Political oppression and persecution Books

Book SynopsisThis book tells us about how Russia fought against journalists and the freedom of speech during the occupation of Crimea and thereafter.

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Book SynopsisOn November 10, 1995, the Nigerian military government under General Sani Abacha executed dissident writer Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight other activists, and the international community reacted with outrage. The response was quick, decisive, and nearly unanimous: Nigeria is an outcast in the global village. The events that led up to Saro-Wiwa''s execution mark Nigeria''s decline from a post-colonial success story to its current military dictatorship, and few writers have been more outspoken in decrying and lamenting this decline than Nobel Prize laureate and Nigerian exile Wole Soyinka.In The Open Sore of a Continent, Soyinka, whose own Nigerian passport was confiscated 1994, explores the history and future of Nigeria in a compelling jeremiad that is as intense as it is provocative, learned, and wide-ranging. He deftly explains the shifting dramatis personae of Nigerian history and politics , arguing that `a glance at the mildewed tapestry of the stubbornly unfinished nation edifice''Trade Reviewa great work by a great writer on the grave travails of a potentially great nation * Moffat Ekoriko, The Observer *a bold and stimulating book ... required reading for anyone who wishes to examine critically the present turmoil in Africa. * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisThe searing accounts of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Evgeniia Ginsberg and Varlam Shalamov opened the world''s eyes to the terrors of the Soviet Gulag. But not until now has there been a memoir of life inside the camps written from the perspective of an actual employee of the Secret police. In this riveting memoir, superbly translated by Deborah Kaple, Fyodor Mochulsky describes being sent to work as a boss at the forced labor camp of Pechorlag in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle. Only twenty-two years old, he had but a vague idea of the true nature of the Gulag. What he discovered was a world of unimaginable suffering and death, a world where men were starved, beaten, worked to death, or simply executed. Mochulsky details the horrific conditions in the camps and the challenges facing all those involved, from prisoners to guards. He depicts the power struggles within the camps between the secret police and the communist party, between the political prisoners (most of whom had beTrade ReviewGives us a fascinating insight into the mind of a once-loyal Stalinist. * Fydor Vasilevich Mochulsky, Times Literary Supplement *original and suprising book * New York Review of Books *unique insight * The Spectator *Gulag Boss is essential reading and I could hardly put it down. * Literary Review *This tension between what Mochulsky saw as his duty and the painful reality of the Gulag runs throughout his memoir. This is perhaps what makes Gulag Boss such an important book. It brings us close to understanding why and how someone like Mochulsky could be reconciled to working within such a repressive apparatus, in the light of his own sense of responsibility. * Peter Whitewood, University of Leeds, European History Quarterly *Scholars, students and the lay public all have much to learn, contemplate and question in readingMochulsky's unforgettable memoir. * Brigid O'Keeffe, Europe-Asia Studies. *European History QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction by Deborah Kaple ; Preface by Fyodor Mochulsky ; Part 1: Gulag from the Outside ; Chapter 1. The NKVD: Villain or Protector? ; Chapter 2. First Acquaintance with Gulag NKVD: Meeting at the Central Committee of the CPSU ; Chapter 3. Meeting in the Cadres Department of Gulag NKVD ; Chapter 4. 45 Days to Pechorlag ; Part 2: Gulag from the Inside ; Chapter 5. At the Construction Administration ; Chapter 6. Unit Foreman. First Contingent of Prisoners: Soviet Volunteer Ski Troops in the Finnish War ; Chapter 7. The Unit Bosses ; Chapter 8. A Change in Leadership at Pechorlag ; Chapter 9. Transferred to the 93rd Unit. Labor Force: Hardened Criminals ; Chapter 10. Attempted Prisoner Revolt in the 93rd Unit ; Chapter 11. Boss and Foreman at the 93rd Unit. Labor Force: Political Prisoners ; Chapter. 12. Threat of Arrest ; Chapter 13. The War ; Chapter 14. Illness ; Chapter 15. Recovery and Return to Work in the Southern Part of the Camp ; Chapter 16. Boss of a Militarized Section. Labor Force: Captured German Prisoners of War ; Chapter 17. Boss of a Railway Division. Labor Force: Professional Railwaymen ; Chapter 18. The <"Liberated>" Secretary of the Communist Youth Organization ; Chapter 19. Fascist Military Landing Force ; Chapter 20. Deputy Boss in the Political Department for Komsomol Work at the NKVD's Road Building Camp No. 3 ; Part 3: Interesting Asides ; Chapter 21. Some Railroad Recollections ; Chapter 22. Peschanka, a Village of De-Kulakized People on the River Pechora ; Chapter 23. The Countryside of Komi on the River Usa ; Chapter 24. Women at Pechorlag ; Chapter 25. A Fellow Traveler from Abez to Pechora ; Part 4: Final Words ; Chapter 26. The End of My Story ; Chapter 27. The Real Essence of the Gulag ; Afterword: The Nature of Memoir ; Appendix 1: Pretexts for Arrest during the Stalin Period ; Appendix 2: Article 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code ; Appendix 3: Glossary ; Acknowledgments ; Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisExamining Stalin's reign of terror, this text argues that the Soviet people were not simply victims but also actors in the violence, criticisms and local decisions of the 1930s. It suggests that more believed in Stalin's quest to eliminate internal enemies than were frightened by it.

