Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions Books

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Book SynopsisExplores the history of China from the founding of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) to the present day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this rising superpower in what promises to be the 'Chinese century'.Trade ReviewThe Oxford History of Modern China brings together top experts to tell a compelling story of China in its past four centuries. Integrating narrative with analysis in a perfect balance, this great asset for classroom instruction also reminds the instructor what brought her into the history profession in the first place. Truly amazing! * Mara Yue Du, Cornell University *The Oxford History of Modern China brings together top experts to tell a compelling story of China in its past four centuries. Integrating narrative with analysis in a perfect balance, this great asset for classroom instruction also reminds the instructor of what brought her into the history profession in the first place. Truly amazing! * Mara Yue Du, Cornell University *Review from previous edition [This] set of essays by a collection of the world's leading China scholars makes compelling reading for the China novice and seasoned China-hand alike. It is a wonderful guide to understanding the sweeping changes and dramatic transformations that have shaped China from the dynastic era to the present day. * Elizabeth Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations *An excellent introduction to the history of modern China for the general reader and student alike ... I am sure it will prove popular with students and the general public alike. * Tim Chamberlain, LSE Review of Books *The best place to start for those who wish to get a handle on modern China. * Asian Review of Books *Table of ContentsList of Maps A Guide to Pronouncing Romanized Chinese Introduction by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom 1: From Late Ming to High Qing, 1550-1792 by Anne Gerritsen 2: New Domestic and Global Challenges, 1792-1860 by Stephen R. Platt 3: Restoration and Reform, 1860-1900 by Robert Bickers 4: Felling a Dynasty, Founding a Republic by Peter Zarrow 5: The Rise of Nationalism and Revolutionary Parties, 1919-1937 by James Carter 6: The War Years, 1937-1949 by Rana Mitter 7: The Early Years of the People's Republic, 1950-1964 by S. A. Smith 8: The Cultural Revolution Era, 1964-1976 by Richard Curt Kraus 9: Reform and Rebuilding, 1976-1988 by Timothy Cheek 10: Tiananmen and Its Aftermath, 1989-1999 by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Kate Merkel-Hess 11: China Rising, 2000-2010 by William A. Callahan 12: The People's Leader: The Xi Jinping Era of Chinese Politics by Diana Fu and Emile Dirks 13: The Presence of the Past--A Coda by Ian Johnson Timeline Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisBerkeley, California stood at the center of the political, social, and cultural upheaval that made the 1960s a unique period in American history. In Berkeley at War, W.J. Rorabaugh, who attended the graduate school of the University of California at Berkeley in the 1970s, presents a lively, informative account of the events that changed forever what had once been a quiet, conservative white suburb. Rorabaugh''s meticulously researched, authoritative narrative covers the entire period, from the rise of the Free Speech Movement to the growth and increasing militance of a black community struggling to end segregation; from the emergence of radicalism and the anti-war movement to the blossoming hippie culture; and from the explosive conflict over People''s Park to the beginnings of modern-day feminism and environmentalism. An invaluable account of its time and place, Berkeley at War anchors the sixties in American history, both before and since that colorful decade.Trade ReviewAccessible and stiulating. * Perry Blatz, Duquesne University *Thorough and engaging popular history. * New York Newsday *A skillful researcher who also possesses a vigorous narrative style, Rorabaugh brings scholarly clarity to the turmoil of the mid- to late-1960's. * Publisher's Weekly *Evocative and smoothly written....A compelling story of politics and power, silliness and cynicism, ideology and idiosyncrasies....Rorabaugh catches the temper of the times....He leads deftly from boardroom to classroom, coffeehouse to crash pad, in a perceptive and evenhanded Baedeker to a turbulent era. * Kirkus Reviews *[Rorabaugh's] meticulous account brings back those years, while showing how little most of us really knew about the forces setthing around us then....The book conveys many vivid images of a unique city as well as provides an authoritative account of an era. The significance of Berkeley at War lies in the fact that Berkeley was a quintessential American city of the 1960s * and those times still shape our world today.The Seattle Times *Rorabaugh narrates the events and identifies the issues that swirled into headlines and newscasts as the disenfranchised sought to get their messages and their cases before the general public. The success and outcome of that power struggle are authoritatively assessed in this detailed chronicle of a watershed moment in American society's development. * Booklist *A welcome addition to literature about the sixties....Can help readers better understand both Berkeley in the 1960s and our contemporary historical circumstances as well. It is a book about the past, but also one very much about the present. With it...we will be able to place our own lives in context, in proper perspective. * The Stanford Daily *A sober and absorbing chronicle of the transformation of a university town into a political battlefield. * Indochina Chronology *Excellent....A unique, well-balanced, and solidly researched study. * Perspective *Excellent....A unique, well-balanced, and solidly researched study that will be of interest to scholars and laypersons interested in the turbulent decade that now lies twenty years in the past but that still strongly reverberates in the consciousness of all who lived through it. * Perspective *[A] stimulating history of the tumult at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s. * The Washington Post *In prose that is clear and frequently elegant, Rorabaugh has succeeded in providing a coherent overview of both the place and the decade, not an easy challenge. * California Monthly *[The] sources utilized here are voluminous and minded extremely well....Comprehensive, if not always forceful, narrative. * Barbara L. Tischler, Queens College, CUNY *

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Book SynopsisElegantly written and meticulously researched, this book offers a major new interpretation of the Ku Klux Klan in America, placing the organization in its context of class and gender as well as race and religion.Trade Reviewa study that demonstrates how race relations are intertwined with other kinds of hierarchical relations. * The Historian *a remarkable, readable, and important book on the second Ku Klux Klan. From a database of 418 Klan memebers she extracted statistical and individual profiles. She skilfully weaves national,state, and local Athens activities together with individual stories and profiles of the membership to create a mosaic of the Klan. With this study, Nancy Maclean has made a significant scholarly contribution to our understanding of the Klan. * The Historian *

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Book SynopsisAt the century''s end, societies all over the world are throwing off the yoke of authoritarian rule and beginning to build democracies. At any such time of radical change, the question arises: should a society punish its ancien regime or let bygones be bygones? Transitional Justice takes this question to a new level with an interdisciplinary approach that challenges the very terms of the contemporary debate. Ruti Teitel explores the recurring dilemma of how regimes should respond to evil rule, arguing against the prevailing view favoring punishment, yet contending that the law nevertheless plays a profound role in periods of radical change. Pursuing a comparative and historical approach, she presents a compelling analysis of constitutional, legislative, and administrative responses to injustice following political upheaval. She proposes a new normative conception of justice--one that is highly politicized--offering glimmerings of the rule of law that, in her view, have become symbols oTrade ReviewPerhaps the most useful chapter in the book is the one examining reparatory justice. Teitel handles well the duality of reparations * The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 95, 2001 *"A valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarly literature."--Aryeh Neier, New York Review of Books"Impressive....Teitel goes through the complex issues raised during transitional periods in an ambitious attempt to construct the language of a new jurisprudence. What is novel about Teitel's approach is the attempt to provide an overarching approach to understanding issues that arise in and out of transitional justice....[The book] is filled with fresh ideas and interesting, provoking perspectives....Essential reading for all those facing the complexities of transition in practice."--Times Higher Education SupplementTable of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The Rule of Law ; 2. Criminal Justice ; 3. Historical Justice ; 4. Reparatory Justice ; 5. Administrative Justice ; 6. Constitutional Justice ; 7. Towards a Theory of Transitional Justice

