252 results for "History"

The Adventures of the Communist Manifesto

Hal Draper
Few documents have had more of an impact on the course of history as has the Communist Manifesto. From its famous opening lines--"A specter is haunting Europe: the specter of Communism"--to its final rallying cry--"Workers of the world unite!"--the words of Marx and Engels have moved millions to join in the struggle against capitalism. But they have also inspired a legion of critics, detractors, and even a few despots to intentionally distort their meanings so as to sow confusion and justify untold horrors. According to Hal Draper, these mis-readings have, in part, been made possible by the enduring prevalence of translations from the original German that fail to accurately capture the intended meaning of certain key phrases. In this magisterial volume, Draper assembles the original German text, the first English translation, the officially authorized English translation--providing enlightening commentary throughout--as well as his own new translation of the pamphlet.
Haymarket Books 2019-12-03 366 pages

Israel In Palestine: Jewish Rejection of Zionism

Rabkin, Yakov M
In the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7 and the Israeli response, historian and current affairs commentator Yakov Rabkin brings together his writings that shed light on the violence in Palestine since the creation of the State of Israel. For decades, Yakov Rabkin has drawn attention to the danger Israel has posed to both Palestinians and Jews, both in Israel and in other countries. Far from protecting Jews, the State of Israel has contributed to creating and aggravating a situation that over time has become increasingly intractable. The author describes Palestine as it was on the eve of Zionist colonisation, recalling how Jews initially reacted to the Zionist movement and its goals. He highlights how Zionism, disdaining Jewish tradition, created a "new Hebrew man" steeped in a powerful mix of victimhood and exclusive nationalism and therefore oblivious to the fate of the Palestinians. He reminds us that Jewish identity is traditionally based on a spiritual commitment open to all races, the concept of Israel denoting not so much a geographical region but a community of believers. A return to the Land of Israel achieved by political and military means is antithetic to the Jewish tradition. In fact, Zionism has well-documented Protestant and Anglo-Saxon roots, which explains the massive support Israel enjoys among millions of Evangelical Christians around the world, and, on the other hand, why Jews have played such a prominent role in the pro-Palestinian protests sparked by violence against Gaza. At the same time, it shows how since 1967, there emerged a new national Judaism to provide religious legitimacy to the Zionist state. Avoiding polemics and sensationalism, this book allows the reader to reconsider the nature of the Israel/Palestine tragedy that has spilled over beyond Israel/Palestine. The book is rather short and targets the general reader. It requires no previous expertise in the subject, yet shows deeper and less known aspects of the conflict and, thus, opens perspectives on novel approaches to peace. This book has also been published in French, Japanese and Spanish language editions
Aspect Editions 2026-02-22 128 pages

A Fist in the Hornet's Nest: On the Ground in Baghdad Before, During & After the War

Richard Engel
When war broke out in Iraq, every major U.S. network pulled its correspondents from the scene. Despite the risk, Richard Engel stayed. As our tanks entered Baghdad in April 2003, he was there, bringing the Iraqi war into American homes as a stringer for ABC news. Determined to deliver the whole Middle East story, Engel moved to Cairo in 1996 after graduating from Stanford to learn 'street' Arabic. Then to dig even deeper into the complicated powder-keg of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he settled in Jerusalem. Now as Iraq enters its post-war phase and the Gulf region continues to dominate our nation's consciousness, more and more Americans will come to know and trust Richard Engel--especially in his current role as a correspondent for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Both analytical and anecdotal, this book leads us through the war in Iraq, dissecting a myriad of Middle East issues, all from the vantage point of someone who is 'on the ground and in the streets' to get the real story.
Hyperion 2004-02-25 272 pages

A Layman'S Guide To Naval Strategy

Bernard Brodie
This book distinguishes itself by the author's ability to dispel clichés and elucidate the factual underpinnings of the ongoing naval warfare. The author possesses a lucid and pragmatic understanding of contemporary sea power, recognizing it as a practical rather than a convoluted concept. Unlike many works, this book does not promise a quick route to victory and avoids the typical broad and disdainful criticisms of the British and American high commands. Instead, the author elucidates the intricate challenges these commands have encountered, articulating the complexities in non-specialized language. The text notably avoids excessive use of tactical jargon.
How Academics 2025-04-08 200 pages

