Author: William W. Freehling File Type: mobi SynopsisIt is one of the great questions of American historywhy did the Southern states bolt from the Union and help precipitate the Civil War? Now, acclaimed historian William W. Freehling offers a new answer, in the final volume of his monumental history The Road to Disunion.br Here is history in the grand manner, a powerful narrative peopled with dozens of memorable portraits, telling this important story with skill and relish. Freehling highlights all the key moments on the road to war, including the violence in Bleeding Kansas, Preston Brookss beating of Charles Sumner in the Senate chambers, the Dred Scott Decision, John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry, and much more. As Freehling shows, the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked a political crisis, but at first most Southerners took a cautious approach, willing to wait and see what Lincoln would doespecially, whether he would take any antagonistic measures against the South. But at this moment, the extreme fringe in the South took charge, first in South Carolina and Mississippi, but then throughout the lower South, sounding the drum roll for secession. Indeed, The Road to Disunion is the first book to fully document how this decided minority of Southern hotspurs took hold of the secessionist issue and, aided by a series of fortuitous events, drove the South out of the Union. Freehling provides compelling profiles of the leaders of this movementmany of them members of the South Carolina elite. Throughout the narrative, he evokes a world of fascinating characters and places as he captures the drama of one of Americas most importantand least understoodstories. br The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning Secessionists at Bay, which was hailed as the most important history of the Old South ever published, this volume concludes a major contribution to our understanding of the Civil War. A compelling, vivid portrait of the final years of the antebellum South, The Road to Disunion will stand as an important history of its subject.The Washington Post - Jon MeechamThe strength of Freehlings new book, as well as of its predecessor, Prelude to Civil War, lies in how meticulously he recovers the complexities and shades of (non-Confederate) gray that complicate this short account of what Shelby Foote called the crossroads of our being. As Freehling notes, most Northerners were not fond of abolitionists and did not vote for Lincoln in 1860 as an emancipator, while most Southerners were not fond of fire-eaters and did not regard slavery as a permanent blessing.BiographyWilliam W. Freehling is one of the most distinguished American historians of the Civil War era. He is Singletary Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the University of Kentucky and Senior Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. He is the author of Prelude to Civil War, which won a Bancroft Prize, The Road to Disunion, Volume I Secessionists at Bay, and The South vs. the South How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War.

Author: Walter L. Adamson File Type: pdf This sweeping work, at once a panoramic overview and an ambitious critical reinterpretation of European modernism, provides a bold new perspective on a movement that defined the cultural landscape of the early twentieth century. Walter L. Adamson embarks on a lucid, wide-ranging exploration of the avant-garde practices through which the modernist generations after 1900 resisted the rise of commodity culture as a threat to authentic cultural expression. Taking biographical approaches to numerous avant-garde leaders, Adamson charts the rise and fall of modernist aspirations in movements and individuals as diverse as Ruskin, Marinetti, Kandinsky, Bauhaus, Purism, and the art critic Herbert Read. In conclusion, Adamson rises to the defense of the modernists, suggesting that their ideas are relevant to current efforts to think through what it might mean to create a vibrant, aesthetically satisfying form of cultural democracy.ReviewThis [is an] erudite, richly comparative study of avant-garde aesthetics and public engagement.--ModernismModernityFrom the Inside FlapAdamson leads his readers through intricate debates with care and skill. Even the non-specialist reader will come away with an understanding of the stakes in modernist studies.--Mary Gluck, author of Popular Bohemia Modernism and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century ParisNo serious student of the European avant-garde in the early twentieth century will be able to overlook this subtle and impassioned attempt to rethink its history its far-reaching ambitions and its strategies for achieving them, its successes and its failures. Because of Adamsons distinctive perspective and the breadth of his research, I persistently found myself being forced to rethink the history of the European avant-garde and question some of my own assumptions and conclusions.--Robert Wohl, author of The Spectacle of Flight Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950