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Book SynopsisRevolutionary Russia: A History in Documents provides a visually stimulating survey of revolutionary Russia, from the collapse of the autocracy in 1917 to the consolidation of the Stalinist system in the 1930s. Authors Robert Weinberg and Laurie Bernstein have collected far-flung documents--many available in English for the first time--and woven them into a narrative that focuses on the effort to build communism in Russia and its effects on the lives of ordinary people. Providing introductions to each chapter and document along with sidebars and detailed photo captions, the main text tantalizes readers with the great vision, conflict, hopes, and horrors of this much-mythologized part of modern history, while the back matter offers resources for further exploration. Utilizing a mix of textual and visual documents-including photographs, posters, and objects-to create a textured history of revolutionary Russia, the book covers such diverse topics as the prelude to revolution, the BolsheviTable of ContentsWhat is a Document? ; How to Read a Document ; Introduction ; 1. PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION ; A Land of Contrasts ; Revolutionary Politics ; The Revolution of 1905 ; The Eve of War and Revolution ; 2. 1917: THE YEAR OF REVOLUTION ; Society Becomes Radical ; The Bolshevik Rise to Power ; Views of the Revolution ; 3. THE CONSOLIDATION OF BOLSHEVIK RULE, 1918-1921 ; The Fate of the Royal Family ; Opposition and Criticism ; The Embrace of Dictatorship ; Peasant Resistance and the Crisis of Kronstadt ; 4. THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM ; The Transformation of Culture and Society ; Celebrating Revolution ; The Debate about NEP ; 5. STALIN'S REVOLUTION FROM ABOVE, 1928-1932 ; Beating Russia into the Twentieth Century ; The War against the Peasantry and Church ; The World of Five-Year Plans ; 6. PICTURE ESSAY: WOMEN'S LIBERATION IN THE SOVIET UNION ; 7. SOVIET SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE 1930s ; The Cult of Stalin ; The Revolution of Stalin ; 8. THE GREAT TERROR ; The Gulag ; Three Views of the Purges ; The Trial of Bukharin ; The Purges in Literature ; Epilogue ; Assessments of Stalin's Work ; Reflection on the Soviet Experience ; Timeline ; Further Reading ; Websites ; Text Credits ; Picture Credits ; Index ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe Four Horsemen narrates the history of revolution in Spain, Naples, Greece, and Russia in the 1820s, connecting the social movements and activities on the ground, in the inimitable voice of a renowned historian.Trade ReviewBeautifully written, dramatic, and filled with life, The Four Horsemen is a tribute to the peoples and ideas that it champions....The Four Horsemen provides an original narrative of four particular upheavals that presaged the transition of governments from monarchies to constitutional regimes and nations-states....The Four Horsemen is transnational history at its finest. * Lucien J. Frary, Modern Greek Studies Yearbook *Based on primary sources from all four countries, this deeply researched narrative blossoms into a true transnational history, illustrating the interconnection of these revolts....A tour de force that deftly tells an important story in engrossing detail. * CHOICE *Published posthumously, Stites's final work is both a career-defining accomplishment and something of a departure. The preeminent European historian broadens his focus from Russia and popular culture to encompass the entire continent and the spread of democracy, revolution, and self-determination. * Publishers Weekly *The Four Horsemen is a highly original and important study of revolutionary movements in early nineteenth century Europe. With a strong cast of extraordinary characters, it is also a tremendous read. * Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge *This is a beautiful book, covering a period that is chronically understudied, and doing so with great richness and subtlety, in a way that no one to my knowledge has ever done. Stites was a historian primarily of Russia, and yet his knowledge of developments across Europe was impressive. In his deft handling, a line of continuity running from Spain to Italy to Greece to Russia is exposed with incredible clarity, revealing the close connections between the disparate liberal revolutions of the 1820s, and their broader resonance throughout Europe. Stites wrote like the historian of my mind's eye: learned, wise, kindly, and humane, sensitive to life's great openings as well as to its tragic closures. * Darrin M. McMahon, Florida State University *Richard Stites's astute and engagingly written book helps to recover the importance of these men [four remarkable, if unlikely, rebels] and their lost causes, both for their time as well as ours. They formed a subterranean liberal international, creating far-flung networks to resist tyranny. They believed that toppling a despot in a single country would reverberate across Europe. For them, the fate of Spain was entwined with the fate of Russia. It was not accidental that many refugees from failed revolutions in Spain, Naples, and Russia later converged on Greece and died there in the cause of independence. Together they forged a primordial European identity that survived their own anclimactic ends in exile, in dungeons, or on the scaffold. * Gabriel Paquette, Times Literary Supplement *Single-handedly, this study revisits one of the most neglected episodes of European history: namely the failed liberal and constitutional revolutions of the 1820s. With the enviable nimbleness of someone who has mastered the art of story-telling, and no fewer than a dozen European languages, Stites interweaves seamlessly the story of three very different Southern European Revolutions (together with the Decembrist Revolt) into a highly original and exquisitely written study...Each chapter is written in a gripping and page-turning fashion, with oddly apposite moments of dry humour, which will undoubtedly make this book both a classic and an essential item on any undergraduate reading list exploring the age of revolutions...Hopefully more scholars will follow the path opened by Stites's accessible and elegantly written study. The four horsemen remain vanquished but, thanks to this book, they will not be forgotten. * Ambrogio A. Caiani, English Historical Review *Table of ContentsEditors' Preface Preface I. Before the Barricades Went Up II. Rafael Del Riego: The Ride through Andalusia III. Guglielmo Pepe: Marching into Naples IV. Alexandros Yspilanti: Across the River Pruth V. Sergei Muraviev-Apostol: Into the Steppe VI. The Torn Cloth of Memory Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA broad-ranging history of defectors from the Communist world to the West and how their Cold War treatment shaped present-day restrictions on cross-border movement.Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world''s attention during the Cold War. Their stories were given sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. Upon reaching the West, they were entitled to special benefits, including financial assistance and permanent residency. In contrast to other migrants, defectors were pursued by the states they left even as they were eagerly sought by the United States and its allies. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world.Defectors follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight via land, sea, and air gave shape to a globalized world. It charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows Trade ReviewA nuanced look at deep complications underneath stories of asylum seekers in their journey 'from tyranny to liberty'. * Kirkus *Erik R. Scott's Defectors is a groundbreaking work of Cold War history and a real page-turner. Scott combines excellent storytelling with powerful arguments about migration, sovereignty, borders, and international law. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in Soviet-American relations and their impact on the wider world. * Francine Hirsch, author of Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II *This timely and deeply researched book shows how the historical conception and implementation of 'walls' can help to situate current debates about globalization and population flows. It is a major contribution to our understanding of the human and political dimensions of the first Cold War, showing how the superpowers colluded as well as competed in their efforts to define their borders. * Diane P. Koenker, University College London *Erik Scott deftly incorporates the motives, trajectories, and experiences of Soviet defectors into a subtle analysis of the efforts made by the major state protagonists during the Cold War to manage international migration in the post-World War II era. His carefully researched, illuminating, and intriguing book deserves to be widely read by students of international history. * Peter Gatrell, author of The Unsettling of Europe: How Migration Reshaped a Continent *Zooming in to the case of the Soviet Union, Scott broadens our perspective on the critically important topic of emigration and the efforts to prevent it in the Cold War world. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand more about the haunting effects of defection. * Tara Zahra, author of Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars *Both seasoned Sovietologists and newcomers to Cold War history will find food for thought in this creative reevaluation of the era's geopolitics. * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Defectors and the Spaces in Between Part I: Building Borders Chapter 1: From Displacement to Defection Chapter 2: Between Intelligence and Counterintelligence Chapter 3: Socialist Borders in a Global Age Part II: Governing Global Mobility Chapter 4: Soviets Abroad Chapter 5: International Waters Chapter 6: Cold War Airspaces Conclusion: After Defection Notes Sources and Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn intimate history of an ordinary Parisian citizen and his neighbors that reflects on the origins and radicalization of the French Revolution.What was it like to live through one of the most transformational periods in world history? In The Glory and the Sorrow, eminent historian Timothy Tackett answers this question through a masterful recreation of the world of Adrien Colson, a minor lawyer who lived in Paris at the end of the Old Regime and during the first eight years of the French Revolution. Based on over a thousand letters written by Colson to his closest friend, this book vividly narrates everyday life for an ordinary citizen during extraordinary times, as well as the life of a neighborhood on a small street in central Paris. It explores the real, day-to-day experience of a revolution: not only the thrill, the joy, and the enthusiasm, but also the uncertainty, the confusion, the anxiety, and the disappointments. While Colson reported on major events such as the storming of the Bastille and the King''s flight to Varennes, his correspondence underscores the extent to which the great majority of Parisians--and no doubt of the French population more generally--in no way anticipated the Revolution; the incessant circulation and power of rumors of impending disasters in Paris, not just in the summer of 1789 but continually from the autumn of 1789 throughout the Revolutionary decade; and how this affected popular psychology and behavior. In doing so, this account demonstrates how a Parisian and his neighbors were radicalized over the course of the Revolution.An evocative account of Colson''s time and place, The Glory and the Sorrow is a compelling microhistory of Revolutionary France.Trade ReviewThis fine book emphasises and dramatizes complexity and contingency in the lives of the capital and its residents. It reminds us how such quotidian topics as cnanine leashes, tenants leases, and urban gossip can open windows into another place and time. * Jeffrey Merrick, New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century *A fascinating and tantalizing volume...that can be read with pleasure and recognition...by any scholar of the late Eighteenth century and its turbulent social and political histories. * David Andress, French History *In 1920, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to legalize abortion on demand. But in 1936, the Soviet leadership criminalized abortion: the collectivization of the early 1930s was followed by famine that took the lives of millions of people, and the government grew eager to recover the population. Drawing on an amazing wealth of archival material, Nakachi traces the dynamic of Soviet reproductive policies that were invariably guided by pronatalist goals but almost always had damaging consequences. * Foreign Affairs *The Glory and the Sorrow is a stunning account that integrates a lifetime of research, knowledge, and deep understanding of one's historical actors. It wrestles with enduring questions regarding the local nature of popular activism and the political radicalization of most Parisians. It is a masterclass in animating history as experience, and it will be a gift for generations of scholars and students to come. * Katie Jarvis, H-France Forum *There are many reasons why Tim Tackett's contribution to our knowledge of the French Revolution commands such attention, but...one aspect in particular...[is its] place...in scholarship on emotions in the Revolution....While The Glory and the Sorrow centres on the life of one man, our understanding of his experience of the Revolution is couched very much in terms of his profound and shifting emotions—from the dizzying heights of 1789...to the 'sorrow' of 1794, as the intense expectations of the early years foundered against the crashing impact of war, betrayal and fear. Tim's unfolding of the events of the Revolution through the emotional registers of one man, offer us, as readers in the twenty-first century a way into understanding what the Revolution meant for the generation that lived through it....We must be grateful that...Colson's letters remain to us as a window on a tumultuous time in world history. * Marisa Linton, H-France Forum *Evocative and engaging.... Colson's own experience reveals the state of tension that existed throughout the revolutionary years, between inspiration and hope for a better future on the one hand, and anxiety, desperation and sheer terror on the other. This was not helped by the swirl of rumour and speculation that enveloped the political conversations among Colson's neighbours and friends. Yet it is equally clear that Colson worked hard to disentangle reliable from misleading and downright false information. This may have been because as a lawyer he was especially well-equipped to examine the evidence critically...but it is none the less a reminder to historians that just because a rumour was recorded, it did not mean that everyone credulously believed it. It also holds up a mirror to our own age, enveloped as it is in fake news, misinformation and gossip, no less than was Colson's world. * Michael Rapport, H-France Forum *In The Glory and the Sorrow, Tackett's lively depiction of the initial years of the Revolution challenges us all to match the vivacity and rigor of his analysis and apply them to the entire Revolutionary era....Tackett has painted a detailed portrait of how a small-time, single lawyer from a small, frontier town lived quietly in Paris until the shocks of 1789 transformed his world....By implication and example, it makes a number of important arguments about the causes and consequences of Revolutionary political transformation. * Jeff Horn, H-France Forum *On one level The Glory and the Sorrow can be read as a beautifully written biography, resurrecting a life that had been lost to history. But it is so much more than that, offering a compelling insight into both revolutionary dynamics and popular emotions in a city in crisis. * ALAN FORREST, University of York, FAMILY & COMMUNITY HISTORY *Adrien-Joseph Colson was the Mr Ordinary of ancien régime France....But 1789 also effected a radical change on Mr Ordinary Colson, a startling political awakening....Historians of the Revolution will warmly welcome this fine microhistorical biography. It shows Revolutionary radicalization at work on an utterly unremarkable figure who, in the Revolution, along with his neighbourhood, discovered a new set of values and a new political identity within a wider national fraternity. * Colin Jones, Times Literary Supplement *Drawing on an extraordinarily riche cache of letters, this biography of an ordinary eighteenth-century Parisian gives a marvelously vivid sense of what it was like to live through the last years of France's Old Regime and to participate, at ground level, in the French Revolution. Timothy Tackett has drawn on his unparalleled expertise in the period to produce a biography that is also an illumination—and one that college students in particular will appreciate. * David A. Bell, author of Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution *This rich and evocative microhistory brings the late Old Regime and French Revolution alive through the experiences of one small-time Parisian lawyer. Adrien-Joseph Colson turns out to be a likeable and very human figure. As Timothy Tackett explores his reflections and quandaries, The Glory and the Sorrow makes for compelling reading. Once again, Tackett analyzes revolutionary dynamics with insight and vision. * Suzanne Desan, author of The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France *Adrien Colson's letters reveal how utterly unexpected the French Revolution was for all who lived through it and how everyday citizens of Paris managed to ride the successive waves of optimism, excitement, uncertainty, and fear. Beautifully contextualized by one of the leading historians of the French Revolution, this book makes you feel like a witness to history. Unless you know how to travel through time, you can't get much closer to the events of the French Revolution than this. * Paul Friedland, Cornell University *There is no better way to experience the hopes, anxieties, and terrors churned out by the French Revolution than this very personal account of an ordinary man in Paris and no better guide to making sense of that experience than Tim Tackett. He has that rare talent for finding archival gems and then gracefully revealing their significance. The reader can't help but feel what Adrien Colson feels as he encounters the excitement, mysteries, and disappointments of revolutionary Paris. * Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It Matters *Adrien Colson was a Parisian lawyer who lived through the waning ancien régime and the most turbulent years of the French Revolution. He would have disappeared from history were it not for the 1,000 letters he sent to a friend in central France. In them he gave eyewitness testimony of the revolution as it caught flame in ways neither he nor his neighbour...could have predicted. Timothy Tackett deftly uses the correspondence to create a vivid picture of Colson and his thrilling, terrifying times: his book stands in the tradition of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou. Colson is revealed as representative of the masses - a man caught up in events, in thrall to rumour and the bewildering speed of events.. * Michael Prodger, New Statesman *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue Chapter 1 Arrival in Paris Chapter 2 Life in Paris before the Revolution Chapter 3 Making a Living Chapter 4 Understanding the World Chapter 5 The World Changes Chapter 6 Days of Glory Chapter 7 Rumor and Revolution Chapter 8 Becoming a Radical Chapter 9 Days of Sorrow Conclusion Appendix: Translations of Selected Letters Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAmidst the vast literature on the parties and politics of revolutionary Russia and its near constant appropriation for presentist purposes over the years, States of Anxiety assesses the effects of the great scarcities and enormous losses that Russia experienced between 1914 and 1921, a period of dramatic civil conflicts and Russia''s long World War. Scarcities meant not only the deficits of necessary goods like food, but also their accompanying anxieties and fears. Using archival documents and materials of the period almost exclusively, this study explores how the tsarist, democratic liberal, democratic socialist, and Bolshevik regimes all addressed the forms and effects of scarcity and loss in ways they hoped would assure the revolutionary outcomes of their own historical imaginations. Looking closely at their efforts, it suggests how and why each failed to do so. Approaching the Russian revolutionary period in these terms involves exploring a broad range of connected issues. Material scarcities involved problems with market exchange, prices, and inflation, as well as procurement, production, and distribution. They involved fiscal policies, monetary emissions, and the effects of escalating debt. But they also directly engaged cultural understandings of fairness, sacrifice, and social difference, and were accompanied by what today would be called today the anxieties of food insecurity, the dangerous risks of unemployment, and a range of fears about family and community welfare. Officials and members of various state and public committees of various political orientations faced both the threats and actualities of market collapse, rampant speculation, black markets, increasingly visible social inequalities, and an array of emotional fields whose implications need to be understood.The statistical and other objective dimensions of scarcity and loss are generally described in ways that omit their complex emotional dimension, as the language of food insecurity obscures the actual effects of hunger. While taking into account important recent contributions to a large historiography, new efforts to decipher historical feelings and emotions, and attention to the languages through which events and feelings both were represented and given coherence, this book contributes to a broader understanding of the social and cultural foundations of uprisings and revolutionary upheavals.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: " Chap. 6: SCRIPTING REVOLUTION