The End of the Republican Era

Theodore J. Lowi
From the pages of Love & Rockets, an intimate epic from south of the border. For the first time ever, Fantagraphics is proud to present a single-volume collection of Gilbert Hernandez's "Heartbreak Soup" stories from Love & Rockets, which along with RAW magazine defined the modern literary comics movement of the post-underground generation. This massive volume collects every "Heartbreak Soup" story from 1993 to 2002 in one 500-page deluxe hardcover edition, presenting the epic for the first time as the single novel it was always intended to be. Palomar is the mythical Central American town where the "Heartbreak Soup" stories take place. The stories weave in and out of the town's entire population, crafting an intricate tapestry of Latin American experience. Hernandez's densely plotted and deeply imagined tales are often compared with magic realist authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende (House of the Spirits). His depictions of women and Mexican-American experience have been universally lauded as the best examples the artform has to offer. Luba, the guiding spirit of Palomar since the outset, has been hailed by The Nation, Rolling Stone, and Time magazine as one of the great characters of contemporary American fiction. Hernandez's work, in addition to the obvious magic realist comparisons, shares an affinity with other Latin American and Spanish writer/artists, like Frida Kahlo, Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Picasso, all of whom applied a surrealist eye to what they saw and experienced. Palomar follows the lives of its residents from Luba's arrival in the town to her exit, twenty years later. Included are such classic tales as "Sopa de Gran Pena," "Ecce Homo," "An American in Palomar," "Human Diastrophism," and "Farewell, Mi Palomar." Palomar presents one of the richest accomplishments in the history of the artform in its ideal format for the first time, making it a must-have for longtime Love & Rockets fans and new readers alike. 500 pages b/w illustrations
W. W. Norton Limited 2007-07-21 522 pages

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

#StayWoke Go Broke: Why South Africa Won't Survive America's Culture Wars (and what You Can Do about It)

Helen Zille
It's time to fight back. Each day, more South Africans are targeted, labelled, and hounded out of society for expressing their opinions - ordinary opinions that just a few years ago were accepted as rational common sense. Have you been "cancelled" by an online mob that won't stop harassing you until you're fired from your job? Helen Zille almost was - but she survived by fighting back. In #StayWoke: Go Broke , the bestselling author and defining South African political figure explains why the woke Left constitutes a greater threat to South Africa's future than the populist Right does. Now more than ever, liberals must strengthen their spines and fight for their values - or be eviscerated in the Culture Wars raging across the English-speaking world. If you're looking for an incisive, indispensable survival guide through this tumultuous period of South African history, then #StayWoke: Go Broke is for you. Buy it now.
Independently Published 2021-04-25 216 pages

The American Presidency (Routledge Revivals)

Laski, Harold J.
First Published in 1940, The American Presidency is the first full length study of the presidency in action in America to be written by an Englishman. It explains the working of the complicated system over which the President presides and particularly the vexed question of the dual control of foreign relations in the United States. Professor Laski offers a new theory of the place of the presidency in American life and, incidentally, throws light on the inner nature of the other great Anglo-Saxon democracy. His book is more than a formal description. It is essentially a novel interpretation of the greatest elective office in the democratic world. This is a must-read historical reference work for students of politics, American politics, and American history.
Routledge 2026-01-19 286 pages

Leading from the Center Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents

Gil Troy
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy-most would agree their presidencies were among the most successful in American history. But what made these very different men such effective leaders? According to presidential historian Gil Troy, these presidents succeeded not because of their bold political visions, but because of their moderation. Although many of the presidential hopefuls for 2008 will claim to be moderates, the word cannot conceal a political climate defined by extreme rhetoric and virulent partisanship. InLeading From the Center, Gil Troy argues that this is a distinctlyun-American state of affairs. The great presidents of American history have always sought a golden mean-from Washington, who brilliantly mediated between the competing visions of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, to Lincoln, who rescued the Union with his principled pragmatism, to the two Roosevelts, who united millions of Americans with their powerful, affirmative, nationalist visions. As America lines up to select a president for the future, Gil Troy astutely reminds us of the finest traditions of presidential leadership from our nation’s past.
ReadHowYouWant.com 2009-11-04 316 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

