Geschiedenis en Maatschappij

Een deels op fictie, deels op bronnen steunende beschrijving van Fritz Pfeffer, die als "Dussel" in het dagboek van Anne Frank voorkomt.

"For 2,500 years, since the time of Herodotus and Thucydides, historians have sought to record the truth about the past. Today, however, the discipline is suffering a potentially lethal attach from the rise to prominence of an array of French-inspired literary and social theories, each of which denies that truth and knowledge about the past are possible. These theories claim the central point on which history was founded no longer holds: there is no fundamental distinction between history and myth or between history and fiction." "Historians in classrooms from Berkeley to Paris have embraced these views, and an increasing number of literary critics and social theorists now feel free to define their own work as history and to call themselves historians. The result is revolutionary: historians have not only changed how history is taught, they are also increasingly obscuring the very facts on which the truth must be built. In The Killing of History, Keith Windschuttle offers both a devastating expose of the absurdity of these developments and a defense of the integrity of Western intellectual traditions which are now so widely attacked." "Windschuttle examines exactly what is being taught about Columbus' discovery of the New World, the history of asylums and prisons in Europe; the fall of Communism in 1989, and the Battle of Quebec in 1759. He offers a much needed defense of traditional history as a properly scientific endeavor and argues that the great works of history should still be regarded as among the finest forms of Western literature."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

De Bataafse hut is een historisch cultuurwetenschappelijk boek van Auke van der Woud dat onderzoekt hoe eenvoudige traditionele hutten en hun beeldvorming een rol gingen spelen in de Nederlandse cultuur tussen circa 1750 en 1850. De structuur van het boek is thematisch en analytisch: het wisselt logisch opgebouwde hoofdstukken af die elk een ander facet bekijken van hoe deze hut-symboliek is ontstaan en verspreid, in plaats van een doorlopend narratief.

Geschiedenis van de uitleg door zeventiende-eeuwse predikanten van de passages in de Heidelbergse Catechismus over de Tien Geboden.

Beschrijft onder andere haar onderduik in WOII

Anne Frank (13, ik-figuur) is een joods meisje, dat in de Tweede Wereldoorlog met o.a. haar ouders en zusje ondergedoken is in een achterhuis op een Amsterdamse gracht. Ze schrijft in haar dagboek over alles wat haar van haar bezighoudt. Vanaf ca. 12 jaar.

Voor een Helmondse schoenmakersdochter, een Indische voormalige oorlogstolk en hun zoon bestaat er geen heden. Alleen een belast verleden. De zoon achtervolgt zijn ouders met vragen over de oorlog in Nederlands-Indië die doorwoedt in het gezin. Hun verhalen zijn spannend, hilarisch, gruwelijk, niet te bevatten, rauw, maar niet zonder humor...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow

'A huge contribution... remarkable' Antony Beevor, BBC RADIO 4

'Extremely interesting ... a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched' Ian Kershaw

The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.

The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.

Bloemlezing van de Joodse auteur (geb. 1893) over vele aspecten van het Jodendom zowel in Europa als in Israël

Ervaringen en overpeinzingen van een beheerder van een Amsterdamse begraafplaats.

Een genadeloze analyse van de collectieve sector en aanbevelingen voor een krachtig herstelprogramma

Beschrijving van de activiteiten van de Engelse East India Company in het Verre Oosten, met veel aandacht voor haar factorij op het Japanse eiland Hirado waar de hulp van de in Japan wonende Engelsman William Adams buitengewoon nuttig was.

'The most important book of the Trump era' The Economist

How does a democracy die?
What can we do to save our own?
What lessons does history teach us?

In the 21st century democracy is threatened like never before.

Drawing insightful lessons from across history - from Pinochet's murderous Chilean regime to Erdogan's quiet dismantling in Turkey - Levitsky and Ziblatt explain why democracies fail, how leaders like Trump subvert them today and what each of us can do to protect our democratic rights.

