Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions Books

Book Synopsis“Riveting . . . There is a wealth of new information here that adds considerable texture and nuance to his story and helps to set Russia apart from previous works.”—The Wall Street JournalAn epic new account of the conflict that reshaped Eastern Europe and set the stage for the rest of the twentieth century.Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. The doomed White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky’s Red Army and the single-minded Communist dictatorship under Lenin. In the savage civil war that followed, terror begat terror, which in turn led to ever greater cruelty with man’s inhumanity to man, woman and child. The struggle became a world war by proxy as Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while contingents from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Czechoslovakia played rival parts. Using the most up to date scholarship and archival research, Antony Beevor assembles the complete picture in a gripping narrative that conveys the conflict through the eyes of everyone from the worker on the streets of Petrograd to the cavalry officer on the battlefield and the doctor in an improvised hospital.

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Book SynopsisAlthough Trotsky’s followers clung to the stubborn view of him as a pure revolutionary and a powerful intellect unjustly hounded into exile by Stalin, the reality is very different. This illuminating portrait of the man and his legacy sets the record straight.Trade ReviewTrotsky, even before one of Stalin’s agents found him in Mexico and assassinated him with an ice axe, was a romantic figure to those who believed that if only he had succeeded Lenin everything would have been better. Service, who has also written studies of Lenin and Stalin, does an excellent job of dispensing with such notions… Service’s book, unlike much writing about Trotsky, is the work of a historian, not an ideologue, and the better for it. * New Yorker *Robert Service fashions a vivid portrait of this brilliant, merciless ideologue, who did not hesitate to drag his country kicking, screaming and bleeding toward the utopia he dreamed of creating for it… [Service] approaches Trotsky without emotional or ideological attachment. He has also mined a rich lode of newly accessible archival material, including documents that reveal Trotsky’s support for cruel methods while Lenin was still actively leading the government… More than anything else, Service compels us to look at Trotsky as he really was rather than to accept the image that Trotsky conjured for himself. -- Joshua Rubenstein * Wall Street Journal *If only, his adherents argued, it had been Trotsky who had succeeded Lenin and not Stalin, then the USSR might have been spared its famines and its terrors, its show trials and its denials of freedom… Now, 50 years after the last full-scale biography of Trotsky in English, Robert Service has turned his attention to this myth—and has, effectively, assassinated Trotsky all over again… If one can imagine the most obnoxious middle-class student radical one has ever met—bitter, sneering, arrogant, selfish, cocky, callous, callow, blinkered and condescending—and if one freezes that image, applies a pair of pince-nez and transports it back to the beginning of the last century, then one has Trotsky… Service makes it absolutely plain that Trotskyism was Stalinism in embryo… Seldom has the pathology of the revolutionary type, and its murderous consequences, been more mercilessly exposed than in this exemplary biography. -- Robert Harris * Sunday Times *In a sober narrative thick with political details, both fresh and familiar, Service deflates the notion that the Old Man offered either a humane or plausible alternative to his unlamented comrades. The only major difference between Trotsky and his fellow Bolshevik leaders was that he never got the chance to wield total power… Service is the first major biographer of Trotsky to portray him as myopic villain instead of defeated prophet. -- Michael Kazin * The Daily Beast *In this astonishingly comprehensive book—Robert Service has trawled almost every archive on the planet that has any reference to Trotsky—we get a clear picture of Trotsky’s political development, his part in the 1917 revolution, his differences with Lenin, his break with Stalin and, finally, the years of exile and agitation in which he attracted a ragbag of bizarre followers and made the mistake of professing that there was a form of communism different to Stalin’s… This is a superb work of scholarship, and above all leaves the reader in no doubt as to the evil of Trotsky, not just in politics but in his personal life… If you seek to know about this crucial figure in the history of Marxism–Leninism, this book will tell you everything. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *Robert Service delivers an outstanding, fascinating biography of this dazzling titan. It is compelling as an adventure story—the ultimate rise and fall—but also revelatory as the scholarly revision of a historical reputation… The portrait of Trotsky’s forgotten world of Jewish farmers and poverty-stricken Russian aristocrats is eccentric and intriguing. Trotsky himself hid much of his background that Service reveals for the first time… At the end of Service’s revision, what remains of the Prophet? The intellectual, orator, manager of the Bolshevik coup and architect of the Civil War victory remain, but alongside them must be laid the mendacity of his memoirs, the ugly egotism and unpleasant, overweening arrogance, the belief in and enthusiastic practice of killing on a colossal scale, the political ineptitude, the limit of ambition. Apart from their famous row about ‘socialism in one country’ versus international revolution, there was little politically between Stalin and Trotsky. It was personality that divided them and both personalities were highly unattractive. If Trotsky had become dictator, Service is clear that while Russia would have avoided Stalin’s personal sadism, the same millions would still have been killed. -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Sunday Telegraph *The idea that a humane communism could have come out of Trotskyism is pure romanticism, Service says. Yet, Trotskyites maintain even today that the tragedy of Soviet history lay in Trotsky’s failure to win the battle of succession for leadership of the Soviet Union. Service’s biography will not convince them otherwise. But for those with an open mind, Trotsky: A Biography shows that in the end, Stalin and Trotsky were blood brothers. Blood being the operative word. -- Christopher Orlet * American Spectator *Trotsky is fascinating, detailed, highly intelligent, and meticulously researched… Service is among the very best living historians of the Soviet Union and Russia, and he is supremely good at stitching together the broad outlines of complex lives and developments. -- Peter Savodnik * Commentary *[Service] has produced a valuable handbook on the life of one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating—and