In this brilliant book, Roger Cohen of The New York Times weaves together the history of Yugoslavia and the story of the Bosnian War of 1992 to 1995, as experienced by four families. “I have tried to treat the story of Yugoslavia, which lived for seventy-three years, as a human one,” Cohen writes in this masterly book, which, like Thomas L. Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem and David Remnick’s Lenin’s Tomb, makes us eyewitnesses at the center of historic events. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the Bosnian conflict shattered the West’s confidence, reviving Europe’s darkest ghosts and exposing an America reluctant to confront or acknowledge an act of genocide on European soil. Through Cohen’s compelling reconstruction of the twentieth-century history that led up to the war, and his account of the war’s effect on everyday lives, we at last find the key to understanding Europe’s most explosive region and its peoples. “This was a war of intimate betrayals,” Cohen goes on to say, and in Hearts Grown Brutal, the betrayals begin in the family of a man named Sead. Through his search for his lost father, we relive the history of Yugoslavia, founded at the end of World War I with the encouragement of President Woodrow Wilson. Sead’s desperate quest is punctuated by the lies, half truths, and pain that mark other sagas of Yugoslavia. Through three more families—one Muslim-Serb, one Muslim, and one Serb-Croat—we experience the war in Bosnia as it breaks up marriages and sets relative against relative. The reality of the Balkans is illuminated, even as the hypocrisy of the international response to the war is exposed. Hearts Grown Brutal is a remarkable book, a testament to the loss of a multi-ethnic European state and a warning that the violence could return. It is a magnificent achievement that blends history and journalism into a profoundly moving human story.

Explores the transformation in attitudes of the Left toward the Jews, Zionism, and Israel from the beginning of European socialism in the 1840s until the present (in particular in Germany and Austria). Socialist thought from its very origins was tainted with anti-Jewish stereotypes, including identification of Jews with money and exploitation, contempt for Judaism, etc. Many Jewish socialists shared these views, or even (like Marx or Victor Adler) took part in shaping them. At the same time, modern antisemitism, both in its conservative and racist form, was evolving in Europe. The socialist parties, e.g. the German Social Democrats, had difficulties in formulating their attitudes toward antisemitism. Some socialists maintained that there was a "kernel of truth" in antisemitism; others believed that it was a by-product of the crisis of capitalism and would disappear under socialism. Anti-Zionism also has a long history on the Left, stemming from the Marxist opposition to nationalism. Focuses on the attitudes on Jews and antisemitism of socialists and communists (Jewish and non-Jewish) such as August Bebel, Franz Mehring, Bernard Lazare, Karl Kautsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, and Bruno Kreisky. The USSR turned to antisemitism after 1945; other communist parties followed suit. It was in the USSR that the myth of Zionist-Nazi collaboration was born; it was picked up by the Left worldwide. After 1955 the Left became increasingly anti-Zionist and anti-Israel. The peculiar, albeit paradoxical, development of antisemitism on the Left in recent years is related to the forging of an anti-Israel Marxist-Islamist alliance.

Perturbed by stagflation? In pain from recession? Sick with worry about whether the world economy can survive? You've gone to your corner economist and you couldn't understand the cure? Finally! An amusing, soundly researched, and highly accessible book that tells you everything you want to know about capitalism- the system its greatest theorists though could never survive.In this fair, concise, and good-humoured book, Robert Lekachman, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the City University of New York, assesses capitalism for what it's supposed to do deliver the goods. He starts by questioning the United States, where capitalism seems as natural as breathing and the free market is as much a byword as Mom's apple pie. But what are the realities? To understand them, he wittily documents capitalism's history from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to late last night; from mercantilism to monetarism, with explanations in between of investment and money, business cycles, the postwar boom, and the present recession.No sermons are preached. Readers must consider for themselves the dilemma that confronts us the future of capitalism and its effect on the world.

Ever since the Romans, 'Empire' has been a word of power to rulers and theorists of statecraft. It implied much more than 'rule' or 'kingdom': those states which could pretend to the title of Empire thereby compared themselves with Rome, and implied that they were its successors. Professor Koebner's widely ranging book examines the use of the concept in European history from classical times until the early nineteenth century. He begins with the Romans, and analyses the original meanings of the word imperium. He then turns to later uses, in the Holy Roman Empire founded by Charlemagne, and its successors. The main part of the book considers the British Empire, from its uncertain foundation under Henry VIII to the secession of the American colonies - an event which caused a re-examination of the whole nature of the Empire. A final chapter considers the Napoleonic period.

"Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, archaeologists, historians, literary scholars, anthropologists, and filmmakers are drawn to it. Unable to find physical evidence until now, many archaeologists and scholars claim this mass migration is just a story, not history. Others oppose this conclusion, defending the biblical account. Like a detective on an intricate case no one has yet solved, pioneering Bible scholar and bestselling author of Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Elliott Friedman cuts through the noise — the serious studies and the wild theories — merging new findings with new insight. From a spectrum of disciplines, state-of-the-art archeological breakthroughs, and fresh discoveries within scripture, he brings real evidence of a historical basis for the exodus — the history behind the story. The biblical account of millions fleeing Egypt may be an exaggeration, but the exodus itself is not a myth. Friedman does not stop there. Known for his ability to make Bible scholarship accessible to readers, Friedman proceeds to reveal how much is at stake when we explore the historicity of the exodus. The implications, he writes, are monumental. We learn that it became the starting-point of the formation of monotheism, the defining concept of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Moreover, we learn that it precipitated the foundational ethic of loving one's neighbors — including strangers — as oneself. He concludes, the actual exodus was the cradle of global values of compassion and equal rights today"--front flap.

"This lengthy and detailed collection of original documents provides a basic handbook to the story, significance and problems of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Although one of the most famous and dramatic episodes in English history, the great revolt of 1381 is still a largely unsolved mystery. Hitherto the original authorities for the history of the rebellion have been allowed to rest in unnecessary obscurity: and it seems due time to restore the Peasants' Revolt to the comments of its participants and observers. These extracts therefore exploit all the available types of evidence for the history of the 1381 Revolt, ranging from the trial records of captured rebels to contemporary poems. Fortunately the great majority of the primary chronicles for the rebellion, as well as a representative selection from surviving governmental and legal archives, can be presented within the covers of one book. With few exceptions these documents have been especially translated from the original Latin or Norman-French texts - almost all of which are difficult of access or out of print. In several cases translations have been made directly from unpublished records in the Public Record Office, London. The Peasants' Revolt has been examined primarily for its own sake; and at the heart of this book lie the various and often contradictory accounts of the outbreak of the rising in Kent and Essex, the rebels entry into London and the final great confrontation between the young Richard I| and Wat Tyler at Smithfield. But considerable attention is paid to the risings in East Anglia and elsewhere in England as well as to the political and social background of the revolt. The suppression and aftermath of the rebellion are also illustrated in detail. Indirectly this collection of documents therefore provides an insight into the economic status and social aspirations of the late mediaeval English peasantry. The work includes detailed chronological tables (the most ambitious yet attempted), a select guide to sources, three maps and a detailed bibliography. The author's introduction discusses the implications of the revolt in general terms and its significance as an early example of a pre-industrial popular movement. A warning is sounded against any too crude a sociology of rebellion; and the book ends with a series of very different and often hilariously misconceived interpretations of the Peasants' Revolt - from Gower and Froissart, Thomas Paine and Robert Southey to Engels and William Morris."-Publisher.

In this original and controversial book, historian and philosopher Reviel Netz explores the development of a controlling and pain-inducing technology--barbed wire. Surveying its development from 1874 to 1954, Netz describes its use to control cattle during the colonization of the American West and to control people in Nazi concentration camps and the Russian Gulag. Physical control over space was no longer symbolic after 1874. This is a history told from the perspective of its victims. With vivid examples of the interconnectedness of humans, animals, and the environment, this dramatic account of barbed wire presents modern history through the lens of motion being prevented. Drawing together the history of humans and animals, Netz delivers a compelling new perspective on the issues of colonialism, capitalism, warfare, globalization, violence, and suffering. Theoretically sophisticated but written with a broad readership in mind, Barbed Wire calls for nothing less than a reconsideration of modernity.

In 1934, American writer Rebecca Hourwich Reyher recorded the remarkable life story of Christina Sibiya, the first of sixty-five wives of the uncrowned king of the Zulus. What Reyher faithfully recorded — and then crafted into a moving narrative — is the riveting story of a South African woman who entered life among the Zulu royal family and then, after enduring psychic and physical abuse, found the courage to leave. In 1915, fifteen-year-old Christina Sibiya leaves teaching at a mission school to become the first wife of Solomon ka Dinuzulu. While at the royal household, Sibiya successfully adjusts to the expectations of her new position: finding her place among the other wives, and negotiating Zulu and Christian tradition. The royal headquarters, however, becomes increasingly plagued by diviseness, dissolution, and ill health. After a series of hardships, climaxing in a beating by Solomon, Sibiya, at the age of twenty-eight, escapes to Durban. Although pursued by Solomon's representative, Sibiya successfully resists Solomon's authority by testifying first in a European magistrate's court and then at the royal headquarters that her marriage was invalid. First published in 1948, Zulu Woman is placed in new context by an introduction and afterword which consider the book's relationship to other African literature and oral history, attend to questions of power and authorship, and draw upon newly available archival materials.

