Author: Geoff Eley File Type: pdf Democracy in Europe has been a recent phenomenon. Only in the wake of World War II were democratic frameworks secured, and, even then, it was decades before democracy truly blanketed the continent. Neither given nor granted, democracy requires conflict, often violent confrontations, and challenges to the established political order. In Europe, Geoff Eley convincingly shows, democracy did not evolve organically out of a natural consensus, the achievement of prosperity, or the negative cement of the Cold War. Rather, it was painstakingly crafted, continually expanded, and doggedly defended by varying constellations of socialist, feminist, Communist, and other radical movements that originally blossomed in the later nineteenth century. Parties of the Left championed democracy in the revolutionary crisis after World War I, salvaged it against the threat of fascism, and renewed its growth after 1945. They organized civil societies rooted in egalitarian ideals which came to form the very fiber of Europes current democratic traditions. The trajectories of European democracy and the history of the European Left are thus inextricably bound together.Geoff Eley has given us the first truly comprehensive history of the European Left--its successes and failures its high watermarks and its low tides its accomplishments, insufficiencies, and excesses and, most importantly, its formative, lasting influence on the European political landscape. At a time when the Lefts influence and legitimacy are frequently called into question, Forging Democracy passionately upholds its vital contribution.From Library JournalThe central thesis of this massive historical study is that an assortment of radical and leftist movements were chiefly responsible for the triumph of democracy in Europe. Eley (history, Univ. of Michigan Reshaping the German Right) provides a chronological and country-by-country examination of the emergence of democracy and the factors that promoted and hindered its development. Beginning with the growth of liberal constitutionalism in the 1860s, he writes eloquently about the influence of the labor movement, Socialists, Communists, and feminists throughout Europe. This history covers all the expected names Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Gramsci, Brandt, Gorbachev, et al. and the major political events and upheavals. Eley began working on this book 20 years ago and changed his focus as the political landscape of Europe changed, especially after 1989. The rapid democratization of the East-bloc nations led him to consider the future of democratic socialism within the politics of globalization. This is an impressive work of scholarship, with over 90 pages of notes and a bibliography of equal size. Eley has produced a worthy successor to David Cautes seminal study The Left in Europe Since 1789. Highly recommended for all academic libraries. Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewA tour de force written with panache and commitment will keep the reader spellbound throughout its almost 700 pages. it is surely a sign of a truly great book that its readers will want to take issue with it, argue with it and engage with it in manifold ways.-- Journal of Cold War StudiesOverall, Eley has written a remarkable book that recounts a sweeping history.--Journal of Modern HistoryThere is nothing, to my knowledge, in the scholarly literature on the history of the Left to compare with it in comprehensiveness, forceful interpretation, and historiographical mastery. It is a noble achievement.--Central European History*Geoff Eley is to be commended for bringing together in one volume a wealth of information on the history of Europes Left.--Science & SocietyullA magisterial overview...sweeping no just in its chronological but also its geographic scope. Forging Democracy will certainly rank with Hobsbawms Age of Extremes as one of the lasting political histories of the (very) long twentieth century.--Contemporary SociologylulDisplays formidable erudition. A college library must.--CHOICE[A]dmirable tome....scholars and graduate students will find Eleys work a welcome addition to their reference shelf of standard works on European history....A genuinely pan-European dimension befitting both the nature of the subject and the times in which it was written....Elys book is essential reading.--American Historical Review Neither given nor granted, democracy requires conflict, often violent confrontations, and challenges to the established political order. In Europe, Geoff Eley convincingly shows, democracy did not evolve orgainically out of a natural consensus, the achievement of prosperity, or the negative cement of the Cold War. Rather, it was painstakingly crafted, continually expanded, and doggedly defended by varying constellations of socialist, feminist, Communist, and other radical movements that originally blossomed in the later nineteenth century. Parties of the Left championed democracy in the revolutionary crisis after World War I, salvaged it against the threat of fascism, and renewed its growth after 1945. They organized civil societies rooted in egalitarian ideals which came from the very fiber of Europes current democratic traditions. The trajectories of European democracy and the history of the European Left are thus inextricably bound together.

Author: Gerald Posner File Type: mobi Fascinating . . . Posners book gives a remarkable insight, from a family perspective, into the lives of many of the top Nazis and vilest criminals Sunday ExpressA mesmerizing, blood-chilling book . . . The contrast betweeninnocent childhood experience, and the awful understanding of thatexperience that came with time, is enough to make you weepLos Angeles TimesFascinating . . . A compelling look at the conflicting emotions felt by children of prominent Nazis Cleveland Plain-Dealer They were the architects of terror but they were also fathers. Now, for the first time, their children speak out . . . a fascinating bookSunday MailGoring. Hess. Mengele. Donitz. Names that conjure up dark memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. They were the architects of the Third Reich. And they were fathers. Gerald Posner convinced eleven sons and daughters of Hitlers inner circle to break their silence. Hitlers Children is a riveting and intimate look inside the families of top Nazis. Based on exclusive and in-depth interviews, Gerald Posner provides an unforgettable portrait of some children ravaged by anger and hatred while others are riven with guilt and plead for forgiveness. This second generation of perpetrators in Hitlers Children struggle with their Third Reich inheritance. In grappling with memories of good and loving fathers who were later charged with war crimes, these heirs to the Nazi legacy add a fresh and important perspective to understanding the complexity of what historian, Hannah Arendt, dubbed the banality of evil.Hitlers Children is much more, however, than a series of startling family interviews. It is also a spellbinding insiders look at some of the men whose names have become synonymous with terror.This is a classic book about the second generation of Nazi perpetrators (the only one ever to have family interviews with Hess, Mengele, Donitz, and Goring.)No other book author or documentarian ever got those children to talk again.And Norman Frank, the eldest son of war criminal Hans Frank, also never spoke to anyone but Posner.Hitlers Children serves as a vivid reminder to all of us of the dangers of ignoring anti-Semitism or thinking it will go away or cant get any worse. These are the children who saw their fathers corrupted by the insidious,centuries-old hatred, and their accounts serve as a clarion warning to us today that all decent people must redouble their efforts against racial and religious hatred. The book, perhaps more timely today than when it was published in 1991, includes a new introduction, explaining why this book is particularly important during a time of rising international anti-Semitism.

Author: Susan Sontag File Type: pdf First published in 1966, this celebrated book—Sontags first collection of essays—quickly became a modern classic, and has had an enormous influence in America and abroad on thinking about the arts and contemporary culture. As well as the title essay and the famous Notes on Camp, IAgainst InterpretationI includes original and provocative discussions of Sartre, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, science-fiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious thinking. This edition features a new afterword by Sontag.

Author: Leo Tolstoy File Type: epub Written over a period of more than half a century, Leo Tolstoys stories reflect every aspect of his art and personality. They cover his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his cult of truth and simplicity, and his growing preoccupation with religion.The stories in Volume 1 of the Collected Shorter Fiction date from the period in which the young Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Ranging from brief, masterfully sketches of military life such as The Wood-Felling to novellas like Family Happiness, an uneasy imagining of the idyllic possibilities of marriage by the not-yet-married writer, all feature Tolstoys characteristically lavish deployment of detail, shrewd observation, and imaginative power.Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (Book Jacket StatusJacketed)From the Hardcover edition.**