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Liberals Under Autocracy
by Anton A. FedyashinWith its rocky transition to democracy, post-Soviet Russia has made observers wonder whether a moderating liberalism could ever succeed in such a land of extremes. But inLiberals under Autocracy, Anton A. Fedyashin looks back at the vibrant Russian liberalism that flourished in the country’s late imperial era, chronicling its contributions to the evolution of Russia’s rich literary culture, socioeconomic thinking, and civil society. For five decades prior to the revolutions of 1917,The Herald of Europe(Vestnik Evropy) was the flagship journal of Russian liberalism, garnering a large readership. The journal articulated a distinctively Russian liberal agenda, one that encouraged social and economic modernization and civic participation through local self-government units (zemstvos) that defended individual rights and interests-especially those of the peasantry-in the face of increasing industrialization. Through the efforts of four men who turnedThe Heraldinto a cultural nexus in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg, the publication catalyzed the growing influence of journal culture and its formative effects on Russian politics and society. Challenging deep-seated assumptions about Russia’s intellectual history, Fedyashin’s work casts the country’s nascent liberalism as a distinctly Russian blend of self-governance, populism, and other national, cultural traditions. As such, the book stands as a contribution to the growing literature on imperial Russia's nonrevolutionary, intellectual movements that emphasized the role of local politics in both successful modernization and the evolution of civil society in an extraparliamentary environment.
Liberals and Cannibals: The Implications of Diversity
by Steven LukesWith debates on the meaning of 'liberal society' more heated than ever, this is a timely re-issue of a classic textCan the tension between relativism and the moral universalism current in contemporary politics be resolved within the framework of liberalism? How is liberal society to interpret the diversity of morals? Is pluralism the appropriate response? How does pluralism differ from the widely condemned ethnocentric relativism -'liberalism for the Liberals, cannibalism for the cannibals'?Confronting liberal thought with its own limitations, Steven Lukes' work is more relevant than ever. While recognizing the dangers of moral imperialism, Lukes argues that a relativist position based on identifying clearly distinct cultural and moral communities is incoherent. Drawing on work in anthropology and philosophy, he examines the nature of social justice, the politics of identity and human rights theory.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Liberals, International Relations and Appeasement: The Liberal Party, 1919-1939
by Richard S. Grayson Dr Richard GraysonThis work shows the importance of analysing the "low" politics of areas that have traditionally been dominated by "high" politics. The role of bodies such as the Liberal Summer School and the Women's Liberal Federation are examined, along with the work of thinkers such as JM Keynes.
Liberated Territory: Untold Local Perspectives On the Black Panther Party
by Jama Lazerow Yohuru WilliamsWith their collection In Search of the Black Panther Party, Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow provided a broad analysis of the Black Panther Party and its legacy. In Liberated Territory, they turn their attention to local manifestations of the organization, far away from the party's Oakland headquarters. This collection's contributors, all historians, examine how specific party chapters and offshoots emerged, developed, and waned, as well as how the local branches related to their communities and to the national party. The histories and character of the party branches vary as widely as their locations. The Cape Verdeans of New Bedford, Massachusetts, were initially viewed as a particular challenge for the local Panthers but later became the mainstay of the Boston-area party. In the early 1970s, the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, chapter excelled at implementing the national Black Panther Party's strategic shift from revolutionary confrontation to mainstream electoral politics. In Detroit, the Panthers were defined by a complex relationship between their above-ground activities and an underground wing dedicated to armed struggle. While the Milwaukee chapter was born out of a rising tide of black militancy, it ultimately proved more committed to promoting literacy and health care and redressing hunger than to violence. The Alabama Black Liberation Front did not have the official imprimatur of the national party, but it drew heavily on the Panthers' ideas and organizing strategies, and its activism demonstrates the broad resonance of many of the concerns articulated by the national party: the need for jobs, for decent food and housing, for black self-determination, and for sustained opposition to police brutality against black people. Liberated Territory reveals how the Black Panther Party's ideologies, goals, and strategies were taken up and adapted throughout the United States. Contributors: Devin Fergus, Jama Lazerow, Ahmad A. Rahman, Robert W. Widell Jr. , Yohuru Williams
Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve
by Renee Bracey Sherman Regina MahoneA galvanizing history of abortion recentering people of color to put forth a timely argument that we must liberate abortion for all.People of color have been having abortions since the dawn of time, yet our access is continuously under attack. In Liberating Abortion, award-winning abortion activist Renee Bracey Sherman and journalist Regina Mahone illustrate the long racist history that brought us to this moment, uncover the hidden figures who set the foundation activists and storytellers are building on today, and explain how abortion has been and remains essential to the health of our communities.Liberating Abortion will take you back to the basics of sex education, detailing the traditions of abortion over centuries , while examining how society makes us feel about our experiences. You’ll find rigorous research, never-before-heard stories, and eye-opening interviews with over 50 people of color who’ve had abortions, including activists, actresses, television writers, politicians, and the two Black members of Jane, the Chicago feminist service that provided abortions before Roe. With poignant storytelling and precise analysis, Liberating Abortion will change how you think about abortion forever.
