Search results for ""Central European University Press""
Central European University Press In Search of "Aryan Blood": Serology in Interwar and National Socialist Germany
Gives an all encompassing interpretation of how the discovery of blood groups in around 1900 galvanised not only old mythologies of blood and origin but also new developments in anthropology and eugenics in the 1920s and 1930s. Boaz portrays how the personal motivations of blood scientists influenced their professional research, ultimately demonstrating how conceptually indeterminate and politically volatile the science of race was under the Nazi regime. Contrary to sustained efforts, the search for the "Aryan" blood did not materialize into the racial utopia that the Nazi officials had dreamed. Moreover, the monograph convincingly demonstrates how ambiguous the relationship between eugenics, seroanthropology and anti-Semitism was in Germany, not least because proeminent German eugenicists and race scientists were Jewish or of Jewish origin.
£64.00
Central European University Press Parlor and Kitchen: Housing and Domestic Culture in Budapest, 1870-1940
The monograph depicts the private life both of the bourgeoisie and the working class in the capital city of Hungary between the mid-19th and mid-20th c. The framework for this privacy is the home. Not just the physical outlook and the changes shaping it with the time passing, but the modes of use and even the subjective notion of private domain are also discussed. The main issue dealt with is the physical layout and the furnishing of these homes, the values attached to them and the whole mentality one can deduce from the historical traces. The author heavily relies on the most diverse historical sources, the probate inventories, statistical data, newpaper articles, household manuals and etiquette books, memoirs or even photographs are involved in them. The main findings of recent historical account show that the luxurious although not too convenient homes rented by the upper middle-class families at the turn of the 19th and 20th c. meant the apparent code and one of the main sources of identity of their own status. Due to the economic decline of the middle classes in the interwar period, however, reduced the relevance of private domain in defining someone's social standing. The obviously low standard of urban workers' housing throughout the entire period discussed meant a highly stratified quality of housing even in that case. The prime importance of the slums in the daily life of the urban lower classes was counterbalanced in the interwar era by the far better residential conditions and the more sophisticated domestic culture of the skilled factory workers. The latter seemed more to resemble even as early as the late 19th c. the life style of the petty bourgeoisie than their workers counterparts. The author tends to provide an account even on the social housing policy emerging at the early 20th century. The book is a microhistory reconstruction and analysis of a neglected sphere of society of the Central European metropolis, Budapest, which was among the biggest and most characteristic Continental capitals of the age.
£37.00
Central European University Press The Politics of Early Language Teaching: Hungarian in the Primary Schools of the Late Dual Monarchy
Disseminating knowledge of the state language to the non-Magyar half of the citizenry was a policy priority of the government of the Hungarian Kingdom between the 1870s and the First World War. Drawing on a wide array of sources, The Politics of Early Language Teaching provides an in-depth look at how Hungarian was taught to ethnic Romanian and German children in the south-eastern tracts of the Habsburg Empire. The monograph covers the ever-harshening legislation from the period, reconsidering the role of state supervision and exploring the contemporary methodological debates as well as taking a closer look at classroom practices. Not only does the book throw much light in comparative mode on one of Europe's great early experiments in linguistic engineering; but it provides many new insights into Dualist Hungary's competing national ideologies and the limits of their efficacy on the ground.
£22.95
Central European University Press The Visual World of the Hungarian Angevin Legendary
The manuscript known as the Hungarian Angevin Legendary, made for Hungarian royal patrons, is an extraordinary relic of medieval book illumination; a luxurious codex worthy of a ruler. It was created in Bologna in the early 14th century by number of painters. Dispersed in four countries and six collections, the 142 richly gilded leaves recount the legends of fifty-eight saints at varying length. The miniatures are all clearly distinguishable and colorfully depicted. In the course of his twenty years of research the author examined almost all of the surviving leaves, including the largest sets in the Vatican Library and in the New York Morgan Library. The analysis of the codex has three levels: identifying the original criteria of saints selected, the presentation of the iconographic features of the respective legends, and the exposure of the recurrent image types on the leaves. One section of the book is an attempt to reconstruct the original appearance of the manuscript. Lastly, there is an investigation of the fate of the copies across centuries. Charts, tables, and drawings are included to help illuminate the structure and history of the codex.
£88.20
Central European University Press Learning to Change: The Experience of Transforming Education in South East Europe
A collection of first-person narratives by specialists in the field of education in South East Europe. The contributors are recognized leaders in civil society, government, academia and schools. Their works chronicle the profound effect armed conflict, political transition, and the increasing openness the region has experienced on education. It is a significant achievement as it is the work of individuals who are involved in the field and have a first hand perspective on issues of education in the region. The essays shed light on the reality of the educational reforms: they are far from beeing linear progressive processes, on the contrary, they are very often paradoxical and even controversial.