'This book looks to history to provide a guide for defending democratic norms when they are under threat, and finds that it is possible to fight back.' David Runciman

'A useful primer on the importance of norms, institutional restraints and civic participation in maintaining a democracy - and how quickly those things can erode when we're not paying attention' President Barack Obama

'A must-read' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times

'The greatest of the many merits of Levitsky and Ziblatt's How Democracies Die is their rejection of western exceptionalism. They tell inspiring stories I had not heard before' Nick Cohen, Observer

'Provocative, timely. One of my favourite reads this year' Elif Shafak

'Anyone who is concerned about the future of democracy should read this brisk, accessible book. Anyone who is not concerned should definitely read it' Daron Acemoglu, co-author of Why Nations Fail

Twenty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini called for the assassination of Salman Rushdie--and writers around the world instinctively rallied to Rushdie's defense. Today, according to writer Paul Berman, "Rushdie has metastasized into an entire social class"--an ever-growing group of sharp-tongued critics of Islamist extremism, especially critics from Muslim backgrounds, who survive only because of pseudonyms and police protection. And yet, instead of being applauded, the Rushdies of today (people like Ayan Hirsi Ali and Ibn Warraq) often find themselves dismissed as "strident" or as no better than fundamentalist themselves, and contrasted unfavorably with representatives of the Islamist movement who falsely claim to be "moderates."

How did this happen? In THE FLIGHT OF THE INTELLECTUALS, Berman--"one of America's leading public intellectuals" (Foreign Affairs)--conducts a searing examination into the intellectual atmosphere of the moment and shows how some of the West's best thinkers and journalists have fumbled badly in their efforts to grapple with Islamist ideas and violence.

Berman's investigation of the history and nature of the Islamist movement includes some surprising revelations. In examining Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, he shows the rise of an immense and often violent worldview, elements of which survives today in the brigades of al-Qaeda and Hamas. Berman also unearths the shocking story of al-Banna's associate, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who collaborated personally with Adolf Hitler to incite Arab support of the Nazis' North African campaign. Echoes of the Grand Mufti's Nazified Islam can be heard among the followers of al-Banna even today.

In a gripping and stylish narrative Berman also shows the legacy of these political traditions, most importantly by focusing on a single philosopher, who happens to be Hassan al-Banna's grandson, Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan--a figure widely celebrated in the West as a "moderate" despite his troubling ties to the Islamist movement. Looking closely into what Ramadan has actually written and said, Berman contrasts the reality of Ramadan with his image in the press.

In doing so, THE FLIGHT OF THE INTELLECTUALS sheds light on a number of modern issues--on the massively reinvigorated anti-Semitism of our own time, on a newly fashionable turn against women's rights, and on the difficulties we have in discussing terrorism--and presents a stunning commentary about the modern media's peculiar inability to detect and analyze some of the most dangerous ideas in contemporary society.

For centuries, duelling played an integral role in the preservation of the aristocratic order in Europe, defying attempts by both church and state to ban the practice. Moreover, the romance and drama of the duel has made it an enduring fixture in films, literature, and the theatre.

In The Duel in European History, renowned historian Victor Kiernan writes with his characteristic wit and insight of duelling's evolution from its medieval origins – when it was regarded as a badge of rank - to the early twentieth century, by which time it was seen as an irrational anachronism. In doing so, he shows how the duelling tradition was something unique to Europe and its colonies, and, in its contribution to the development of the officer corps, played a key part in shaping European military power.

Drawing on a vast range of historical and cultural sources, this is the definitive account of a violent ritual that continues to fascinate even today.

