81 results for "History"

Strangeland: how Britain stopped making sense

Sopel, Jon
From Jon Sopel, bestselling author and presenter of hit podcast The News Agents , comes an incisive examination of post-Brexit Britain and what it means for our future. 'I like and trust Jon Sopel and you should too' JOE LYCETT 'A thrilling, nerve-wracking book. You couldn't make the last ten years up; thanks to Jon Sopel, you don't have to' PETER FRANKOPAN 'A hugely entertaining and quite traumatic rollercoaster' ARMANDO IANNUCCI 'Acute and unflinching - Sopel deploys his foreign correspondent skills on home shores as well as far ones, and brings together the story of a tumultuous few years on both sides of the Atlantic' MISHAL HUSAIN Returning to the UK in some ways has been disconcerting - or maybe discombobulating would be a better word. It is, after all, my home; it is where I grew up, a country I love and am proud of. But either it' s changed, or I have. Maybe both. It just feels like a strange land. After eight years of political reporting in the US, Jon Sopel returned home to the UK to find a very different place than the one he left. In his first book since launching the global hit podcast The News Agents , Jon explores what has happened to the country he once knew. Either Britain has changed dramatically, or he has. Perhaps it' s both. As a second Trump administration begins, and a new chapter of American history exerts its influence over our own isle, Strangeland paints an unforgettable portrait of a country gone through the looking glass.
Ebury Press 2025-05-29 352 pages

Trotsky as alternative

Mandel, Ernest
Leon Trotsky has become one of the twentieth century’s most enduring political legends. Joining the Bolsheviks on the eve of the 1917 revolution he played a vital role as Lenin’s right-hand man in the insurrection and went on to lead the Red Army to victory in the ensuing civil war. Having lost to Stalin the struggle for power which followed Lenin’s death, he became an implacable opponent of the dictator over the next three decades—a stance which cost him his political career, his citizenship and ultimately his life. A charismatic orator, a prolific author and a political philosopher whose ideas continue to resonate in the wake of the collapse of the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe, Trotsky made an indelible mark on world history. Ernest Mandel, one of the foremost leaders of the international movement which Trotsky founded before the Second World War and an influential economist and political theorist, is uniquely placed to review the life and work of Trotsky. In Trotsky as Alternative he presents a portrait of his subject which is appreciative yet critical. He shows that Trotsky’s contribution to the history of the twentieth century was primarily political rather than sociological, and this in a practical as well as a theoretical sense. He locates Trotsky’s theory of uneven and combined development as a crucial tool whose explanatory power of the mechanisms of world imperialism is as relevant to the late capitalism of the 1990s as it was to the first three decades of the century when it was formulated. Ranging across Trotsky’s struggles against Stalin’s bureaucracy, his formulation of an alternative economic strategy, his theories relating to the Third World, fascism and the national question, his extensive literary criticism, and concluding with a moving assessment of an extraordinary life, this book is a fitting testimony to a man who, in Mandel’s words, “will be judged by history as the most important strategist for the socialist movement.”
Verso 1995-03-17 186 pages

The Strange Death of the Soviet Empire

Pryce-Jones, E.
The sudden and almost bloodless demise of the Soviet Union - and with it, communism - caught everyone by surprise, from the KGB and the Red Army to Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and the dissidents at home and in the satellite states. In the first full-scale account of this mysterious transformation, historian and journalist David Pryce-Jones is able to provide answers to the crucial questions: Why did Gorbachev not shoot his way out of the crisis in classic Soviet style, as former leaders had done in Hungary and Czechoslovakia? How did an unlikely alliance of nationalist actors, idealistic poets, and political priests unseat the ruling despots of Warsaw, Bucharest, East Berlin, and Prague? What role did the West really play in all this? And what do these remarkable events presage for Russia's future? The result is a vivid account of the Soviet empire's fall, as experienced from the inside - and at the top. Uncompromising in its accuracy and keen in its insight, The Strange Death of the Soviet Empire is the definitive account of one of history's greatest anticlimaxes.
Owl Books 2003-01-01

Liberal Nationalism For Israel: Towards An Israeli National Identity...