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Book SynopsisMuch has been written about the French Revolution and especially its bloody phase known as the Reign of Terror. The actions of the leaders who unleashed the massacres and public executions, especially Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, are well known. They inspired many soldiers in the Revolutionary cause, who did not survive, let alone thrive, in the post-Revolutionary world.In this work of historical reconstruction, Jeff Horn recounts the life of Alexandre Rousselin and narrates the history of the age of the French Revolution from the perspective of an eyewitness. From a young age, Rousselin worked for and with some of the era''s most important men and women, giving him access to the corridors of power. Dedication to the ideals of the Revolution led him to accept the need for a system of Terror to save the Republic in 1793-94. Rousselin personally utilized violent methods to accomplish the state''s goals in Provins and Troyes. This terrorism marked his life. It led to his denunciation by its victims. He spent the next five decades trying to escape the consequences of his actions. His emotional responses as well as the practical measures he took to rehabilitate his reputation illuminate the hopes and fears of the revolutionaries. Across the first four decades of the nineteenth century, Rousselin acquired a noble title, the comte de Saint-Albin, and emerged as a wealthy press baron of the liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel. But he could not escape his past. He retired to write his own version of his legacy and to protect his family from the consequences of his actions as a terrorist during the French Revolution.Rousselin''s life traces the complex twists and turns of the Revolution and demonstrates how one man was able to remake himself, from a revolutionary to a liberal, to accommodate regime change.Trade ReviewRelatively short, fast-paced, insightful, and well-written.... The significance of Horn's modest biography is that it reveals that for its main and secondary actors, particularly those rising in stature in Paris, the Terror was an urban jungle of rival political networks, always changing, forever on the edge of betrayal. Fast-moving events and a Rousseauian expectation for transparency ironically yielded a local political culture in which personal relationships—what we inaccurately call friendships—assumed unusual importance. * Gary Kates, American Historical Review *Horn's biography provides more insight into Rousselin's shift from terrorist to liberal-what could be dubbed "the unmaking of a terrorist"-than it does from revolutionary to terrorist. * Howard G. Brown, Journal of Modern History *Jeff Horn's new book provides an illuminating account of this astonishing story * K Steven Vincent, The European Legacy *In this fascinating biography, Horn recounts the life of Alexandre Rousselin, a little-known French revolutionary. Born a poor Parisian in 1773, Rousselin worked as personal secretary to Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton and oversaw the Terror in Troyes. Imprisoned and released five separate times in the aftermath, Rousselin served in the Ministry of War during the Directory and then kept a low profile under Napoleon. After 1815, he was a political liberal,...a supporter of King Louis Philippe, and founder of Le Constitutionnel, for many years the world's bestselling newspaper. This book is reminiscent of...Forrest Gump, as Rousselin constantly reappears at critical moments of French history from the Revolution until his death in 1843....Though well researched, with a firm base in archival sources and Rousselin's own published work, the book is popularly written with an eye toward engaging undergraduate students and general readers. * CHOICE *The amazing account of an enfant terrible of the French Revolution who, through a complex mixture of idealism and opportunism, survived each succeeding regime to become a wealthy liberal journalist under the Restoration and the July Monarchy; and who passed from personal secretary of Georges Danton, to the friend of Benjamin Constant — and perhaps the lover of Josephine de Beauharnais — the associate of Adolph Thiers, and even an acquaintance of King Louis-Philippe (who was godfather to his son). A spectacular story. * Timothy Tackett, University of California, Irvine *At the age of nineteen Alexandre Rousselin became an advocate of terror as an active revolutionary, trying to make a better world. He spent much of the rest of his long life, under a succession of political regimes, trying to live down his part in the heady years of the Revolution. Horn has made a compelling choice for a biographical study; he uses Rousselin's life to shine new light on the seismic years of the French Revolution and what it meant to become a revolutionary. * Marisa Linton, author of Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution *Jeff Horn recounts the astonishing tale of a poor Parisian boy who somehow became the private secretary of Danton and Desmoulins, survived the deadliest days of the Revolution, and died a wealthy newspaper magnate and liberal noble. This is an illuminating story of brilliance, daring, and maneuvering. * Peter McPhee, University of Melbourne *A gripping account of a fascinating figure who traversed some of the most momentous eras in modern history. Jeff Horn has a rare talent for finding overlooked historical evidence and a keen sense of the dilemmas faced by anyone who survives a high-level engagement with revolutionary politics. * Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It Matters *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: A Romantic Remembers the French Revolution Chapter 1: Education for Change, 1773-92 Chapter 2: The Making of a Terrorist, 1792-94 Chapter 3: The Consequences of Terror, 1794-96 Chapter 4: Rehabilitation: Political, Literary, and Social (1795-1815) Chapter 5: Liberalism and the Press (1816-38) Chapter 6: Remembering and Forgetting the French Revolution: Memories and Memoirs Conclusion: Satisfactions and Regrets of a Life in Revolution Appendix: Alexandre Rousselin and the Historians Timeline Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-1953 Revision Guide is part of the bestselling Oxford AQA History for A Level series developed by Sally Waller. Written to match the new AQA specification, this series helps you deepen your historical knowledge and develop vital analytical and evaluation skills. This revision guide offers the clearly structured revision approach of Recap, Apply, and Review to prepare you for exam success. Step-by-step exam practice strategies for all AQA question types are provided (including Source Analysis and essays linked to Key Concepts), as well as well-researched, targeted guidance based on what we now know from the new AQA examiner''s reports on Russia. Our original author team is back, offering expert advice, AS and A Level exam-style questions and Examiner Tips. Contents checklists help monitor revision progress; example student answers and suggested activity answers help you review your own work. This guide is perfect for use alongside the Studen