still puzzling—personalities. -- Stephen Schwartz * First Things *In [Service’s] account, he is a figure more of fascination than admiration—quite in contrast to earlier biographies written by his devotees. He is a compelling crowd rouser but remote and cold personally, puritanical but more than a little lascivious, and the object of fervid political devotion yet ruthless in the pursuit of his compassionless notion of revolution. Service deals with Trotsky’s life from boyhood to the end but concentrates on the critical period from his days as a youthful revolutionary and foe of Bolshevism through the 1920s and the dramatic arc from his ascendancy to his defeat. The writing is trim and unadorned, allowing Service to march expeditiously over new ground: Trotsky’s early political affinity with Stalin, the smug self-confidence that worked against him in the post-1923 maneuvering, and his moments of striking political insight, which were matched by those of disastrous misjudgment. -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *Trotsky, the Bolshevik most powerfully associated with persisting hopes of global transformation, has had many biographers including the classic trilogy by Isaac Deutscher. Robert Service, less admiring by far, has uncovered a mass of new information, some of which makes for a pretty unattractive view of the man. Trotsky: A Biography is sparkling on his political and personal travails, and indeed his crimes and follies. -- Stephen Howe * The Independent *Robert Service’s iconoclastic yet rigorously balanced portrait of the fiery intellectual who helped Lenin cement Bolshevik power in Russia strips away the elaborate myths and lies that have buttressed Trotsky’s place in the pantheon of revolutionary martyrs. Using new archival resources—including family letters, party and military correspondence, confidential notes, and, perhaps most interesting of all, medical records—Service gives us a keen understanding of the character and intellect, peccadilloes and virtues of one of the key, yet wildly misunderstood figures in 20th century history… With his impressive book, Service completes his trilogy of the giants—Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky—who fashioned the Soviet state. There is no facet of Trotsky’s life that hasn’t been examined in detail, from his character and finances to his quarrels with party comrades over the minutiae of Communist dogma and his struggle with his Jewish roots. Encyclopedic is the word, and it is oh, so well written. -- Michael J. Bonafield * Minneapolis Star-Tribune *Robert Service has written what will undoubtedly be the definitive biography of Trotsky… It is the achievement in particular of Robert Service not only to have uncovered new material from previously unavailable Soviet archives, but to have cast new light on many of his writings and activities. He forces us to reinterpret drastically what it was Trotsky believed and fought for. Rather than being some kind of alternative to Stalin, Trotsky undoubtedly would have created a regime as monstrous and horrific as that which came to exist. -- Ronald Radosh * New Criterion *Trotsky helps explain both the allure and the danger of the mass murderer who was affectionately known to his followers as ‘the Old Man.’ -- Adam Kirsch * New Republic *Service never lets his reader forget Trotsky’s callousness, and rightly so: on the few occasions that Trotsky worked in conjunction with Stalin—suppressing the Orthodox Church, deporting dissident intellectuals—he equalled or even exceeded the Georgian in ruthlessness. Some of the worst aspects of the Soviet system, such as the use of military force to exterminate rebellious starving peasants, or the exploitation of concentration camp inmates for hard labour, were devised by Trotsky… Trotsky is the final part of a triptych, and you can sense the author’s enjoyment as he completes his heroic task. -- Donald Rayfield * Times Literary Supplement *A massive study of Trotsky, a grotesque character, politically and personally, even by the demanding standards of communism. -- Joseph C. Goulden * Washington Times *This absorbing, well-written biography presents a major reassessment of the life and career of Leon Trotsky… The biography is distinctive, in part, because it casts a critical yet judicious and well-founded view on Trotsky’s life and is written by distinguished Oxford historian Service, who has a deep understanding of the events and actors of the period. The author uses newly available archival materials such as telegrams, letters, and other documents to build a more accurate portrayal of his complex subject. In addition, Service reconsiders the large volume of materials that has long been available about Trotsky and subjects it to innovative scrutiny that often yields interesting results… This book will undoubtedly become the standard biography of Trotsky, and it is unlikely to be superseded for many years. -- N. M. Brooks * Choice *Distinguishing the work is its extensive use of archival sources and rare contemporary published materials, much of it used for the first time in this biography. Service casts a critical eye on Trotsky’s own writings and the interpretations of his followers and finds Trotsky’s diagnosis of his defeat by Stalin self-serving and misleading… Service succeeds in recovering many of the aspects of Trotsky’s life that the revolutionary and his followers tried to bury… A readable and persuasive biography that should be required reading for students of the Soviet Union and the history of world communism. -- Sean Pollock * Library Journal (starred review) *Thick and intensely researched but a pleasure to read, it should remain the definitive work for some time… This is a thoughtful, rewarding and essential contribution to 20th-century history. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Table of Contents* List of Illustrations * Maps * Preface * A Note on Usages * Introduction * Part I: 1879--1913 * The Family Bronstein * Upbringing * Schooling * The Young Revolutionary * Love and Prison * Siberian Exile * Iskra * Cutting Loose * The Year 1905 * Trial and Punishment * Again the Emigrant * Unifier * Special Correspondent * Part II: 1914--1919 * War on the War * Designs for Revolution * Atlantic Crossings * Nearly a Bolshevik * Threats and Promises * Seizure of Power * People's Commissar * Trotsky and the Jews * Brest-Litovsk * Kazan and After * Almost the Commander * Red Victory * World Revolution * Part III: 1920--1928 * Images and the Life * Peace and War * Back from the Brink * Disputing about Reform * The Politics of Illness * The Left Opposition * On the Cultural Front * Failing to Succeed * Entourage and Faction * Living with Trotsky * What Trotsky Wanted * Last Stand in Moscow * Alma-Ata * Part IV: 1929--1940 * Bu Yu Kada * Looking for Revolutions * The Writer * Russian Connections * Europe South and North * Setting Up in Mexico * The Fourth International * Trotsky and His Women *'The Russian Question' * Confronting the Philosophers * The Second World War * Assassination * The Keepers and the Flame * Notes * Select Bibliography * Index