£56.00
Central European University Press Words in Space and Time
With forty-two extensively annotated maps, this atlas offers novel insights into the history and mechanics of how Central Europe's languages have been made, unmade, and deployed for political action. The innovative combination of linguistics, history, and cartography makes a wealth of hard-to-reach knowledge readily available to both specialist and general readers. It combines information on languages, dialects, alphabets, religions, mass violence, or migrations over an extended period of time. The story first focuses on Central Europe's dialect continua, the emergence of states, and the spread of writing technology from the tenth century onward. Most maps concentrate on the last two centuries. The main storyline opens with the emergence of the Western European concept of the nation, in accord with which the ethnolinguistic nation-states of Italy and Germany were founded. In the Central European view, a proper nation is none other than the speech community of a single languag
£91.80
Central European University Press Gorbachev and Bush: The Last Superpower Summits. Conversations that Ended the Cold War
This book presents and interprets archival records of the meetings between Mikhail Gorbachev and George W. Bush between 1989 and 1991, including transcripts of conversations between top leaders on the rapid and monumental events of the final days of the Cold War. Particularly effective interlocutors were the foreign ministers Eduard Shevardnadze and James Baker, especially interesting when they interacted directly with Bush or Gorbachev. The documents were obtained from the Gorbachev Foundation and the Russian State Archives and from the United States government through requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Taking place at a time of revolutionary change in Eastern Europe, stimulated in part by Gorbachev and by Eastern Europeans (the Solidarity movement, dissidents, reform communists), the Malta Summit of 1989 and subsequent meetings helped defuse any potential for superpower conflict. Each of the five summits is covered in a separate chapter, introduced by an essay that places the transcripts in historical context. The anthology offers a fascinating glimpse into the relationship that defined the last, waning years of the Cold War-a unique record of these historic, highest-level conversations that effectively brought it to a close. The quality and scope of the dialogue between these world leaders was unprecedented and is likely never to be repeated.
£41.95
Central European University Press Utopian Horizons: Ideology, Politics, Literature
The 500th anniversary of Thomas More's Utopia has directed attention toward the importance of utopianism. This book investigates the possibilities of cooperation between the humanities and the social sciences in the analysis of 20th century and contemporary utopian phenomena. The papers deal with major problems of interpreting utopias, the relationship of utopia and ideology, and the highly problematic issue as to whether utopia necessarily leads to dystopia. Besides reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary utopian investigations, the eleven essays effectively represent the constructive attitudes of utopian thought, a feature that not only defines late 20th- and 21st-century utopianism, but is one of the primary reasons behind the rising importance of the topic. The volume's originality and value lies not only in the innovative theoretical approaches proposed, but also in the practical application of the concept of utopia to a variety of phenomena which have been neglected in the utopian studies paradigm, especially to the rarely discussed Central European texts and ideologies.
£64.00
Central European University Press The Positive Mind: its Development and Impact on Modernity and Postmodernity
This book is a radical reappraisal of positivism as a major movement in philosophy, science and culture. In examining positivist movement and its contemporary impact, the author had six goals. First, to provide a more precise and systematic definition of the notion of positivism. Second, to describe positivism as a trend of thought concerned not only with the theory of knowledge and philosophy of science, but also with problems of ethics, social, and political philosophy. Third, to examine the development of positivism as a movement: it was born in the 18th century during the Enlightenment, took the form of social positivism in the 19th century, was transformed at the turn of the 20th century with the emergence of empirio-criticism, and became logical positivism (or logical empiricism) in the 20th century. Fourth, to reveal the external and internal factors of this evolution. Fifth, to disclose the relation of positivism to other trends of philosophy. Sixth, to determine the influence the positive mind had upon other cultural phenomena, such as the natural and social sciences, law, politics, arts, religion, and everyday life.
£81.00
Central European University Press Darwin'S Footprint: Cultural Perspectives on Evolution in Greece (1880–1930s)
Darwin’s Footprint examines the impact of Darwinism in Greece, investigating how it has shaped Greece in terms of its cultural and intellectual history, and in particular its literature. The book demonstrates that in the late 19th to early 20th centuries Darwinism and associated science strongly influenced celebrated Greek literary writers and other influential intellectuals, which fueled debate in various areas such as ‘man’s place in nature’, eugenics, the nature-nurture controversy, religion, as well as class, race and gender. In addition, the study reveals that many of these individuals were also considering alternative approaches to these issues based on Darwinian and associated biological post-Darwinian ideas. Their concerns included the Greek “race” or nation, its culture, language and identity; also politics and gender equality. Zarimis’s monograph devotes considerable space to Xenopoulos (1867-1951), notable novelist, journalist and playwright.