Liberating Economics
by Drucilla K. Barker Susan F. FeinerLiberating Economicsdraws on central concepts from women's studies scholarship to construct a feminist understanding of the economic roles of families, caring labor, motherhood, paid and unpaid labor, poverty, the feminization of labor, and the consequences of globalization. Barker and Feiner consistently recognize the importance of social location -- gender, race, class, sexual identity, and nationality -- in economic processes shaping the home, paid employment, market relations, and the global economy. Throughout they connect women's economic status in the industrialized nations to the economic circumstances surrounding women in the global South. Rooted in the two disciplines, this book draws on the rich tradition of interdisciplinary work in feminist social science scholarship to construct a parallel between the notions that the "personal is political" and "the personal is economic. "Drucilla K. Barker is Professor of Economics and Women's Studies, Hollins University. Susan F. Feiner is Associate Professor of Economics and Women's Studies, University of Southern Maine.
Liberating Energy from Carbon: Introduction to Decarbonization
by Nazim MuradovLiberating Energy from Carbon analyzes energy options in a carbon-constrained world. Major strategies and pathways to decarbonizing the carbon-intensive economy are laid out with a special emphasis on the prospects of achieving low-risk atmospheric CO2 levels. The opportunities and challenges in developing and bringing to market novel low and zero-carbon technologies are highlighted from technical, economic and environmental viewpoints. This book takes a unique approach by treating carbon in a holistic manner--tracking its complete transformation chain from fossil fuel sources to the unique properties of the CO2 molecule, to carbon capture and storage and finally, to CO2 industrial utilization and its conversion to value-added products and fuels. This concise but comprehensive sourcebook guides readers through recent scientific and technological developments as well as commercial projects that aim for the decarbonization of the fossil fuel-based economy and CO2 utilization that will play an increasingly important role in the near- and mid-term future. This book is intended for researchers, engineers, and students working and studying in practically all areas of energy technology and alternative energy sources and fuels.
Liberating Judgment: Fanatics, Skeptics, and John Locke's Politics of Probability
by Douglas John CassonExamining the social and political upheavals that characterized the collapse of public judgment in early modern Europe, Liberating Judgment offers a unique account of the achievement of liberal democracy and self-government. The book argues that the work of John Locke instills a civic judgment that avoids the excesses of corrosive skepticism and dogmatic fanaticism, which lead to either political acquiescence or irresolvable conflict. Locke changes the way political power is assessed by replacing deteriorating vocabularies of legitimacy with a new language of justification informed by a conception of probability. For Locke, the coherence and viability of liberal self-government rests not on unassailable principles or institutions, but on the capacity of citizens to embrace probable judgment. The book explores the breakdown of the medieval understanding of knowledge and opinion, and considers how Montaigne's skepticism and Descartes' rationalism--interconnected responses to the crisis--involved a pragmatic submission to absolute rule. Locke endorses this response early on, but moves away from it when he encounters a notion of reasonableness based on probable judgment. In his mature writings, Locke instructs his readers to govern their faculties and intellectual yearnings in accordance with this new standard as well as a vocabulary of justification that might cultivate a self-government of free and equal individuals. The success of Locke's arguments depends upon citizens' willingness to take up the labor of judgment in situations where absolute certainty cannot be achieved.