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Book SynopsisMichael Hopkinson’s Green Against Green has long been established as the definitive study of the Irish civil war. Widely praised and frequently cited as the most authoritative work on the subject, it continues to hold its place as one of the finest works in modern Irish history.

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Book SynopsisExplores the relevance of the Gramscian concept of passive revolution and Caesarism in the context of the Egyptian revolution and counter-revolution.Trade Review'An important contribution to debates which should concern us all as researchers and students of potential revolutionary transformation, of Egyptian politics and of Gramsci's political thought' -- Dr. Maha Abdelrahman, Reader in Development Studies and Middle East Politics, University of Cambridge, and author of 'Egypt's Long Revolution: Protest Movements and Uprisings' (Routledge, 2014)'A wide-ranging and innovative work that will be of invaluable use to scholars of the Middle East, revolution, and 'democratic transition' and the use of Gramscian political concepts in global political economy' -- Dr. Jamie Allinson, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Edinburgh, and Editor at 'Salvage''This is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and provocative analyses of not only the recent Egyptian revolution' -- Progress in Political EconomyTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction Part I: On the Subject of Revolution 2. From Bourgeois to Permanent Revolution 3. A Criterion for Interpretation 4. Caesarism Part II: Gramsci in Egypt 5. Passive Revolution and Imperialism 6. Lineages of Egyptian Caesarism 7. The 25 January Revolution 8. Revolution and Restoration 9. Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisCallinicos''s new book is a frontal assault on the widely accepted idea that the East European revolutions of 1989 mark the death of socialism. In an attempt to vindicate the classical Marxist tradition, Callinicos argues that socialism in this tradition can only come from below, through the self-activity of the working class. Stalinism from this standpoint was a ''counter-revolution'', erecting at the end of the 1920s a state capitalist regime on the ruins of the radically democratic socialism briefly achieved in October 1917. He further argues that the collapse of Stalinism at the end of the 1980s was only one aspect of a world-wide transition from nationally organized to globally integrated capitalism. The result is likely to be greater economic and political instability. Against this background socialism - in Marx''s sense - is all the more necessary. He concludes that the collapse of Stalinism should be less the moment to abandon socialism than to resume unfinished busiTrade ReviewWINNER of THE DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP BOOK AWARD from the MARXIST SOCIOLOGY SECTION of the AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 'Appears at an ideal time ... it is an easy and enjoyable read.' Socialist Worker Review 'A concise and readable analysis which can serve as an excellent introduction to recent events and future prospects in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union ... this book has a lot to recommend it.' Times Higher Education Supplement 'A spirited assault on the widely accepted view that the East European revolutions of 1989 marked the death of socialism... this is rightly a brief and provocative, and all the better for it.' Political StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction. 1. The End of Socialism?. 2. The Ancient Regime and the Revolution. 3. The Triumph of the West?. 4. Beyond the Market. Conclusion. Notes.

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Book SynopsisCroghan's marriage to Lucy Clark, George Rogers Clark's sister, solidified his position in society. Croghan remained at Clark's side throughout it all, even as he prospered in the new world they had fought to create, while Clark languished.

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Book SynopsisThe majority of Latin American revolutionaries and guerrillas have laid down their weapons and opted to participate in that region's democratic processes. What brought about this transformation? When the AK-47s Fall Silent brings together for the first time many of these former Latin revolutionaries to tell their own stories, in their own words.

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Book SynopsisJohn Brentlinger made six trips in seven years to Nicaragua, most recently in 1991-2. In this volume he combines philosophy with reportage in portraying the Sandinista revolution as being less an economic and political phenomenon, than a human struggle for self-realisation.

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Book SynopsisAn essential document of the Black Panther Party written by three leading thinkers and party activists who were jailed following the FBI'S 1969 mandate to destroy the organization by any means possible.Still Black, Still Strong is partly based upon the 1989 videotape Framing The Panthers by producers Chris Bratton and Annie Goldson. It recounts the stories of Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur, all of whom were arrested and jailed during the COINTELPRO probe of the Black Panther Party.Dhoruba Bin Wahad, who organized chapters of the Black Panther Party in New York and along the Estern Seaboard and worked with tenants in Harlem and on drug rehabilitation in the Bronx, was accused of murdering two officers while still in his teens and imprisoned for 19 years. He always maintained his innocence and won his freedom by forcing the FBI to release thousands of classified documents proving that he had been framed. The justice department eventually resc