£25.95
Central European University Press Building an Integrated Higher Education System in Europe: Romania'S Commitments in the European Higher Education Area and Their Implementation at National Level
Europe witnessed tectonic shifts in higher education triggered by the Bologna Process. The impact expands even beyond higher education, into the political, economic, and cultural transformations of the continent. From a legal and operational perspective, Bologna is based on a series of voluntary commitments assumed by the ministers responsible for higher education of the participating countries. Their actual implementation takes various forms in different countries. The Bologna Process has been studied extensively. Currently, however, there is no systematic study available about what a participating country has actually committed to do, and how it has implemented these commitments. This policy report attempts to develop such a comprehensive study for the case of one country, Romania.
£17.95
Central European University Press The University in the Twenty-first Century: Teaching the New Enlightenment in the Digital Age
This volume addresses the broad spectrum of challenges confronting the university of the 21st century. Elkana and Klöpper place special emphasis on the questions regarding the very idea and purposes of universities, especially as viewed through curriculum—what is taught—and pedagogy—how it is taught. The ideas recommended here for reform concern especially undergraduate or Bachelor degree programs in all areas of study, from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, the technical fields, law, medicine, and other professions. The core thesis of this book rests on the emergence of a 'New Enlightenment', which requires a revolution in curriculum and teaching in order to translate the academic philosophy of global contextualism into universal practice or application. The university is asked to revamp teaching in order to foster critical thinking that would serve students their entire lives. This book calls for universities to become truly integrated rather than remaining collections of autonomous agencies more committed to competition among themselves than cooperation in the larger interest of learning.
£73.00
Central European University Press Free Market in its Twenties: Modern Business Decision Making in Central and Eastern Europe
This book provides a broadly managerial perspective on key trends that affect business decision-making in Central and Eastern Europe twenty years after the beginning of the region's transition to market economy. Reflecting different viewpoints, including economic, social, and political approaches, the essays helps managers of the region to understand better both regional and the global forces influencing their businesses - as well as to bring to their attention relevant cutting-edge approaches to business thinking and decision-making.
£64.00
Central European University Press Social Sciences in the “Other Europe” since 1945
In recent years, a remarkable flourishing of works on the postwar history of social science and humanities disciplines led to the growing configuration of a field of “Cold War social science” research. Yet in spite of its thematic diversity, and with few exceptions, the geography of the field remains overwhelmingly North American and Western European. This volume brings in the perspective of the “other Europe.” It contributes a series of observations, on and from the margins of the field, which reflect on the condition of knowledge and research on what is perceived and thematized as the (semi-)periphery by the observers themselves. Rather than simply attempting to shift focus, the chapters explore scientific visions of the social off-center. They span the years from the immediate postwar period to the present, and the European semi-peripheries from Tartu to Portugal, with the majority of studies covering East Central Europe. In its chronology, the volume follows, but often challenges, existing accounts of postwar social science: part one engages with Sovietization and the profound transformation of most social science and humanities disciplines in the postwar period up to the 1950s; the second part covers the spectacular rise and domination of sociology among 1960s social sciences; the intensification of transnational exchanges up to the 1980s is the topic of the third part; and the crisis and reorganization of the social sciences in the late-socialist period and the post-socialist years of transition are analyzed in the fourth and final section of the volume.
£37.95
Central European University Press The Harbour of all this Sea and Realm: Crusader to Venetian Famagusta
The Harbour of All This Sea and Realm offers an overview of Famagusta's Lusignan, Genoese and Venetian history. The essays contribute to the understanding of the city's social and administrative structure, as well as of itsarchitectural and art historical heritage in the period from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The two themes of Famagusta's diasporas and cultural hybridity permeate all of the articles in this collaborative effort and constitute their most conspicuous unifying feature. Some of the studies carry out the harmonization of archival sources and thus manage to reconstruct the early stages of appearances of various buildings. In light of the threats facing Famagusta's medieval and early modern heritage, having been in a zone of military occupation since 1974, such research is of vital importance.
£64.00
Central European University Press The Stranger, the Tears, the Photograph, the Touch: Divine Presence in Spain and Europe Since 1500
This book is an expanded, larger-format, and more highly illustrated version of a smaller book released by CEU Press in 2011. It presents and comments on an extensive set of religious and personal photographs and illustrations that depict people along with divine beings or absent loved ones. First, Christian examines the periodic appearances of Christ-like strangers in the Spanish countryside through the vision of a woman in La Mancha in 1931. Then he considers the long history of images with liquids on them not only for early modern Spain, but also in the United States, Italy and France in the 1940s and 1950s. The third and most extensive chapter addresses the iconography of illustrated depictions of divine and spirit beings in conjunction with humans and how its conventions were incorporated into commercial postcards and personal photographs, culminating in photo montages of families and their absent soldiers in World War I. The fourth theme is new to this edition. It compares the electric moments in Spanish communities when people ritually come into physical contact with saints and with animals, or transform themselves into saints or animals for ritual purposes. Over 50 of the color photographs by Spain's preeminent documentary photographer are included.