The Left against Zion: Communism, Israel, and the Middle East

Wistrich, Robert S.
Communist opposition to Zionism has a long history which pre-dates both the Russian Revolution and the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Yet the Communist and Marxist critique of Zionism has always had a curious inconsistency, since it is not applied to all nationalist solutions of social problems. Thus Soviet and Chinese Communists regard their Marxist-Leninist ideology as perfectly compatible with Russian or Chinese nationalism, and the same is true of the 'people's democracies' in Eastern Europe or Asia where nationalism has been a predominant force. Similarly, Arab and Palestinian nationalism have been considered 'progressive' despite their very thin socialist content. Only in the case of Zionism, which historically has been a reaction to the failure of European and Islamic societies to resolve the Jewish question on democratic lines, has a major national movement been judged a priori 'reactionary', illegitimate and ultimately condemned to extinction. Anti-Zionism has become the great bazaar in which Soviet and Chinese Communists, Arab and Third World Marxists, Trotskyists, anarchists and Castroists together with feudal sheikhs, conservative Islamic rulers, and oil companies in the West (plus fascist fringe-groups) can find common ground in their antagonism to the Jewish State. Contemporary anti-Zionism is not merely the anti-Semitism of the left - Israel has even become the alibi for reviving the hoary Nazi myth of 'World Jewry' seeking to control and manipulate the fate of humanity. The essays in this book will give the reader a better understanding of the causes and possible consequences of this sinister trend. Mostly written between the Six-Day War of 1967 and the October War of 1973, they remain timely and important for the light they shed on a development whose implications are only now becoming fully apparent. They analyse the complex and changing factors which have influenced the position of the Communist parties and New Left movements towards the Middle East conflict, the significance of the 'anti-Zionist' campaigns in Russia and Eastern Europe, the dissentions and contradictions in western Communist parties, the relations of Soviet, Chinese and East German Communists to the Arab world, and the attitude of the post-Auschwitz New Left to Israel and the Jewish problem. All these disparate elements must be taken into account if one is to understand Communist and Marxist standpoints towards Israel and the Middle East conflict. Subject categories: Anti-Zionism; Communism; Israel; Politics
Vallentine, Mitchell 1979-01-01 309 pages

See how they ran: the changing role of the presidential candidate

Troy, Gil
Many Americans feel that presidentials have become inordinately expensive, shallow, and vulgar. The seemingly endless contest even appears to discourage the most suitable candidates from seeking the highest office in the land. Frustrated, we long for the good old days of dignified campaigns and worthy candidates. As Troy's fascinating history demonstrates, however, they never existed. This definitive volume examines every presidential campaign from 1840 to the present to explore why candidates campaign as they do, and why Americans complain about it. Troy reveals what our presidential campaigns tell us about American democracy itself.
Harvard University Press 1996-03-01 372 pages

Marxism Unmasked From Delusion to Destruction

Ludwig Von Mises
We can't sit under Mises at his famous Vienna private seminar. We can't go back in time and attend his New York seminar, or follow him to his speaking engagements that he held in the 50s and 60s.But thanks to this second volume in a thrilling series (here is volume one), we do have access to what he said. He is warm, funny, passionate, and learned. This book provides a candid look at the man and his teaching style. It demonstrates his dazzling command over the material, and teaches in a breezier way than his treatises.This volume contains nine lectures delivered over one week, from June 23, to July 3, 1952, at the San Francisco Public Library. Mises was at his prime as a teacher and lecturer. He shares a lifetime of learning on topics that were (and remain) central to American public life.As the title indicates, his main focus is on Marxism. He discusses Marx and his place in the history of ideas, the destruction wrought by his dangerous ideology, the manner in which his followers have covered up his errors, and how the Marxists themselves have worked for so long to save Marxism from itself. He discusses Marxist claims about history and refutes the smear of the industrial revolution.The approach is systematic but casual. So the reader encounters wonderful insights in the form of short asides. For example: "The worst thing that can happen to a socialist is to have his country ruled by socialists who are not his friends."As a lecturer, he is steady and relentless. The reader can nearly "hear" him speaking through the prose. And there are times when Mises reveals a level of rhetorical passion that you would never encounter in print. That's because what is printed here are not pre-prepared lectures in the sense that they were written out. They were transcribed by Bettina Bien Greaves from what he actually said.Thus can we hear this passage:It is not true, as Marx said, that the improvements in technology are available only to the exploiters and that the masses are living in a state much worse than on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Everything the Marxists say about exploitation is absolutely wrong! Lies! In fact, capitalism made it possible for many persons to survive who wouldn't have otherwise.Some readers of Mises's larger works have said that while his rigor is dazzling, the man himself can seem remote. Whether or not you agree with this observation, Mises comes across in these lectures as brilliant but very warm and charming in an old world sense.This approach is particularly fruitful in the last four of the lectures, which cover topics such as savings, interest, inflation, profit and loss, and the place of foreign investment. The lecture on interest rates, for example, must surely rank as one of the best explanations of this complicated topic. He recounts the history of the attempt to suppress interest rates, from the ancient world to the modern period. He explains why this cannot work because interest is merely the objective sign of a phenomenon that is integral to human action. As he moves on to money, Mises reveals himself to be tougher on the issue of fiduciary media than he was when he wrote his 1912 book The Theory of Money and Credit.In response to a question Mises says: "In the future no additional banknotes should be issued, no additional credit should be entered on a bank subject to check, unless there is 100 percent coverage in money."Also not to be missed is Mises's wry defense of "money cranks": at least they were only more consistent than the advocates of Keynesian and monetarism.Mises was clearly pressed for time, so he had to be at once thorough and move quickly through the material. It's still not "light reading" by the normal standards, but for people who want to see a great mind at work, this has a wonderful element of spontaneity about it that attracts and teaches at the same time.
Ludwig von Mises Institute 2019 110 pages

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