Author: Alex Callinicos File Type: pdf In Imperialism and Global Political Economy Alex Callinicos intervenes in one of the main political and intellectual debates of the day. The global policies of the United States in the past decade have encouraged the widespread belief that we live in a new era of imperialism. But is this belief true, and what does imperialism mean?Callinicos explores these questions in this wide-ranging book. In the first part, he critically assesses the classical theories of imperialism developed in the era of the First World War by Marxists such as Lenin, Luxemburg, and Bukharin and by the Liberal economist J.A. Hobson. He then outlines a theory of the relationship between capitalism as an economic system and the international state system, carving out a distinctive position compared to other contemporary theorists of empire and imperialism such as Antonio Negri, David Harvey, Giovanni Arrighi, and Ellen Wood.In the second half of Imperialism and Global Political Economy Callinicos traces the history of capitalist imperialism from the Dutch East India Company to the specific patterns of economic and geopolitical competition in the contemporary era of American decline and Chinese expansion. Imperialism, he concludes, is far from dead.?ReviewHighly recommended - should be read by anyone looking for a sophisticated Marxist analysis of imperialism.International AffairsOne of the most outstanding works in Alex Callinicoss impressive list of publications ... packed with food for thought.International SocialismThese is a considerable disagreement as to what empire really means. Alex Callinicos new book, is a crucial intervention into these arguments ... Imperialism and Global Political Economy is an invaluable guide as well as a unique and persuasive argument by itself.Socialist WorkerAs Alex Calinicos argues in this important and impressive study, it is not enough to have a generalised understanding of empire and imperialism. Its strengths are, firstly, that it is historically open, in allowing for the exploration of different types of imperialism. Secondly, it is non-reductionist, since it involves a concrete analysis of the relative influence of each of these dimensions in each specific situation. Thirdly, and very importantly, it places competition at the heart of our understanding of imperialism. This book is both a valuable contribution to our understanding of modern imperialism and a powerful weapon in the struggle to end it.Socialist ReviewWhile Donald Rumsfeld famously declared that the US does not do empire, Callinicos does it very well. He draws on his immense breadth of theoretical and historical knowledge to put empire and imperialism in their place in the development of liberal, mainstream, radical, and Marxist thought and to situate the practices of empire and imperialism in the long duree of historical struggles and conflicts around capital accumulation on a world scale. This accessible book provides an important introduction to a complex field and explores the significance of contemporary as well as classical forms of imperialism. It is an important addition to the revival of interest in the critique of empire.Bob Jessop, Lancaster UniversityThis is a welcome intervention in the contemporary debates on imperialism. No one is better qualified for this task than Alex Callinicos. His compelling historical narrative, clear theoretical exposition and politically engaged adjudication make this essential reading not only for students of Marxism or International Relations, but also for anyone who wonders why, at the start of the twenty-first century, the Lenin-Bukharin thesis has not, will not, and should not go away. Justin Rosenberg, University of SussexFrom the Back CoverIn Imperialism and Global Political Economy Alex Callinicos intervenes in one of the main political and intellectual debates of the day. The global policies of the United States in the past decade have encouraged the widespread belief that we live in a new era of imperialism. But is this belief true, and what does imperialism mean?Callinicos explores these questions in this wide-ranging book. In the first part, he critically assesses the classical theories of imperialism developed in the era of the First World War by Marxists such as Lenin, Luxemburg, and Bukharin and by the Liberal economist J.A. Hobson. He then outlines a theory of the relationship between capitalism as an economic system and the international state system, carving out a distinctive position compared to other contemporary theorists of empire and imperialism such as Antonio Negri, David Harvey, Giovanni Arrighi, and Ellen Wood.In the second half of Imperialism and Global Political Economy Callinicos traces the history of capitalist imperialism from the Dutch East India Company to the specific patterns of economic and geopolitical competition in the contemporary era of American decline and Chinese expansion. Imperialism, he concludes, is far from dead.

Author: Ray Kroc File Type: epub He either enchants or antagonizes everyone he meets. But even his enemies agree there are three things Ray Kroc does damned well sell hamburgers, make money, and tell stories. --from Grinding It Out Few entrepreneurs can claim to have radically changed the way we live, and Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food-service automation, franchising, shared national training, and advertising have earned him a place beside the men and women who have founded not only businesses, but entire empires. But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business man is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical self-made tycoon, Kroc was fifty-two years old when he opened his first franchise. Inem font-style italic Grinding It Out, youll meet the man behind McDonalds, one of the largest fast-food corporations in the world with over 32,000 stores around the globe. Irrepressible enthusiast, intuitive people person, and born storyteller, Kroc will fascinate and inspire you on every page. **