William Roger Louis

Assembling the reflections of prominent writers on the political and intellectual history of modern Britain, this book deals with a rich variety of themes, some familiar, many unexpected, taking the reader on a highly engaging excursion through British life and intellectual biography. The scope includes not only the personalities, politics and culture of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but also the interaction of British and other societies throughout the world.

Tells the story of the British Empire from its late-nineteenth century flowering. This book traces the British Empire from the scramble for Africa through the Mandates system of 'sacred trust', the turbulent imperial history of the Second World War in Asia and finally to the the unstoppable mid-20th century rush to independence.

"Muhammad Musaddiq was the first of the great charismatic anti-colonial campaigners of the post-war world. As Prime Minister of Iran between 1951 and 1953 he nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, led the nation's defiant attempt to run its oil industry independently during an economic blockade and attempted to run its oil industry independently during an economic blockade and attempted to strengthen the role of parliament in Iran. Musaddiq's crusade led to conflict with powerful foreign interests and in 1953 the CIA, at British instigation, removed him in a coup d'etat which restored the Shah's absolute powers. This book is a full-scale biography of Musaddiq which also charts the history of the Popular Movement from Musaddiq's downfall in 1953 to his death in 1967. Based on all the new material that has emerged from Iran since the revolution, Homa Katouzian's lively study is essential for all students of modern Iran, the Middle East and the politics of the Third World."--Publisher summary.

"The June 1967 war was a watershed in the history of the modern Middle East. In six days, the Israelis defeated the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and seized large portions of territory including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. With the hindsight of four decades and access to recently declassified documents, two veteran scholars of the Middle East bring together some of the most knowledgeable experts in their fields to reassess the origins of the war and its regional reverberations. Each chapter takes a different perspective from the vantage point of a different participant, those that actually took part in the war, and also the world powers, the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France, that played important roles behind the scenes. Their conclusions make for sober reading. At the heart of the story was the incompetence of the Egyptian high command under the leadership of Nasser and the rivalry between various Arab players who were deeply suspicious of each other, motives. Israel, on the other side, gained a resounding victory for which, despite previous assessments to the contrary, there was no master plan"--

"Resurgent Adventures with Britannia... draws upon a distinguished array of writers and scholars - historians, political scientists, journalists, novelists, biographers, and English literature specialists - to guide the reader through a fascinating labyrinth of British culture, history, and politics. They provide a unique insight into the pivotal themes, both political and cultural, which have shaped 20th century state and society. There is detailed consideration of the works of leading figures in art, literature, politics, and scholarship - including portraits of Hugh Trevor-Roper by Neal Ascherson, Nye Bevan by Kenneth O. Morgan, and Margaret Thatcher by Archie Brown - and how these stellar figures have been deeply affected by war, the imperial experience, decolonization, the enduring problems of the Middle East, Communism, the Cold War, and the British-America connections. And there are assessments by leading historians of statesmen, and episodes in global history, which have shaped the modern age. The result is a rich mix of original ideas, historical and literary allusion, personality, and anecdote, which together provide an intellectual adventure into the mainsprings of modern British and international society."--Publisher description.

It is one of those rare books on Rwanda and Burundi,though it is disappointing to see that the author did not know much about the two nations,nor did he make any efforts to find out about them, nor did he have any intentions of helping the reader to learn a thing or two about the two mysterious nations. He did,however, a lot of digging in the German archives which nobody else wanted to do because the Germans were the bad guys,while Belgians and the British were the good guys.This was exactly the opposite in the eyes of the Africans (Rwanda,Burundi and Tanzania),who saw germans as brilliant and brave warriors who defeated far larger Belgian and English armies in world war 1.This is by far the best book on the German colonization of Rwanda and Burundi. Israel Ntaganzwa,New York 2010.

Includes essays on Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, 1984, Mountbatten, Winston Churchill, among others.

In his Preface to the 1902 first edition of Imperialism: A Study, imperial critic J.A. Hobson demonstrates his prophetic talents by noting, just as the Victorian age was ending and World War I was brewing, that "Imperialism has been adopted as a more or less conscious policy by several European States and threatens to break down the political isolation of the United States." Though the book speaks mostly of British imperialism of the period, Hobson inevitably explores the general principals-and hidden motives-of imperialist policy. Hobson covers: . the commercial value of imperialism . imperialism as an outlet for population . economic parasites of imperialism . imperialist finance . moral and sentimental factors . and much more. With imperialism again a hot topic in the political arena, Hobson's treatise continues to lend invaluable, necessary insight into a complex ideology. British writer JOHN ATKINSON HOBSON (1858-1940) was an historian and economist as well as a popular lecturer on the topics. His other books include The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (1894), The Economics of Distribution (1900), The Economics of Unemployment (1922), and the autobiographical Confessions of an Economic Heretic (1938).