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The Retreats of Reconstruction: Race, Leisure, and the Politics of Segregation at the New Jersey Shore, 1865-1920
by David E. GoldbergBeginning in the 1880s, the economic realities and class dynamics of popular northern resort towns unsettled prevailing assumptions about political economy and threatened segregationist practices. Exploiting early class divisions, black working-class activists staged a series of successful protests that helped make northern leisure spaces a critical battleground in a larger debate about racial equality. While some scholars emphasize the triumph of black consumer activism with defeating segregation, Goldberg argues that the various consumer ideologies that first surfaced in northern leisure spaces during the Reconstruction era contained desegregation efforts and prolonged Jim Crow. Combining intellectual, social, and cultural history, The Retreats of Reconstruction examines how these decisions helped popularize the doctrine of “separate but equal” and explains why the politics of consumption is critical to understanding the “long civil rights movement.”
Retribution: A Thriller
by Steffen JacobsenOn a warm Autumn afternoon, Denmark's largest amusement park, Tivoli Gardens, is devastated by a terrorist attack that leaves more than 1,200 dead. No one claims responsibility for the attack, and seven months later the nation is still reeling and the police have no leads. Police Lieutenant Lene Jensen has been assigned to the frustrating case from the beginning. When she receives a desperate phone call from a Muslim woman who later turns up dead, she sees a connection to the Tivoli bombing. Lene's initial investigation suggests that the woman was unknowingly part of a secret research project conducted by the government, and as she digs deeper, she is met with increasing resistance from her superiors. Together with private detective Michael Sander, she tries to get to the bottom of the complicated case--only to realize that someone knows a lot more than they are letting on. With the threat of another attack looming, Sander and Jensen must race against the clock to save lives and restore peace of mind to the people of the idyllic country.
Retribution and Reparation in the Transition to Democracy
by Jon ElsterThe contributions in this study present a comprehensive analysis of transitional justice from 1945 to the present. They feature a general theoretical analysis of the processes of retribution and reparation as well as case studies by historians and political scientists who discuss the West European transitions after 1945 and more recent Latin American, East European, and South African transitions to democracy in the 1980s and 1990s. The volume's focus is on retribution against the leaders and agents of the autocratic regime preceding the democratic transition, and on reparation to its victims.
Retrieving Democracy: In Search of Civic Equality (Routledge Library Editions: Inequality #4)
by Philip GreenOriginally published in 1985, Retrieving Democracy offers a thorough and systematic answer to the familiar objection that genuine democracy is utopian. The book outlines an imaginary, yet imaginable, society that would be non-racist, non-sexist, and sufficiently classless to support true civic equality. Moving beyond previous discussions of re-industrialization and economic democracy, the book proposes the social control of corporations; a democratic division of labour that would maximize equality of citizenship rather than merely the production of commodities; the democratization of trade unions; the equalization of wages and job opportunities and the insulation of electoral politics from the power of money.
Retrieving Liberalism from Rationalist Constructivism, Volume I: History and Its Betrayal (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism)
by Walter B. WeimerThis first volume, History and its Betrayal, traces the development of major themes of liberalism from the increase in human population beyond the limits of the face-to-face society of tribalism and small groups up until the present day. It shows that the principles underlying liberalism are the evolutionary development of social organizations that have resulted from the complexity of human action rather than any conscious design or purpose.This book draws out the differences between the classical liberalism dependent upon spontaneous and tacit ordering as a result of evolution, and the explicit or conscious or directed version of progressivism. It shows that the most important recent developments in the philosophy of rationality and the methodology of scientific research, as well as in evolutionary epistemology and the philosophy of biology, actually stem from the theories of complex social organization of the moralists such as Hume, Ferguson, and Smith. The book shows clearly that classical liberalism was never refuted—indeed, no attempt to do so has been offered—it has simply been ignored in favour of programs which sound beneficial and soothing but which cannot be instituted without returning to tribalism.