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Book SynopsisIn the desert sands of southern Jordan lies a once-hidden conflict landscape along the Hejaz Railway. Built at the beginning of the twentieth-century, this narrow-gauge 1,320 km track stretched from Damascus to Medina and served to facilitate participation in the annual Muslim Hajj to Mecca. The discovery and archaeological investigation of an unknown landscape of insurgency and counter-insurgency along this route tells a different story of the origins of modern guerrilla warfare, the exploits of T. E. Lawrence, Emir Feisal, and Bedouin warriors, and the dramatic events of the Arab Revolt of 1916-18. Ten years of research in this prehistoric terrain has revealed sites lost for almost 100 years: vast campsites occupied by railway builders; Ottoman Turkish machine-gun redoubts; Rolls Royce Armoured Car raiding camps; an ephemeral Royal Air Force desert aerodrome; as well as the actual site of the Hallat Ammar railway ambush. This unique and richly illustrated account from Nicholas Saunders tells, in intimate detail, the story of a seminal episode of the First World War and the reshaping of the Middle East that followed.Trade ReviewDesert Insurgency is a well-written and lavishly illustrated volume that describes the surveys and excavations of the Great Arab Revolt Project * Benjamin Adam Saidel, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies *This painstakingly detailed and richly illustrated book explores the interface between history, archaeology, and anthropology in one marginal desert area of southern Jordan. * A. Rassam, CHOICE *Table of ContentsMaps 1: Introduction 2: Into the Ghost-Land 3: Archaeology, Material Worlds, and the Arab Revolt 4: The Hejaz Railway: Faith, Conflict, and Afterlife 5: Guerillas and the 'Sultan's Mule' 6: Conflict on Jebel Sherra: Ma'an to the Blockhouse 7: 'Belly of the Beast': Abdullah's Fort to Batn al-Ghoul 8: Forts, Stations, and Ancestors: Wadi Rutm to Tel Shahm 9: Concealment, Raiding, and Ambush: Tooth Hill to Hallat Ammar 10: Beyond the Railway Timeline of Major Events on the Hejaz Railway Between Ma'an to Mudawwara, 1900-2018 Gazeteer

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Book SynopsisThe Mexican Revolution defined the sociopolitical experience of those living in Mexico in the twentieth century. Its subsequent legacy has provoked debate between those who interpret the ongoing myth of the Revolution and those who adopt the more middle-of-the-road reality of the regime after 1940. Taking account of these divergent interpretations, this Very Short Introduction offers a succinct narrative and analysis of the Revolution. Using carefully considered sources, Alan Knight addresses the causes of the upheaval, before outlining the armed conflict between 1910 and 1920, explaining how a durable regime was consolidated in the 1920s, and summing up the social reforms of the Revolution, which culminated in the radical years of the 1930s. Along the way, Knight places the conflict alongside other ''great'' revolutions, and compares Mexico with the Latin American countries that avoided the violent upheaval. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. The old regime and the causes of the revolution (1876-1910) ; 3. The Madero revolt and regime (1910-11) ; 4. Counter-revolution and constitutionalism (1913-14) ; 5. The revolution in power (1914-20) ; 6. The institutional revolution: the Sonoran Dynasty (1920-34) ; 7. The Depression, Cardenas and after (1930 -)

