Author: William Smaldone
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442209097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364
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Book Description
This accessible text offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to European socialism, which arose in the maelstrom of the industrial and democratic revolutions launched in the eighteenth century. Striving for sweeping social, economic, cultural, and political change, socialists were a diverse lot. However, they were united by principles asserting the social and political equality of all people, ideas that won the adherence of millions and struck fear in the hearts of their numerous opponents. William Smaldone shows how, over the course of 200 years, socialists successfully promoted the democratization of European society and a more equitable division of wealth. At the same time, he illustrates how conflicts over the means of achieving their aims divided them into rival “socialist” and “communist” currents, a rift that undercut the struggle against fascism and helped lay the groundwork for Europe’s division during the Cold War. Although many predicted the demise of socialism as a potent force after the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s dissolution, and the rise of neo-liberal ideology, recent developments show that such a judgment was premature. The author argues that the growth of new socialist parties across Europe indicates that socialist ideas remain vibrant in the face of capitalism’s failure to solve chronic social and economic problems, especially following the deep global crisis that began in 2008. Combining an analytical narrative with a selection of primary texts and visual images, this book provides undergraduate students with a brief, readable history, including an overview of how socialist political movements have evolved over time and stressing the rich diversity that has characterized socialism’s foundations from its beginning.
Author: Leszek Balcerowicz
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 963386495X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
This volume gathers together essays on the theme of economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe, written by the former Polish Minister of Finance. In it, the author summarizes the research on institutions, institutional change and human behaviour that he has undertaken since the late 1970s. He addresses such issues as the socialist market economy, reformability of the Soviet-type economic system, democratization and market-orientated reform in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Polish model of economic reform.
Author: Christiane Lemke
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822311973
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
The revolutions in Eastern Europe and the recasting of socialism in Western Europe since 1989 have given rise to intense debate over the origins, character, and implications of the "crisis" of socialism. Is socialism in ideological, electoral, or organizational decline? Is the decline inevitable or can socialism be revitalized? This volume draws together historians and political scientists of Eastern and Western European politics to address these questions. The collection begins with an historical overview of socialism in Western Europe and moves toward the suggestion of a framework for a post-socialist discourse. Among the topics covered are: the birth and death of communism and a regime type in Eastern Europe; how different forms of national communism were smothered by Sovietization in the postwar period; the origins of revolutions in Eastern Europe; the potential for social democracy in Hungary; the role of the Left in a reunified German; and directions for the Left in general. Contributors. Geoff Eley, Konrad Jarausch, Herbert Kitschelt, Christiane Lemke, Andrei Markovits, Gary Marks, Wolfgang Merkel, Norman Naimark, Iván and Szonja Szelénya, Sharon Wolchik
Author: Albert S. Lindemann
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300032468
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412
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Book Description
This is a serious and accomplished synthesis. . . . Biographical vignettes enliven the presentation of ideas, and references to studies of regional diversities . . . give the narrative an uncommonly rich texture. . . . Lucid and illuminating. . . . It is the best book on the subject to put into the hands of our students.--Helmut Gruber, International Labor and Working Class History A synthetic narrative by a young academic scholar . . . who has independent ideas on an important subject. . . . This book is worth reading if for no other reason than its modest, but nonpatronizing rehabilitation from generations of Marxist caricature of a host of deeply democratic European socialists.--James H. Billington, Washington Post Book World One asset of this book is its lack of the overbearing personal partisanship one finds in so many historical studies of socialism. . . . [Lindeman incorporates] some recent and inaccessible studies in social history written 'from the bottom up.'--David D'Arcy, World View As a whole, Lindemann offers a more balanced treatment of the ideas and the movement of socialism than found in many extant histories. . . . A must for all college and university libraries.--Choice A competent and fair-minded study of a controversial subject. It presents much factual material and judicious interpretation in lucid prose.--L. S. Stavrianos, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Author: Carl Landauer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520346726
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1200
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Book Description
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1959.
Author: Donald Sassoon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857715305
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1006
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Book Description
On 14 July 1889, the centenary of the French Revolution, socialist parties from all corners of Europe met in Paris. On the same day in the same city, the Exposition Universelle was launched to mark the achievements of capitalist production. The two events symbolized the beginning of the epic struggle between socialism and capitalism in Europe.; In this comprehensive study of a century of socialism, the author traces the fortunes of the political parties of the Left in Western Europe. From the rise of the Bolsheviks to the fall of the Berlin wall, from the Second International through two world wars to the Cold War and the birth of the welfare state, from the working class militancy and student uprisings of the 1960s, through the revival of feminism and the arrival of "green" politics, to the reluctant embrace of market economics en route to the millennium, Donald Sassoon charts the course of socialism across 14 countries.; He shows that throughout their history the fortunes of socialism and capitalism have been inextricably linked. They have grown up side by side, each one challenging and seeking to destroy, yet nourishing and shaping the other.
Author: Emanuela Grama
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253044839
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Focusing on Romania from 1945 to 2016, Socialist Heritage explores the socialist state's attempt to create its own heritage, as well as the legacy of that project. Contrary to arguments that the socialist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe aimed to erase the pre-war history of the socialist cities, Emanuela Grama shows that the communist state in Romania sought to exploit the past for its own benefit. The book traces the transformation of a central district of Bucharest, the Old Town, from a socially and ethnically diverse place in the early 20th century, into an epitome of national history under socialism, and then, starting in the 2000s, into the historic center of a European capital. Under socialism, politicians and professionals used the district's historic buildings, especially the ruins of a medieval palace discovered in the 1950s, to emphasize the city's Romanian past and erase its ethnically diverse history. Since the collapse of socialism, the cultural and economic value of the Old Town has become highly contested. Bucharest's middle class has regarded the district as a site of tempting transgressions. Its poor residents have decried their semi-decrepit homes, while entrepreneurs and politicians have viewed it as a source of easy money. Such arguments point to recent negotiations about the meanings of class, political participation, and ethnic and economic belonging in today's Romania. Grama's rich historical and ethnographic research reveals the fundamentally dual nature of heritage: every search for an idealized past relies on strategies of differentiation that can lead to further marginalization and exclusion.
Author: Carl A. Landauer
Publisher: Literary Licensing, LLC
ISBN: 9781258168766
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1198
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Book Description
In Two Volumes. Volume 1, From The Industrial Revolution To The First World War And Its Aftermath; Volume 2, The Socialist Struggle Against Capitalism And Totalitarianism.
Author: Marsha Siefert
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9633863384
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484
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Book Description
Labor regimes under communism in East-Central Europe were complex, shifting, and ambiguous. This collection of sixteen essays offers new conceptual and empirical ways to understand their history from the end of World War II to 1989, and to think about how their experiences relate to debates about labor history, both European and global. The authors reconsider the history of state socialism by re-examining the policies and problems of communist regimes and recovering the voices of the workers who built them. The contributors look at work and workers in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. They explore the often contentious relationship between politics and labor policy, dealing with diverse topics including workers’ safety and risks; labor rights and protests; working women’s politics and professions; migrant workers and social welfare; attempts to control workers’ behavior and stem unemployment; and cases of incomplete, compromised, or even abandoned processes of proletarianization. Workers are presented as active agents in resisting and supporting changes in labor policies, in choosing allegiances, and in defining the very nature of work.
Author: John Hampden Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Socialism
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