Retrieving Liberalism from Rationalist Constructivism, Volume II: Basics of a Liberal Psychological, Social and Moral Order (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism)
by Walter B. WeimerThis second volume, Basics of a Liberal Psychological, Social and Moral Order, overviews developments in the theory of spontaneously ordered complex phenomena, the psychology of inference and expectation, the nature of anticipatory systems in the psychological and economic domains, and the evolution of scientific thought and knowledge. The book applies these insights to the nature of markets and morals, what education should consist of, and the problems of alienation and our existential malaise as we move into an increasingly abstract society. In doing so it also shows the unscientific nature of the rationalist constructivist approach of progressivism, and the disastrous consequences that would arise from following these positions. The book shows the complex interplay between top-down or directed structures (what Hayek and others have called taxis organizations) and far more complex orders of the social or psychological cosmos in which they are embedded as constituents. It details how the key to the market orders of society depends upon their capacity to impersonally convey information to agents. Markets can serve unknown and unforeseen ends for individuals who do not know or have contact with other market participants. This is a vastly more powerful and productive system than anything that can arise in a tribal or face-to-face organization limited to personal contact, such as the sort proposed by the constructivists. The book will be of interest to academics and scholars in classical liberalism, economics and political philosophy.
Retrieving Origins and the Claim of Multiculturalism
by Antonio Lopez Javier Prades Angelo ScolaThis book explores the philosophical, legal, and theological roots of Western multiculturalism, that is, the encounter and coexistence of different cultures within a liberal society. Rather than concerning themselves with the particulars of cultural dialogue, the authors of this volume go deeper and question the very reality of "multiculturalism" itself.As a whole the volume devotes attention to the origins of human nature, arguing that regardless of how different another person or culture seems to be, universal human experience discloses what it means to be human and to relate to others and to God. The contributors represent different cultures and faith traditions but are united in friendship and in the conviction that the Christian faith enables an authentic approach to long-standing debates on multiculturalism.Contributors:Massimo BorghesiFrancesco BotturiMarta CartabiaCarmine Di MartinoPierpaolo DonatiCostantino EspositoStanley HauerwasAntonio LopezFrancisco Javier Martínez FernandezJohn MilbankJavier PradesDavid L. SchindlerAngelo Cardinal ScolaLorenza VioliniJoseph H. H. Weiler
Retro-modern India: Forging the Low-caste Self (Exploring the Political in South Asia)
by Manuela CiottiFirmly situated within the analytics of the political economy of a north Indian province, this book explores self-fashioning in pursuit of the modern amongst low-caste Chamars. Challenging existing accounts of national modernity in the non-West, the book argues that subaltern classes shape their own ideas about modernity by taking and rejecting from models of other classes within the same national context. While displacing the West — in its colonial and non-colonial manifestations — as the immanent comparative focus, the book puts forward a unique framework for the analysis of subaltern modernity. This builds on the entanglements between two main trajectories, both of which are viewed as the outcome of the generative impetus of modernisation in India: the first consists of the Chamar appropriation of socio-cultural distinctions forged by 19th-century Indian middle classes in their encounter with colonial modernity; the second features the Chamar subversion of high-caste ideals and practices as a result of low-caste politics initiated during the 20th century. The author contends that these conflicting trends give rise to a temporal antinomy within the Chamar politics of self-making, caught up between compulsions of a past modern and of a contemporary one. The eclectic outcome is termed as ‘retro-modernity’. While the book signals a politics of becoming whose dynamics had previously been overlooked by scholars, it simultaneously opens up novel avenues for the understanding of non-elite modern life-forms in postcolonial settings. The book will interest scholars of anthropology, South Asian studies, development studies, gender studies, political science and postcolonial studies.
Retrofitting Cities: Priorities, Governance and Experimentation
by Mike Hodson and Simon MarvinDeveloping an up-to-date critical framework for analysing urban retrofit, this is the first book to examine urban re-engineering for sustainability in a socio-technical context. Retrofitting Cities examines why retrofit is emerging as an important strategic issue for urban authorities and untangles the mix of economic, competitive, ecological and social drivers that influence any transition towards a more sustainable urban environment. Retrofitting Cities comparatively explores how urban scale retrofitting can be conceptualised as a socio-technical transition; to critically compare and contrast different national styles of response in cities of the north and global south; and, to develop new research and policy agendas on future development of progressive retrofitting. Bringing together a group of researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds that reflect the complexity of the research challenge, Retrofitting cities looks across different infrastructures and types of built environment, dealing with diverse urban contexts and examining formal as well as community responses. This is a uniquely practical book for urban planning and policy professionals as well as for researchers in urban studies and urban design.