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Book SynopsisA unique study which uses the collapse of Tsarist Russia and its consequences to argue that the events on the often-forgotten Eastern Front of WWI had a stronger impact on the outcome of the war than is usually accepted.Trade ReviewIn this vivid reinterpretation of the Russian Empire's World War I, Joshua Sanborn provocatively and effectively reframes it as a war of decolonization and state collapse. Written in crisp and entertaining prose, this thought-provoking book is the most interesting and readable book published on Russia's World War I in recent times. * Eric Lohr, American University, Washington *This magnificent book is full of insights, with a robust challenge to received wisdom. Sanborn's talent as a writer makes the catastrophic story of imperial state failure a joy to read. * Alan Kramer, Trinity College Dublin *If the Eastern Front remains the "forgotten front", readers will have only themselves to blame, as Joshua Sanborn gives us a fresh, insightful look at the East in these crucial years. * Michael S. Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of War in 1914 *An outstanding contribution to the spate of books marking the centenary of the Great War. * P.E. Heineman, CHOICE *Sanborn's book is thus at once an everyday life history of the Russian Front, a gripping narrative of the key battles in which the Russian Empire participated, and a sophisticated conceptual argument about the stages of decolonization during the First World War. * The Russian Review *a wonderful book. It takes the reader to the heart of the experience of Russian participants in the Great War in an original and unprecedented way ... In terms of depth of description, sensitivity to the subject matter, elegance of expression, and originality of approach, Joshua A. Sanborn has few rivals. His breadth of vision not only encompasses crucial but often overlooked episodes ... he also shows their importance to the story. * Christopher Read, American Historical Review *The book was intended for multiple audiences, and it deserves to be read widely and with interest. * Evan Mawdsley, War in History Book *Sanborn's book serves as an admirable blend of the military, social and political history of the demise of the tsarist state. It offers much to chew on for specialists in the Russian field. * J. A. Grant, Slavonic and East European Review *Sanborn's command of his vast primary source base lends his narrative authority, his prose is unfailingly engaging, and his insights numerous. The many personal stories he tells of humble citizens caught up in this imperial "apocalypse" provide moving illustrations of the broad processes he charts. Above all, no previous treatment of Russia's Great War and revolution makes so palpable the scale of chaos and misery endured by the population as war-induced violence spun out of anyone's control. * Journal of Modern History *Table of ContentsPreface ; Introduction: Imperial Challenge ; 1. The Outbreak of War and the Transformation of the Borderlands ; 2. The Front Migrates ; 3. Remobilizing the Military: Combat Innovation, POWs, and Forced Labor ; 4. Remobilizing Society: Nurses, Doctors, and Social Control ; 5. Revolution ; 6. Decolonization ; Conclusion: Imperial Apocalypse ; Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThe sugar planter Simon Taylor, who claimed ownership of over 2,248 enslaved people in Jamaica at the point of his death in 1813, was one of the wealthiest slaveholders ever to have lived in the British empire.Slavery was central to the eighteenth-century empire. Between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, hundreds of thousands of enslaved people were brought from Africa to the Caribbean to toil and die within the brutal slave regime of the region, most of them destined for a life of labour on large sugar plantations. Their forced labour provided the basis for the immense fortunes of plantation owners like Taylor; it also produced wealth that poured into Britain. However, a tumultuous period that saw the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions, as well as the rise of the abolitionist movement, witnessed new attacks on slavery and challenged the power of a once-confident slaveholder elite.In White Fury, Christer Petley uses Taylor''s rich and expressive letters to allow us aTrade ReviewWhite Fury tells a highly readable complete story... the volume is thoroughly researched and it is well-illustrated. * Robert Davis, New York Review of Books *[A]n exceptional book that will become a major point of reference for historians of the 18th-century Caribbean and scholars investigating the sudden abolition of the British slave trade in 1807... White Fury is a powerful contribution to scholarship on the British Atlantic in the age of revolutions, and it deserves to be widely read. * Reviews in History *Petleys brilliant biography of [Simon] Taylor (17401813)... not only describes the complicated feelings of a patriotic planter whose warm regard for his British heritage was increasingly not reciprocated by a Britain coming to think of planters as evil and retrograde but also captures the many challenges and opportunities available within the plantation economy during the tumultuous years of the French Revolution. * , Reviews in American History *Petley mines hundreds of extant letters written by Taylor, as well as a wide range of printed sources, to craft a highly readable account of the aspirations, everyday realities and crises faced by Jamaica's richest sugar planter... Petley has produced a smart, accessible biography of one of the most important slaveholders in the eighteenth-century British empire. * Brooke Newman, Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies *A subtle, sensitive and marvellously evocative biography of Jamaica's richest and most powerful planter, bringing powerfully to life the brutal but highly productive slave system which undergirded the success of the British Empire in the late eighteenth century. * Trevor Burnard, University of Melbourne *A revealing and persuasive account of one man's life at the centre of Britains slave empire in the Caribbean. In subtly tracing Simon Taylor's 'white fury' provoked by the movement for abolition Petley offers an original and provocative account of British slavery as it entered its death throes. * James Walvin, author of A Short History of Slavery *[A]n exceptional book that will become a major point of reference for historians of the 18th-century Caribbean and scholars investigating the sudden abolition of the British slave trade in 1807... White Fury is a powerful contribution to scholarship on the British Atlantic in the age of revolutions, and it deserves to be widely read. * Reviews in History *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I: Foundations and Aspiration1: A West Indian Life2: Slave Empire3: Sugar and StrifePart II: Crises and Frustration4: The American Revolution5: Reactions6: New Revolutions7: War and AbolitionConclusions and LegaciesNotesFurther ReadingIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a succinct yet up-to-date and challenging approach to the French Revolution of 1789-1799 and its consequences. Peter McPhee provides an accessible and reliable overview and one which deliberately introduces students to central debates among historians.The book has two main aims. One aim is to consider the origins and nature of the Revolution of 1789-99. Why was there a Revolution in France in 1789? Why did the Revolution follow its particular course after 1789? When was it ''over''? A second aim is to examine the significance of the Revolutionary period in accelerating the decay of Ancien Regime society. How ''revolutionary'' was the Revolution? Was France fundamentally changed as a result of it?Of particular interest to students will be the emphasis placed by the author on the repercussions of the Revolution on the practives of daily life: the lived experience of the Revolution. The author''s recent work on the environmental impact of the Revolution is also incorporated to provide a lively, modern, and rounded picture of France during this critical phase in the development of modern Europe.Trade ReviewOverall, I think [this book] is one of the best short histories of the Revolution to appear in many years. He is particularly successful in integrating specific case examples and quotations from the period into his general narrative and historiographic analysis and in thus conveying the drama and passion of the Revolution, so often passed over in texts of this kind. It also provides an excellent corrective to many recent "revisionist" texts, reasserting the importance of social dynamics before and during the Revolution and eshewing simplistic explanations of the Terror based solely on ideology or internal politics. Finally, I am impressed by his effective integration of a great deal of new scholarship published during the last decade, notably in his treatment of rural history and the experience of women during the Revolution. In sum, I would strongly recommend the book, and I look forward to trying it out in my own courses. * Timothy Tackett, University of California *Peter McPhee's history of the French Revolution is a real tour de force. More successfully than any other general history of the period, it combines an admirably clear narrative of this complex decade with an intelligent survey and analysis of other historians' perspectives. Beside them, McPhee sets out his own understandings of the Revolution sensibly and undogmatically so that readers can judge their merits. Beyond these strengths, the book is enriched by illuminating discussions of the effects of the Revolution on everyday lives of women and men and by a refreshing attention to rural France - the home of the great majority of French people at the time. Written in a lively and engaging way, this book cannot but draw readers more deeply into one of the most fascinating periods in world history. * Roderick Phillips, Carleton University *With an easy style and a clear purpose, Professor Peter McPhee pilots students past key questions of the origin and course, meaning and significance of the French Revolution. Touching most debates in the historiography, McPhee's history still offers a sound narrative of revolutionary events, egos and enactments, always in chapters of manageable length, always with an eye to evidence that's first-hand, fascinating and fresh. Scores of students and teachers will owe him a debt of thanks. * Adrian Jones, La Trobe University *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. France in the 1780s ; 2. The Crisis of the Old Regime ; 3. The Revolution of 1789 ; 4. The Reconstruction of France, 1789-91 ; 5. A Second Revolution, 1792 ; 6. The Revolution in the Balance, 1793 ; 7. The Terror: revolutionary Defence or Paranoia? ; 8. Ending the Revolution, 1795-9 ; 9. The Significance of the Revolution ; Maps ; Appendix 1: Chronology ; Appendix 2: The Revolutionary Calendar ; A Guide to Further Reading

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Book SynopsisHere is the first biography of Mario Savio, the brilliant leader of Berkeley''s Free Speech Movement, the largest and most disruptive student rebellion in American history. Savio risked his life to register black voters in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer of 1964 and did more than anyone to bring daring forms of non-violent protest from the civil rights movement to the struggle for free speech and academic freedom on American campuses. Drawing upon previously unavailable Savio papers, as well as oral histories from friends and fellow movement leaders, Freedom''s Orator illuminates Mario''s egalitarian leadership style, his remarkable eloquence, and the many ways he embodied the youthful idealism of the 1960s. The book also narrates, for the first time, his second phase of activism against Reaganite Imperialism in Central America and the corporatization of higher education. Including a generous selection of Savio''s speeches, Freedom''s Orator speaks with special relevance to a new genTrade ReviewRobby Cohen has written a gripping account of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement that took place in 1964, and the role of the student leader Mario Savio in that movement. Growing up in a working-class Catholic family, Savio struggled with a stammer, but he overcame his stammer to become a passionate and eloquent orator who led the Free Speech Movement in its struggle for political and academic freedom. Cohen tells the story of how Savio became a committed activist as the result of his experiences registering black voters in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964, and goes on to give a blow-by-blow account of the Free Speech Movement, its struggles and its final success. Here at Berkeley the Free Speech Movement Cafe stands as a memorial to the Movement and Savio's role in it. Cohen's book is both a biography of a remarkable individual and an account of a pivotal moment in Berkeley's history. * G. Steven Martin, University of California, Berkeley *What Cohen's account clearly shows is that the FSM was...notable above all for speaking in ways that made political conversation fresh and meaningful, something that correlated with Savio's own non-sectarian leftism. * Logos *Robert Cohen tells Savio's story with passion and compassion... It is likely to be the standard reference work about Savio. * Jonah Raskin, San Francisco Chronicle *Cohen accomplishes the complex task of interweaving Mario's personal story with that of his political engagements, and deftly ties both to the history of the peace and social justice movements that followed. Among Cohen's many strengths as a biographer is his almost uncanny ability to understand Savio's motivations, to see the goodness of his heart, and to honestly consider the psychological demons Savio worked so hard to overcome... Robert Cohen's biography of Mario Savio is earnest, comprehensive, and written as a compelling narrative that does justice to its subject. For this we can all be profoundly grateful. * Bettina Aptheker, Tikkun *Mario Savio inspired a generation of young people, and this biography elegantly interweaves the various elements of this complex human being: his gift of speech, the profundity of his thought, his spirituality, his strong aversion to dogma, and above all, his unshakable moral core. * Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Part I: The Education of an American Radical ; 1. Child of War ; 2. The Making of a Civil Rights Activist ; 3. Freedom Summer ; Part II: Avatar of Student Protest: Leading the Free Speech Movement ; 4. From Polite Protest to the First Sit-In ; 5. The Police Car Blockade ; 6. Organizing and Negotiating ; 7. "We Almost Lost": The FSM in Crisis ; 8. Speaking Out and Sitting In ; 9. "Free Speech at Last" ; Part III: After the Revolution: A Voice Lost and Found ; 10. Descending from Leadership ; 11. Battling Back ; 12. Dying in the Saddle ; Appendix: Speeches ; Notes ; Index

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Book Synopsis''He thought he could see, in a flash, the future of the Rougon-Macquart family, a pack of wild satiated appetites in the midst of a blaze of gold and blood.''Set in the fictitious Provençal town of Plassans, The Fortune of the Rougons tells the story of Silvère and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte''s coup d''état in December 1851. They join the woodcutters and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvère''s uncle, Pierre Rougon. Meanwhile, the foundations of the Rougon family and its illegitimate Macquart branch are being laid in the brutal beginnings of the Imperial regime.The Fortune of the Rougons is the first in Zola''s famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two branches of the family came about, and the origins of the hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder, treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the EmpireTrade ReviewReading Brian Nelson's Introduction to The Fortune of the Rougons is a real treat. * Lisa Hill, ANZLitLovers *The edition I read was the Oxford World's Classics translation by Brian Nelson and it's excellent ... as an introduction [to Zola] this has been such an inspiring read. * Desperate Reader *

