A Nation in Barracks shows how military-civil relations have evolved in Germany during the last two hundred years. This book investigates how... conscription has contributed to instilling a strong sense of military commitment among the German public. The author looks at its relationship to state citizenship, nation building, gender formation and the concept of violence. She begins with the early nineteenth century, when conscription was first used in Prussia and initially met with harsh criticism from all aspects of society, and continues through the two Germanies of the post-1949 period. The book covers the Prussian model used during World War I, the Weimar Republic when no conscription was enforced, and the mass military mobilization of the Third Reich. Throughout this detailed examination, Ute Frevert examines how civil society deals with institutionalized violence and how this affects models of citizenship and gender relations.

It’s become fashionable among the liberal elite to downplay, deride, even deny America’s greatness. The political correctness police insist that... America is “hated” around the world for being too big, too powerful, too rich, too successful, too loud, too intrusive. And besides, it’s not nice to brag.They are completely missing the point.America’s greatness, America’s exceptional greatness, is not based on that fact that we are the most powerful, most prosperous—and most generous—nation on earth. Rather, those things are the result of American Exceptionalism.To understand American Exceptionalism, as Newt Gingrich passionately argues in A Nation Like No Other, one must understand our unique birth as a nation. American Exceptionalism is found in the simple yet utterly remarkable principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.”Our nation is exceptional, continues Newt, because we—unlike any nation before or since—are united by the belief and the promise that no king, no government, no ruling class has the power to infringe upon the rights of the individual. And when such a government attempts to do so, we will vigorously reject them.Sadly, many politicians and leaders today have forgotten our sacred commitment to these ideals. Our government has strayed alarmingly far from the scope of limited powers framed by our Founders. Meanwhile, the liberal media seek out, and sometimes create, stories intended to portray America as a bully and a thief. Even our own president seems clueless, assuring us that yes, yes, he believes in American exceptionalism, just like the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism and the British in British exceptionalism.But American Exceptionalism is not about cheerleading for the home team. It’s about recognizing and honoring the history-making, world-changing ideals our Founding Fathers enshrined to make this a nation of the people, by the people, for the people. And, as Lincoln warned, we must rededicate ourselves to those principles, lest our truly exceptional nation perish from this earth.

This book offers a history of Japanese television audiences and the popular media culture that television helped to spawn. In a comparatively short... period, the television industry helped to reconstruct not only postwar Japanese popular culture, but also the Japanese social and political landscape. During the early years of television, Japanese of all backgrounds, from politicians to mothers, debated the effects on society. The public discourse surrounding the growth of television revealed its role in forming the identity of postwar Japan during the era of high-speed growth (1955-1973) that saw Japan transformed into an economic power and one of the world's top exporters of television programming.

Listen to a short interview with Stephen Mihm Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane Few of us question the slips of green paper that come... and go in our purses, pockets, and wallets. Yet confidence in the money supply is a recent phenomenon: prior to the Civil War, the United States did not have a single, national currency. Instead, countless banks issued paper money in a bewildering variety of denominations and designs--more than ten thousand different kinds by 1860. Counterfeiters flourished amid this anarchy, putting vast quantities of bogus bills into circulation. Their success, Stephen Mihm reveals, is more than an entertaining tale of criminal enterprise: it is the story of the rise of a country defined by a freewheeling brand of capitalism over which the federal government exercised little control. It was an era when responsibility for the country's currency remained in the hands of capitalists for whom "making money" was as much a literal as a figurative undertaking. Mihm's witty tale brims with colorful characters: shady bankers, corrupt cops, charismatic criminals, and brilliant engravers. Based on prodigious research, it ranges far and wide, from New York City's criminal underworld to the gold fields of California and the battlefields of the Civil War. We learn how the federal government issued greenbacks for the first time and began dismantling the older monetary system and the counterfeit economy it sustained. A Nation of Counterfeiters is a trailblazing work of history, one that casts the country's capitalist roots in a startling new light. Readers will recognize the same get-rich-quick spirit that lives on in the speculative bubbles and confidence games of the twenty-first century.