Retrofitting Suburbia, Updated Edition: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs
by Ellen Dunham-Jones June WilliamsonUpdated with a new Introduction by the authors and a foreword by Richard Florida, this book is a comprehensive guide book for urban designers, planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, and community leaders that illustrates how existing suburban developments can be redesigned into more urban and more sustainable places. While there has been considerable attention by practitioners and academics to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the periphery of cities, there has been little attention to the redesign and redevelopment of existing suburbs. The authors, both architects and noted experts on the subject, show how development in existing suburbs can absorb new growth and evolve in relation to changed demographic, technological, and economic conditions. Retrofitting Suburbia was named winner in the Architecture & Urban Planning category of the 2009 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (The PROSE Awards) awarded by The Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers
Retrospect of Western Travel: In Three Volumes, Volume 2 (Cambridge Library Collection - North American History Ser. #Volume 2)
by Harriet Martineau Daniel FellerThis abridged version of Harriet Martineau's narrative of her travels in Jacksonian America preserves her reporting on slavery and other current topics of the day, as well as her insights on women's place in society, and her observations and vignettes of famous people such as John Calhoun.
Retrospective Pledge Voting and Political Accountability: The Costs of Broken Promises
by Theres MatthießThis book examines retrospective pledge voting; the phenomenon of whether and under which conditions citizens are likely to withdraw their support for political parties that have failed to turn their pre-election pledges into tangible policies once they have joined government. It puts forward a new theoretical framework on retrospective pledge voting. Whilst one would expect voters to punish government parties that have broken their promises by refusing to vote for them at the next election, little research has been done to show whether, and under what contexts, this is actually the case. Adopting a multi-methods approach, the book demonstrates that citizens do punish government parties that have shown a poor performance in fulfilling their election pledges, and that more sceptical citizens with negative pre-existing opinions punish pledge breakage more severely. Bringing together research on election pledges, government performance and voting, the book will appeal to all those interested in democratic representation, politics, public policy, and voter-party linkages.
Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From
by Kamal Al-SolayleeDrawing on extensive reporting from around the world and astute political analysis, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From illuminates a personal quest. Kamal Al-Solaylee, author of the bestselling and award-winning Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes and Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (for Everyone), yearns to return to his homeland of Yemen, now wracked by war, starvation and daily violence, to reconnect with his family. Yemen, as well as Egypt, another childhood home, call to him, even though he ran away from them in his youth and found peace and prosperity on the calm shores of Toronto. In Return, Al-Solaylee interviews dozens of people who have chosen to or long to return to their homelands, from the Basques to the Irish to the Taiwanese. The author does make a return of sorts himself, to the Middle East, visiting Israel and the West Bank as well as Egypt to meet up with his sisters. His Arabic stilted and his mannerisms foreign, Al-Solaylee finds that the English language and Western customs are now his only cultural currency.Return is a chronicle of love and loss, of global reach and personal desires. It sets the narrative of going home against geopolitical forces that are likely to shape the rest of this century and beyond. It’s a book for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to return to their roots.
The Return
by Evelyn AnthonyA gripping, inventive thriller about justice and retribution set in Paris thirty years after World War II Anna Martin is ready to put the past--and her unsuccessful marriage--behind her and start over with Nicholas Yurovsky. A titled aristocrat from a distinguished family that dates back to czarist Russia, Nicholas never talks about his past. Then Anna gets a call from her ex-husband. Left-wing journalist Paul Martin warns Anna about a plot spearheaded by Nicholas to avenge the murder of his father. But Nicholas isn't the only one with a score to settle. He and other members of "the Return" have been quietly gathering their forces, preparing to strike out against the man who condemned hundreds of thousands of Russians to life--and death--in labor camps. An elite member of the Supreme Soviet who could be Russia's next president, Grigor Malenkov buried his past along with countless victims. At the invitation of the French president, he is coming to Paris, where the children of the dead wait for justice that has been a long time coming--with one innocent woman in the crossfire.
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
by Hisham MatarFrom Man Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Hisham Matar, a memoir of his journey home to his native Libya in search of answers to his father's disappearance.In 2012, after the overthrow of Qaddafi, the acclaimed novelist Hisham Matar journeys to his native Libya after an absence of thirty years. When he was twelve, Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar's father, a former diplomat and military man turned brave political dissident, was kidnapped from the streets of Cairo by the Libyan government and is believed to have been held in the regime's most notorious prison. Now, the prisons are empty and little hope remains that Jaballa Matar will be found alive. Yet, as the author writes, hope is "persistent and cunning." This book is a profoundly moving family memoir, a brilliant and affecting portrait of a country and a people on the cusp of immense change, and a disturbing and timeless depiction of the monstrous nature of absolute power.
