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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:56pm CET
Maurice Mullard, "The Politics of Globalisation and Polarisation"
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing | 2004 | ISBN 1843765799 | PDF | 233 pages | 10.5 MB
This book deals with the nature of contemporary globalization. Maurice Mullard shows that globalization is not an inescapable, unstoppable process somehow beyond human control, rather that it represents, and is being shaped by, a series of deliberate policy choices and policy decisions. The emphasis of this fascinating work is on how these policy choices are creating new forms of economic inequalities and also political elites that distort the democratic process. The mapping of winners and losers goes beyond the usual analysis of the rich North versus the poor South, by including an examination of the widening inequalities in the North and the emergence of new elites in the South. Policies of privatization and liberalization of water and electricity create new political elites. The author reveals the shift in the North towards multi-national corporations with their emphasis on profits and stock market prices, while at the same time incomes for most employees have either stagnated or actually declined. The standard discourse on globalization and market flexibility often blurs the issues of declining trade union influence and corporations moving to countries offering lower labor costs. Maurice Mullard herein attempts to rectify this imbalance. The Politics of Globalisation and Polarisation is interdisciplinary and will therefore be relevant for academics and researchers of politics, social policy, public policy and economics. Scholars involved in globalization will find this book to be a major contribution to the ongoing debate.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:43pm CET
Robert Paul Resch, "Althusser and the Renewal of Marxist Social Theory"
Publisher: University of California Press | 1922 | ISBN 0520060822 | PDF | 322 pages | 10.3 MB
The writings of the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and his associates have figured prominently in the development of contemporary social theory. The Althusserian school of Structural Marxism is a startlingly original synthesis of Marxism and Modernism, which has produced a large body of work that extends across the human sciences and the humanities to engage a wide variety of cultures, theoretical problems, and political issues. Despite the fact that Althusser himself is widely recognized as a major figure, the breadth, coherence, and achievements of Structural Marxism as a whole have gone largely unrecognized. In this, the most systematic and wide-ranging assessment of Structural Marxism in any language, Resch provides a comprehensive and thematic introduction to the work of Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, Pierre Macherey, Etienne Balibar, Emmanuel Terray, Terry Eagleton, Göran Therborn, Renée Balibar, Perry Anderson, Pierre-Philippe Rey, Michel Pêchaux, Guy Bois, and others. Resch's sympathetic and critical study demonstrates the enormous significance of Althusser's modernist renewal of Marxist social theory and its ongoing challenge to post-Marxist movements such as postmodernism and neo-liberalism.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:37pm CET
Hasan Kayali, "Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918"
Publisher: University of California Press | 1997 | ISBN 0520204468 | PDF | 143 pages | 10.1 MB
Arabs and Young Turks provides a detailed study of Arab politics in the late Ottoman Empire as viewed from the imperial capital in Istanbul. In an analytical narrative of the Young Turk period (1908-1918) historian Hasan Kayali discusses Arab concerns on the one hand and the policies of the Ottoman government toward the Arabs on the other. Kayali's novel use of documents from the Ottoman archives, as well as Arabic sources and Western and Central European documents, enables him to reassess conventional wisdom on this complex subject and to present an original appraisal of proto-nationalist ideologies as the longest-living Middle Eastern dynasty headed for collapse. He demonstrates the persistence and resilience of the supranational ideology of Islamism which overshadowed Arab and Turkish ethnic nationalism in this crucial transition period. Kayali's study reaches back to the nineteenth century and highlights both continuity and change in Arab-Turkish relations from the reign of Abdulhamid II to the constitutional period ushered in by the revolution of 1908. Arabs and Young Turks is essential for an understanding of contemporary issues such as Islamist politics and the continuing crises of nationalism in the Middle East.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:30pm CET
