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Radio Free Europe
The story of Radio Free Europe’s role during the Cold War, as recounted by veteran RFE official J. F. Brown, who served as director from 1978 to 1983. Jim Brown had written about Eastern Europe from RFE, but never about RFE?until he wrote this book. He conveys his understanding of how Radio Free Europe functioned as a decentralized organization that empowered exiles, while also conveying what it, and they, could?and could not?offer East European listeners. Jim Brown’s explanations of the function of the central news department as an internal news agency, of discussions with and trust of exile broadcast chiefs, of RFE’s cautious approach to broadcasting to Poland under martial law after...
Blaming No One
Personal and professional reflections from a former US Foreign Service officer. This book is a series of reflections at the point of retirement from the U.S. Foreign Service after a career spent in locations around the globe. The collection of public blog postings, all colored by the author’s experience, include short essays on the following themes: personal anecdote, people/profiles, foreign policy as seen by a mid-level official, human nature, government functions, and “other”—ranging from music to immigration to condominium rules on dog comportment. Marked by a tone of light humor and social and institutional criticism, Blaming No One is an easy, entertaining read that also questions and challenges facile suppositions and notes many historic moments of interest.
Real and Phantom Pains
An anthology of ten plays embodying the Russian literary movement that began in the late twentieth century. The plays selected for this anthology reflect the issues and styles typical of the new wave of dramatic writing in Russia. New drama flourished (almost) exclusively in small spaces, often in dingy basements that employed and accommodated small numbers of people. The big theaters largely turned a blind eye to what was happening on small stages and in backrooms in playhouses, libraries, and community centers in a few chosen hot spots around Russia: primarily Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Togliatti. In many cases, they took actively hostile stances toward it. This would change, however. And b...
The Earliest Church
“Exciting reading for anyone who wants to experience the initial development of Christianity as the work of humans essentially just like us.” —David Goldfrank, Professor of History, Georgetown University This book brings to life the lived experience of the disciples after Christ’s death, the possibilities they faced, and the choices they made—and how these all shaped the direction the Church would take. “In The Earliest Church, the late Rev. William P. Sampson, SJ, takes us on a journey of imagination, spirit, and theological contemplation. By helping us to explore the earliest days of the Church, he guides us into a deeper understanding of our Church in the present day. Just as ...
The Rise of the Therapeutic Society
An examination of the Western world’s contemporary fascination with psychological life, and the historical developments that fostered it. In this book, sociologist Katie Wright traces the ascendancy of therapeutic culture, from nineteenth-century concerns about nervousness, to the growth of psychology, the diffusion of an analytic attitude, and the spread of therapy and counseling, using Australia as a focal point. Wright’s analysis, which draws on social theory, cultural history, and interviews with therapists and people in therapy, calls into question the pessimism that pervades many accounts of the therapeutic turn and provides an alternative assessment of its ramifications for social, political, and personal life in the globalized West. Special Commendation, TASA Raewyn Connell Prize
Pot Shards
“Donald Gregg’s career . . . would make a great spy novel. This autobiography makes an even better book.” —Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and bestselling author of Enemies Pot Shards is a memoir, based on the author’s unforgettable experiences. He served as a CIA agent on the island of Saipan, during ten years in Japan, and a tour in Burma. He then spent four years tied up in the Vietnam War, two tours in Korea, the second time as ambassador, and spent ten years in the White House, where he worked for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. “Don Gregg is that authentic and admirable thing: a great American. He spent most of his life serving his country:...
The Reagan-Gorbachev Arms Control Breakthrough
An analysis of the negotiations, both international and domestic, behind this landmark treaty through the words of those directly involved. This book analyzes the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear force missiles through vivid, fresh impressions by those who conducted the INF negotiations. The Reagan-Gorbachev Arms Control Breakthrough brings this period to life through the writing of key participants in the seminal negotiations leading to the completion of the INF Treaty and the ensuing epic struggle to secure its ratification by the U.S. Senate. The book provides an astute balance between the assessments of senior negotiators; “nuts and bolts” observations on specific elements of the Treaty by in-the-trenches negotiators; the tangles that challenged the keenest of legal minds; and the political maneuvers required to bring it through the pits and deadfalls of the Senate. Additionally, The Reagan-Gorbachev Arms Control Breakthrough provides an often-forgotten perspective of the moment, offering the opportunity for retrospective judgment. Is there a test that time demands? Are there “lessons learned,” conceived at the time, that still pass that test?
The Swallows of Monte Cassino
The Strega Prize–winning author of The Girl with a Leica delivers a novel that hinges on one of the bloodiest World War II battles and those who fought it. In this highly original novel, Janeczek retells the four-month-long Battle of Monte Cassino from the point of view of the Maori, Gurkha, Polish, North African, small-town American and other Allied foot soldiers who fought and died under German fire near that 6th century Benedictine abbey. Twined through the battle is another story, a memory of the drowned and the saved in Janeczek’s own family in wartime Eastern Europe, where Jews who did not go to Nazi death camps went to Soviet gulag camps, and sometimes survived, and even went on t...
Rude Awakenings
The story of a man navigating an era of upheaval, persecution, and suspicion: “A must read for students of 20th-century political and intellectual history.” —Robert Cohen, Professor of History and Social Studies Education, New York University Drawing on family papers, wide-ranging interviews, FBI files, American and German newspapers, a wide array of published sources, and her own memories, Carol Sicherman traces Harry Marks’s German American heritage, his education both formal and informal, his marriage to a fellow Communist from a poor Russian family, his rocky start as an academic, his anguish when confronted by his Communist past, and his ultimate creation of a satisfying career....
Sustaining the League of Women Voters in America
A look at the decline of civic engagement, and how nonpartisan organizations like the League of Women Voters can help save and promote democracy. Throughout our history, civic associations have enabled democracy through citizen training, education, and responsible advocacy. But Americans have increasingly withdrawn from such civic activity, and most associations that remain lack public accountability, local presence, and active membership. In the absence of other engagement vehicles, a fundamental requirement for viable American democratic culture is lacking. To consider whether democracy and associations can still be positively linked, Maria Hoyt Cashin considers lessons drawn from the Leag...