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Book Synopsis* An award-winning account of Stalin s reign of terror when 1. 5 million people lost their lives in a single year. * Karl Schlogel reconstructs the process through which, month by month, the terrorism of a state-of-emergency regime spiraled into the Great Terror .Trade ReviewWinner of the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding "An almost impossibly rich masterpiece. The density and seriousness, the deliberation and literary art of this exhilarating tour de force testifies to the enduring value and purpose of that perhaps now-vanishing triumph of the human intellect, the book." The Atlantic, best five books of 2012 "A dizzyingly brilliant panorama of the enormous variety of events and processes unfolding in Moscow between 1936 and 1938. Schlogel succeeds admirably - indeed, better than any historian to date - in reproducing the atmosphere and grotesque contradictions." Times Higher Education "Exceptionally readable. An extraordinary, thought-provoking masterpiece." Literary Review “An excellent and original book. Not only is it a highly detailed account of a city in turmoil (containing many more fascinating stories than a review can ever do full justice), but it reveals clearly how 1937 was a year of extreme contradictions” Europe/Asia Studies "Schlögel's total history of Moscow during the fateful year ranks among the best of Sovietology." International Affairs "No book could be more equal to the task of restoring Stalin’s victims to Western memory than Schlögel’s Moscow, 1937 - it is an extraordinary work of scholarship, prose and remembrance." Times Literary Supplement "“A brilliant achievement of historical writing, one that can be read profitably by specialist and the general reader alike.” American Historical Review "Schlogel's comprehensive overview gives a profound overall view of what it was like to live in such a crucial place in such a crucial year." Dublin Review of Books "It is great. Moscow, 1937 teaches us that life goes on as usual, even in the midst of great catastrophe, but it also teaches that great catastrophe can look a lot like life going on as usual." Vol. 1 Brooklyn "Compelling in every way, the book startles the mind and stirs the imagination in the way that only poetry and music can sometimes do. An instant classic." Wichita Eagle "Karl Schlögel’s Moscow 1937 draws a living, multi-dimensional portrait of the megacity in a crucial year of upheaval that evokes all the hope, despair, creativity, horror, escapism, terror, fear, and striving that enveloped the Muscovite cityscape and its inhabitants. Schlögel is an unusually inventive historian and a brilliant stylist; it’s a great boon to have his latest work available in English." Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University and author of Stalin’s Genocides "This book’s focus is one year, 1937, and one place, Moscow, but it is no narrow history. The narrative has sweep and depth, encompassing the mundane, the spectacular, and the nightmare dream world of Stalin’s purges; an incomparable book about people during one of the most grandiose and terrifying epochs of the twentieth century." David Shearer, University of Delaware "Starting from a birds-eye view of the city from above, a homage to the flight of Bulgakov’s Margarita, Schloegel captures the complex specificity of a time and place of immense significance in Soviet and twentieth-century history. In this multivalent historical moment, interrogations at the Lubyanka coexist with happy summer vacations and the triumphant conquest of the North Pole by Soviet aviators. Schloegel brings into play an ingenious variety of sources, ranging from architectural blueprints and city directories to execution records, not forgetting diaries and literary evocations. This is a masterful, panoramic work by a gifted story-teller who is also a highly innovative, sophisticated and erudite historian." Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago "In brilliant fashion Karl Schlögel presents Moscow as a rotating stage of Soviet desire and Stalinist nightmares. Like no other author before him, he charges his prose and the sequence of scenes with the hallucinatory power of the Communist project. The vertiginous and terrifying effect is his very point and singular achievement." Jochen Hellbeck, Rutgers University "Karl Schlogel's Moscow 1937 is a brilliant essay of "Total history" on a crucial episode of Soviet history, on one of the greatest historical catastrophes of the Twentieth Century.This is the first book which goes beyond totalitarianism and revisionism and brings us a totally new interpretation of this tragic event by presenting together opposing experiences and manifestations such as the preparation for universal, free, direct and secret elections and carefully planned, organized mass killings. Or, in other words, Dream and Terror." Nicolas Werth, Institut d’histoire du temps présent "This is a montage of a great city in tumult, in equal parts depicting the optimism of progress and the horror of the show trials, all in the shadow of a looming war." Andrew Cornish, Readings "While most historians see both terror and civilisation as important to understanding the Soviet experience of the 1930s, they tend to spend their time investigating either one or the other. Schlögel is the first to attempt to knit them together so intricately. Moscow 1937 is an act of remembrance as well as a work of history.” London Review of Books "There is no book that so perfectly and completely captures the stark contradictions of Soviet life. Each scene is a marvel, and together they recreate for us a multisided and vanished world." Wendy Goldman, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USATable of ContentsPreface x Acknowledgements xiii Reproduction Acknowledgements xvii Translator's Note xx Introduction 1 1 Navigation: Margarita's Flight 10 Margarita's fl ight – Manuscripts don't burn: a writer in 1937 – Relief map of the city, locations, staging posts – Dramatis personae and their portrayal: dual characters – NKVD, the organization – 'People vanished from their apartments without trace' – Sudden deaths, execution as spectacle – 'It can't be!' 2 Moscow as a Construction Site: Stalin's General Plan in Action 33 Aleksandr Medvedkin's film New Moscow – A new cityscape: Stalin's General Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow – Moscow as a construction site: between demolition and new construction – Moscow beyond the ring roads – Human landscape, struggle for survival 3 A Topography of the Disappeared: The Moscow Directory of 1936 54 Snapshot of the status quo: directories as documents of their age – Topography of power and other locations – Traces of the disappeared – Lists of people to be shot and the posthumous reconstruction of their addresses 4 The Creation of Enemies: The Criminal Prosecution of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre, 19 - 24 August 1936 68 World-historical criminal cases: the rhetoric of the fi rst Moscow show trial – The echo of violence: how a latent civil war comes to be articulated in language – 'Double-dealers' – The birth of the show trial from the spirit of lynch-law – The ideal enemy 5 'Tired of the Effort of Observing and Understanding': Lion Feuchtwanger's Moscow 1937 81 A key scene in European intellectual history: Feuchtwanger's meeting with Stalin – The impotence of the anti-fascist movement: how to generate a point of view – The end of the fl âneur: journey in the shadow of the NKVD – The phenomenology of confusion and the creation of unambiguous meaning: credo quia absurdum – Leave-taking at Belorusskii Station 6 In the Glare of Battle: Spain and Other Fronts 95 Moscow maps: the scene is Spain – A world in meltdown, war scare – The Soviet nation as a patriotic fi ghting unit – Metastases: show trial in Barcelona, the NKVD abroad – Barcelona transfer: Moscow experiences 7 Blindness and Terror: The Suppressed Census of 1937 109 A journey into the interior of society – 6 January 1937: snapshot of an empire – Ten years after the census of 1926: balance sheet after the Great Leap Forward – Self-analysis, self-education, data acquisition – The shock of the missing millions – Statistics as crime 8 A Stage for the Horrors of Industrialization: The Second Moscow Show Trial in January 1937 125 'The Business-like atmosphere' – The language of expert witnesses – The topography of the Five-Year Plan – Human sacrifi ce, nemesis, chorus – Postscript 9 'A Feast in the Time of Plague': The Pushkin Jubilee of 10 February 1937 144 The New York Times: 'All Russia was Pushkin-mad today' – 'Comrade Pushkin': consecration of a classic – A feast in the time of plague: coded discourses – Platitudes of a new culture – Russian genius and imperial rule 10 Public Death: Ordzhonikidze's Suicide and Death Rites 160 The shock: Sergo is dead – Escape into ritual – Suicide as a weapon – A hopeless situation and protest – Death as a group experience: speaking of death in times of mass murder 11 The Engine Room of the Year 1937: The February-March Plenum of the Central Committee 177 A leadership at its wits' end: the voice of panic – Testing the limits and exceeding them: the Party indicts Bukharin and Rykov – The shock: 'universal, free, secret elections' – Audit report: ungovernability and fear of chaos – Wreckers at work in the NKVD – The dissolution of the Party and the creation of a new one – Setting the machinery in motion 12 Moscow in Paris: The USSR Pavilion at the International Exhibition of 1937 198 The exhibition trail: a journey through the map of the Soviet Union – The theme park of twentieth-century civilization – Marginal encounters 13 Red Square: Parade Ground and Place of Execution 209 14 Chopin Concert and Killing Ritual: Radio and the Creation of the Great Community 215 Radiofi katsia: the two faces of progress – Radio as the background noise of the new age – The sphere of feelings – Radio listeners as 'citizens of the world' – Stalin: the original soundtrack: the direction of the historical moment – Wreckers at work in the ether 15 Soviet Art Deco: Time Preserved in Stone 229 The First All-Union Congress of Architects, 16–26 June 1937 – Moscow as a building site – Chaos and stress – The Soviet universe as exhibition – The creation of a new style during a state of emergency – Closing speech: Frank Lloyd Wright 16 'Brown Bodies, Gaily Coloured Shorts': Sports Parade 248 'The glorious beauty of young people' – Fizkul'turnik, fi zkul'turnitsa: icons of the new age – 'Stalin's tribe': tableaux vivants in Red Square 17 Wealth and Destruction: The Seventeenth International Geology Congress in Moscow 256 The emergence of Soviet geologists: science and the dream of an affluent nation – Pioneers the nation does not need: geologists as enemies of the people – Vladimir Vernadskii: a patriot without fear – Excursion to the Moscow–Volga Canal: science and slave labour 18 A City by the Sea: The Opening of the Moscow–Volga Canal 274 After the White Sea Canal: Stalin's second arterial highway – A canal as a Gesamtkunstwerk: the aesthetics of a man-made riverscape – Dmitlag, the Gulag Archipelago at the gates of the capital: the parallel society of the camp zone – Perekovka/ reforging: the laboratory of the new man – 'I have seen a country that has been transformed into one great camp' 19 Year of Adventures, 1937: A Soviet Icarus 294 Triumphs, records: a city in a fever – Non-stop to America – The conquest of the Arctic – Twentieth-century adventures – Heroes of the age: Stalin's aviators – 'There are thousands of dreamers like me' – 'Bolshevik romanticism' and terror 20 Moscow as Shop-Window: The Abundance of the World, Hungry for Goods and Dizzy with Hunger 314 André Gide: on luxury and shortages – Advertisements, window displays: objects of desire and how to present them – Dizzy with hunger – A hopeless struggle: a nation of speculators – The queue as grapevine 21 Open Spaces, Dream Landscapes: Cruising on the Volga, Holidaying on the Red Riviera, Conspiracies in the Dachas 326 22 The National Bolshevik Nikolai Ustrialov: His Return Home and Death 332 Returning home from exile: establishing contact with the new Russia – National Bolshevism and Stalin's 'Socialism in One Country' – The world of 'former people' and 1937 – A double reading: a diary with comments by the NKVD 23 Celebrating the October Revolution on 7 November 1937 344 In the diplomats' box – Conversations in the inner circle of power 24 A Miniature of High Society before the Massacre 355 The bombs come closer – Beau monde, illustrious society – Masked ball at the American Embassy – Interior with piano and nursemaid – Yezhov's salon: art and the secret police – Postscript: inventory of luxury and fashion 25 Soviet Hollywood: Miracles and Monsters 372 Lenin in October: the Revolution corrected – The USSR as a land of film, picture palaces and stars – Mosfi lm 1937: chaos in the film factory – Volga-Volga: directors as conspirators, actors as spies – Terror and good entertainment 26 Death in Exile 387 Dimitrov's diary: a record of self-destruction – Vanishing point Moscow: biotope – Foreign comrades – Vulnerability: world communism as world conspiracy – Lists, dossiers and card indexes 27 Arcadia in Moscow: Stalin's Luna Park 404 'A centre of culture and rest' – 'What a summer!' – The locus of public opinion 28 'Avtozavodtsy': The Workforce of the Stalin Car Factories 413 'Shanghai': city of immigrants, city on the periphery – Ivan Likhachev, captain of industry – Factory patriotism: the factory as melting pot – 'Mass criticism', or the orchestration of hatred and despair 29 Dzhaz: The Sound of the Thirties 433 Dzhaz (Utesov) – Songs for the masses (Dunaevskii) – Classical music (Shostakovich) 30 Changing Faces, Changing Times 444 31 America, America: The Other New World 450 Ili' a Il' f and Evgenii Petrov's journey to America – Special relations: Soviet Americanism and the New Deal – The American way of life in 1937 – Utopia as present-day reality 32 'I Know of No Other Country . . .': 1937 and the Production of Soviet Space 463 The birth of the Soviet Union from the spirit of songs for the masses – Moscow as an image-making machine – Homogenizing labour: purges and the unity of the Soviet nation 33 The Butovo Shooting Range: Topography of the Great Terror 472 Looking for traces: the archaeology of the graveyard – Mass murder on the outskirts of the city – Sociology of the mass grave – Killing by quota: Order No. 00447 – World war, civil war 34 Lonely White Sail . . .: Dreamtime, Children's Worlds 505 35 Yezhov at the Bolshoi Theatre: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Cheka 510 At the heart of Moscow: power made visible – Celebratory speeches and music between the mass murders – Ovations for the executioners: morituri salutant 36 Bukharin Takes his Leave 519 Bukharin's final plea – The show trial: exercises in dialectics – The Lubianka: prison as a production site – Letter to Koba – A Moscow childhood in 1900 37 'For Official Use Only': Moscow as a City on the Enemy Map 538 38 The Foundation Pit 544 The imaginary centre: a support for the empire – The dome that disappeared: Russian Byzantium – Labouring away at a vacuum: fantasies of the building of the century – Rome, New York, Moscow: the genius of Boris Iofan – War, post-war, and the end of the state of emergency 39 Instead of an Epilogue 558 Notes 559 Select Bibliography 619 Index 638