Agassi, Joseph
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Liberal Nationalism For Israel: Towards An Israeli National Identity Joseph Agassi Joseph Agassi Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 1999 History; Middle East; Israel; History / Jewish; History / Middle East / Israel; Identity; Israel; Israel and the diaspora; Jews; Jews/ Israel/ Identity; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Religion / Judaism / General; Religion / Judaism / History; Religion / Religion, Politics & State; Religion and state; Religion and state/ Israel; Social Science / Sociology of Religion; Zionism
Nabu Press 2012-04-09 340 pages

The making of the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1947-1951

Pappé, Ilan
"This seminal text by renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, discusses one of the most significant periods in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Based on archival material, it presents the reader with a comprehensive and general history of the origins and consequences of the 1948 war. While among Arabs, and especially Palestinians, the events of that year are known as the nakba - the catastrophe, the trauma, the disaster - for Jews, and in particular for Israelis, their victory in the war of 1948 is a veritable miracle. For them, against tremendous odds and through heroic military effort, the Jewish community succeeded in thwarting attempts by the Arab states to destroy it. Pappe shows here that in sharp contrast to the recollections and myths of both sides, the military events of 1948 were not decisive. The victory of the Zionist organization and the fate of the Palestinians was determined by politicians on both sides - in the discussions and decisions of the United Nations in 1947-8 and in the Arab League - long before a shot had been fired. He argues that Israel's failure to take advantage of the genuine opportunity for peace with the Arabs at the UN-sponsored Lausanne Conference in 1949 resulted in the prolonged and tragic conflict between Israel and the Arab states still very much alive today. Complete with a new foreword by the author, the book remains the authority on the subject for a new generation of readers."--
I.B. Tauris 2025-02-20 324 pages

Hegel and the state

Rosenzweig, Franz,Bienenstock, Myriam,Honneth, Axel
"Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) is one of the most significant German Jewish philosophers of the twentieth century. Published in German in 1920 and now finally available in English for the first time, Hegel and the State is a major contribution to the understanding of Hegel's political and social thought and a profound analysis of the intellectual currents that shaped the German state in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through careful readings of Hegel's early handwritten manuscripts, Rosenzweig shows that Hegel was wrestling with the problem of how to reconcile the subjectivity and freedom of the individual within a community and ultimately the political state. According to Rosenzweig, the route out of this conundrum chosen by Hegel shaped his mature political philosophy, where he saw the relationship between the individual and the state as reciprocal. At a deeper level, the significance of Hegel and the State lies in the way that Rosenzweig explains the failure of Hegel's quasi-communitarian view of the state to emerge, due to the authoritarian direction of the newly-unified German state under Bismarck. Anticipating the political and moral disaster that was to follow, Rosenzweig concludes by questioning the very viability of any theory of the state that relies on the pillars of bureaucratic militarism and a government-supported capitalist business culture. With the inclusion of a Foreword by Myriam Bienenstock and a substantial Afterword by Axel Honneth, Hegel and the State is a ground-breaking work of early twentieth-century philosophical and political thought. It is essential reading for students of Hegel, German Idealism, Jewish philosophy, and the origins of critical theory. It will also be of interest to those in related subjects such as the history of sociology, and German and intellectual history"--
Routledge 2024 579 pages

Jerusalem on Earth: People, Passions, and Politics in the Holy City

Rabinovich, Abraham
As the guns in Jerusalem fell silent in 1967 nothing could be heard across the hushed city except the faint flutter of history. Then it started again — the rumble of heavy vehicles, the unforgiving crump of explosives. This time the sounds were of bulldozers plowing through border barriers and the demise of minefields. Jewish and Arab Jerusalem were separated briefly only by a strip of neutered no-man’s-land so narrow that a boy could throw a stone across it, so filled with shadows that it was impossible to probe its depth. What would emerge from those shadows? Jerusalem on Earth is an anecdotal overview of the turbulent post-Six Day War decades. This revised edition expands on the first, published in 1988, and includes a close-up view of Mayor Teddy Kollek shaping the city during his 28-year tenure. Confident that the city's unification could work, Kollek would be jolted after two decades by the Palestinian intifada. The author covered City Hall for the Jerusalem Post during much of this period and encountered a world-class collection of visionaries and eccentrics. - An Australian sheepshearer who wants to be recognized as king of Judah sets fire to al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, third holiest site in Islam. Riots in the Moslem world reportedly kill thousands and Arab armies are ordered to prepare for holy war. Israeli police quickly track down the arsonist, heading off further deterioration. - An ultra-orthodox Jewish eccentric crossed into Jordan as a young man to obtain weapons for a revolt against the secular Zionist state. He is returned and tried. Thirty years later he invites his former prosecutor to join him in a learned debate before a packed hall on the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche who wrote that god is dead. - Arab and Jewish underworlds in Jerusalem are the first economic sectors to join forces after the Six Day War. The police are not far behind, forming Arab-Jewish patrols. - A rare look into the inner sanctums of the Hassidic world when street conflicts break out among feuding factions. Yeshiva students “take to the mattresses” mafia-style as tensions mount. - The Vatican sues one of its own religious orders for selling property to a Jewish institution. Jewish lawyers expert in church law represent each side. In the end, the government aborts the sale in order to demonstrate that Israel is not out to Judaize Jerusalem. Not long afterwards, the Vatican establishes diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. - Danish-born Sister Abraham, who speaks 15 languages and navigates the city on a bicycle, is the first white woman to serve as a nun in the Ethiopian church. - Israeli army reserve units maintained an enclave behind Jordanian lines on Mount Scopus under UN auspices for 19 years. Years later, intelligence officers would reveal its secrets. - In what psychologists call "the Jerusalem syndrome" several tourists are briefly hospitalized each year when they assume the persona of biblical figures on Jerusalem’s streets. - The murder of two nuns, a mother and daughter, in a convent temporarily suspends hostilities between the "White Russian" church in East Jerusalem and the "Red Russian" church in West Jerusalem. - A Jewish family and an Arab family, both with numerous children, find themselves neighbors when the border barriers are removed. They would become virtually one family.
Independently published 2024-04-03 282 pages