£44.95
Central European University Press Capitalism from Outside?: Economic Cultures in Eastern Europe After 1989
Economists, historians, sociologists and anthropologists of the region studied transnational cultural encounters in the post-communist economies by scoping on smaller and bigger firms in the new market conditions, governmental bodies that shaped economic policies and regulations, and the academic settings of economic science. Producers and mediators of economic culture are examined in various contexts. Comparative studies are offered in three areas: entrepreneurship, governance of economic change, and economic knowledge. Case studies analyze country specific issues. The numbers and scope of encounters between the economic actors of the "East" and the "West" - which have dramatically increased during the past two decades - are scrutinized. Chapters in the volume reveal how indigenous actors - workers, entrepreneurs, government officials, economists, think tank analysts etc. - in Eastern Europe, select (accept, adjust and mix) certain cultural packages while rejecting others. Although cultural exchanges are rarely symmetric, there is little to prove that "strong Western" culture devours (civilizes) the "weak Eastern" one, or "clashes of civilizations" drive capitalist transformations in the region.
£81.00
Central European University Press Concepts and the Social Order: Robert K. Merton and the Future of Sociology
Offers a comprehensive perspective on knowledge production in the field of sociology. Moreover, it is a tribute to the scope of Merton's work and the influence Merton has had on the work and life of sociologists around the world. This is reflected in each of the 12 chapters by internationally acclaimed scholars witnessing the range of fields Merton has contributed to as well as the personal impact he has had on sociologists. Among others, the chapters deal with history and social context - an exploration of sociology in three very different countries; the relationship between science and society; the role of experience and the conceptual word; the "Matthew effect" and "repetition with variation." The contributors consider a number of Mertonian themes and concepts, re-evaluating them, adapting them, highlighting their continued relevance and thus opening a well of possibilities for new research.
£64.00
Central European University Press Divide, Provide and Rule: An Integrative History of Poverty Policy, Social Reform, and Social Policy in Hungary Under the Habsburg Monarchy
Brings together the analysis of older, mostly local welfare policies (including their legal framings and their change over time) with the history of social policy developed by the state and operated at a national level. Explores also the interaction of various layers of and actors in welfare policy, i.e. of poor relief, social reform policies and the unfolding welfare state over time, including often neglected elements of these policies such as for instance protective policies at the work place, housing policy, child protection, and prostitution policies. Making innovative use of legal, quantitative, and other material, the author describes how policies of inclusion into and exclusion from access to social insurance coverage shaped social relations within and beyond the world of work. The study demonstrates how definitions of what constituted need have served historically to produce divergent visions and treatment of male and female poverty, and how these historical biases have continued to shape and biased the conceptual apparatus of research into the history of welfare and social policies.
£56.00
Central European University Press Violence and Peace: From the Atomic Bomb to Ethnic Cleansing
Building a bridge between political philosophy and the analysis of current affairs, as well as between the author's personal experience and the collective dramas of the twentieth century, Pierre Hassner stresses two major features of our time: the decline of interstate war as a realistic prospect, and the increase in domestic and transnational violence.
£64.00
Central European University Press Civic and Uncivic Values: Serbia in the Post-MilošEvić Era
Discusses Serbia's struggle for democratic values after the fall of the MiloA'evia regime provoked by the NATO war, and after the trauma caused by the secession of Kosovo. Are the value systems of the post-MiloA'evia era true stumbling blocks of a delayed transition of this country? Seventeen contributors from Norway, Serbia, Italy, Germany, Poland and some other European countries covered a broad range of topics in order to provide answers to this question. The subjects of their investigations were national myths and symbols, history textbooks, media, film, religion, inter-ethnic dialogue, transitional justice, political party agendas and other related themes. The authors of the essays represent different scholarly disciplines whose theoretical conceptions and frameworks are employed in order to analyze two alternative value systems in Serbia: liberal, cosmopolitan and civic on the one hand, and traditional, provincial, nationalist on the other.
£90.00
Central European University Press Universities and Reflexive Modernity: Institutional Ambiguities and Unintended Consequences
This is a book about the challenges and uncertainties facing today's university, a chronicle of recent and current changes in higher education in the world. There are many questions today that are sufficiently open to doubt and profoundly related to new developments, to justify new enquiries, by looking freshly and more closely at the actual configurations and at their historical grounds, for providing the new standard account of the university today. Vlasceanu discusses the inherent contradiction between academia on the one hand, and expectations and regulations of the market on the other. This title analyses demographic and other statistical characteristics of today's higher education. It examines the financial basis of universities, describes current governance models, and sets up a new typology of universities.
