- Table View
- List View
Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (Mythology of the American West)
by Richard SlotkinNational Book Award Finalist: The &“impressive&” conclusion to the &“magisterial trilogy on the mythology of violence in American history&” (Film Quarterly). &“The myth of the Western frontier—which assumes that whites&’ conquest of Native Americans and the taming of the wilderness were preordained means to a progressive, civilized society—is embedded in our national psyche. U.S. troops called Vietnam &‘Indian country.&’ President John Kennedy invoked &‘New Frontier&’ symbolism to seek support for counterinsurgency abroad. In an absorbing, valuable, scholarly study, [the author] traces the pervasiveness of frontier mythology in American consciousness from 1890. . . . Dime novels and detective stories adapted the myth to portray gallant heroes repressing strikers, immigrants and dissidents. Completing a trilogy begun with Regeneration Through Violence and The Fatal Environment, Slotkin unmasks frontier mythmaking in novels and Hollywood movies. The myth&’s emphasis on use of force over social solutions has had a destructive impact, he shows.&” —Publishers Weekly &“Stirring . . . Breaks new ground in its careful explication of the continuing dynamic between politics and myth, myth and popular culture.&” —The New York Times &“A subtle and wide-ranging examination how America&’s fascination with the frontier has affected its culture and politics. . . . Intellectual history at its most stimulating—teeming with insights into American violence, politics, class, and race.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Gunmetal Gray (Gray Man #6)
by Mark GreaneyMark Greaney, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, delivers another breakneck thriller following the world’s deadliest assassin—the Gray Man… After five years on the run Court Gentry is back on the inside at the CIA. But his first mission makes him wish he had stayed on the outs when a pair of Chinese agents try to take him down in Hong Kong. Normally the Chinese prefer to stay eyes-only on foreign agents. So why are they on such high alert? Court’s high stakes hunt for answers takes him across Southeast Asia and leads to his old friend, Donald Fitzroy, who is being held hostage by the Chinese. Fitzroy was contracted to find Fan Jiang, a former member of an ultra-secret computer warfare unit responsible for testing China’s own security systems. And it seems Fan may have been too good at his job—because China wants him dead. The first two kill teams Fitzroy sent to find Fan have disappeared and the Chinese have decided to “supervise” the next operation. What they don't know is that Gentry’s mission is to find Fan first and get whatever intel he has to the US. After that, all he has to do is get out alive...
Gunn Sights
by Tom GunnTom Gunn had a life-altering career change in 1975 when he went from an eight-year stint as staff lawyer with the U.S. Senate to a job in aerospace sales and marketing at McDonnell Douglas. He knew a lot about military appropriations and classified developments, but almost nothing about marketing. Over the next twenty-two years, however, Gunn and the team he assembled developed a process for strategic selling and marketing that delivered $250 billion in sales of military and commercial aircraft, missiles, space systems, and logistic support, against strong and at times cutthroat domestic and international competition. His book is both the story of that success and a handbook for anyone who wants to learn about high-powered selling, about assessing the competition and understanding the customer, and about using a defined process to shape strategic planning. Gunn details that process step by step, outlines cultural traps overseas and political realities at home, and makes his points in selected case studies.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
by Lettice CooperThe acclaimed author of The New House brings to life the 1605 plot to blow up the House of Lords and assassinate King James I in a vividly imagined novel. “Please to remember, The Fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot.” —Traditional English Rhyme The legend of Guy Fawkes and the infamous Gunpowder Plot is a deeply rooted part of English identity. The fateful events of November 5, 1605 are still celebrated across the country with bonfires, sparklers, and the now-ubiquitous Guy Fawkes mask. But few revelers know the real story behind one of the most infamous conspiracies ever attempted. How did a small band of Catholic conspirators organize such an audacious plot? Were they noble freedom fighters or merely seventeenth century terrorists? In this meticulously researched historical novel, Lettice Cooper conjures the desperation and danger behind one of the most significant events in modern history.