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Book SynopsisA complete analysis of the troubled relationship between the US Navy and the residents of Vieques, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Since the 1940s when the navy expropriated over two-thirds of the island, residents have struggled to make a life amid the bombs and weaponry fire.Trade ReviewMcCaffrey's outstanding analysis movingly narrates this community's longstanding anguish and accurately situates the Vieques movement in the larger context of U.S. military policy in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico's unresolved status quandary. Those interested in understanding the Vieques crisis will find Military Power and Popular Protest an indispensable work. -- Amflcar Antonio Barreto * author of Vieques, the Navy, and Puerto Rican Politics *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Acronyms and Spanish Terms Introduction One. A Strategic Colony on the Margins of the Empire Two. Cultural Identity of Vieques Three. The Fishermen's War Four. We Are a Species in Danger of Extinction: The Aftermath of the Fishermen's Crusade Five. Organizing for Change Six. From Pescadores to Rescatores: The Resurgence and Transformation of Struggle Seven. The Battle of Vieques Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis meticulously researched book uses previously secret official documents to explore the tangled web of relationships between the top echelons of the British establishment, incl Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, police/military officers and intelligence services with loyalist paramilitaries of the UDA & UVF throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Covert British Army units, mass sectarian screening, propaganda ‘dirty tricks,’ arming sectarian killers and a point-blank refusal over the worst two decades of the conflict, to outlaw the largest loyalist killer gang in Northern Ireland. It shows how tactics such as curfew and internment were imposed on the nationalist population in Northern Ireland and how London misled the European Commission over internment’s one-sided nature. It focuses particularly on the British Government’s refusal to proscribe the UDA for two decades – probably the most serious abdication of the rule of law in the entire conflict. Previously classified documents show a clear pattern of official denial, at the highest levels of government, of the extent and impact of the loyalist assassination campaign.

