Autocracy, totalitarianism and dictatorship Books

Book Synopsis‘The most important book of 2022.’ Dr. Robert Malone Desmet’s work on mass formation theory was brought to the world’s attention on The Joe Rogan Experience and in major alternative news outlets around the globe. Read this book to get beyond the sound bites! In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, world-renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology Mattias Desmet deconstructs the societal conditions that allow collective hypnosis to take hold. By analysing the global pandemic, he identifies the phenomenon of ‘mass formation’ and illustrates how humanity is being forcibly, unconsciously led into a reality of technocratic totalitarianism, which aggressively excludes alternative views and relies on destructive groupthink, vilifying non-conformist thought as ‘dissident.’ Building on Hannah Arendt’s essential work on totalitarianism, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Desmet offers a sharp critique of the cultural ‘groupthink’ that existed pre-pandemic but has steadily and inexorably advanced during the Covid crisis. He cautions against the dangers of our current societal landscape, media consumption, and reliance on manipulative technologies, offering simple solutions – both individual and collective – to prevent the willing sacrifice of our ability to think critically. The Psychology of Totalitarianism serves as an indispensable and fundamental guide to understanding this key moment in history. ‘Mattias Desmet's [theory of mass formation hypnosis] is great. . . . Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere.’ Eric ClaptonTrade Review"As I walk through the halls of a major US medical center, I see eyes that divert themselves away from me as I pass. When we engage in our usual discussions on patients, the topic of COVID-19 vaccination brings a halting response: ‘We don’t want to talk about it.’ I see fear, shame, and a never-ending cycle of groupthink that has been more contagious among physicians than aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 in a crowded elevator. Mattias Desmet, like a guided missile, has hit the target. The medical community is in mass formation and this led to a much larger penumbra that has enveloped the general population. In this book, Desmet has constructed an explanatory framework from which the cohesive fabric is suspended that clearly and concisely explains what is happening and what the next steps are that each and every one of us need to take to break the ‘spell’ and restore normalcy. A must read for our time.” —Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH; chief medical advisor, Truth for Health Foundation"Transcending medical controversies, this book offers an indispensable window into the social phenomenon we call COVID." —Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics and The Coronation"Mattias Desmet is the world’s expert on the phenomenon of mass formation—and one of the most sincere, thoughtful, and important intellectuals of the twenty-first century. If you want to understand why and how the coronavirus pandemic response unfolded the way it did at a societal level and—even more importantly—how to prevent such a travesty from happening again, The Psychology of Totalitarianism is essential reading. Desmet shows us how to reclaim our humanity in an increasingly dehumanized and mechanized world." —Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, trial attorney; cofounder, Berlin’s Corona Investigative Committee"In this masterful book, Desmet asks how we have arrived at the doorstep of totalitarianism. Taking the reader on a wild, scholarly ride through history, science, and psychology, he delivers answers both necessary and unexpected." —Heather Heying, PhD, evolutionary biologist; coauthor of A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century"Desmet is waking a lot of people up to the dangerous place we are now with a brilliant distillation of how we ended up here." —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr."Mattias Desmet’s theory of mass formation is the most important lens through which we can understand the COVID-19 pandemic and the social aberrations that accompanied it. In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, Desmet explains how and why people will willingly give up their freedom, how the masses can give rise to a totalitarian leader, and—most importantly—how we can resist these phenomena and maintain our common humanity. This is the most important book of 2022." —Dr. Robert Malone, author of Lies My Gov’t Told Me"Mattias Desmet’s [theory of mass formation hypnosis] is great. . . . Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere." —Eric Clapton"The foundational thinkers on mass formation are joined by Mattias Desmet, who now stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Arendt, Jung and Freud. His understanding and analysis of contemporary group behavior in a destabilized society, presents a fascinating window into the minds of the most complex beings on the planet. Desmet’s seminal work underlines the increasingly dangerous behavior of humanity—and that it must be understood and reversed if we are to survive as a species." —David Marks, writer and documentary producer"One of the most important books I’ve ever read." —Ivor Cummins, The Fat Emperor Podcast

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Book SynopsisThe second installment in ''The People''s Trilogy'', the groundbreaking series from Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author Frank DikötterFor anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading' Anne ApplebaumEssential reading for all who want to understand the darkness that lies at the heart of one of the world''s most important revolutions' GuardianDikötter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order' Timothy SnyderIn 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing's Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order and replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life.In an epic of revolution and violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews and memoirs, Frank Dikötter interweavesTrade ReviewA brilliant and powerful account of the formation of that society ... Nobody who reads about the cost of the establishment of the PRC in Dikotter’s humane and lucid prose will find much sympathy for the authoritarian case. This excellent book is horrific but essential reading for all who want to understand the darkness that lies at the heart of one of the world’s most important revolutions * Guardian *Frank Dikötter, now well into his stride as a meticulous chronicler of China’s greatest miseries ... The Tragedy of Liberation is a tightly-written narrative of the twelve most pivotal years in modern Chinese history ... The book is also a dispassionate study of the way nations can pervert optimism and descend into lunacy by steady increments ... The Tragedy of Liberation is more unsettling. For what it tells us about the foundations of the modern Communist Party, and the backstory to so many decisions and statements made in Beijing today, it is essential reading * The Times *Frank Dikötter’s powerful new book is a bold and startling attempt to rectify this apparent neglect. In a cool, dispassionate narrative, Dikötter recounts the orgy of violence which the communists set loose ... The Tragedy of Liberation demonstrates why he has established himself as a leading historian of modern China. He is a rare scholar, adept in both Russian and Chinese ... Dikötter has a writer’s gift in the use of English ... Dikötter must be admired for the manner in which he puts a human scale on the enormous barbarities of the communist takeover of China. We cannot begin to understand modern China without being aware of the blood-drenched tale Dikötter so ably relates * Kwasi Kwarteng, Evening Standard *A mesmerizing account of the communist revolution in China, and the subsequent transformation of hundreds of millions of lives through violence, coercion and broken promises. The Chinese themselves suppress this history, but for anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading * Anne Applebaum *This follow up to Dikötter’s award-winning Mao’s Great Famine examines the early bloodstained years of Communist China * The Times, Critics’ Choices *One-party states take control of the past as they take control of societies. Usually they must end for serious historical discussion to begin. A great intellectual challenge of our century is to historicize the People’s Republic even as it continues to exist. Dikötter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order * Tim Snyder *A history of early Maoist China puts paid to any notion of a “golden age” ... In The Tragedy of Liberation ... Frank Dikotter convincingly demolishes this rosy assessment of the early People’s Republic ... The book is a remarkable work of archival research. Dikotter rarely, if ever, allows the story of central government to dominate by merely reporting a top-down directive. Instead, he tracks down the grassroots impact of Communist policies – on farmers, factory workers, industrialists, students, monks – by mining archives and libraries for reports, surveys, speeches and memoirs. In so doing, he uncovers astonishing stories of party-led inhumanity and also popular resistance ... Dikotter sustains a strong human dimension to the story by skilfully weaving individual voices through the length of the book * Financial Times *This groundbreaking book examines the bloodstained reality behind the word and reveals how it brought tragedy to millions. Frank Dikotter is already the author of a revelatory book about China’s great famine of 1958-62, and in this prequel – unsparing in its detail, relentless in its research, unforgiving in its judgments – he deals in the same way with the Chinese revolution from 1945 to 1957 ... This exhaustive trawl through Chinese archives charts the full cost of those early years of change ... Dikotter’s achievement in this book is remarkable. He has mastered a mass of original source material, and has done so by mining local archives in China, which have yielded up a host of treasures. (Significantly, scholars are now reporting the steady closure of official records, as local bureaucrats revert to old habits of secrecy and isolation. This may be the last work of its kind for a while.) ... Staggering amount of detail ... For many years, histories of China have treated the 1950s as if the decade was an interlude of reason. That belief does not survive contact with this book ... It is clear to this reviewer, at least, that mainstream academic scholarship must also be revised in the light of Dikotter’s work. In particular, volume 14 of the Cambridge History of China, which covers the period of this book, will have to be rewritten * Sunday Times *Path-breaking ... Some of what Dikotter describes has been known in general terms, but what he has done here – as when he was writing about the later famine – is take advantage of the opening of archives in which firsthand official reports and accounts of death in all its forms, together with the myriad other forms of Maoist horror, can now be read unedited. It will be increasingly difficult for Western China specialists to write with authority based only on previous Western publications or on Chinese public statements. We remain in Frank Dikotter’s debt * Literary Review *With a mixture of passion and ruthlessness, he marshals the facts, many of them recently unearthed in party archives. Out of these, Mr Dikotter constructs a devastating case for how extreme violence, not a moral mandate, was at the heart of how the party got to power, and of how it then governed ... He was ready to lead the country into the giant experiment of the Great Leap Forward. Mr Dikotter has already written about that in “Mao’s Great Famine”, which this book only betters. The final volume of his planned trilogy will be on the Cultural Revolution, bringing the curtain down on a truly disastrous period * Economist *Frank Dikotter’s powerful new book is a bold and startling attempt to rectify this apparent neglect. In a cool, dispassionate narrative, Dikotter recounts the orgy of violence which the communists set loose ... The Tragedy of Liberation demonstrates why he has established himself as a leading historian of modern China. He is a rare scholar, adept in both Russian and Chinese ... Combined with this linguistic skill, Dikotter has a writer’s gift in the use of English. The narrative of The Tragedy of Liberation is always clear and simple ... Dikotter ... Must be admired for the manner in which he puts a human scale on the enormous barbarities of the communist takeover of China. We cannot begin to understand modern China without being aware of the blood-drenched tale Dikotter so ably relates * Scotsman *Unsparing reappraisal of China’s communist revolution * Sunday Times Must Reads *Frank Dikotter, Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong, is establishing himself as the chronicler of what happened to the most populous nation on Earth during Mao’s 27-year reign ... Dikotter’s great achievement is to have melded together the big picture of Mao with the smaller one of what was happening to millions of victims of his policies. In doing so he’s produced a book that’s as authoritative as it is gripping * Mail on Sunday *Much of what Dikötter describes has been known in outline; but Chinese history will have to be revised in light of his detailed revelations * The Week *The historian of China Frank Dikötter has taken a sledgehammer to demolish perhaps the last remaining shibboleth of modern Chinese history ... What emerges from the archives with new clarity is just how ruinous Mao’s policies were * Spectator *A meticulous reappraisal of the formative years of Maoist rule ... This is the first study to make sense in detail of events central to the Mao era, of which only the broad outlines have been known before now. It deserves to become fundamental to a better understanding of the forces that have shaped China today * Sunday Telegraph *Startling ... Dikötter’s work has aimed to demolish almost every claim to truth or virtue the Chinese Communist party ever made. He combines a vivid eye for detail with a historian’s diligence in the archives. Powerful ... Dikötter is unsparing in his account of the effects of the communist rule * Observer *A compelling and devastating account of the Communist involvement in the Civil War and of the first eight years of Communist rule ... This is a gripping and fluidly written account of the first decade of the People’s Republic of China; one that contributes to bringing Chinese history into popular discussions of 20th century international revolutions, utopianism, violence and terror * The Times Higher Education Supplement *Brilliant * The Times *Catalogues in devastating detail the suffering endured from 1949 to 1957, during the installation of the world’s most murderous totalitarian regime … [his portrait of Mao is] both harsher and more convincing than ever * Oldie *By the end of Dikötter’s shocking book, you are in no doubt about the dreadful murderousness of the communist leadership, whose land reforms and modernisation plans exacted a terrible toll on China’s rural population. In this nightmarish world, not even leper colonies were safe * Sunday Times History Books of the Year *The great merit of Dikötter’s book is that it goes beyond the horrific statistics ... He clearly explains the mechanics of the revolutionary state, how mass violence was orchestrated, why people took part in the killing, and what the purposes of the terror were * New York Review of Books *Few other works on the Mao period contain such a quantity and range of archival materials ... Bringing such brutality to light is a valuable contribution * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**‘A sort of survival book, a sort of symptom-diagnosis manual in terms of losing your democracy and what tyranny and authoritarianism look like up close’ Rachel Maddow 'These 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten' Observer History does not repeat, but it does instruct. In the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth. European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances. History can familiarise, and it can warn. Today, we are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to totalitarianism in the twentieth century. But when the political order seems imperilled, our advantage is that we can learn from their experience to resist the advance of tyranny. Now is a good time to do so.Trade ReviewThe most coherent manifesto on confronting Trump… powerful. -- Sarah Ditum * New Statesman *Snyder’s beautifully weighted book is the perfect clear-eyed antidote to [Trump's] deliberate philistinism … Always measured in their observation, these 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten … You will read no more relevant field guide to that wisdom than this book. -- Tim Adams * Observer *On Tyranny is a slim book that fits alongside your pocket constitution and feels only slightly less vital... Clarifying and unnerving… a memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now. -- Carlos Lozada * Washington Post *Following paths trodden by Hannah Arendt, Czeslaw Milosz and Václav Havel, Snyder has written a manifesto for surviving the political rampages of our time with our rights and freedoms intact… Snyder’s book is addressed to the American reader, but its message is broader. Read in Budapest or Warsaw, it will have an especial resonance … Slim and accessible, On Tyranny is a book to read quickly, ponder slowly and pass on -- Annabelle Chapman * Prospect *Urgent, indignant, winningly ragged in execution, On Tyranny is in the best tradition of polemical pamphlets. Timely agitprop, it offers some relief from Trump anxiety disorder. -- Lewis Jones * Daily Telegraph *A chilling description of how authoritarian mindsets work -- Hillary ClintonSteeped in the history of interwar Germany, Snyder writes with bracing immediacy about how to prevent, or at least forestall, the repression of lives and minds. * Washington Post *We are rapidly ripening for fascism. This American writer leaves us with no illusions about ourselves -- Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for LiteratureOn Tyranny will help you keep going for the next four years, or however long it takes. -- Masha GessenHe is undoubtedly a scholar of great distinction and authority… If more people follow Snyder’s injunctions to read newspapers, avoid falling for contrived online “scandals”, make friends across national boundaries and remember professional ethics then the world will indeed be a better place. -- Michael Gove * The Times *In an erudite yet accessibly manner, with brevity and precision, Snyder draws on his prodigious knowledge of 20th century despotism to present 20 sobering lessons for dealing with the Trump phenomenon -- Muhammad Idrees Ahmad * National *On Tyranny is [a] response to the rise of Donald Trump, although it is not, strictly speaking, about Trump, who is never mentioned by name. It is, rather, a primer in how to think historically -- Ken Early * The Irish Times *A slim volume more like a guide than a tome of historical scholarship, though Snyder drew on 25 years of research and writing -- Stav Ziv * Newsweek Europe *