Греческая история Том II. Кончая Аристотелем и завоеванием Азии
2009 | Юлиус Белох | Гос. публ. ист. библиотека России | ISBN: 978 5852092151 | руcский | PDF+DJVU | 473 pages | 11.06 Mb
Труд крупнейшего немецкого историка Ю.Белоха "Греческая история" и сейчас остается самой полной из существующих на русском языке общих историй Греции эпохи архаики и классики (VIII-IV вв. до н.э.). В большинстве общих курсов древнегреческой истории она чаще всего сводится к истории Афин и Спарты. В данной же работе дана история Древней Греции в целом.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:24pm CET
Греческая история Том I. Кончая софистическим движением и Пелопонесской войной
2009 | Юлиус Белох | Гос. публ. ист. библиотека России | ISBN: 978 5852092144 | руcский | PDF+DJVU | 512 pages | 11.8 Mb
Труд крупнейшего немецкого историка Ю.Белоха "Греческая история" и сейчас остается самой полной из существующих на русском языке общих историй Греции эпохи архаики и классики (VIII-IV вв. до н.э.). В большинстве общих курсов древнегреческой истории она чаще всего сводится к истории Афин и Спарты. В данной же работе дана история Древней Греции в целом.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:23pm CET
Marina Petrakis, "The Metaxas Myth: Dictatorship and Propaganda in Greece (International Library of War Studies)"
Publisher: Tauris Academic Studies | 2005 | ISBN 1845110374 | PDF | 280 pages | 11.2 MB
The first detailed study of Ioannis Metaxas and his self-promotion as 'Saviour of theNation', this book includes a fascinating examination of propaganda techniques based on Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany that brings tha personality of Metaxas to life with vivid writing. Why did the propaganda efforts that succeeded so thoroughly in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany fail so drastically in Greece? "The Metaxas Myth" is the first detailed account of General Ioannis Metaxas's attempts to mimic the fascist models of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco by portraying himself as the 'saviour' of the Greek nation in an effort to build his power base as dictator. Following the dissolution of parliament in 1936 up to his death in 1941, Metaxas used every media outlet available to promote his great myth: newspapers, periodicals, cinema, theatre and radio. Marina Petrakis analyses the nature of Metaxas's shortcomings: the errors made and the policies that eventually bred not loyalty, but at best apathy and at worst hostility towards his would-be autocracy.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:14pm CET
Jon Burchell, "The Evolution of Green Politics: Development and Change within European Green Parties"
Publisher: Earthscan Publications Ltd. | 2002 | ISBN 1853837520 | PDF | 208 pages | 10 MB
The emergence of Green parties throughout Europe during the 1980s marked the arrival of a "new'" form of political movement and a challenge to existing party models. However, since the "green wave" of the 1980s these parties have struggled to solidify their electoral successes in the face of stiff opposition from established political parties. This original book, the first to address the future direction of the European Green parties, presents an in-depth, thematic comparative approach to the analysis of recent Green party development and change, questioning whether the process of party evolution has resulted in the ideological dilution of Green ideals and objectives. With Green parties across Europe experiencing a significant upturn in support in recent years, the current period marks an important stage in the shaping of Green politics across Europe. If we are to gain a clearer picture of the impact that the Green parties may have in the new millennium, this book argues that we must understand the issues and themes which have shaped their reemergence as a more mature political challenge.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:07pm CET
Julie V. Gottlieb, Thomas P. Linehan, "The Culture of Fascism: Visions of the Far Right in Britain"
Publisher: I. B. Tauris | 2004 | ISBN 1860647995 | PDF | 265 pages | 10 MB
The history and ideologies of the Far Right in Britain have been well documented, but until now there has been little understanding of the movement's cultural foundations. The book demonstrates that British fascism is essentially not just a political movement, but one that had as its goal the establishment of an all-embracing fascist culture in Britain. The contributions in this volume by a distinguished team of cultural historians cover film, theatre, music, literature, the visual arts and the mass media.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:00pm CET
Steven Tsang, "The Cold War's Odd Couple: The Unintended Partnership between the Republic of China and the UK, 1950-1958 (Library of International Relations)"
