History of other geographical groupings Books

Book SynopsisIn this collection of essays, a range of established and early-career scholars explore a variety of different perspectives on Oliver Cromwell’s involvement with Ireland, in particular his military campaign of 1649-1650. In England and Wales Cromwell is regarded as a figure of national importance; in Ireland his reputation remains highly controversial. The essays gathered together here provide a fresh take on his Irish campaign, reassessing the backdrop and context of the prevailing siege warfare strategy and offering new insights into other major players such as Henry Ireton and the Marquis of Ormond. Other topics include, but are not limited to, the Cromwellian land settlement, deportation of prisoners and popular memory of Cromwell in Ireland. Overall, a picture emerges of a more moderate Cromwell than the version that has been passed down in Irish history, tradition and folklore.CONTRIBUTORS: Martyn Bennett, Heidi J. Coburn, Sarah Covington, John Cunningham, Eamon Darcy, David Farr, Padraig Lenihan, Alan Marshall, Nick Poyntz, Tom Reilly, James Scott WheelerTrade Review'This volume represents a substantial addition to our knowledge of Cromwell and the period... Above all, it places Cromwell in his context, his position within a wider military machine, his influence on Ireland after his return to England, and it helps to understand his role in the collective memory.'Coleman A. Dennehy, The Seventeenth Century 'This is a book about the physical and mental worlds within which Cromwell operated in his nine months in Ireland... it is a rich and well-written compendium.'John Morrill, Cromwelliana'[Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives] represents a tangible advance on the contrasting and incompatible depictions of the Cromwellian era as years of unrelenting repression or years of reform ... the volume helps to explain the enduring fascination with a man who was convinced he was doing God's work.' James Kelly, Studia Hibernia‘[Cromwell and Ireland] does indeed offer important new perspectives… Cromwell’s legacy in Ireland is a complicated one, and the nuanced insights offered here will go a long way to complicating interpretations, increasing understanding, and generating further debate. Students and scholars alike will find many new and provocative insights in this collection.’ John Patrick Montaño, Journal of British StudiesTable of ContentsCromwell at War in Ireland Drogheda and Wexford, 1649Tom ReillySiege Massacres in Ireland, 1641–1647Padraig LenihanOliver Cromwell and the Siege of Clonmel, April-May 1650Alan MarshallOfficersHenry Ireton in Ireland, 1649–1651: Oliver Cromwell’s “second self”?David FarrGod’s Wall of Brass: Cromwell’s Generals in Ireland, 1649–1650Martyn BennettOrmond and Cromwell: The Struggle for IrelandJames Scott WheelerThe Settlement of IrelandCromwellian Transplantations of the Irish to the ColoniesHeidi J. CoburnA Scramble for Ireland: Cromwell and the Land SettlementJohn CunninghamCromwell’s LegacyThe Social Memory of Oliver Cromwell in Ireland c.1660s–c.1730sEamon Darcy“This day by letters severall from hands”: J. G. Muddiman and News from DroghedaNick PoyntzThe Folkloric Afterlife of Oliver Cromwell in IrelandSarah Covington

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Book SynopsisAfrica. The cradle of civilisation. From the dawn of human time in prehistoric Africa right through to the so-called 'Arab Spring' of 2011, Gordon Kerr offers a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous continent. He begins with the origins of the human race and the development of stone age technology, through ancient and medieval times and the significance of the Arab presence, the Muslim states and the trans-Saharan trade. Kerr continues with the rise and fall of nation states and kingdoms prior to the arrival of Europeans , Ghana, the Kingdoms of the Forest and Savanna, Yoruba, Oyo, Benin, Asante, Luba, Lunda, Lozi and many others, on to the beginning of the slave trade, and the European conquest and colonization of sub-Saharan Africa, the 'Scramble for Africa'. Finally moving onto the often bitter struggles for independence from that period of colonization and exploitation, Kerr concludes with an assessment of Africa in the 21st century.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the policy and practice of the insanity clauses within the immigration controls of New Zealand and the Commonwealth of Australia. It reveals those charged with operating the legislation to be non-psychiatric gatekeepers who struggled to match its intent. Regardless of the evolution in language and the location at which a migrant’s mental suitability was assessed, those with ‘inherent mental defects’ and ‘transient insanity’ gained access to these regions. This book accounts for the increased attempts to medicalise border control in response to the widening scope of terminology used for mental illnesses, disabilities and dysfunctions. Such attempts co-existed with the promotion of these regions as ‘invalids’ paradises’ by governments, shipping companies, and non-asylum doctors. Using a bureaucratic lens, this book exposes these paradoxes, and the failings within these nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Australasian nation-state building exercises.Trade Review“This book adds considerable depth to other histories examining what was a defining era in the creation of Australia’s and NZ’s immigration restrictions. … Kain’s forensic analysis of the ways in which ideas, ideology, ethics, policy and practice intersected in this period is a critical contribution to the history of immigration in both countries, and a welcome addition to the public conversation today on issues of mental health, tolerance towards immigrants and refugees, and the trauma of seeking asylum … .” (Ruth Balint, The Journal of New Zealand Studies, JNZS, Issue 32, June, 2021)“The contemporary politics of border control make this a timely work­­—and in the year of COVID-19 perhaps even more so. This is a valuable study of a little-known administrative practice, a subject that deserves attention alongside more familiar histories of racially based immigration histories.” (Mark Finnane, Health and History, Vol. 22 (2), 2020)“Strength of Kain’s book is its ability to bring out paradoxes and contradictions in colonial immigration policy and practice. … this is a good and accessible history of Australasian colonial border control generally, as well as a major contribution to our understanding of the history of psychiatry and mental health in the Anglosphere.” (Philippa Martyr, Reviews in History, February 21, 2020)Table of Contents1 Introduction.- 2 Populating Australasia with Sound Minds.- Part I: New Zealand.- 3 Nation-Building, Agent Generals and Imported Lunatics, New Zealand, 1870 to 1879.- 4 Imbecile Passengers and Commercial Paradoxes, New Zealand, 1880 to 1898.- 5 Deportation, Domicile and Mental Deficiency, New Zealand, 1899 to 1930.- Part II: The Commonwealth of Australia.- 6. The ‘Insane’ and the White Australia Policy, 1901 to 1912.- 7. Eugenics and Border Control, Australia, 1912 to 1920.- 8 1. Effective Border Machinery, Ineffective Mental Equipment, Australia 1920 to 1930.- 9. Conclusion.-