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Book SynopsisWritten in Paris in the early 1950s, this book created instant controversy in its analysis of modern society that had allowed itself to be hypnotized by socio-political doctrines, and to accept totalitarian terror on the strength of a hypothetical future.Table of ContentsThe pill of the Murti-Bing; looking to the West; Ketman; Alpha, the moralist; Beta, the disappointed lover; Gamma, the slave of history; Delta, the troubadour; man, his enemy; the lessons of the Baltics.

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Book SynopsisFifty years after his death, Portugal's Salazar remains a controversial and enigmatic figure, whose conservative and authoritarian legacy still divides opinion. Some see him as a reactionary and oppressive figure who kept Portugal backward, while others praise his honesty, patriotism and dedication to duty. Contemporary radicals are wary of his unabashed elitism and scepticism about social progress, but many conservatives give credit to his persistent warnings about the threats to Western civilisation from runaway materialism and endless experimentation. For a dictator, Salazar's end was anti-climactic—a domestic accident. But during his nearly four decades in power, he survived less through reliance on force and more through guile and charm. This probing biography charts the highs and lows of Salazar's rule, from rescuing Portugal's finances and keeping his strategically-placed nation out of World War II to maintaining a police state while resisting the winds of change in Africa. It explores Salazar's long-running suspicion of and conflict with the United States, and how he kept Hitler and Mussolini at arm's length while persuading his fellow dictator Franco not to enter the war on their side. Iberia expert Tom Gallagher brings to life a complex leader who deserves to be far better known.Trade Review‘Tom Gallagher’s immensely detailed portrait of a fascinating man is itself fascinating. The author is a distant presence, coolly objective and disinclined to judge his huge cast of politicians, soldiers, diplomats and bishops. He allows readers space to come to their own conclusions.’ -- The Telegraph‘The humane and open-minded story of a man whose legacy has been erased but who could well be regarded as the most consequential minor statesman of the 20th century.’ -- Wall Street Journal'A highly astute analysis of a kind of authoritarianism and a mode of political leadership much more relevant to the present Western experience than that of the Third Reich, the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy or Franco's Spanish State... this book is an important comment on the rise of "authoritarian liberalism."' -- The Critic'Sketches a clear-eyed account of liberalism’s alternatives.' -- The American Conservative'A vivid, balanced and enormously enjoyable biography of Antonio Salazar, head of Europe's longest-lived right-authoritarian regime. The best introduction to Portuguese affairs in the middle decades of the twentieth century.' -- Stanley Payne, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of 'A History of Spain and Portugal''Salazar remains a mystery, even to the Portuguese, but this book goes a long way towards deciphering him. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, this is both a biography and an intellectual portrait. Salazar was a normal man, but a very unusual dictator, whose thought and action continue to pose a challenge to democratic politics in Europe and elsewhere. A much needed and long-awaited book.' -- Bruno Macaes, former Europe Minister of Portugal and author of 'The Dawn of Eurasia''A long-overdue outsider's approach to the controversial Salazar and his regime. Building on a wide array of sources and interpretations, this insightful portrait of Salazar's political persona offers a remarkable analysis of his foreign policy and geopolitical views. A great read!' -- Livia Franco, Professor of Political Studies, Catholic University of Portugal, and Associate Researcher, European Council on Foreign Relations'An insightful account of one of Europe's lesser-known but truly intriguing twentieth-century statesmen. Gallagher's comprehensive biography helps explain how, over four decades, Salazar kept an iron grip on an unruly country, and outfoxed bigger international powers arrayed against him.' -- Barry Hatton, author of 'Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon' and 'The Portuguese: A Modern History'

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Book Synopsis'I beseech you to read this account' - Christopher HitchensA magnificent, harrowing testimony to the voiceless victims of North Korea.Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of a North Korean concentration camp to escape the 'hermit kingdom' and tell his story to the world. This memoir reveals the human suffering in his camp, with its forced labour, frequent public executions and near-starvation rations. Kang eventually escaped to South Korea via China to give testimony to the hardships and atrocities that constitute the lives of the thousands of people still detained in the gulags today. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this story of one young man's personal suffering finally gives eye-witness proof to this neglected chapter of modern history.Trade ReviewOne of the most terrifying memoirs I have ever read. As the first such account to emerge from North Korea, it is destined to become a classic. * Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking *I beseech you to read this account -- Christopher Hitchens

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Book SynopsisThe extraordinary true story of a West African girlâs upbringing in North Korea.Trade Review'A fascinating glimpse into life in North Korea’ New Statesman‘Monica's is an evocative memoir of a remarkable childhood followed by a decades-long search around the globe for her identity and the truth about her father. But beyond that, it is a stunning treatise on politics, power and culture' Florence Olajide, bestselling author of Coconut'A fascinating account of a woman’s quest for autonomy, and her bravery and determination to find the truth. It’s an investigative story to understand her true father, a powerful but controversial figure, the real man behind his many personas. A woman who was raised between countries, in search of her true home' Lily Dunn, author of Sins of My Father‘A testament to the power of survival, and the strength it takes to interrogate the world you're born into, Black Girl from Pyongyang is a beautiful and startling coming of age story’ Ali Millar, author of The Last Days‘Monica Macias challenges readers in her remarkable memoir to interrogate the modalities of truth in our modern world, to closely examine and dismantle what we think we know and what the powers that be would have us believe. Hers is a weighty inheritance, one that she explores with grace, compassion, and enormous courage’ Ly Tran, author of House of Sticks‘With intimate knowledge through some of the world’s least-known places, Monica Macias leads us on an extraordinary journey. Her perspective as an African, Asian and European woman is absolutely singular as she searches for home, for her history and for her own identity. Her story is told with clear-eyed honesty and self-reflection, as she seeks to better understand herself, the circumstances of her birth and upbringing, and the world she travels around so bravely. You have never read a book like Black Girl From Pyongyang, and you won’t soon forget it’ Marcia de Sanctis, author of A Hard Place to Leave'Black Girl from Pyongyang tells a heart-warming story of conflicting emotions. A delight to read' Dr J. E. Hoare, Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS

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Book SynopsisVáclav Havel’s remarkable and rousing essay on the tyranny of apathy, with a new introduction by Timothy Snyder Cowed by life under Communist Party rule, a greengrocer hangs a placard in their shop window: Workers of the world, unite! Is it a sign of the grocer’s unerring ideology? Or a symbol of the lies we perform to protect ourselves? Written in 1978, Václav Havel’s meditation on political dissent – the rituals of its suppression, and the sparks that re-ignite it – would prove the guiding manifesto for uniting Solidarity movements across the Soviet Union. A portrait of activism in the face of falsehood and intimidation, The Power of the Powerless remains a rousing call against the allure of apathy.'Havel’s diagnosis of political pathologies has a special resonance in the age of Trump' Pankaj MishraTrade ReviewHavel’s diagnosis of political pathologies has a special resonance in the age of Trump -- Pankaj MishraFew voices did more to undermine the foundations of the Berlin Wall and the entire edifice of Soviet-imposed totalitarianism than this shy bourgeois, this sly, reticent, playwright and essayist -- David Remnick * New Yorker *In gentle, ironic but scathing prose, Havel's The Power of the Powerless exposed the lies and cowardice that made possible the communist grip on power * The Economist *In his now iconic 1978 essay, which circulated in underground editions in Czechoslovakia and was smuggled to other Warsaw Pact countries and to the West, Havel foresaw that the opposition could eventually prevail against the totalitarian state * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of a 2008 Lannan Notable Book Award, Lannan Foundation "[A] comprehensive diagnosis of our failings as a democratic polity by one of our most seasoned and respected political philosophers... Democracy Incorporated is a devastating critique of the contemporary government of the United States--including what has happened to it in recent years and what must be done if it is not to disappear into history along with its classic totalitarian predecessors."--Chalmers Johnson, Truthdig "[Democracy Incorporated provides] a rare, chilling analysis of intellectual critics of democracy. If democracy means more than occasional elections and protection of those rights that are compatible with economic and political elites' interests, Wolin's analysis of our democratic predicament is shocking, solid, and fundamentally correct."--C. P. Waligorski, Choice "Sheldon Wolin has produced an ambitious and broad-ranging book that examines the current state of democracy in America... Wolin argues that the unquestioned faith in the virtues of free market capitalism has dramatically narrowed the range of policy options that are on the table when debate turns to resolving the US's ills...[T]his is a trenchant and powerful volume."--Alex Waddan, International Affairs "Of the many books I've read or skimmed in the past seven years that attempted to get inside the social and political debacles of the present, none has had the chilling clarity and historical discernment of Sheldon S. Wolin's Democracy Incorporated. Building on his fifty years as a political theorist and proponent of radical democracy, Wolin here extends his concern with the extinguishing of the political and its replacement by fraudulent simulations of democratic process."--Jonathan Crary, Artforum "[W]e need to understand the deep roots of our present troubles ourselves and Wolin's book is an excellent beginning."--Toby Grace, Out in Jersey "Democracy Incorporated acts as an antidote to unconstrained corporate power and an elitist obsession and should be widely read by all those who cherish democracy and civil liberty."--Shih-Yu Chou, Political Studies Review "[Wolin] provides a rich narrative of the struggle of elites and the demos from ancient Greece through the writing of the U.S. Constitution and into the present, and the corporate-managed politics that has emerged will survive no matter which party holds Congress or the presidency."--Coleman Fannin, Journal of Church and State "Despite being written shortly before both the financial crisis and the Obama victory, the main lineaments of his analysis are still alarmingly cogent."--Tom Angier, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

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Book Synopsis'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday TelegraphWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NATALIA SOLZHENITSYNA vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation.'Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece...The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today' Anne ApplebaumTHE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of international bestseller On Tyranny, this prescient analysis of Russia's ongoing interference in the West is now more relevant than ever. 'One of the best...brisk, conceptually convincing account of democracy's retreat in the early years of 21st century' Guardian The past is another country, the old saying goes. The same might be said of the future. But which country? For Europeans and Americans today, the answer is Russia. In this visionary work of contemporary history, Timothy Snyder shows how Russia works within the West to destroy the West; by supporting the far right in Europe, invading Ukraine in 2014, and waging a cyberwar during the 2016 presidential campaign and the EU referendum. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the creation of Donald Trump, an American failure deployed as a Russian weapon. But this threat presents an opportunity to better understand the pillars of our freedoms and face the choices that will determine the future: equality or oligarchy, individualism or totalitarianism, truth or lies. 'A brilliant and disturbing analysis, which should be read by anyone wishing to understand the political crisis currently engulfing the world' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of SapiensTrade ReviewA brilliant and disturbing analysis, which should be read by anyone wishing to understand the political crisis currently engulfing the world -- YUVAL NOAH HARARI, author of SAPIENS and HOMO DEUSThis story of how Russia dismantled democracy, and the man who set its template for fake news, is chilling and persuasive ... unignorable... a disturbing and persuasive insight... Snyder's forensic examination of, for example the news cycle that followed the shooting down of flight MH17 makes essential reading ... Meticulously researched and footnoted. -- Tim Adams * Observer *One of the best…brisk, conceptually convincing account of democracy’s retreat in the early years of 21st century -- Luke Harding * Guardian *Snyder’s central thesis is a strong one… Vividly and insightfully told. -- Edward Lucas * The Times *A rollercoaster world calls for a news editor’s skills in processing facts and a philosopher’s ability to dissect ideologies. He has both. * The Economist *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY WINNER OF THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHYWINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'' TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2016 The Return is at once a universal and an intensely personal tale. It is an exquisite meditation on how history and politics can bear down on an individual life. And yet Hisham Matar''s memoir isn''t just about the burden of the past, but the consolation of love, literature and art. It is the story of what it is to be human.Hisham Matar was nineteen when his father was kidnapped and taken to prison in Libya. He would never see him again. Twenty-two years later, the fall of Gaddafi meant he was finally able to return to his homeland. In this moving memoir, the author takes us on an illuminating journey, both physical and psychological; a journey to find his father and rediscover his country.''A beautifully-written memoir that skillfully balances a graceful guide through Libya''s recent history with the author''s dogged quest to find his father'' Barack ObamaHisham Matar''s new novel My Friends is available now!Trade ReviewWhat a brilliant book. The Return reads as easily as a thriller, but is a story that will stick; a person is lost but gravity and resonance remain -- Hilary MantelIt is likely to become a classic. -- Colm TóibínA total work of art. It reminded me of Solzhenitsyn. It is of the same importance. I love it. -- James RebanksWise and agonizing and thrilling to read -- Zadie SmithBristles with arresting wisdom -- Jeremy PaxmanA treasure for the ages -- Peter CareyTremendously powerful -- Nadeem AslamA magnificent memoir of exile and loss -- Rawi HageOne of the essential books of our times -- Adam FouldsA profound and powerful meditation on love, loss and exile * Sunday Express *A truly remarkable book * Daily Telegraph *Stands comparison with the best literature of exile * Prospect *[An] extraordinary memoir -- Financial TimesMarvellously well-handled memoir * Evening Standard *A tale of mighty love, loyalty and courage * Spectator *A masterful memoir, a searing meditation on loss, exile, grief, guilt, belonging and, above all, family. * Book of the Week, Sunday Times *Beautifully written * Economist *Exquisite * Observer *An astonishing political thriller * Mail on Sunday *[A] profound work of witnessing and grief... leaves a deep emotional imprint * Newsday *A moving, unflinching memoir of a family torn apart by the savage realities of today's middle east -- Kazuo IshiguroI have always admired Matar's tender and compassionate but equally strong and compelling voice -- Elif ShafakMr. Matar is not a wonderful writer because his father disappeared or because his homeland is a mess: he is a brilliant narrative architect and prose stylist, his pared-down approach and measured pace a striking complement to the emotional tumult of his material . . . This book is an extraordinary gift for us all * Wall Street Journal *Breathtaking memoir... an elegy by a son who, through his eloquence, defies the men who wanted to erase his father and gifts him with a kind of immortality * Washington Post 10 Best Books of 2016 *The Return moved me to tears and taught me about love and home -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie * Guardian Books of the Year *A desolating and powerful account of his son's search for his father, in life and death -- Hilary Mantel * New Statesman Books of the Year *Is it a sign, or a consequence, of this dreadful year that the best books displayed stern lucidity in the face of darkness and death? Hisham Matar's search for his "disappeared" father in The Return (note how badly British politicians come out of it) -- Julian Barnes * Guardian Books of the Year *A masterpiece . . . Its concision and reserve only heighten the power of a gripping and agonising story -- Alan Hollinghurst * Guardian Books of the Year *The Return is the self portrait of a haunting, a kind of political ghost story - made more unbearable by the beauty of its prose * Daily Telegraph Books of the Year *The intelligence and grace of Matar's writing is fuelled by a fierce and valid rage -- Rupert Thomson * Observer Books of the Year *For Matar, hope depends on individuals and families standing by cherished values -- Jonathan Benthall * Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year *A haunting and terrifying story, told with courage, anger, dignity and unswerving determination -- Blake Morrison * Guardian Books of the Year *Among the best of the year's writing... This book is his masterful ink-stained resistance * The Sunday Times *A beautifully-written memoir that skillfully balances a graceful guide through Libya's recent history with the author's dogged quest to find his father' -- Barack Obama

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Book SynopsisOffers a unique perspective on far right neo-Nazism viewing it as a new form of Western religious heresyTrade ReviewExcellent book provides a lucid and often chilling guide. * Journal of European Studies *Presents a troubling picture of the mindset of the modern Far Right. * Library Journal *[An] important work. * Philadelphia Inquirer *Anyone who remembers the devastation wrought by Nazi fanaticism can only be astonished and dismayed by this book. Who could have foreseen that half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich the Jews would once again be perceived as a demonic power intent on destroying the & Aryan race, or that Hitler would be imagined as a divine being who is about to return to earth to complete the Holocaust? For the matter, who could have foreseen that the preposterous & pagan cult developed by Heinrich Himmler would ever be revived? Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke shows not only that these things have indeed happened but how and why they have happened. He also suggests what dangers they may portend. Black Sun is both an enthralling and a deeply disturbing work. It deserves the most serious attention and a wide readership. -- Norman Cohn,author of The Pursuit of the Millennium and Warrant for GenocideNicholas Goodrick-Clarke has done pioneering work in the field of the occult roots of Nazism. In the present volume he performs the same invaluable service with regard to the ideological fantasies of post war neofascism. -- Walter Laqueur

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Book Synopsis''Mind-blowing ... one extraordinary read'' EMILY MAITLIS''The greatest political figure of his generation'' OBSERVER''Part memoir, part diary, a political manifesto, a darkly funny adieu'' BEN MACINTYRE''Patriot will be seen as a historic text'' ECONOMISTPatriot is the exhilarating life story of one of the most fearless and inspiring figures of our time, who became a beacon to millions and the sole political threat to Vladimir Putin.This is Alexei Navalny's life in his own words: his Soviet childhood, political awakening, his marriage and beloved family, his total commitment to taking on a corrupt regime and his enduring love of Russia and its people. His 2020 poisoning by the Russian security services was a global news event. In 2024 he died in a brutal Siberian prison. He began writing Patriot whilst recovering from his poisoning; it ends with his prison diaries, seen here for the first time.We witness the growth of his nationwide support. We see his many arrests and harassment and, in stunning detail, the attempt on his life. We understand why he felt he had to return to Russia. In prison, he shows a spirit and a sense of humour that cannot be crushed.Patriot is as dramatic as its author's life passionate that good and freedom will prevail. It is Alexei Navalny's final letter to the world, a rousing call to continue his work, an unforgettably positive account of a life that will inspire every reader.''A brave and brilliant book'' GUARDIAN''A worthy testament to Navalny''s courage, defiance and humour'' FINANCIAL TIMES''This book is a gospel'' VANITY FAIR''Inspiring, emboldening - a voice that will not be forgotten'' NEW YORKER** A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A WATERSTONES, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND EVENING STANDARD BEST BOOK OF 2024 * ONE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA''S BEST BOOKS OF 2024 **(Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers, October 2024)

