by Stephen Lovell (2009)
Almost twenty years after the Soviet Union's end, what are we to make of its existence? Was it a heroic experiment, an unmitigated disaster, or a viable if flawed response to the modern world? What was the Soviet Union like? How did it evolve over seven decades? What was the relationship between the regime and the general population? This introduction blends political history with an investigation into the society and culture at the time. The author examines aspects of patriotism, mass culture, political violence, poverty, and ideology; and provides answers to some of the big questions about the Soviet experience.
Donald Sassoon
This popular text provides a detailed study of the social and economic structures that underpin the Italian political system. Thoroughly updated, the second edition includes coverage of the 1994 election results and the rise of Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the impact of European integration and the anti-corruption campaign of the early 1990s.
Patricia Herlihy
"Russians are famed for their debilitating love of vodka. During the late imperial period, alcohol was blamed for health problems, workplace accidents and absenteeism, rioting and pogroms, and the decline of the army. Many outsiders have cited it as the primary cause of Russia's "backwardness" and a barrier to its modernization. Alcoholism continues to plague modern Russia, causing major social, economic, and health problems." "In The Alcoholic Empire, Patricia Herlihy illuminates the complex relationship between vodka and politics in Russia, focusing on the history and role of temperance organizations in the late imperial period. She traces the beginning of temperance activities to 1894, when Nicholas II created a monopoly on the sale and production of alcohol. Temperance advocates - a diverse group that ranged from Tolstoy to illiterate peasants and included laity, clergy, and workers, men and women, the medical professions, the Duma, and the military - disagreed about the causes and remedies for alcoholism, but they agreed that it was a social and moral problem for which the government should be held accountable."--Jacket.
[éd.:] Nathalie Clayer et Erdal Kaynar
"En suivant certains des silllons creuses par Francois Georgeon, les etudes ici reunies se repartissent en quatre groupes. Les premieres s'inscrivent dans le registre de l'histoire politique et ideologique des dernieres decennies de l'epoque ottomane. Elles touchent a la politisation et a la question des provinces de l'Empire. Elles touchent aussi au vocabulaire politique et aux nouvelles temporalites introduites par la revolution jeune-turque dans la reflexion de certains intellectuels. Les secondes sont des contributions a l'histoire intellectuelle. Une place importante est faite dans cette partie a la presse et a l'imprime, tandis qu'une derniere contribution reprend la question des intellectuels voyageurs. La troisieme partie est consacree a l'histoire sociale. Y sont abordees des themes divers tels que: la construction et la fluidite des identifications, les fetes, l'alimentation, et les evolutions sociales a l'echelle urbaine, comme a l'echelle individuelle.^ Enfin, la quatrieme et derniere partie rassemble d'un cote des etudes sur la Turquie kemaliste et, de l'autre, des essais sur le passage "des Ottomans aux Turcs" (pour reprendre le titre d'un volume d'articles de Francois Georgeon), et sur la construction des savoirs dans ce domaine. Following in Francois Georgeon's footsteps, this volume is divided in four parts. The first group of studies concerns the political and ideological history of the last decades of the Ottoman Empire. These studies tackle the issue of politicization, the question of the provinces of the Empire, political vocabulary and new timescales brought by the Young Turc Revolution in the thought of some intellectuals. The second group includes contributions on intellectual history. Important themes in this part are printed publishing and the press, while the last contribution takes up the issue of intellectual travelers. The third group is devoted to social history.^ Studies address identity development and fluidity, celebrations, food, and social developments on an urban or individual scale. The fourth and last part brings together both studies on Kemalist Turkey and essays on the switch from Ottomans to Turks (to quote a title of one of Francois Georgeon's volumes) and on knowledge construction in this field"--provided by publisher.
Elizabeth York Enstam
Throughout the history of Dallas, women have worked both alongside and apart from the men now remembered as the city's founders and builders. In truth, women helped to create the definitive forms of urban life by establishing organizations and agencies that altered the responsibilities and functions of local government, amended the public conception of political issues, changed the city's physical structure, and affected the day-to-day lives of thousands of people. In Women and the Creation of Urban Life, Elizabeth York Enstam examines how women stretched, redefined, and at times erased the essentially artificial boundaries between female and male, between "the private" and "the public" as aspects of human endeavor. Enstam traces the ways national trends were expressed at the local level and analyzes women's accomplishments and the importance of their work as they assumed community leadership in perpetuating the traditions, education, fine arts, and customs of the larger culture, and in implementing Progressive principles in a specific community.