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Book SynopsisThe second edition of A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution updates Rosemarie Zagarri's biography of one of the most accomplished women of the Revolutionary era.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viii A Partial Genealogy of the Family of Mercy Otis Warren xi Map: Massachusetts in 1782 xii Timeline: Mercy Otis Warren/The American Revolution xiii Introduction xv 1 The First Friends of Her Heart 1 2 Politics as a Family Affair 23 3 Her Pen as a Sword 49 4 War Widows 79 5 An Old Republican 99 6 “History is not the Province of the Ladies” 135 Conclusion: The Line Beyond Her Sex 164 Bibliographical Essay 172 Index 186

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A groundbreaking account of the coming of the French Revolution from a historian of worldwide acclaim.Trade Review"This captivating history of the decades leading up to the French Revolution offers a populist account of a fervent political moment. Darnton…immerse[s] readers in what agitated Parisians read, wore, ate and sang on the way to toppling the monarchy of Louis XVI." -- New York Times Book Review"What did Parisians think and gossip, sing and obsess about over the decades before the storming of the Bastille? In The Revolutionary Temper, Robert Darnton paints a sumptuous mural of the eighteenth-century mind. With the Encyclopédie, with manned balloons in the air, reason seemed on a roll. With posters, pamphlets, and public readings, the written word appeared supreme. A few vicious libels, some stock market manipulation, a lurid adultery trial, one notorious diamond necklace, any number of court intrigues, skyrocketing bread prices, and plunging temperatures combined, among other elements, to shake a nation to its core. A rich, beautifully crafted book that plants the reader in a Paris that feels at all times electric." -- Stacy Schiff, author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams"Standing at the summit of Robert Darnton’s towering intellectual career, The Revolutionary Temper plunges the reader into the coffee shops, workrooms, and alleys of pre-revolutionary Paris. Following the traces of songs and rumors, insults and discontent, Darnton allows us to eavesdrop, almost miraculously, on whispers nearly two and a half centuries old. Here is the hive mind of ordinary people in extraordinary times, as they shake loose the thought and feeling of ages past, and decide—slowly, and then all at once—to begin the world anew." -- Jane Kamensky, author of A Revolution in Color"A page-turner on the 40 years before the fall of the Bastille." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Darnton’s panoramic vision is rendered in lucid and vigorous prose, with a consistent focus on the day-to-day communications and emotions of regular people. It’s an enthralling exploration of the psychology of political change." -- Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisThe story of the Jacobite Rebellions really began in 1534, when King Henry VIII changed the official religion of England from Catholic to Protestant. The narrative then continued through turbulent times of civil war and religious and political strife, leading to tensions and discontent boiling over when the Catholic King James II came to the throne in 1685; whereupon he was immediately beset by a Protestant rebellion led by the Duke of Monmouth, which set a chain of events in motion, resulting in William III and Mary II being crowned as Joint Monarchs after a bloodless coup.It was James' removal from the throne which created the spark for his supporters to orchestrate a series of revolts, known as the Jacobite Rebellions; the name coming from the Latin for James Jacobus. These uprisings, which included the rebellions from the Highlands of Scotland, and the Williamite Wars in Ireland, also formed part of the wider picture of a European war, known as the Nine Years War; the War of the G

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Book SynopsisA masterful telling of a complicated story, Shays's Rebellion is aimed at scholars and students of American history.Trade ReviewCondon succeeds by writing an engaging narrative in straightforward prose that builds excitement as it chronicles the revolutionary events in post-revolutionary Massachusetts... This brief but powerful book will be an ideal addition to undergraduate courses on the Revolution and early national era, and could accompany a survey of early American history for first-year college students as well. H-SHEAR ... [Condon] does provide extensive primary source quotations that will help readers better understand the rebellion and the period. This book should be added to the library collections of community colleges, four-year institutions, and high schools. Choice ... [Condon] does provide extensive primary source quotations that will help readers better understand the rebellion and the period. This book should be added to the library collections of community colleges, four-year institutions, and high schools. ChoiceTable of ContentsPrologue1. Paying for Independence2. Governor Bowdoin Faces the Regulators3. Mobilizing Authority and Resistance4. Conflict from Springfield to Petersham5. Governing the Regulators and Regulating GovernmentEpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesSuggested Further ReadingIndex

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Book SynopsisFilled with powerful insights into the revolution and its pertinence today, this book is for history and current affairs buffs, photography lovers, and everyone interested in the clash of Islamic fundamentalism and the West.

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Book SynopsisFor the first time, Monticello has an official guidebook that reflects the unique statesman and inventor Thomas Jefferson, his home, and his world. Showcasing the recent restoration of the home and plantation, it features information about the slaves of Mulberry Row, as well as the state-of-the-art visitor and education center. Each of the guide's 144 pages is designed to showcase the topics in its five chapters: Thomas Jefferson, Before Your Visit, The House, The Plantation, and the Neighborhood. Photographs, art and cutaways, and maps accompany featured stories both iconic and little-known from Monticello's curators.

