Exuberant and ambitious, The Fifties delves into a decade that remains a monumental and lasting turning point in American history Joe McCarthy. Marilyn Monroe. The H-bomb. Ozzie and Harriet. Elvis. Civil rights. It's undeniable: The fifties were a defining decade for America, complete with sweeping cultural change and political upheaval. This decade is also the focus of David Halberstam's triumphant The Fifties, which stands as an enduring classic...

In Secession and Security, Ahsan I. Butt argues that states, rather than separatists, determine whether a secessionist struggle will be peaceful, violent, or genocidal. He investigates the strategies, ranging from negotiated concessions to large-scale repression, adopted by states in response to separatist movements. Variations in the external security environment, Butt argues, influenced the leaders of the Ottoman Empire to use peaceful concessions...

In this controversial text, Sorel, a noted revolutionary, voices his belief in class warfare as a means of effecting lasting social change. His searching inquiry extends to the functions of violence, the sources of political power, the weapons of revolution, and the role of myths in converting and motivating people.

Socialism was man's most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine claiming to ground itself in science. Each failure to create societies of abundance or give birth to the New Man inspired more searching for the path to the promised land: revolution, communes, social democracy, communism, fascism, Third World socialism. None worked, and some exacted a staggering human toll. Then, after two centuries of wishful thinking and fitful governance,...

A comprehensive history of World War II analyzes the factors that affected the war's outcome and presents stories of many little-known individuals whose experiences displayed the epitome of courage and self-sacrifice.

The definitive history of Weimar politics, culture, and society A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice A Financial Times Best Book of the Year Thoroughly up-to-date, skillfully written, and strikingly illustrated, Weimar Germany brings to life an era of unmatched creativity in the twentieth century-one whose influence and inspiration still resonate today. Eric Weitz has written the authoritative history that this fascinating and complex period...

A New York Times Bestseller This acccount of a 36-day walk across Afghanistan, starting just weeks after the fall of the Taliban, is "stupendous…an instant travel classic" (Entertainment Weekly). In January 2002, Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan, surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and...

On April 15, 1912, the HMS Titanic sank, killing 1,517 people and leaving the rest clinging to debris in the frozen waters of the North Atlantic awaiting rescue. Here, historian Nick Barratt tells the ship's full story, starting from its original conception and design by owners and naval architects at the White Star Line through its construction at the shipyards in Belfast. Lost Voices From the Titanic offers tales of incredible folly and unimaginable...

The Amritsar Massacre of 1919 was a seminal moment in the history of the British Empire, yet it remains poorly understood. In this dramatic account, Kim A. Wagner details the perspectives of ordinary people and argues that General Dyer's order to open fire at Jallianwalla Bagh was an act of fear. Situating the massacre within the "deep" context of British colonial mentality and the local dynamics of Indian nationalism, Wagner provides a genuinely...

An examination of one of the most important yet underexplored aspects of World War II--intelligence--shows how espionage successes and failures by the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany, and Japan influenced the course of the war and its final outcome.