Andrew Jackson vs Henry Clay or The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution

Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America

Author: Harry L Watson

This dual biography with documents is the first book to explore the political conflict between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay - two explosive personalities whose contrasting visions of America's future shaped a generation of power struggle in the early Republic. ln a clear, even narrative that outlines the economic, social, technological, and political dynamics of the early nineteenth century, Watson examines how Jackson and Clay came to personify the opposition between democracy and development. Following the biographies are twenty-five primary documents - including speeches from the Senate floor, letters to the new president, and Jackson's famous bank veto - that parallel the narrative's organization and immerse students in the debates of the day. Also included are headnotes to the documents, two maps, portraits of both figures, a chronology, a selected bibliography, and an index.

Booknews

A double-barrelled biography of the political rivals that Watson (history U. of South Carolina-Chapel Hill) sees as embodying competing visions for the future of the US: democracy and development. On the way he outlines the economic, social, technological, and political dynamics of the early 19th century. He also includes 25 primary documents, among them, speeches from the Senate floor, letters to the new president, and Jackson's bank veto. Distributed in the US by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution

Author: Roger Chartier

Renowned historian Roger Chartier, one of the most brilliant and productive of the younger generation of French historians now refashioning the Annales tradition, attempts in this book to analyze the causes of the French Revolution not simply by pinpointing its 'cultural origins' but by investigating the conditions that 'made it possible because conceivable.'Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane.

Library Journal

Chartier offers a challenging, authoritative synthesis of both old and new interpretations. Readers will be struck particularly by his recognition of studies done by English-language scholars. Three American historians who have especially influenced Chartier are Keith Baker (who has stressed the emergence of public opinion as a potent force with which the crown had to contend in the 18th century), Robert Darnton (who has shown that the hack writers of Grub Street were just as important as the major Enlightenment figures), and Dale Van Kley (who has demonstrated the significance of the political and religious controversies of the 1750s for the events beginning in 1789). Chartier argues that the Enlightenment was only one element in a wide range of cultural developments contributing to the secularization, the skepticism, and the decline of the crown's esteem in the decades prior to the Revolution. For scholars and specialists.-- Thomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., N.Y.

Booknews

Chartier, a highly respected young French historian, describes the cultural conditions that made the French Revolution possible by first making it conceivable, and questions the assumed link between the transformations of the 18th century and rupture of the revolution. Translated from the French. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Decolonizing Methodologies or Leaving America

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples

Author: Linda Tuhiwai Smith

From the vantage point of the colonized, the term 'research' is inextricably linked with European colonialism; the ways in which scientific research has been implicated in the worst excesses of imperialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world's colonized peoples. Here, an indigenous researcher issues a clarion call for the decolonization of research methods.

The book is divided into two parts. In the first, the author critically examines the historical and philosophical base of Western research. Extending the work of Foucault, she explores the intersections of imperialism, knowledge and research, and the different ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and methodologies as 'regimes of truth'. Providing a history of knowledge from the Enlightenment to Postcoloniality, she also discusses the fate of concepts such as 'discovery, 'claiming' and 'naming' through which the west has incorporated and continues to incorporate the indigenous world within its own web.

The second part of the book meets the urgent need for people who are carrying out their own research projects, for literature which validates their frustrations in dealing with various western paradigms, academic traditions and methodologies, which continue to position the indigenous as 'Other'. In setting an agenda for planning and implementing indigenous research, the author shows how such programmes are part of the wider project of reclaiming control over indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Exploring the broad range of issues which have confronted, and continue to confront, indigenous peoples, in their encounters with western knowledge, this book also sets astandard for truly emancipatory research. It brilliantly demonstrates that ‘when indigenous peoples become the researchers and not merely the researched, the activity of research is transformed.’

Booknews

The pursuit of scientific research has, throughout Western history, been bound up with colonialism and imperialism, and indeed some of the worst evils done against indigenous peoples have been in the name of "research." The author, herself a Maori and also a researcher, seeks herein to free the concept of scientific research from its imperialist associations. She takes a Foucaultian approach to an examination of the history of knowledge, and works to develop a theory and methodology of research which strives to be free from colonialist implications and practices. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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Leaving America: The New Expatriate Generation

Author: John R Wennersten

Today more than ever, large numbers of Americans are leaving the United States. It is estimated that by the end of the decade, some 10 million of the brightest and most talented Americans, representing an estimated $136 billion in wages, will be living and working overseas. This emigration trend contradicts the internalized myth of America as the land of affluence, opportunity, and freedom. What is behind this trend? Wennersten argues that many people these days, from college students to retirees, are uncertain or ambivalent about what it means to be an American. For example, many are uncomfortable with that they believe America has come to represent to the rest of the world. At the same time, globalization and advances in technology have enabled the growth of a telecommuting work force whose members can live in one country and work in another, and this trend, among other factors, has encouraged a new generation of people to respond to the pull of "global citizenship."