Publisher: I. B. Tauris | 2006 | ISBN 1850438420 | PDF | 288 pages | 10.3 MB
The relationship between the US and the People's Republic of China was the defining factor in the Cold War in Asia--the potentially explosive conflict which, as seen in the Korean War, brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. The PRC had not become "Titoist" as some hoped and remained firmly within the Soviet international orbit. But how did Great Britain and the Republic of China fit into this potentially lethal global jigsaw? Steve Tsang has illuminated the history of a seemingly obscure corner of international relations and politics but which was, to contemporaries, at the heart of global survival.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:48pm CET
Anthony Stephen King, "Britain at the Polls, 2001"
Publisher: Chatham House Publishers | PDF | 2002 | ISBN 1889119741 | 257 pages | 11.4 Mb
Britain at the Polls 2001 provides the first analytical account of Tony Blair's first term, including a detailed description of the changes in the British political system since 1997. It explains New Labour's success in winning a second term and describes the Blair government's relations with the Labour Party itself, the Liberal Democrat Party and, not least, the British mass media. It reflects on the plight of--and the options open to--the post-Thatcher Conservative Party and concludes with an analysis of the outlook for British politics in an era now dominated by New Labour under Tony Blair.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:46pm CET
Jonathan Mendilow, "Ideology, Party Change, and Electoral Campaigns in Israel, 1965 - 2001"
Publisher: State University of New York Press | PDF | 2003 | ISBN 0791455882 | 310 pages | 10.7 Mb
Explores the turbulent changes in Israel party politics since the mid-1960s.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:43pm CET
Hella Pick, "Guilty Victims: Austria from the Holocaust to Haider"
Publisher: I. B. Tauris | PDF | 2000 | ISBN 1860646182 | 263 pages | 10.3 Mb
Behind the faccedil;ade of Gemuuml;tlichkeit can Austrians ever admit to themselves the extent to which they collaborated with Nazi Germany and became party to the Holocaust? So much has been written about post-war Germany, but what about Hitler's other willing executioners? Since 1945 Austria has succeeded in presenting an image of itself as a comfortable middle class society at the center of Europe, whose recent past, though awkward, was not shaming. Hella Pick explores Austria's search for a foolproof, internationally credible identity for itself after the Nazi era. She shows how the old ghosts will not go away.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:41pm CET
Norman J. Vig, "Green Giants?: Environmental Policies of the United States and the European Union (American and Comparative Environmental Policy)"
Publisher: The MIT Press | PDF | 2004 | ISBN 0262720442 | 414 pages | 10.3 Mb
The United States in recent years has been abandoning its historical role as a leader in environmental regulation. At the same time, the European Union, spurred by political integration, has enacted many new environmental laws and assumed a leadership role in promoting global environmental sustainability. Green Giants?, one of the most detailed comparisons of the environmental policies of America and Europe yet undertaken, looks at current policy trends in the United States and the European Union -- the two largest economic actors in the world -- and the implications they have for future transatlantic and global cooperation. The contributors -- leading European and American scholars and practitioners -- examine similarities and differences in specific policy areas in order to assess whether United States and European Union policies are diverging, pursuing similar goals and methods, or undergoing a "hybridization" through joint learning and exchanges. They find that although European and American policies may parallel each other somewhat in domestic regulation, they are clearly diverging in the "third generation" of environmental concerns, which include such global problems as climate change, international trade, and sustainable development. In the final chapter the editors conclude that transatlantic dialogue and cooperation at the highest level are necessary if these two economic and political giants are to lead the international community toward a stable and secure ecological future.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:38pm CET
Mohammad Gholi Majd, "Great Britain & Reza Shah: The Plunder of Iran, 1921-1941"
Publisher: University Press of Florida | PDF | 2001 | ISBN 0813021111 | 443 pages | 11.2 Mb
