The Post-Communist World in the Twenty-First Century presents studies by senior scholars and practitioners that are highly relevant to contemporary political challenges. The democratic vision that accompanied the collapse of communist regimes in the Soviet Union and East Central Europe has been replaced by a range of authoritarian, semi-authoritarian and democratic regimes, and growing division between Western and Russian influence. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to renewed tensions ...

A dynamic history of the Battle of Sitka that recognizes the vital importance of the Tlingit people, their fight against Imperial Russia, and how it changed the fate of the North America.“If the long-term plans of Peter the Great had been realized, then California never would have become a Spanish colony,” asserted the head of the Russian-American Company. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Russia was a rising power in North America. The Tsar’s empire extended ...

The postcommunist transitions produced two very different types of states. The "contractual" state is associated with the countries of Eastern Europe, which moved toward democratic regimes, consensual relations with society, and clear boundaries between political power and economic wealth. The "predatory" state is associated with the successors to the USSR, which instead developed authoritarian regimes, coercive relations with society, and poorly defined boundaries between...

A riveting history and maritime adventure about priceless masterpieces originally destined for Catherine the Great.On October 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam, Vrouw Maria, crashed off the stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings to Europe’s most voracious collector: Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Among the lost treasures was The Nursery...

This title was first published in 2000: As the El'tsin era has now drawn to a close, numerous questions remain unanswered regarding the course of Russia's post-Communist traditions. El'tsin's exit from the presidential stage provides an opportunity to assess the achievements of Russia's multi-faceted reforms, to explain the factors that have most shaped the reform process, and to identify the trends that are likely to continue under a presidential successor. This volume embodies such an ef...

This groundbreaking royal biography offers "a fascinating, story-filled account" of King George III's radical—and doomed—pursuit of familial happiness ( The Guardian, UK).King George III of Great Britain was determined to be different from his Hanoverian predecessors. Neither of the previous Georges was faithful to his wife, and both hated their own sons. Overall, their children were angry, jealous, and disaffected schemers, whose palace shenanigans made fo...

EDWARD J. SMITH was the celebrated captain who went down with his ship.THOMAS ANDREWS was the great and selfless hero who died saving women and children.BRUCE ISMAY was the selfish coward who caused the ship to sink.When disaster struck on the night of 14 April 1912, the lives of everyone aboard the Titanic were changed forever. Lives were lost, heroes were made – and villains were cast.The Triu...

A "truly enjoyable" journey through one man's Jewish American experience by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Marjorie Morningstar ( Newsday).Israel David Goodkind is a minor bureaucrat in the Nixon White House, killing time in the office by writing the story of four generations of his large, sprawling Russian Jewish immigrant family. As he recounts his brief stint in show business, his torrid affair with a showgirl, and his enco...

Explore the history of two medieval English royal houses through the lives of three generations of fascinating women.Elizabeth Woodville, queen to Edward IV and mother of the Princes in the Tower.Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and the first Tudor queen of England.Elizabeth Grey, granddaughter of Elizabeth Woodville and Countess of Kildare, whose life both in England and across the Irish Sea was closely entwined with the Tudor Court....

A wide-ranging and dramatic account of the Antonine plague, the mysterious disease that struck the Roman Empire at its pinnacleIn the middle of the second century AD, Rome was at its prosperous and powerful apex. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reigned over a vast territory that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman-made peace, or Pax Romana, seemed to be permanent. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the legions and laid waste to ci...

A woman is accused of killing her husband, but is she guilty? Inspired by a true historical case, this spellbinding novel will keep you guessing until the final heart-stopping revelation . . .I'm on trial for the murder of my husband William. But no one knows the truth about my marriage.I sit in the dock each day and listen to them tell their lies. That William wasn't taking arsenic, that he was a nobleman who would never hurt anyone. That I'm a cu...

The stories of thirty war criminals who escaped accountability, from a historian praised for his "well written, scrupulously researched" work ( The New York Times).This deeply researched book traces the biographies of thirty "typical" perpetrators of the Holocaust—some well-known, some obscure—who survived World War II. Donald M. McKale reveals the shocking reality that the perpetrators were rarely, if ever, tried or punished for their crimes, and nearly a...