Guns Across the Border: How and Why the U.S. Government Smuggled Guns into Mexico: The Inside Story
by Mike DettyConducted under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner, intended to stem the flow of firearms to Mexico, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) ran a series of “gun walking” sting operations, including Operations Wide Receiver and Operation Fast & Furious. The government allowed licensed gun dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers so that they could continue to track the firearms as they were transferred to higher-level traffickers and key figures in Mexican cartels.Motivated by a sense of patriotic duty, Tucson gun dealer and author Mike Detty alerted the local ATF office when he was first approached by suspected cartel associates. Detty made the commitment and assumed the risks involved to help the feds make their case, often selling guns to these thugs from his home in the dead of night. Originally informed that the investigation would last just weeks, Detty’s undercover involvement in Operation Wide Receiver, the precursor to Operation Fast & Furious, which was by far the largest “gun walking” probe, stretched on for an astonishing and dangerous three years.Though the case took several twists and turns, perhaps the cruelest turn was his betrayal by the very agency he risked everything to help.
Guns, An American Conversation: How to Bridge Political Divides
by The Editors at Spaceship MediaBased on an article by Pulitzer Prize–winning reporters, the fascinating results of an important nationwide conversation about guns: Can complete strangers representing every point along the political divide engage in civil and productive discourse on the topic of gun control?As Americans, we spend a lot of time talking about guns. We have arguments, protests, declarations, and slogans about what kind of weapons can be sold and to whom. But the one thing we rarely have when it comes to firearms is a real conversation, and not just with members of our own tribe, but with people whose ideas don&’t align with ours. That is perhaps why the country is so divided when it comes to reducing gun violence. Guns, an American Conversation follows up on a handful of strangers—teachers and gun-rights advocates, hunters and police officers, mothers and fathers across the United States—brought together in a larger group of 150 people, for a month-long moderated Facebook group chat. The goal of the project—which expanded on earlier efforts—was to foster a civil, yet honest, dialogue between people whose backgrounds and beliefs led them to have opposing views on the issue. Not just a journalistic account, Guns attempts to map out common territory in a nation driven by profound divides. It includes sidebars, charts, and graphics that list additional information about gun control in the United States and provide the reader with tools to continue the discussion in their own lives. This book might not change your mind about gun control, but it will help you learn to cross divides in conversation.
Guns and Control: A Nonpartisan Guide to Understanding Mass Public Shootings, Gun Accidents, Crime, Public Carry, Suicides, Defensive Use, and More
by Guy SmithA Nonpartisan guide that arms both sides of the gun control debate. The slogan of the Gun Facts Project is &“We are neither pro-gun nor anti-gun. We are pro-math and anti-BS.&” From project creator Guy Smith comes Guns and Control: A Nonpartisan Guide to Mass Public Shootings, Gun Accidents, Crime, Public Carry, Suicides, Defensive Use, and More. No matter what side of the aisle one is on, people are baffled by gun control. This book is designed to be a guide to thoughtful discussion; it arms readers with facts and the logic behind conflicting arguments and leaves emotional rhetoric to the pundits and focuses on the thorny issues of the debate. Guns and Control will: • Guide readers step-wise through each of the major gun control topics: mass public shootings, assault weapons, street crime, suicide, private carry, defensive gun use, gun availability, and more. • Help readers gain the broad perspective and the full set of important, true facts, just in time for the 2020 Presidential Election. • Arm readers against some of the more egregious misinformation. • Support readers in formulating their own conclusions.Guns and Control will grant high-level perspectives—for example, that mass public shootings are a global phenomenon, occurring in nearly all developed nations—and explore details to understand the causes, and thus possible cures, of gun violence-related problems. Was the push for de-institutionalization in mental health management a contributing factor to the rise in mass public shootings? Guns and Control will help readers find answers to such questions. What the public lacks is a clear, unbiased, broad perspective on the realities of guns, explained in simple, straightforward, and entertaining ways. Guns and Control will demystify these misunderstood aspects of who uses and misuses guns.