£20.95
Central European University Press Which Way Goes Capitalism?: In Search of Adequate Policies in a Dramatically Changing World
In this title, a well-known academic economist and former finance minister gives a lucid and well balanced overview of the current financial turbulences that have hit the developed economies. Strongly criticizing the excesses of neoliberal capitalism, Daianu calls for implementing necessary regulatory reforms in the financial sector and for restoration of a proper balance between the functions of the state and the market. Daianu goes back to some of the roots of the current crisis and the flaws or weaknesses of the global financial system. In doing so, he extensively discusses the monetary union of the Euro, and the critical question whether, how and when additional countries can and should join the club. This is a timely volume with a very strong and important warning.
£64.00
Central European University Press We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe
This work analyzes the processes of nation-building in nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Southeastern Europe. A product of transnational comparative teamwork, this collection represents a coordinated interpretation based on ten varied academic cultures and traditions. The originality of the approach lies in a combination of three factors: seeing nation-building as a process that is to a large extent driven by intellectuals and writers, rather than just a side effect of infrastructural modernization processes; looking at the regional, cross-border ramifications of these processes (rather than in a rigid single-country-by-country perspective); and, looking at the autonomous role of intellectuals in these areas, rather than just seeing Southeastern Europe as an appendix to Europe-at-large, passively undergoing European influences.The essays explore the political instrumentalization of the concepts of folk, people and ethnos in Southeastern Europe in the 'long 19th century' by mapping the discursive and institutional itineraries through which this set of notions became a focal point of cultural and political thought in various national contexts; a process that coincided with the emergence of political modernity.
£81.00
Central European University Press The Gratis Economy
£22.99
Central European University Press Stalin: An Unknown Portrait
This volume of oral history contains new information about Joseph Stalin's actual and political 'family', the political Mafia and the clans that surrounded him. The author has interviewed key politicians who survived the Stalin era, including officials of the KGB and the Komsomol and people who had personal contact with the dictator as secretaries or interpreters. The author's expertise and his access to archival sources in Russia have resulted in a work revealing jealously guarded secrets. This volume also contains a fascinating selection of photographs from a private collection. This collection includes photographs pf Stalin, his family members, as well as various political actors of the period.
£90.00
Central European University Press Alienated Women: A Study on Polish Women's Writing, 1845-1918
A study on Polish women prose writers from a turbulent time in that country's literary history. Key writers examined include Klemenntyna Hoffmanowa, Narcyza michovska, Eliza Orzeszkowa and Zofia Nakowska. The author's approach of major feminist theory and post-feminist thought throws new light on Polish women writers and their contribution to European thought.
£73.00
Central European University Press Mind and Labor on the Farm in Black-Earth Russia, 1861-1914
Did Tsarist Russia's political and industrial backwardness result from its rigid and archaic agrarian structure? Did the Russian revolution stem in large part from a parasitical elite's exploitation of an enormous peasant class? Was the Russian peasantry itself backward and 'dark' as a result? The attention contemporaries and historians have lavished on these questions has enshrined them as fundamental issues in Russian history. This text endeavours to recast our understanding of the agrarian problem by uncovering the history of both the physical and mental dimensions of agriculture. Employing literary, agronomic and statistical information on peasant labour and culture, this book also offers new perspectives on the limitations of traditional agriculture to adapt to a rapidly changing economic geography, such as that of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Russia. By taking a ground level view of the evolution of Russian agricultural technique, the author arrives at a very different understanding of the agrarian problem. The book identifies both the achievements and limitations of peasant farmers in adapting farming practices to the economic and technological challenges of the half century preceding the revolution. Most importantly, the book delves deeply into peasant life and culture to demonstrate how and why farming imrovements did not pass determinable levels.
£90.00
Central European University Press Studies in Biopolitics
This book is a collection of multidisciplinary case studies on biopolitical practices and discourses. The chapters discuss the regulation of assisted reproductive technologies in the Arab states, Israel, and Serbia; the biopolitics of abortion in Poland and Hungary; abortion used as a method of sex selection in Georgia, Armenia and India, and sex selection used to avoid abortion in the Arab states and in Germany. Other chapters explore local cases in a global biopolitical context: virginity tests conducted in order to humiliate women in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey; transnational surrogacy commercializing the bodies of women in India; stem cell research abused in the lack of regulation in Russia; and the representation of Roma as research subjects in human genetic research in Hungary. Some of the essays discuss novel and unique reproductive policies, such as the pronatalist measures of a local municipality in Serbia, or the utilization of pronatalist policies by originally not targeted groups, such as gay and lesbian couples in Israel. There is also a set of case studies in the book that focus on reproductive tourism and procreative exile and analyze the practices of escaping the restrictive reproductive policies in one country and utilizing reproductive services in another.