What do governments do when much of their population simply gets up and walks away? In Mexico and other migrant-sending countries, mass emigration... prompts governments to negotiate a new social contract with their citizens abroad. After decades of failed efforts to control outflow, the Mexican state now emphasizes voluntary ties, dual nationality, and rights over obligations. In this groundbreaking book, David Fitzgerald examines a region of Mexico whose citizens have been migrating to the United States for more than a century. He finds that emigrant citizenship does not signal the decline of the nation-state but does lead to a new form of citizenship, and that bureaucratic efforts to manage emigration and its effects are based on the membership model of the Catholic Church.

"This will stand as the definitive work on Chile under Pinochet for many years to come."—Library JournalHow Chile, once South America's most stable... democracy, gave way to a culture of fear. The authors explain and illuminate the rift in Chilean society that widened dramatically during the Pinochet era.

Throughout his presidency, John F. Kennedy was passionate about the issue of immigration reform. He believed that America is a nation of people who... value both tradition and the exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves in their adopted homeland. This modern edition of his posthumously published, timeless work—with a new introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy and a foreword by Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League—offers the late president's inspiring suggestions for immigration policy and presents a chronology of the main events in the history of immigration in America. As continued debates on immigration engulf the nation, this paean to the importance of immigrants to our nation's prominence and success is as timely as ever.

An instructive and relevant look at an explosive period in urban history! This savagely moving autobiography of a violent street gang covers its heyday... in the 1960s when it had perhaps ten thousand members in at least twenty-six branches on Chicago's West Side. It is the story of a street gang that became a community organization, supported by private foundations and corporations and dedicated to social, economic and political development. The gang's violent neighborhood was transformed into Head Start's most improved block where the crime rate decreased as did the number of gang-related killings. Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Shelden-Macallair, Juvenile Justice in America: Problems and Prospects (ISBN 9781577665236) and Lyon-Driskell, The Community in Urban Society, Second Edition ISBN: 9781577667414.

The United States has long been described as a nation of immigrants, but it is also a nation of religions in which Muslims and Methodists, Buddhists and... Baptists live and work side by side. This book explores that nation of religions, focusing on how four religious communities—Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs—are shaping and, in turn, shaped by American values.For a generation, scholars have been documenting how the landmark legislation that loosened immigration restrictions in 1965 catalyzed the development of the United States as "a nation of Buddhists, Confucianists, and Taoists, as well as Christians," as Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark put it. The contributors to this volume take U.S. religious diversity not as a proposition to be proved but as the truism it has become. Essays address not whether the United States is a Christian or a multireligious nation—clearly, it is both—but how religious diversity is changing the public values, rites, and institutions of the nation and how those values, rites, and institutions are affecting religions centuries old yet relatively new in America. This conversation makes an important contribution to the intensifying public debate about the appropriate role of religion in American politics and society.Contributors:Ihsan Bagby, University of KentuckyCourtney Bender, Columbia UniversityStephen Dawson, Forest, VirginiaDavid Franz, University of VirginiaHien Duc Do, San Jose State UniversityJames Davison Hunter, University of VirginiaPrema A. Kurien, Syracuse UniversityGurinder Singh Mann, University of California, Santa BarbaraVasudha Narayanan, University of FloridaStephen Prothero, Boston UniversityOmid Safi, Colgate UniversityJennifer Snow, Pasadena, CaliforniaRobert A. F. Thurman, Columbia UniversityR. Stephen Warner, University of Illinois at ChicagoDuncan Ryžken Williams, University of California, Berkeley