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Book SynopsisOn 16 April 1620, Raghunatha Nayak of Tanjore invited Danes to settle down and establish trade in Tharangampadi known also as Tranquebar. Over the next 225 years, several hundred Danes made Tranquebar their home, and over a thousand found their resting place here. During this period, printing was established by German missionaries, a Protestant mission was founded, science and arts flourished, an astronomical observatory was set up and an exploration of the Nicobar Islands took place. The town had to be rescued several times from impending wars. This book shows glimpses of this exciting period from the remains left by the Danes. Arranged as a walking tour of the town, we pass by places where significant people lived and noteworthy events took place.

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Book SynopsisIn this wide-ranging study, Stephen Stuempfle explores the transformation of the landscape (material environment) of Port of Spain from the cocoa boom era at the turn of the twentieth century through Trinidad and Tobago’s independence from Britain in 1962. In addition to outlining the creative work of planners, architects, engineers and builders, he examines depictions of the city in journalism, travel literature, fiction, photographs and maps, and elucidates how diverse social groups employed urban spaces both in their day-to-day lives and for public celebrations and protests.Over the course of the seven decades considered, Port of Spain was a dynamic centre for interactions among British officials; American entrepreneurs, military personnel and tourists; and a rapidly growing local population that both perpetuated and challenged the colonial regime. Many people perceived the city as a vanguard space – a locale for pursuing new opportunities and experiences.By drawing on a rich array of written and visual sources, Stuempfle immerses the reader in the sights and sounds of the city’s streets, parks, yards and various buildings to reveal how this complex environment evolved as a realm of collective endeavour and imagination. He argues that the urban landscape served as a key site for the display and negotiation of Trinidad’s social order during its gradual transition from colonial rule to self-government. For Port of Spain’s inhabitants, the construction of a modern capital city was interrelated, both practically and symbolically, with the building of a society and a new nation-state.

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Book SynopsisZvi Preigerzon wrote memoirs about his time in the Gulag in 1958, long before Solzhenitsyn and without any knowledge of the other publications on this subject. It was one of the first eyewitness accounts of the harsh reality of Soviet Gulags. Even after the death of Stalin, when the whole Gulag system was largely disbanded, writing about them could be regarded as an act of heroism. Preigerzon attempted to document and analyze his own prison camp experience and portray the Jewish prisoners he encountered in forced labor camps. Among these people, we meet scientists, engineers, famous Jewish writers and poets, young Zionists, a devoted religious man, a horse wagon driver, a Jewish singer of folk songs, and many, many others. As Preigerzon put it, “Each one had his own story, his own soul, and his own tragedy.”Trade Review“This memoir, covering the author’s years in and out of labor and prison camps up to his release in 1955, describes the oppressive network of the Gulag; its social hierarchies, whose prisoners ranged from hardened criminals to Party members; and his relationships with Jews of every stripe, from former student radicals to Lubavitcher Chassidim… [T]he author’s heartfelt style shines through. His love of heritage is expressed in modern Hebrew language and literature, and his straightforward prose shows a certain innocence, as well as acceptance of the society around him. … [A] fascinatingly human glimpse into a world perceived as soulless, as well as testament to a painful Russian legacy…”— Hallie Cantor, AJL News & Reviews“Few of the millions of men and women who survived the Gulag were able to leave a record of what they had witnessed and endured. Such memoirs are a testament to the writer’s courage as well as an invaluable source on one of the great horrors of the twentieth century. Arrested on a trumped-up charge in 1949, Zvi Preigerzon, a respected professor of mineralogy and a published Hebrew writer and poet, was tortured by the secret police and subsequently spent several years in some of the most terrible camps in the Soviet penal system until his release after the death of the dictator Stalin. Preigerzon’s reminiscences, composed in spare but highly descriptive prose and beautifully translated by his grandson, contain moving descriptions of the author’s struggle to retain his religious and professional identity under the most brutal of circumstances. Vivid portraits of the people, good, evil, and fair-to-middling, he met behind the barbed wire and stories of covert and overt acts of resistance by the author and his fellow prisoners round off this epic account of how one man’s spirit triumphed over rampant, pervasive ideological evil.”— Richard Tempest, Professor, Department of Slavic Languages, University of IllinoisTable of ContentsIntroductionAuthor’s ForewordPart 1. ArrestPart 2. InterrogationCitizen Lieutenant ColonelLefortovo PrisonMy Hebrew WritingThe MGB InformerThe InterrogationThe Initial ProtocolsTaraskinThe Letter to Ben-GurionThe Concluding ProtocolThe Encounter with BaazovForm 206Part 3. Butyrka PrisonThe SentencingChurch CellThe Jewish TheaterPart 4. On the Way to KaragandaThe Stolypin CarriagePart 5. KaragandaSand CampCamp RulesMy Morning PrayerMeir BaazovThe InventionThieves and BitchesPart 6. The Eynikeyt GroupAlik HodorkovskyEliyahu MishpatmanSasha SucherMisha SpivakVolodya KerzmanMeir HelfandZhmerynkaThe GhettoThe Zionist GroupPart 7. The People in Karaganda CampYechezkel PulerevitchAharon KricheliDr. Leon LemenevItzhak Kahanov (Kogan)Motl GrubianKreinmanLeib PashtandikerJabotinskyMichail YankovskyBokovErmakovOther Characters in Karaganda CampPart 8. In Karaganda Transfer CampAbraham ShtukarevichIsrael AvrovichZinovy Shulman and Lublin Gymnasia in OdessaGittermanPart 9. On the Way to IntaMichael IbambletovKononenkoAlexey IvanovichOstrovskyPart 10. Inta Mineral Prison CampPart 11. 4th Abez Prison CampThe Engineering TeamSuchoruchkoLihachevKalininKarginBoris IvanovichZelenyIsaak HoffmanShmuel HalkinLeib StronginGregory ShitzYakov ShternbergWeissmanThe CoachmanPart 12. VorkutaBarracks Number 18KuznetsovStalinskyKostia Amarnetov1st River CampSteinShkolnikReminiscence of OdessaKaplinskyCapitalnaya Mine Technical Control DepartmentCoal SortingGetting PaidPart 13. The 9th Vorkuta Prison CampThe Beginning of Coal Enrichment WorkThe Laboratory of Professor StadnikovPart 14. My Fellow Jewish Prisoners in the 9th Vorkuta CampDavid CohenLeonid KantargyYosef KerlerRotenbergHesinSolomon FaymanShaya BilikMordechai ShenkarLeonid AronovShmuel FerdmanMenachem LeviBoris DinaburgMichail ShulmanSasha EisorovichGeorge GrinPart 15. Work on Coal Enrichment: Fresh WindsThe New LaboratoryFresh WindsThe Rudnik Laboratory and Transfer to the 40th Prison CampThe Home of Haim and Nehama SolzPart 16. Release from Vorkuta Prison CampImages

