Author: Charles S. Maier Against the backdrop of one of the great transformations of our century, the sudden and unexpected fall of communism as a ruling system, Charles Maier recounts the history and demise of East Germany. Dissolution is his poignant, analytically provocative account of the decline and fall of the late German Democratic Republic. This book explains the powerful causes for the disintegration of German communism as it constructs the complex history of the GDR. Maier looks at the turning points in East Germany's forty-year history and at the mix of coercion and consent by which the regime functioned. He analyzes the GDR as it evolved from the purges of the 1950s to the peace movements and emerging youth culture of the 1980s, and then turns his attention to charges of Stasi collaboration that surfaced after 1989. In the context of describing the larger collapse of communism, Maier analyzes German elements that had counterparts throughout the Soviet bloc, including its systemic and eventually terminal economic crisis, corruption and privilege in the SED, the influence of the Stasi and the plight of intellectuals and writers, and the slow loss of confidence on the part of the ruling elite. He then discusses the mass protests and proliferation of dissident groups in 1989, the collapse of the ruling party, and the troubled aftermath of unification. Dissolution is the first book that spans the communist collapse and the ensuing process of unification, and that draws on newly available archival documents from the last phases of the GDR, including Stasi reports, transcripts of Politburo and Central Committee debates, and papers from the Economic Planning Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the office files of key party officials. This book is further bolstered by Maier's extensive knowledge of European history and the Cold War, his personal observations and conversations with East Germans during the country's dramatic transition, and memoirs and other eyewitness accounts published during the four-decade history of the GDR.

Navies have always been technologically sophisticated from the ancient worlds trireme galleys and the Age of Sails shipsoftheline to the dreadnoughts of World War I and todays nuclearpowered aircraft carriers and submarines Yet each large technical innovation has met with resistance and even hostility from those officers who adhering to a familiar warrior ethos have grown used to a certain style of fighting In Technological Change and the United States Navy William M McBride examines how the navy dealt with technological changefrom the end of the Civil War through the age of the battleshipas technology became more complex and the nation assumed a global role Although steam engines generally made their mark in the maritime world by 1865 for example and proved useful to the Union riverine navy during the Civil War a backlash within the service later developed against both steam engines and the engineers who ran them Early in the twentieth century the large dreadnought battleship at first met similar resistance from some officers including the famous Alfred Thayer Mahan and their industrial and political allies During the first half of the twentieth century the battleship exercised a dominant influence on those who developed the nations strategies and operational plansat the same time that advances in submarines and fixedwing aircraft complicated the picture and undermined the battleships superiority In any given period argues McBride some technologies initially threaten the navys image of itself Professional jealousies and insecurities ignorance and hidebound traditions arguably influenced the officer corps on matters of technology as much as concerns about national security and McBride contends that this dynamic persists today McBride also demonstrates the interplay between technological innovation and other influences on naval adaptabilityinternational commitments strategic concepts governmentindustrial relations and the constant influence of domestic politics Challenging technological determinism he uncovers the conflicting attitudes toward technology that guided naval policy between the end of the Civil War and the dawning of the nuclear age The evolution and persistence of the battleship navy he argues offer direct insight into the dominance of the aircraftcarrier paradigm after 1945 and into the twentyfirst century