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Book SynopsisWithin the already heavily polarised debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa remain highly contentious. A number of prominent academic and political commentators, including former US president Jimmy Carter and UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard, have argued that Israel's treatment of its Arab-Israeli citizens and the people of the occupied territories amounts to a system of oppression no less brutal or inhumane than that of South Africa's white supremacists. Similarly, boycott and disinvestment campaigns comparable to those employed by anti-apartheid activists have attracted growing support. Yet while the 'apartheid question' has become increasingly visible in this debate, there has been little in the way of genuine scholarly analysis of the similarities (or otherwise) between the Zionist and apartheid regimes. In Israel and South Africa, Ilan Pappé, one of Israel's preeminent academics and a noted critic of the current government, brings together lawyers, journalists, policy makers and historians of both countries to assess the implications of the apartheid analogy for international law, activism and policy making. With contributors including the distinguished anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils, Israel and South Africa offers a bold and incisive perspective on one of the defining moral questions of our age.Trade ReviewA key book for deepening the discussion of Israel as an apartheid state of a special kind, and for exploring a different future for Palestinians. The essays give no easy answers, but much food for thought, and for hope. This book's insights and analysis will be widely debated - it should be a best seller. * Victoria Brittain, journalist and author of Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror *The collection provides some excellent moments of reflection on apartheid in South Africa that are given new perspective through exciting comparative scholarship and can also aid in deciphering the post-apartheid trajectory of the country. * Africa at LSE *A rich accumulation of material and ideas. * Electronic Intifada *For Israel and its allies, any talk of apartheid remains anathema … The essays in this book are evidence of how insightful, and fruitful, such a comparison and analysis can be. * Journal of Palestine Studies *This is an exceptionally important contribution to contemporary debates on Israeli apartheid. There is simply no other collection out there that brings such historical and comparative breadth to bear on this question - a must read! * Adam Hanieh, SOAS, University of London *Israel is trying to refine the nefarious policy of apartheid to keep the Palestinian people apart. This book cogently argues the inefficacy of the policy of divide and rule. A must read. * Arun Gandhi, founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence *One of the most important volumes on the issue of Israeli apartheid. Skilfully incorporating perspectives from various disciplines, the authors provide an excellent and extremely relevant examination of the systemic infrastructure of the Israeli state's colonial and apartheid enterprise. * Farid Esack, University of Johannesburg *Comparing Israel and apartheid South Africa is one of the great taboos of our time. This collection breaks the taboo in examining settler colonialism and apartheid in both Israel itself and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. * John Dugard, former Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council *It is clear from this finely crafted collection of essays that Israel has much in common with white-ruled South Africa. Indeed, Israel and South Africa provides abundant evidence that Israel is worse than South Africa was, and that Israeli apartheid will be more enduring than the South African variant. This smart and informative book should be read by every person who cares about Israel and its victims. * John J. Mearsheimer, author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy *A terrible evil makes the apartheid comparison between Israel and South Africa a valid exercise, that is, the intentional prevention of shared life. On this basis, this book tasks the comparative method as a tool to challenge the dismal reality in Palestine. * Marcelo Svirsky, author of After Israel *Demonstrates how Apartheid as a political system of segregation is not specific to any particular race or country, and why invoking it in the context of Israel /Palestine is both instructive and instrumental. The authors show there's lots to learn from the successful struggle against the Apartheid of South Africa. * Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera English, and author of Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid *Nine superbly qualified authors confirm from a variety of perspectives the allegations of apartheid directed at Israel. This book is profoundly convincing, and should put an end to serious debate about whether Israel is guilty of apartheid. * Richard Falk, author of Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Many Faces of Apartheid - Ilan Pappé Part I: Historical Roots 1. Birds of a Feather: Israel and Apartheid South Africa Colonialism of a Special Type - Ronnie Kasrils 2. The Many Faces of European Colonialism: The Templers, the Basel Mission and the Zionist Movement - Ilan Pappé 3. Apartheid and the Question of Origin - Oren Ben-Dor Part II: The Boundaries of Comparison 4. 'Visible Equality' as Confidence Trick - Jonathan Cook 5. Apartheid, Israel and Palestinian Statehood - Leila Farsakh Part III: Nuanced Comparisons 6. Femicide in Apartheid: The Parallel Interplay between Racism and Sexism in South Africa and Palestine–Israel - Anthony Löwstedt 7. The Many Faces of Protest: A Comparative Analysis of Protest Groups in Israel and South Africa - Amneh Badran Part IV: Future Models and Perspectives 8. The Inevitable Impossible: South African Experience and a Single State - Steven Friedman 9. Redefining the Conflict in Israel–Palestine: The Tricky Question of Sovereignty - Virginia Tilley 10. Israel–Palestine and the Apartheid Analogy: Critics, Apologists and Strategic Lessons - Ran Greenstein

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Book Synopsis"Against All Hope" is Armando Valladares' account of over twenty years in Fidel Castro's tropical gulag as a result of his philosophical and religious opposition to communism. He gives a picture of the Cuba that he lived in and tells of how his deep Christian faith kept him from abandoning hope during the most evil treatment.

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Book SynopsisIn the tradition of Ta-Nehisi Coates, a bracing, provocative and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA joint biography of Tudor England’s martyrs whose executions triggered a wave of bloody repression

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Book SynopsisJohn Eppler thought himself to be the perfect spy. Born to German parents, he grew up in Egypt, adopted by a wealthy family and was educated in Europe. Fluent in German, English and Arabic, he made the Hadj to Mecca but was more at home in high society or travelling the desert on camelback with his adopted Bedouin tribe. After joining the German Secret Service in 1937, in 1942 he was sent across the desert to Cairo by Field Marshal Rommel. His guide was the explorer and Hungarian aristocrat Laszlo Almasy, a man made famous by the book The English Patient. Eppler's mission was to infiltrate British Army Headquarters and discover the Eighth Army's troop movements and battle plans. In The Rebecca Code, Mark Simmons reveals the story of Operation Condor and its comedy of errors and how it was foiled by Major A.W. Sammy' Sansom of the British Field Security Service. It is a tale of the desert, of the hotbed of intrigue that was 1940s Cairo, and the spy who was to send his reports using a co

