1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War's End

1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War's End PDF Author: Padraic Kenney
Publisher: Bedford
ISBN: 9780312487669
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A series of democratic transformations in the 1980s ended the cold war and ushered in the present era. This volume by Padraic Kenney uses six case studies from this period — Poland, the Philippines, Chile, South Africa, Ukraine, and China — to explore common characteristics of global political change while highlighting the differing strategies and perspectives of the people who sought to free themselves from dictatorship. A general introduction to the volume examines key trends in the decades leading up to the changes, tracing the paths that dictatorships and opposition movements took in their fateful confrontations. The first chapter with documents surveys the central ideas of this age of democratic, nonviolent revolution, and sets a framework for considering the case studies in the chapters that follow.

1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War's End

1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War's End PDF Author: Padraic Kenney
Publisher: Bedford
ISBN: 9780312487669
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
A series of democratic transformations in the 1980s ended the cold war and ushered in the present era. This volume by Padraic Kenney uses six case studies from this period — Poland, the Philippines, Chile, South Africa, Ukraine, and China — to explore common characteristics of global political change while highlighting the differing strategies and perspectives of the people who sought to free themselves from dictatorship. A general introduction to the volume examines key trends in the decades leading up to the changes, tracing the paths that dictatorships and opposition movements took in their fateful confrontations. The first chapter with documents surveys the central ideas of this age of democratic, nonviolent revolution, and sets a framework for considering the case studies in the chapters that follow.

Empowering Revolution

Empowering Revolution PDF Author: Gregory F. Domber
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469618516
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
As the most populous country in Eastern Europe as well as the birthplace of the largest anticommunist dissident movement, Poland is crucial in understanding the end of the Cold War. During the 1980s, both the United States and the Soviet Union vied for influence over Poland's politically tumultuous steps toward democratic revolution. In this groundbreaking history, Gregory F. Domber examines American policy toward Poland and its promotion of moderate voices within the opposition, while simultaneously addressing the Soviet and European influences on Poland's revolution in 1989. With a cast including Reagan, Gorbachev, and Pope John Paul II, Domber charts American support of anticommunist opposition groups--particularly Solidarity, the underground movement led by future president Lech Wa&322;&281;sa--and highlights the transnational network of Polish emigres and trade unionists that kept the opposition alive. Utilizing archival research and interviews with Polish and American government officials and opposition leaders, Domber argues that the United States empowered a specific segment of the Polish opposition and illustrates how Soviet leaders unwittingly fostered radical, pro-democratic change through their policies. The result is fresh insight into the global impact of the Polish pro-democracy movement.

The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe

The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe PDF Author: Kevin McDermott
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526103478
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This important book reassesses a defining historical, political and ideological moment in contemporary history: the 1989 revolutions in central and eastern Europe. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, the authors reconsider such crucial themes as the broader historical significance of the 1989 events, the complex interaction between external and internal factors in the origins and outcomes of the revolutions, the impact of the ‘Gorbachev phenomenon’, the West and the end of the Cold War, the political and socio-economic determinants of the revolutionary processes in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and the competing academic, cultural and ideological perceptions of the year 1989 as communism gave way to post-communist pluralism in the 1990s and beyond. Concluding that the contentious term ‘revolution’ is indeed apt for the momentous developments in eastern Europe in 1989, this book will be essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and specialists alike.

The End and the Beginning

The End and the Beginning PDF Author: Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 6155053650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 604

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Book Description
A fresh interpretation of the contexts, meanings, and consequences of the revolutions of 1989, coupled with state of the art reassessment of the significance and consequences of the events associated with the demise of communist regimes. The book provides an analysis that takes into account the complexities of the Soviet bloc, the events? impact upon Europe, and their re-interpretation within a larger global context. Departs from static ways of analysis (events and their significance) bringing forth approaches that deal with both pre-1989 developments and the 1989 context itself, while extensively discussing the ways of resituating 1989 in the larger context of the 20th century and of its lessons for the 21st. Emphasizes the possibility for re-thinking and re-visiting the filters and means that scholars use to interpret such turning point. The editors perceive the present project as a challenge to existing readings on the complex set of issues and topics presupposed by a re-evaluation of 1989 as a symbol of the change and transition from authoritarianism to democracy.

Turning Points in Ending the Cold War

Turning Points in Ending the Cold War PDF Author: Kiron K. Skinner
Publisher: Hoover Press
ISBN: 0817946314
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Twenty years ago, as the United States and the Soviet Union were sliding into yet another round of dangerous confrontation, no one could have imagined that only a decade later the cold war would be over and that Russia and the West would embark on an unprecedented course of economic, political, and military cooperation. How did it happen? The essays in this collection offer illuminating insights into the key players--Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and others--and the monumental events that led to the collapse of communism. The expert contributors examine the end of dtente and the beginning of the new phase of the cold war in the early 1980s, when U.S.-Soviet relations seemed to hit a new low. They detail Reagan's radical new strategies aimed at changing Soviet behavior. And they analyze the essence and origins of Mikhail Gorbachev's "new political thinking"--his realization that the cold war was not in Russia's interest and could not end unless his country changed itself-and its critical role in the ultimate transformation of the Soviet Union. In addition the authors describe the peaceful democratic revolutions in Poland and Hungary, the events that brought about the reunification of Germany, the role of events in Third World countries, the critical contributions of Yeltsin, and more.

The Cold War: a Very Short Introduction

The Cold War: a Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Robert J. McMahon
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198859546
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Vividly written and based on up-to-date scholarship, this title provides an interpretive overview of the international history of the Cold War.

The New Cold War

The New Cold War PDF Author: Mark Mackinnon
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307369927
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
An intrepid investigation into the pro-democracy movements that have reshaped the Eastern bloc since 2000, reopening the Kremlin’s wounds from the Cold War. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, liberal democracy was supposed to fill the void left by Soviet communism. Poland and Czechoslovakia made the best of reforms, but the citizens of the “Evil Empire” itself saw little of the promised freedom, and more of the same old despots and corruption. Recently, a second wave of reforms–Serbia in 2000, Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004, as well as Kyrgyzstan’s regime change in 2005 – have proven almost as monumental as those in Berlin and Moscow. The people of the Eastern bloc, aided in no small part by Western money and advice, are again rising up and demanding an end to autocracy. And once more, the Kremlin is battling the White House every step of the way. Mark MacKinnon spent these years working in Moscow, and his view of the story and access to those involved remains unparalleled. With The New Cold War, he reveals the links between these democratic revolutions – and the idealistic American billionaire behind them–in a major investigation into the forces that are quietly reshaping the post- Soviet world.

Rise of Democracy

Rise of Democracy PDF Author: Christopher Hobson
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748692827
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Explores democracy's remarkable rise from obscurity to centre stage in contemporary international relations, from the rogue democratic state of 18th Century France to Western pressures for countries throughout the world to democratise.

End of History and the Last Man

End of History and the Last Man PDF Author: Francis Fukuyama
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416531785
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.

Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe, 1945-1990

Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe, 1945-1990 PDF Author: Frédéric Bozo
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857452886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Exploring the visions of the end of the Cold War that have been put forth since its inception until its actual ending, this volume brings to the fore the reflections, programmes, and strategies that were intended to call into question the bipolar system and replace it with alternative approaches or concepts. These visions were associated not only with prominent individuals, organized groups and civil societies, but were also connected to specific historical processes or events. They ranged from actual, thoroughly conceived programmes, to more blurred, utopian aspirations -- or simply the belief that the Cold War had already, in effect, come to an end. Such visions reveal much about the contexts in which they were developed and shed light on crucial moments and phases of the Cold War.