£22.95
Central European University Press The Three Cs of Higher Education: Competition, Collaboration and Complementarity
The thirteen papers in this collection address three aspects of higher education, primarily in Europe but also in the United States. These aspects are competition, collaboration, and complementarity, both on the level of policy and on the practical level of impact on students and staff. Competition, especially for funding, occurs between and within institutions. Collaboration, more than a basic code of conduct, has become a political principle across Europe. Complementarity in the market for higher education facilitates this collaboration. The themes and contexts in higher education for which the three Cs are examined include missions and identities, response to external forces, the impact of evaluation systems and ranking schemes, the effects of globalization, intercultural awareness, and gender imbalance, and the challenges of student participation. Statistical tables and visual aids support the analysis and arguments. This book is the fifth in a series of publications drawn from the annual Forums of the European Association of Institutional Research (EAIR) from 2013 onwards.
£22.95
Central European University Press Regenerating Japan: Organicism, Modernism and National Destiny in Oka Asajirō’s Evolution and Human Life
As the first step toward a comprehensive reinterpretation of the role of evolutionary science and biomedicine in pre-1945 Japan, this book addresses the early writings of that era’s most influential exponent of shinkaron (evolutionism), the German-educated research zoologist and popularizer of biomedicine, Oka Asajirō (1868–1944). Concentrating on essays that Oka published in the years during and after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), the author describes the process by which Oka came to articulate a programmatic modernist vision of national regeneration that would prove integral to the ideological climate in Japan during the first half of the twentieth century. In contrast to other scholars who insist that Oka was merely a rationalist enlightener bent on undermining state Shinto orthodoxy, Gregory Sullivan maintains that Oka used notions from evolutionary biology of organic individuality—especially that of the nation as a super-organism—to underwrite the social and geopolitical aims of the Meiji state. The author suggests that this generative scientism gained wide currency among early twentieth-century political and intellectual elites, including Emperor Hirohito himself, who had personal connections to Oka. The wartime ideology may represent an unfinished attempt to synthesize Shinto fundamentalism and the eugenically-oriented modernism that Oka was among the first to articulate.
£90.00
Central European University Press Tyrants Writing Poetry
Why do tyrants - of all people - often have poetic aspirations? Where do terror and prose meet? This book contains nine case studies that compare the cultural history of totalitarian regimes. The essays focus not on the arts, literature or architecture but on the phenomenon that many of history's great despots considered themselves talented writers. By studying the artistic ambitions of Nero, Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Saparmurat Niyazov and Radovan Karadzic, the authors explore the complicated relationship between poetry and political violence, and provide a fascinating look at the aesthetic dimensions of total power. The essays make an important contribution to a number of fields: the study of totalitarian regimes, cultural studies, and biographies of 20th century leaders. They underscore the frequent correlation between tyrannical governance and an excessive passion for language, and demonstrate that the combination of artistic and political charisma is often effective in the quest for absolute power.
£22.95
Central European University Press Isaac, Iphigeneia, and Ignatius: Martyrdom and Human Sacrifice
What is the meaning of the martyr's sacrifice? Is it true that the martyr imitates Christ? After the "one and eternal" sacrifice of Jesus, why are the occasional new (and often quite numerous) sacrifices necessary? What is the underlying divinitical concept behind these acts? How do these ideas survive in present times? The author considers martyrdom as a voluntary human sacrifice. The two emblematic figures of this transformation are Iphigeneia and Isaac. Pesthy argues that all the peoples in the environment in which Christianity came into being are characterized by an ambiguous and often hypocritical attitude toward human sacrifice: in theory they condemn it as barbarian and belonging to bygone times, in other cases they accept, admire and practice it. In modern Christianity, martyrs are real sacrifices, not symbolical ones. Our feelings about martyrs vary: we may admire their unbending courage and heroism or be irritated by their stubbornness, or even feel disgusted at the fanaticism with which they strove for death. Whatever our feelings may be, we must acknowledge that a very strong motivation is necessary to accept voluntarily or even seek death.
£64.00
Central European University Press A European Union with 36 Members?: Perspectives and Risks
A European Union with 36 members is a pure working hypothesis today. Extending future territorial contours is in full harmony with one of the main political objectives of the organization as the European Communities offered the possibility of membership to all European states, from the first day of its existence.
