History of other geographical groupings Books

Book SynopsisThis volume is an annotated correspondence, of nearly forty years, between two prominent Orientalists. The letters cover a range of topics related to the Zagros Mountains, its peoples, their history, culture, and languages. They also offer a glimpse into the personal lives and careers of the two scholars, give valuable insights on the development of the field of Kurdish Studies, and to an extent outline the contours of what the two referred to as Zagrology.

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Book SynopsisIn the late 1800s and early 1900s, colonial powers clashed over much of Central and East Asia: Great Britain and Germany fought over New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, and Samoa; France and Great Britain competed over control of continental Southwest Asia; and the United States annexed the Philippines and Hawaii. Meanwhile, the possible disintegration of China and Japan’s growing nationalism added new dimensions to the rivalries. Surveying these and other international developments in the Pacific basin during the three decades preceding World War I, Kees van Dijk traces the emergence of superpowers during the colonial race and analyzes their conduct as they struggled for territory. Extensive in scope, Pacific Strife is a fascinating look at a volatile moment in history.Trade Review'Van Dijk's work will richly reward readers of nearly any interest level.' - J. Rogers in Choice "Pacific Strife is a well-written account of the great power rivalries in the Pacific that will appeal to all scholars and students working on the region in the time period under study." - Arnout van der Meer in Brill "An excellent historical review of the diplomatic, military, and economic activities in the pre-WWI Asia-Pacific region." - Hao-Li Lin, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsForeword Chapter one STEAM AND CANALS Chapter two RIVALRIES IN THE PACIFIC Chapter three PLANTERS, TRADERS AND SLAVERS IN THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC Chapter four FIJI: THE START OF ANGLO-GERMAN RIVALRY IN THE PACIFIC Chapter five THE SAMOA CONFLICT Chapter six GERMANY ENTERS THE COLONIAL RACE Chapter seven THE NEW GUINEA PROTECTORATES Chapter eight GREAT BRITAIN, RUSSIA AND THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION Chapter nine SAMOAN REMAINS A SOURCE OF INTERNATIONAL TENSION Chapter ten THE EMERGING ECONOMIC WORLD POWERS Chapter eleven GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE AND SOUTHEAST ASIA Chapter twelve THE FRENCH EXPANSION WESTWARDS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Chapter thirteen RUSSIA, JAPAN AND THE CHINESE EMPIRE Chapter fourteen THAILAND AND BEYOND Chapter fifteen THE SCRAMBLE FOR CHINA: JIOAZHOU AND PORT ARTHUR Chapter sixteen THE BRITISH REACTION: WEI-HAI-WEI Chapter seventeen THE SCRAMBLE FOR CHINA CONTINUES: GUANGZHOUWAN AND TIBET Chapter eighteen THE FAILED ANNEXATION OF HAWAII Chapter nineteen THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A COLONIAL EMPIRE Chapter twenty THE PARTITION OF SAMOA Chapter twenty-one THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR Chapter twenty-two GREAT BRITAIN'S SEARCH FOR SECURE COLONIAL FRONTIERS Chapter twenty-three THE UNITED STATES, JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN Chapter twenty-four EPILOGUE