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Book SynopsisHow did the Shah of Iran become a modern despot? In 1953, Iranian monarch Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi emerged victorious from a power struggle with his prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq, thanks to a coup masterminded by Britain and the United States. Mosaddeq believed the Shah should reign not rule, but the Shah was determined that no one would make him a mere symbol. In this meticulous political history, Ali Rahnema details Iran’s slow transition from constitutional to despotic monarchy. He examines the tug of war between the Shah, his political opposition, a nation in search of greater liberty, and successive US administrations with their changing priorities. He shows how the Shah gradually assumed control over the legislature, the judiciary, the executive, and the media, and clamped down on his opponents’ activities. By 1968, the Shah’s turn to despotism was complete. The consequences would be far-reaching.Trade Review‘As creative and sensitive in his interpretations as he is meticulous in his research, Rahnema offers a forensic analysis of the history of the last shah of Iran’s drift into dictatorship, guiding us skilfully through Iran’s political history, from the aftermath of the 1953 royalist coup d’état to the shah’s triumphant, Napoleonic coronation ceremony in 1968. Chronicles of the late monarch’s steady consolidation of power in his own hands and the stifling of dissent are now legion, of course. But rarely has detail been marshalled so effectively in demonstrating these points… Rahnema has written an important and insightful treatment of Iranian political history in the 1950s and 1960s, a period that is often glossed over superficially in the rush to connect the 1953 coup to the shah’s autocracy in the 1970s, but which actually marks a critical moment of transition for Iran.’ * International Journal of Middle East Studies *‘A brilliant history of late Pahlavi Iran and the fatal entanglements of the shah, the opposition and the United States.’ * Stephanie Cronin, Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Research Fellow, University of Oxford *‘Richly detailed yet exceedingly accessible… The significant insights Rahnema offers into Mohammad Reza Shah’s rise and political trajectory make the book an important read for students not just of modern Iran but of despotic politics more broadly.’ * Ali Mirsepassi, Albert Gallatin Research Excellence Professor, New York University *

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Book SynopsisBlisteringly witty. KirkusAn essential guide. Publisher''s WeeklyTimely. BooklistWhen Nina Jankowicz''s first book on online disinformation was profiled in The New Yorker, she expected attention but not an avalanche of abuse and harassment, predominantly from men, online.All women in politics, journalism and academia now face untold levels of harassment and abuse in online spaces. Together with the world's leading extremism researchers, Jankowicz wrote one of the definitive reports on this troubling phenomenon. Drawing on rigorous research into the treatment of Kamala Harris - the first woman vice-president - and other political and public figures, Nina also uses her own experiences to provide a step-by-step plan for dealing with harassment, abuse, doxing and disinformation in online spaces.The result is a must-read for researchers, journalists and all women with a profile in the online space.Trade ReviewIn this guide, a foreign affairs analyst discusses online abuse — “the norm for many women engaged in public discourse” — and the ways women can protect themselves. * The New York Times *A call to action for women who have experienced online abuse… the author’s forthright, sometimes blisteringly witty tone makes for smart company… A successful codification of practical, occasionally fiery methods of protection and means of attack. * Kirkus *A concise, functional handbook for women looking to combat online abuse… Jankowicz’s advice is strategic, focused, and eminently usable, and her assertion that women need to be there to help one another while also fighting for change feels simultaneously supportive and motivational. This is an essential guide for women interested in standing up for a fairer, safer online world. * Publisher's Weekly *A timely guide with a much-needed feminist lens. * Booklist *Jankowicz manages to achieve a masterful literary stroke, forcing the reader to confront… very real and very uncomfortable questions. She provides readers with a mirror in which they can gaze and reflect on society today and the death or dearth (or both) of decency. It is nearly impossible in reading to not stop and ask yourself why such a book needs to be written in the first place—not its practicality or utility, but that in this day and age these behaviors are tolerated at all online (or in the real world). -- Joshua Huminski * Diplomatic Courier *Solidly researched, informative, grounded, gritty, practical; as is Jankowicz and the women she knows and champions. -- Kate Clanchy * UnHerd *Uses a combination of academic research, interviews and Jankowicz’s own experience to outline a step-by-step plan for handling an inevitable part of being a woman, particularly a woman with another marginalized identity, online: harassment and abuse. -- Katelyn Fossett * POLITICO's Women Rule *A much-needed exploration of the horrific abuse she experienced and other women regularly receive in online and virtual spaces... The lines between disinformation, extremism, and online abuse are far from clear and, hopefully [the] book will spark conversation about behavior online, civility, transparency, and accountability. -- Joshua Huminski * Diplomatic Courier, Books to Watch in 2022 *A succinct, eye-opening and infinitely useful guide to safely navigating the internet, the book offers clear, easy-to-follow advice on everything from how to shore up your online security to the best way to report unacceptable behaviour to the leading social media platforms. * Buzz magazine *A relevant and useful book. * Irish Tech News *Timely, informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, How to Be A Woman Online must be considered basic and essential reading for female researchers, journalists and all other women having a profile in the online and social media space. Exceptionally well written, organized, and presented, How to Be A Woman Online is and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library Contemporary Women's Issues & Media/Internet Political Issues collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, journalists, media professionals, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject. * Midwest Book Review *As any woman who has ever had the temerity to voice an opinion on the internet knows, it is a toxic stew of misogyny, sexual harassment, and gender-based violence... In How to Be A Woman Online, Nina Jankowicz has built an essential toolkit which empowers us all to fight back and protect ourselves. We need a better internet, and this book is an important step in getting us there. * Alyssa Milano, Actor, Activist, and Author of 'Sorry Not Sorry' *Nina Jankowicz's important work highlights the growing problem of abuse directed towards women online. The internet did not invent misogyny, but by amplifying aggressive speech directed at women, it is normalising it amongst the haters and making the experience of the victims worse. When social media is central to work life, as well as leisure time, women who are victims of online abuse find it almost impossible to protect themselves from it, but they shouldn't have to confront this alone. Nina Jankowicz once more highlights the consequences of the failure of major social media platforms to address the proliferation of abuse against women online. * Damian Collins, MP *With precision and clarity, Nina Jankowicz has created an essential guide to survival for any woman who has the audacity to exist online... This book is an important primer not just for existing online as a woman, but it's a guide to thriving in those spaces, to feeling safe enough to take up room and to have opinions and to be bold in our careers and our lives. This book is part practical guide and part primer in letting you know you are not alone, that your voice and your opinions and your work are worth protecting and that yes, the internet belongs to you too. This book is an instant classic and a necessary read... This is the book I wish I had as a young writer and it's a book I'm so glad to have now. * Lyz Lenz, author of 'Belabored' (2020) and 'God Land' (2021) *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One — Security: Outfitting Yourself Online Chapter Two — Adversity: Enduring Trolls Chapter Three — Policy: Making it Work for You Chapter Four — Community: Cultivating a Circle of Solidarity Chapter Five — Tenacity: Speaking Up and Fighting Back Further Reading Resources

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Book SynopsisAn account of the life experiences of a South African of Indian descent who was fortunate enough to be a part of some of South Africa's most important changes in the transition from apartheid to a constitutional democracy.

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Book SynopsisDr Abdullah Abdurahman (1872-1940) was the first person of colour ever to be elected to political office in South Africa. He represented some of the poorest people in Cape Town on the City Council and then the Provincial Council. First winning a seat in 1904, he was to serve the city for 36 years.

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Book SynopsisBeyond Fear is a riveting testimony to the resilience of the human spirit - the incredible story of what one young revolutionary was prepared to give up over many decades to bring down the apartheid state.Ebrahim Ebrahim was one of the only struggle stalwarts to be sentenced twice to Robben Island. He arrived on the island months before Nelson Mandela in 1964, after being accused number one in the Pietermaritzburg sabotage trial which was dubbed the ''little Rivonia trial''.He showed exceptional bravery from a young age as one of the founding members of Umkhonto we Sizwe in Natal, and played a key role in directing the sabotage campaign that brought down electricity pylons, disrupted rail transport and shook the apartheid regime to its core.Over 15 years he played a leadership role on Robben Island as one of the cadres who headed the ANC''s disciplinary committee, helping to turn the island into a university of revolutionary ideology.He was also one of th

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Book SynopsisThe apartheid security juggernaut met its Battle of Stalingrad in the townships of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage in 1985 and 1986. This is the blazing story of how the people's resistance in the church, in the civic structures, underground fought that war.

