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The Salvation Army is well known for its work with the poor and
disadvantaged. There is, however, much more to the story of the
Salvation Army than their highly commendable good works. They have
been so closely identified with a programme of social action that
their wider history has been marginalized. This history includes a
period of astonishing levels of opposition and religious
persecution which the Army faced in its early years. Many
Salvationists were badly injured in violent street riots against
them while at the same time facing imprisonment as the force of the
law was brought to bear on their evangelism. Among all those places
in Britain where the Salvation Army was persecuted, that in the
south-coast town of Eastbourne during the 1880s and 1890s stands
out as worthy of attention. The Sussex seaside resort played a
hugely important part in the wider anti-Salvation Army narrative as
it was in Eastbourne that opposition was among the most violent and
protracted. Significantly and surprisingly, the vehemence and
savagery was supported by the local Council and Mayor. The
narrative of The Mob and The Mayor is chronological and entirely
evidence based. It includes: Eyewitness accounts; newspaper
reports; Parliamentary papers; Eastbourne Council & Watch
Committee Meetings Minutes; and Salvation Army documents. Britain
was at times at war with itself as the country came to terms with
urban poverty resulting from the Industrial Revolution. The
persecution of the Salvation Army at the Victorian seaside sheds a
wider light on the struggles to promote social betterment for all.
From the first, America has considered itself a "shining city on a
hill"-uniquely lighting the right way for the world. But it is hard
to reconcile this picture, the very image of American
exceptionalism, with what America's Use of Terror shows us: that
the United States has frequently resorted to acts of terror to
solve its most challenging problems. Any "war on terror," Stephen
Huggins suggests, will fail unless we take a long, hard look at
ourselves-and it is this discerning, informed perspective that his
book provides. Terrorism, as Huggins defines it, is an act of
violence against noncombatants intended to change their political
will or support. The United States government adds a qualifier to
this definition: only if the instigator is a "subnational group."
On the contrary, Huggins tells us, terrorism is indeed used by the
state-a politically organized body of people occupying a definite
territory-in this case, the government of the United States, as
well as by such predecessors as the Continental Congress and early
European colonists in America. In this light, America's Use of
Terror re-examines key historical moments and processes, many of
them events praised in American history but actually acts of terror
directed at noncombatants. The targeting of women and children in
Native American villages, for instance, was a use of terror, as
were the means used to sustain slavery and then to further
subjugate freed slaves under Jim Crow laws and practices. The
placing of Philippine peasants in concentration camps during the
Philippine-American War; the firebombing of families in Dresden and
Tokyo; the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki-all
are last resort Measures to conclude wars, and these too are among
the instances of American terrorism that Huggins explores.
Terrorism, in short, is not only terrorism when they do it to us,
as many Americans like to think. And only when we recognize this,
and thus the dissonance between the ideal and the real America,
will we be able to truly understand and confront modern terrorism.
In 2015 the Salvation Army celebrated the 150th anniversary of its
birth in the poverty and squalor of London's East End. Today the
Army is to be found in towns and cities throughout Britain, its
members readily recognised through their military uniform and their
reputation for good works widely acknowledged. Many people,
however, are unaware of the origins and subsequent development of
the organisation. At times Salvationists were imprisoned, beaten up
in street riots and ridiculed in the press for their religious
beliefs. Despite this persecution the Army put in place a programme
of help for the poor and marginalised of such ambition that it
radically altered social thinking about poverty. There have been
very few attempts at writing a wider and accessible account which
locates the Army in its historical context. This is something of an
omission given that it has made a unique contribution to the
changing social, cultural and religious landscape of Britain. The
Salvation Army: 150 years of Blood and Fire aims to provide a
history of the organisation for the general reader and is for
anyone who is interested in the interplay of people, ideas and
events. The book reveals how the story of the Salvation Army raises
fundamental questions about issues of power, class, gender and race
in modern society; all as pertinent today as they were in Victorian
Britain. The Salvation Army: 150 years of Blood and Fire also makes
an extensive use of pictures illustrative of the Army's history
gathered from around the world, most of which have never previously
been published.
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The Murmur (Paperback)
Stephen Huggins
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R574
R486
Discovery Miles 4 860
Save R88 (15%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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