In A NATION OF SHEEP, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano frankly discusses how the federal government has circumvented the Constitution and is systematically... dismantling the rights and freedoms that are the foundation of American democracy.  He challenges Americans to recognize that they are being led down a very dangerous path and that the cost of following without challenge is the loss of the basic freedoms that facilitate our pursuit of happiness and that define us as a nation.Judge Napolitano reminds readers what America is all about, that the purpose of government is to protect freedom, and freedom is the ability to follow your own free will and not the will of government bureaucrats.  He asks the simple question, which are YOU, a sheep or a wolf?  Do you blindly follow behind where you are led, or do you challenge the government at every pass, forcing it to make decisions that will protect our freedoms? Judge Napolitano asks the questions that no one else will, challenging readers to rethink why they are blindly following a government that has only its own interests in mind.  He asks: Why is the government using the war on terror as an excuse to sidestep the Constitution? Why are Americans not challenging and questioning the government as it continues to limit more and more of our freedoms? What part of "Congress shall make no law..." does the government not understand when it criminalizes speech? Whatever happened to our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that are proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, guaranteed by the Constitution, yet ignored by the governments elected to protect them? Why does every public office holder swear allegiance to the Constitution, yet very few follow it? Don't we have rights that are guaranteed and cannot be taken from us?

From the age of railroads through the building of the first battleships, from the first skyscrapers to the dawning of the age of the automobile,... steelmakers proved central to American industry, building, and transportation. In A Nation of Steel Thomas Misa explores the complex interactions between steelmaking and the rise of the industries that have characterized modern America. A Nation of Steel offers a detailed and fascinating look at an industry that has had a profound impact on American life.

One of the most talked-about books in years, A Nation of Victims established Charles Sykes as a persuasive, witty, and controversial commentator on... American life and society. The plaint of the victim-- It's not my fault-- has become the loudest and most influential voice in America, an instrument of personal and lasting political change.* Fired for consistently showing up late for work, a former school district employee sues, claiming he is a victim of "chronic lateness syndrome."* Videotaped puffing on a pipe filled with crack cocaine, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry claims he is a victim of racism.* In 1960, fewer than 100,000 lawsuits were filed in federal courts; in 1990, more than 250,000 were filed.In this incisive, pugnacious, frequently hilarious book, Charles Sykes examines the erosion of our society and offers hope in the prospect of a culture of renewed character.

A few hours after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at a Memphis motel, violent mobs had looted and burned several blocks of Washington a... few miles north of the White House, centered around the U Street commercial district. Quick action by D.C. police quelled the violence, but shortly before noon the next day, looting and arson broke out anew -- not just along U Street, but in two other commercial districts as well.Over the next several days, the immediate crisis of the riots was matched by an equally ominous sense among the nation's political leadership that they were watching the final dissolution of the 1960s liberal dream. For many whites who watched flames overtake city after city -- Washington, Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City -- the April riots were an unfathomable and deeply troubling response during what should have been a time of national mourning. To them the rioters were little better than common criminals. But a look at the average rioter complicates such conclusions: they were primarily young (under 25) and male, but most made a decent salary, had a better than average education, and had no previous arrest record. In interviews and testimonies afterward, rioters recalled a sense of release, of striking back at the "system."To say that the riots meant different things to different people would be exceedingly trite if it weren't also exceedingly true. In ways large and small, the King riots solidified attitudes and trends that destroyed the momentum behind racial progress, fatally wounded postwar domestic liberalism, created new divisions among blacks and whites, and condemned urban America to decades of poverty and crime. This book will explain why they occurred, how they played out, and what they meant.

This brief text examines the central role of the automobile in American life in the late twentieth-century. Synthesizing and discussing the most... insightful monographs written about the automobile, Mark Foster provides students with an enlightening history of one of America's most recognizable contributions to industrialized society. This volume is part of the AMERICA SINCE 1945 series--a collection of brief texts that seek to define the ways in which the United States has changed in the last 50 years.

On April 26, 1983, "A Nation at Risk" warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity" in our schools that imperiled the nation's future. This report helped put... education reform at the top of the nation's agenda. "A Nation Reformed" takes stock of twenty years of school reform and presents a balanced, thoughtful look at the past, current, and future effects of school reform on our nation's students, teachers, and communities.