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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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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Perhaps that is Zhadan’s greatest achievement. Transforming Kharkiv into Mesopotamia, he renders it as a place of irrepressible life and inexhaustible love. And, in doing so, he urges us out and into the world, to be with and for each other. His Ukraine is a republic of love.”—Jacob Reynolds, Spiked“To say that Serhiy Zhadan is a great Ukrainian novelist of whom you might not have heard does not begin to cover it. Serhiy Zhadan is one of the most important creators of European culture at work today. His novels, poems, and songs touch millions. This loving translation is a chance to see Ukraine in terms other than the familiar, but more importantly a chance to allow prose to mend your mind.”—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny“One of the most astounding novels to come out of modern Ukraine. Mesopotamia is seductive, twisted, brilliant, and fierce. It brings to mind our own fiction from a time when we still felt like we had something to fight for and a chance we could win.”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure and Absurdistan“Unlike Joyce’s Dublin, the cradle of Zhadan’s civilization is a place of refuge for young people fleeing hardscrabble lives in the provinces, and a hardscrabble home for natives buoyed by desire yet adrift amid the flotsam of a spent empire. The men and women in these comic and heartfelt pages endure the dynamic paralysis that comes over those who are all dressed up with nowhere to go. They aspire, struggle, fight, fail, drink, fuck, and then they fight some more. Amid the city’s detritus, they refuse to become part of it by continuing to love and dream. There is nothing marginal about them. They insist on being seen, heard, understood. They will charm and madden you. They will haunt your dreams, and you will never forget them.”—Askold Melnyczuk, author of House of Widows“To say that Serhiy Zhadan is a poet, a novelist, a rock star, a protester, a symbol of his country’s desire for freedom and change, is to say the truth—but what is truth? Zhadan is a literary master of enormous force. At times he combines the energy of Jack Kerouac and atmospheric spell of Isaac Babel, at other times he is a balladeer of his country’s struggle. ‘Such strange things have been happening to us,’ he writes, of the streets where ‘winters are not like winters / winters live under assumed names.’ In Mesopotamia’s nine stories and thirty poems we find ourselves in the newly independent Ukraine, stunned by its grit, its rough backbone—and its tenderness. What do we discover here? That ‘Light is shaped by darkness / and it’s all up to us.’ We also discover that Serhiy Zhadan is one of those rare things—almost impossible to find now in the West—a national bard, a chronicler. This is a book to live with.”—Ilya Kaminsky“Zhadan is the rock star of lyrical melancholy, and Mesopotamia is not just a book of short stories but a cosmos with Kharkiv-Babylon at its center. We meet its lovesick citizens at weddings and funerals; their visceral, fantastical lives unfold in the intensely prophetic atmosphere of the upcoming war.”— Valzhyna Mort, author of Factory of Tears “With tales at once earthy and phantasmagorical, sentimental and anarchic, Zhadan is an exhilarating chronicler of a new kind of borderlands.”—Sana Krasikov “Mesopotamia offers a sublime experience of taking you right to the middle of a very specific world, where you eat and drink and love and fight and die with the characters, until you notice that that world has transcended the time and place and became part of the eternal human story.”—Lara Vapnyar, author of Still Here: A Novel “Serhiy Zhadan’s dazzling novel—here fantastically well translated—evokes voices that get under our skin and take us into the rich inner life of people about whom we have long known nothing.”—Marci Shore, author of The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution “Mesopotamia finds poetry in the most unlikely places—in the bars, tower blocks, and concrete boulevards of a Ukrainian city. By turns funny, shocking, and touching, weaving between the lyrical and the grotesque, Zhadan’s stories provide a lesson in belonging.”—Uilleam Blacker, University College London “To know Dublin, read your Joyce, for Macondo, García Márquez, and for Mesopotamia, Serhiy Zhadan. Of course this Mesopotamia is not the Birthplace of Civilization (or is it?), it’s Kharkiv, the Ukrainian Center of Nothing, located smack-dab on the Russian border, which, in Zhadan’s brilliant vision, is smack-dab in the middle of life lived beyond the fullest because any second could be your last, creaming with joy, madness, war, orgasm, stupidity, and a blinding light that smells like the essence of human spirit. We need to learn from Ukraine. Zhadan is a masterful teacher. The use of poetry as Notes—so far as I know, this has never been done before and is positively Nabokovian. This book is world-class literature.”—Bob Holman, author of Sing This One Back To Me “Mesopotamia is a portrait of post-Soviet Ukraine’s lost generation, of people who came of age in the disorienting conditions of crumbling Soviet order and stagnating social transformation. Serhiy Zhadan gives voice to his generation from Ukraine’s eastern regions bordering Russia. These are the people who have been missing from contemporary literature, whether in Ukrainian or in any other language. To understand the background to the crisis in this region, which has had such a major impact on the world recently, perhaps no other writer can provide insights as powerful as Zhadan.”—Vitaly Chernetsky, University of Kansas “Serhiy Zhadan has written a love song to contemporary Eastern Ukraine—vices, passions, and ghosts included. His Kharkiv is filled with gritty stairwells, red nightgowns, raw love, and a bit of magic. Costigan-Humes and Wheeler have brought Zhadan’s evocative prose to life for the English reader.”—Amelia Glaser, University of California, San Diego