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Book SynopsisThe story of Egyptian identity from the beginning of the 20th century is one constructed by statesmen, intellectuals and Islamic thinkers. This book argues that the current fragmentation of Egypt's political scene reflects the increasing social division in a country where 'the people' are demanding a redefinition of their national identity.

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the journey of new Muslims as they joined the early Islamic community and articulated their identities within it. It focuses on Muslims of slave origins, who belonged to the society in which they lived but whose slave background rendered them somehow alien.Trade Review'Incisively critical and refreshingly good humored, this is highly recommended for students and scholars of all levels.' - R. A. Miller, emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston, CHOICE

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Book SynopsisTwo hundred years after the massacre of protestors in Manchester, known as Peterloo, distinguished scholars of Romantic-era literature join together in this commemorative volume to assess the implications of the violence.

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Book SynopsisLooking at scholarship on both 'old' and 'new' slavery, Laura Brace assesses the work of Aristotle, Locke, Hegel, Kant, Wollstonecraft and Mill, and explores the contemporary concerns of human trafficking and the prison industrial complex to consider the limitations of 'new slavery' discourse.

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Book SynopsisAt the beginning of the twenty-first century, leading intellectuals are claiming "There is a problem with Islam in France," thus legitimising the discourse of the racist National Front. Such claims have been strengthened by the backlash since the terrorist attacks in Paris in January and November 2015, coming to represent a new 'common sense' in the political landscape, and we have seen a similar logic play out in the United States and Europe.Edwy Plenel, former editorial director of Le Monde, essayist and founder of the investigative journalism website Mediapart tackles these claims head-on, taking the side of his compatriots of Muslim origin, culture or belief, against those who make them into scapegoats. He demonstrates how a form of "Republican and secularist fundamentalism" has become a mask to hide a new form of virulent Islamophobia. At stake for Plenel is not just solidarity but fidelity to the memory and heritage of emancipatory struggles and he writes in defence of the Muslims, just as Zola wrote in defence of the Jews and Sartre wrote in defence of the blacks. For if we are to be for the oppressed then we must be for the Muslims.Trade ReviewThank goodness for this humane, civilized and morally brave book. It speaks important truths which these days are much too rarely heard. -- Peter OborneA powerful call to address the empathy deficit and intellectual poverty which underlies the 'obsessive Islamophobia' of much French public discourse. Noting that Islamophobia now performs the cultural function once assigned to anti-Semitism,For the Muslims is a polemic against indifference. Plenel resurrects France's heritage of critical thought to call on his fellow citizens and others to develop a competing imaginary to the one established by rampant xenophobia. -- Priyamvada GopalAn important book about one of the most pressing issues facing modern Europe. Insightful, historically grounded and detailed, it's required reading. -- Murtaza HussainAn urgent and necessary warning cry against hatred and the politics of fear and indifference that fuels it. From the Dreyfus affair to the aftermath of the Paris attacks of 2015, Plenel shows how the normalization of a far-right narrative of rejection, exclusion and otherness will have consequences for us all. -- Simon Hooper