Liberating Kosovo
by David L. PhillipsKosovo, after its incorporation into the Serbian Republic of Yugoslavia, became increasingly restive during the 1990s as Yugoslavia plunged into internal war and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian residents (Kosovars) sought autonomy. In March 1999, NATO forces began airstrikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in an effort to protect Kosovars against persecution. The bombing campaign ended in June 1999, and Kosovo was placed under transitional UN administration while negotiations on its status ensued. Kosovo eventually declared independence in 2008. Despite internal political tension and economic problems, the new nation has been recognized by many other countries and most of its inhabitants welcome its separation from Serbia. In Liberating Kosovo, David Phillips offers a compelling account of the negotiations and military actions that culminated in Kosovo's independence. Drawing on his own participation in the diplomatic process and interviews with leading participants, Phillips chronicles Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, the sufferings of the Kosovars, and the events that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He analyzes how NATO, the United Nations, and the United States employed diplomacy, aerial bombing, and peacekeeping forces to set in motion the process that led to independence for Kosovo. He also offers important insights into a critical issue in contemporary international politics: how and when the United States, other nations, and NGOs should act to prevent ethnic cleansing and severe human-rights abuses.
Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U. S. Intervention (Belfer Center Studies in International Security)
by David L. PhillipsA compelling account of the diplomatic and military actions that led to Kosovo's independence and their implications for future U.S. and UN interventions.Kosovo, after its incorporation into the Serbian Republic of Yugoslavia, became increasingly restive during the 1990s as Yugoslavia plunged into internal war and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian residents (Kosovars) sought autonomy. In March 1999, NATO forces began airstrikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in an effort to protect Kosovars against persecution. The bombing campaign ended in June 1999, and Kosovo was placed under transitional UN administration while negotiations on its status ensued. Kosovo eventually declared independence in 2008. Despite internal political tension and economic problems, the new nation has been recognized by many other countries and most of its inhabitants welcome its separation from Serbia. In Liberating Kosovo, David Phillips offers a compelling account of the negotiations and military actions that culminated in Kosovo's independence. Drawing on his own participation in the diplomatic process and interviews with leading participants, Phillips chronicles Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, the sufferings of the Kosovars, and the events that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He analyzes how NATO, the United Nations, and the United States employed diplomacy, aerial bombing, and peacekeeping forces to set in motion the process that led to independence for Kosovo. He also offers important insights into a critical issue in contemporary international politics: how and when the United States, other nations, and NGOs should act to prevent ethnic cleansing and severe human-rights abuses.
Liberating Minds: The Case for College in Prison
by Ellen Condliffe LagemannAn authoritative and thought-provoking argument for offering free college in prisons—from the former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Anthony Cardenales was a stickup artist in the Bronx before spending seventeen years in prison. Today he is a senior manager at a recycling plant in Westchester, New York. He attributes his ability to turn his life around to the college degree he earned in prison. Many college-in-prison graduates achieve similar success and the positive ripple effects for their families and communities, and for the country as a whole, are dramatic. College-in-prison programs have been shown to greatly reduce recidivism. They increase post-prison employment, allowing the formerly incarcerated to better support their families and to reintegrate successfully into their communities. College programs also decrease violence within prisons, improving conditions for both correction officers and the incarcerated. Liberating Minds eloquently makes the case for these benefits and also illustrates them through the stories of formerly incarcerated college students. As the country confronts its legacy of over-incarceration, college-in-prison provides a corrective on the path back to a more democratic and humane society. &“Lagemann includes intensive research, but her most powerful supporting evidence comes from the anecdotes of former prisoners who have become published poets, social workers, and nonprofit leaders.&”—Publishers Weekly
Liberating Revolution: Emancipating Radical Change from the State (SUNY series in New Political Science)
by Nathan EckstrandLiberating Revolution challenges the idea that we understand what revolution is. All current understandings of revolution are different ways of portraying the state. To liberate revolution, we must explain radical change without determining its course or limiting what it can do. Nathan Eckstrand reviews earlier theories of revolution from history—social contract theory, Marxism, Hegelianism, liberalism, communism, totalitarianism, and Machiavellism—and studies how they describe political change. He then puts forth a new theory of change called Dynamic Anarchism, drawing on Event Ontology's discussions of radical change, systems theory's understanding of dynamic and adaptive systems, and anarchism's attempts to think of politics independent of the state. In its final chapter, Liberating Revolution advises how to produce radical change effectively. A valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion of how best to understand change given discoveries both microscopic and global, this book offers useful ideas to students curious about why revolutions often fail to achieve their goals or to anyone learning how change is depicted in political theory.
Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings: A Political Reader
by Erich MühsamFeaturing a riveting collection of anarcho-communist poetry, essays, articles, and diary entries, this translation of Erich Mühsam's legendary writings introduces the German revolutionary's ideas to English speakers for the first time. Uniting a burning desire for individual liberation with radical, left-wing convictions and bohemian strains with syndicalist tendencies, this diverse body of work not only includes his main political pamphlet and one of the key texts in the history of German anarchism but also some of his best-known poems, unbending defenses of political prisoners, passionate calls for solidarity among the proletariat, recollections of the utopian community of Monte Verità, debates on the rights of homosexuals and women, and the role of intellectuals in the class struggle. Perfect for anarchists, activists, or those interested in German history, this expansive and enlightening compilation provides a deep understanding of this important historical figure.
Liberating Temporariness?
by Robert Latham Leah F Vosko Valerie PrestonLiberating Temporariness? explores the complex ways in which temporariness is being institutionalized as a condition of life for a growing number of people worldwide. The collection emphasizes contemporary developments, but also provides historical context on nation-state membership as the fundamental means for accessing rights in an era of expanding temporariness - in recognition of why pathways to permanence remain so compelling. Through empirical and theoretical analysis, contributors explore various dimensions of temporariness, especially as it relates to the legal status of migrants and refugees, to the spread of precarious employment, and to limitations on social rights. While the focus is on Canada, a number of chapters investigate and contrast developments in Canada with those in Europe as well as Australia and the United States. Together, these essays reveal changing and enduring temporariness at local, regional, national, transnational, and global levels, and in different domains, such as health care, language programs, and security. The question at the heart of this collection is whether temporariness can be liberated from current constraints. While not denying the desirability of permanence for migrants and labourers, Liberating Temporariness? presents alternative possibilities of security and liberation.
Liberating Temporariness?: Migration, Work, and Citizenship in an Age of Insecurity
by Robert Latham Valerie Preston Leah F. VoskoLiberating Temporariness? explores the complex ways in which temporariness is being institutionalized as a condition of life for a growing number of people worldwide. The collection emphasizes contemporary developments, but also provides historical context on nation-state membership as the fundamental means for accessing rights in an era of expanding temporariness - in recognition of why pathways to permanence remain so compelling. Through empirical and theoretical analysis, contributors explore various dimensions of temporariness, especially as it relates to the legal status of migrants and refugees, to the spread of precarious employment, and to limitations on social rights. While the focus is on Canada, a number of chapters investigate and contrast developments in Canada with those in Europe as well as Australia and the United States. Together, these essays reveal changing and enduring temporariness at local, regional, national, transnational, and global levels, and in different domains, such as health care, language programs, and security. The question at the heart of this collection is whether temporariness can be liberated from current constraints. While not denying the desirability of permanence for migrants and labourers, Liberating Temporariness? presents alternative possibilities of security and liberation.
Liberating the United Nations: Realism with Hope
by Richard A. Falk Hans von SponeckThe United Nations (UN) has always loomed large in international conflicts, but today accepted wisdom declares that the organization has lost its way. Liberating The United Nations is a thorough review of its founding and history that tracks critical junctures that obscured or diverted the path to a powerful and just UN that abides by international law. Based on the extensive expertise of two former UN-insiders, Richard Falk and Hans von Sponeck, the book goes beyond critique and diagnosis, proposing ways to achieve a more effective and legitimate UN. The historical sweep of the book offers a uniquely broad perspective on how the UN has evolved from the time of its establishment, and how that evolution reflects, and was defined by, world politics. The book explores these themes through the specific cases of intervention in Palestine, Iraq, and Syria. Liberating The United Nations hopes to reinvigorate the original vision of the UN by asserting its place in a world of amplifying chauvinistic nationalism. Falk and von Sponeck argue for how important the UN has become, and could be, in aiding with the transnational and global challenges of the present and future, including pandemics, environmental crises, and mass migration.
