The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History

The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History PDF Author: Bruce A. Elleman
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1839989610
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
In 21 short case studies, this short book examines the distinctive coincidental history of America, Britain, and various Asian countries during the twentieth century. It covers a wide range of historical events, from American expansion into the Pacific to the creation of the Soviet gulags in Siberia to the end of the Vietnam War. Its main goal is to show how watershed historical events can often become layered or overlap each other, sometimes by intent but often merely by happenstance. As Ian Fleming once famously opined about actions in war: “Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History

The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History PDF Author: Bruce A. Elleman
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1839989610
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
In 21 short case studies, this short book examines the distinctive coincidental history of America, Britain, and various Asian countries during the twentieth century. It covers a wide range of historical events, from American expansion into the Pacific to the creation of the Soviet gulags in Siberia to the end of the Vietnam War. Its main goal is to show how watershed historical events can often become layered or overlap each other, sometimes by intent but often merely by happenstance. As Ian Fleming once famously opined about actions in war: “Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

The ABCs of Cold War History

The ABCs of Cold War History PDF Author: Bruce A. Elleman
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 183999228X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
A short, but highly relevant, history of the Cold War, 1919–1994, and its significance today. The 75-year Cold War pitted the Anglo-American world against the Soviet Bloc, with China, the ultimate prize. Chapter A will examine the creation of the Anglo-American Special Relationship, the end of World War I, 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty, and the lead-in to World War II. Chapter B will examine the Bolshevik revolution, 1919 Comintern creation, 1924 Soviet Bloc creation, the tumultuous 1930s, World War II, plus Soviet competition with America and England through 1949. Chapter C will discuss a China torn between West and East, finally joining the Soviet bloc in 1949 but by 1979 rejoining the West, and cooperating to destroy the USSR from 1979 to 1994, when the final Russian troops left Germany. In the Conclusion, the Cold War’s impact and strategic significance today will be discussed. From 1979 to 1994, the U.S. government attempted to use its relations with China to exert diplomatic, economic, and military pressure on the USSR. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through the 1980s, China began to import high-technology equipment from the United States to fill key sensor and weapon roles. With the end of the Cold War, in particular, the Soviet navy was eliminated almost overnight as the world’s second most powerful naval force; Russia’s Pacific fleet is now so poorly supplied and equipped that it rarely leaves port. This unprecedented reversal of fortunes has created a maritime vacuum throughout East Asia that China hopes to fill. In recent years, however, the former Sino-U.S. cooperation has changed as rising Chinese-sponsored tensions in the South China Sea have led to many possible points of alliance between Beijing and Moscow. Joint Sino-Russian Naval Exercises are just one example. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping appear to once again be combining against the Anglo-American-led West. Will history “rhyme” as Mark Twain says, allowing the Anglo-American West to win Cold War II, or will events turn out differently this time.

The US Navy and the South China Sea

The US Navy and the South China Sea PDF Author: Bruce A Elleman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040102956
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book explores the question “Why is the US Navy in the South China Sea at all?” It traces the history of diplomatic, economic, and military tensions among the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, outlining the origins of the United States-Vietnam relationship during the immediate post-World War II period, the turmoil of the Vietnam War during which China supported North Vietnam against a US-backed South Vietnam, and the decision of the US government to open relations with China beginning in 1972. It shows how from 1945–1975, the US government used its relations with Vietnam to exert diplomatic, economic, and military pressure on China to open negotiations leading to full recognition and further discusses the surprising action of the US Navy in 1974 to allow the Chinese Navy to take the Paracel Islands by force, thereby denying control over these islands to a united Vietnam, closely allied with the Soviet Union, which was the common enemy of both China and the USA. Overall, the book demonstrates how the presence of the US Navy in the South China Sea is a crucial element in much wider, global US strategy.