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Book SynopsisOn April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in the Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, are suffering the effects. This title examines the vexed political, scientific, and social circumstances that followed the disaster.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2006 New Millenium Award, Society of Medical Anthropology Co-Winner of the 2003 Sharon Stephens First Book Prize, American Ethnological Society "Petryna's ethnographic approach consciously shapes her account and illuminates it with detail that historians of the future will treasure."--Jeanne Guillemin, Medical Humanities Review "The book presents exceptionally rich anthropological material generated through observations and interviews... The true scope of the human tragedy caused by this man-made catastrophe comes to the fore via biological stories of Petryna's informants."--Larissa Remennick, Journal of the American Medical Association "There is nothing comparable. Very well written, it will be of major interest to readers in risk analysis and risk sociology, science studies, and political science, as well as to anyone interested in the consequences of megatechnologies."--Ulrich Beck, author of World at Risk "[Chernobyl] is a dramatic and important story, and Life Exposed is a compelling book... [A]n important study that will interest a wide anthropological audience."--Jonathan P. Parry, Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables xi Introduction to the 2013 Edition xiii Acknowledgments xxxiii Note on Transliteration xxxvii Chapter 1 Life Politics after Chernobyl 1 * Time Lapse 1 * A Technogenic Catastrophe 9 * Nation Building 20 * Experimental Systems 25 * Docta Ignorantia 27 * The Unstoppable Course of Radiation Illness 32 Chapter 2 Technical Error: Measures of Life and Risk 34 * A Foreign Burden 34 * Saturated Grid 36 * Institute of Biophysics, Moscow 39 * Soviet-American Cooperation 41 * Safe Living Politics 49 * Life Sciences 55 * Risk In Vivo 59 Chapter 3 Chernobyl in Historical Light 63 * How to Remember Then 64 * New City of Bila-Skala 66 * Vitalii 67 * Contracts of Truth 69 * Oksana 70 * Anna 72 * Requiem for Storytelling 76 Chapter 4 Illness as Work: Human Market Transition 82* City of Sufferers 82 * Capitalist Transition 92 * Nothing to Buy and Nothing to Sell 94 * Medical-Labor Committees 102 * Disability Claims 107 * Illness for Life 113 Chapter 5 Biological Citizenship 115 * Remediation Models 115 * Normalizing Catastrophe 119 * Suffering and Medical Signs 121 * Domestic Neurology 126 * Disability Groups 130 * Law, Medicine, and Corruption 138 * Material Basis of Health 143 Chapter 6 Local Science and Organic Processes 149 * Social Rebuilding 149 * Radiation Research 151 * Between the Lesional and the Psychosocial 156 * New Sociality 165 * Doctor-Patient Relations 174 * No One Is Hiding Anything Anymore 176 * In the Middle of the Experiment 181 Chapter 7 Self and Social Identity in Transition 191 * Anton and Halia 191 * Beyond the Family: Kvartyra and Public Voice 194 * Medicalized Selves 201 * Everyday Violence 206 * Lifetime 212 Chapter 8 Conclusion 215 Notes 221 Bibliography 239 Index 253