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
by Hisham MatarFrom the author of In the Country of Men, a Man Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, comes a beautifully written, uplifting memoir of his journey home to his native Libya in search of the truth behind his father's disappearance. When Hisham Matar was a nineteen-year-old university student in England, his father was kidnapped. One of the Qaddafi regime's most prominent opponents in exile, he was held in a secret prison in Libya. Hisham would never see him again. But he never gave up hope that his father might still be alive. "Hope," as he writes, "is cunning and persistent." Twenty-two years later, after the fall of Qaddafi, the prison cells are empty and there is no sign of Jaballa Matar. Hisham returns with his mother and wife to the homeland he never thought he'd go back to again. The Return is the story of what he found there. It is at once an exquisite meditation on history, politics, and art, a brilliant portrait of a nation and a people on the cusp of change, and a disquieting depiction of the brutal legacy of absolute power. Above all, it is a universal tale of loss and love and of one family's life. Hisham Matar asks the harrowing question: How does one go on living in the face of a loved one's uncertain fate? Praise for The Return "[Matar] writes with both a novelist's eye for physical and emotional detail, and a reporter's tactile sense of place and time. The prose is precise, economical, chiseled; the narrative elliptical, almost musical. . . . The Return is, at once, a suspenseful detective story about a writer investigating his father's fate at the hands of a brutal dictatorship, and a son's efforts to come to terms with his father's ghost, who has haunted more than half his life by his absence."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "The Return is a personal memoir, concerned with the kidnap and disappearance of the writer's father at the hands of the Qaddafi regime. It is wise and agonizing and thrilling to read."--Zadie Smith "What a brilliant book. Hisham Matar has the quality all historians--of the world and the self--most need: He knows how to stand back and let the past speak. In chronicling his quest for his father, his manner is fastidious, even detached, but his anger is raw and unreconciled; through his narrative art he bodies out the shape of loss and gives a universality to his very particular experience of desolation. The Return reads as easily as a thriller, but is a story that will stick: A person is lost, but gravity and resonance remain."--Hilary Mantel "The Return is a riveting book about love and hope, but it is also a moving meditation on grief and loss. It draws a memorable portrait of a family in exile and manages also to explore the politics of Libya with subtlety and steely intelligence. It is a quest for the truth in a dark time, constructed with a novelist's skill, written in tones that are both precise and passionate. It is likely to become a classic."--Colm Tóibín "A triumph of art over tyranny, structurally thrilling, intensely moving, The Return is a treasure for the ages."--Peter Carey "The Return is tremendously powerful. Although it filled me with rage again and again, I never lost sight of Matar's beautiful intelligence as he tried to get to the heart of the mystery. I am so very grateful he has written this book."--Nadeem AslamFrom the Hardcover edition.
The Return
by Daniel TreismanRussia has long been a source of puzzlement-- and sometimes alarm--for Western observers. Since shaking off communism two decades ago, the country has seemed wobbly at best, thoroughly corrupt and threatening at worst. But in recent years, as noted scholar Daniel Treisman shows in this compelling account, Russia has re-emerged as a pivotal nation in world affairs. In The Return, Treisman cuts through the myths and misinformation, as well as ongoing academic and journalistic debates, to present a portrait of a strong and independent country that is returning to the international community on its own terms. Drawing on two decades of research, interviews, and insider observation, The Return provides the first comprehensive history of post-communist Russia. From Gorbachev to Yeltsin, Putin, and Medvedev, it traces the twists and turns of the country's evolution, uncovering the causes behind Russia's plunge into depression in the 1990s and resurgence since 2000. Rather than a nation frozen in ancient authoritarian traditions, as Russia is often portrayed, Treisman shows a society modernizing rapidly, with a government that, although less than democratic, is sensitive to public opinion but which has been repeatedly buffeted by economic forces--the collapse of Soviet planning, the gyrations of oil prices--that have alternately boosted and drained the leaders' popularity. Knocked off balance once again by the global financial crisis, the Kremlin's current bosses must now struggle to reignite the growth on which the stability of their regime depends. As Russia grapples with its economic difficulties, the West will have to come to terms with the new Russia. With its UN Security Council veto, thousands of atomic warheads, continental dimensions, and vast mineral resources, Moscow sits at the epicenter of the toughest challenges the world will confront in the next generation--from Islamic terrorism and nuclear proliferation to energy security and global warming. To enlist Russia's cooperation in solving the problems of the twenty-first century, Western leaders will need to look beyond common misconceptions to see the country as it is rather than as it has often been imagined or depicted. Based on extensive research by an expert with intimate knowledge of the country, the book provides insight into the prospects for democracy in Russia, the challenges and opportunities of doing business there, the wars in Chechnya, and the motives behind Moscow's foreign policy. The Return is the ultimate accounting of what Russia is today, how it got there, and where it's going.
