If you are a politics student, a businessman or a journalist interested in the Czech and Slovak Republics, read this book. In under 200 pages, Robin Shepherd has successfully drawn out almost all the key themes of the last decade of post-communist transition. The book is divided into eight self-standing chapters each dealing with a different theme, but the value of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in that it provides a coherent and comprehensive analytical framework for understanding the recent history of the two countries. Straight-forward histories of the post-revolution period too often fail to provide a broader context, thereby leaving many a journalist or analyst surprised or alarmed by subsequent events. How many predicted that Czechs and Slovaks would part ways in 1993 or that the Czech economy would sink into recession in the late 1990s for example. Shepherd, by eschewing chronology for analysis has produced a classic political textbook of the period, that is readable, rigorous and bristling with ideas.

He also doesn't pull his punches. Vaclav Klaus, Czech Prime Minister for much of the last decade is rightly lambasted for launching and then derailing free-market reforms. Shepherd argues that Klaus failed to understand the difference between "possession" which involves the mere physical control of assets and "property" which also involves enforceable legal title. By contrast, that distinction goes to the heart of much of the later writings of the Czech President, Vaclav Havel. Havel is presented not simply in the light of his anti-communist disent but as one of the most penetrating critics of post-communist society too. His 1997 speech attacking the Czech government for mishandling economic reform revealed that the President (supposedly ignorant of economics) had a better understanding of the economy than the trained economist Klaus. Havel's favourite theme of building a civil society is shown to be a crucial part of the proper functioning of free-market capitalism by providing the foundations of trust and transparency in public institutions.

Shepherd demonstrates a voracious appetite for digesting complex issues while remaining aware of their subtleties. He argues, for example, that the expulsion of 3 million Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II might have left the Czechs psychologically and morally ill-equipped to resist the subsequent propaganda of Communism. He highlights how the politics of personality --- Klaus in Prague and Meciar in Bratislava --- has stunted the development of healthy party political systems. And he warns that endemic corruption is particularly dangerous in emerging democracies because ordinary voters may be tempted to see salvation in a charismatic, strongman leader. To what extent such sentiments kept Meciar in power in Slovakia is unclear. Shepherd adds later that the Slovak premier's authoritarian style was also the consequence of his experience of repeated betrayal by former political allies. He might also have noted that crony-style-thug rule is still the norm in the more eastern parts of Europe, which has to do with more than just psychological dysfunction. Fortunateley, the vast majority of Slovaks uniting to force out Meciar in 1998 has, in the process, created a stronger appreciation of democracy.

Despite the Meciar period, the author is sympathetic to Slovak independence. He rejects the notion that the split was the result of "irrational fantasies" of extremists but more fairly as the consequence of the different speeds of economic development coupled with an unworkable communist-era federal constitution. At the same time he buries the arguments of many Slovak apologists for the wartime Nazi-puppet state: Either the war-time government was forced by Germany to deport its Jews to deathcamps, in which case Slovakia could hardly have been deemed independent or it did so willingly thereby morally damning itself.

There is one shortcoming in the book. Though Shepherd does document the failure of Czech and Slovak industry to restructure resulting in its subsequent demise, he hardly mentions what is increasingly taking its place and staving off economic collapse ---foreign direct investment. Subsidiaries of western multinational companies now account for most of both countries' exports and economic growth. It's an aspect of globalisation that may, one day, exact a high political price. This ommission does not, however, diminsh Shepherd's acheivement. There has been so much about the two countries that cries out for explanation. This book has, masterfully, provided just that.

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This collection of stories completely fascinated me. I was unaware of the cultural/ethical differences of the former GDR prior to reading this book. The tales told, brought me within a very real human existence. The feel of the book was very bare boned; even gritty. The women depicted within the stories were tough, open minded, believable characters. Through this book I was allowed to realize the daily routines of a society closed off to us. This was a fresh read compared to the dribble of modern american fiction.

It was during the 1820s that Illinois experienced one of the earliest and most important battles between the slavery and anti-slavery forces that unleashed riots, arson, and mob violence across the state -- and that would eventually culminate in the American Civil War. James Simeone's supports his contention that the contest over slavery in Illinois prefigured the course of national politics that would lead to four racking years of war with meticulous and scholarly research, revealing and documenting the complexity of the slave problem in fragile American republic. In attempting to bring slavery to a free state, white migrants from southern states hoped to create a "Bottomland Republic" of free and equal white yeoman farmers who could own slaves on the basis of popular sovereignty. Abolitionists allied themselves with the governing class of "aristocrats" against the upstart, pro-slavery migrants in a struggle that would alter the state's political culture and foreshadow the Democratic-Whig cleavage in antebellum politics. Democracy And Slavery In Frontier Illinois: The Bottomland Republic is an impressive and very welcome contribution to 19th century American history in general, and the neophyte struggles between pro- and anti-slavery forces on the Midwestern frontier in particular.

