Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions Books

Book SynopsisExplores Empress' ill health, examines enigmatic triangular relationship between Nicky, Alix and her confidante Ania Vyrubova, and looks anew at the reasons behind their reliance on the infamous Rasputin. This book makes these characters come alive, presenting them in all their complexity and ardour, guiding the reader into their vanished world.

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Book SynopsisMelissa K. Stockdale is Brian and Sandra O'Brien Presidential Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, USA. She is the author of Mobilizing the Russian Nation: Patriotism and Citizenship in the First World War (2016) and Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880-1918 (1997). She is also the co-editor, along with Murray Frame, Steven Marks and Boris Kolonitskii, of the two-volume Russian Culture in War and Revolution, 1914-1922 (2014) and Space, Place, and Power in Russia (2010), along with Mark Bassin and Christopher Ely.Trade ReviewThe concentration on recent studies means the volume remains distinct from existing compilations ... Stockdale’s book, then, could usefully work in tandem with these earlier compilations for readers interested in the longer historiography of the revolution. In that regard, the volume’s essays are welcome introductions to the most influential recent analyses and debates for anyone eager to learn or teach about the Russian Revolution. * Michigan War Studies Review *This cleverly chosen selection of recent scholarship on the Russian Revolution will provide college students with a comprehensive sense of the different perspectives on the Revolution that have emerged since the opening of the Soviet archives. It provides an excellent introduction to innovative research on topics such as the non-Russian minorities, war and violence, language and culture. * Stephen Smith, Professor of History, University of Oxford, UK *A hundred years after Red October, scholars continue to debate the meaning of those revolutionary events. Melissa Stockdale has assembled here some of the last thirty years' most dynamic work on the subject—a diverse collection of key articles from across the political spectrum. * David Brandenberger, Professor of History and Global Studies, University of Richmond, USA *Melissa Stockdale has performed an enormous service for students and teachers of the Russian Revolution. These selected readings will orient students through the key themes and interpretative controversies that have characterized scholarship on the Revolution since the collapse of the USSR. Framed by a clear and insightful introduction, this will quickly become a required text. * James Ryan, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Cardiff University, UK *Table of ContentsList of Contributors Map: European Russia, 1914 Introduction: 100 Years Later, Scholarship on the Russian Revolution after the Cold War, Melissa K. Stockdale Part I. 1917: Languages, Symbols, and Agency Chapter 1. Reflections on the Russian Revolution, Richard Pipes Excerpt from A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (Knopf, 1995) Chapter 2. Languages of Citizenship, Languages of Class: Workers and the Social Order, Orlando Figes and Boris I. Kolonitskii Excerpt from Interpreting the Russian Revolution (Yale University Press, 1999) Chapter 3.‘Water is Yours, Light is Yours, the Land is Yours, the Wood is Yours’, Sarah Badcock Excerpt from Politics and the People in Revolutionary Russia: A Provincial History (Cambridge University Press, 2007) Chapter 4.Kerenskii: Popular Brand and Revolutionary Symbol, Boris I. Kolonitskii Excerpt from “Tovarishch Kerenskii”: Antimonarkhicheskaia revoliutsiia I formirovanie kul’ta “vozhdia naroda”[“Comrade Kerenskii”: The Anti-Monarchic Revolution and Formation of the Cult of the “Leader of the People”] (Novoe literaturenoe obozrenie, 2017) Part II. War, Revolution, the State Chapter 5.Rise of the Warlords, Joshua Sanborn Excerpt from Imperial Apocalypse: The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire (Oxford University Press, 2002) Chapter 6.Psychological Consolidation, Peter Holquist Excerpt from Making War, Forging Revolution: Russia’s Continuum of Crisis, 1914 – 1922 (Harvard University Press, 2002) Chapter 7.Social Disintegration, Igor Narskii Excerpt from Zhizn’ v katastrofe. Budni naselenie Urala v 1917-1922 gg.(ROSSPEN, 2001) [Life in Catastrophe: The Daily Experience of the Population of the Urals, 1917-1922] Chapter 8. Nationalizing the Revolution, Adeeb Khalid Excerpt from Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR (Cornell University Press, 2015) Part III. Revolutionary Dreams and Identities Chapter 9.Bolshevik Ritual Buildings in the 1920s, Richard Stites Excerpt from Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture (Indiana University Press, 1991) Chapter 10. Connecting, Emma Widdis Excerpt from Visions of a New Land: Soviet Film from the Revolution to the Second World War (Yale University Press, 2003) Chapter 11. Daily Life and Gender Transformation, Elizabeth A. Wood Excerpt from The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia (Indiana University Press, 1997) Chapter 12. Forging the Revolutionary Self, Jochen Hellbeck Excerpt from Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin (Harvard University Press, 2006) Part IV. Outcomes and Impacts Chapter 13. Ending the Revolution, Sheila Fitzpatrick Excerpt from The Russian Revolution, 3rd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2008) Chapter 14. Telling October, Frederick C. Corney Excerpt from Telling October: Memory and the Making of the Russian Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2008) Chapter 15. Communism and the New Forms of Dictatorship, Steven G. Marks Excerpt from How Russia Shaped the Modern World (Princeton University Press, 2003) Chronology of the Revolutionary Era Glossary Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisOpening with the military preparations before Paris was besieged by the invading German army in September 1870, Alistair Horne's compelling account of this dramatic episode takes the reader through the fall of Paris and German victory to the last days of the Paris Commune in May Week 1871.