£73.00
Central European University Press Enemies for a Day: Antisemitism and Anti-Jewish Violence in Lithuania Under the Tsars
It begins by illustrating how widespread anti-Jewish feelings were among the Christian population in 19 th century, focusing on blood libel accusations as well as describing the role of modern antisemitism. Secondly, it tries to identify the structural preconditions as well as specific triggers that turned anti-Jewish feelings into collective violence and analyzes the nature of this violence. Lastly, pogroms in Lithuania are compared to anti-Jewish violence in other regions of the Russian Empire and East Galicia. This research is inspired by the cultural turn in social sciences, an approach that assumes that violence is filled with meaning, which is “culturally constructed, discursively mediated, symbolically saturated, and ritually regulated.” The author argues that pogroms in Lithuania instead followed a communal pattern of ethnic violence and was very different from deadly pogroms in other parts of the Russian Empire.
£64.00
Central European University Press Shortcut or Piecemeal: Economic Development Strategies and Structural Change
Despite the economic uncertainties that have affected the world economy, alternative economic development strategies receive very little attention in the published literature. When academics compare certain strategic features or assess the performance of different strategies they rarely factor in outcomes. This book seeks to address that gap and to provide a theoretical background to the shift from industry to human capital intensive services as the engine of economic growth. Pioneering studies reveal interesting trends and patterns that point to the growing importance of the mostly intellectual property-based intangible capital in relation to the level of GDP. These studies also indicate that economic freedom has had a large role in bringing about this second great structural change, more than was with the case with industrialization. The author also provides an extensive assessment of four key developing countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
£56.00
Central European University Press Institutional Trust and Economic Policy Lessons from the History of the Euro : Lessons from the History of the Euro
By what mechanisms does trust influence economic outcomes? Under what conditions do these mechanisms prevail? How do debates about trust help our understanding of the subprime crisis in the European Union? By integrating insights from Post-Keynesian, Austrian and new institutional economics, the central proposition of the analysis is that the presence or absence of institutional trust creates virtuous and vicious cycles in law-abiding, which critically influence the possibility for economic agents to have realistic long-term plans. In a low-trust environment the uncertainty surrounding the functioning of institutions leads to short-term decisions. Political business cycles, lax regulations on credit and boom-bust cycles are typical of such an environment. While empirical evidence from the EU largely supports these propositions, important exceptions are also identified and the conditions for the theory noted - including financial market influences, fashions in economic theory as well as political leadership
£56.00
Central European University Press Constitution for a Disunited Nation: On Hungary's 2011 Fundamental Law
This collection is the most comprehensive account of the Fundamental Law and its underlying principles. The objective is to analyze this constitutional transition from the perspectives of comparative constitutional law, legal theory and political philosophy. The authors outline and analyze how the current constitutional changes are altering the basic structure of the Hungarian State. The key concepts of the theoretical inquiry are sociological and normative legitimacy, majoritarian and partnership approach to democracy, procedural and substantive elements of constitutionalism. Changes are also examined in the field of human rights, focusing on the principles of equality, dignity, and civil liberties.
£88.20
Central European University Press On Baltic Slovenia and Adriatic Lithuania: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Patterns in Post-Communist Transformation
The analysis includes a critical revision of received dichotomies (e.g. on gradualism versus "shock therapy"), and contributes to current debates on the varieties of post-communist capitalism. This conceptual framework is applied in case studies on the Baltic States, with special consideration given to the possibility of alternatives to the Lithuanian way and the challenges of populism in this country's politics.
£81.00
Central European University Press The Tower: and Other Stories
In many of his stories Ezerioo was an initiator in the portrayal of the "fine neurosis". He was one of the first writers of Latvian prose to dispute the single - dimensional (e.g., good/evil) portrayal of a human being. The people in Ezerioo' prose are individuals with their own unique characteristics, often ambivalent, and subject to change in time and situations. As is common in modern literature, Ezerioo often blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, frequently making his reader laugh about the serious while aching when reading the humorous. Ezerioo' best work was created in the genre of the short story. Among his literary models were Boccaccio, Maupassant and Poe. During his active literary working life, which lasted the short space of approximately 5 to 6 years of a short life, Ezerioo seemingly grasped an encyclopaedia of possibilities and subject matter, as well as the versatility of storytelling, not avoiding either classical subjects or the repetition of characters so traditional in short stories.
£14.95
Central European University Press Multidisciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies
£25.00
Central European University Press Duty to Respond: Mass Crime, Denial, and Collective Responsibility
The central claim of the book is that all members of the group in whose name collective crime is committed share responsibility for it. Discusses analytical and normative defense of arguments that purport to explain reasons for, and the character of, responsibility of decent people. Those who did not intend, support, or committed wrong, are still accountable in a non-vicarious manner. The basis of their responsibility is the crime-specific relationship between group identity and personal identity. Combines eye witness experience with the best of current scholarship on one of the most serious ethical issues of the day, namely, responding to criminal behavior of a national regime. This fact-rich review of emblematic political events in the recent past shows not only what it means to assume responsibility for the criminal actions of a corrupt regime but also frames the argument in the context of a critique of moral relativism.