Americans have always been a hard-drinking people, but from 1920 to 1933 the country went dry. After decades of pressure from rural Protestants such as the hatchet-wielding Carry A. Nation and organizations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti-Saloon League, the states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Bolstered by the Volstead Act, this amendment made Prohibition law: alcohol could no longer be produced, imported, transported, or sold. This bizarre episode is often humorously recalled, frequently satirized, and usually condemned. The more interesting questions, however, are how and why Prohibition came about, how Prohibition worked (and failed to work), and how Prohibition gave way to strict governmental regulation of alcohol. This book answers these questions, presenting a brief and elegant overview of the Prohibition era and its legacy.

During the 1920s alcohol prices rose, quality declined, and consumption dropped. The black market thrived, filling the pockets of mobsters and bootleggers. Since beer was too bulky to hide and largely disappeared, drinkers sipped cocktails made with moonshine or poor-grade imported liquor. The all-male saloon gave way to the speakeasy, where together men and women drank, smoked, and danced to jazz.

After the onset of the Great Depression, support for Prohibition collapsed because of the rise in gangster violence and the need for revenue at local, state, and federal levels. As public opinion turned, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to repeal Prohibition in 1932. The legalization of beer came in April 1933, followed by the Twenty-first Amendment's repeal of the Eighteenth that December. State alcohol control boards soon adopted strong regulations, and their legacies continue to influence American drinking habits. Soon after, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The alcohol problem had shifted from being a moral issue during the nineteenth century to a social, cultural, and political one during the campaign for Prohibition, and finally, to a therapeutic one involving individuals. As drinking returned to pre-Prohibition levels, a Neo-Prohibition emerged, led by groups such as Mothers against Drunk Driving, and ultimately resulted in a higher legal drinking age and other legislative measures.

With his unparalleled expertise regarding American drinking patterns, W. J. Rorabaugh provides an accessible synthesis of one of the most important topics in US history, a topic that remains relevant today amidst rising concerns over binge-drinking and alcohol culture on college campuses.

"A very gripping read . . . a cautionary tale for our current leaders."
—The New York Times

As zealots in Washington intensify their preparations for an American attack on Iran, the story of the CIA's 1953 coup—with its many cautionary lessons—is more urgently relevant than ever. All the Shah's Men brings to life the cloak-and-dagger operation that deposed the only democratic regime Iran ever had. The coup ushered in a quarter-century of repressive rule under the Shah, stimulated the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and anti-Americanism throughout the Middle East, and exposed the folly of using violence to try to reshape Iran. Selected as one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and the Economist, it's essential reading if you want to place the American attack of Iraq in context—and prepare for what comes next.

"An entirely engrossing, often riveting, nearly Homeric tale. . . . For anyone with more than a passing interest in how the United States got into such a pickle in the Middle East, All the Shah's Men is as good as Grisham."
—The Washington Post Book World

"An exciting narrative. [Kinzer] questions whether Americans are well served by interventions for regime change abroad, and he reminds us of the long history of Iranian resistance to great power interventions, as well as the unanticipated consequences of intervention."
—The Los Angeles Times

"A swashbuckling yarn [and] helpful reminder of an oft-neglected piece of Middle Eastern history."
—The New York Times Book Review

In the vein of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism comes a scathing and reasoned critique of the politics of liberal compassion—and why liberals’ lack of interest in the results of their policies renders them unfit to govern.

For decades, conservatives have chafed at being called “heartless” and “uncaring” by liberals, without ever challenging this charge. Instead, they’ve spent their time trying to prove that they really do care. Now, political scientist William Voegeli turns the tables on this argument, making the case that “compassion” is neither the essence of personal virtue, nor the ultimate purpose of government.

Liberals have built a remarkable edifice of government programs that are justified by appeals to compassion. Yet as Voegeli shows, they are indifferent whether these programs fail or succeed. Instead, when the problems these programs are created to solve fail to disappear, they propose to fix underperforming programs with more money, or more programs. Meanwhile, conservatives who challenge their effectiveness on practical grounds are met with charges of being “heartless right wingers.”