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Book SynopsisThere is no better book on fascism's complex and vexed relationship with truth.Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them In this short companion to his bookFrom Fascism to Populism in History,world-renowned historian Federico Finchelstein explains why fascists regarded simple and often hateful lies as truth, and why so many of their followers believed the falsehoods. Throughout the history of the twentieth century, many supporters of fascist ideologies regarded political lies as truth incarnated in their leader. From Hitler to Mussolini, fascist leaders capitalized on lies as the base of their power and popular sovereignty. This history continues in the present, when lies again seem to increasingly replace empirical truth. Now that actual news is presented as fake news and false news becomes government policy,A Brief History of Fascist Liesurges us to remember that the current talk of post-truth has a long political and intellectual lineage that we canTrade Review“Federico Finchelstein, who is one of the world’s leading experts on both fascism and populism, is essential reading for the times in which we live.” * Times Literary Supplement *"A lucid examination of how fascism does not just embrace lies, but integrates them into a distinctive, irrational structure of ‘truth’ that serves its political ends. Finchelstein’s key arguments are immensely valuable to our understanding of contemporary politics." * London School of Economics Review *“Finchelstein leaves us with the importance of understanding mythic nationalist ideologies, and not simply the behavior of leaders who mobilize myths.” * Los Angeles Review of Books * “Neatly summarizes. . . a principal goal of fascism is ‘to leave reason behind and return to prejudice.’” * Salon.com *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. On Fascist Lies 2. Truth and Mythology in the History of Fascism 3. Fascism Incarnate 4. Enemies of the Truth? 5. Truth and Power 6. Revelations 7. The Fascist Unconscious 8. Fascism against Psychoanalysis 9. Democracy and Dictatorship 10. The Forces of Destruction Epilogue: The Populist War against History Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisFocusing on Japan, scholars of history, literature, film, art history, and anthropology demonstrate the necessity of understanding fascisms cultural manifestations.Trade Review“So can a volume focused on the cultural aspects of a primarily political concept succeed? Yes, indeed. This book offers a wealth of fresh information on the era of fascism in Japan, ranging from the ‘high road’ of intellectual history and literary studies to more accessible insights on the role of dogs and propaganda lies about Pearl Harbour. . . . [An] excellent study of fascist Japan.” - Lawrence Fouraker, Itinerario“[T]he essays in this collection provide informative perspectives on topics such as literature, film, architectural design, exhibitions and popular culture. . . .” - Roger Brown, Social Science Japan Journal“Alan Tansman deserves tremendous credit for bringing together this multidisciplinary group of scholars to deal with an issue conspicuously neglected by the majority of scholars in Japan studies. . . . The publication of this insightful set of essays in this volume is without question an important contribution to our understanding of a culture of Japanese fascism as a local manifestation of a truly international political and cultural phenomenon.” - Walter Skya, Journal of Japanese Studies“An extremely provocative and stimulating collection of essays, The Culture of Japanese Fascism canvasses a wide array of cultural forms—movies, novels, religious rites, material culture, monuments, and architecture—to show the ways that fascist aesthetics saturated a dispersed cultural field. By focusing on thought and culture, it helps us rethink the turn from modernism to fascism, to understand fascism’s effects on everyday life, and to reconsider the reigning conceptions of fascist ideology.”—Louise Young, author of Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism“These rich and varied essays provide a fascinating, if unsettling, depiction of the seductive appeal of fascist culture. They also show how much Japan shared with Europe in its aesthetic responses to the crisis of modernity in the interwar years. An important contribution in every respect.”—Carol Gluck, Columbia University“[T]he essays in this collection provide informative perspectives on topics such as literature, film, architectural design, exhibitions and popular culture. . . .” -- Roger Brown * Social Science Japan Journal *“Alan Tansman deserves tremendous credit for bringing together this multidisciplinary group of scholars to deal with an issue conspicuously neglected by the majority of scholars in Japan studies. . . . The publication of this insightful set of essays in this volume is without question an important contribution to our understanding of a culture of Japanese fascism as a local manifestation of a truly international political and cultural phenomenon.” -- Walter Skya * Journal of Japanese Studies *“So can a volume focused on the cultural aspects of a primarily political concept succeed? Yes, indeed. This book offers a wealth of fresh information on the era of fascism in Japan, ranging from the ‘high road’ of intellectual history and literary studies to more accessible insights on the role of dogs and propaganda lies about Pearl Harbour. . . [An] excellent study of fascist Japan.” -- Lawrence Fouraker * Itinerario *Table of ContentsForeword: Fascism, Yet? / Marilyn Ivy vii Introduction: The Culture of Japanese Fascism / Alan Tansman 1 Part I: Theories of Japanese Fascism Fascism Seen and Unseen: Fascism as a Problem in Cultural Representation / Kevin M. Doak 31The People's Library: The Spirit of Prose Literature versus Fascism / Richard Torrance 56 Constitutive Ambiguities: The Persistence of Modernism and Fascism in Japan's Modern History / Harry Harrotunian 80 Part II: Fascism and Daily Life On the Beauty of Labor: Imagine Factory Girls in Japan's New World Order / Kim Brandt 115 Mediating the Masses: Yanagi Sōetsu and Fascism / Noriko Aso 138 Fascism's Furry Friends: Dogs, National Identity, and the Purity of Blood in 1930s Japan / Aaron Skabelund 155 Part III: Exhibiting Fascism Narrating the Nation-ality of a Cinema: The Case of Japanese Prewar Film / Aaron Gerow 185 All Beautiful Fascists?: Axis Film Culture in Imperial Japan / Michael Baskett 212 Architecture for Mass-Mobilization: The Chūreitō Memorial Design Competition, 1939-1945 / Akiko Takenaka 235 Japan's Imperial Diet Building in the Debate over Construction of a National Identity / Jonathan M. Reynolds 254 Expo Fascism?: Ideology, Representation, Economy / Angus Lockyer 276 The Work of Sacrifice in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Bride Dolls and the Enigma of Fascist Aesthetics at Yasukuni Shrine / Ellen Schattschneider 296 Part IV: Literary Fascism Fascist Aesthetics and the Politics of Representation in Kawabata Yasunari / Nina Cornyetz 321 Disciplining the Erotic-Grotesque in Edogawa Ranpo's Demon of the Lonely Isle / Jim Reichert 355 Hamaosociality: Narrative and Fascism in Hamao Shirō's The Devil's Disciple / Keith Vincent 381 Literary Tropes, Rhetorical Looping, and the Nine Gods of War: "Fascist Proclivities" Made Real / James Dorsey 409 Part V: Concluding Essay The Spanish Perspective: Romancero Marroquí and the Francoist Kitsch Politics of Time / Alejandro Yarza 435 Contributors 451

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE ''A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve'' Simon Sebag Montefiore''Harrowing and brilliant'' Ben Macintyre''A critical contribution to Chinese history'' Wall Street JournalBetween 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West in less than fifteen years. It led to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known. Dikotter''s extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead and disenfranchised. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts the history of the People''s RepuTrade Review'A masterpiece of historical investigation into one of the world's greatest crimes' * New Statesman *‘It is hard to exaggerate the achievement of this book in proving that Mao caused the famine ... only thanks to brilliant scholarship such as this will the heirs of the vanished millions finally learn what happened to their ancestors' * Sunday Times *‘The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read' * Jung Chang *‘Gripping ... Prof Dikötter's painstaking analysis of the archives shows Mao's regime resulted in the greatest "man-made famine" the world has ever seen' * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisThe scale and depth of Nazi brutality seem to defy understanding. What could drive people to fight, kill, and destroy with such ruthless ambition? Johann Chapoutot says we need to understand better how the Nazis explained it themselves, and in particular how steeped they were in the idea that history gave them no choice: it was either kill or die.Trade ReviewThe Law of Blood does invigorating work in attempting to explain how such a wildly repulsive ideology could take hold in the hearts and minds of shopkeepers, artisans, soldiers, and housewives—how a solid percentage of a modern nation could have aligned itself with such obvious, ham-handed, manipulative cruelty. The book has many strengths, but its greatest is a kind of stern empathy, a cold understanding of the complexities of the exchange that was taking place in Germany in the 1930s…Those conditions—crowds of glassy-eyed young men and women chanting ‘blood and soil’ in organized marches, civilized, compassionate people averting the gaze while government agencies carry out brutalities in their name, statesmen remaining mute while their government leaders pitch them into new antagonisms around the world—have seldom had an examination as detailed and ambitious as they get in these pages. The Belknap Press is to be praised for bringing the book to an English-speaking audience. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Review *The Law of Blood is a useful addition to the literature on Nazi ideology…Readers will find much here to further their understanding of what Nazis thought and why they behaved the way they did. -- Dan Stone * Times Higher Education *The author’s consistent refrain is a warning that scholars must take seriously what the Nazis said and wrote…Chapoutot adds to our understanding of Nazi ideas and their results by excavating the ‘moral universe’ from which myriad atrocities emerged. -- Chad S. A. Gibbs * Religious Studies Review *Chapoutot [is] one of the most brilliant historians of his generation… The Law of Blood…is not only absorbing and informative but important—an event. -- Pierre Assouline * La République des Livres *A vertiginous reflection on the dialectic of culture and barbarism. -- Grégoire Kauffmann * L’Express *In this ambitious study, Johann Chapoutot contributes an extremely innovative, in-depth, and comprehensive picture of the mental world created by Nazism. He goes beyond the abstract notion of Weltanschauung and masterfully shows what Nazi thinkers affirmed about the origins of the world, about all life as a constant battle, and about their goal to reign over the world in an achievable eschatological time as a pure race. This mode of thinking, which pervaded all spheres of life, allowed for killing in general and the killing of the Jews—the ultimate Weltpest—in particular. The war against the Jews was a culmination of the essential features of National Socialism. This book is pathbreaking, and a must for anyone interested in National Socialism, the Shoah, or the collective behavior of genocidal societies in general. -- Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History, Bar Ilan UniversityChapoutot, one of the most gifted European historians of his generation, has enriched the French historiography of the Second World War, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust. He has personally altered the European discussions of Nazi ecology, Nazi law, and the Nazi view of the past. At a time when Nazi self-understanding should be of interest to us all, this book is very welcome indeed. -- Timothy Snyder, Yale UniversityChapoutot offer[s] many illuminating discussions of the ways in which Nazi intellectuals reinterpreted Germany’s history…Scholars of the Holocaust and modern European intellectual history will find much of value in this rich analysis of a diverse and perverse Nazi intellectualism. -- Alice Weinreb * Holocaust and Genocide Studies *Chapoutot’s analysis casts important new light on the ideological texts the Nazis produced and their relation to the fearful crimes they committed…A compelling, deeply researched, and morally astute contribution to our understanding of Nazism. -- Casper Tybjerg * European Legacy *

