- Table View
- List View
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa
by Charles PiotAt first glance, the remote villages of the Kabre people of northern Togo appear to have all the trappings of a classic "out of the way" African culture—subsistence farming, straw-roofed houses, and rituals to the spirits and ancestors. Arguing that village life is in fact an effect of the modern and the global, Charles Piot suggests that Kabre culture is shaped as much by colonial and postcolonial history as by anything "indigenous" or local. Through analyses of everyday and ceremonial social practices, Piot illustrates the intertwining of modernity with tradition and of the local with the national and global. In a striking example of the appropriation of tradition by the state, Togo's Kabre president regularly flies to the region in his helicopter to witness male initiation ceremonies. Confounding both anthropological theorizations and the State Department's stereotyped images of African village life, Remotely Global aims to rethink Euroamerican theories that fail to come to terms with the fluidity of everyday relations in a society where persons and things are forever in motion.
Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa
by Charles PiotAt first glance, the remote villages of the Kabre people of northern Togo appear to have all the trappings of a classic "out of the way" African culture—subsistence farming, straw-roofed houses, and rituals to the spirits and ancestors. Arguing that village life is in fact an effect of the modern and the global, Charles Piot suggests that Kabre culture is shaped as much by colonial and postcolonial history as by anything "indigenous" or local. Through analyses of everyday and ceremonial social practices, Piot illustrates the intertwining of modernity with tradition and of the local with the national and global. In a striking example of the appropriation of tradition by the state, Togo's Kabre president regularly flies to the region in his helicopter to witness male initiation ceremonies. Confounding both anthropological theorizations and the State Department's stereotyped images of African village life, Remotely Global aims to rethink Euroamerican theories that fail to come to terms with the fluidity of everyday relations in a society where persons and things are forever in motion.
Remoteness Reconsidered: The Atacama Desert and International Law
by Christopher RossiMuch of our understanding of the world is framed from the perspective of a dominant power center, or from standard readings of historical events. The architecture of international information distribution, academic centers, and the lingua franca of international scholarly discourse also shape these stories. Remoteness Reconsidered employs the idea of remoteness as an analytical tool for viewing international law's encounter with the Americas from the unusual, peripheral perspective of the Atacama Desert. The Atacama is one of the most remote places on Earth, although that less-than-accurate perspective comes from standard historical accounts of the region, accounts that originate from the “center.” Changing the usual frame of reference leads to a reconsideration of the idea of remoteness and of the subsequent marginalization of historical narratives that influence hemispheric international relations in important ways today. Lessons about international law's encounters with neoliberalism, indigenous and human rights, and the management and extraction of mineral resources take on new significance by following a spatial turn toward the idea of remoteness as applied to the Atacama Desert.
Removal of the Property Qualification for Voting in the United States: Strategy and Suffrage (Routledge Research in American Politics and Governance)
by Justin Moeller Ronald F. KingIn Colonial America, democracy was centered in provincial assemblies and based on the collection of neighbors whose freehold ownership made them permanent stakeholders in the community. The removal of the property qualification for voting in the United States occurred over three-quarters of a century and was among the more important events in the history of democratization, functioning to shift voting from a corporate privilege toward a human right. Moving beyond the standard histories of property standard histories of property qualification removal, Justin Moeller and Ronald F. King adopt the theories and methods of social science to discover underlying patterns and regularities, attempting a more systematic understanding of subject. While no historical event has a single cause, party consolidation and party competition provided a necessary mechanism, making background factors politically relevant. No change in franchise rules could occur without the explicit consent of incumbent politicians, always sensitive to the anticipated impact. Moeller and King argue that political parties acted strategically, accepting or rejecting removal of the property qualification as a means of advancing their electoral position. The authors identify four different variants of the strategic calculation variable, significantly helping to explain both the temporal differences across states and the pattern of contestation with each state individually.
Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe
by Guido Giglioni Anna AkasoyWhile the transmission of Greek philosophy and science via the Muslim world to western Europe in the Middle Ages has been closely scrutinized, the fate of the Arabic philosophical and scientific legacy in later centuries has received less attention, a fault this volume aims to correct. The authors in this collection discuss in particular the radical ideas associated with Averroism that are attributed to the Aristotle commentator Ibn Rushd (1126-1198) and challenge key doctrines of the Abrahamic religions. This volume examines what happened to Averroes's philosophy during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Did early modern thinkers really no longer pay any attention to the Commentator? Were there undercurrents of Averroism after the sixteenth century? How did Western authors in this period contextualise Averroes and Arabic philosophy within their own cultural heritage? How different was the Averroes they created as a philosopher in a European tradition from Ibn Rushd, the theologian, jurist and philosopher of the Islamic tradition?
Renaissance der Verkehrspolitik: Politik- und mobilitätswissenschaftliche Perspektiven
by Detlef Sack Holger Straßheim Karsten ZimmermannDer Band versammelt mobilitäts- und politikwissenschaftliche Beiträge zu verkehrspolitischen Entscheidungen und Richtungswechseln auf verschiedenen Ebenen (Bund, Land, Kommune) und zu verschiedenen Verkehrsträgern bzw. Sektoren (Schiene, Auto). Die Autoren und Autorinnen argumentieren dabei überwiegend empirisch und nutzen unterschiedliche Methoden und Ansätze. Gemeinsam sind den Beiträgen der erklärende Fokus auf mögliche Blockaden der Verkehrswende und neue Perspektiven in der Verkehrs- und Mobilitätspolitik.
Renaissance Emir: A Druze Warlord at the Court of the Medici
by T. J. GortonThis groundbreaking biography of Fakhr ad-Din, Prince of the Druze, is based on the author's vivid new translations of contemporary sources in Arabic and other languages. It brings to life one remarkable man's beliefs and ambitions, uniquely illuminating the elusive interface between Eastern and Western culture.
The Renaissance in Europe: An Anthology
by Peter Elmer Nick Webb Roberta WoodCurrent research on the Renaissance has emphasized the need to look again at the original texts, documents and artefacts which, taken together, constitute the primary source of evidence for the re-evaluation of its historical significance. This volume represents one attempt to reflect this renewal of interest in returning to first principles. The Anthology presents a series of carefully selected primary sources across a wide range of disciplines, ordered thematically and reflecting the interests of scholars in a variety of fields of Renaissance studies. There are sections on humanism and its impact on philosophy and politics; Renaissance court culture, with particular emphasis on the courts of northern Italy and the Kingdom of Hungary; poetry and drama in Renaissance Britain; the Reformation; and science, magic and witchcraft. While some of the extracts are short and familiar, others appear here, in translation, for the first time, including, for example, an early sixteenth-century demonology by the Italian humanist Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola. The volume is illustrated throughout and each extract is introduced by a brief headnote describing the author and the source.
The Renaissance of Empire in Early Modern Europe
by Thomas James DandeletThis book brings together a bold revision of the traditional view of the Renaissance with a new comparative synthesis of global empires in early modern Europe. It examines the rise of a virulent form of Renaissance scholarship, art, and architecture that had as its aim the revival of the cultural and political grandeur of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. Imperial humanism, a distinct form of humanism, emerged in the earliest stages of the Italian Renaissance as figures such as Petrarch, Guarino, and Biondo sought to revive and advance the example of the Caesars and their empire. Originating in the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, and Rome, this movement also revived ancient imperial iconography in painting and sculpture, as well as Vitruvian architecture. While the Italian princes never realized their dream of political power equal to the ancient emperors, the Imperial Renaissance they set in motion reached its full realization in the global empires of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, France, and Great Britain.
The Renaissance of Takefu: How People and the Local Past Changed the Civic Life of a Regional Japanese Town (East Asia: History, Politics, Sociology and Culture)
by Guven Peter WitteveenThis book tells the story of a citizen group through the example and results of their participation in local civic life. The book draws attention to the complicated conditions under which civic participation may succeed. The story is about the individuals and organizations in the regional Japanese town of Takefu, but these events are also placed in the context of the surrounding Japanese Sea region of west Japan and the wider currents of the Japanese nation-state at the time. Also inlcludes maps.