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Book SynopsisRomanticism and Revolution: A Readerpresents an anthology of the key texts that both defined the debate over the French Revolution during the 1790s and influenced the Romantic authors. Presents readings chronologically to allow readers to experience the unfolding of the debate as it occurred in the 1790s Provides anaccessible and in-depth sampling of the major contributors to the Revolution debate, from Price, Burke, and Paine to Wollstonecraft and Godwin Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements. A Note on the Texts. Introduction. 1. Richard Price, A Discourse on the Love of Our Country. [What has the love of their country hitherto been among mankind?] [A narrower interest must give way to a more extensive interest]. [Every degree of illumination … hastens the overthrow of priestcraft and tyranny]. [The principles of the Revolution]. [Be encouraged, all ye friends of freedom and writers in its defence!] 2. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London relative to That Event. [All the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction]. [The public declaration of a man much connected with literary caballers]. [The two principles of conservation and correction]. [The very idea of the fabrication of a new government, is enough to fill us with disgust and horror]. [Our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our forefathers]. [Their blow was aimed at an hand holding out graces, favours, and immunities]. [A profligate disregard of a dignity which they partake with others]. [The real rights of men]. [But the age of chivalry is gone. – That of sophisters, oeconomists, and calculators, has succeeded]. [The real tragedy of this triumphal day]. [We have not … lost the generosity and dignity of thinking of the fourteenth century]. [Society is indeed a contract]. [The political Men of Letters]. [We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history]. [By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little]. [Old establishments … are the results of various necessities and expediencies]. [Some popular general … shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself]. 3. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Advertisement. [I have not yet learned to twist my periods, nor … to disguise my sentiments]. [I perceive … that you have a mortal antipathy to reason]. [The champion of property, the adorer of the golden image which power has set up]. [Misery, to reach your heart, I perceive, must have its cap and bells]. [In reprobating Dr. Price's opinions you might have spared the man]. [The younger children have been sacrificed to the eldest son]. [The respect paid to rank and fortune damps every generous purpose of the soul]. [The spirit of romance and chivalry is in the wane; and reason will gain by its extinction]. [Reason at second-hand]. [This fear of God makes me reverence myself]. [The cold arguments of reason, that give no sex to virtue]. [What were the outrages of a day to these continual miseries?]. 4. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution. [The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave]. [Mr. Burke has set up a sort of political Adam, in whom all posterity are bound for ever]. [Mr. Burke does not attend to the distinction between men and principles]. [The Quixote age of chivalry nonsense is gone]. [Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity]. [We are now got at the origin of man, and at the origin of his rights]. [The natural rights of man … the civil rights of man]. [Governments must have arisen, either out of the people, or over the people]. [Titles are but nick-names … a sort of foppery in the human character which degrades it]. [Toleration is not the opposite of Intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it]. [The church with the state, a sort of mule animal]. Miscellaneous Chapter. Conclusion. [In mixed Governments there is no responsibility]. [The Revolutions of America and France, are a renovation of the natural order of things]. [It is an age of Revolutions, in which every thing may be looked for]. 5. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. To M. Talleyrand-Périgord, Late Bishop of Autun. [The prevailing notion respecting a sexual character was subversive of morality]. Introduction. [I shall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style]. Chap. II The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed. [The grand end of their exertions should be to unfold their own faculties]. [To endeavour to reason love out of the world, would be to out Quixote Cervantes]. [Surely she has not an immortal soul who can loiter life away]. Chap. III The Same Subject Continued. [It is time to effect a revolution in female manners]. Chap. IV Observations on the State of Degradation to Which Woman Is Reduced by Various Causes. [Their senses are inflamed, and their understandings neglected]. Chap. V Animadversions on Some of the Writers Who Have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, Bordering on Contempt – Sect. i [Rousseau]. [Is it surprising that some of them hug their chains, and fawn like the spaniel?]. [Let us then … arrive at perfection of body]. Sect. ii [Dr. Fordyce's sermons]. [Why are girls to be told that they resemble angels; but to sink them below women?]. Chap. VI The Effect Which an Early Association of Ideas Has upon the Character. Chap. VII Modesty. – Comprehensively Considered, and Not as a Sexual Virtue. [Those women who have most improved their reason must have the most modesty]. Chap. VIII Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of the Importance of a Good Reputation. [If the honour of a woman … is safe, she may neglect every social duty]. [The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each other]. Chap. IX Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society. [How can a being be generous who has nothing of its own? or virtuous, who is not free? [I really think that women ought to have representatives]. Chap. X Parental Affection. Chap. XI Duty to Parents. [They are prepared for the slavery of marriage]. Chap. XII On National Education. [Morality, polluted in the national reservoir, sends off streams of vice]. Chap. XIII Some Instances of the Folly Which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections on the Moral Improvement That a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally Be Expected to Produce – Sect. ii. [Sentimental jargon]. Sect. vi [Women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish or vicious]. [Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man]. 6. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man. Part the Second. Combining Principle and Practice. Preface. Introduction. Chap. I Of Society and Civilization. Chap. II Of the Origin of the Present Old Governments. Chap. III Of the Old and New Systems of Government. [Republicanism]. [Monarchy … is a scene of perpetual court cabal and intrigue]. Chap. IV Of Constitutions. [Government … has of itself no rights; they are altogether duties]. [The bill of rights is more properly a bill of wrongs]. [The sepulchre of precedents]. [Europe may form but one great Republic]. Chap. V Ways and Means of Improving the Condition of Europe, Interspersed with Miscellaneous Observations. [I have been an advocate for commerce, because I am a friend to its effects]. [When … we see age going to the workhouse and youth to the gallows, something must be wrong in the system of government]. [The aristocracy are … the drones, a seraglio of males]. [The plan is easy in practice]. [Active and passive revolutions]. [In what light religion appears to me]. [What pace the political summer may keep with the natural, no human foresight can determine]. 7. William Godwin, An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness. Preface. Book I Of the Importance of Political Institutions – Chap. i Introduction. Chap. ii History of Political Society. Chap. iv Three Principal Causes of Moral Improvement Considered – I. Literature. [Truth … must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind]. II. Education. III. Political Justice. Chap. vi Human Inventions Capable of Perpetual Improvement. [Let us not look back]. Book II Principles of Society – Chap. i Introduction. Chap. ii Of Justice. Chap. iv Of the Equality of Mankind. Chap. v Rights of Man. [The impossibility by any compulsatory method of bringing men to uniformity of opinion]. Chap. vi Of the Exercise of Private Judgment. [Punishment inevitably excites in the sufferer … a sense of injustice]. Book III – Chap. vii Of Forms of Government. Book IV Miscellaneous Principles – Chap. ii Of Revolutions – Section I. Duties of a Citizen Section II. Mode of Effecting Revolutions. Section III. Of Political Associations. [There is at present in the world a cold reserve that keeps man at a distance from man]. Section IV. Of the Species of Reform to Be Desired. Chap. iv Of the Cultivation of Truth – Section II. Of Sincerity. [A gradation in discovery and a progress in the improvement, which do not need to be assisted by the stratagems of their votaries]. Chap. v Of Free Will and Necessity. [Mind is a topic of science]. [That in which the mind exercises its freedom, must be an act of the mind]. [So far as we act with liberty … our conduct is as independent of morality as it is of reason]. Book V Of Legislative and Executive Power – Chap. xiii Of the Aristocratical Character. [The principle of aristocracy is founded in the extreme inequality of conditions]. [Is it sedition to enquire whether this state of things may not be exchanged for a better?]. Book VI Of Opinion Considered as a Subject of Political Institution – Chap. i General Effects of the Political Superintendence of Opinion. Book VII Of Crimes and Punishments – Chap. i Limitations of the Doctrine of Punishment Which Result from the Principles of Morality. [The abstract congruity of crime and punishment]. Book VIII Of Property – Chap. vii Of the Objection to This System from the Principle of Population. 8. William Godwin, Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness. Preface to the Second Edition. [No man can more fervently deprecate scenes of commotion and tumult, than the author of this book]. Book VIII Of Property – Chap. viii Appendix. Of Cooperation, Cohabitation and Marriage. [Our judgement in favour of marriage]. Further Reading. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe end of the Second World War may have heralded peace in Europe but conflicts in Southern Africa were about to begin. The imperial powers were weakened by the cost of war and a string of wars challenged colonial rule in countries such as Namibia, Angola and Rhodesia. Once independence was achieved, civil wars between rival factions unfamiliar with democratic principles resulted. Liberation movements such as those in South Africa demanded self-rule and end to Apartheid. Tribal feuds, corruption and the ambitions of dictators led to more conflicts such as the protracted fighting in the Congo. These were wars that ran on until both sides were exhausted often only to be re-kindled after short periods of uneasy peace. The cost in human and material terms has been devastating and in too many cases remain so. Economic development has been frustrated and the result is often poverty, abuse and genocide. The Author who knows Southern Africa as a native is superbly equipped to tell this fascinating if tragic record.

