The history of Manchuria is explored through a lens that emphasizes the Russian and Soviet viewpoints. The narrative delves into the region's geopolitical significance and the various influences that shaped its development over time, highlighting key events and interactions between local populations and external powers. This comprehensive examination offers insights into the complex dynamics of Manchuria's past and its role in broader historical contexts.
Focusing on the influence of historians' concepts of world order, this book examines how these ideas have shaped national identities, especially in Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Western world. It explores the interplay between historical narratives and national self-perception, highlighting the transformative power of historical interpretation in shaping geopolitical landscapes.
Aberdeen at Work is a fascinating pictorial history of the working life of the city of Aberdeen in the last hundred and more years.
The book examines the evolution of the predicament symbolised by the setting of the Doomsday Clock at a few minutes to midnight in the context of the Anthropocene Era from 1763, making special reference to the study of history throughout the period. It seeks to demonstrate the necessity for history as science, pointing out the inadequacy of some previous approaches. It argues for a pandisciplinary approach to today's crisis.
Explore the fascinating history of Aberdeen in this fully illustrated A-Z guide to the city's people and places.
Great Men in the Second World War provides a new perspective on the role of the individual in history. Paul Dukes selects five Great Men, each in his turn one of the leaders of the three victorious powers, the UK, the USA and the USSR. The identity of the Big Three changed significantly during the last months of the conflict. Roosevelt died in April 1945 and was succeeded by Truman. Churchill lost the general election to Attlee in July. Stalin alone provided continuity throughout the conferences of the Big Three, and immediately beyond. The book explores the power of these individuals, asking such questions as: -To what extent did the leaders exert their own influence and to what extent could they be considered to be spokesmen for their countries? -How significant was it that Truman and Attlee had less colourful personalities than Roosevelt and Churchill? -Was Stalin uniquely bad while the others were good? Drawing in particular on the record of their interaction at the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, but also making use of other sources including novels as well as works of history, Paul Dukes sheds light on both the major statesmen involved and the nature of the Second World War. This is a book that will be useful for students of the Second World War and anyone with an interest in the role of individuals in history.
This book is a historical reinterpretation of the Cold War in the broadest sense from the viewpoint of the late 1980s. Dukes contends that the rivalry of the USA and Soviet Union, like the Great Game between Britain and Imperial Russia, can be understood only by analysing their relationship over centuries. He adopts the explanatory model of French historian Fernand Braudel - the concepts of event, conjuncture and structure – and examines the super-power relationship in an historical context stretching back to the medieval period. He argues that the political and cultural gaps between Western and Soviet approaches at key events have stemmed from widely different experiences of these events, as well as from long-embedded traditions.
The latest in our popular 'Secret' series, Secret Aberdeen sheds new light on the secrets and historic events that have occurred in, and shaped, this oil- rich city on the northern shores of Scotland.
A comprehensive history of the Urals which sets the region within the wider contexts of Russian and Eurasian history.