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Book SynopsisRobert Conquest's The Great Terror is the book that revealed the horrors of Stalin's regime to the West. This definitive fiftieth anniversary edition features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.One of the most important books ever written about the Soviet Union, The Great Terror revealed to the West for the first time the true extent and nature Stalin’s purges in the 1930s, in which around a million people were tortured and executed or sent to labour camps on political grounds. Its publication caused a widespread reassessment of Communism itself.This definitive fiftieth anniversary edition gathers together the wealth of material added by the author in the decades following its first publication and features a new foreword by leading historian Anne Applebaum, explaining the continued relevance of this momentous period of history and of this classic account.Trade ReviewMore than any other writer, Conquest has been responsible for bringing to the attention of the West the extent of the crimes committed against humanity in the name of Soviet Communism * Sunday Times *Stalin was not only the master criminal; he was the master concealer. It took a master detective, and a poet, like Mr Conquest, to unmask him completely * New York Times *Monumental * Washington Post *A very important book. No one has written about Stalin's terror so deeply -- Milovan Djilas

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Book SynopsisPopulism suddenly is everywhere, and everywhere misunderstood. Nadia Urbinati argues that populism should be regarded as government based on an unmediated relationship between the leader and those defined as the “good” or “right” people. Mingling history, theory, and current affairs, Urbinati illuminates populism’s tense relation to democracy.Trade ReviewMe the People arguably ranks as the best available analysis of populism in any language. Nadia Urbinati persuasively interprets populism as an autoimmune disease of democracy; as a new form of disfigured representative government gripped by leaders who pose as the embodiment of a ‘true’ people—enthusiastic but loyal subjects who have little or no taste for free media, independent courts, and other ‘intermediary’ power-restraining institutions. Urbinati’s message is timely and disturbing. -- John Keane, author of The Life and Death of DemocracyThe study of populism has become all too fashionable, but this volume stands out for its great originality. Unlike so many scholars jumping on the populism bandwagon, Nadia Urbinati has a well-developed theory of democracy, which she deftly deploys to pinpoint the dangers of populism. She also draws on her profound knowledge in the history of political thought to advance her arguments. -- Jan-Werner Müller, author of What Is Populism?With her erudition and clear-eyed assessment of the decline of parties and partisanship, Nadia Urbinati delivers a bold theory of how populist democracy works today. As populism goes from political movement to holding power, the familiar elements—the leader who embodies the people, the hostility to pluralism, the repudiation of mediating institutions—come together in a new and unaccountable form of governing. Me the People prepares us for the challenge. -- Nancy Rosenblum, author of A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on DemocracyIn an increasingly crowded field, Nadia Urbinati develops a novel and sophisticated theory of the phenomenology of populism. She engages with the populist critique of what went wrong with democracy and shows how populist solutions, instead of leading to radical democracy, will lead to its disfigurement. -- Carlos de la Torre, editor of The Promise and Perils of PopulismUrbinati has produced an exceptional scholarly work on a highly relevant socio-political phenomenon. Her line of argument is necessarily complex and deep. Her research is outstandingly extensive. -- Deepak Tripathi * New York Journal of Books *Urbinati’s book is the grand historical-theoretical narrative not only of populism but of democracy and democratic theory more broadly…Her account provides an overview of democratic formations and their different conceptualizations over time, with populism being one among them…Accepting a main position of hers that populism is an expression of legitimate complaints and demands for change within representative democracy, one only wishes that the people making these demands were more savory and less corrupt than they are. -- Hans J. Rindisbacher * The European Legacy *With considerable debate around the concept of populism, and its intersections with democracy and authoritarianism, this book provides an important contribution to advance understanding of how populism is transforming contemporary democracies. -- Sarah Cameron * European Political Science *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] superb book. . . . In this tour d'horizon, as deep as it is wide, Wolin refuses to be impressed by the glamour of extremity. He shines light into many dark corners where intellectual fraud, self-deception, and hauteur passed for liberty during a murderous century. Talk about genealogy! Unreason will never be the same."--Todd Gitlin, Columbia University "[A] lively, learned, and wide-ranging work."--Choice "Absolutely entrancing. . . . [A] wide-ranging yet subtle consideration of the intellectual's abiding fascination with absolutism. . . . [A] perceptive, compelling and invaluable document."--John Banville, Irish Times "An indispensable book. . . . [A]nother important installment in what has become one of the major intellectual enterprises of our time: Richard Wolin's principled defense of liberalism against its most sophisticated enemies."--Adam Kirsch, New York Sun

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating history of how the antifascist movement of the 1930s created “the left” as we know it todayTrade Review“This stimulating and insightful volume is the first global and transnational history of antifascism during the mid-1930s. The author’s linguistic abilities and historiographical acumen have created a vital book on the subject.”—Michael Seidman, author of Transatlantic Antifascisms“In stunning prose, Joseph Fronczak re-creates the extraordinary birth of the modern left, speaking across generations to our own time.”—Beverly Gage, Yale University“Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Everything Is Possible is one of those rare books that has the boldness to assert what was in front of our faces the whole time.”—Christopher Vials, author of Haunted by Hitler“Fronczak gives fascism content again, examining it as a practice, a perspective that can help us understand the present and past. He reveals a global fascist network, beyond Europe and Japan, and American participation in it. An extremely valuable historical interpretation.”—Linda Gordon, New York University“Carefully documented and limpidly written, Joseph Fronczak’s book is much more than a magisterial history of antifascism as a global movement; it is a critical and inspiring insight into the identity of the Left. A timely meditation.”—Enzo Traverso, author of Revolution

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Book SynopsisDuring WWII, some American Catholics openly embraced Nazism. Their armed wing, the Christian Front, was to lead the violent revolution. Charles Gallagher unearths the history of these crusaders, the mainstream theological underpinnings of their activism, the spiritual and political leaders who protected them, and the suppression of their memory.Trade ReviewA great, but deeply unsettling, revelation…A searing examination of how a city—where for nearly four centuries the phrase ‘cradle of liberty’ has slipped effortlessly off the tongue with a distinct Boston accent—played host to a group whose leading figures spoke favorably of Nazi Germany…This book is more than an account of Boston in wartime. It is a warning. -- David M. Shribman * Boston Globe *[A] well told, expertly researched, and much-needed history of the Christian Front, an organization that presages today’s far-right activity…Riveting. I found the result startling. -- Paul Moses * Commonweal *A fascinating and terrifying story of terrorist plots, secret efforts to undermine the Allied war effort, and the stoking of antisemitic attacks…The language of the Christian Front—the barely coded appeals to antisemitism, the embrace of economic populism, and the effort to paint themselves as patriotic victims of discrimination—has a strong contemporary echo in the rhetoric of the US far right. -- Robert Philpot * Jewish Chronicle *Takes a searing look at the Christian Front, an American extremist group that weaponized Catholicism…With historical complexity and suspenseful intrigue, Nazis of Copley Square reveals one of America’s secret and most disturbing domestic enemies. * Foreword Reviews *An eye-opening look at the Christian Front, a far-right political movement founded in 1939…Gallagher also explains how the Christian Front’s ‘interlac[ing] of Christianity and patriotism’ influenced today’s religious right, and analyzes how political extremists exploit free speech protections. This vigorously researched chronicle uncovers a dark chapter in American history. * Publishers Weekly *Fascinating…Gallagher sheds valuable light on one of the darkest episodes in Irish American history. -- Tom Deignan * Irish Central *In the US, in the lead-up to WWII, a dangerous fascist movement sprang up through the Catholic church, drawing on priests, powerful lay people, and working-class parishioners. The movement, known as the ‘Christian Front,’ actively worked to support Nazi Germany in the US. Its history has mostly been swept under the rug, but Gallagaher is determined to shine a new light on it in his powerful new study. * CrimeReads *An amazing whodunit that will keep readers glued to every page. * Choice *Shows that we cannot understand right-wing extremism without examining its violent history and the integral role of certain religious doctrines, which these ringleaders mobilized to justify violence, exclusion, anti-Semitism, and even collaboration with Nazi spies. -- Eric Grube * New Books Network *The rare book by a scholar that is such a page-turner it is hard to put down, Gallagher’s Nazis of Copley Square is a potent brew of spy story, detective story, and frank, fearless account of how a significant wing of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States spawned a movement aimed at defending Hitler and sabotaging America’s war effort. -- David I. Kertzer, author of The Pope and MussoliniWriting about American Nazi sympathizers who rooted their rage in mainstream Catholic theology poses a remarkable challenge. Pluralist society already has a hard enough time confronting violent hatred underwritten by sincere religious faith; historians writing about such subjects face the second challenge of achieving empathy with their subjects without sacrificing moral opprobrium. Charles R. Gallagher meets both challenges with aplomb—and throws in some thrilling World War II spy stories to boot. Highly recommended. -- Rick Perlstein, author of ReaganlandWhen historians speak of Americans who supported Hitler’s Third Reich, they generally refer to Father Charles Coughlin or the German American Bund. In his excellently researched and rivetingly written book, Gallagher reminds us the danger was more widespread. A movement of far-right American Catholics not only fostered sympathy with Nazism but spread virulent anti-Semitism. The Nazis of Copley Square laid the groundwork for today’s Christian nationalism. When we hear those ideas expressed today, we are shocked. Gallagher demonstrates they have roots reaching back many decades. The danger was real then. And it is real today. -- Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Antisemitism: Here and NowA virtuoso piece of historical detective work that dramatically enhances our understanding of right-wing (and Catholic) anti-Semitism and radicalism during the turbulent 1930s and 1940s. -- John T. McGreevy, author of American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism GlobalValuably excavates this buried past…One reason it is important to study the history of the Christian Front is that it elucidates the origins of the Christian right in the United States—roots that run deeper than the rise of Evangelical Protestants in the 1970s and 1980s or McCarthyism in the 1950s…[An] illuminating and compelling book. * DigBoston *Gallagher breaks new ground by diving deep into…the Christian Front’s activities in Boston…A great book that should be read by all. -- Joe Allen * CounterPunch *Extraordinarily well crafted and narrated…Gallagher has produced a masterful work in its analysis of the theological roots of an organisation that threatened great political and social harm. This book provides a timely, important reminder of the wider effects religious ideas can have in public life. -- David Mislin * Journal of Ecclesiastical History *