Return from Siberia
by John ShallmanIn the lead-up to the Bolshevik Revolution, one young revolutionary is condemned to exile in Siberia; a hundred years later, his ancestors discover his story and learn just how much history has repeated itself. In the midst of running a long-shot political campaign, Democratic political consultant John Simon discovers a 100-year-old manuscript written by his grandfather Joseph—a brilliant young revolutionary whose exile to Siberia by the last czar of Russia is just the beginning of an extraordinary tale of survival, romance, and revolution. Return From Siberia chronicles not only the Simon family's relationship to each other and the past, but also the remarkable story of a young man who sacrificed everything for his political ideals. As Joseph's manuscript is translated, chapter-by-chapter, the Simon family is pulled deep into their ancestor&’s story— in particular, the bitter rivalry between two brothers, whose competing visions of the American Dream are played out on the campaign trail and in their lives. Return from Siberia is a timely appraisal of modern politics and society juxtaposed with an inside look into the machinations of a young political mind 100 years ago. The true story documents an extraordinary time of political upheaval in Russia and Europe just prior to World War I while also drawing parallels to current day American politics and the current philosophical and ideological debates about immigration, Democratic Socialism, and Capitalism. Beyond the deep social, political, and philosophical themes, there is romance, adventure, betrayal, suspense, and the struggles of families today and in yesteryear. Return from Siberia illustrates how one modern family's connection to the past helps them resolve their future.
Return from the U.S.S.R.: Retour De L' U. R. S. S.
by André GideDuring the 1930s, Gide briefly became a communist, or more precisely, a fellow traveller (he never formally joined the Communist Party). As a distinguished writer sympathising with the cause of communism, he was invited to tour the Soviet Union as a guest of the Soviet Union of writers. The tour disillusioned him and he subsequently became quite critical of Soviet Communism. This criticism of Communism caused him to lose socialist friends, especially when he made a clean break with it in this book Return From The USSR first published in the 1930's.-Print ed.
Return Migration and Crises in Non-Western Countries (Mobility & Politics)
by Jungwon YeoThis edited book focuses on the intersection of return migration and crises in non-Western countries. The book explores a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives while offering practical insights to address the intricate issues surrounding return migration and crises. The topics covered within this volume include return migration trends, the pivotal roles and contributions of return migrants, the social, psychological, and policy challenges faced by returnees, emerging issues stemming from return migration in their home countries, and the public and formal responses to return migration and the reintegration of returnees, and the roles of crises in these areas.This edited volume brings together diverse perspectives of academic researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on return migration. The book features cases of multiple non-Western countries in Asia (Philippines, China, India), Europe (Lithuania, Turkey, & Ukraine), the Middle East and North Africa (Morocco), and South America and the Caribbean (Mexico, Peru & Dominican Republic). Findings provide a unique opportunity to critically explore current thinking on return migration and investigate the relationship between migration and crisis from varying policy and operational viewpoints. This book, hence, attends to practitioners to develop creative solutions to both global and local policies and practices of return migration management in emerging market countries, which will support and accommodate both their returnees and residents amid challenging times.
Return Migration to Afghanistan: Moving Back or Moving Forward? (Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship)
by Marieke van HouteThis book overcomes the dichotomies, generalizations and empirical shortcomings that surround the understanding of return migration within the migration–development–peace-building nexus. Using the concept of multidimensional embeddedness, it provides an encompassing view of returnees’ identification with and participation in one or multiple spaces of belonging. It introduces Afghan return migration from Europe as a relevant case study, since the country’s protracted history of conflict and migration shows how the globally changing political discourses of recent decades have shaped migration strategies. The author’s findings highlight the fact that policy is responding inadequately to complex issues of migration, conflict, development and return, since the expectations on which it is based only account for a small minority of returnees. This thought-provoking book will appeal to scholars of migration and refugee studies, as well as a wider audience of sociologists, anthropologists, demographers and policy makers.