Guns and Ledgers: China and the East Asian World in the Age of Early Economic Globalization
by Bozhong LiThis book seeks to reconcile the dual forces of war and economic globalization in tracing China's early modernity. For late imperial China, there were two forms of encounter with the West; the guns of invading Europeans, and the ledgers by which trade between China and the West was measured and regulated. Even today, China's reactions to the West oscillate between business-driven openness and military paranoia. In this intellectual tour de force, Bozhong Li, one of China's preeminent intellectual and economic historians, traces the unprecedented transition that led China into the modern world; the book will be of value for economists, historians, and sinophiles alike.
Guns and Society in Colonial Nigeria: Firearms, Culture, and Public Order
by Saheed AderintoGuns are an enduring symbol of imperialism, whether they are used to impose social order, create ceremonial spectacle, incite panic, or to inspire confidence. In Guns and Society, Saheed Aderinto considers the social, political, and economic history of these weapons in colonial Nigeria. As he transcends traditional notions of warfare and militarization, Aderinto reveals surprising insights into how colonialism changed access to firearms after the 19th century. In doing so, he explores the unusual ways in which guns were used in response to changes in the Nigerian cultural landscape. More Nigerians used firearms for pastime and professional hunting in the colonial period than at any other time. The boom and smoke of gunfire even became necessary elements in ceremonies and political events. Aderinto argues that firearms in the Nigerian context are not simply commodities but are also objects of material culture. Considering guns in this larger context provides a clearer understanding of the ways in which they transformed a colonized society.
Guns and Values: Individualism in the American Gun Debate
by Dylan S. McLean Anthony K. FlemingThe American gun control debate is best understood as a battle in a war over the influence of individualism on American culture, politics, and policy. This book demonstrates that the gun debate is fundamentally about values. Specifically, it is about what we value most: private rights, or the public good. This helps explain why the technical, empirical, or legalistic arguments we hear aren’t persuasive. A review of scholarly literature on both the politics of gun control and American political culture finds an American bias toward an individualism that embraces personal rights. We argue that this bias stacks the deck against gun control. Interviews we conducted with activists show that support for, or opposition to, gun control is linked to concern for the public, or private, good. Finally, we trace the federal gun control debate in Washington from the 1960s to 2010s to show the ebbs and flows of individualism’s influence.
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (The Liberation Trilogy #3)
by Rick Atkinson<p>The magnificent conclusion to Rick Atkinson's acclaimed Liberation Trilogy about the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II. It is the twentieth century's unrivaled epic: at a staggering price, the United States and its allies liberated Europe and vanquished Hitler. <p>In the first two volumes of his bestselling Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson recounted how the American-led coalition fought through North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now, in <i>The Guns at Last Light</i>, he tells the most dramatic story of all, the titanic battle for Western Europe. <p>D-Day marked the commencement of the final campaign of the European war, and Atkinson's riveting account of that bold gamble sets the pace for the masterly narrative that follows. The brutal fight in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the disaster that was Operation Market Garden, the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and finally the thrust to the heart of the Third Reich-all these historic events and more come alive with a wealth of new material and a mesmerizing cast of characters. <p>Atkinson tells the tale from the perspective of participants at every level, from presidents and generals to war-weary lieutenants and terrified teenage riflemen. When Germany at last surrenders, we understand anew both the devastating cost of this global conflagration and the enormous effort required to win the Allied victory. <p>With the stirring final volume of this monumental trilogy, Atkinson's accomplishment is manifest. He has produced the definitive chronicle of the war that unshackled a continent and preserved freedom in the West.</p>
Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea
by Joshua Horwitz Casey AndersonThe NRA steadfastly maintains that the 30,000 gun-related deaths and 300,000 assaults with firearms in the United States every year are a small price to pay to guarantee freedom. As former NRA President Charlton Heston put it, "freedom isn't free." And when gun enthusiasts talk about Constitutional liberties guaranteed by the Second Amendment, they are referring to freedom in a general sense, but they also have something more specific in mind---freedom from government oppression. They argue that the only way to keep federal authority in check is to arm individual citizens who can, if necessary, defend themselves from an aggressive government. In the past decade, this view of the proper relationship between government and individual rights and the insistence on a role for private violence in a democracy has been co-opted by the conservative movement. As a result, it has spread beyond extreme "militia" groups to influence state and national policy. In Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea, Josh Horwitz and Casey Anderson reveal that the proponents of this view base their argument on a deliberate misreading of history. The Insurrectionist myth has been forged by twisting the facts of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, the denial of civil rights to African-Americans after the Civil War, and the rise of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. Here, Horwitz and Anderson set the record straight. Then, challenging the proposition that more guns equal more freedom, they expose Insurrectionism---not government oppression---as the true threat to freedom in the U. S. today. Joshua Horwitz received a law degree from George Washington University and is currently a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is Executive Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. He has spent nearly two decades working on gun violence prevention issues. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. Casey Anderson holds a law degree from Georgetown University and is currently a lawyer in private practice in Washington, D. C. He has served in senior staff positions with the U. S. Congress, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and Americans for Gun Safety. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.
"Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People": And Other Myths About Guns and Gun Control
by Dennis A. HeniganDebunking the lethal logic behind the pervasive myths that have framed the gun control debate"When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.""An armed society is a polite society.""The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.""Gun control doesn't work because criminals don't follow the law.""Gun manufacturers shouldn't be responsible for gun crime, any more than Budweiser is responsible for drunk driving.""We don't need new gun laws. We just need to enforce the ones we have.""Gun control is a slippery slope to complete gun bans."The gun lobby's remarkable success in using these engaging slogans to frame the gun control debate has allowed it to block lifesaving gun legislation for decades. But is there any truth to this bumper-sticker logic? Dennis Henigan exposes the mythology and misguided thinking at the core of these pro-gun catchphrases, which continue to have an outsized influence on public attitudes toward guns and gun control. He counters the gun lobby's messages by weaving together the most compelling current research and insights drawn from the grim reality of deadly gunfire in our homes and communities. Henigan charts a new path toward ending the American nightmare of gun violence.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Guns Fall Silent: The End Of The Cold War And The Future Of Conventional Disarmament
by Ian Cuthbertson Peter M VoltenThis book discusses part of the military-stability problem, notably the part relating to East-West relationships, which is becoming synonymous with military stability between the Soviet Union and NATO.
Guns, Girls, and Greed: I Was a Blackwater Mercenary in Iraq
by Morgan LeretteGuns, Girls, and Greed is an unvarnished, behind-the-scenes, tell-all account of the scathing and dangerous life of mercenaries at war in Iraq.Experience the world of private contractors conducting high-threat missions for a nascent Iraqi government in the hopes of rebuilding after the fall of Saddam Hussein. With limited support, the men of Blackwater protected US diplomats as the country descended into sectarian violence. It was a hazardous mission complete with rockets, mortars, improvised explosive devices, and not knowing who or where the enemy was. Morgan Lerette&’s irreverently honest memoir shows the good and bad of injecting private armies into active combat zones in the name of diplomacy and digs deep into the bonds of brotherhood created by war. With gut-wrenching tragedy, dark humor, and parties that make Animal House seem like a Disney film, this memoir offers a firsthand perspective on how men act and react in war. Lerette, a private contractor employed by the notorious Blackwater in the early days of the Iraq War, pulls no punches in calling out the incompetence of both the US military and the Department of State during the collapse of Iraq. You can decide if the insertion of private contractors in Iraq assisted or detracted from the war effort and if the costs in blood and treasure were worth the carnage.
Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson
by Irving BernsteinThe presidency of Lyndon Johnson was a pivotal moment in twentieth-century American history. From the decisive social programs of the Great Society, to the triumph of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, to the catastrophe of the Vietnam War and domestic unrest, it was an era of dramatic accomplishment and wrenching tragedy. In Guns or Butter, renowned historian Irving Bernstein brings those five climactic years of the sixties vividly to life, from the moment Lee Harvey Oswald aimed a rifle from the window of the Texas School Depository to the tense ballot-counting that put Richard Nixon in the White House in 1968. Bernstein's book is a narrative masterpiece, filled with sharply drawn character sketches and swiftly moving accounts of events that range from deals cut in the Senate cloakroom, to police charging after protesters on the streets of Selma, to Vietcong commandos bursting into the American embassy in Saigon. We see Johnson ordering aides Bill Moyers and Richard Goodwin to strip and join him for a skinny-dip in the White House pool, where they formulate the Great Society. And we see a tired, distracted president pacing in his bathrobe around a table model of the besieged Khe Sanh garrison, examining aerial photographs and casualty reports. Equally important, Bernstein offers a deft assessment of Johnson's successes and failures, from his legislative programs to his futile pursuit of the war in Vietnam to his failure to boost Hubert Humphrey's presidential campaign in 1968. The author not only retells the maneuvering that brought the president's plans into law, he also analyzes and explains their impact, from the Voting Rights Act to Medicare. The Great Society, Bernstein concludes, was a triumph, but Johnson's attempt to have both guns and butter, to pursue massive domestic initiatives together with a bitter undeclared war, led to runaway inflation that ultimately undermined his presidency. From the dark moments after Kennedy's assassination in 1963, to the heady days of legislative victories of 1965, to the bloody crescendo of riots, assassinations, and military battles in 1968, Johnson's administration was a defining moment in modern American history. In Guns or Butter, Irving Bernstein brilliantly captures both the events and the meaning of those momentous years. Aside from its historical value, this book has major current significance. The legislative program Newt Gingrich and his Republican colleagues introduced in 1995 was designed to repeal the Great Society. Before doing so, members of Congress and the interested public should understand Lyndon Johnson's vision and the legislation that was enacted during the sixties. Guns or Butter provides that critical information.
Guns & Roses: Comparative Civil-Military Relations in the Changing Security Environment
by Steven Ratuva Radomir Compel Sergio AguilarThis edited volume provides a critical and comparative discussion of the changing synergy between the military and society in the dramatically transforming global security climate, drawing on examples from the Asian, Pacific, African, Middle Eastern, European and South American regions. The book is interdisciplinary and covers wide-ranging issues relating to civil military relations, democratization, regional security, ethnicity, peace-building and peace keeping, civilian oversight, internal repression, gender, regime change and civil society.
Gurkha: Better to Die than Live a Coward: My Life in the Gurkhas
by Colour-Sergeant Kailash LimbuIn this Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling memoir that 'reads like a thriller', (Joanna Lumley) Colour-Sargent Kailash Limbu shares a riveting account of his life as a Gurkha soldier-marking the first time in its two-hundred-year history that a soldier of the Brigade of Gurkhas has been given permission to tell his story in his own words.In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Limbu's platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now Zad in Helmand. He was told to prepare for a forty-eight hour operation. In the end, he and his men were under siege for thirty-one days - one of the longest such sieges in the whole of the Afghan campaign.Kailash Limbu recalls the terrifying and exciting details of those thirty-one days - in which they killed an estimated one hundred Taliban fighters - and intersperses them with the story of his own life as a villager from the Himalayas. He grew up in a place without roads or electricity and didn't see a car until he was fifteen.Kailash's descriptions of Gurkha training and rituals - including how to use the lethal Kukri knife - are eye-opening and fascinating. They combine with the story of his time in Helmand to create a unique account of one man's life as a Gurkha. 'I was completely bowled over by Kailash's book and read it with a beating heart and dry mouth. I felt as though I was at his side, hearing the shells and bullets, enjoying the jokes and listening in the scary dead of night. The skill with which he has included his childhood and training is immense, always discovered with ease in the narrative: it actually felt as though I was watching, was IN a film with him. It brought me nearer than I have ever been not only to the mind of the universal soldier but to a hill boy of Nepal and a hugely impressive Gurkha. I raced through it and couldn't put it down: it reads like a thriller. If you want to know anything about the Gurkhas, read this book, and be prepared for a thrilling and dangerous trip' Joanna Lumley