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Book SynopsisFor fans of The Lost Kingdom, Black Sails and Crossbones comes a new rip-roaring history of the Golden Age of Piracy. . .In the early eighteenth century a number of the great pirate captains, including Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach and 'Black Sam' Bellamy, joined forces. This infamous 'Flying Gang' was more than simply a thieving band of brothers. Many of its members had come to piracy as a revolt against conditions in the merchant fleet and in the cities and plantations in the Old and New Worlds. Inspired by notions of self-government, they established a crude but distinctive form of democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which indentured servants were released and leaders chosen or deposed by a vote. They were ultimately overcome by their archnemesis, Captain Woodes Rogers - a merchant fleet owner and former privateer - and the brief but glorious Republic of Pirates came to an end.Meticulously researched and full of incident and adventure, The Republic of Pirates brings to life an extraordinary forgotten chapter of history.'Fascinating... beyond rip-roaring adventure stories from the distant past, [the book offers] an opportunity to understand pirates as they truly were--and to be grateful that the worst of them, at least, are gone' New York Times Book ReviewTrade ReviewFascinating... beyond rip-roaring adventure stories from the distant past, [the book offers] an opportunity to understand pirates as they truly were--and to be grateful that the worst of them, at least, are gone. * New York Times Book Review *This breezy, fast-moving book is filled with exciting action and colorful characters. It will provide general readers and those with a special interest in the period much enjoyment. * Booklist *Disregard Robert Louis Stevenson's rowdy buccaneers, the Disney factory's lively rascals and those musical lads from Penzance: Here are the real pirates of the Caribbean, and the facts are as colorful and exciting as fiction. * Kirkus Reviews *It's a rollicking tale, filled with rich details of the lives of men who, for their own personal gain, challenged the spread of empires. * Times-Picayune *The first incisive look at the world of Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonny, and their compatriots, and it illuminates as never before one of the most storied yet misunderstood episodes in our past. -- Willliam C. Davis, author of The Pirates LaffiteA rollicking, gangplank-swaying read of a book . . . This scrupulously researched book strikes a balance of human interest, romance, drama, war, and historical fact – all key ingredients for an excellent read. * Caribbean Beat *

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Book SynopsisIn Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, translator Helen Azar and Romanov historian Nicholas B. A. Nicholson present for the first time in English the annotated 1916-1918 diaries and letters of Russia’s Grand Duke Michael, from the murder of the Siberian mystic Grigorii Rasputin through the Revolution of 1917, which dethroned the Romanov dynasty after Michael briefly found himself named Emperor when his brother Nicholas II abdicated. Michael’s diaries provide rare insight into the fall of the Empire, the rise and fall of the Provisional Government and brief Russian republic, and the terrifying days of the February and October Revolutions after which Michael found himself a prisoner who would meet his end in the Siberian city of Perm.Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (1878-1918) was born the youngest son of Tsar Alexander III, but with the death of his brother Grand Duke George in 1899, Michael was thrust into the spotlight and the role of “Heir-Tsesarevich” to Emperor Nicholas II, then the father of three girls. Even after the birth of an heir in 1904, Michael found himself pushed closer to the throne with each of the boy’s bouts of hemophilia. By 1916 during World War I, Nicholas and Alexandra found themselves deeply unpopular not only in political circles but also with other members of the House of Romanov, who felt that the parlous times required drastic change. Michael found himself at the center of these events.Azar’s translation is uniquely faithful to the original text and gives readers the feeling of the immediacy and haste in Michael’s original observations of these tumultuous times. Nicholson’s annotations provide biographical and historical background, while quoting dozens of other rare primary sources.

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Book SynopsisA unique historical account of poor peoples? self-defence strategies in the face of the plunder of their lands and labor For five centuries, the development of capitalism has been inextricably connected to the expropriation of working people from the land they depended on for subsistence. Through ruling class assaults known as enclosures or clearances, shared common land became privately-owned capital, and peasant farmers became propertyless laborers who could only survive by working for the owners of land or capital.As Ian Angus documents in The War Against the Commons, mass opposition to dispossession has never ceased. His dramatic account provides new insights into an opposition that ranged from stubborn non-compliance to open rebellion, including eyewitness accounts of campaigns in which thousands of protestors tore down fences and restored common access to pastures and forests. Such movements, he shows, led to the Diggers? call for a new society based on shared ownership and use of the land, an appeal that was more sophisticated and radical than anything else written before the 1800s.Contrary to many accounts that treat the reorganization of agriculture as a purely domestic matter, Angus shows that there were close connections between the enclosures in Britain and imperial expansion. The consolidation of some of the largest estates in England and Scotland was directly financed by the forced labor of African slaves and the colonial plunder of India.This unique historical account of ruling class robbery and poor peoples? resistance offers answers to key questions about the history of capitalism. Was enclosure a ?necessary evil? that enabled economic growth? What role did deliberate promotion of hunger play in the creation of the working class? How did Marx and Engels view the separation of workers from the land, and how does resistance to enclosure continue in the 21st century?

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