The American Presidency: an interpretation

Laski, Harold Joseph
The growth in recent years of Soviet political involvement and military presence in the Mediterranean/Middle East region poses a serious challenge to the security of NATO's southern flank. Among other aims, the Soviets hope to reduce Western, especially American, influence in the area; counter and/or neutralize the U.S. strategic posture; and bring to fruition the historic Russian drive for open access through the Turkish Straits. General Gurkan argues that Moscow's strategy is to shift pressure from the relatively stable central region of NATO to the flanks in a multiple pronged southern thrust.
Transaction Books 1980-01-15 67 pages

Impossible takes longer: 75 years after its creation, has Israel fulfilled its founders' dreams?

Gordis, Daniel
"Published on the country's seventy-fifth anniversary comes a nuanced and thoughtful examination of Israel's past, present, and future, from the two-time National Jewish Book Award-winning author of Israel In 1948, Israel's founders had in mind much more than creating a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also the creation of a "national home for the Jewish people," where Jewish life would be transformed and where a "new Jew" would take root. Did they succeed? The state they created, says Daniel Gordis, is "the most hated nation in the world but also the most beloved," a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering. Now, as the country marks its seventy-fifth anniversary, Gordis asks: Has Israel fulfilled the dreams of its founders? Using the country's Declaration of Independence as his measure, he provides a thorough, balanced perspective on the ways in which the Israel of today exceeds the country's original aspirations and also how it has fallen short. In a deft and multifaceted assessment, he discusses the often-overlooked reasons for Israel's creation, the flourishing of Jewish and Israeli culture, Israel's economy and its transformative tech sector, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the distinctly Israeli form of Judaism that has emerged in the Jewish state, Israel's complex relationship with the Diaspora, and much more. Gordis offers new angles of thinking about Israel that bring moderation and clarity to the prevailing discourse. And through weighing Israel's successes, critiquing its failures, and acknowledging its inherent contradictions, he ultimately suggests that-in ways its founders could not have foreseen-the Jewish state is a success far beyond anything they could have imagined"--
Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 2023 345 pages

Hanging together: cooperation and conflict in the seven-power summits

Putnam, Robert D.
For more than a decade the leaders of the United States, Japan, Western Europe and Canada have met annually to discuss international economic and political issues. Hanging Together analyses the history of these seven-power summits and the relations between the Western allies during these turbulent years. New chapters in this edition relate the story of Western economic diplomacy until the Reagan Years. They give lucid accounts of the revamped international economic strategy after 1984 and how the Europeans and Japanese reacted to it. A new introduction and conclusion place the summits in a theoretical framework.
Sage 1987-12-31 293 pages

Berlusconi: The Epic Story of the Billionaire Who Took Over Italy

Friedman, Alan
Inspired by the Frost/Nixon interviews, and Walter Isaacson's author-subject relationship to Steve Jobs, Alan Friedman tells the story of Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul turned prime minster who has dominated Italian life for the past twenty years. Berlusconi has cooperated with the bestselling author and award-winning journalist in the telling of his life story. Warts and all. From the bunga-bunga parties to his most secret moments with world leaders. The book is rich in anecdotes and revelations involving Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Geroge W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, Mickhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, and many others.Berlusconi's incredible rise to power started from nothing. A self-created man, he was a cruise ship crooner as a young man, became a real estate tycoon in the '70s, started the first commercial television network in history, and turned AC Milan into a world-class soccer club. And that was all before he survived the squalid swampland of Italian politics to became prime minister who has not only served the longest in Italian history, but also has generated the most controversy of arguably any world leader today. All of which will be explored thoroughly and candidly in these pages in a book that reads like a thriller.
Hachette Books 2018-09-25 288 pages