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Book SynopsisWhat does the head of the Kremlin think about? What are his hopes and aims for the lands bordering Russia, for Europe, and even the world? In January 2014, the Kremlin sent its senior civil servants, governors and party bigwigs a special New Year’s present: philosophy books, by 19th and 20th century Russian thinkers. This reading list is not optional: the president himself has cited these authors in landmark speeches, and they need to understand what he means. The most persistent of the bunch will find these great works strangely familiar, full of the national leader's role in an 'authentic' democracy, the importance of being conservative, the urgency of rooting morality in religion, and the historic struggle of the Russian people against the timeless hostility of the West. President Putin is the man who manages and manipulates these existential anxieties. And since the annexation of Crimea, the need to decrypt his vision for the nation—propelled by the Kremlin’s Eurasian neo-imperialists and prophets of `Russian-way’ conservatism—has become more pressing than ever. In this revealing and engrossing book, Michel Eltchaninoff invites us inside the psyche of the Russian president for a better understanding of his doctrine and geopolitical vision. He offers answers to an urgent question for our 21st century world: what is Vladimir Putin thinking?Trade Review'Riveting … This book unveils a fascinating reality. It seems that Putin has read, chewed over and fed into his discourse a number of conservative Russian intellectuals and philosophers. This reading … has played a major role in what Eltchaninoff calls Putin’s `conservative turn’ … The rigor of his extremely well-informed research is rare. … his book is an absolute must-read for those wanting to understand the ideological roots of this man, disturbing and fascinating in equal measure.' - Le Figaro; ; '[In his] enthralling foray `inside the mind’ of the Russian president, … [Eltchaninoff] has decrypted his writings, speeches and encounters to unearth the intellectual roots of the `new Russia’.' - Philosophie magazine; ; 'In this book, as probing as brain surgery, philosopher Michel Eltchaninoff reveals what lies `inside the mind’ of Vladimir Putin.' - Sylvain Tesson, Le Point; ; 'This highly original approach to illuminating Putin's troubling personality shows just how far literature and philosophy can influence the exercise of power.' - Jean-Marie Durand, Les Inrockuptibles; ; 'On the plane to Moscow, François Hollande buried himself in a fascinating little new book: Inside the Mind of Vladimir Putin. Michel Eltchaninoff, a great connoisseur of Russian history and literature, traces the spiritual and political journey of the `master of Moscow’, who forces his oligarchs to read 19th century thought.' — Midi Libre; ; 'The fundamental question addressed by Michel Eltchaninoff in his excellent book [is this]: what is the Kremlin chief thinking? And will the 21st century be the Putin century, as the 20th century belonged to Lenin and Stalin?' - Les Echos; ; `Eltchaninoff’s book could not be more timely, stripping us of our scornful generalizations and ignorant clichés. A highly enjoyable read.' - La Vie;

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Book SynopsisA Book of the Year for The Times and the Sunday Times ‘The writer is the engineer of the human soul,’ claimed Stalin. Although one wonders how many found nourishment in Turkmenbashi’s Book of the Soul (once required reading for driving tests in Turkmenistan), not to mention Stalin’s own poetry. Certainly, to be considered great, a dictator must write, and write a lot. Mao had his Little Red Book, Mussolini and Saddam Hussein their romance novels, Kim Jong-il his treatise on the art of film, Hitler his hate-filled tracts. What do these texts reveal about their authors, the worst people imaginable? And how did they shape twentieth-century history? To find out, Daniel Kalder read them all – the badly written and the astonishingly badly written – so that you don’t have to. This is the untold history of books so terrible they should have been crimes.Trade Review‘Daniel Kalder has slogged his way through the 20th century’s “Krakatoa-like eruption of despotic verbiage” so you don’t have to… Kalder’s dispatches from “the transnational empire of ultra-boredom” are not only very funny, they also form a quirky, pacey guide to recent world history.’ * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *‘Full of…wonders, and startling individual facts… An overwhelmingly powerful reminder of 20th-century misrule, and of just how delusional human beings can be – especially if they’re literate.’ * Telegraph *‘This wonderfully entertaining book is a cautionary tale about how societies are easily wooed by foolish demagogues spouting gibberish.’ * The Times, Books of the Year *‘I enjoyed this book a great deal…it’s actually a rather snappy read.’ * Will Self, Guardian *‘Hugely compelling…Like coming across a planet-sized car crash, with hundreds of millions snarled up in the wreckage: you can’t look away. Kalder has really dug deep into the minds of these infernal texts’ creators, and thus delivers some truly enlightening insights.’ * Irish Independent *‘Daniel Kalder…deserves a medal…Dictator Literature is a great book... An insightful book, but also a funny one.' * The Times *‘Very funny… After reading Dictator Literature you will never look at books with such a benevolent eye again.’ * Spectator *‘A engaging, brisk, and morbidly humorous haul of the lives and literary pretensions of the murderous wingnuts who defined a century.’ * Irish Times *‘Kalder's book is an informative, lively and often hilarious account of some of the worst authors who ever lived, doubling as a history of the terrible ideologies that marred the last century. Some execrable books have come out of communism and fascism, but Dictator Literature is certainly not one of them.’ * Catholic Herald *‘A fascinating study…partly an enjoyable romp but mostly a sombre sidelong-glance history of 20th-century totalitarianism.’ * Sunday Telegraph *‘Brisk, and full of antic fun.’ * New Statesman *‘Highly readable.’ * Herald *‘A mesmerizing study of books by despots great and small, from the familiar to the largely unknown.’ * Washington Post *‘Kalder is our cheeky and irreverent guide to the (generally aggressively tedious) prose by history’s despots.’ * Tatler *‘This is about the most discomforting book I’ve read in the past year. Never mind Trump and never mind Twitter: Kalder demonstrates that words themselves, and the escapist spells we weave with them, are our riskiest civic gift.’ -- Simon Ings, author of Stalin and the Scientists‘A compelling examination of why bad minds create bad writing, and therefore a valuable read for anyone interested in literature – or the world, in fact. Kalder’s dry humour makes Dictator Literature a fun tour de force through the mad history of the 20th century and the present.’ -- Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed

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Book SynopsisThe most secretive, repressive state in Africa is haemorrhaging its citizens. In some months as many Eritreans as Syrians arrive on European shores, yet the country is not convulsed by civil war. Young men and women risk all to escape. Many do not survive - their bones littering the Sahara; their bodies floating in the Mediterranean. Still they flee, to avoid permanent military service and a future without hope. As the United Nations reported: "Thousands of conscripts are subjected to forced labour that effectively abuses, exploits and enslaves them for years." Eritreans fought for their freedom from Ethiopia for thirty years, only to have their revered leader turn on his own people. Independent since 1993, the country has no constitution and no parliament. No budget has ever been published. Elections have never been held and opponents languish in jail. International organisations find it next to impossible to work in the country. Nor is it just a domestic issue. By supporting armed insurrection in neighbouring states it has destabilised the Horn of Africa. Eritrea is involved in the Yemeni civil war, while the regime backs rebel movements in Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti.This book tells the untold story of how this tiny nation became a world pariah.

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Book SynopsisDrive critical, engaged learning and advanced skills development. Enabling comprehensive, rounded understanding, the student-centred approach actively develops the sophisticated skills key to performance in Paper 2. Developed directly with the IB for the 2015 syllabus, this Course Book fully supports the new comparative approach to learning.Cover the new syllabus in the right level of depth, with rich, thorough subject contentDeveloped directly with the IB, with the most comprehensive support for the new syllabus with complete support for the comparative approachTruly engage learners with topical, relevant material that convincingly connects learning with the modern, global worldStreamline your planning, with a clear and thorough structure helping you logically progress through the syllabusBuild the advanced-level skills learners need for Paper 2, with the student-led approach driving active skills development and strengthening exam performanceIntegrate approaches to learning with ATLsTable of Contents1. Egypt - Nasser ; 1.1 The Emergence of Nasser's Egypt 1914-1952 ; 1.2 Nasser's consolidation of power 1952-1954 ; 1.3 Nasser's policies 1952-1970 ; 2. Cuba - Castro ; 2.1 Castro's rise to power ; 2.2 Consolidation and maintenance of power in Castro's Cuba ; 2.3 Aims and results of Castro's policies ; 3. China - Mao ; 3.1 Mao's rise to power 1949 ; 3.2 Mao's consolidation of power 1949-1955 ; 3.3 Mao's economic and social policies ; 4. Germany - Hitler ; 4.1 The emergence of the authoritarian state in Germany 1919-1934 ; 4.2 Hitler's consolidation of power 1934-1935 ; 4.3 The aims and results of Nazi policies

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This timely, readable book raises hugely important questions about how people justify supporting tyrants. In Young’s engaging narrative, what led British aristocrats, such as fascist fanatics Diana and Unity Mitford, to totalitarianism almost 100 years ago resonates with alarming trends we witness today. Attacks on democracy, from January 6th to Ukraine, make understanding authoritarianism most urgent; Hitler’s Girl, sure to be controversial, contributes critical case histories to that essential conversation.” — Carla Kaplan, author of Miss Anne in Harlem “A frank and timely exploration of a seminal era in modern history deserving of more attention. Young's engaging work shines a spotlight on this pivotal moment between the World Wars by bringing some of its most complicated personalities to the fore and thus reminding us that there is always more to discover, even when we think we know the whole story.” — Catherine Grace Katz, author of The Daughters Of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans “Confirms not only the danger British fascists posed to the nation but also the government’s embarrassing, often inexplicable unwillingness to take steps against them. . . . A cautionary tale for today [when] Democratic institutions are fragile and many of the problems roiling the waters of the ’30s are ascendant again.” — Library Journal “Defense analyst Young explores the pro-Nazi sentiments of 'an influential segment of [Britain’s] elite' in this . . . intriguing history . . . The brisk narrative contains many shocking revelations.” — Publishers Weekly "A fresh analysis of fascism in 1930s Britain. . . . Thanks to newly opened and expanded archives, the author is able to expose a host of fascist-leaning figures during the 1930s, revealing the shockingly broad complacency and complicity among the aristocratic class." — Kirkus Reviews “Hitler’s Girl joins other recently published titles, including Geoffrey Wheatcroft's Churchill’s Shadow (2021), in interrogating the British government’s own racism and postcolonial legacy.” — Booklist “Hitler’s Girl is required reading for anyone interested in the rise of Nazism and in the counter-factual mentioned at the outset. Lauren Young has given us a gift and has also warned us about the times we live in now which in so many ways resemble the period from 1933 to 1938 when Hitler could have been stopped.” — Counter Currents“This timely, readable book raises hugely important questions about how people justify supporting tyrants. In Young’s engaging narrative, what led British aristocrats, such as fascist fanatics Diana and Unity Mitford, to totalitarianism almost 100 years ago resonates with alarming trends we witness today. Attacks on democracy, from January 6th to Ukraine, make understanding authoritarianism most urgent; Hitler’s Girl, sure to be controversial, contributes critical case histories to that essential conversation.” — Carla Kaplan, author of Miss Anne in Harlem “A frank and timely exploration of a seminal era in modern history deserving of more attention. Young's engaging work shines a spotlight on this pivotal moment between the World Wars by bringing some of its most complicated personalities to the fore and thus reminding us that there is always more to discover, even when we think we know the whole story.” — Catherine Grace Katz, author of The Daughters Of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans “Confirms not only the danger British fascists posed to the nation but also the government’s embarrassing, often inexplicable unwillingness to take steps against them. . . . A cautionary tale for today [when] Democratic institutions are fragile and many of the problems roiling the waters of the ’30s are ascendant again.” — Library Journal “Defense analyst Young explores the pro-Nazi sentiments of 'an influential segment of [Britain’s] elite' in this . . . intriguing history . . . The brisk narrative contains many shocking revelations.” — Publishers Weekly "A fresh analysis of fascism in 1930s Britain. . . . Thanks to newly opened and expanded archives, the author is able to expose a host of fascist-leaning figures during the 1930s, revealing the shockingly broad complacency and complicity among the aristocratic class." — Kirkus Reviews “Hitler’s Girl joins other recently published titles, including Geoffrey Wheatcroft's Churchill’s Shadow (2021), in interrogating the British government’s own racism and postcolonial legacy.” — Booklist “Hitler’s Girl is required reading for anyone interested in the rise of Nazism and in the counter-factual mentioned at the outset. Lauren Young has given us a gift and has also warned us about the times we live in now which in so many ways resemble the period from 1933 to 1938 when Hitler could have been stopped.” — Counter Currents

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Book SynopsisHalf a century after their deaths, the dictatorships of Stalin and Hitler still cast a long and terrible shadow over the modern world. They were the most destructive and lethal regimes in history, murdering millions. They fought the largest and costliest war in all history. Yet millions of Germans and Russians enthusiastically supported them and the values they stood for. In this first major study of the two dictatorships side-by-side Richard Overy sets out to answer the question: How was dictatorship possible? How did they function? What was the bond that tied dictator and people so powerfully together? He paints a remarkable and vivid account of the different ways in which Stalin and Hitler rose to power, and abused and dominated their people. It is a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of ambitious and unscrupulous men.