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Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, al-Qaeda has become the most infamous terrorist organization in history. While their actions are deplorable, it remains a populist and idealist movement—and one that continues to spread. Despite heavy media coverage, most people are unaware of the group''s ultimate goals. Sampling from actual al-Qaeda texts, this is al-Qaeda in its own words, rather than another interpretation (which often emphasizes the inflammatory religious rhetoric) offered by the Bush administration and other factions of the Western world. Introductions and commentary provide the historical context necessary to understand fully the interconnection between the religious, social, and political issues that led to the emergence of Osama bin Laden and his jihad against the West. These primary sources enable readers to discern the fundamental convictions underlying the group''s demands, and help answer the question, 'What does al Qaeda want?'

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Book SynopsisEnigmas of Sacrifice is the first critical study of the religious poet and militarist Joseph M. Plunkett, who was executed with the other leaders of the Dublin insurrection of 1916. Through Plunkett the author gains access to areas of nationalist thought that were more often assumed or repressed than publicly formulated.In this eye-opening book, W.J. Mc Cormack explores and analyzes Plunkett’s brief life, work, and influence, beginning with his wealthy but dysfunctional family, irregular Jesuit education, and self-canceling sexuality. Mc Cormack continues through Plunkett’s active phase when amateur theatricals and a magazine editorship brought him into the emergent neonationalist discourse of early twentieth-century Ireland. Finally, the author arrives at Holy Week 1916, when Plunkett masterminded the forgery of official documentation in order to provoke and justify the insurrection he planned.Mc Cormack analyzes Plunkett’s significant texts and provides context through critical perspectives on his milieu. Enigmas of Sacrifice is unique in its effort to understand a major figure of Irish nationalism in terms that reach beyond political identity.