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Book SynopsisA radical history of Turkey, from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the present day, rejecting traditional narratives of a 'clash of civilisations'Trade Review'Wrests us out of the stale narratives of Islam vs. secularism, offering a new way of understanding one of the most important questions in Turkey today: why despite so much democratic promise, its fundamental political structure returns to authoritarianism again and again' -- Suzy Hansen, author of Notes on a Foreign Country (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017)'Informative and authoritative Karaveli's analysis of Turkish politics should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand Turkey's relentless retreat from democracy' -- Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History, The University of Michigan, and author of 'They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else': A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton, 2015)Table of ContentsSeries Preface Timeline List of Illustrations Introduction 1. A Pattern of Violence 2. Kemalism and the Left 3. Capitalist Foundation 4. How the Right Won the People 5. Social Democratic Hope 6. Vengeance of the Right 7. The Rise of the Islamists Epilogue: Class, Identity and Democracy Afterword: Attacking the Kurds - The 'Return' of Kemalism Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the various Russian sources, this title covers an array of topics, including the Bolshevik rise to power and World War I as the catalyst and cradle, respectively, of the Revolution. It conveys the boldness and diversity of the revolutionaries aspirations as well as the ways in which the Revolution affected the lives of ordinary people.Trade ReviewThis much-needed collection brings to life the many layers and processes of the Russian Revolution. The individual documents are beautifully translated and well introduced. Thanks to the newly available sources provided here, we can see and understand the imagination-defying events of the Revolution more clearly and deeply. --Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist UniversityAn excellent anthology. . . . [This] book has a wide range of selections, which offers the students a deep understanding of the many different voices and groups in Russia during this time. The introductions to the selections are clear and place the documents within their historical context. The selections are very interesting and informative. I would strongly recommend this book for undergraduate classes in modern Russian history. The book makes this very complex period come to life by giving such a broad selection of documents. --Mary Louise Loe, James Madison UniversityOne of the key strengths of the work is its accessibility: the individual documents are clearly and concisely introduced; any outstanding discrepancies are annotated throughout; and a useful chronology and glossary are found at the end of the text. For the specialist, a number of the documents will be familiar, as the editors make use of old favourites. . . But there is also a significant amount of less familiar and fresh material for the expert eye. . . . This documentary history will no doubt become the key primary source collection for undergraduates and teachers of the Russian revolutions and civil war. It is organized and annotated with impressive clarity and offers an inexpensive, up-to-date, wideranging and balanced approach to the many diverse features of the revolutions. --Revolutionary RussiaTable of ContentsIntroduction; Lesson I; Lesson II; Lesson III; Lesson IV; Lesson V; Lesson VI; Lesson VII; Lesson VIII; Lesson IX; Lesson X; Lesson XI; Lesson XII; Lesson XIII; Lesson XIV; Index.

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Book SynopsisNamed a Best Book of the Year by The Economist ? Winner of the Peterson Literary Prize?Our Enemies Will Vanish achieves the highest level of war reporting: a tough, detailed account that nevertheless reads like a great novel. One is reminded of Michael Herr''s Dispatches . . . Frankly, it''s what we have all aspired to. I did not really understand Ukraine until I read Trofimov''s account.??Sebastian JungerA revelatory eyewitness account of Russia?s invasion of Ukraine and heroism of the Ukrainian people in their resistance by Yaroslav Trofimov, the Ukrainian chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimovhas spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war?s decisive moments?from the battle for Kyivto more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut?to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia, one of the world?s great military powers, in a modern-day battle of David and Goliath. Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to seesaw to this day. This is the story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people?people Trofimovknows very well.For Trofimov, this war is deeply personal. He grew up in Kyivand his family has lived there for generations. With deep empathy and local understanding, Trofimov tells the story of how everyday Ukrainian citizens?doctors, computer programmers, businesspeople, and schoolteachers?risked their lives and lost loved ones. He blends their brave and tragic stories with expert military analysis, providing unique insight into the thinking of Ukrainian leadership and mapping out the decisive stages of what has become a perilous war for Ukraine, the Putin regime, and indeed, the world.This brutal, catastrophic struggle is unfolding on another continent, but the United States and its NATO allies have become deeply implicated. As the war drags on, it threatens to engulf the world. We cannot look away. At once heart-breaking and inspiring, Our Enemies Will Vanish is a riveting, vivid, and first-hand account of the Ukrainian refusal to surrender. It is the story of ordinary people fighting not just for their homes and their families but for justice and democracy itself.

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Book SynopsisHow succession in authoritarian regimes was less a competition of visions for the future and more a settling of scoresTrade Review“[Torigian] is less interested in coalitions than the mechanics of transfers. Challenging conventional analyses of how authoritarian leaders are chosen, he argues that factors such as ideology and patronage matter less than brass-knuckle tactics.”—Ian Johnson, New York Review of Books“Do read Torigian’s Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion. . . . It’s great.”—Stuart Lau, Politico“Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion . . . is . . . useful for those interested in understanding how actors in Leninist systems fight for power.”—Martin Laflamme, Los Angeles Review of Books“[Torigian’s] ambitious first book re-examines critical junctures in Soviet and Chinese history, putting up a revisionist case against the consensus view of Deng Xiaoping and Nikita Khrushchev as reformers.”—John Delury, Global Asia“[S]pecialists will find much to ponder in this careful, detailed examination of a critical question in the functioning of authoritarian regimes.”—Mary Elise Sarotte, Engelsberg Ideas“[A] thought-provoking, rigorous contribution to the literature on elite politics under authoritarianism. . . . This book deserves to be widely read by scholars and students of Soviet and Chinese politics, communism, and authoritarianism in general.”—Cheng Chen, Russian Review“A careful and systematic comparison of the dynamics of leadership transition in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and post-Mao China.”—Peter Rutland, Political Science Quarterly“[Torigian’s] work is absolutely outstanding.”—Stephen Kotkin, ChinaTalk“The book makes a compelling case for the value of Sino-Soviet-Russian comparisons. . . . Must-reading for social scientists. . . . A major achievement.”—Thomas P. Bernstein, China Journal“Joseph Torigian makes a major contribution to the literature on authoritarian politics.”—Victor Shih, China Quarterly“There is much to ponder . . . [in] the novelty, analytical rigour and excellence of what is a demanding comparative study.”—S. A. Smith, Slavonic and Eastern European Review“The best account of the transition from Mao to Hua to Deng is Joseph Torigian’s book Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion.”—Neil Thomas, Asia Society Policy Institute“Joseph Torigian’s stellar research and personal interviews have produced a brilliant, meticulous study. It fundamentally undermines what political scientists have presumed to be the way Chinese Communist and Soviet politics operate.”—Dorothy J. Solinger, University of California, Irvine“Joseph Torigian combines history and political science in a remarkably acute and innovative study of leadership politics in the Soviet Union and China. It will help us understand authoritarian regimes today.”—David Holloway, Stanford University