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Book SynopsisA portrait of Robert Mugabe, a man whose once brilliant career has ruined Zimbabwe and cast shame on the African continent. It charts Mugabe's gradual self-destruction, and uncovers some of the most respectable international players in the Zimbabwe tragedy.Trade Review'By tracking down the key figures in Mugabe's life, Heidi Holland has come closer than anyone else to discovering what makes the old dictator tick' - David Blair, Daily Telegraph 'The most intimate portrait yet produced of Zimbabwe's clever but brutal leader' - Adam Roberts, The Economist

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Book SynopsisIn this trenchant new interpretation of America''s origins, Max Edling shows that the Federalists were primarily concerned with building a government that could act vigorously in defense of American interests. The Constitution transferred the powers of war-making and resource-extraction from the states to the national government, thereby creating a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe''s eighteenth-century ''fiscal-military states.''A strong centralized government such as this, however, challenged the American people''s deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution''s adoption in the face of this inherent suspicion, the Federalists had to balance the formation of a powerful national government with the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so, Edling argues, by designing a government that would be powerful in times of crisis, but which would make only limited demands on the citizenrTrade ReviewA book of undoubted power and value * The Journal of American History *At the very least, Max M. Edling has written the most important book on the adoption of the United States Constitution to appear since Forrest McDonald refuted Charles Beard in We the People: The Economic Origins of the Constitution (1958). * Journal of the Early American Republic *Edling's book is a powerfully argued revisionist interpretation of the origins of the Constitution. More than anything else, it helps us better understand the constitutional sources of the gigantic fiscal-military state that the United States has become. * Gordon S. Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History, Brown University *Not only a pleasure to read but extremely informative and persuasively argued. I will never think about the U.S. Constitution in the old way again. * Daniel Walker Howe, author of What Hath God Wrought *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: BEYOND MADISONIAN FEDERALISM; PART ONE: INTERPRETING THE DEBATE OVER RATIFICATION; PART TWO: MILITARY POWERS; PART THREE: FISCAL POWERS; CONCLUSION: THE CONSTITUTION, THE FEDERALISTS, AND THE AMERICAN STATE

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Book SynopsisSpain Transformed addresses the sweeping social and cultural changes that characterized the late Franco regime. This wide-ranging collection reassesses the dictatorship's latter years by drawing on a wealth of new material and ideas, using an interdisciplinary approach.Trade Review'An impressive volume on late Francoist Spain Spain Transformed is a significant contribution to the debate on the nature of the Franco regime.' Julius Ruiz - English Historical Review 'A valuable contribution to the literature, this admirable collection is an eloquent indication of the Franco regime's continuing capacity to fascinate.' Paul Kennedy, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 'Townson has edited an impressive volume on late Francoist Spain Spain Transformed is a significant contribution to the debate on the nature of the Franco regime' - Julius Ruiz, University of Edinburgh, UK 'An excellent study of the late Franco regime, perhaps the period of greatest change in the history of Spain. It represents the best analysis of the transitions that made possible the Transition' - Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina, USATable of ContentsIntroduction; N.Townson The Golden Age of Spanish Capitalism: Economic Growth without Political Freedom; P.Martín .Aceña & E.Martínez Ruiz Tourism and Political Change in Franco's Spain; S.D.Pack The Change in Mentalities during the late Franco Regime; W.L.Bernecker How different was Spain? The late Franco Regime in International Context; T.Buchanan Order, Progress, and Syndicalism? How the late Francoist Authorities saw Socio-economic Change; A.Cazorla Sánchez New Political Mentalities in the tardofranquismo ; C.Palomares Associations and the Social Origins of the Transition during the Late Franco Regime; P.Radcliff Cultural Diversity and the Development of a Pre-Democratic Civil Society in Spain; E.Chuliá The Spanish Church: Change and Continuity; W.J. Callahan The Origins of Democratic Support in post-Franco Spain: Learning to be a Democrat under Authoritarian Rule?; M.Torcal The United States and Spain: From Franco to Juan Carlos; C.Powell The Franco Dictatorship: A Bifurcated Regime?; E.Malefakis

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Book SynopsisIn American Zealots, Arie Perliger provides a wide-ranging and rigorously researched overview of right-wing domestic terrorism. He analyzes its historical roots, characteristics, tactics, rhetoric, and organization, assessing the current and future trajectory of the use of violence by the far right.Trade ReviewAmerican Zealots is an immensely timely and important publication. Written by one of this country's foremost authorities on far-right extremist violence, it provides a comprehensive analysis of this movement's evolution and trajectory and its implications for American society and politics. -- Bruce Hoffman, author of Inside TerrorismWith unparalleled expertise, Arie Perliger makes sense of the complicated and contentious reality of domestic right-wing terrorism. His explanation of the complexities, deep historical roots, and ideological diversity of the threat is clear and dispassionate. His conclusions are all the more important for being bluntly realistic: there is unlikely to be a decline in right-wing violence unless we devise a wide-ranging public policy response. -- Martha Crenshaw, Stanford UniversityAt a time when both DHS and the FBI have underlined the threat posed from the radical right, Arie Perliger’s American Zealots is a comprehensive and comparative study of right-wing terrorism that sheds light on how the movement emerged, grew within the US military, and our society to become the center of current domestic political debates. Using original data that he collected, the book is anchored in rigorous empirical evidence to explain how we got here and identify the path forward. -- Mia Bloom, author of Small Arms: Children and TerrorismThis arresting book explores the backgrounds of right-wing activists who have terrorized America’s heartland from Oak Creek, Wisconsin to El Paso, Texas in recent decades. Far from being lone wolves, they are supported by a vast community of hatred, this revealing study shows. It descends into America’s underground cultures of violence and helps the reader understand the motivations and organizations of what has become America’s number one terrorist threat. It is essential reading for anyone concerned about the widening chasms of political extremism in the United States. -- Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious ViolencePerliger is impassioned and cleareyed about how troubling the trends are...a plainspoken and data-driven yet essential book for understanding the underpinnings of today’s domestic terrorists. * Kirkus Reviews *This book illuminates the threat of the far-right in an accessible, non-jargony way and Perliger’s introduction to the topic may encourage readers to become more informed about some of the complexities and nuances of the far-right...a multifaceted analysis. -- Samantha Kutner, Khalifa Ihler Institute * Critical Studies on Terrorism *A refreshing and valuable perspective...American Zealots provides a valuable contribution to the growing literature of the contemporary far-right in the United States. -- Matthew Valasik * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews *An exceptional read into the domestic terrorist threat....for anyone interested in reading into domestic terrorism, its cultural impact, and the potential for continued acts of violence the book is highly recommended. * Populism *Offers a useful ideological typology of the American far right. * Survival *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. The Challenges of Comprehending and Responding to Domestic Terrorism2. An Ideological Typology of the Violent Far Right3. Historical Pillars of the Violent American Far Right4. Tactics of the American Far Right5.The Rise and Decline of Far-Right Violence in the United States6. Perpetrators of Far-Right Violence7. Contemporary Discourse of the American Far Right8. The Future of the Violent American Far RightAppendix: Methodology and Statistical ResultsNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisOne of the greatest, most radical public thinkers of our time' ARUNDHATI ROY In these incisive interviews, activist Chomsky addresses the urgent questions of this tumultuous time, speaking to the deterioration of democracy in the United States and rising tensions globally.He examines the crumbling of the social fabric and the fractures of the Biden era, including the halting steps toward a Green New Deal, the illegitimate authority of the Supreme Court, in particular its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the ongoing fallout from COVID-19. Chomsky also untangles the roots of the War in Ukraine, the diplomatic tensions among the United States, China, and Russia, and considers the need for climate action on an international scale.Illegitimate Authority exposes those who wield power in their own self-interest and plots framework for how we can stand together and fight against injustice.''The West''s most prominent critic of US imperialism . . . the closest thing in the English-speaking world to an intellectual superstar'' Guardian''Will there ever again be a public intellectual who commands the attention of so many across the planet?'' New Statesman

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Book Synopsis''I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.''Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn''t even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was running for her life, that if she and her family stayed behind they would die - from starvation, or disease, or even execution. This book is the story of Park''s struggle to survive in the darkest, most repressive country on earth; her harrowing escape through China''s underworld of smugglers and human traffickers; and then her escape from China across the Gobi desert to Mongolia, with only the stars to guide her way, and from there to South Korea and at last to freedom; and finally her emergence as a leading human rights activist - all before her 21st birthday.''Clear-eyed and devastating'' ObserverTrade ReviewClear-eyed and devastating. * Observer *One of the most harrowing stories I have ever heard - and one of the most inspiring . . . A book to make you newly thankful for the freedom you have never been forced to fight for. * The Bookseller *An eloquent, wrenchingly honest work that vividly represents the plight of many North Koreans. * Kirkus *