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Book SynopsisIn the winter of 1834, twenty men convened in Keene, New Hampshire, and published a fiery address condemning their state’s legal system as an abomination that threatened the legacy of the American Revolution. They attacked New Hampshire’s constitution as an archaic document that undermined democracy and created a system of conniving attorneys and judges. They argued that the time was right for their neighbors to rise up and return the Granite State to the glorious pathway blazed by the nation’s founders.Few people embraced the manifesto and its radical message. Nonetheless, as Eric J. Morser illustrates in this eloquently written and deeply researched book, the address matters because it reveals how commercial, cultural, political, and social changes were remaking the lives of the men who drafted and shared it in the 1830s. Using an imaginative range of sources, Morser artfully reconstructs their moving personal tales and locates them in a grander historical context. By doing so, he demonstrates that even seemingly small stories from antebellum America can help us understand the rich complexities of the era.Trade Review“The Fires of New England is an exceptionally deep and contextually rich case study of American culture and politics in the Early Republic. The power of the book is its illustrating and humanizing the complex effects of transformational historical developments through the lives of individuals.” — John Resch, author of Suffering Soldiers: Revolutionary War Veterans, Moral Sentiment, and Political Culture in the Early Republic“The story of this reformist crusade is an utterly fresh one, with lots of appeal for a twenty- first- century audience. it’s fascinating to realize that the cultural frustration with u.S. legal culture might go back this far in time.” — Aaron Sachs, author of Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition

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Book SynopsisClaude Lacaille witnessed up close the oppression and poverty in Haiti, Ecuador, and Chile where dictators and predatory imperialists ruled. Like other advocates of Liberation Theology, he saw it as his duty to join the resistance, particularly against Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet. But the dictators were not alone, as they often enjoyed the support of the Vatican, sometimes tacit, but then brazenly open under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He began writing this book in Chile where thousands shed blood simply because they defended victims of dictatorship, opposed rapacious policies and economic doctrines, consoled the downtrodden, and breathed new hope and courage into a people who desperately needed it. These men and women remain an inspiration for those who still believe in a better world. This is the story of Claude Lacaille's experience from 1965 through 1986 in the slums and squats in the Caribbean and South America and also what it really means to have a preferential option for the poor. His book shows how liberation theology and spirituality enkindled the life and the work of an ordinary Quebec missionary.Trade ReviewThe secret lies in the metaphor, the lovely 'closing the windows that John XXIII had opened to let fresh air in.' Because the entire book is beautifully written, and admirably translated by Casey Roberts, making its thoughtful points throughout in wonderful, poetic language . . . . As Lacaille recounts these colourful missions, the book really does come to life. There is a potted political history of South America. There are masses in Creole, touching anecdotes, and crises of faith ('People are starving to death and I’m singing masses!'). There are visits to Quebec’s Inuit and the potato fields of New Brunswick. And, most strikingly, there is wrenching poverty, political prisoners, terror, repression, activism, and resistance in Chile. A fascinating, inspiring read." —Peter McCambridge, quebecreads.com"The author’s accounts of his ministry contain some humour (soldiers who mistake the Bible for a local revolutionary document), much sadness, and tragedy more real than any Hollywood narrative . . . . Lacaille’s autobiography has all the ingredients of great fiction, which makes it more astonishing as truth." —Matthew R. Anderson, Montreal Review of Books"Lacaille’s story is at times harrowing. At other times, it is heroic, although he would most certainly deny any heroism . . . . Rebel Priest is a valuable document. It provides a personal story of a movement in the Catholic Church that stood up against monopoly capitalism and dictatorship." —Ron Jacobs, counterpunch.org

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Book SynopsisBeginning in 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was divided into opposing sections, one led by Vladimir Lenin, the other by Iulii Martov. Until 1917, Lenin and Martov, an anti-war socialist intellectual from a Jewish background, were equally prominent figures in Russian politics. Both wrote prolifically, and although the books, articles, and pamphlets written by Lenin remain readily available today, those by Martov continue to be difficult to locate in their original Russian or, for that matter, in translation.A Russian-language edition of World Bolshevism was published following Martov’s untimely death in 1923, but it was not until 2000, after decades of censorship, that parts of the book were legally published in Russia. This edition, which includes an introduction by Paul Kellogg, makes Martov’s work available in its complete form to English-speaking audiences for the first time in a hundred years and reintroduces this important thinker to a twenty-first century readership.Table of ContentsForewordIntroductionForeword to the 1923 Russian EditionI. Roots of World Bolshevism II. The Ideology of “Sovietism”III. Decomposition or Conquest of the State?Appendix – Marx and the Problem of the Dictatorship of the ProletariatBibliographyNotes from the 1938 translation by Herman Jerson

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Book SynopsisThis is the first collection of essays on Chartism by leading social historian Dorothy Thompson, whose work radically transformed the way in which Chartism is understood. Reclaiming Chartism as a fully-blown working-class movement, Thompson intertwines her penetrating analyses of class with ground-breaking research uncovering the role played by women in the movement.Throughout her essays, Thompson strikes a delicate balance between down-to-the-ground accounts of local uprisings, snappy portraits of high-profile Chartist figures as well as rank-and-file men and women, and more theoretical, polemical interventions.Of particular historical and political significance is the previously unpublished substantial essay co-authored by Dorothy and Edward Thompson, a superb piece of local historical research by two social historians then on the brink of notable careers.Trade Review“Ever alert, Dorothy Thompson probed beneath the outer surface of evidence. The results were innovatory. Her work brought to life the intense and dangerous interior world of working class meetings, conventions and newspapers.” —Sheila Rowbotham, Guardian “Dorothy Thompson is Chartism’s pre-eminent historian. She writes in a careful, passionate, and welcoming style giving pride of place to the voices in hymn, oratory, diary, and newspaper of the men and women who struggled against the child-consuming factory, the complacency of Victorianism, and empire-induced starvations. Those voices arose in the era of Liberalism. They need to be heeded still.” —Peter Linebaugh “These essays convey the distilled political and historical wisdom of a lifetime, and what a life it was. Dorothy Thompson will forever be remembered alongside the great Chartist movement she so brilliantly brought to vital, creative life.” —Marcus Rediker, author of The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom “Dorothy Thompson, who pioneered the writing of labour history from below, emerges as a complex and lucid philosopher of social change in these writings, which also chart the evolution of the post-war British left’s thinking about both its future and its past.” —Paul Mason “Awesome is an over-used word in modern parlance, but Dorothy Thompson’s knowledge of Chartism was just that. She was the pre-eminent historian of the movement.” —Owen Ashton, Labour History Review “Dorothy Thompson brought her extraordinary knowledge of Chartism together with a passionate commitment to democratic change. Her lifetime’s work on the movement remains unsurpassed in its range and historical vision.” —James Epstein, Vanderbilt University “Dorothy Thompson was both a remarkable person and an influential historian of Chartism. This collection of her essays…highlights the approach of one of a formidable pair of fellow historians and left-wing intellectuals.” —Penelope J. Corfield, History Today “This is an extremely valuable volume … Thompson offers a master class in historical research and presentation … This is superb history … Read Dorothy Thompson’s marvellous book.”—Counterfire “A handsome, readable and enjoyable collection.” —The Local Historian (British Association for Local History)

