English Civil War: Papists, Gentlewomen, Soldiers, and Witchfinders in the Birth of Modern Britain
Author: Diane Purkiss
In this compelling history of the violent struggle between the monarchy and Parliament that tore apart seventeenth-century England, a rising star among British historians sheds new light on the people who fought and died through those tumultuous years. Drawing on exciting new sources, including letters, memoirs, ballads, plays, illustrations, and even cookbooks, Diane Purkiss creates a rich and nuanced portrait of this turbulent era. The English Civil War's dramatic consequences-rejecting the divine right monarchy in favor of parliamentary rule-continue to influence our lives, and in this colorful narrative, Purkiss vividly brings to life the history that changed the course of Western government.
Publishers Weekly
There are many ways to approach the history of the 17th-century upheaval that beheaded a king and laid the foundations for democratic revolutions to come, and this absorbing, ungainly study tries them all. Oxford historian Purkiss (The Witch in History) draws a gallery of sharp biographical sketches of participants from Cromwell to ordinary soldiers, paying special attention to the oft-neglected doings of women, like aristocratic intriguer Lucy Hay and radical dissenter Anna Trapnel. She also slathers on plenty of social history, digressing on everything from contemporary housing to cookbooks. And she interweaves an avowedly disjointed, episodic kings-and-battles narrative of military campaigns and political maneuverings, replete with dramatic eyewitness accounts. Fixated on trees rather than the forest, Purkiss offers no clear overview of events or much coherent interpretation of the conflict, aside from some facile psychoanalysis ("Charles I's longing to make the monarchy independent of any hurtful criticism proceeded from the bullied child he was"). The book doesn't work as a general introduction, but readers who already know some of the history will find it full of colorful personalities and scenes and evocative period writings that bring to life the people, culture and violent turmoil of the age. Photos. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
New interesting textbook: One Nation Underground or American Made
Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power
Author: James Petras
From 9/11 to the present, the pro-Israel power configuration in the United States has broadened its definition of 'the areas of interest to Israel', and thus the issues on which it will intervene. During the 1940s to 1950s, the main focus of the Lobby was to secure US diplomatic support for Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The Lobby's areas of interest to Israel extended to Israel's wars with Egypt and Syria in the 1960s and 1970s; to Lebanon and Iraq during the 1980s and 1990s; and to Iraq and Iran during the current decade. By defining the limits of action that the US President and Congress can take on issues relating to Israel, the Zionist Power Configuration now influences US policies toward the entire Middle East.
While it has been widely argued that the true reason for the US war on Iraq concerned oil, the influence of AIPAC and neoconservatives in the Bush administration acting on behalf of Israeli interests in the region has been largely ignored. Now, however, only pressure from the Lobby and the threat of pre-emptive attack by Israel can explain the current US aggressive posture (financial and economic sanctions, naval blockades) against Iran-all contrary to the interests of Big Oil, corporate America, and the weakened and overstretched US military.
In Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, Petras empirically demonstrates how the rigid structural parameters of Israeli politics are transmitted via the Zionist Power Configuration in the United States into the basic contradictory reality of US-Israeli relations-a tiny, isolated, militarized, settler-controlled state blocking economic transactions of a globalized imperial economy by forcing it intodisastrous military adventures and economic decline, with calamitous results for the world at large.