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Book SynopsisThis collection of essays addresses the challenge of modern nationalism to the tsarist Russian Empire. First appearing on the empire’s western periphery this challenge, was most prevalent in twelve provinces extending from Ukrainian lands in the south to the Baltic provinces in the north, as well as to the Kingdom of Poland. At issue is whether the late Russian Empire entered World War I as a multiethnic state with many of its age-old mechanisms run by a multiethnic elite, or as a Russian state predominantly managed by ethnic Russians. The tsarist vision of prioritizing loyalty among all subjects over privileging ethnic Russians and discriminating against non-Russians faced a fundamental problem: as soon as the opportunity presented itself, non-Russians would increase their demands and become increasingly separatist. The authors found that although the imperial government did not really identify with popular Russian nationalism, it sometimes ended up implementing policies promoted by Russian nationalist proponents. Matters addressed include native language education, interconfessional rivalry, the “Jewish question,” the origins of mass tourism in the western provinces, as well as the emergence of Russian nationalist attitudes in the aftermath of the first Russian revolution.Trade Review"This volume represents a crucial and indispensable contribution to the ongoing debate on the “nationalization” of the late Russian empire, but it goes much further in problematizing the conceptual and practical entanglements between the analytical categories of “nation” and “empire,” as such. Therefore, the collection edited by Staliunas and Aoshima will be highly relevant for all students of nationalism and empire in Eurasia." https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/tsar-the-empire-and-the-nation-dilemmas-of-nationalization-in-russias-western-borderlands-19051915-ed-darius-staliunas-and-yoko-aoshima-historical-studies-in-eastern-europe-and-eurasia-vol-v-budapest-central-european-university-press-2021-400-pp-notes-tables-index-9500-hard-bound/DACF56A93B4900FB429BE112B8AF8CE4 -- Andrei Cusco * Slavic Review *"The present volume appears at a moment perhaps timelier than the editors anticipated. Focusing on the so-called western borderlands, an area that comprised the German-dominated Baltic, the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Kingdom of Poland (officially called the Vistula Land after 1863), the volume’s contributions focus on questions of nationality policy, confessional policy, education, and the Russian right in the period of the Duma monarchy. As a whole, the volume questions the significance of the constitutional changes of 1905 on nationality policy, suggesting that the willingness or unwillingness of centrally appointed officials to cooperate with nationalist politicians proved perhaps more decisive for the administration and political life of a given region than the press and religious freedoms granted along with the constitutional order." https://brill.com/view/journals/css/57/1-2/article-p238_17.xml -- Curtis G. Murphy * Canadian-American Slavic Studies *"Insgesamt untermauern die Aufsätze die Grundthese des Sammelbands überzeugend und auf verständliche Art und Weise. Durch ihre unterschiedlichen thematischen und räumlichen Schwerpunkte vermitteln sie den Gesamteindruck eines Imperiums, welches nicht wusste, was es in seinen westlichen Territorien langfristig erreichen wollte und daher in erster Linie bemüht war, das Schiff über Wasser zu halten. Darüber hinaus erweist es sich als gewinnbringend, den Blick auf eine mittlere Untersuchungsebene zwischen dem Dorf und dem gesamten Imperium zu richten sowie zeitlich auf die Schlüsseljahre zwischen der ersten Revolution und dem Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs zu fokussieren. Folglich ist den Beteiligten ein lesenswerter Beitrag zur Erforschung des Zarenreiches gelungen." http://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-118093 -- Georgiy Konovaltsev * H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsIntroduction Transformations of Imperial Nationality Policy Anton Kotenko: Inconsistently Nationalizing State: The Romanov Empire and the Ukrainian National Movement Darius Staliūnas: Challenges to Imperial Authorities’ Nationality Policy in the Northwest Region, 1905–15 Malte Rolf: What Is the “Russian Cause” and Whom Does It Serve? Russian Nationalists and Imperial Bureaucracy in the Kingdom of Poland Confessions in the Crossfire Vilma Žaltauskaitė: Interconfessional Rivalry in Lithuania after the Decree on Toleration Chiho Fukushima: The Struggle between Confessional and Nationalist Groups for the Chełm-Podlasian Region: the 1905 Decree on Tolerance and Former Uniates Transformations in Education Yoko Aoshima: Native Language Education in the Western Border Regions around 1905 Kimitaka Matsuzato: Politics around Universal Education in Right-bank Ukraine in the Late Tsarist Period Jolita Mulevičiūtė: To Sense an Empire: Russian Education Policy and the Origins of Mass Tourism in the Northwest Region Olga Mastianica: The Formation of Imperial Loyalty in the Education System in the Northwest Region in 1905–1915 The Problem of the Russian Right Vytautas Petronis: Right-Wing Russian Organizations in the City of Vil’na and the Northwestern Provinces, 1905–1915 Karsten Brüggemann: Defending the Empire in the Baltic Provinces: Russian Nationalist Visions in the Aftermath of the First Russian Revolution Vladimir Levin: Russian Jews and the Russian Right: Why There Were no Jewish Right-Wing Politics in the Late Russian Empire?