£56.00
Central European University Press A Life under Russian Serfdom: The Memoirs of Savva Dmitrievich Purlevskii, 1800–68
This is a translation of one of very few Russian serfs' memoirs. Savva Purlevskii recollects his life in Russian serfdom and life of his grandparents, parents, and fellow villagers. He describes family and communal life and the serfs' daily interaction with landlords and authorities. Purlevskii came from an initially prosperous family that later became impoverished. Early in his childhood, he lost his father. Purlevskii did not have a chance to gain a formal education. He lived under serfdom until 1831 when at the age of 30 he escaped his servitude.Gorshkov's introduction provides some basic knowledge about Russian serfdom and draws upon the most recent scholarship. Notes provide references and general information about events, places and people mentioned in the memoirs.
£12.42
Central European University Press Globalization and Nationalism: The Cases of Georgia and the Basque Country
This title argues for an original, unorthodox conception of the relationship between globalization and contemporary nationalism. While the prevailing view holds that nationalism and globalization are clashing forces of opposition, Sabanadze establishes that these forces tend to become allied. Sabanadze acknowledges that nationalism does react against rising globalization and represents a form of resistance against globalizing influences, but the Basque and Georgian cases prove that globalization and nationalism can be complementary rather than contradictory tendencies. Nationalists have often served as promoters of globalization, seeking out globalizing influences and engaging with global actors out of their very nationalist interests. In the case of both Georgia and the Basque Country, there is little evidence to suggest the existence of any strong, politically organized nationalist opposition to globalization. On the contrary, a predominant relationship between globalization and nationalism appears to be that of complementarity and mutual support, where nationalism often promotes rather than resists globalization. This work discusses why, on a broader scale, different forms of nationalism develop differing attitudes towards globalization and engage in different relationships.
£56.00
Central European University Press Given World and Time: Temporalities in Context
The interconnections of time with historical thought and knowledge have come powerfully to the fore since the 1970s. An international group of scholars, from a range of fields including literary theory, history of ideas, cultural anthropology, philosophy, intellectual history and theology, philology, and musicology, address the matter of time and temporalities. The volume's essays, divided into four main topical groups question critically the key problem of context, connecting it to the problem of time.Contexts, the essays suggest, are not timeless. Time and its contexts are only partly 'given' to us: to the primordial donations of time and world correspond our epistemic, moral, and practical modes of receiving what has been granted. The notion of context may have radically different parameters in different historical, cultural, and disciplinary situations. Topics include the deep antiquity, and the timeless time of eternity, as well as formal philosophies of history and the forms of histories implicit in individual and community experience. The medium specific use of time and history are examined with regard to song, image, film, oral narration, and legal discourse.
£81.00
Central European University Press Politics as a Moral Problem
In a world where politics is often associated with notions such as moral decay, frustration and disappointment, the feeling of betrayal, and of democracy in trouble, Kis examines theories about the morality of political action. Amending the two classical theses of realism and of indirect motivation in politics, Kis argues for a constrained thesis of realism and a wide thesis of indirect motivation. By these means the place of moral motivation and common deliberation can be identified, and political agents can be held morally accountable. The analysis refers to a broad range of classic and contemporary literature as well as to recent cases from international politics which call for moral judgment. The Appendix is dedicated to Václav Havel’s seminal essay on “The Power of the Powerless,” which sheds light on the diversity of approaches dissident intellectuals have taken to politics.
£25.95
Central European University Press Between Exile and Asylum: An Eastern Epistolary
A collection of letters by a most extraordinary member of East European intelligentsia, sent from Moscow, Mostar; lately Paris and Rome, where the author has lived since leaving war-torn Bosnia. Matvejević , vice president of the International PEN Club, was born in Yugoslavia, the son of a Russian emigre. His letters are about the past and the present of Russia, as welll as his hopes and fears for her future.
£56.00
Central European University Press The Paradoxes of Unintended Consequences
This volume of essays is dedicated to George Soros in honor of his seventieth birthday. The authors come from the different but intersecting worlds of academia, politics and business. The editors have chosen the title The Paradoxes of Unintended Consequences to encourage the contributors to adopt a dialogue-oriented approach and in reference to the example of Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake 400 years ago for holding heretic views which were probably far more backward than the views of those condemning him. The idea behind this approach was that any complex social process or political attempt to change the lives of people will have unintended consequences, usually paradoxical ones. These consequences should force us to reconsider our original theory. The volume also contains a short biography of George Soros and a list of his published works and philanthropic initiatives.
£90.00