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Book SynopsisIn sixteenth-century England Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, enjoyed great domestic and international renown as a favourite of Elizabeth I. He was a soldier and a statesman of exceptionally powerful ambition. After his disastrous uprising in 1601 Essex fell from the heights of fame and favour, and ended his life as a traitor on the scaffold. This interdisciplinary account of the political culture of late Elizabethan England explores the ideological contexts of Essex''s extraordinary career and fall from grace, and the intricate relationship between thought and action in Elizabethan England. By the late sixteenth century, fundamental political models and vocabularies that were employed to legitimise the Elizabethan polity were undermined by the strains of war, the ambivalence that many felt towards the church, continued uncertainty over the succession, and the perceived weaknesses of the rule of the aging Elizabeth. Essex''s career and revolt threw all of these strains into relief. Trade Reviewa nuanced study, essential reading on the rebellion and its aftermath; the confused and often terrifying political culture of late Elizabethan England; and the varied and over-confident followers who flocked to the Earl, believing that he had the power to solve their problems. * Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement *... a must-read for everyone interested in late Elizabethan history and political culture. * Kinga Földváry, Sixteenth Century Journal *an intellectual analysis of Essex's career, one based on a formidable range of research in a range of aspects of sixteenth-century political and intellectual history. It seems unlikely that a better analysis of this topic will be produced. * Neil Younger, English Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The Essex Rising of 1601 ; 2. Justifying War ; 3. 'Profane pollicy'? Religion, Toleration, and the Politics of Succession ; 4. Physician of the State: Essex and the Elizabethan Polity ; 5. The Popular Traitor: Responses to Essex ; 6. Scholars and Martialists: The Politics of History and Scholarship ; Conclusion ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe tenth anniversary edition of The Oxford History of Mexico tells the fascinating story of Mexico as it has evolved from the reign of the Aztecs through the twenty-first century. Available for the first time in paperback, this magnificent volume covers the nation''s history in a series of essays written by an international team of scholars. Essays have been revised to reflect events of the past decade, recent discoveries, and the newest advances in scholarship, while a new introduction discusses such issues as immigration from Mexico to the United States and the democratization implied by the defeat of the official party in the 2000 and 2006 presidential elections. Newly released to commemorate the bicentennial of the Mexican War of Independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, this updated and redesigned volume offers an affordable, accessible, and compelling account of Mexico through the ages.Trade Review"Distinguished historians Meyer and Beezley have brought together an outstanding collection of essays on Mexican history, culture, and society....The individual contributions are crisp and stimulating; each stands well on its own and can be assigned and read singly with profit. Editors and authors have so nicely meshed these contributions one to the next that the book can be assigned or read almost as a single, comprehensive overview of centuries of Mexico history.--Choice "Excellent selection of authors."--Roberto M. Salmon, University of Texas--Pan American "Excellent survey of Mexico's history with magnificent contributions by specialists."--Stefano Varese, University of California at Davis "A splendid work! The Oxford History of Mexico sets the standard for history textbooks, bar none."--Vicki Ruiz, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America and Professor of History and Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at Arizona State UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Section I: The Great Encounter Section II: Crown, Cross, and Lance in New Spain, 1521-1810 Section III: Collapse, Regeneration, and Challenge, 1810-1910 Section IV: The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1940 Section V: Mexico in the Post-World War II Era Glossary Bibliography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisFoucault and the Iranian Revolution informs current discussion on the divisions that have reemerged among Western intellectuals over the response to radical Islamism after September 11.Trade Review"I am very impressed by the authors' clarity of thought, meticulousness of research, and important insights. Their book's originality lies in the way it links Foucault's main ideas to the Iranian revolution, thereby illuminating one through the other. The authors remind us of Foucault's immense influence on the dominant views in the current debates on Islamism and Iran." - Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran"

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Book SynopsisFoucault and the Iranian Revolution informs current discussion on the divisions that have reemerged among Western intellectuals over the response to radical Islamism after September 11.Trade Review"I am very impressed by the authors' clarity of thought, meticulousness of research, and important insights. Their book's originality lies in the way it links Foucault's main ideas to the Iranian revolution, thereby illuminating one through the other. The authors remind us of Foucault's immense influence on the dominant views in the current debates on Islamism and Iran." - Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran"

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Book SynopsisStephen Bunker challenges the image of peasants as passive victims and argues that coffee growers in the Bugisu District of Uganda, because they own land and may choose which crops to produce, maintain an unusual degree of economic and political independence. Focusing on peasant struggles for market control over coffee exports in Bugisu from colonial times through the reign and overthrow of Idi Amin, Bunker shows that these freeholding peasants acted collectively and used the state's dependence on coffee export revenues to effectively influence and veto government programs inimical to their interests. Bunker's work vividly portrays the small victories and great trials of ordinary people struggling to control their own economic destiny while resisting the power of the world economy.

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Book SynopsisPoliticians and political parties are for the most part limited by habit they recycle tried-and-true strategies, draw on models from the past, and mimic others in the present. But in rare moments politicians break with routine and try something new. Drawing on pragmatist theories of social action, Revolutionizing Repertoires sets out to examine what happens when the repertoire of practices available to political actors is dramatically reconfigured. Taking as his case study the development of a distinctively Latin American style of populist mobilization, Robert S. Jansen analyzes the Peruvian presidential election of 1931. He finds that, ultimately, populist mobilization emerged in the country at this time because newly empowered outsiders recognized the limitations of routine political practice and understood how to modify, transpose, invent, and recombine practices in a whole new way. Suggesting striking parallels to the recent populist turn in global politics, Revolutionizing Reper

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Book SynopsisPoliticians and political parties are for the most part limited by habit they recycle tried-and-true strategies, draw on models from the past, and mimic others in the present. But in rare moments politicians break with routine and try something new. Drawing on pragmatist theories of social action, Revolutionizing Repertoires sets out to examine what happens when the repertoire of practices available to political actors is dramatically reconfigured. Taking as his case study the development of a distinctively Latin American style of populist mobilization, Robert S. Jansen analyzes the Peruvian presidential election of 1931. He finds that, ultimately, populist mobilization emerged in the country at this time because newly empowered outsiders recognized the limitations of routine political practice and understood how to modify, transpose, invent, and recombine practices in a whole new way. Suggesting striking parallels to the recent populist turn in global politics, Revolutionizing Reper

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Book SynopsisWhat happens to a revolutionary town after the revolution? This anthropological history studies the Namiquipan peasants, who supported Pancho Villa in the revolution of 1910-1920, but who now consider themselves mere spent cartridges of a struggle that benefitted other classes.