The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History

The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History PDF Author: Bruce A. Elleman
Publisher: Anthem Impact
ISBN: 9781839989605
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In 21 short case studies, this short book examines the distinctive coincidental history of America, Britain, and various Asian countries during the twentieth century. It covers a wide range of historical events, from American expansion into the Pacific to the creation of the Soviet gulags in Siberia to the end of the Vietnam War. Each of the short case studies focuses on one set of coincidental actions. Were they linked in some way? Or completely random? The reader is allowed to decide for themselves. Often, the coincidental overlap is due to timing, with various events throughout history occurring on the same dates. For example, Great Britain's controversial blockade of Venezuela began on December 7, 1902, the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy merged forces on December 7, 1917, and Japan attacked American and British naval bases on December 7, 1941. The author will suggest that these three actions were linked, but it is up to the reader to decide if it was really just a coincidence. The main goal of this short book is to show how watershed historical events can often become layered or overlap each other, sometimes by intent but often merely by happenstance. As Ian Fleming once famously opined about actions in war: "Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action."

Wilson and China

Wilson and China PDF Author: Bruce A. Elleman
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 9780765610508
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Using sources in Japanese, Chinese and American archives, this text reassesses Woodrow Wilson's agenda at the Paris Peace Conference. It argues Wilson did not "betray" China, but negotiated a compromise with the Japanese to ensure that China's sovereignty would be respected in Shandong Province.

Strong Societies and Weak States

Strong Societies and Weak States PDF Author: Joel S. Migdal
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212856
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Why do many Asian, African, and Latin American states have such difficulty in directing the behavior of their populations--in spite of the resources at their disposal? And why do a small number of other states succeed in such control? What effect do failing laws and social policies have on the state itself? In answering these questions, Joel Migdal takes a new look at the role of the state in the third world. Strong Societies and Weak States offers a fresh approach to the study of state-society relations and to the possibilities for economic and political reforms in the third world. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, state institutions have established a permanent presence among the populations of even the most remote villages. A close look at the performance of these agencies, however, reveals that often they operate on principles radically different from those conceived by their founders and creators in the capital city. Migdal proposes an answer to this paradox: a model of state-society relations that highlights the state's struggle with other social organizations and a theory that explains the differing abilities of states to predominate in those struggles.

Albion's Seed

Albion's Seed PDF Author: David Hackett Fischer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019974369X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 981

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Book Description
This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

Hanging Together

Hanging Together PDF Author: John Higham
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300129823
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This book presents three decades of writings by one of America's most distinguished historians. John Higham, renowned for his influential works on immigration, ethnicity, political symbolism, and the writing of history, here traces the changing contours of American culture since its beginnings, focusing on the ways that an extraordinarily mobile society has allowed divergent ethnic, class, and ideological groups to "hang together" as Americans. The book includes classic essays by Higham and more recent writings, some of which have been substantially revised for this publication. Topics range widely from the evolution of American national symbols and the fate of our national character to new perspectives on the New Deal, on other major turning points, and on changes in race relations after major American wars. Yet they are unified by an underlying theme: that a heterogeneous society and an inclusive national culture need each other.

Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore

Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore PDF Author: National University of Singapore. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description


Empires at War

Empires at War PDF Author: Francis Pike
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857730290
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 825

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Book Description
Asia - with four billion people, almost two-thirds of the world's population, a huge landmass and the fastest-growing economies - has in the past decade transformed the geopolitical global balance. "Empires at War" gives a dramatic narrative account of how this 'Modern Asia' came into being. Taking the bombing of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 as its starting point, Francis Pike chronicles the modern fortunes of fourteen Asian countries. The iconic figures of post-World War II Asia - Mao, Gandhi, Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, General MacArthur and Lord Mountbatten - figure prominently but so also do a great many lesser-known but pivotal figures. Francis Pike weaves the dramatic events and episodes of the region - the great battles between American and Soviet-backed forces in Korea and Vietnam but also episodes such as Indian 'Partition', Japan's 'Lost Decade', Indonesia's 'Year of Living Dangerously' and Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' - into a coherent whole, which forms the essential guide to the history of modern Asia.