About the Author:
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York
Table of Contents:
Zionism and Us MilitarismHow Zionist Power in the US Promotes US Wars in the Middle East 15
The True Cause of the War on Iraq: From Pretexts to Cover-ups 15
The War for Oil Argument 16
The National Security Argument 19
From Iraq War Cover-up to Iran War Propaganda 20
Israel, the ZPC and the Run-up to the Invasion of Iraq 22
War with Iran: The Highest Priority for the ZPC (and Israel) 25
Zionist Power in the United States 27
'Jewish Vote', 'Israel Lobby' or 'Zionist Power Configuration'? 29
War for Oil or for Israel: What the Public Record Reveals 31
Zionist Warmongering: Fear and Venom 34
From a Scratch to Gangrene: The Transition from Zionism to Zion-Fascism 35
Deflecting Peace Initiatives 37
The ZPC and Armenian Holocaust Denial: At the Service of Israel 39
Anti-Iraq War Democratic Presidential Candidates Pro-War on Iran 40
The Impact of Zionist Authoritarianism on American Democracy 42
War on Iran: The American Military versus the Israel Firsters 55
Introduction 55
Recent History of the Civilian Militarists versus Anti-War Movements 56
American Military Fights the ZPC over Middle EastWars 56
Israel-Firsters Win Round One 57
Round Two: American Military Resists War on Iran 58
Making the IAEA Report Safe for American Public Consumption 63
Fundamental Issues in Dispute by the US Military and Israel-Firsters 64
Military/Zion-Con: Punch and Counterpunch 68
Conclusion 69
Burying the National Intelligence Estimate 73
Introduction 73
Israel Rejects "the Intelligence Report from the Other Side of the Earth" 77
The "International Community" Climbs on Board 78
The Drumbeat Goes On 80
Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11 85
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Japan 86
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Korea 87
The US Indochina War: Johnson's Tonkin Pretext 89
Provocation as Pretext: 9/11 and the Afghan/Iraq Invasions 91
The Politics of Military Provocations 94
Military-Driven Empire Building: The Zionist Connection 96
The Terror Bombing: White House and Zionist Complicity 98
Provocations and Pretexts: The Israeli/US War Against Iran 99
Zion-Con Zelikow, the 2002 National Security Strategy and 9/11 102
Embracing the Israeli Modus Operandi of Endless War
The Palestinian Sewage Disaster: The Political Ecology of US/Israeli Responsibility in Microcosm 107
General Petraeus: From Surge to Purge to Dirge 111
Introduction 111
Petraeus' Phony Success in Northern Iraq 112
An Armchair Strategist 113
Madness in His Method: The Petraeus Manual 114
Petraeus' Double Discourse 118
Petraeus' Political Ambitions 119
Petraeus Panders to Israel's Fifth Column: "The Iran Threat" 120
Conclusion 121
Militarism and the Decline of Us Power
Military-Driven over Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008 125
Introduction 125
Immediate Post-WWII: The Combination of Market and Military Roads to Empire 126
Divergence in the World Economy: US-Europe-Japan 127
Market Versus Military Empire Building in the 1990s 128
Historic Comparison of Market- and Military-Driven Imperialism 131
From the Gulf, to the Gulf and Back to the Gulf: 1990-2008 (and beyond) 132
Military-Driven Empire Building and Zionism 132
Imperial Wars, Social Revolutions and Capitalist Restorations 134
Was 'Socialism a Detour to Capitalism'? 135
Were 'Imperial Wars Necessary for Capitalist Expansion'? 136
Military-Driven Imperialism Today and the Newly Emerging Imperial Powers 138
Market-Driven Versus Militarist Alliances 138
Conclusion 141
US Militarism and the Expanding Israeli Agenda 145
Introduction 125
New Directions for US Policy: A Moderate Arab Agenda? 146
'New Facts' and the New Middle East Realities 147
The Iraq War: A Success for Israel 1149
Democrats Capitulate to the Pro-Israel Lobby on Bush War Powers 151
Israel-AIPAC-US Middle East Wars 152
Democratic House Majority Leader Serves as Israel's Messenger 154
Buying Israeli Permission for Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia 155
Democratic Party Presidential Candidates Truckle to the Lobby 156
The Lobby Versus Federal Prosecutors: The AIPAC Spy Trial 157
AIPAC Trial Inadvertently "Outs" Israel's Strategic Informant in the White House 158
Israel Pushes Islamo-Fascism Rhetoric 159
Re-arming Clients: The Washington/ZPC War Machine Rolls On 159
In Lebanon 160
In the Occupied Territories 160
In Iraq 161
In Somalia 162
Judeo-Centrism: From Ghetto Defense to Imperial Ambitions 163
Challenging the Lobby
American Jews on War and Peace: What the Polls Do and Don't Tell Us 169
Introduction 169
The Poll: A Re-Analysis 170
The Failure of Jewish Anti-Zionist Resistance 171
Israeli Anti-Arab/Muslim Racism 172
The Role of American Jews in the Peace Movement 173
Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby Is So Important 175
Introduction 175
ZPC Deniers: Phony Arguments for Fake Claims 175
The Careful Crafting of Critiques of Israel /the ZPC 177
The ZPC Lobbies For War 178
"Democratic" Israel Diminishes Democracy in the United States 179
Israeli Interests Trump US Interests 180
Social Opposition and Political Impotence 182
What Happened to the Peace Movement? 183
No Naming and Shaming for the Israel War Lobby 184
Why Confronting the Lobby Matters 185
Index 188
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