Liberation Memories: The Rhetoric and Poetics of John Oliver Killens
by Keith GilyardNo serious history of the development of the African American novel from the 1950s onward can be written without reference to John Oliver Killens. A two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize and founding chairman of the legendary Harlem Writers Guild, Killens was regarded by many as a spiritual father who inspired a generation of African American novelists with his politically charged works. And yet today he rarely receives proper critical attention. Seeking to strengthen our understanding of this important literary figure, Keith Gilyard departs from standard critical frameworks to reveal Killens's novels as artful renderings of rich African American rhetorical forms and verbal traditions. Gilyard finds that many critics, adhering to ideals of art for art's sake or narrative conciseness, are ill-equipped to appreciate the many ways in which Killens's fiction succeeds. Rejecting the "pure art" position, Killens sought to articulate Black heroism particularly within a family or community context, offering a set of values he deemed liberatory. He focused on rendering noble and polemical characters, and his work represents a distinguished fusion of sociopolitical persuasion (rhetoric) and literary artifact (poetics). To help illuminate such novels as Youngblood (1954), And Then We Heard the Thunder (1962), and The Cotillion (1971), Gilyard examines Killens's work as an essayist and cultural organizer, highlighting his activism. His life and literary production can be partly characterized, Gilyard suggests, by the African American jeremiad--a major rhetorical form in the Black intellectual tradition expressing faith that America's destiny is to become an authentic, pluralistic democracy.
Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation
by Ashraf KhalilA definitive, absorbing account of the Egyptian revolution, written by a Cairo-based Egyptian-American reporter for Foreign Policy and The Times (London), who witnessed firsthand Mubarak's demise and the country's efforts to build a democracyIn early 2011, the world's attention was riveted on Cairo, where after three decades of supremacy, Hosni Mubarak was driven from power. It was a revolution as swift as it was explosive. For eighteen days, anger, defiance, and resurgent national pride reigned in the streets---protestors of all ages struck back against police and state security, united toward the common goal of liberation.But the revolution was more than a spontaneous uprising. It was the end result of years of mounting tension, brought on by a state that shamelessly abused its authority, rigging elections, silencing opposition, and violently attacking its citizens. When revolution bloomed in the region in January 2011, Egypt was a country whose patience had expired---with a people suddenly primed for liberation.As a journalist based in Cairo, Ashraf Khalil was an eyewitness to the perfect storm that brought down Mubarak and his regime. Khalil was subjected to tear gas alongside protestors in Tahrir Square, barely escaped an enraged mob, and witnessed the day-to-day developments from the frontlines. From the halls of power to the back alleys of Cairo, he offers a one-of-a-kind look at a nation in the throes of an uprising.Liberation Square is a revealing and dramatic look at the revolution that transformed the modern history of one of the world's oldest civilizations.
Liberation Technology in El Salvador
by Summer HarlowThis ethnographic study explores how four alternative media projects in El Salvador integrated digital technologies--particularly social media--into their practices, and whether incorporating these technologies affected citizen participation not only in the media production process, but in a broader discursive sphere of civic and political life as well. Summer Harlow investigates the factors that influence the extent to which alternative media producers are able to use digital tools in liberating ways for social change by opening a space for participation in technology (as content producers) and through technology (as engaged citizens). The book advances existing literature with two main contributions: extending our understanding of the digital divide to include inequalities of social media use, and including technology use--whether liberating or not--as a fundamental component of a mestizaje approach to the study of alternative media.
Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy (A Journal of Democracy Book)
by Larry Diamond and Marc F. PlattnerThe revolutions sweeping the Middle East provide dramatic evidence of the role that technology plays in mobilizing citizen protest and upending seemingly invulnerable authoritarian regimes. A grainy cell phone video of a Tunisian street vendor’s self-immolation helped spark the massive protests that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Egypt’s "Facebook revolution" forced the ruling regime out of power and into exile. While such "liberation technology" has been instrumental in freeing Egypt and Tunisia, other cases—such as China and Iran—demonstrate that it can be deployed just as effectively by authoritarian regimes seeking to control the Internet, stifle protest, and target dissenters. This two-sided dynamic has set off an intense technological race between "netizens" demanding freedom and authoritarians determined to retain their grip on power.Liberation Technology brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of "liberation" versus "control" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia.This book also includes in-depth analysis of specific technologies such as Ushahidi—a platform developed to document human-rights abuses in the wake of Kenya’s 2007 elections—and alkasir—a tool that has been used widely throughout the Middle East to circumvent cyber-censorship.Liberation Technology will prove an essential resource for all students seeking to understand the intersection of information and communications technology and the global struggle for democracy.Contributors: Walid Al-Saqaf, Daniel Calingaert, Ronald Deibert, Larry Diamond, Elham Gheytanchi, Philip N. Howard, Muzammil M. Hussain, Rebecca MacKinnon, Patrick Meier, Evgeny Morozov, Xiao Qiang, Rafal Rohozinski, Mehdi Yahyanejad
Liberation Theology: Essential Facts about the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America--and Beyond
by Phillip BerrymanIn the chaos that is Latin American politics, what role does the Catholic church play with regard to its clergy and its members? How does the church function in Latin America on an everyday, practical level? And how successful has the church been intervening in political matters despite the fact that Latin American countries are essentially Catholic nations? Philip Berryman addresses these timely and challenging issues in this comprehensive. Unlike journalistic accounts, which all too frequently portray liberation theology as an exotic brew of Marxism and Christianity or as a movement of rebel priests bent on challenging church authority, this book aims to get beyond these cliches, to explain exactly what liberation theology is, how it arose, how it works in practice, and its implications. The book also examines how liberation theology functions at the village or barrio level, the political impact of liberation theology, and the major objections to it posed by critics, concluding with a tentative assessment of the future of liberation theology. Author note: Phillip Berryman was a pastoral worker in a barrio in Panama during 1965-73. From 1976 to 1980, he served as a representative for the American Friends Service Committee in Central America. In 1980, he returned from Guatemala to the United States and now lives in Philadelphia.
Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Black Panthers and their Legacy (New Political Science Reader)
by Kathleen Cleaver George KatsiaficasThis fascinating book gathers reflections by scholars and activists who consider the impact of the Black Panther Party, the BBP, the most significant revolutionary organization in the later 20th century.
Liberation,: Flipping the Song Bird (New Approaches to Religion and Power)
by Becca WhitlaBecca Whitla uses liberationist, postcolonial, and decolonial methods to analyze hymns, congregational singing, and song-leading practices. By way of this analysis, Whitla shows how congregational singing can embody liberating liturgy and theology. Through a series of interwoven theoretical lenses and methodological tools—including coloniality, mimicry, epistemic disobedience, hybridity, border thinking, and ethnomusicology—the author examines and interrogates a range of factors in the musical sphere. From beloved Victorian hymns to infectious Latin American coritos; congregational singing to radical union choirs; Christian complicity in coloniality to Indigenous ways of knowing, the dynamic praxis-based stance of the book is rooted in the author’s lived experiences and commitments and engages with detailed examples from sacred music and both liturgical and practical theology. Drawing on what she calls a syncopated liberating praxis, the author affirms the intercultural promise of communities of faith as a locus theologicus and a place for the in-breaking of the Holy Spirit.
Liberia
by Mary H. MoranLiberia, a small West African country that has been wracked by violence and civil war since 1989, seems a paradoxical place in which to examine questions of democracy and popular participation. Yet Liberia is also the oldest republic in Africa, having become independent in 1847 after colonization by an American philanthropic organization as a refuge for "Free People of Color" from the United States. Many analysts have attributed the violent upheaval and state collapse Liberia experienced in the 1980s and 1990s to a lack of democratic institutions and long-standing patterns of autocracy, secrecy, and lack of transparency. Liberia: The Violence of Democracy is a response, from an anthropological perspective, to the literature on neopatrimonialism in Africa.Mary H. Moran argues that democracy is not a foreign import into Africa but that essential aspects of what we in the West consider democratic values are part of the indigenous African traditions of legitimacy and political process. In the case of Liberia, these democratic traditions include institutionalized checks and balances operating at the local level that allow for the voices of structural subordinates (women and younger men) to be heard and be effective in making claims. Moran maintains that the violence and state collapse that have beset Liberia and the surrounding region in the past two decades cannot be attributed to ancient tribal hatreds or neopatrimonial leaders who are simply a modern version of traditional chiefs. Rather, democracy and violence are intersecting themes in Liberian history that have manifested themselves in numerous contexts over the years.Moran challenges many assumptions about Africa as a continent and speaks in an impassioned voice about the meanings of democracy and violence within Liberia.
Liberia (The Evolution of Africa's Major Nations)
by Brian BaughanThe early history of Liberia was promising. Under the auspices of white Americans, freed slaves had been offered a new home in the West African region during the early 19th century. In 1847 the settlers founded the continent's first independent republic--a full century before the rest of Africa began to shake off colonial rule. Although the new republic modeled itself on the United States--and even named its cities after U.S. leaders--it has nevertheless endured sluggish development, class division, and a brutal civil war during the 1990s that resulted in 200,000 deaths. In their struggle for stability, the Liberian people have forged peace agreements between the warring political parties and established a new, freely elected government in 2006, becoming the first African country to elect a woman as president.