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Book SynopsisOffering a much-needed global perspective on the "dark side" of the internet, Digital Hate is a timely and critical look at the raging debates around online media's failed promises.Trade Review"Timely, original, and powerful, this anthology is packed with new insights about digital media and political cultures. Contributors comprise an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars grounded predominantly in anthropology and media studies. Their diverse studies in the global north and south approach extreme speech online as a cultural practice situated within wider social struggles. The collection reveals the dynamics of exclusionary politics that paradoxically thrive in the age of digital connectivity."—Victoria Bernal, author of Nation as Network: Diaspora, Cyberspace, and Citizenship, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine"This superb collection contains a number of stimulating contributions by authors from around the world. The introduction lays out the book's unique intellectual re-reading of online extreme speech, civility, and rationality. It offers insightful and innovative ways of understanding these issues from decolonial and ethnographically grounded approaches. This is the only book to connect history, colonial formations, and coloniality in the study of extreme speech in the digital age."—Sarah Chiumbu, Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Media, University of Johannesburg"How is the term 'hate speech' mobilized to further specific political ends, so deepening rather than alleviating inequalities in the public domain? This is the question that this highly sophisticated collection of essays addresses, drawing on a wide range of cases from Kenya to Chile, the Philippines to Germany. These deeply contextualized studies constitute a huge step forward in our understanding of the cultural and technological underpinnings of extreme speech on a global scale—a landmark study."—Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political ScienceTable of ContentsHate Cultures in the Digital Age: The Global Conjuncture of Extreme Speech, by Sahana Udupa, Iginio Gagliardone, and Peter HervikPart One: Extreme Speech as a Critique: Power and Agonism1. There's no such thing as hate speech and it's a good thing, too, by David Boromisza-Habashi2. The political trolling industry in Duterte's Philippines: Everyday work arrangements of disinformation and extreme speech, by Jonathan Corpus Ong3. It is Incivility, not hate speech: Application of Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory to analysis of non-anthropocentric agency, by David Katiambo4. The moral economy of extreme speech: Resentment and anger in Indian minority politics, by Max KramerPart Two: Colloquialization of Exclusion5. Us and (((them))): Extreme memes and anti-Semitism on 4Chan, by Marc Tuters and Sal Hagen6. Nationalism in the digital age: Fun as a metapractice of extreme speech, by Sahana Udupa7. A presidential archive of lies: Racism, Twitter, and a history of the present, by Carole McGranahan8. Racialization, racism and anti-racism in Danish social media platforms, by Peter Hervik9. Follow the memes: On the construction of far-right identities online, by Amy C. Mack10. The politics of Muhei: Ethnic humor and Islamophobia on Chinese social media, by Gabriele de Seta11. Writing on the walls: Discourses on Bolivian immigrants in Chilean meme humor, by Nell HaynesPart Three: Organization and Disorganization12. Blasphemy accusations as extreme speech acts in Pakistan, by Jürgen Schaflechner13. Localized hatred: The importance of physical spaces within the German far-right online counterpublic on Facebook, by Jonas Kaiser14. "Motherhood" revisited: Pushing boundaries in Indonesia's online discourse, by Indah S. Pratidina15. Networks of political trolling in Turkey after the consolidation of power under the Presidency, by Erkan SakaContributors' BiographiesIndex

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Book SynopsisArtists, theorists, activists, and scholars propose concrete forms of non-fascist living as the rise of contemporary fascisms threatens the foundations of common life.Propositions for Non-Fascist Living begins from the urgent need to model a world decidedly void of fascisms during a time when the rise of contemporary fascisms threatens the very foundations of a possibility for common life. Borrowing from Michel Foucault's notion of “non-fascist living” as an “art of living counter to all forms of fascism,” including that “in us all… the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us,” the book addresses the practice of living rather than the mere object of life.Artists, theorists, activists, and scholars offer texts and visual essays that engage varied perspectives on practicing life and articulate methods that support multiplicity and difference rather than vaunting

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Book SynopsisTrade Review‘An extraordinarily rich historical fresco, groundbreaking in many ways’—Chiara Saraceno, L’Indice dei libri del mese -- Chiara Saraceno * L'Indice die libri del mese *

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Book SynopsisAn incisive account of how Mussolini pioneered populism in reaction to Hitler’s rise—and thereby reinforced his role as a model for later authoritarian leadersTrade Review“Much attention has been paid to the populist politics of modern leaders such as Trump and Erdogan, and one of the many interesting strands of this new book is whether Mussolini might reasonably be considered the first such populist.”—BBC History Magazine“An engaging and persuasive guide…Bosworth is surely right when he argues, in this most enjoyable and wide-ranging book, that the word “facist” is used today too often and too loosely.”—Caroline Moorehead, Times Literary Supplement ‘In his inimitable style and with peerless erudition, Bosworth provides us with a passionately engaged history of a Mussolini and an Italy caught up in the monstrous gravitational waves engendered by the coming of Third Reich.’—Giuseppe Finaldi, author of Mussolini and Italian Fascism‘This trenchant, eminently readable, book is a convincing analysis of the decline and fall of Fascism. Its conclusion – that Mussolini’s Italy was a “weak regime that went to its collapse broadcasting fake news about itself” – ensures that the book also has a contemporary ring.’— Professor Mark Gilbert, Johns Hopkins University‘An original and fascinating analysis of the degeneration of the Italian Fascist regime in its last decade of peace, and of ‘the first modern dictator’s’ place in the broader context of contemporary history, especially in relation to present-day populist movements.’—John F. Pollard, author of The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32"At a time when the specter of fascism haunts contemporary society, Bosworth provides a timely reminder that populist bluster tends to mask profound inadequacies. Benito Mussolini may have been the first modern dictator, but he was also a failure who led his nation to catastrophe.”—Professor Joshua Arthurs, West Virginia University

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean when a radical understanding of National Socialism is inextricably embedded in the work of the twentieth century’s most important philosopher?Trade Review“[An] informed, richly documented study. . . . A timely reminder of the value of those social democratic and liberal traditions.”—Steven Aschheim, Times Literary Supplement“Combines close readings of Heidegger’s key writings with a rich cultural, literary and political history. . . . Wolin’s evidence-based work is its own riposte to the ludic mythomania of the philosopher’s political fanboys.”—Lyndsey Stonebridge, New Statesman“A timely work of enduring importance.”—Jeffrey Herf, Quillette“Wolin raises the discussion concerning Heidegger’s proximity to National Socialism to a new level. . . . Taken as a whole, [Wolin’s] volume is impressive for its thoroughgoing, source-related approach . . . as well as its detailed and profound knowledge of German intellectual and cultural history.”—Lukas Bormann, Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte“One of Richard Wolin’s merits is that he does not fear the Heidegger apology industry. Instead, we receive an extremely convincing ‘accident report’ on a ‘Philosophy in Ruins,’ an analysis of the entire work. . . . Heidegger’s National Socialism was not external and temporary. His apocalyptic philosophical self-understanding speaks for itself.”—Fredrik Agell, Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm)“Heidegger in Ruins is an uncompromising and incisive reassessment of Heidegger’s philosophy. Wolin convincingly demonstrates that he differed from his ideological competitors only in his more radical vision of a racial elect. Today, Heideggerianism survives in a variety of contemporary new right thinkers from Moscow to Charlottesville.”—Anson Rabinbach, Princeton University“For three decades, Richard Wolin has battled strong headwinds to demonstrate the links between Heidegger’s vile politics and his sublime philosophy. Wolin’s latest effort shows that the winds have shifted and the mighty fortress built by Heidegger and his defenders has been blown away.”—Martin Jay, author of Genesis and Validity“Richard Wolin’s detailed and powerful analysis will be a widely read and widely discussed contribution to the debate over Heidegger and Nazism.”—Alan E. Steinweis, author of Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany

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Book SynopsisAn incisive account of Erdoğan’s Turkey—showing how its troubling transformation may be short-livedTrade Review“A particular strength of [Bechev’s] book is that he does not attribute Turkey’s turn from democracy exclusively to Erdoğan, but emphasises ‘the authoritarian legacies shaping the state,’ rooted in the Ottoman Empire and in the long rule of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the modern secular republic in 1923 and held power until his death in 1938.”—Tony Barber, Financial Times“A scholar unafraid of a good turn of phrase is a welcome thing, albeit rare. Dr Bechev is a scholar and has a good turn of phrase. His expertise guides us through what is a thicket of events, dates, underlying trends, and acronyms, but just when, at times, the going becomes difficult a turn of phrase chops through the text and opens up his train of thought.”—Tim Marshall, Reaction“A sweeping attempt to capture the last 20 years of Turkey, Bechev skilfully traces the radical transformation of Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. An outstanding book from one of the best.”—Gönül Tol, Middle East Institute“A compelling narrative, rich in anecdotes, quotes, and carefully chosen empirical examples, enlivens an in-depth historical analysis of Turkey’s evolution from the 1970s until today. Bechev charts Turkey’s modernization, the rise of Islamist populism, its geopolitical shift from the periphery of the West to its bid for regional hegemony, as well as the weaknesses of the competitive authoritarian regime that its President Erdoğan has crafted.”—Rosa Balfour, director, Carnegie Europe“Bechev analyzes the two decades that witnessed the evolution of President Erdoğan from a seemingly EU-friendly ‘Muslim democrat’ to a strongman. He masterfully portrays how the shifts in AKP’s foreign policy were intertwined with rising authoritarian practices in Turkey.”—Ayşe Kadıoğlu, Sabancı University

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Book SynopsisStories of transnational terror and justice illuminate the past and present of South America’s struggles for human rights.Trade Review“[A] vital two-part study. . . . [Lessa’s] painstaking work on Plan Condor and Latin America’s state criminality is both admirable and important.”—Miranda France, Times Literary Supplement“Accessible despite its legal components, the book sheds light on the struggle for justice and human rights in South America. As our reviewer rightly praises, Lessa usefully anchors the book in its Latin American context, and away from historiographic preoccupations with the US role.”—Mariana Vieira, International Affairs Blog“This book is a homage to the remarkable efforts of many individuals outraged by these crimes to bring the perpetrators to justice.”—Gavin O’Toole, Latin American Review of Books“The level of detail Lessa provides . . . is, simply put, astounding. And her especially insightful treatment of justice seekers . . . who spearheaded innovative legal strategies to hold perpetrators accountable speaks to the text’s deeper stakes.”—Max Counter, Journal of Latin American Geography“The sophistication of Lessa’s interdisciplinary method shines through in the book’s detailed content and nuanced arguments.”—Alison J. Bruey, H-Net Network on Latin American HistoryHonorable Mention received for the Bryce Wood Book Award, sponsored by the Latin American Studies AssociationWinner of the 2023 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America, sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute“Lessa’s exploration of transnational repression in 1970s South America could not be more current in these days of resurgent authoritarianism. Her analysis of the Condor period is groundbreaking and documents both the human rights crimes and the efforts of international ‘justice seekers’ to breach—eventually—the dictatorships’s impunity.”—John Dinges, author of Hunting Enemies Abroad“There is no other book that combines a decade of research on Operation Condor and transnational repression by the South American military regimes with synthesis of the literature on efforts to achieve accountability for human rights violations and analysis of the prosecutions in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Italy.”—Brian Loveman, San Diego State University“This gripping account of Operation Condor breaks important new ground in our understanding of complex justice processes for grave human rights violations. Lessa’s analysis of ‘justice seekers’ highlights the central role of victims in transitional and transnational justice processes. Most importantly, she centers the deeply moving stories of the victims of Operation Condor, whose lives were forever altered by transnational state terror.”—Jo-Marie Burt, George Mason University

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