You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
I assure you, though, there is nothing trite about coming down with Guillain-Barrè syndrome. For the person hit by it, it's war and revolution wrapped in one: A catastrophe, an upheaval, a devastating blow. But also an invaluable experience and a possibility for renewal. I wouldn't be what I am now, a man at peace with himself and the world, had I not come down with, and fought back from, this terrible ailment. But I don't want to sound excessive. It isn't terminal cancer at young age, or trauma-induced coma and vegetative state; but, as Joseph Heller said, it's no laughing matter, either. The blessing about Guillain-Barrè syndrome-and I mean that with only a little bit of irony-is that it doesn't affect the gray matter upstairs. You know it's bad, but you also know it can be defeated, and the struggle to overcome it lends a tremendous meaning of truthfulness to the old saying: "That which does not kill you " You know the rest. It can paralyze you completely, and, occasionally, do you in, but the road back or, as I imply in my title, the uphill struggle from the abyss is Herculean and character forming.
Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy reveals the centrality of violence to Fascist rule, arguing that the Mussolini regime projected its coercive power deeply and diffusely into society through confinement, imprisonment, low-level physical assaults, economic deprivations, intimidation, discrimination, and other everyday forms of coercion. Fascist repression was thus more intense and ideological than previously thought and even shared some important similarities with Nazi and Soviet terror.
A thought-provoking analysis of the historical expansion and recent dramatic acceleration of international crime control, 'Policing the Globe' provides a bridge between criminal justice and international relations on a topic of crucial public importance.
How successful was Mussolini in creating a force of loyal and committed policemen to defend his regime and assist in the creation of a new fascist civilization? How far were the Italian police transformed under Mussolini, and how did policemen experience the dictatorship? This book examines Italy’s regular police in the context of fascism’s efforts to modernise and establish ideological control over the state. Contrasting the regime’s idealised representations with the more humdrum realities of everyday practice, the book considers the impact of the dictatorship on the Italian police and their personnel. Presenting an inside perspective on fascist repression, it focuses particularly on recruitment, training and professionalism in the Interior Ministry Police, as well as officers' ideological orientation, working conditions and quality of life. This book will appeal to students and researchers in police history, Italian fascism and, more generally, conflict and oppression in the twentieth century.
The relationship between Nazism and occultism has been an object of fascination and speculation for decades. Peter Staudenmaier’s Between Occultism and Nazism provides a detailed historical examination centered on the anthroposophist movement founded by Rudolf Steiner. Its surprising findings reveal a remarkable level of Nazi support for Waldorf schools, biodynamic farming, and other anthroposophist initiatives, even as Nazi officials attempted to suppress occult tendencies. The book also includes an analysis of anthroposophist involvement in the racial policies of Fascist Italy. Based on extensive archival research, this study offers rich material on controversial questions about the nature of esoteric spirituality and alternative cultural ideals and their political resonance.
In the midst of the Second World War, Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret organisation on a mission to sabotage the enemy. Instructed to “set Europe ablaze”, the SOE, nicknamed the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, got to work creating a covert team of secret agents. The resourceful men and women recruited by the SOE risked their lives behind enemy lines committing acts of sabotage, resistance and espionage. Displaying phenomenal bravery, SOE agents worked in a world with no rules, doing whatever they could to help civilians in occupied countries, assist local resistance fighters and make sure downed Allied airmen managed to evade capture. Every act they committed came with a high risk of discovery and potentially execution. Setting Europe Ablaze: The SOE Sourcebook gives you all the tools you need to GM or play in an SOE campaign. With no rigid military ranks or limiting rules to follow, the SOE offers the perfect opportunity to play an RPG set in the Second World War where almost anything can happen. This user-friendly sourcebook is system-neutral, so you are free to use whatever rules you and your players prefer.
In the convulsive environment that followed World War I and the Russian Revolution, the issues of policing and public order were of primary importance to the various governments of Interwar Europe. The book features original research on 10 different countries and will be vitally useful for students and academics of 20th century Europe.