The Precarious balance: state and society in Africa

Rothchild, Donald,Chazan, Naomi,Editors *
Since independence, the political institutions of many African states have undergone a process of consolidation and subsequent deterioration. Constrained by external economic dependency and an acute scarcity of economic and technical resources, state officials have demonstrated a diminished capacity to regulate their societies. Public policies are agreed upon but ineffectively implemented by the weak institutions of the state. Although scholars have analyzed the various facets of state-building in detail, little systematic attention has been given to the issue of the decline of the state and mechanisms to cope with state ineffectiveness in Africa. This book focuses especially on the character of the postcolonial state in Africa, the nature of and reasons for state deterioration, and the mechanisms and policies for coping with state malfunction. Scholars from Africa, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East combine a broad understanding of African political processes with expertise on specific regions. Their analytic and comparative perspective provides a comprehensive and timely treatment of this vital and heretofore neglected theme in African politics.
Westview Press 1988-01-31 357 pages

Pollution in a promised land: an environmental history of Israel

Tal, Alon
Virtually undeveloped one hundred years ago, Israel, the promised "land of milk and honey," is in ecological disarray. In this gripping book, Alon Tal provides--for the first time ever--a history of environmentalism in Israel, interviewing hundreds of experts and activists who have made it their mission to keep the country's remarkable development sustainable amid a century of political and cultural turmoil.The modern Zionist vision began as a quest to redeem a land that bore the cumulative effects of two thousand years of foreign domination and neglect. Since then, Israel has suffered from its success. A tenfold increase in population and standard of living has polluted the air. The deserts have bloomed but groundwater has become contaminated. Urban sprawl threatens to pave over much of the country's breathtaking landscape. Yet there is hope. Tal's account considers the ecological and tactical lessons that emerge from dozens of cases of environmental mishaps, from habitat loss to river reclamation. Pollution in a Promised Land argues that the priorities and strategies of Israeli environmental advocates must address issues beyond traditional green agendas.
University of California Press 2002-08-01 546 pages

The Devil and Uncle Sam: a users guide to the friendly tyrants dilemma

Adam M. Garfinkle
For more than forty years, the American government has struggled with the challenge of maintaining useful relations with a special breed of regime: one whose rulers profess a community of interests with the United States while they rule through authoritarian means. Relationships with such "friendly tyrants" almost invariably generate tensions between the need for prudent security strategies and the ideal of promoting liberty and human rights worldwide. The Devil and Uncle Sam: A User's Guide to the Friendly Tyrants Dilemma distills the policy lessons of over four decades and offers practical approaches to negotiating these obstinate ambiguities of contemporary political life.This User's Guide brings together a team of eminent authors with diverse talents and experience to present a comparative study of the Friendly Tyrants phenomenon in recent history and to devise a systematic set of guidelines for dealing with it. The book is organized around ten essential maxims (Beware Dependence, Be Nimble, Promote Democracy, Chastise with Care, Define Goals, Know the Country, Think It Through, Coordinate Policy, Hedge Bets, Plan for Crises) and a larger number of specific Do's and Don'ts.The Devil and Uncle Sam draws richly upon historical examples to illustrate general principles that will prove invaluable to policymakers and political analysts. The Persian Gulf*War has shown that the Friendly Tyrants problem is still with us, even in the post-Cold War environment. The authors' understanding of past patterns yields insights that should help to prevent the preventable. While new situations will create possibilities for new mistakes, old ones must not be repeated. Contributors to The Devil and Uncle Sam include, in addition to Adam Garfinkle, Daniel Pipes, Kenneth Adelman, Patrick Clawson, Mark Falcoff, and Douglas J. Feith.
Transaction Publishers 1992 135 pages

Israeli identity in transition

Shapira, Anita
The last 15 years have witnessed deep changes in Israeli society. The naive solidarity of the early years of statehood has given way to more sophisticated approaches, and the atmosphere of the 1990s was conducive towards critique and open discussion. It was the age of the Oslo Accords, of the large wave of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, economic growth and prosperity, and a concurrent feeling of security and well-being. Israel was fast becoming a postcapitalist society, a junior member of the global village. This newly acquired self-assurance led to openness towards unorthodox views on basic questions of Israeli identity. This book attempts to come to grips with these themes. The complex texture of Israeli society is drawn here by a number of hands, presenting up-to-date approaches, as viewed by experts.
Praeger Publishers 2004-10-30 268 pages

Marxism and totality: the adventures of a concept from Lukács to Habermas

Jay, Martin
Totality has been an abiding concern from the first generation of Western Marxists, most notably Lukács, Korsch, Gramsci, and Bloch, through the second, exemplified by the Frankfurt School, Lefebvre, Goldmann, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Della Volpe, up to the most recent, typified by Althusser, Colletti, and Habermas. Yet no consensus has been reached concerning the term's multiple meanings—expressive, decentered, longitudinal, latitudinal, normative—or its implications for other theoretical and practical matters. By closely following the adventures of this troublesome but central concept, Marxism & Totality offers an unconventional account of the history of Western Marxism.
University of California Press 1984 576 pages