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Book Synopsis"Without Lenin there would have been no socialist revolution in 1917. Of this much we can be certain."Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the October 1917 uprising, is one of the most misunderstood leaders of the twentieth century. In his own time, there were many, even among his enemies, who acknowledged the full magnitude of his intellectual and political achievements. But his legacy has been lost in misinterpretation; he is worshipped but rarely read.On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Tariq Ali explores the two major influences on Lenin's thought-the turbulent history of Tsarist Russia and the birth of the international labour movement-and explains how Lenin confronted dilemmas that still cast a shadow over the present. Is terrorism ever a viable strategy? Is support for imperial wars ever justified? Can politics be made without a party? Was the seizure of power in 1917 morally justified? Should he have parted company from his wife and lived with his lover?In The Dilemmas of Lenin, Ali provides an insightful portrait of Lenin's deepest preoccupations and underlines the clarity and vigour of his theoretical and political formulations. He concludes with an affecting account of Lenin's last two years, when he realized that "we knew nothing" and insisted that the revolution had to be renewed lest it wither and die.Trade ReviewReading this book on your vacation will make your life better and your mind broader. -- Branko MilanovicAli encourages the reader to take a fresh look at Lenin's choices in the context of a repressive autocracy, the poverty and misery of the bulk of the population under tsarism and the industrialised slaughter of the first world war. What underpins his book is the view that October was an "innocent and utopian birth" that was subsequently "twisted" into Stalinism by three devastating years of civil war. -- Daniel Beer * Guardian *A powerful tool for those wanting to understand the real Lenin and therefore the real politics behind those revolutionaries who fought so hard but ultimately failed in their goal. -- Lindsey German * Counterfire *[The Dilemmas of Lenin] aims to rescue Lenin from both liberal caricature and Soviet hagiography by recovering the realism and dynamism of his political thought. -- David Sessions * The New Republic *An incredibly powerful, panoramic, and insightful study of the central revolutionary figure of the twentieth century ... The Dilemmas of Lenin helps attentive readers comprehend something of what happened in history, the realities of our time, and how the future could unfold if we approach it with understanding and commitment. -- Paul Le Blanc * International Socialist Review *

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Book SynopsisA fascinating examination of the extraordinary life of Roger Casement, executed as part of the 1916 rising, fighting the empire that had previously knighted him. Roger Casement was a British consul for two decades. However, his investigation into atrocities in the Congo led Casement to anti-Imperialist views. Ultimately, this led him to side with the Irish Republican movement, leading up to the 1916 rising. Arrested by the British for gun trafficking, he was incarcerated in the Tower of London and then placed in the dock at the Royal Courts of Justice in an internationally-publicised state trial for high treason. He was hanged in Pentonville prison on the 3 August—two years to the day after Britain’s declaration of war in 1914. Trade Reviewsympathetic and well-structured study … admirable contribution to a timely series of studies of the sixteen men executed for their part in the rebellion of 1916 -- ‘Brea’ Digital Journal of Irish Studiesexcellent … Angus Mitchell, the foremost authority on Casement, has written a superlative book about the humanitarian pioneer and Irish patriot … I heartily recommend this book -- irishtimes.comthere is much to admire in this book -- Irish Echorich … Mitchell weaves Casement’s attuned sense of suffering through the Congo to gunrunning in Howth, the infamous Black Diaries and his death, reminding us that his legacy is of furthering an understanding of human rights -- Irish TimesMitchell steers the reader through the many aspects of Casement’s life and afterlife with a steady hand at the tiller -- Books Irelandthis is both a narrative and a sourcebook for understanding Sir Roger Casement -- Dublin Review of BooksAngus Mitchell provides a thoroughly developed and detailed map to follow and understand Casement’s footprints in history -- Dublin Review of BooksAngus Mitchell … has erected an essential pillar in the pantheon series 16 Lives, which explores sixteen individuals who were executed after the 1916 Easter Rising with an eye on the guideline of the prompt “Who were these people and what drove them to commit themselves to violent revolution?” -- Dublin Review of Booksfascinating -- Choice Magazinefascinating -- Clare County Expressthe latest volume in the superb 16 Lives series -- RTE Guide

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