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Book SynopsisBetween 1900 and 1990, there were several periods of grain and other food shortages in Russia and the former Soviet Union, some of which reached disaster proportions resulting in mass famine and death on an unprecedented scale. New stocks of information not previously accessible as well as traditional official and other sources have been used to explore the extent to which policy and vagaries in climate conspired to affect agricultural yields. Were the leaders' (Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev) policies sound in theory but failed in practice because of unpredictable weather? How did the Soviet peasants react to these changes? What impact did Soviet agriculture have on the overall economy of the country? These are all questions that are taken into account.Trade Review"The book's most important contribution is its thorough and systematic overview of climatic changes, year by year, and their impact on the performance of Russian and Soviet agriculture. Given the profound impact of food supply problems at so many critical junctures in Russian and Soviet history, this thorough and rigorous survey deserves to be welcomed by all historians of Russia and the Soviet Union." * American Historical Review *"The "intrusion" of two specialists in environmental policies into historical studies of Russia should only be welcomed. Commonly for each chapter, the section on "weather variations and agricultural production," is the most interesting and contains the most new information. In these sections the authors fully exploit their expertise, usually lacking among humanist historians, and uncover technical sources (typically reports published by the Hydrometeorological Service) which are almost destined to be ignored by historians. The authors carefully try to identify to what extent each case of agricultural and food crisis in Soviet history was caused by climatic or political reasons." * Russian Review *Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Preface Chapter 1. Introduction: climate and agriculture in Russia Chapter 2. The availability and reliability of statistical agricultural data for Russia 2.1. The pre-revolutionary period (before 1916) 2.2. The post-revolutionary decade (1917–28) 2.3. The Stalin era (1929–53) 2.4. The post-Stalin period (after 1953) 2.5. Summary Chapter 3. The pre-revolutionary period (1900–16) 3.1. Major developments in agriculture 3.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 3.3. Food problems 3.4. Summary Chapter 4. The post-revolutionary period (1917–28) 4.1. Major developments in agriculture 4.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 4.3. Food problems 4.4. Summary Chapter 5. The collectivization of Soviet agriculture (1929–40) 5.1. Major developments in agriculture 5.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 5.3. Food problems 5.4. Summary Chapter 6. The post-war recovery period (1945–54) 6.1. Major developments in agriculture 6.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 6.3. Food problems 6.4. Summary Chapter 7. The virgin lands campaign (1955–64) 7.1. Major developments in agriculture 7.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 7.3. Food problems 7.4. Summary Chapter 8. Period of intensification of the Soviet agriculture (1965–75) 8.1. Major developments in agriculture 8.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 8.3. Food problems 8.4. Summary Chapter 9. Period of stagnation of the Soviet agriculture (1976–90) 9.1. Major developments in agriculture 9.2. Weather variations and agricultural production 9.3. Food problems 9.4. Summary Conclusion Glossary References

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Book SynopsisThis book defines Russophobia as the irrational fear of Russia, a key theme in the study of propaganda in the West as Russia has throughout history been assigned a diametrically opposite identity as the “Other.” Propaganda is the science of convincing an audience without appealing to reason. The West and Russia have been juxtaposed as Western versus Eastern, European versus Asiatic, civilized versus barbaric, modern versus backward, liberal versus autocratic, and even good versus evil. During the Cold War, ideological dividing lines fell naturally by casting the debate as capitalism versus communism, democracy versus totalitarianism, and Christianity versus atheism. After the Cold War, anti-Russian propaganda aims to filter all political questions through the simplistic binary stereotype of democracy versus authoritarianism, which provides little if any heuristic value to understand the complexities of relations. A key feature of propaganda against the inferior “Other” is both contemptuous derision and panic-stricken fear of the threat to civilization. Russia has therefore throughout history been allowed to play one of two roles—either an apprentice of Western civilization by accepting the subordinate role as the student and political object, or a threat that must be contained or defeated. While propaganda has the positive effect of promoting unity and mobilizing resources toward rational and strategic objectives, it can also have the negative effect of creating irrational decision-making and obstructing a workable peace.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Theorising propaganda. - Chapter 2. Stereotypes of anti-Russian propaganda. - Chapter 3. Source credibility: Herding the masses. - Chapter 4. Language and narratives in anti-Russian propaganda. - Chapter 5. Selling democracy: All nations are equal, but some are more equal than others. - Chapter 6. Russophobia against the political opposition. - Chapter 7. The conflict in Ukraine as a civilizational choice. - Chapter 8. The Syrian war and humanitarian interventionism. - Chapter 9. Propaganda and the risks from irrationality.

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Book SynopsisIt is human nature to want to fit in. The lengths people have gone to do so have provided creative minds with material for centuries. This book explores the consequences of being marked an outsider in the Russian-speaking world through a close study of several seminal works of Russian literature. The author combines the fields of literary studies, linguistics, and sociology to illuminate what prompted Christof Ruhl, an economist at the World Bank, to comment, about Russia, “On a very broad scale, it’s a country where people care about their family and friends. Their clan. But not their society.”Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Fitting in Russian Style1. The Crux of the Svoj/Chuzhoj Opposition2. Making Svoj/Chuzhoj Divisive in Alexander Griboedov’s “Woe from Wit”3. “Woe from Wit” as Social Gospel4. The Demons are SocialDemonsThe SettingThe PlotThe Audience and the StageThe OppositionVerkhovenskyA Stranger’s SinsThe First ArgumentThe Second ArgumentThe DuelAt Our People’sThe Murder of ShatovIn Place of a ConclusionBibliographyPrimary SourcesSecondary Sources

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