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Book SynopsisWhen the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, they set themselves the task of building socialism in the vast landscape of the former Russian Empire, a territory populated by hundreds of different peoples belonging to a multitude of linguistic, religious, and ethnic groups. Before 1917, the Bolsheviks had called for the national self-determination of all peoples and had condemned all forms of colonization as exploitative. After attaining power, however, they began to express concern that it would not be possible for Soviet Russia to survive without the cotton of Turkestan and the oil of the Caucasus. In an effort to reconcile their anti-imperialist position with their desire to hold on to as much territory as possible, the Bolsheviks integrated the national idea into the administrative-territorial structure of the new Soviet state. In Empire of Nations, Francine Hirsch examines the ways in which former imperial ethnographers and local elites provided the Bolsheviks with ethnographTrade ReviewHirsch does not simply... posit another ideological or epistemological model of Soviet history. She instead provides a completely new kind of analysis. Her book is more than an innovative study of high quality; it stakes out a position that cannot fail to have a long-standing impact on the historiography of the Soviet state. -- Marina Mogil'ner * Ab Imperio *Referring to the Soviet Union as an 'empire of nations,' Hirsch demonstrates through prodigious research how ethnographers from the former tsarist regime collaborated with the Leninists to shape the new state. Hers is the tale of a modernizing, self-styled scientific state that imposed categories, names, and programs on ethnic populations with relatively little say in their own fate.... Empire of Nations is an exceptionally rich book and a significant addition to the growing literature on the construction of the Soviet state. Beautifully written and clearly presented even when the story hovers on complicated administrative matters, Hirsch's account of the Soviet Union as a 'work in progress' that neither began with a blueprint nor achieved completion reaffirms the now widely accepted view of nation-formation as a process of human intervention and invention. -- Ronald Grigor Suny * The Moscow Times *This innovative and important book reinterprets the formation of the Soviet Union in the years after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Instead of focusing on the views of the Soviet leadership and the events surrounding the official formation of the Soviet Union in 1922, Hirsch takes a broader perspective on the processes involved with establishing a nationalities policy in the Soviet Union from the prerevolutionary background through the 1930s by looking at the activities of experts and local elites, among others. Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart One. Empire, Nation, and the Scientific State1. Toward a Revolutionary Alliance2. The National Idea versus Economic ExpediencyPart Two. Cultural Technologies of Rule and the Nature of Soviet Power3. The 1926 Census and the Conceptual Conquest of Lands and Peoples4. Border-Making and the Formation of Soviet National Identities5. Transforming "The Peoples of the USSR": Ethnographic Exhibits and the Evolutionary TimelinePart Three. The Nazi Threat and the Acceleration of the Bolshevik Revolution6. State-Sponsored Evolutionism and the Struggle against German Biological Determinism7. Ethnographic Knowledge and TerrorEpilogueAppendixes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Black Watch is one of the finest fighting forces in the world and has been engaged in virtually every worldwide conflict for the last three centuries. Named after the dark tartan of the soldiers'' kilts, it is the oldest Highland regiment. As part of the British army, their first battle abroad was in Flanders in 1745 but the regiment soon moved to North America to fight the French, and then shared the capture of Montreal, the Windward Islands and Martinique. The American War of Independence saw the regiment once again in America, fighting horrific battles and eventually storming Fort Washington in 1776. Since then the regiment has held its own from the Napoleonic Wars to the Indian mutiny to Iraq. The Black Watch is the UK''s most decorated regiment, combining the proud history and tradition of an organisation that has been soldiering for over 250 years.Trade ReviewA compelling account of an often heroic history * THE SCOTSMAN *Parker laces his narrative of the broad sweep of military events with poignant snapshots * GLASGOW HERALD *A cracking tale of courage... a wonderfully readable account * FOCUS *

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Book SynopsisPresenting tales of noble intentions, novel inventions, and epic miscalculations, The Greatest Show in the Arctic brings fresh life to a unique and underappreciated story of American exploration.Trade ReviewAs this thoughtful and finely textured book makes clear, Franz Josef Land represented the spectacular final act of America's Arctic quest. A story of noble intentions, new inventions, and epic miscalculations playing out on the icy shores of an Arctic archipelago, this is a drama that once commanded the attention of the world."" - Michael F. Robinson, author of The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture""Superbly written and deftly researched, P. J. Capelotti's The Greatest Show in the Arctic is vastly more than a comic saga. It sheds considerable light on a previously obscure cast of explorers and on the history of Franz Josef Land, one of the least-studied regions in the Far North. Of all the Arctic books I've read in recent years, I'd rank Capelotti's very close to the top. It is astonishingly good. - Lawrence Millman, author of Last Places: A Journey in the North