Ethnic bias against Middle Eastern Jews within Israel has far-reaching implications for the whole region. Middle Eastern Jews from Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Yemen, and other Arab or Muslim lands—"Mizrahis"—make up nearly half of Israel's population. Yet European or "Ashkenazi" Jews have historically disparaged them for looking like Arabs, speaking Arabic, and bringing with them what was viewed as a "backward" Middle Eastern culture. Journalist Rachel Shabi, who was born in Israel to Iraqi Jews and grew up in England, returned to investigate the subtle discrimination and tense relations that still exist between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews in Israel. She combines historical research, her own family's story, and the heartfelt oral history of several other Mizrahis to make We Look Like the Enemy a stunning, unforgettable book.

Civil War on Race Street, so named because Race Street was the road that divided blacks and whites in Cambridge, Maryland, is a detailed examination of one of the most vibrant locally based struggles for racial equality during the 1960s. Beginning with an overview of Cambridge, particularly its history of racial and class relations, Peter Levy traces the emergence of the modern civil rights movement in this city on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Catalyzed by the arrival of freedom in 1962, the movement in Cambridge expanded in 1963 and 1964 under the leadership of Gloria Richardson, one of the most prominent (and one of the few female) civil rights leaders in the nation. In the years after her departure from Cambridge, the movement went into decline until 1967, when it underwent a brief revival that culminated with a riot allegedly incited by black power spokesman H. Rap Brown. In the wake of the riot, blacks and whites in Cambridge sought to rebuild their city and return to a politics of moderation. However, Spiro Agnew, then governor of Maryland, used the riot to advance his political career and the fortunes of the New Right, thereby garnering the attention of the public (as well as Richard Nixon) and achieving the vice-presidency in 1968. At the same time, H. Rap Brown saw his influence and that of the civil rights movement decline.

Dazzled by the sight of the vast treasure of gold and silver being unloaded at Seville’s docks in 1537, a teenaged Pedro de Cieza de León vowed to join the Spanish effort in the New World, become an explorer, and write what would become the earliest historical account of the conquest of Peru. Available for the first time in English, this history of Peru is based largely on interviews with Cieza’s conquistador compatriates, as well as with Indian informants knowledgeable of the Incan past. Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook present this recently discovered third book of a four-part chronicle that provides the most thorough and definitive record of the birth of modern Andean America. It describes with unparalleled detail the exploration of the Pacific coast of South America led by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, the imprisonment and death of the Inca Atahualpa, the Indian resistance, and the ultimate Spanish domination. Students and scholars of Latin American history and conquest narratives will welcome the publication of this volume.

This skillfully written text presents the full sweep of Ottoman history from its beginnings on the Byzantine frontier in about 1300, through its development as an empire, to its late eighteenth-century confrontation with a rapidly modernizing Europe. Itzkowitz delineates the fundamental institutions of the Ottoman state, the major divisions within the society, and the basic ideas on government and social structure. Throughout, Itzkowitz emphasizes the Ottomans' own conception of their historical experience, and in so doing penetrates the surface view provided by the insights of Western observers of the Ottoman world to the core of Ottoman existence.

A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away. Nicholas Lemann opens his extraordinary new book with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community there and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree. This was the start of an insurgency that changed the course of American history: for the next few years white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and challenge President Grant'ssupport for the emergent structures of black political power. The remorseless strategy of well-financed "White Line" organizations was to create chaos and keep blacks from voting out of fear for their lives and livelihoods. "Redemption" is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875. Lemann bases his devastating account on a wealth of military records, congressional investigations, memoirs, press reports, and the invaluable papers of Adelbert Ames, the war hero from Maine who was Mississippi's governor at the time. When Ames pleaded with Grant for federal troops who could thwart the white terrorists violently disrupting Republican political activities, Grant wavered, and the result was a bloody, corrupt election in which Mississippi was "redeemed"--that is, returned to white control. """Redemption "makes clear that this is what led to the death of Reconstruction--and of the rights encoded in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We are still living with the consequences.

First published in 1994, this volume brings together essays from the celebrated scholar of African history, Nehemia Levtzion. The articles cover a wide range of themes including Islamization, Islam in politics, Islamic revolutions and the work of the historian in studying this field. This collection is a rich source of supplementary material to Professor Levtzion's major publications on Islam in West Africa. This book will be of key interest to those studying Islamic and West African history.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History In this study of the fateful encounters between Europe and Asia on the shores of a legendary sea, Neal Ascherson explores the disputed meaning of community, nationhood, history, and culture in a region famous for its dramatic conflicts. What makes the Back Sea cultures distinctive, Ascherson agrues, is the way their comonent parts came together over the millennia to shape unique communities, languages, religions, and trade. As he shows with skill and persuasiveness, Black Sea patterns in the Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, and Greece have linked the peoples of Europe and Asia together for centuries.

