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This is the most comprehensive, and most comprehensively chilling, study of modern torture yet written. Darius Rejali, one of the world's leading experts on torture, takes the reader from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of Abu Ghraib, from slavery and the electric chair to electrotorture in American inner cities, and from French and British colonial prison cells and the Spanish-American War to the fields of Vietnam, the wars of the Middle East, and the new democracies of Latin America and Europe. As Rejali traces the development and application of one torture technique after another in these settings, he reaches startling conclusions. As the twentieth century progressed, he argu...
Between 1923 and 1934, Britain and Italy waged war by proxy in the Middle East. Behind the appearance of European collaboration, relations between London and Rome in the Red Sea were notably tense. Although realistically Mussolini could not establish or maintain colonies in the Arabian Peninsula in the face of British opposition, his regime undertook a number of initiatives in the region to enhance Italo-Arab relations and to pave the way for future expansion once the balance of power in Europe had shifted in Italy's favour. This book examines four key aspects of relations between Britain and Italy in the Middle East in the interwar period: the confrontation between London and Rome for polit...
During the early years of the Second World War, Britain devoted immense resources to building military bases in Egypt and Palestine. The political stability of the two countries was of prime concern to avoid diverting troops away from fighting the external enemy to internal security tasks. The paradox of Britain's eventual victory was that it could not perpetuate its political authority. Demands for independence intensified in Egypt and among Palestinian Jewry, and led to postwar struggles.
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Libya have rarely followed a smooth path. Washington has repeatedly tried and failed to mediate lasting solutions, to prevent recurrent crises, and to secure its own national interests in a region of increasing importance to the United States. Libya and the United States, Two Centuries of Strife provides a unique and up-to-date analysis of U.S.-Libyan relations, assessing within the framework of conventional historical narrative the interaction of the governments and peoples of Libya and the United States over the past two centuries. Drawing on a wide range of new and unfamiliar material, Ronald Bruce St John, an expert with over thirty year...
A moving, deeply researched account of survivors’ experiences of liberation from Nazi death camps and the long, difficult years that followed When tortured inmates of Hitler’s concentration and extermination camps were liberated in 1944 and 1945, the horror of the atrocities came fully to light. It was easy for others to imagine the joyful relief of freed prisoners, yet for those who had survived the unimaginable, the experience of liberation was a slow, grueling journey back to life. In this unprecedented inquiry into the days, months, and years following the arrival of Allied forces at the Nazi camps, a foremost historian of the Holocaust draws on archival sources and especially on eye...
Postwar American officials desired, in principle, to promote Arab-Israeli peace in order to stabilize the Middle East. This book shows how, during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, the desire for peace was not always an American priority. Instead, they consistently gave more weight to their determination to contain the Soviet Union.
An award-winning journalist presents an even-handed, thoroughly researched examination of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and illustrates how a shocking yet little-known massacre one century ago in what was then Palestine became ground zero of a war that continues to devastate. "[A] compelling story. . . . If you are going to read one book to help you understand the current Middle East tragedy, this is it." —Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor In 1929, in the sacred city of Hebron—then governed by the British Mandate of Palestine—there was no occupation, state of Israel, or settlers. Jews...
This book tells the story of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Palestine Police Force (PPF) in the historical context which impacted the CID's missions, methods, and composition. At first, the CID was engaged in providing technical assistance for criminal investigation. Following the PPF's poor performance in the Arab Revolt in 1929, a commission of inquiry, headed by Sir Herbert Dowbiggin, recommended adding intelligence gathering and surveillance of political elements to police functions. Teams were set up and a Special Branch established. From 1932 the CID deployed a network of "live sources" among the Arabs and issued intelligence summaries evaluating Arab and Jewish pol...
Founded in the Mahoning Valley during 1837, a tiny settlement of secular German immigrants grew into one of the most influential centers of Jewish life in the Midwest. Home to nationally renowned rabbis and Zionist firebrands alike, the community produced an astonishing array of leaders in an impressive range of fields throughout the twentieth century. This notable legacy ranges from the entertainment juggernaut of Warner Brothers to the Arby's fast-food empire and the prominent Youngstown Sheet & Tube, among many others. Authors Thomas Welsh, Joshua Foster and Gordon F. Morgan trace the unique history of one of Ohio's oldest Jewish communities from its humble beginnings into the challenging climate of the new millennium.
Analyses the continual development of strategic plans and political dilemmas that arose during the Second World War period, which led to the subsequent post-war circumstance where American and Soviet involvement impacted on the strategic thinking of all involved parties, notwithstanding the British military victory.