Gustar, ganar y gobernar: Como triunfar en el arte de convencer
by Gonzalo AriasHerramienta indispensable para dirigentes y militantes de todos los niveles, ideologías y partidos que quieran aprovechar el potencial de la comunicación política en el siglo XXI. Hoy más que nunca, quien aspire a gobernar sabe que su poder depende de la construcción de un relato creíble y emotivo que persuada a la ciudadanía. Con hilos a menudo invisibles, la comunicación política mezcla en su trama realidad y ficción para construir y sostener candidatos y planes de gobierno. Para dirigentes y militantes de todos los niveles, ideologías y partidos, para los interesados en la política y hasta para quienes la desprecian, Gonzalo Arias explica al detalle el rol de los consultores, la importancia de las encuestas, los tipos de campañas y todos los entretelones de muchas de las estrategias comunicacionales. Este libro brinda ejemplos de éxitos y fracasos rutilantes sobre cómo diseñar la estrategia comunicacional y llegar a los votantes en cualquier contexto y lugar con todos los medios a nuestro alcance: de las encuestas a la tele, de las redes a los rumores. Gustar, ganar y gobernar, antes que juzgar, apunta a exhibir en toda su dimensión el funcionamiento de la comunicación política en el siglo XXI y a aprovechar su potencial.
The Gustav Sonata: A Novel
by Rose TremainWinner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction A breathtakingly radiant story of an unlikely childhood friendship that survives the test of time. Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem only a distant echo. An only child, he lives alone with Emilie, the mother he adores but who treats him with bitter severity. He begins an intense friendship with a Jewish boy his age, talented and mercurial Anton Zweibel, a budding concert pianist. The novel follows Gustav’s family, tracing the roots of his mother’s anti-Semitism and its impact on her son and his beloved friend. Moving backward to the war years and the painful repercussions of an act of conscience, and forward through the lives and careers of the two men, one who becomes a hotel owner, the other a concert pianist, The Gustav Sonata explores the passionate love of childhood friendship as it is lost, transformed, and regained over a lifetime. It is a powerful and deeply moving addition to the beloved oeuvre of one of our greatest contemporary novelists.
Gustav Stresemann: The Crossover Artist (Studies in German History #23)
by Karl Heinrich PohlAs a foreign minister and chancellor of Weimar Germany, Gustav Stresemann is a familiar figure for students of German history – one who, for many, embodied the best qualities of German interwar liberalism. However, a more nuanced and ambivalent picture emerges in this award-winning biography, which draws on extensive research and new archival material to enrich our understanding of Stresmann’s public image and political career. It memorably explores the personality of a brilliant but flawed politician who endured class anxiety and social marginalization, and who died on the eve of Germany’s descent into economic and political upheaval.
Gustav von Schmoller and Adolph Wagner
by Jürgen Backhaus Günther Chaloupek Hans A. FrambachThis book discusses the work of German economists Gustav von Schmoller and Adolph Wagner, its influence on the tradition of German and Austrian economic and social thought, and its implications for the discipline today. Schmoller and Wagner integrated philosophical, historical, sociological and political approaches into the science of economics, focusing specifically on economic development. Schmoller, who is considered the head of the second generation of the German Historical School, argued that general propositions of economic theory had to be based on historical-empirical studies. In contrast, Wagner was a systematologist who preferred to start his investigations into economic problems from abstract principles. Schmoller and Wagner share, however, a common focus on institutions and the role of the state; Wagner favored state policy initiatives, while Schmoller was concerned with the risks of state policy failure. One hundred years after their deaths, the contributions to this book look into their approach, trace the influence of their ideas, and explore the relevance of their thought in a global economy. This book will be useful for students and scholars interested in socio-economics, the history of economic thought, economic policy, and political science.