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Book SynopsisFor Christians living as a persecuted minority in the Middle East, the question of whether their allegiance should lie with their faith or with the national communities they live in is a difficult one. This collection of essays aims to reconcile this conflict of allegiance by looking at the biblical vision of citizenship and showing that Christians can live and work as citizens of the state without compromising their beliefs and make a constructive contribution to the life of the countries they live in.The contributors come from a range of prestigious academic and religious posts and provide analysis on a range of issues such as dual nationalism, patriotism and the increase of Islamic fundamentalism. An insightful look into the challenges religious minorities face in countries where they are a minority, these essays provide a peace-building and reconciliatory conclusion for readers to consider.Trade ReviewSince Jesus raised a denarius and instructed his incredulous bystanders to "render unto Caesar what is Caesars" but "to God what is Gods" Christians have labored to understand and to practice a kind of duel citizenship. The faithful, Christian political witness is on trial today, hardly more so than in this book's focused region of the Middle East, where followers of Jesus continue to live "under Caesar's sword." This is why Christian Citizenship in the Middle East is an urgent book, not just for scholars of Jesus' homeland, but for disciples on political pilgrimage all throughout the world, under many Caesars, owing many obligations - some perhaps proper patriotism, others needing vigorous resistance. This book is an indispensable guide for such a time as this. -- Robert Joustra, Associate Professor of Politics & International Studies, Redeemer University College (Toronto, Canada)Topping headlines in today's news are reports of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the world. Many Christians who are able to flee are leaving their homes to escape danger. This tragedy requires serious investigation of its roots and causes. What better place to begin (or continue) the search for understanding than this book on Christian citizenship in the Middle East. It does more than assess the multi-dimensional crisis. Its authors point constructively to ways Christians can hold fast to their faith while making the wisest decisions possible to exercise their citizenship. -- James W. Skillen, Ph.D., Duke University, president (retired), Center for Public Justice, Washington, D.C.This book provides a provocative set of reflections on an important and timely theme: Christian citizenship as a response to the crisis arising in the Middle East. It begins a conversation that is essential to the preservation of pluralism in the Middle East that also extends to our own western societies. -- Paul S. Rowe, Professor of Political and International Studies, Trinity Western UniversityTable of ContentsForeword - Paul S Williams, British and Foreign Bible Society. Introduction; 1. Citizenship: A Christian Conception - Mohammed Girma, BFBS and University of Pretoria, South Africa; 2. The Bible and Patriotism - Nigel Biggar, University of Oxford, UK; 3. A Place to Call Home: Middle Eastern Christian Experience of Living on the Intersection of Two Allegiances - Issa Diab, Near East School of Theology, Lebanon; 4. The Contributions of Syrian Christians to Social Harmony - Najib Awad, Hartford Seminary, USA; 5. Displacement and Dual Identity: Faithful Presence Here and Now - Casey Strine, University of Sheffield, UK. 6. States, Citizens and Migration - Ben Ryan, Theos, London. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisMandela: His Essential Life chronicles the life and legacy of one of the twentieth century's most influential and admired statesmen. Charting his development from remote rural roots to city lawyer, freedom fighter, and then political leader, Peter Hain takes an in-depth look at Mandela's rise through the ranks of the African National Congress (ANC) and subsequent 27 years imprisonment on Robben Island, as increasingly vocal protests against the injustices of Apartheid brought his struggle against overwhelming prejudice and oppression to the eyes of the world. This book encompasses Mandela’s inauguration as South Africa's first democratically elected president, his "retirement" campaigns for human rights, a solution to AIDS and poverty. It goes on to chronicle his later years and death. Throughout, the humanity and compassion of this extraordinary world leader shine through. The author concludes with a critical analysis of his and the ANC’s achievements, its leadership’s subsequent slide into corruption, and whether under new direction South Africa can reclaim the values and legacy of Mandela, and the ‘rainbow nation’ he created and led to such global acclaim.Trade ReviewPassionate and engaging. From a man whose tireless anti-apartheid activism supported the long struggle to free his friend and leader, Nelson Mandela. -- Jon Snow, BroadcasterHighly readable and inspirational. -- Desmond TutuHis life and times told succinctly and compellingly. -- Sello Hatang, CEO, Nelson Mandela FoundationPeter Hain’s excellent Mandela: His Essential Life, does not pretend to be anything more than, as he writes, a “short, popular and accessible book that tells Mandela's entire and remarkable story in a nutshell”. Actually, he does himself a disservice: it is much more than that, and is a serious analysis of Mandela’s place in history, his failings as well as his virtues. It also contains a powerful final chapter on the betrayal of the Mandela legacy. In recent years, Hain, a second-generation anti-apartheid activist, has exposed the corruption of the Zuma presidency, and played no small part in bringing down the PR firm Bell Pottinger. It is a sad sequel to Mandel's life but a story of modern-day South Africa that needs to be told. * The Sunday Times, 15 July 2018 *Borrowing extensively from works such as Anthony Sampson’s Mandela (1999) and Nelson Mandela’s own autobiography Long Walk to Freedom (CH, Apr'95, 32-4642), Hain, a former anti-apartheid activist, offers a more condensed biography of the freedom fighter turned statesman, and combines it with personal observations of his encounters with the legendary South African. Hain tracks Mandela’s rural roots, political awakening, trial and imprisonment, progressive estrangement from his wife, Winnie, and triumph in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. Despite several chronological issues (i.e., the Congress of the People took place in June 1955), Hain’s narrative of Mandela’s long struggle for justice and reconciliation falls in line with other scholarly biographies, even if it does not break new ground. The most original material in Hain’s book comes in the later chapters, where he relates several encounters with the man known as Madiba. “It was not just his towering moral stature, his courage and his capacity to inspire that endeared Nelson Mandela to so many,” Hain observes. “Despite being one of the world’s most prominent statesmen—perhaps the most revered—he retained his extraordinary humanity.” Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsMandela Time Line Preface Introduction: International Icon Chapter 1: Roots Chapter 2: Grooming a Chief Chapter 3: Second Class Chapter 4: Freedom Fighter Chapter 5: Prisoner Chapter 6: Resistance Chapter 7: Victory Chapter 8: President Chapter 9: Mandela Magic Chapter 10: Legacy Betrayed? Selected Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisMandela: His Essential Life chronicles the life and legacy of one of the twentieth century's most influential and admired statesmen. Charting his development from remote rural roots to city lawyer, freedom fighter, and then political leader, Peter Hain takes an in-depth look at Mandela's rise through the ranks of the African National Congress (ANC) and subsequent 27 years imprisonment on Robben Island, as increasingly vocal protests against the injustices of Apartheid brought his struggle against overwhelming prejudice and oppression to the eyes of the world. This book encompasses Mandela’s inauguration as South Africa's first democratically elected president, his "retirement" campaigns for human rights, a solution to AIDS and poverty. It goes on to chronicle his later years and death. Throughout, the humanity and compassion of this extraordinary world leader shine through. The author concludes with a critical analysis of his and the ANC’s achievements, its leadership’s subsequent slide into corruption, and whether under new direction South Africa can reclaim the values and legacy of Mandela, and the ‘rainbow nation’ he created and led to such global acclaim.Trade ReviewPassionate and engaging. From a man whose tireless anti-apartheid activism supported the long struggle to free his friend and leader, Nelson Mandela. -- Jon Snow, BroadcasterHighly readable and inspirational. -- Desmond TutuHis life and times told succinctly and compellingly. -- Sello Hatang, CEO, Nelson Mandela FoundationPeter Hain’s excellent Mandela: His Essential Life, does not pretend to be anything more than, as he writes, a “short, popular and accessible book that tells Mandela's entire and remarkable story in a nutshell”. Actually, he does himself a disservice: it is much more than that, and is a serious analysis of Mandela’s place in history, his failings as well as his virtues. It also contains a powerful final chapter on the betrayal of the Mandela legacy. In recent years, Hain, a second-generation anti-apartheid activist, has exposed the corruption of the Zuma presidency, and played no small part in bringing down the PR firm Bell Pottinger. It is a sad sequel to Mandel's life but a story of modern-day South Africa that needs to be told. * The Sunday Times, 15 July 2018 *Borrowing extensively from works such as Anthony Sampson’s Mandela (1999) and Nelson Mandela’s own autobiography Long Walk to Freedom (CH, Apr'95, 32-4642), Hain, a former anti-apartheid activist, offers a more condensed biography of the freedom fighter turned statesman, and combines it with personal observations of his encounters with the legendary South African. Hain tracks Mandela’s rural roots, political awakening, trial and imprisonment, progressive estrangement from his wife, Winnie, and triumph in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. Despite several chronological issues (i.e., the Congress of the People took place in June 1955), Hain’s narrative of Mandela’s long struggle for justice and reconciliation falls in line with other scholarly biographies, even if it does not break new ground. The most original material in Hain’s book comes in the later chapters, where he relates several encounters with the man known as Madiba. “It was not just his towering moral stature, his courage and his capacity to inspire that endeared Nelson Mandela to so many,” Hain observes. “Despite being one of the world’s most prominent statesmen—perhaps the most revered—he retained his extraordinary humanity.” Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsMandela Time Line Preface Introduction: International Icon Chapter 1: Roots Chapter 2: Grooming a Chief Chapter 3: Second Class Chapter 4: Freedom Fighter Chapter 5: Prisoner Chapter 6: Resistance Chapter 7: Victory Chapter 8: President Chapter 9: Mandela Magic Chapter 10: Legacy Betrayed? Selected Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisWhen Minh Pham was extradited from Britain to the US to face terrorism related charges, his appeal against the deprivation of his British citizenship was still pending. Soon after he arrived his appeal was lost and he was effectively made stateless. Pham's story is one of the many in Deport, Deprive, Extradite, illustrating the perpetual enhancement of state power and its capabilities to expel.In looking at these stories of Muslim men accused of terrorism-related offences, Nisha Kapoor exposes how these racialised subjects are dehumanized, made non-human, both in terms of how they are represented and via the disciplinary techniques used to expel them. She explores how the establishment of these non-humans enables the expansion of inhumanity more broadly, targeting Muslims, people of colour, immigrants and refugees. In asking what such cases illuminate and legitimate about precariousness and dispossession, she offers a radical analysis of the contemporary security state.Trade ReviewA monumental study of how the 'War on Terror' has allowed states to operate outside the boundaries of reason and decency. This is courageous research, a book that should be read by all citizens of 21st century states that claim to be fighting extremism but have themselves become extremist states. -- Vijay Prashad, Executive Director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and author, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global SouthGripping, frightening, urgent - Nisha Kapoor's book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the shifting terrain of securitisation, racialisation and the rolling back of human rights. It should be required reading for every student, teacher and advocate concerned to challenge state racism. For those inclined to trust the government, this book reveals the hidden and not so hidden injustices carried out in y/our name. For those who find themselves in the sights of a securitising state, this book lets you know that you are not alone. For anyone who doubts that the treatment of those suspected of terrorism reveals a shift in state practices that can seep out into other realms, this book offers a careful but devastating warning. We understand, what can be done to them can be done to us. After this book, none of us can pretend again that we did not know. -- Gargi Bhattacharyya, author of Dangerous Brown Men