Chronicles Betser's involvement in the El Al "air marshall" program, the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, & a number of successful -- as well as unsuccessful -- hostage/terrorist crises of recent history. Provides an intimate, firsthand account of Israel's previously classified counter terrorist defense missions. Beginning with new revelations abut the Six-Day War, Betser tells of the kidnapping of 5 Syrian generals, reports on the execution of Black September commanders, gives us the first on the scene report of the raid on Entebbe, & exposes the realities of a 25 years of counter terrorist warfare. Photos.

"This book was originally published as Al Dereckh ha-Emet: ha-Ramban ve-Yezirata shel Masoret (By Way of Truth: Nahmanides and the Creation of Tradition), Jerusalem: Shalom Hartman Institute, 2006. Nahmanides was the greatest Talmudic scholar of the thirteenth century and a distinguished kabbalist and mystic. The book is about Nahmanides's conception of Jewish Law (halakhah) and his understanding of the central features of Jewish tradition such as God, creation, revelation, history, messsianism, the reasons for the commandments, and the relation between miracle and nature. A central concern of the book is the complex relationship between Nahmanides's radical esoteric kabbalistic teachings and the legal and revealed dimensions of his thought"--

"The best and most vivid account of the German collapse." Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Sunday Times "Ambitiously enough this volume was begun with a threefold object -- to tell the story of the defeat of the German Wehrmacht in the West, to suggest some of the causes that brought about that defeat, and finally to show how men, both great and small, react to the overwhelming, psychological experience of defeat itself." Milton Shulman's Defeat in the West is a detailed and thorough account of the reasons behind Germany's loss of World War 2. Among these reasons, Shulman firmly places the responsibility for the magnitude of lost lives at the feet of Adolf Hitler. A combination of the Fuhrer's military ineptness, his refusal to take advice and his unique position of power made victory in WWII much less likely for Germany. Shulman also gives an account of the major military mistakes made by the German Army -- beginning a war with Russia on the eastern front, declaring war on the U.S., and the decisive losses in North Africa. Defeat in the West is an important addition to WWII military history and a must-read for those interested in the subject. "An evaluation of the causes of German defeat, analyzed from interrogations of senior German officers, and a pre-D-day study of the German army, by an officer of the Intelligence Staff of the First Canadian Army." Kirkus Reviews "His account of the strange relations between Hitler and the German General Staff is most revealing." The Canadian Historical Review "The sources that he has utilized are impressive. They consist essentially of Anglo-American intelligence summaries, which often incorporated captured German documents, of the published records of the Nuremberg Trial, and of his own and other interrogations of German officers." Saturday Review Milton Shulman (1 September 1913 - 24 May 2004) was a Canadian author, film and theatre critic. He joined the Canadian Army in 1944 as a major and by the war's end he was an intelligence officer with the First Canadian Army. He interviewed many of the captured German generals in the following months and years including Gerd von Rundstedt and Kurt Meyer. As a result of these interviews he wrote the classic Second World War military history Defeat in the West.

From the depression of the 1890s through World War I, construction tradesman held an important place in San Francisco's economic, political, and social life. Michael Kazin's award-winning study delves into how the city’s Building Trades Council (BTC) created, accumulated, used, and lost their power. He traces the rise of the BTC into a force that helped govern San Francisco, controlled its potential progress, and articulated an ideology that made sense of the changes sweeping the West and the country. Believing themselves the equals of officeholders and corporate managers, these working and retired craftsmen pursued and protected their own power while challenging conservatives and urban elites for the right to govern. What emerges is a long-overdue look at building trades as a force in labor history within the dramatic story of how the city's 25,000 building workers exercised power on the job site and within the halls of government, until the forces of reaction all but destroyed the BTC.

Why Rome Fell: Decline and Fall, or Drift and Change? discusses the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the context of concepts of monarchy, power structure, social mobility, religion, and the aristocratic ethos. Dr. Michael Arnheim, an accomplished scholar of Roman history, delivers compelling comparisons of the later Roman Empire with the Principate and the Byzantine Empire. Unlike (in Gibbon's phrase) "the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines," the later Roman Empire is revealed in this book as a fractured society rent by divided loyalties ; Why Rome Fell includes coverage of the transition from the ancient to the medieval world, exploring the monarchy, and the relationship with the aristocracy of Diocletian, by contrast with that of Constantine and his successors. It also discusses Constantine's role in the rise of Christianity, together with the general significance of religion and religious persecution. There are also expansive treatments of conflicting theories, including Gibbon's "decline and fall," the Pirenne thesis, the malaria hypothesis, and the approach of the school of "late antiquity." The book also explores the criteria for optimal professional history writing, with comparative case studies of a number of societies spanning three thousand years. --Book Jacket