and changes in the family's values, goals, and social circles as the Palmers dealt with the collapse of their way of life.