Voegeli explores various programs that have become battlefields between Conservatives fighting for more efficiency, and Liberals fighting for the status quo. Along the way, he explains the philosophical underpinnings of the Liberal project that created and reinforce this misapplied ideal of compassion, and why, without a major change, Liberals must be considered unfit to govern.

Hailed by national leaders as politically diverse as former Vice President Al Gore and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Generations has been heralded by reviewers as a brilliant, if somewhat unsettling, reassessment of where America is heading.

William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational biographies, beginning in 1584 and encompassing every-one through the children of today. Their bold theory is that each generation belongs to one of four types, and that these types repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern. The vision of Generations allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history -- a cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises -- from the founding colonists through the present day and well into this millenium.

Generations is at once a refreshing historical narrative and a thrilling intuitive leap that reorders not only our history books but also our expectations for the twenty-first century.

Bruce Bawer has lived in Europe since 1999. WHILE EUROPE SLEPT is his enlightening and disturbing report on anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe and on the egregious failure of European liberals to confront Islamic extremism in their own countries. Traveling to major cities and talking with people in trains, cafes, restaurants, and on street corners, Bawer came face-to-face with the peculiar mix of moralistic smugness and abysmal ignorance that feeds the rising tide of hatred toward the United States. He found, as well, a widespread refusal to grapple with problems caused by a growing Islamic presence in Europe-from the violation of immigration laws to appalling incidents of honor killings to horrific acts of terrorism, including the assassination of a prominent Dutch politician and the March 2003 bombing in Madrid.
Bawer warns that Europe can no longer ignore the clash of civilizations raging on its own territory and around the world. Failure to recognize the problems and react quickly, he predicts, will lead to a virulent right-wing nationalism of a kind not seen since the 1930s.

For almost half a century--as a magazine editor and as the author of numerous bestselling books and hundreds of articles--Norman Podhoretz has helped drive the central political and intellectual debates in this country. Now, in this beautifully written and powerfully argued book, he takes on the most controversial issue of our time--the war against the global network of terrorists that attacked us on 9/11.
In "World War IV," Podhoretz makes the first serious effort to set 9/11 itself, the battles that have followed it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war of ideas that it has provoked at home into a broad historical context. Through a brilliant telling of this epic story, Podhoretz shows that the global war against Islamofascism is as vital and necessary as the two world wars and the cold war ("World War III") by which it was preceded. He also lays out a compelling case in defense of the Bush Doctrine, contending that its new military strategy of preemption and its new political strategy of democratization represent the only viable way to fight and win the special kind of war into which we were suddenly plunged.
Different in certain respects though the Islamofascists are from their totalitarian predecessors, this new enemy is equally dedicated to the destruction of the freedoms for which America stands and by which it lives. But it took the blatant aggression of 9/11 to make most Americans realize that war had long since been declared on us and that the time had come to fight back. Past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, had failed to respond with appropriate force to attacks by Muslim terrorists on American citizens in various countries, and even the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 was treated as a criminal act rather than an act of war. All this changed after 9/11, when the whole country rallied around President Bush's decision to bring the war to the enemy's home ground in the Middle East.
The successes and the setbacks that have followed are vividly portrayed by Podhoretz, who goes on to argue that, just as in the two great struggles against totalitarianism in the twentieth century, the key to victory in World War IV will be a willingness to endure occasional reverses without losing sight of what we are fighting against, what we are fighting for, and why we have to win.

Hoe komen terroristen tot hun gruweldaden? In het huidige politieke en publieke debat over de drijfveren van terroristen staan twee opvattingen lijnrecht tegenover elkaar. Politiek rechts ziet radicalisering hoofdzakelijk als een teken van religieus en politiek fanatisme. Aan de linkerkant van het politieke spectrum wijt men radicalisering vooral aan frustratie over slechte sociaaleconomische omstandigheden. In Radicalisering ontrafeld verrijkt en nuanceert terrorismedeskundige Teun van Dongen dit debat door te laten zien dat ook zaken als schuldgevoelens, peer pressure en een hang naar status een bijzonder grote rol in het radicaliseringsproces kunnen spelen. Aan de hand van memoires, interviews en verklaringen van jihadstrijders en leden van groepen als de IRA en de Rote Armee Fraktion komt hij tot tien redenen waarom mensen terroristische aanslagen plegen. In een tijd waarin radicalisering volop in de politieke en publieke belangstelling staat, verschaft Van Dongen een dieper inzicht in de achtergronden ervan en legt hij uit hoe ermee om te gaan.