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Book SynopsisBy July 1981 four republican hunger strikers had already died in Long Kesh Prison. A fifth, Joe McDonnell, was clinging to life. To outsiders, Margaret Thatcher appeared unbending; yet, far from the prying eyes of the press, her government was making a substantial offer to the prisoners. On 5 July this offer was given to Gerry Adams in Belfast, and relayed to the prison leadership. In this important sequel to the bestseller Blanketmen, O’Rawe documents the four-year war of words that followed. He interviews former members of the IRA Army Council who claim that a five-man committee led by Adams had control of the hunger strike, keeping the Army Council in the dark about the British governments offer. He uses contemporary records to show that Thatcher had approved the offer but that Gerry Adams and the committee had replied it was ‘not enough’, telling the hunger strikers that ‘nothing was on the table’. The prison leadership accepted the British offer, but six hunger strikers went on to die. O’Rawe asks: why? This hidden history, using contemporaneous photographs, pinpoints the key players in the drama and their responses, identifying Mountain Climber, a Derry businessman who brokered the deal, and describing the contributors to the crucial hunger strike conferences of 2008-09. O’Rawe combines a moving and courageous personal record with first-hand documentation. He provides essential background and astringent commentary on the realpolitick of the peace process and republicanism in Northern Ireland today, and its impact upon the country as a whole.Trade Review…a compelling, powerful and virtually incontestable case that in the summer of 1981 Gerry Adams and those around him thwarted a proposed settlement of the IRA/INLA hunger strikes’ —ED MOLONEY, author of A Secret History of the IRA. ‘Afterlives by Richard O’ Rawe is the history of the deal that could have ended the hunger strikes in 1981 and is the book no historian of the period will be able to ignore. O’Rawe makes a contribution to history that is substantially greater than anything we’ve had to date.’ —Page One Book

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Book SynopsisThe USSR's Writer's Union, a form of cultural and political organization unknown in the West, has ruled every aspect of Russian writers' private and professional lives from the time of Stalin to the present day. This book shows how the union has operated over the last five decades.Table of ContentsOrganising Utopia; whip and gingerbread; party guidance; Soviet Parnassus; crimes and punishments; purity and profit; the threat of glasnost; the promise of perestroika. Appendix: facts and figures.

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Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of the suicide bombings on London's transport infrastructure in July 2005, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair said that 'the rules of the game have changed'. He referred to how his government planned to respond to the attacks, but few people at the time anticipated that counter-terrorism would become synonymous with circumventing time-honoured concepts such as the rule of law. It is associated now with words such as profiling, incommunicado detention, rendition and torture."Rules of the Game" investigates global counter terrorism through the perspective of those affected by such measures. Asim Qureshi's indefatigable research took him to East Africa, Pakistan, Sudan, the USA, Bosnia and Canada to record the testimonies of the victims of these detention policies. He analyses the effects of global counter-terrorism not as individual policies or pieces of legislation, but rather as parts of a larger phenomenon that has uniformly changed the way governments view justice and eroded fundamental norms in pursuit of often phantom terrorists. Among the issues he discusses are profiling of Muslims by security services and concurrent mass arrests; the use of detention without charge, control orders and incommunicado detention; rendition; domestic detention policies in North America; and how the establishment of Guantanamo Bay has affected global perceptions of justice and imprisonment.Trade Review'When we arrived after the plane journey, they untied my blindfold. I found there were womenand children on one side and men on the other side of the plane. They were saying, "they are taking us to Mogadishu". The Kenyans who bought me there were still here. I was crying and screaming and telling them to let me go as I had my passport and that I was from Dubai and they should send me back. One man tried me to keep me quiet by saying, "you are coming with us." ...In total there were 22 women and children. Apart from me and another lady, everyone else was 3-8months pregnant.'-statement by Kamilya Tuweil to Cageprisoners, Dubai, 2007

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Book SynopsisIt is a great privilege to launch our series with A Working Life, Cruel Beyond Belief, by Alfred Temba Qabula, with a new Foreword by the original translator, BE Nzimande. Qabula was a central figure in the cultural movement among working people that emerged in and around Durban in the 1980s. It was an innovative attempt to draw on the oral poetry developed among the Nguni people over many centuries. Alfred Temba Qabula was a forklift driver in the Dunlop tyre factory in Durban at the time this book was developed. He used the art of telling stories to critique the exploitation of black workers and their oppression under apartheid.

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Book SynopsisThis fourth volume in the Hidden Voices Series is about Oukasie, a township in the Madibeng municipality. At various times in its history, its inhabitants have struggled against problems such as forced removals, terrible living conditions and corrupt officials. Bonds of Justice: The Struggle for Oukasie tells the story of a dedicated young group of people who were motivated by their belief that accountable and responsible leadership was needed to improve the situation of their community and its members. Before and after apartheid, they worked together to bring much-needed change to their community. This book tells the stories of those struggles in the 1980s and 1990s, and goes on to describe the problems faced by Oukasie and the wider community when the ethics of accountability were forgotten. The book has many lessons for South Africa today – the benefits that accountable governance can achieve, and what the costs are when a more selfish approach takes root.Trade Review“In this timely work, Kally Forrest expertly sheds light on apartheid South Africa’s last major forced urban removal. Her detailed research dissects the resistance to the removal, how the Oukasie community was torn apart by the machinations of the apartheid local and national state and the challenges of rebuilding, post-apartheid.” – Alan Morris, Professor of Sociology, University of Technology, Sydney “There was a remarkable leadership cadre that makes Oukasie and Brits distinctive, with a long history of organisation in a highly political struggle.” – Taffy Adler, former organiser for the National Automobile and Allied Workers Union

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Book SynopsisHeinz R. Böhme has been collecting artworks of the Lost Generation for more than twenty years. The main focus of his private collection in Salzburg is the recognition of more than eighty artists whose creative work was massively restricted under the National Socialist regime. Large-format illustrations, extensive biographies and a clearly structured list of the pictures in the collection, which currently contains over 350 works, document impressively the achievements of these artists, who were once ostracised and defamed as “degenerate”. Expanded by an interview with the collector, Heinz R. Böhme, and an art-historical and historical overview, the publication traces the fate and life’s work of an almost-forgotten generation of painters and thus permits the general public to rediscover these pioneering artistic positions. and tells a new, exciting history of the modern age Through her artworks.

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Book Synopsis

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