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Book SynopsisPublished to coincide with the centenary of the first expeditions to reach the South Pole, this book presents a fresh take on Antarctic exploration. By focusing on the larger purpose, it deepens our appreciation of the explorers' achievements, shares little-known stories, and shows what the Heroic Age of Antarctic discovery was really about.Trade Review"'In this fascinating book... Larson's intriguing accounts begin to reveal the bigger picture of early scientific research in Antarctica and its place in European geopolitics of the time.' (Michael Bravo, New Scientist) 'Larson is a brilliant researcher, going far beyond the standard source materials, so even devotees of polar literature will learn things' (Jennifer Kingson, The Scotsman) 'This is a great and needed book, highly worth reading whether your Antarctic focus is history or science.' (The Antarctican Society Newsletter)"

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Book SynopsisThe spirited stories in Heart of the Cariboo-Chilcotin capture the severity and grace of the distinct pioneer culture that resides in British Columbia''s rugged Central Interior. It''s an area with a provocative history, plenty of colourful individuals and a wealth of literary talent. The writers in this volume come from different periods, places and occupations, each bringing a unique voice that adds to the diversity of the whole. A First Nations girl escapes her kidnappers. Greenhorn settlers outgun dangerous criminals. A young cowboy confronts the terrors, and revels in the thrills, of his first roundup. Occasionally shocking and always entertaining, these people stories celebrate and preserve the Cariboo-Chilcotin way of life.

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Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Romanovs—and one of our pre-eminent historians—comes “a meticulously researched, authoritative biography” (The New York Times), the companion volume to the prize-winning Stalin, and essential reading for anyone interested in Russian history. This revelatory account unveils how Stalin became Stalin, examining his shadowy journey from obscurity to power—from master historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. Based on ten years of research, Young Stalin is a brilliant prehistory of the USSR, a chronicle of the Revolution, and an intimate biography.  Montefiore tells the story of a charismatic, darkly turbulent boy born into poverty, scarred by his upbringing but possessed of unusual talents. Admired as a romantic poet and trained as a priest, he found his true mission as a murderous revolutionary. Here is the dramatic story of his friendships and hatreds, his many love affairs, his complicated relationship with the Tsarist secret police, and how he became the merciless politician who shaped the Soviet Empire in his own brutal image.

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Book SynopsisThe Life and Death of Theodore of Stoudios collects three important works promoting the influential Constantinople monastery of Stoudios and the memory of its founder, who is celebrated as a saint in the Orthodox Church for defending icon veneration. New editions of the Byzantine Greek texts appear alongside the first English translations.

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Book SynopsisThe true story of the greatest mystery of Arctic exploration—and the rare mix of marine science and Inuit knowledge that led to the shipwreck’s recent discovery.Trade Review"... his [Paul Watson's] account of the final uncovering of Erebus and Terror wrecks is riveting..." -- The Observer"... Watson has produced a primer for the whole sorry saga and given us a comprehensive account of a gripping story: one which, like that of Shackleton, will engross readers until the next Ice Age." -- Sara Wheeler - Times Literary Supplement"... Paul Watson’s Ice Ghosts provides a gripping account of the uncovering of the wrecks of Erebus and Terror, the lost ships of John Franklin’s doomed 19th -century expedition to sail the North west Passage." -- Science Books of the Year 2017 - The Observer"This fascinating book weaves together the story of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845 and the remarkable people and events that led to the shipwreck’s discovery in 2014." -- Choice

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Book of the Week and Top 10 Bestseller A Waterstones Travel Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the YearTrade Review‘Maconie is a funny, astute writer, alert to the absurd.’ Sunday Times Book of the Week ‘Observant and witty.’ The Times ‘The deceptive lightness and accessibility of Maconie’s writing lead us gently though what is actually a deep dive into this most mysterious of peoples.’ Jonathan Coe, The Guardian 'Chatty and cheerful.' Graham Robb Spectator Books of the Year ‘Thoughtful and characteristically entertaining.’ Waterstones Books of the Year ‘Maconie catches the exhausted national mood beautifully.’ New Statesman ‘Takes the temperature of the English at this point in time.’ Hugo Rifkind ‘This might be Maconie’s best book yet. … What a treat to read such a clear-eyed but warm-hearted evocation of the country.’ Daily Express Praise for Stuart Maconie… ‘As funny as Bryson and as wise as Orwell.’ The Observer ‘The best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton.’ Peter Kay ‘A fine writer: sharp, funny, tender and thoughtful.’ The Spectator ‘A funny, lyrical writer who prefers to persuade rather than browbeat.’ Mail on Sunday ‘Maconie's engaging, conversational prose is full of telling detail, jokes and deft quotation.’ The Telegraph

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Book SynopsisA prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin—not Hitler—was the animating force of World War II in this major new history.World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war. Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary. McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army. This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism. A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the current world order. 

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Book SynopsisNikolai Bukharin (18881938), an original Bolshevik leader and a founder of the Soviet state, spent the last year of his life imprisoned by Stalin, awaiting a trial and eventual execution. Remarkably during that time, from March 1937 to March 1938, Bukharin wrote four book-length manuscripts by hand in his prison cell. Seventy years later, The Prison Poems is the last of the four prison manuscripts, which include How It All Began: The Prison Noveland Socialism and Its Culture, to be published, allowing readers to grasp Bukharin's vision in its full extent. Bukharin organized the nearly 180 poems in this volume, written from June to November 1937, into several series. One dealing with forerunners to the 1917 Russian Revolution and another focusing on the Russian Civil War contain commentary not found in the other prison manuscripts. The same is true of the Lyrical Intermezzo poems for and about Anna Larina, his young wife, from whom he was separated by his imprisonment. This first En