Leaving America is an important reexamination of one of the most central stories in the history of American culture--the story of the immigrant coming to the Promised Land. While millions still come to American and millions more still wish to do so, there is an important counterflow of emigration from America to distant parts of the planet. This book focuses on modern American expatriates as a significant and heretofore largely ignored counterpoint phenomenon every bit as central to understanding modern America as is the image of a nation of immigrants. The greatest irony in America today may well be that while argument and discord prevail in the edifice of American democracy about diversity, economic justice, equality, and the Iraq War, many of the most thoughtful citizens have already left the building.

Table of Contents:

Preface     ix
Explaining Expatriate Motivation     1
The Expatriate Archipelago     19
Dissenters, Tax Fugitives, and Utopians     33
The Expatriate Countries: Canada, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand     51
Black Exiles and Sojourners     61
Women Expatriates     83
Go East, Young Man     101
Gringo Gulch: Retired Expatriates and Sojourners in Latin America     115
The Return of the Native     137
American Citizens Living Abroad by Country     151
Top Ten Countries Where Most Expatriate Americans Live, 2006     159
Ten Most Popular Expatriate Meccas     161
Compendium of English Online International Newspapers     163
Online Expatriate Networks     167
Notes     169
Select Bibliography     181
Index     183

Pakistan or City of Quartz

Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military

Author: Husain Haqqani

Among U.S. allies in the war against terrorism, Pakistan cannot be easily characterized as either friend or foe. Nuclear-armed Pakistan is an important center of radical Islamic ideas and groups. Since 9/11, the selective cooperation of president General Pervez Musharraf in sharing intelligence with the United States and apprehending al Qaeda members has led to the assumption that Pakistan might be ready to give up its longstanding ties with radical Islam. But Pakistan's status as an Islamic ideological state is closely linked with the Pakistani elite's worldview and the praetorian ambitions of its military.

This book analyzes the origins of the relationships between Islamist groups and Pakistan's military, and explores the nation's quest for identity and security. Tracing how the military has sought U.S. support by making itself useful for concerns of the moment while continuing to strengthen the mosque-military alliance within Pakistan Haqqani offers an alternative view of political developments since the country's independence in 1947.

Wall Street Journal

"[Haqqani's] analysis will reward anyone who seeks to understand one of the most perplexing foreign policy challenges facing the U.S. today."

Commentary, December 2005 - Alex Alexiev

"[F]our years after 9/11, Pakistan remains a major breeding ground of Islamist fanaticism and terror. For gaining a grasp of the situation and its implications for the United States, there may be no better place to begin than Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. . . . Haqqani brings impressive credentials to the task of analyzing his native land. . . . this is an outstanding book on a subject that could not be more timely."

Foreign Affairs

Given the signal importance of Pakistan to U.S. foreign policy these days, the lack of informed commentary on the country is striking. This book fills a bit of that gap. Haqqani, a journalist and former diplomat, effectively and cogently argues that three key political choices — the promotion of religious nationalism, the continual pursuit of a confrontation with India, and an attempt to secure Western (particularly U.S.) support — have informed both the domestic and foreign policies of the independent Pakistani state. This analytic framework will not surprise most scholars of Pakistani politics. Haqqani's contribution lies in his careful documentation and use of evidence. One of the political choices on which he focuses — religious nationalism — may well determine the future of the Pakistani polity, and Haqqani illustrates its deep roots, which preceded the formation of the Pakistani state. The principal architect of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, actively courted the conservative Islamic clergy in an attempt to build support for his cause. The military leadership, which has ruled Pakistan for the bulk of its independent life, continued and expanded on this treacherous policy. The specter of religious radicalism born of this policy haunts Pakistani politics to this day.

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City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

Author: Mike Davis

A fully updated edition of Mike Davis's visionary work.

No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together." To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it." To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias. In City of Quartz, Davis reconstructs LA's shadow history and dissects its ethereal economy. He tells us who has the power and how they hold on to it. He gives us a city of Dickensian extremes, Pynchonesque conspiracies, and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West—a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity.

In this new edition, Davis provides a dazzling update on the city's current status.

Library Journal

Eschewing the character study that comprises most Los Angeles history, Davis concentrates on the ongoing and ignored ethnic and class struggles, formerly manifested by booster (pro-growth) exploitation, now replaced by exclusionary (no-growth) neighborhood incorporation, and by police control of Afro-American and Latino neighborhoods. His analysis of recent Los Angeles history is often chilling and--sad to say--more true than false. Small inaccuracies sometimes afflict the narrative, and the breathlessness of Davis's writing will probably confuse readers who are unfamilar with the region. But these criticisms quibble with an otherwise important and necessary work. Recommended.-- Tim Zindel, Hastings Coll . of the Law, San Francisco

What People Are Saying

Jonathan Kozol
"An extraordinary book - tumultuous and brilliant."

William Gibson
"A visionary rant about a secret meeting of Los Angeles...absolutely fascinating. It's more cyberpunk than any work of fiction could ever be."

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Prologue: The View from Futures Past	1
Chapter 1	Sunshine or Noir?	15
Chapter 2	Power Lines	99
Chapter 3	Homegrown Revolution	151
Chapter 4	Fortress L.A.	221
Chapter 5	The Hammer and the Rock	265
Chapter 6	New Confessions	323
Chapter 7	Junkyard of Dreams	373
	Index	441