Renaissance Philosophy: The Art of Worldly Wisdom; Reflections: Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims; and Maxims and Reflections
by Baltasar Gracián François Duc De La Rochefoucauld Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWisdom for today&’s world from three great thinkers of the Renaissance era. This collection of three philosophical works by Renaissance men offers timeless advice on how to prosper and live morally in business, romance, religion, and society. Although written in the Renaissance era, these guides still resonate today and are collected here for easy reference. In The Art of Worldly Wisdom, Baltasar Gracián advises people of all walks of life how to approach political, professional, and personal situations in a dog-eat-dog world. Comprised of three hundred pithy aphorisms, this influential work of philosophy offers thought-provoking and accessible advice. Some subjects include &“Never Compete,&” &“The Art of Letting Things Alone,&” and &“Anticipate Injuries and Turn Them into Favours.&” Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François de La Rochefoucauld offers hundreds of brief, brutally honest observations of humankind and its self-serving nature. The perfect read for any realist—or anyone with the desire to evaluate their moral standing—this edition includes three supplements with additional maxims and essays. In Maxims and Reflections, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe takes a detour from his usual literary endeavors and offers snippets of his musings on life, literature, science, nature, politics, and the human condition. Essential for fans of Goethe&’s works, it provides unique insight into the mind of the last true Renaissance man. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Renaissance & Seventeenth - Century Studies (Routledge Revivals)
by Joseph Anthony MazzeoFirst published in 1964, Renaissance & Seventeenth - Century Studies contains essays which fall into two groups. The first four are concerned with problems of metaphor and style and treat two important eras in literary history when these problems underwent critical re-examination. St. Augustine marks the classical attempt to take account of "biblical poetics" while the two essays on the theory of the "metaphysical" style treat the attempt of seventeenth century critics to comprehend, at the theoretical level, the expansion of metaphysical possibilities that marked the "metaphysical" movement. The second group of essays are, in general, concerned with Machiavelli and Machiavellism and Andrew Marvell. However, they are again essentially concerned with the way in which crucial metaphors and idea-images serve as principles for organising experience both in Machiavelli’s own writings and in that of work of Marvell which reflects his influence. The final essay "Cromwell as Davidic King", weaves together Machiavellian and Augustinian strands as they are manifested in the works of a poet of wit, the "various light" of whose mind responded harmoniously to the different currents of thought and taste these essays discuss. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of literature, literary history, political philosophy, and philosophy in general.
Renaturierung von Ökosystemen im Spannungsfeld von Mensch und Umwelt: Ein interdisziplinäres Fachbuch
by Stefan ZerbeIn diesem disziplinübergreifenden Fachbuch, welches die Brücke zwischen den Natur- und Sozialwissenschaften schlägt, werden sowohl die wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der Renaturierungsökologie wie auch praktische Aspekte der Ökosystemrenaturierung umfassend dargestellt. Hierbei werden die Vielfalt der Landnutzungstypen mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Mitteleuropa herausgestellt und Fallbeispiele von praktischen Renaturierungsprojekten präsentiert. Das Fachbuch bietet sowohl für Studierende, die sich mit der Umwelt beschäftigen, für Wissenschaftler wie auch für Praktiker einen profunden und aktuellen, aber auch kritischen Überblick über den Stand des Wissens. Dieses Buch erschließt das breite Spektrum degradierter Ökosysteme der mitteleuropäischen Natur- und Kulturlandschaften. In weiteren Kapiteln wird auf marine Ökosysteme und deren Renaturierung sowie auf Entwicklungspotenziale, aber auch Grenzen der Renaturierung detaillierter eingegangen. Die ökologischen Grundlagen werden durch eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive unter Berücksichtigung der Umweltethik, Soziologie, Anthropologie und Ökonomie erweitert. Das Fachbuch bietet neben einer aktuellen Übersicht über die verschiedenen Bereiche und Tätigkeitsfelder der Renaturierungsökologie und Ökosystemrenaturierung eine wertvolle Grundlage für Studium, Wissenschaft und Praxis. Die Studierenden erhalten zudem eine Hilfestellung zur Literatursuche und kritischen Faktenanalyse und die Dozenten zu Lehrformen und interdisziplinären Diskussionsansätzen der Renaturierungsökologie.
Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life
by Charles J. Chaput“People who take God seriously will not remain silent about their faith. They will often disagree about doctrine or policy, but they won’t be quiet. They can’t be. They’ll act on what they believe, sometimes at the cost of their reputations and careers. Obviously the common good demands a respect for other people with different beliefs and a willingness to compromise whenever possible. But for Catholics, the common good can never mean muting themselves in public debate on foundational issues of human dignity. Christian faith is always personal but never private. This is why any notion of tolerance that tries to reduce faith to private idiosyncrasy, or a set of opinions that we can indulge at home but need to be quiet about in public, will always fail. ” —From the Introduction Few topics in recent years have ignited as much public debate as the balance between religion and politics. Does religious thought have any place in political discourse? Do religious believers have the right to turn their values into political action? What does it truly mean to have a separation of church and state? The very heart of these important questions is here addressed by one of the leading voices on the topic, Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver. While American society has ample room for believers and nonbelievers alike, Chaput argues, our public life must be considered within the context of its Christian roots. American democracy does not ask its citizens to put aside their deeply held moral and religious beliefs for the sake of public policy. In fact, itrequiresexactly the opposite. As the nation’s founders knew very well, people are fallible. The majority of voters, as history has shown again and again, can be uninformed, misinformed, biased, or simply wrong. Thus, to survive, American democracy depends on an engaged citizenry —people of character, including religious believers, fighting for their beliefs in the public square—respectfully but vigorously, and without apology. Anything less is bad citizenship and a form of theft from the nation’s health. Or as the author suggests: Good manners are not an excuse for political cowardice. American Catholics and other persons of goodwill are part of a struggle for our nation’s future, says Charles J. Chaput. Our choices, including our political choices, matter. Catholics need to take an active, vocal, and morally consistent role in public debate. We can’t claim to personally believe in the sanctity of the human person, and then act in our public policies as if we don’t. We can’t separate our private convictions from our public actions without diminishing both. In the words of the author, “How we act works backward on our convictions, making them stronger or smothering them under a snowfall of alibis. ” Vivid, provocative, clear, and compelling,Render unto Caesaris a call to American Catholics to serve the highest ideals of their nation by first living their Catholic faith deeply, authentically.
Render Unto Caesar: The Struggle Over Christ and Culture in the New Testament
by John Dominic CrossanThe revered Bible scholar and author of The Historical Jesus explores the Christian culture wars—the debates over church and state—from a biblical perspective, exploring the earliest tensions evident in the New Testament, and offering a way forward for Christians today.Leading Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, the author of the pioneering work The Historical Jesus, provides new insight into the Christian culture wars which began in the New Testament and persist strongly today. For decades, Americans have been divided on how Christians should relate to government and lawmakers, a dispute that has impacted every area of society and grown more rancorous over the past forty years. But as Crossan makes clear, this debate isn’t new; it can be found in the New Testament itself, most notably in the tensions between Luke-Acts and Revelations. In the texts of Luke-Acts, Rome is considered favorably. In the book of Revelations, Rome is seen as the embodiment of evil in the world. Yet there is an alternative to these two extremes, Crossan explains. The historical Jesus and Paul, the earliest Christian teachers, were both strongly opposed to Rome, yet neither demonized the Empire. Crossan sees in Jesus and Paul’s approach a model for Christians today that can be used to cut through the acrimony and polarization roiling our society and dividing us.
The Rendezvous
by Evelyn AnthonyA former member of the French Resistance encounters an SS officer who interrogated her twenty years earlier in this novel that's part thriller and part love story Twenty years after World War II, at a smart cocktail party in New York City, architect Karl Amstat finds himself face-to-face with Terese Masson. A courier in the Resistance, then eighteen-year-old Terese had been questioned by SS officer Alfred Brunnerman. The scion of an elite family, Brunnerman joined the Gestapo in 1940. Though experienced in counter-espionage and famed for his intellectual approach to prisoners, he secretly detested brutality of any kind. After the war, Brunnerman fled to Switzerland, where he reinvented himself as Karl Amstat. But he never forgot Terese. The now married Terese has no memory of this long-ago ordeal, and, unaware of Amstat's true identity, she finds herself irresistibly attracted to him. But he's a hunted outcast who has been living a lie for twenty years. When he's reported to Israeli Intelligence, Amstat is ready to make the greatest sacrifice for the woman he loves more than life itself--the woman who has given him back his identity.
Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms: The Spyhunter, the Fashion Designer & the Man From Moscow
by Paul WillettsRendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms provides the first comprehensive account of what was once hailed by a leading American newspaper as the greatest spy story of World War II. This dramatic yet little-known saga, replete with telephone taps, kidnappings, and police surveillance, centres on the furtive escapades of Tyler Kent, a handsome, womanising 28-year-old Ivy League graduate, who doubles as a US Embassy code clerk and Soviet agent. Against the backdrop of London high society during the so-called Phoney War, Kent's life intersects with the lives of the book's two other memorably flamboyant protagonists. One of those is Maxwell Knight, an urbane, endearingly eccentric MI5 spyhunter. The other is Anna Wolkoff, a White Russian fashion designer and Nazi spy whose outfits are worn by the Duchess of Windsor and whose parents are friends of the British royal family. Wolkoff belongs to a fascist secret society called the Right Club, which aims to overthrow the British government. Her romantic entanglement with Tyler Kent gives her access to a secret correspondence between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, a correspondence that has the potential to transform the outcome of the war.
Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms: The Spyhunter, the Fashion Designer & the Man From Moscow
by Paul WillettsRendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms provides the first comprehensive account of what was once hailed by a leading American newspaper as the greatest spy story of World War II. This dramatic yet little-known saga, replete with telephone taps, kidnappings, and police surveillance, centres on the furtive escapades of Tyler Kent, a handsome, womanising 28-year-old Ivy League graduate, who doubles as a US Embassy code clerk and Soviet agent. Against the backdrop of London high society during the so-called Phoney War, Kent's life intersects with the lives of the book's two other memorably flamboyant protagonists. One of those is Maxwell Knight, an urbane, endearingly eccentric MI5 spyhunter. The other is Anna Wolkoff, a White Russian fashion designer and Nazi spy whose outfits are worn by the Duchess of Windsor and whose parents are friends of the British royal family. Wolkoff belongs to a fascist secret society called the Right Club, which aims to overthrow the British government. Her romantic entanglement with Tyler Kent gives her access to a secret correspondence between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, a correspondence that has the potential to transform the outcome of the war.
Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America
by Craig ShirleyIn his previous, widely praised book, "Reagan's Revolution," Shirley told the story of Ronald Reagan's insurgent campaign to wrest the GOP nomination from Gerald Ford in 1976. In his newest work, he tells the tale of Reagan's triumph at being elected President.
Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America
by Craig Shirley&“A first-rate work of insider history . . . A monumental accomplishment.&” —National Review The election that changed everything: Craig Shirley&’s masterful account of the 1980 presidential campaign reveals how a race judged &“too close to call&” as late as Election Day became a Reagan landslide—and altered the course of history. To write Rendezvous with Destiny, Shirley gained unprecedented access to 1980 campaign files and interviewed more than 150 insiders—from Reagan&’s closest advisers and family members to Jimmy Carter himself. His gripping account follows Reagan&’s unlikely path from his bitter defeat on the floor of the 1976 Republican convention, through his underreported &“wilderness years,&” through grueling primary fights in which he knocked out several Republican heavyweights, through an often-nasty general election campaign complicated by the presence of a third-party candidate (not to mention the looming shadow of Ted Kennedy), to Reagan&’s astounding victory on Election Night in 1980. Shirley&’s years of intensive research have enabled him to relate countless untold stories—including, at long last, the solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in politics: just how Reagan&’s campaign got hold of Carter&’s debate briefing books.
Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society
by Thomas FrankNew York Times–Bestselling Author: “Insightful analysis, moral passion, and keen satirical wit . . . both entertaining and an important commentary on the times.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, America’s winners persuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country?With his sharp eye for detail, Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?, takes us on a wide-ranging tour through present-day America, showing us a society in the late stages of disintegration and describing the worlds of both the winners and the losers—the sprawling mansion districts as well as the lives of fast-food workers.Rendezvous with Oblivion is a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in our cities, in our jobs, in the way we travel—and of course in our politics, where in 2016, millions of anxious ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good.These accounts of folly and exploitation are brought together in a volume marked by Frank’s distinctive voice, sardonic wit, and anti-orthodox perspective. They capture a society where every status signifier is hollow, where the allure of mobility is just another con game, and where rebellion too often yields nothing. For those who despair of our country’s future and of reason itself, Rendezvous with Oblivion is a booster shot of energy, reality, and moral outrage.“[A] scathing take on contemporary American politics and culture.” —Kirkus Reviews“An invaluable voice . . . as good as any writer working today.” —San Francisco Chronicle
The Rendition: A Novel (An Alex Klear Thriller, Book 1)
by Albert AshforthThe brutal secret war to win Kosovo’s freedom from Serbia is in full swing when The Rendition takes readers behind the headlines for an inside look at the United States’ involvement. Alex Klear, a veteran intelligence officer, is sent to the Balkans on a hastily planned rendition which goes terribly bad. Alex decides it’s time to retire. However, when he is persuaded to go to Germany as part of an operation connected to the rendition, he finds himself caught between two dynamic women—an old girlfriend and the female colonel running the op. While there, he becomes a target of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a murder suspect to the German police, and for his superiors, the perfect fall guy to take the heat for a badly botched secret operation. With Kosovo’s independence declaration coming closer by the day, the secret war heats up and Alex comes to realize that he is at the center of a murky conspiracy aimed at making the United States an international pariah.
Rene: A Canadian in Search of a Country
by Peter DesbaratsMajor National Bestseller that is a new biography of Quebec's dynamic premier - Rene Levesque.
René and Postcolonial Seychelles: An African Chameleon in the Indian Ocean (African Studies)
by Ashton RobinsonRobinson details the life and times of France-Albert René (1935–2019), the second post-independence leader of Seychelles who oversaw the nation’s transition to democracy after over a decade of his brutal dictatorship. René’s career was Seychelles’ history over the forty-three years from independence in 1976 until his peaceful death. Having seized power in a violent coup he presented himself as a socialist in the Cold War but transitioned to build Africa’s most successful relationship with international lenders and developed Seychelles as a major offshore tax haven. He also sustained and cultivated Seychelles’ position as a Western tourism-based economy. Robinson outlines not only René’s use of political violence and extrajudicial killing but also his unique relationship with transnational, organised crime including his links with the New York mafia, Italian organised crime interests and even helping to arm the Rwandan genocide. Nevertheless, René – a white leader of an African nation – avoided the self-isolation of Rhodesia and South Africa; endowed racial harmony; enabled women to advance politically and socially; and left Seychelles with high incomes, currency convertibility, and robust human and physical infrastructure. This is an essential read for anyone with an interest in the history of Seychelles, which will also be of great value to scholars of postcolonial states, African studies, microstates and the Indian Ocean region.
René and Postcolonial Seychelles: An African Chameleon in the Indian Ocean (African Studies)
by Ashton RobinsonRobinson details the life and times of France-Albert René (1935–2019), the second post-independence leader of Seychelles who oversaw the nation’s transition to democracy after over a decade of his brutal dictatorship.René’s career was Seychelles’ history over the forty-three years from independence in 1976 until his peaceful death. Having seized power in a violent coup he presented himself as a socialist in the Cold War but transitioned to build Africa’s most successful relationship with international lenders and developed Seychelles as a major offshore tax haven. He also sustained and cultivated Seychelles’ position as a Western tourism-based economy. Robinson outlines not only René’s use of political violence and extrajudicial killing but also his unique relationship with transnational, organised crime including his links with the New York mafia, Italian organised crime interests and even helping to arm the Rwandan genocide. Nevertheless, René – a white leader of an African nation – avoided the self-isolation of Rhodesia and South Africa; endowed racial harmony; enabled women to advance politically and socially; and left Seychelles with high incomes, currency convertibility, and robust human and physical infrastructure.This is an essential read for anyone with an interest in the history of Seychelles, which will also be of great value to scholars of postcolonial states, African studies, microstates and the Indian Ocean region.