"Democracy from Scratch" explains, in theory and anecdote, why Russian politics were so confused around 1993. It is a special historical document -- and was quite an influence on me personally (in the form of a semester's worth of lectures) because Steven Fish was my senior thesis advisor.

This book focuses on the diplomatic history of the United States from 1801-1815. There is very little social history, and "the people" are usually only reffered to in their reaction to larger political and diplomatic events. However, the author's style is readable and catching. Diplomatic history can be very boring, but Smelser has melded academic scholarship with writing that can interest almost anyone.

As with most of Wiarda's works, I found this book to be particularly insightful. I have read well over 200 books on the subject and found this one to be of particular interst.

It details each stage of the Trujillo regime ending with its final demise. He charactarises the dictatorship as one which developes from traditional caudillo style into a totalitarian regime (or as near to one as possible). Wiarda gives us not only an analysis of the Trujillo dictatorship but a lesson in political science and dictator theory in general.

Well worth the price.

Despite its obscurity, this is a profound work of great historical importance to the foundations of the American Revolution as well as the perpetual struggle for liberty and justice. Algernon Sidney(1622-1683) was acclaimed by friends of liberty throughout the eighteenth century for his martyrdom in the stuggle against tyranny and arbitrary government. On December 7, 1683, he was executed by the Crown for the crime of high treason. While a conviction for this crime had long required two witnesses to testify for a defendant's guilt, the government was only able to produce one man, while the other witness was this very book, his great "Discourses," which were used against him because of the fact that they expounded subversive ideas.

Even today, at the dawn of the 21st century, it can quite accurately be said that his ideas are still subversive. Sidney, like his more famous contemporary, John Locke, was a staunch supporter of the natural rights of the individual to life, liberty, and estate(property). This work in particular, like Locke's "First Treatise," was originally undertaken as a refutation of Robert Filmer's "Patriarcha," which represented perhaps the clearest exposition of the theory of rule by "Divine Right." Sidney's work, however, is far more than a simple refutation. He engages in lengthy, erudite discussions of the relationship of liberty and slavery, liberty and power, master and slave, as well as virtue and corruption. Moreover, he presents an especially profound and radical case for the right to resist, oppose, reform, and even overthrow tyrannical government.

Indeed, it was these extreme notions that inspired generations of libertarian radicals throughout the English empire, but most profoundly, in the North American colonies. As the great historian Caroline Robbins made clear, Sidney's "Discourses" was a veritable "textbook of revolution" for the colonists in America. Along with Locke's "Two Treatises" and Trenchard & Gordon's "Cato's Letters," this volume served as pillars for the ideological foundation for the American Revolution, as well as the subsequent establishment of the American Republic.

However, despite the work's great insight and historical importance, the modern reader will certainly have a time of it when attempting to read through Sidney's lengthy and esoteric biblical references and allusions, and not to mention his in depth analysis of many other arcane topics. Thus, while this work is a rich resource on its own, I would highly recommend that any interested reader also pick up a copy of Alan Craig Houston's excellent study "Algernon Sidney and the Republican Heritage in England and America." Houston's work helps to illuminate aspects of Sidney's thought that the average reader may have misunderstood or even overlooked altogether. Nonetheless, even alone, this work stands as one of the true monuments in the history of liberty, and one can only hope that the Sidney's legacy will continue to enlighten and inspire the true friends of liberty for centuries to come.

This book is superb for historians of all levels who want to find out more about the 1848 revolutions in France, the book focuses on opinions from all classes of the era and is arranged in a highly navigable way. A great read!

The book helps students learn about the historical, geographical, sociological, and economic aspects of the Dominican Republic in interesting and simple stories.

A definite help to young students from the DR who do not have information about their native land. An excellent tool for Spanish speakers of all ages to learn English with the background of their homeland. Teachers of ESL do not overlook this book.

A really delightful introduction to the Dominican Republic. The photography is superb and both the pictures and the text are sophisticated enough for adults.