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Book SynopsisWe now live in the Anthropocene, the first epoch of our own making. We have altered the Earth''s atmosphere, landscapes, and bodies of water. The burning of fossil fuels has warmed the planet enough to change weather patterns, melt glaciers, and raise sea levels, a situation made worse by rampant deforestation and resource depletion. Many look to governments to confront these existential challenges. In Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet, Lisa Lucero looks to the Maya, past and present. Through the lens of the traditional Maya inclusive worldview--one in which humans are part of the world, not separate from it, and where everything is connected--Lucero provides a practical roadmap on how to sustainably address climate change and environmental degradation. She shows how the Maya collaborate with rather than try to subjugate forests, animals, soils, water, and other nonhuman entities. The Maya sustainably farmed for millennia and provided goods, labor, and services to their kings in cities. In return, kings performed vital ceremonies to the Rain God Chahk, other gods, and ancestors to replenish urban reservoirs that lasted throughout the long dry season--a balancing act that worked for over 1,000 years. Lucero shows how approaches to tackle climate change from the bottom-up, beginning with the family or household, are just as important as top-down governmental mitigation, and how learning from traditional knowledge is vital for the survival of us all. She brings to life the tropical jungles of Central America and reveals the valuable solutions its ancient and contemporary inhabitants offer us to save our planet.

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Book SynopsisA wonderfully quixotic, charming and surprisingly uplifting travelogue which sees Jack Cooke, author of the much-loved The Treeclimbers Guide, drive around the British Isles in a clapped-out forty-year old hearse in search of famous – and not so famous – tombs, graves and burial sites.Trade Review‘An entertaining and strangely cheering read… full of fascinating stories’ – Country Life ‘A unique insight into Britain’s landscape’ – The Observer , '…utterly compelling – The Oldie Magazine ‘If a younger, more upbeat Bill Bryson was happy to travel Britain while using a hearse as a mobile home, this is the kind of book we’d get.’ – Reader review ‘Who’d have thought a trip in a hearse would be so enjoyable?’ – Reader review ‘A fantastic read for anyone who has loved spending a while looking through old graveyards and soaking up all the history within.’ – Reader review

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Book SynopsisA Waterstones Travel Book of the Year 2023 A funny, warm and timely meditation on identity and belonging, following the scenic route along the England–Wales border: Britain’s deepest faultline. Trade Review‘I loved this book. Mike Parker weaves together a great deal of wide reading, hard thinking and soulful tramping in his funny, thoughtful and evocative investigation of the Welsh–English border.’ Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession and Peep Show ‘Delightful and perceptive … Poses searching questions about identity, culture and political power.’ Waterstones Books of the Year ‘A joyful canter through the Marches. Delightfully engaging. Blending history, literature and personal anecdote, Mike Parker writes with energy and wit.’ TLS ‘No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker.’ Ayesha Hazarika ‘A brilliant, fascinating book; Parker is funny and lyrical whilst always choosing brutal truth over sentimentality.’ Miles Jupp 'Classic Parker – a delicious, learned tour through a fascinating place.' Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen ‘Genuinely great.’ Adrian Chiles 'I gobbled this up.' Jude Rogers ‘A beautifully written journey through the history and landscape of the border country and a clear-eyed analysis of its physical and psychological dividing line – the best kind of travelogue.’ Richard King, author of Brittle with Relics: A History of Wales, 1962–97 ‘This enthralling journey beautifully celebrates our ancient frontier land and is a present-day reminder of its’ enduring duty.’ Tudur Owen, BAFTA winning comedian and presenter ‘I was often overcome by “fierce wonder”. Fine writing indeed.’ John Sam Jones, author of The Journey is Home ‘Engaging, entertaining and very readable.’ Nation.Cymru ‘A likeable, highly literate companion.’ New Welsh Review ‘A kind of mini-biography of the British psyche emerges from Parker's work, its learning lightly worn and its tales well told, full of interest and incident’ Horatio Clare

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Book Synopsis Drawing on newly available Russian sources--many of which appear in English for the first time here--this volume covers a broad array of topics, including the Bolshevik rise to power and World War I as the catalyst and cradle, respectively, of the Revolution. The authors convey the boldness and diversity of the revolutionaries'' aspirations as well as the ways in which the Revolution affected the lives of ordinary people, from the workers of Petrograd to Siberian peasants and Ukrainian Jews. Maps, illustrations, and a glossary of terms are included, as are a chronology of the Revolution, a list of works cited, and a thorough index. Trade ReviewThis much-needed collection brings to life the many layers and processes of the Russian Revolution. The individual documents are beautifully translated and well introduced. Thanks to the newly available sources provided here, we can see and understand the imagination-defying events of the Revolution more clearly and deeply. --Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist UniversityAn excellent anthology. . . . [This] book has a wide range of selections, which offers the students a deep understanding of the many different voices and groups in Russia during this time. The introductions to the selections are clear and place the documents within their historical context. The selections are very interesting and informative. I would strongly recommend this book for undergraduate classes in modern Russian history. The book makes this very complex period come to life by giving such a broad selection of documents. --Mary Louise Loe, James Madison UniversityOne of the key strengths of the work is its accessibility: the individual documents are clearly and concisely introduced; any outstanding discrepancies are annotated throughout; and a useful chronology and glossary are found at the end of the text. For the specialist, a number of the documents will be familiar, as the editors make use of old favourites. . . But there is also a significant amount of less familiar and fresh material for the expert eye. . . . This documentary history will no doubt become the key primary source collection for undergraduates and teachers of the Russian revolutions and civil war. It is organized and annotated with impressive clarity and offers an inexpensive, up-to-date, wideranging and balanced approach to the many diverse features of the revolutions. --Revolutionary Russia

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