Best of
World-History

1969

Civilisation


Kenneth Clark - 1969
    Art

The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry Into the Fall of France in 1940


William L. Shirer - 1969
    Shirer stood in the streets of Paris and watched the unending flow of gray German uniforms along its boulevards. In just six lovely weeks in the spring and summer of 1940 a single battle brought down in total military defeat one of the world's oldest, greatest, and most civilized powers—the second mightiest empire on earth and the possessor of one of the finest military machines ever assembled. How did it happen? After nearly a decade of research in the massive archives left from World War II and after hundreds of conversations with the Third Republic's leaders, generals, diplomats, and ordinary citizens, Shirer presents the definitive answer in his stunning re-creation of why and how France fell before Hitler's armies in 1940. His book is also a devastating examination of the confusion, corruption, and cynicism that drained the strength and toughness of a democracy which Thomas Jefferson once called "every man's second country." This book complements and completes the dramatic story of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and continues to rank as one of the most important works of history of our time.

From Babylon to Timbuktu: A History of the Ancient Black Races Including the Black Hebrews


Rudolph R. Windsor - 1969
    It sets forth, in fascinating detail, the history, from earliest recorded times, of the black races of the Middle East and Africa.

Clouds Above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 1


Ryōtarō Shiba - 1969
    An epic portrait of Japan in crisis, it combines graphic military history and highly readable fiction to depict an aspiring nation modernizing at breakneck speed. Best-selling author Shiba Ryōtarō devoted an entire decade of his life to this extraordinary blockbuster, which features Japan's emerging onto the world stage by the early years of the twentieth century.Volume I describes the growth of Japan s fledgling Meiji state, a major "character" in the novel. We are also introduced to our three heroes, born into obscurity, the brothers Akiyama Yoshifuru and Akiyama Saneyuki, who will go on to play important roles in the Japanese Army and Navy, and the poet Masaoka Shiki, who will spend much of his short life trying to establish the haiku as a respected poetic form.Anyone curious as to how the "tiny, rising nation of Japan" was able to fight so fiercely for its survival should look no further. Clouds above the Hill is an exciting, human portrait of a modernizing nation that goes to war and thereby stakes its very existence on a desperate bid for glory in East Asia.

Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference


Fredrik Barth - 1969
    Today this much-cited classic is regarded as the seminal volume from which stems much current anthropological thinking about ethnicity.Ethnic Groups and Boundaries opens with Barth's invaluable thirty-page essay that introduces readers to important theoretical issues in the analysis of ethnic groups. Following is a collection of seven essays - the results of a symposium involving a small group of Scandinavian social anthropologists - intended to illustrate the application of Barth's analytical viewpoints to different sides of the problems of polyethnic organization in various ethnographic areas, including Norway, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Laos.

Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism


Рой Медведев - 1969
    The internationally known historian Roy Medvedev has included more than one-hundred new interviews, unpublished memoirs, and archives from survivors of Stalin's death camps. This updated version of a classic work was written during a time of great change in the Soviet Union. With the advent of perestroika and glasnost, more progressive leadership has sought to demolish the Stalinist system which had finally crippled the Soviet Union and incited public discontent.Let History Judge contains new material on purges in 1929-1931 and terror against the peasantry; the Kirov assasination and show trials; the "great terror" from 1936-1938, which caused irreparable damage to the Soviet Union and left it vulnerable for Hilter's attack in 1941; the trial of Bukharin; Trotsky's revolutionary activity and Stalin's involvement with his murder in Mexico; Stalin's miscalculations and errors during the war, which cost the Soviet Union nearly 25 million in casualties; new purges from 1946-1953; and the actual vote of the Seventeenth Congress, which decided Stalin's candidacy.Since the first edition was finished by the author in 1969 and published in 1971, dozens of new informants have come forward to give their evidence to Roy Medvedev. Distinguished Soviet literary, cultural, and political figures like the late Alexander Twardovsky, Ilja Ehrenburg, Konstantin Simonov, Yuri Trifono, Mikhail Romm and many others have accumulated documentary records of Stalinism in anticipation of an expanded version.

A History of Western Philosophy, Volume 2: The Medieval Mind


W.T. Jones - 1969
    Jones and Fogelin weave key passages from classic philosophy works into their comments and criticisms, giving A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY the combined advantages of a source book and textbook. The text concentrates on major figures in each historical period, combining exposition with direct quotations from the philosophers themselves. The text places philosophers in appropriate cultural context and shows how their theories reflect the concerns of their times.

The German Dictatorship


Karl Dietrich Bracher - 1969
    None, however, has satisfactorily explained why the Weimar Republic failed, how Hitler succeeded in taking power, and whether National Socialism has been truly defeated or survives in Germany today. In his search for the answers to these questions, Karl Dietrich Bracher has written what has already been acclaimed as a masterpiece of historical and political analysis, the most comprehensive and illuminating study of National Socialism to appear to date."