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Book SynopsisWhat happens to a revolutionary town after the revolution? This anthropological history studies the Namiquipan peasants, who supported Pancho Villa in the revolution of 1910-1920, but who now consider themselves mere spent cartridges of a struggle that benefitted other classes.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisDe Tocqueville's great meditation on the origins and meanings of the French revolution remains one of the most profound and influential studies of this pivotal period.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“An important development in the understanding of the Irish relationship to Joyce’s work – and of his relationship to his native country. . . . For this superb, transformative undertaking the author deserves our gratitude.” * Dublin Review of Books *“The Easter Rising, far from being consigned to nostalgia, is seen as a catalyst for global processes of decolonization . . . [Gibbons’s] tracing of connections and influences—real, virtual, and suggestive—between revolution in the street and in the word results in richly layered and sometimes erudite chapters that repay close reading . . [and] open up many fascinating paths.” * Irish Times *"One of Ireland’s most profound if idiosyncratic cultural critics, Luke Gibbons, seeks to bring these two revolutions into the same framework in his important new work, James Joyce and the Irish Revolution: The Easter Rising as Modern Event. Through a series of engrossing vignettes drawn from a wide array of contemporary sources, he positions Joyce’s 'revolution of the word' under the light emitted by the 1916 Easter Rising and sets out to 'reclaim what was radical in the Irish revolution for a modernist project akin to that of Joyce’s.'" * Jacobin *“The interest key figures in the Rising and the subsequent War of Independence (1919–21) showed in Joyce’s work and its revolutionary potential is . . . compelling. For example, Gibbons shines a light on the Irish revolutionary leader Ernie O’Malley, who devoted considerable attention to Joyce . . . [Gibbons’s] case is unassailable. Political radicalism and radical art call one another to arms.” * Times Literary Supplement *“This is a study deserving of an audience beyond the confines of Irish literary criticism. Underscoring the electrifying analysis is the hard evidence of patient scholarship and profound insight that makes this book one of the most original interventions to appear during the Decade of Centenaries.” * History Ireland *“Gibbons examines how the aesthetic innovations in James Joyce’s Ulysses reflect the political turmoil of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence . . . with some eye-opening insights.” * Publishers Weekly *"This book is a ground-breaking and original addition to the decade of centenaries. Luke Gibbons’ familiarity with the ‘underworld’ figures of the anti-Treatyites and supporters, who understood Ulysses because of their lived experience, extends our understanding of the more commonly reported Free Staters’ refusal of Ulysses, mainly on moral censorship grounds. Replete with a superb index and 56 pages of exemplary footnotes, a study in themselves, it is a generous book. It is a work that manages to yoke modernist literary expression with a broad array of transnational political effects." * Australasian Journal of Irish Studies *“Gibbons may well be Ireland’s most brilliant literary and cultural critic: a distinctive voice and a decisive eye. Here, as always, Gibbons’s commentary ebbs around observed details with a verve worthy of Benjamin, as he makes clear not only that Joyce’s work was revolutionary but also that it was recognized as such by some of the revolutionaries themselves. This is an immensely rich and suggestive work, an instant classic of Irish literary criticism." -- Enda Duffy, University of California, Santa Barbara"This book positively bristles with intelligence and erudition. Gibbons reads Ulysses and the Easter Rising as compelling instances of an alliance between political radicalism and formal/technical innovation. At the same time, he decisively rewrites our understanding of Ulysses’s reception history, demonstrating that many of Joyce’s first interpreters saw his literary experiments as direct engagements with Ireland’s turbulent political history.” -- Marjorie Howes, Boston College“In this pioneering investigation, Gibbons has convincingly reinterpreted the Easter Rising as a global and modernizing event. His Joycean cast of characters—artists, freedom fighters, and a surprising number who were both—highlights the cultural aspects of the 1916 Rising in a new modernist and international vein.” -- Mary E. Daly, University College DublinTable of ContentsList of Figures Preface Abbreviations Introduction: James Joyce and the Irish Revolution 1. “Old Haunts”: Photographic Memory, Motion, and the Republic of Letters 2. Modern Epic and Revolution: Montage in the Margins 3. “A World That Ran Through Things”: Ulysses, the Easter Rising, and Spatial Form 4. The Easter Rising as Modern Event: Media, Technology, and Terror 5. “Paving Over the Abyss”: Ireland, War, and Literary Modernism 6. “Through the Eyes of Another Race”: Ulysses, Roger Casement, and the Politics of Humanitarianism 7. Transatlantic “Usable Pasts”: America, Literary Modernism, and the Irish Revolution 8. On Another Man’s Text: Ernie O’Malley, Politics, and Irish Modernism 9. Beyond Disillusionment: Desmond Ryan, Ulysses, and the Irish Revolution Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA provocative history of Ulysses and the Easter Rising as harbingers of decolonization. When revolutionaries seized Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising, they looked back to unrequited pasts to point the way toward radical futurestransforming the Celtic Twilight into the electric light of modern Dublin in James Joyce's Ulysses. For Luke Gibbons, the short-lived rebellion converted the Irish renaissance into the beginning of a global decolonial movement. James Joyce and the Irish Revolution maps connections between modernists and radicals, tracing not only Joyce's projection of Ireland onto the world stage, but also how revolutionary leaders like Ernie O'Malley turned to Ulyssesto make sense of their shattered worlds. Coinciding with the centenary of both Ulysses and Irish independence, this book challenges received narratives about the rebellion and the novel that left Ireland changed, changed utterly.Trade Review“An important development in the understanding of the Irish relationship to Joyce’s work – and of his relationship to his native country. . . . For this superb, transformative undertaking the author deserves our gratitude.” * Dublin Review of Books *“The Easter Rising, far from being consigned to nostalgia, is seen as a catalyst for global processes of decolonization . . . [Gibbons’s] tracing of connections and influences—real, virtual, and suggestive—between revolution in the street and in the word results in richly layered and sometimes erudite chapters that repay close reading . . [and] open up many fascinating paths.” * Irish Times *"One of Ireland’s most profound if idiosyncratic cultural critics, Luke Gibbons, seeks to bring these two revolutions into the same framework in his important new work, James Joyce and the Irish Revolution: The Easter Rising as Modern Event. Through a series of engrossing vignettes drawn from a wide array of contemporary sources, he positions Joyce’s 'revolution of the word' under the light emitted by the 1916 Easter Rising and sets out to 'reclaim what was radical in the Irish revolution for a modernist project akin to that of Joyce’s.'" * Jacobin *“The interest key figures in the Rising and the subsequent War of Independence (1919–21) showed in Joyce’s work and its revolutionary potential is . . . compelling. For example, Gibbons shines a light on the Irish revolutionary leader Ernie O’Malley, who devoted considerable attention to Joyce . . . [Gibbons’s] case is unassailable. Political radicalism and radical art call one another to arms.” * Times Literary Supplement *“This is a study deserving of an audience beyond the confines of Irish literary criticism. Underscoring the electrifying analysis is the hard evidence of patient scholarship and profound insight that makes this book one of the most original interventions to appear during the Decade of Centenaries.” * History Ireland *“Gibbons examines how the aesthetic innovations in James Joyce’s Ulysses reflect the political turmoil of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence . . . with some eye-opening insights.” * Publishers Weekly *"This book is a ground-breaking and original addition to the decade of centenaries. Luke Gibbons’ familiarity with the ‘underworld’ figures of the anti-Treatyites and supporters, who understood Ulysses because of their lived experience, extends our understanding of the more commonly reported Free Staters’ refusal of Ulysses, mainly on moral censorship grounds. Replete with a superb index and 56 pages of exemplary footnotes, a study in themselves, it is a generous book. It is a work that manages to yoke modernist literary expression with a broad array of transnational political effects." * Australasian Journal of Irish Studies *“Gibbons may well be Ireland’s most brilliant literary and cultural critic: a distinctive voice and a decisive eye. Here, as always, Gibbons’s commentary ebbs around observed details with a verve worthy of Benjamin, as he makes clear not only that Joyce’s work was revolutionary but also that it was recognized as such by some of the revolutionaries themselves. This is an immensely rich and suggestive work, an instant classic of Irish literary criticism." -- Enda Duffy, University of California, Santa Barbara"This book positively bristles with intelligence and erudition. Gibbons reads Ulysses and the Easter Rising as compelling instances of an alliance between political radicalism and formal/technical innovation. At the same time, he decisively rewrites our understanding of Ulysses’s reception history, demonstrating that many of Joyce’s first interpreters saw his literary experiments as direct engagements with Ireland’s turbulent political history.” -- Marjorie Howes, Boston College“In this pioneering investigation, Gibbons has convincingly reinterpreted the Easter Rising as a global and modernizing event. His Joycean cast of characters—artists, freedom fighters, and a surprising number who were both—highlights the cultural aspects of the 1916 Rising in a new modernist and international vein.” -- Mary E. Daly, University College DublinTable of ContentsList of Figures Preface Abbreviations Introduction: James Joyce and the Irish Revolution 1. “Old Haunts”: Photographic Memory, Motion, and the Republic of Letters 2. Modern Epic and Revolution: Montage in the Margins 3. “A World That Ran Through Things”: Ulysses, the Easter Rising, and Spatial Form 4. The Easter Rising as Modern Event: Media, Technology, and Terror 5. “Paving Over the Abyss”: Ireland, War, and Literary Modernism 6. “Through the Eyes of Another Race”: Ulysses, Roger Casement, and the Politics of Humanitarianism 7. Transatlantic “Usable Pasts”: America, Literary Modernism, and the Irish Revolution 8. On Another Man’s Text: Ernie O’Malley, Politics, and Irish Modernism 9. Beyond Disillusionment: Desmond Ryan, Ulysses, and the Irish Revolution Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisKnown today chiefly for his surrender to the American forces at Saratoga in 1777, General John Burgoyne led a multidimensional life. From the Battlefield to the Stage remembers him as not only a participant in one of Britain’s worst military disasters but also a brave soldier, successful playwright, reforming politician, and popular socialite.Trade Review“From the Battlefield to the Stage has the merit of brevity, clear writing, and rich contextualization based on Poser’s admirable knowledge of the culture and politics of eighteenth-century Britain. This is a fresh account of Burgoyne, and the first major biography of the enigmatic general in decades.” Andrew J. O’Shaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire"A welcome contextualization of a multifaceted and previously misunderstood man. In this new work, Poser snatches the general off the battlefield at Saratoga and removes him from the confines of military history. Poser's From the Battlefield to the Stage adds depth and truth to 'Gentleman Johnny,' by filling in the gaps of previous biographies to do justice to a figure who is more than his failures." American History Magazine"From the Battlefield to the Stage looks beyond Burgoyne’s military service, casting him as an enlightened participant in the cultural and political spheres of eighteenth century Britain. Poser argues convincingly that Burgoyne deserves to be remembered for much more than Saratoga ... ." Times Literary Supplement“The greatest strength of this book is how much time Poser devotes to Burgoyne’s life before and after the thunderclap of Saratoga. Clearly an engaging man (he won over the father of the woman he eloped with) the impression created is of a character whose company was very agreeable. For students of the War of Independence, From the Battlefield to the Stage is essential reading, but it will also appeal to anyone with a wider interest in 18th century cultural history.” History of War

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Book SynopsisAn important account of the historical roots of the Tiananmen Square incident, Wang Fan-Isaac autobiography documents events in China from 1919 to 1949. Including previously unpublished material in English, this book details past events in China by someone who was there, on the inside.Table of Contents1. My First Contact with New Ideas 2. Two Years of University Life 3. From Wuhan to Moscow 4. Chinese Students in Moscow 5. My Second Year in Moscow 6. Working under Chou En-lai 7. Unification of the Four Groups 8. Prision Life 9. The Founding of Struggle and the Darkest Days of my Life 10. Ch'en Tu-hsiu, the Chinese Trotskyists, and the War of Resistance 11. The Pacific War and a New Split in the Organization 12. From War Revolution 13. Thinking in Solitude

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Book SynopsisThis examination of the events of the Iranian Revolution highlights class politics and the contention for power within the context of changing ideological relations between the state and civil society. The author characterizes the post-revolutionay order as a Third World variant of fascism.

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Book SynopsisThis examination of the events of the Iranian Revolution highlights class politics and the contention for power within the context of changing ideological relations between the state and civil society. The author characterizes the post-revolutionay order as a Third World variant of fascism.

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Book SynopsisChallenging the views of human rights activists, Stoll argues that the Ixils who supported Guatemalan rebels in the early 1980's did so because they were caught in the crossfire between the guerillas and the army, not because revolutionary violence expressed community aspirations.