Gustavo Esteva: A Critique of Development and other essays (Decolonizing the Classics)
by Gustavo EstevaIn his reflections on decolonization and post-development, Gustavo Esteva forged a unique synthesis of critical theory and political economy. This book presents more than half a century of "reflection in action" in the form of essays, books, and interventions in national and international forums and newspaper articles—most published here for the very first time. It showcases Esteva’s evolving thought on economic theory, social change, revolutionary subjectivity, transition, development, the challenges of a new era and personal and communal autonomy, all associated with the challenges and advances in the construction of a new society. Through this translation, Esteva’s writings engage with many of the important cultural and political debates of the present day and retain their power both to provoke and move the reader. Readers will see a thinker at work, formulating local, grassroots alternatives as they are emerging in Mexico and Latin America, with a keen sensibility to what happens in other regions of the world. Gustavo Esteva: A Critique of Development and Other Essays offers a lucid insight into the climatic and sociopolitical collapses we face and will be of interest to students and scholars of critical theory, post-colonial and de-colonial studies, and post-development studies.
Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden and the Thirty Years War, 1630–1632
by Lars Ericson WolkeThe little-known story of the Swedish king and military commander who conquered much of Germany in the early seventeenth century. As one of the foremost military commanders of the early seventeenth century, Gustavus Adophus, king of Sweden, played a vital role in defending the Protestant cause during the Thirty Years War. In the space of two years—between 1630 and 1632—he turned the course of the war, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld and conquering large parts of Germany. Yet remarkably little has been written about him in English, and no full account of his extraordinary career has been published in recent times. That is why this perceptive and scholarly study is of such value. The book sets Gustavus in the context of Swedish and European dynastic politics and religious conflict in the early seventeenth century, and describes in detail Swedish military organization and Gustavus&’s reforms. His intervention in the Thirty Years War is covered in graphic detail—the decision to intervene, his alliance with France, his campaigns across the breadth of Germany, and his generalship at the two major battles he fought there. His exceptional skill as a battlefield commander transformed the fortunes of the Protestant side in the conflict, and he had established himself as a major European figure before his death on the battlefield. Lars Ericson Wolke, one of the leading experts on the military history of the Baltic and the Thirty Years War, offers a fascinating insight into Gustavus the man and the soldier.
Gustavus Vasa Fox of the Union Navy: A Biography
by Ari HoogenboomThis magisterial biography recounts the life and career of one of the U.S. Navy’s most influential officers, Gustavus Vasa Fox. Ari Hoogenboom's examination of Fox's incredible life and distinguished career creates a vivid portrait of the man most responsible for the U.S. Navy's stellar performance in the Civil War. Fox’s naval service began in 1838 when he went to sea as a midshipman. He sailed in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Africa, in the Gulf of Mexico, and with the East India Squadron in the Pacific. By participating in the Coast Survey and by navigating the lower Mississippi River in the 1850s, as captain of a steamer that ran from New York to Havana to New Orleans and back, Fox gained valuable experience that would serve him well in the Civil War.During the war, Fox was instrumental in mounting the blockade of the southern coast, from the Chesapeake Bay to the Rio Grande. After the battle between the Monitor and the Virginia, Fox championed ironclad technology despite having to contend with an officer corps wedded to wooden ships. In planning and coordinating expeditions, Fox deserves much of the credit for the navy's successes at Hatteras, Port Royal, New Orleans, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher.Initially neither proslavery nor antislavery, Fox was passionately committed to the preservation of the Union and, as black sailors made a crucial contribution toward that end, became an advocate of freedom and voting rights for African Americans. A skilled administrator who understood both the demands of politicians and the needs of line officers, he was able to communicate effectively with each group. Fox developed a close and collegial working relationship with Abraham Lincoln and was related by marriage to the postmaster general. Along with officers like Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs and coordinator of military railroads Herman Haupt, Fox played a critical but underappreciated role in the Union victory.