Trafalgar: The Nelson Touch


David Howarth - 1969
    Many people know the facts about Nelson's death, but far less of the battle in which he died: a single afternoon's fighting that forever ended Napoleon's hope of invading England. With Napoleon's failure, the British navy reigned supreme on the high seas-a supremacy that lasted until the age of air power. David Howard, who served as a war correspondent during the battle of Dunkirk and won awards for his service as a secret agent during that war, writes with great understanding about fighting amidst the perils of the sea.

We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World


Melvyn Dubofsky - 1969
    Originally published in 1969, Melvyn Dubofsky's We Shall Be All has remained the definitive archive-based history of the IWW. While much has been written on aspects of the IWW's history in the past three decades, nothing has duplicated or surpassed this authoritative work. The present volume, an abridged version of this labor history classic, makes the compelling story of the IWW accessible to a new generation of readers. In its heyday, between 1905 and 1919, the IWW nourished a dream of a better America where poverty-–material and spiritual–-would be erased and where all people, regardless of nationality or color, would walk free and equal. More than half a century ago the Wobblies tried in their own ways to grapple with issues that still plague the nation in a more sophisticated and properous era. Their example has inspired radicals in America and abroad over the greater part of a century

The Gun That Made The Twenties Roar


William J. Helmer - 1969
    Academically researched and crisply written, "The Gun that Made the Twenties Roar" tackles the history of the Thompson submachine gun-- a prized utility of Chicago Prohibition gangsters and a world-wide cultural symbol of America thanks to Hollywood movies. Helmer carefully details the original development and manufacture of a weapon that was supposed to be law enforcement's ultimate tool, but instead found its way into the hands of the Chicago gangs of the 1920s and the Midwestern bank robbers of the 1930s. Particularly outstanding are the excellent photo reprints, diagrams, manuals, and advertisements illustrating the times and the weapon.

The Biblical Philosophy of History


Rousas John Rushdoony - 1969
    

Encyclopedia Of Jewish Humor; From Biblical Times To The Modern Age


Henry D. Spalding - 1969
    Spalding allows 40 centuries of Jewry to speak for itself, not through tears, but laughter; sometimes with a sigh, but mostly in jubilant fashion.

The Conquistadors


Hammond Innes - 1969
    Color PlatesForewordPart 1: Ferdinand & IsabellaPart 2: CortesPrelude to conquestThe march to MexicoThe AztecsThe enigma of MoctezumaDefeat & conquestPart 3: Pizarro The gold seekersExpeditions to the AndesThe IncasMassacre, gold & civil warPart 4: The aftermathAuthor's NotesAcknowledgments for IllustrationsIndexIndex of Maps

Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department


Dean Acheson - 1969
    He joined the Department of State in 1941 as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and, with brief intermissions, was continuously involved until 1953, when he left office as Secretary of State at the end of the Truman years.Throughout that time Acheson's was one of the most influential minds and strongest wills at work. It was a period that included World War II, the reconstruction of Europe, the Korean War, the development of nuclear power, the formation of the United Nations and NATO. It involved him at close quarters with a cast that starred Truman, Roosevelt, Churchill, de Gaulle, Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Attlee, Eden Bevin, Schuman, Dulles, de Gasperi, Adenauer, Yoshida, Vishinsky, and Molotov.

Against the Current: Selections from the Novels, Essays, Notes, and Letters of Konstantin Leontiev


Konstantin Leontiev - 1969
    

Problems of the Chinese Revolution


Leon Trotsky - 1969
    

Augustus


John Buchan - 1969
    This man was Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, and he was perhaps the least likely candidate to return stability to the Republic. But by AD 14 Octavian had established peace over an empire that stretched from the shores of Britain to Anatolia. Power, prosperity and propaganda had seen him renamed as Augustus, ‘The Divinely Favoured One.’ He had become a God, and had changed the face of the Republic forever. In Augustus (1937) renowned writer John Buchan achieves a remarkable feat of historical biography. His inimitable style for storytelling colours the life of Rome’s first Emperor, whilst remaining a valuable resource for historians. The writing is as readable as Tom Holland, the story as entertaining as Robert Graves and Robert Harris. It is the perfect accompaniment to the likes of Rubicon, Dynasty, Dictator and I, Claudius. If you love Roman history, Augustus will not disappoint. John Buchan (1875-1940) was the best-selling author of Greenmantle and The Thirty-Nine Steps. Besides his much loved Richard Hannay books, he wrote respected history and biography. Third Light Press makes Augustus available for the first time on Kindle.