Using recently declassified U.S. State Department archives, Mohammad Gholi Majd describes the rampant tyranny and destruction of Iran in the decades between the two world wars in a sensational yet thoroughly scholarly study that will rewrite the political and economic history of the country. The book begins with the British invasion of Iran in April 1918 and ends with the Anglo-Russian invasion in August 1941. Though historians are aware of the events that ensued, until now they have had no written evidence of the dreadful magnitude of the activities. Majd documents how the British brought to power an obscure and semi-illiterate military officer, Reza Khan, who was made shah in 1925. Thereafter, Majd shows, Iran was subjected to a level of brutality not seen for centuries. He also documents the financial plunder of the country during the period: records show that Reza Shah looted the bulk of Iran's oil revenues on the pretext of buying arms, amassing at least $100 million in his London bank accounts and huge sums in New York and Switzerland. Not ven Iran's ancient crown jewels were spared. In contrast to incomplete and unreliable British records for the period, the recently declassified archives and bank records that Majd uses encompass a wide range of political, social, military, and economic matters. A work with immense implications, this book will correct the myth in Iranian history that the period 1921-41 was one of unqualified progress and reform.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:35pm CET
Jeffrey Glen Giauque, "Grand Designs and Visions of Unity: The Atlantic Powers and the Reorganization of Western Europe, 1955-1963"
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press | PDF | 2002 | ISBN 0807853445 | 342 pages | 10.1 Mb
In the late 1950s, against the unfolding backdrop of the Cold War, American and European leaders began working to reshape Western Europe. They sought to adapt the region to a changing world in which European empires were rapidly disintegrating, Soviet influence was spreading, and the United States could no longer shoulder the entire political and economic burden of the West yet hesitated to share it with Europe. Focusing on the four largest Atlantic powers--Britain, France, Germany, and the United States--Jeffrey Giauque explores these early stages of European integration. Giauque uses evidence from newly opened international archives to show how a mix of cooperation and collaboration shaped efforts to unify postwar Europe. He examines the "grand designs" each country developed to advance its own interests, specific plans for collaboration or accord, and the reactions of the other Atlantic powers to these proposals. Competing national interests not only derailed many otherwise sound plans for European unity, Giauque says, but also influenced such nascent European institutions as the Common Market, the antecedent of today's European Union. Indeed, beyond examining the origins of the European community, this comparative study provides insight into national attitudes and aspirations that continue to shape European and American policies today.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:32pm CET
Mark Levene, "Genocide in the Age of the Nation State: Volume 2: The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide"
Publisher: I. B. Tauris | PDF | 2005 | ISBN 1845110579 | 470 pages | 13.7 Mb
Most books on genocide consider it primarily as a twentieth century phenomenon. In The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide, Mark Levene argues that this approach fails to grasp its true origins. Genocide developed out of modernity and the striving for the nation-state, both essentially Western experiences. It was European expansion into all hemispheres between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries that provided the main stimulus to its pre-1914 manifestations.One critical outcome, on the cusp of modernity, was the French revolutionary destruction of the Vendee. Levene finishes this volume at the 1914 watershed with the destabilising effects of the 'rise of the West' on older Ottoman, Chinese, Russian and Austrian empires, with devastating consequences for peoples such as the Armenians, and the East European Jews. The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide is the second volume in Levene's sweeping four-volume survey, Genocide in the Age of the Nation State.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:30pm CET
University Of Chicago, "The Economic Future Of Nuclear Power A Study Conducted At The University Of Chicago"
Publisher: University Of Chicago | PDF | 2004 | ASIN R20070927O | 368 pages | 10.7 Mb