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Book SynopsisVerena Erlenbusch rejects attempts to define what terrorism is in favor of a historico-philosophical investigation into the conditions under which uses of this contested term become meaningful. Genealogies of Terrorism is an empirically grounded and philosophically rigorous critical history with important political implications.Trade ReviewErlenbusch-Anderson’s work is a brilliant contribution to Critical Terrorism Studies, not only deconstructing the labelling processes of this violence, but analysing these in relation to the historical, social, and political contexts that allowed the emergence of these dispositifs, and reflecting on the power relations embedded in these processes and societies in general. * Critical Studies on Terrorism *Makes a valuable contribution to an under-developed literature and she offers some tantalizing points of departure for future explorations of an important and timely subject. Genealogies is an eminently worthwhile read. * ID: International Dialogue *In Genealogies of Terrorism: Revolution, State Violence, Empire, Verena ErlenbuschAnderson takes on the ambitious project of providing a broadly Foucauldian genealogical account of the concept and practice of “terrorism.” -- Wendy Lynne Lee * ID: International Dialogue *One can only be impressed by the depth and scope of Erlenbusch-Anderson’s treatment of terrorism. . . . I should think that the impact of her book will reach beyond philosophy and political theory, beyond the academy. It is, to borrow a phrase, must reading for anyone who wants to understand the historical emergence of terrorism and how it continues to shape the contemporary world. -- Michael Clifford * Syndicate *This is an urgently needed intervention. The longstanding shared academic/policy-maker endeavor to define terrorism has failed spectacularly, to the point that cliché now best expresses the term’s meaning. . . . Genealogies of Terrorism is a refreshing refusal of both philosophical and political orthodoxies that have only obscured clarity on the subject of terrorism, whether they be a dogmatic insistence on the definitional enterprise or the outright refusal of history. -- C. Heike Schotten * Perspectives on Politics *Erlenbusch-Anderson provides an eloquent account of terrorism as a dispositif and compiles an impressive amount of historical evidence to locate and excavate various uses of the word 'terrorism' throughout its history. -- Sarah DiMaggio * Syndicate *Inspired by Wittgenstein and Foucault, and contemporary debates about concepts, in this remarkable book Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson undertakes a significant examination of terrorism. Rather than assuming its meaning and looking for that in her sources, she instead allows a multifaceted understanding to emerge from a historical study of texts and practices. A powerful and urgent intervention for our troubled times. -- Stuart Elden, University of WarwickThis book is political philosophy at its best. It offers an instructive model of mobilizing philosophical genealogy for a critique of a highly-charged idea. It complicates the seeming obviousness with which the concept of 'terrorism' is today purveyed. Through meticulous historical and philosophical analysis, this book shows how the concept of terrorism came to be an explosive, dangerous, and contested political idea. -- Colin Koopman, University of OregonVerena Erlenbusch-Anderson’s careful genealogy of 'terrorism'—tracking the term’s multiple and overdetermined meanings since its first appearance as a political concept in the late eighteenth century—powerfully shows us how we all too frequently ask the wrong questions about terrorism. This critical book offers a necessary corrective to how we think about terrorism, and it reshapes the grounds upon which we should have any meaningful debate about terrorism in the present moment. -- Andrew Dilts, Loyola Marymount UniversityAn empirically rich, carefully contextualized and well-documented study of the different forms that terrorism has taken over time. * Political Theory *Offers scholars, students, and policymakers alike a lot to think about. * H-War *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. The Trouble with Terrorism2. The Emergence of Terrorism3. State Terrorism Revisited4. Terrorism and Colonialism5. Reimagining Terrorism at the End of History6. Towards a Critical Theory of Terrorism: Genealogy and NormativityNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisEvery Thursday morning in a living room in Iran, over tea and pastries, eight women meet in secret to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. As they lose themselves in the worlds of Lolita, The Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice, gradually they come to share their own stories, dreams and hopes with each other, and, for a few hours, taste freedom. Azar Nafisi''s bestselling memoir is a moving, passionate testament to the transformative power of books, the magic of words and the search for beauty in life''s darkest moments.Trade ReviewEngrossing, fascinating, stunning -- Margaret AtwoodI was enthralled and moved -- Susan SontagAnyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book -- Geraldine BrooksVivid, often heroic and sometimes funny ... Nafisi's rather wonderful book touches a beauty of its own -- Paul Allen * Guardian *Remarkable ... an eloquent brief on the transformative power of fiction * The New York Times *

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Book Synopsis''The greatest history of an event I know'' - C.L.R. JamesRegarded by many as among the most powerful works of history ever written, The History of the Russian Revolution offers an unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history. This book presents, from the perspective of one of its central actors, the profound liberating character of the early Russian Revolution.Originally published in three parts, Trotsky''s masterpiece is collected here in a single volume. It is still the most vital and inspiring record of the Russian Revolution ever published.

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Book Synopsis''Guerrilla warfare is a war of the masses, a war of the people''First published in 1961, following the successful Cuban Revolution, this is Che Guevara''s handbook for guerrilla war.It covers strategy, tactics, terrain, organization of an army, logistics, field medical treatment, intelligence, propaganda and training, and focuses on seven ''golden rules'' of guerrilla warfare. Widely studied both by insurrectionist movements and those who have tried to suppress them, this is the key text to understand how revolutions can be fought and won by ordinary people.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewArrogant, affectionate, and dogmatic, Guevara is intimately revealed in this compilation of personal letters sent over the latter half of his extraordinary life... a thrilling, eyewitness account of battles whose repercussions still reverberate today * Publisher's Weekly *

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Book SynopsisA FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW YORKER AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023''An indelible feat of reporting and an urgent read ... It''s a privilege to read books like these'' Te-Ping Chen, author of Land of Big Numbers''A powerful reminder of the ways in which China''s future depends on who controls the past'' Peter HesslerA documentary filmmaker who spent years uncovering a Mao-era death camp; an independent journalist who gave voice to the millions who suffered through Covid; a magazine publisher who dodges the secret police: these are some of the people who make up Sparks: China''s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future, a vital account of how some of China''s most important writers, filmmakers, and artists have overcome crackdowns and censorship to challenge the Chinese Communist Party on its most sacred ground - its monopoly on history.In traditional China, dynasties rewrote history to justify their rule by proving that their predecessors were unworthy of holding power. Marxism gave this a modern gloss, describing history as an unstoppable force heading toward Communism''s triumph. The Chinese Communist Party builds on these ideas to whitewash its misdeeds and justify its rule.But in recent years, critical thinkers from across the land have begun to challenge this state-led disremembering. Using digital technologies to bypass China''s legendary surveillance state, their samizdat journals, guerilla media posts, and underground films document a pattern of disasters: from past famines and purges to the ethnic clashes and virus outbreaks of the present.Based on years of research in Xi Jinping''s China, Sparks challenges stereotypes of a China where the state has quashed all free thought, revealing instead a country engaged in one of humanity''s great struggles of memory against forgetting - a battle that will shape the China that emerges in the mid-21st century.Trade ReviewIan Johnson is one of the most experienced and thoughtful Western journalists writing about China. Now he has turned his attention to one of the most important battles in contemporary China: the struggle to control history ... Moving and full of human character and detail. It's a compelling read, beautifully written, and the product of deep research carried out in China over many years ... an exemplary tribute. -- Rana Mitter * Literary Review *Sparks is a work of scholarship, investigative journalism of a kind that rarely happens in the age of slashed budgets, with eyewitness accounts of brutality that will chill your blood ... Johnson’s stories bring these numbers, and this history, chillingly alive. -- Christina Patterson * Sunday Times *A skilful exploration… Johnson’s skill lies in demonstrating the philosophical links between China’s geography and its political and cultural landscape ... It is deeply satisfying to read a book about China that could only have been written after decades of serious engagement with the country. -- Amy Hawkins * The Guardian *A striking account ... This immersive survey combines interviews, firsthand reportage, and historical research to paint a moving group portrait of China’s political dissidents. * Publishers Weekly *Mr Johnson’s ability to evade controls and gain the trust of his subjects is evident in his compellingly written work. The result is a rare insight into the extraordinary risks that some Chinese take to illuminate the darkest corners of communism. -- James Miles * The Economist *An indelible feat of reporting and an urgent read, Sparks is alive with the voices of the countless Chinese who fiercely, improbably, refuse to let their histories be forgotten. It's a privilege to read books like these. -- Te-Ping Chen, author of Land of Big NumbersA revelation: this historian from overseas spent years penetrating the world of underground Chinese historians, becoming in his own right a recorder of pioneers such as Hu Jie, Ai Xiaoming, and Jiang Xue, who use text and video to record China's lost history. -- Liao Yiwu, author of The Corpse Walker, God is Red and For a Song and a Hundred SongsThis compelling and highly enjoyable book will greatly enhance the general reader's understanding of the subtle counter-currents of resistance at work in Chinese society below the smooth surface of control and compliance. -- Sebastian Veg, author of Minjian: The Rise of China's Grassroots IntellectualsA powerful narrative of how the human spirit has survived the cruel repression of Maoist totalitarianism and is still doing the same against Xi Jinping's determined efforts to impose a new form of digital totalitarianism ... A must read for anyone interested in the Chinese and China. -- Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African StudiesIan Johnson has conducted some of the most important grassroots research of any foreign journalist in China. With Sparks, he turns his attention to history - not the sanctioned, censored, and selective history promoted by the Communist Party, but the independent histories that are being written and filmed by brave individuals across the country. This book is a powerful reminder of the ways in which China's future depends on who controls the past. -- Peter Hessler

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