Return of a Native: Learning from the Land
by Vron WareFrom a fixed point in the middle of English nowhere, Vron Ware takes you through time and space to explain why transcending the urban-rural divide is integral to the future of the planet.Rural England is a mythic space, a complex canvas on which people from many different backgrounds project all kinds of fantasies, prejudices, desires and fears. This book seeks to challenge many of these ideas, showing how the artificial divide between rural and urban works to conceal the underlying relationship between these two fundamental poles of human settlement.This investigation of rurality is oriented from a fixed point in north-west Hampshire, marked by a signpost that points in four directions to two towns, four villages and two hamlets. Through stories, interviews and reportage gathered over two decades, the book demolishes tired notions of rural England that cast it as a separate realm of existence, whether marooned in a perpetual time-warp, or reduced to a refuge for the retired, wealthy urbanites, extreme nature-lovers, and, more recently, anyone tired of waiting out the pandemic in towns and cities. It poses two simple questions: what does the word rural mean today? What will it mean tomorrow?The author is an ambivalent native, held captive to the land by an umbilical cord but always on the verge of fleeing home to the city. She writes from a feminist, postcolonial standpoint that is alert to the slow violence of historical processes taking place over many centuries; enslavement, colonialism, industrialisation, globalisation. Both argument and narrative are propelled by the urgent need to reconsider the concept of &‘countryside&’ in the context of the climate emergency and the patent collapse of ecosystems due to intensive farming which has poisoned the land.
The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States, and Geostructural Realism
by Øystein TunsjøSince the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international system has been unipolar, centered on the United States. But the rise of China foreshadows a change in the distribution of power. Øystein Tunsjø shows that the international system is moving toward a U.S.-China standoff, bringing us back to bipolarity—a system in which no third power can challenge the top two.The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics surveys the new era of superpowers to argue that the combined effects of the narrowing power gap between China and the United States and the widening power gap between China and any third-ranking power portend a new bipolar system that will differ in crucial ways from that of the last century. Tunsjø expands Kenneth N. Waltz’s structural-realist theory to examine the new bipolarity within the context of geopolitics, which he calls “geostructural realism.” He considers how a new bipolar system will affect balancing and stability in U.S.-China relations, predicting that the new bipolarity will not be as prone to arms races as the previous era’s; that the risk of limited war between the two superpowers is likely to be higher in the coming bipolarity, especially since the two powers are primarily rivals at sea rather than on land; and that the superpowers are likely to be preoccupied with rivalry and conflict in East Asia instead of globally. Tunsjø presents a major challenge to how international relations understands superpowers in the twenty-first century.
The Return of Cultural Artefacts
by Alper TașdelenThis book analyses the instruments and approaches offered by public international law to resolve cultural heritage related disputes and facilitate the return of illicitly transferred objects to their countries of origin. In addition to assessing the instruments themselves, their origins, and their advantages and disadvantages, it also examines the roles and interests of the actors involved. Lastly, the book explores the interaction between hard and soft law approaches, the reasons for and importance of this interaction, as well as its consequences.
The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America: Nationalism, Policy, and Politics in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru
by Pierre LossonThe Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America takes a new approach to the question of returns and restitutions. It is the first publication to look at the domestic politics of claiming countries in order to understand who supports the claims and why. Drawing on analysis of articles published in national newspapers and interviews with individuals involved in return claims, the book demonstrates that such claims are inherently political. Focusing on Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, the book analyses how return claims contribute to the strengthening of state-sponsored discourses on the nation; the policy formation process that leads to the formulation of return claims; and who the main actors of the claims are, including civil society individuals, experts, state authorities, and Indigenous communities. The book proposes explanations for why Latin American countries are interested in specific objects held in Western museums and why these claims have come to light over the past three decades. The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America argues that return claims ought to be the object of public debate, allowing contemporary societies to address the legacy of colonialism. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students engaged in the study of museums and heritage, political science, history, anthropology, cultural policy and Latin America.