Any policies concerned with the future of nuclear power must funnel through the price at which nuclear power will enter the marketplace, if nuclear power is to be viable. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), as the price at the busbar needed to cover the operating plus annualized capital costs of nuclear power, must be competitive with prices of other baseload electricity. Part One attempts to develop the most reliable estimates possible of the future busbar cost of nuclear electricity. A starting point is estimates of nuclear generator costs from previous studies. These estimates for the United States are reviewed in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is a parallel international review. In light of the importance of capital costs and the role they have played in contributing to differences in LCOE estimates, Chapter 3 is devoted to the anatomy of the estimation of capital costs. An aim is to narrow the range of uncertainty in estimates of future capital costs. Chapter 4 proceeds to another major reason for uncertainty about nuclear costs, which is learning from experience in constructing facilities. Drawing on analyses of earlier nuclear experience and innovations in manufacturing more generally, estimates are developed of the extent to which costs can be expected to fall between the building of the first and nth plants of a given technology. Chapter 5 develops the financial model used in this study to evaluate the prospects for nuclear power. The complications of the tax system and of private sector financing as influenced by risk are introduced. No-policy estimates of nuclear LCOEs are estimated to set the stage for the later policy analysis.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:26pm CET
George Willis Botsford, Lillie Shaw Botsford, "The Story of Rome As Greeks and Romans Tell It"
Publisher: MacMillan | PDF | 1911 | ASIN B000K7J1B2 | 338 pages | 10.3 Mb
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 5:25pm CET
Gord Hill 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance
PM Press | 2010 | ISBN: 1604861061 | 96 pages | PDF | 2 MB
An alternative and unorthodox view of the colonization of the Americas by Europeans is offered in this concise history. Eurocentric studies of the conquest of the Americas present colonization as a civilizing force for good, and the native populations as primitive or worse. Colonization is seen as a mutually beneficial process, in which "civilization” was brought to the natives who in return shared their land and cultures. The opposing historical camp views colonization as a form of genocide in which the native populations were passive victims overwhelmed by European military power. In this fresh examination, an activist and historian of native descent argues that the colonial powers met resistance from the indigenous inhabitants and that these confrontations shaped the forms and extent of colonialism. This account encompasses North and South America, the development of nation-states, and the resurgence of indigenous resistance in the post-World War II era.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 2:26am CET
Тевтонский орден
2007 | Вильям Урбан | АСТ, АСТ Москва, Хранитель | ISBN: 978 5170455348 | руcский | PDF | 416 pages | 3.3 Mb
Тевтонский орден...
В России он прежде всего ассоциируется с немецкими псами-рыцарями, германской экспансией на восток, Ледовым побоищем и нацистами, провозгласившими себя наследниками ордена.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 2:24am CET
John L. H. Keep, "Soldiers of the Tsar - Army and Society in Russia 1462-1874"Clarendon Press, Oxford | 1985 | ISBN 019822575 | 432 pgs. | PDF | 129MB
This is the study of the armed forces' role in sustaining autocratic government and shaping social life in Russia. For about four hundred years the realm of the tsars was a 'service state': that is to say, the most important element in the experience of most of its inhabitants was the performance of duties designed to bolster the country's external and internal security. Nowhere else in medieval or early modern Europe was the principle of service to the Crown pressed so far as it was in Russia. The position which Russia enjoyed in European affairs owed a good deal to fear of her armed might.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 1:54am CET
Испания. Дорога к империи
2007 | Генри Кеймен | АСТ, АСТ Москва, Хранитель | ISBN: 978 5170393985 | руcский | PDF | 699 pages | 46.8 Mb
Испания. Владычица морей. Страна, которая несколько столетий была величайшей державой Европы. Ей подчинялись многие государства Нового Света, а также территории Африки и Тихоокеанского региона. Но как Испания достигла своего могущества?
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 1:35am CET
Graham Sumner and Graham Turner, "Brassey's History of Uniforms - Roman Army Wars of the Empire"Brassey's | 1997 | ISBN 18575632120 | 144 pgs. | PDF | 188MB
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Posted: March 21st, 2010, 1:28am CET
Dan and Susanna Shadrake, and Richard Hook, "Brassey's History of Uniforms - Babarian Warriors - Saxons, Vikings, Normans"Brassey's | 1997 | ISBN 1857532139 | 144 pgs. | PDF | 183MB
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