I had to read this book for my history class (my Professor is Ernest Obadele-Starks!) This book gives all the inside scoop about why and how unions were formed, how the FECP help minorities, and some of the flaws of the FECP. I think it's a good book to read to learn more about unions and racism during the mid 1900's. I think Dr. Starks is an excellent professor and this book tells a lot about his knowledge in the subject.

The Blind Musician is an excellent story, aimed at a younger audience, but possessing the depth to make it a good read for all ages. The protagonist, born blind, is incredibly sensitive to the world around him but lacks the language of the sighted to express it. This expression is finally achieved through his remaining primary sense - sound - and the world unfolds before him. In hardcover, the exquisite artwork makes it a beautiful gift for a sighted child or for anyone who appreciates the many ways the world can be 'seen'.

Alexander Litvinenko is a 20-year veteran of the Russian military, achieving the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and serving in the KGB Department for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations, only to be arrested for disclosing a number of illegal orders he'd received and imprisoned. He escaped from Russia and received political asylum in Britain in May 2001. Yuri Felshtinsky studied history at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and immigrated to America in 1978 where he obtained a doctorate in history from Rutgers. Felshtinsky is a recognized expert on Soviet Affairs and the other of several books on Russian history and politics. In Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within, Litvinenko and Felshtinsky collaborate to reveal a scathing accusation of the Russian special services, holding them responsible for acts of terror, kidnappings, contract killings, and efforts to steer Russia back to being a dictatorship. Blowing Up Russia also strenuously denounces the war in Chechnya for its deleterious toll on human life and freedom. A sobering, persuasively charged account, Blowing Up Russia is an essential text for Soviet Studies academic reference collections, and should be mandatory reading for anyone having political, cultural, or economic dealings with present-day Russia.

Agoston's piece is surely one of the best recounting of WWII history -- an entertaining and educational read.

This is the definitive source for an unbiased account of the Russian Revolution. Volume one of a three volume series, it covers the origins of the Bolshevik party to and through the taking of power in 1917. The most immediately apparent attribute to this work is its even handedness; this is the place to go if you want an account of what really happened, not the traditional right-wing or left-wing spin.

I was forced to read this book, in that I took a class taught by the author. Fortunately, I didn't have to steel my soul and tell her to her face that it reeked (not that I would have had the guts to do that anyhow), for it was definitely the best book we read in that particular Russian history class. Recounting the histories of Soviet women both well-known (Kollontai) and not so well-known (Zemliachka), Clements shows, in well-structured arguments, how the women of the Bolshevik movement, feminists as well as socialists, interpreted their feminist mission in the context of what they felt must happen in Russia before women and other oppressed minorities truly gained equal rights. One of the most fascinating themes in the book is how Soviet women viewed their task in contrast to the Western suffragist movement, which was largely led by the well-to-do. This book is an excellent introduction to Soviet history in the early years and offers several directions for study in the history of the Soviet Union and of feminism.

For being Boris V.Savinkov' nephew,I must say that the reading of Mr.R.Spence Book has been more than a surprise to me.For once somebody took the challenge to bring out of the shade the rather stange character of this "lost hero".Through the reading of "Renegade from the left" one can understand the tumultuous life of Boris V.Savinkov and its implications in history.The precision of this monograph shows how seriouly the historical research has been conducted,for there is not a single fact wich is not bound to a file location.Reading this book I had the chance to descover who my uncle was and his "performance" in history did amazed me.As I have recently started a genealogical and historical research about all the members of my family,this book helps me a lot .Thank you to Mr R.Spence and to the East Europeen Monograph edition!!!

This is a fascinating book wrapped around a fresh presentation. The author has essentially presented the history of each division and brigade that served in the campaign, and does so with a smooth and fast-paced style. We learn about the commander(s), the units involved, actions, marches, significant events, and so forth. Division histories are presented in standard format, while each brigade entry is double-columned--a slick idea (it is an oversize book, so it works well). Each entry is followed with a useful series of end notes / bibliography that makes it easy to find more information about each unit. A complete bibliography is also included at the end of the book. The maps included in the front are standard George Skoch fare, but excellent. Although I did not see anything new or striking, that is not the purpose of this book.

This book, coupled with Larry Tagg's The Generals of Gettysburg, which came out a few years ago, compliment eachother nicely. I highly recommend both. This current title is a must for all Gettysburg students.