"Mein Kampf': velen hebben er een mening over, vrijwel niemand heeft het gelezen. Sinds het boek in januari 2016 opnieuw in Duitsland verscheen, nadat het zeventig jaar verboden was geweest, is het debat over 'Mein Kampf' weer in volle gang, ook in Nederland. Is het een goed idee om het opnieuw uit te geven, of is het gevaarlijk om Hitlers denkbeelden te verspreiden? En is 'Mein Kampf' überhaupt de moeite van het lezen waard of is het niets meer dan het haatdragend geraaskal van een psychopaat? Door onverwachte gebeurtenissen raakte schrijver en historicus Ewoud Kieft verstrikt in wat ooit de bijbel van het nationaalsocialisme was. Hij besloot 'Mein Kampf' minutieus door te spitten, telkens met de vraag in het achterhoofd: waarom hebben miljoenen Europeanen zich hierdoor aangetrokken gevoeld? De sleutel bleek te liggen in de rechtszaak die in 1924 tegen Hitler werd gehouden en die zijn doorbraak als politicus betekende. In zijn beeldende vertelstijl mengt Kieft scènes uit het spectaculaire Hitler-proces met beschouwingen over de aantrekkingskracht van de ideeën in 'Mein Kampf' - tot op de dag van vandaag -, waarbij hij de confrontatie niet uit de weg gaat".

A revelatory look inside the world's most dangerous terrorist group.

With brutal attacks across the world—Paris, Beirut, Egypt, Turkey—the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has proved itself the greatest threat today. They have conquered massive territories in Syria and Iraq in a bid to create a new Muslim caliphate under the strict dictates of Sharia law.

In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who, with slickly produced murder videos, are spreading violence and mayhem across the globe. Beginning with the early days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS’s first incarnation, Weiss and Hassan explain who the key players are—from their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the former Saddam Baathists in their ranks—where they come from, how they have attracted both local and global support, and how they operate—from their social media strategy to their illicit oil revenues.

Political and military maneuvering by the United States, Iraq, Iran, and Syria have fueled ISIS’s explosive expansion. Drawing on original interviews with former US military officials and current ISIS fighters, the authors also reveal the internecine struggles within the movement itself, as well as ISIS’s bloody hatred of Shiite Muslims, which is generating another sectarian war in the region. A new generation of terror has dawned in the world and to understand how to stop it, we must understand who they are.

War, despite its indisputably horrific nature, has shaped the international system, prompted social and technological change, and inspired the arts. This insightful book captures fully the ubiquitous and multifaceted character of war, featuring accounts by generals, soldiers, historians, strategists, and poets, who consider conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to Bosnia. Firsthand accounts vividly evoke the French infantry experience at Waterloo, a Union-Confederate skirmish at Gettysburg, the reflections of a German seaman at Jutland, one civilian's impressions of the Blitz, the trials of a Japanese doctor in the wake of the Atom Bomb's obliteration of Nagasaki, the confusion of Vietnam, and more. A broad range of questions are addressed: What are the causes of war? Which strategic as well as moral principles guide its conduct, and how have these changed? Has total war become unthinkable? What is the nature of contemporary conflict? How is war experienced by those on the front line? With contributions by leading scholars, and edited by one the most oft-quoted and prolific of military experts, this reader offers a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of one of humankind's oldest and most controversial preoccupations.