The Great Depression and the New Deal

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Dietmar Rothermund

Dietmar Rothermund broadens the conventional focus of the great depression to include its impact on the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The book: * gives the economic background to the depression * examines the causes of the great depression, from the international gold standard to agricultural over-production in the US * describes the effects on different countries from the Americas to India, Africa and East Asia * pays particular attention to the impact on the peasantry in developing countries * considers the political consequences, such as fascism in Europe * assesses the aftermath and the re-alignment of America, Europe and their colonies * explains key areas, such as Keynesian theory, in accessible terms.

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With a pref. by Warren Susman

Published in 1973, this remarkable book about life in a small turn-of-the-century Wisconsin town has become a cult classic. Lesy has collected and arranged photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 by a Black River Falls photographer, Charles Van Schaik. (Goodreads.com)

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Amy K. Levin

Traces the continuing influence of West African women's traditions and societies on late-20th-century literature by African-American women. The first half of the book focuses on how these influences permeate both theme and imagery in novels by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, and Gloria Naylor. The second half focuses on recent neo-slave narratives as works that sprang from the African experience rather than merely paralleling the original slave narratives. [publisher web site].

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Lynn M. Sargeant

Harmony and Discord: Music and the Transformation of Russian Cultural Life explores the complex development of Russian musical life during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the heart of this cultural history lies the Russian Musical Society, as both a unique driving force behind the institutionalization of music and a representative of the growing importance of voluntary associations in public life. The Russian Musical Society played a key role in the creation of Russia's infrastructure for music and music education. Author Lynn M. Sargeant explores the fluid nature of Russian social identity through the broad scope of musical life, including not only the "leading lights" of the era but also rank-and-file musicians, teachers, and students. Although Russian musicians longed for a secure place within the new hierarchy of professions, their social status remained ambiguous throughout the nineteenth century. Traditional reliance on serf musicians and foreigners left lasting scars that motivated musicians' efforts to obtain legal rights and social respectability. And women's increasing visibility in the musical world provoked acrimonious debates that were, at heart, efforts by male musicians to strengthen their claims to professional status by denying the legitimacy of female participation. Sargeant demonstrates that the successful development of a Russian musical infrastructure salved persistent anxieties about Russia's place vis-Ã -vis its European cultural competitors.--[book jacket].