Anthony Forster's volume is a timely case study of Britain's role in the Maastricht negotiations. Its informative narrative and empirical analysis are based on a thorough understanding of the intricacies of intergovernmental conference (IGC) diplomacy and the domestic politics of one of the European Community's/Union's larger member states. Forster concisely explains the relationship between the two intergovernmental conferences on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and Political Union and the significant reasons behind their linkage: 1. the requirements of domestic ratification of the two Treaties that emerged from the Maastricht European Council in December 1991; 2. and an implicit understanding between Mitterrand and Kohl that their countries' commitment to European integration was a long-term one.

Forster chooses an in-depth look at one member state's domestic and European priorities over a manageable time period thus allowing him to analyze the constitutional, economic, historical, ideological, institutional, political and social facet's of Britain's policy in Europe. In view of the legacy Mrs. Thatcher bequeathed to her successor, Mr. John Major, the ideological aspect is particularly relevant on the domestic political scene; here Forster is balanced in his analysis of "the party management dimension." Likewise, Forster distinguishes intelligently between the important role Delors played in the EMU conference from that of the Commission as a whole and from Delors' difficulties during the negotiations on Political Union. Always present is a well-crafted profile of the national context, including debates about the implications of deeper integration for British sovereignty, discussions about the economic merits of a single currency and conflicts among personalities brought up by EMU within the ranks of Conservative party politics.

Forster is right to consider the tactical mistakes British negotiators made on the EMU dossier, especially their failure to understand the importance of EMU as a common goal for the other member states with the possible exception of Denmark for reasons of constitutional and parliamentary politics. His sole focus on Britain's strategy and tactics does not offer him an opportunity to consider either the attitudinal structuring inherent in the EMU bargain or its integrative dimension. Nonetheless, Forster's analysis is sensitive to the fact that all negotiations contain elements of distributive, integrative and intraorganizational bargaining as well as attitudinal structuring.

As Forster explains, the intergovernmental nature of the Treaty on European Union, epitomized by its pillar structure in the eyes of numerous analysts, "should not be exaggerated." Indeed as a complement to the lines traced in the legal dimension by Bruno de Witte, Forster questions the ability of the JHA and CFSP pillars to remain detached from the institutional dynamics of Community decision-making. Significantly, the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty provides yet another test in this regard. The key point underlined by Forster is that the results of Maastricht allowed the Community to become increasingly embedded in the domestic decision-making of the member states, a process Wolfgang Wessels and Dietrich Rometsch analyze conceptually as "institutional fusion," in terms of "mutual influence and interdependence."

In this context, there is no sequencing in the definition of preferences in the European policy-making of most member states. As Forster explains, although national priorities dominated British thinking on Maastricht, increasingly there is an on-going simultaneous definition of national and European objectives. Here it is necessary to question the degree to which the ever present weight of decisions taken in daily integration influences the negotiators at the table during intergovernmental conference diplomacy, particularly in the more federally-minded member states like the Federal Republic of Germany. In related research beyond the scope of this volume, an analysis of the interactions between the domestic politics of sectoral integration and the domestic politics of a member state's Treaty ratification process, as both are linked to a state's interests defined in IGC diplomacy, may provide clues as to the constraints that shape the "win-set" for participants in future intergovernmental conferences.

The dynamics of changes to the east and south of Europe are bound to exacerbate the distributive dimension of negotiations in the Union as the interests of the members states increasingly diverge. Although coalition politics has a role to play in Council negotiations, the traditional Franco-German alliance is changing in light of EMU's implementation, the challenge of budgetary politics and the prospect of future enlargements. In this volume, Forster at times underestimates the nature and impact of the "privileged partnership" at Maastricht. It is clear, however, that the impetus to integrate provided by historic Franco-German cooperation was noticeably absent throughout the 1996 IGC. The collective impact of the Scandinavian countries, the smaller states, the Presidency and, finally, Blair's Britain came to the fore shaping the results at Amsterdam. This leaves open questions as to the role and influence of larger states in a Union bound to include an increasing number of smaller states in the decades ahead. This is only one of the issues that Forster's book lays the groundwork to analyze. For those concerned about and with the future of integration in Europe, this volume is the most empirically well-researched analysis in print on British conference diplomacy at Maastricht.

Jacoby provides a comprehensive introduction to the complex issues surrounding women and trade union participation in the early twentieth century via a history of the Women's Trade Union Leagues of Britain and the United States. The book is well referenced and a must for any serious student of labour women in this period.