Mister Morgen


Book Description

Legendary Croatian poster artist Igor Hofbauer has created a book of graphic stories which are dark and visionary, based on a combination of classic American underground comics and film noir, pop art, German Expressionism, and Russian Constructivism. Hofbauer's comics are often surreal and nightmarish stories in strange cityscapes that will be recognized by anyone who has spent time in the concrete housing and brutish planned neighborhoods of the former Eastern Bloc.




Morgen's War


Book Description

Robert Morgen, a successful New York physician, searches for a less stressful lifestyle and moves to Vermont with his wife and son. But the rural lifestyle becomes the catalyst for the dissolution of his marriage. Discontented with the practice of medicine and saddened by the loss of his son to his wife's custody, Robert volunteers to work as a physician in the border town of Peshawar, Pakistan, during the Russian-Afghan war in 1986. While training refugee Afghan physicians and working in Afghan refugee camps, he develops a deep respect for the tenacious courage of the Afghan people. His dedication to the Afghan cause leads him to cross into Afghanistan with a French physician and nurse and a group of Afghan warriors. They are ambushed by Russian troops on a mountain pass and Robert and the nurse, Simone, are the only survivors. Their endurance tested to the maximum and often in danger in Afghanistan's deadly wartime environment, Robert and Simone struggle to make their way back across the border. In the journey through the unknown, Robert's life is irrevocably changed. LEONARD SCHONBERG served as a volunteer physician on the Afghan border in 1985 and 1986 during the Russian-Afghan war. His three previous novels, DEADLY INDIAN SUMMER, FISH HEADS and LEGACY were all published by Sunstone Press.




Divided Dreamworlds?


Book Description

With its unique focus on how culture contributed to the blurring of ideological boundaries between the East and the West, this important volume offers fascinating insights into the tensions, rivalries and occasional cooperation between the two blocs. Encompassing developments in both the arts and sciences, the authors analyze focal points, aesthetic preferences and cultural phenomena through topics as wide-ranging as the East- and West German interior design; the Soviet stance on genetics; US cultural diplomacy during and after the Cold War; and the role of popular music as a universal cultural ambassador. Well positioned at the cutting edge of Cold War studies, this important work illuminates some of the striking paradoxes involved in the production and reception of culture in East and West.




Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc


Book Description

Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc explores the rise of youth as consumers of popular culture and the globalization of popular music in Russia and Eastern Europe. This collection of essays challenges assumptions that Communist leaders and Western-influenced youth cultures were inimically hostile to one another. While initially banning Western cultural trends like jazz and rock-and-roll, Communist leaders accommodated elements of rock and pop music to develop their own socialist popular music. They promoted organized forms of leisure to turn young people away from excesses of style perceived to be Western. Popular song and officially sponsored rock and pop bands formed a socialist beat that young people listened and danced to. Young people attracted to the music and subcultures of the capitalist West still shared the values and behaviors of their peers in Communist youth organizations. Despite problems providing youth with consumer goods, leaders of Soviet bloc states fostered a socialist alternative to the modernity the capitalist West promised. Underground rock musicians thus shared assumptions about culture that Communist leaders had instilled. Still, competing with influences from the capitalist West had its limits. State-sponsored rock festivals and rock bands encouraged a spirit of rebellion among young people. Official perceptions of what constituted culture limited options for accommodating rock and pop music and Western youth cultures. Youth countercultures that originated in the capitalist West, like hippies and punks, challenged the legitimacy of Communist youth organizations and their sponsors. Government media and police organs wound up creating oppositional identities among youth gangs. Failing to provide enough Western cultural goods to provincial cities helped fuel resentment over the Soviet Union’s capital, Moscow, and encourage support for breakaway nationalist movements that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. Despite the Cold War, in both the Soviet bloc and in the capitalist West, political elites responded to perceived threats posed by youth cultures and music in similar manners. Young people participated in a global youth culture while expressing their own local views of the world.







Cold War Rivalry and the Perception of the American West


Book Description

This book demonstrates how the two adversaries of the Cold War, West Germany and East Germany, endeavored to create two distinct and unique German identities. In their endeavor to claim legitimacy, the German cinematic representation of the American West became an important cultural weapon of mass dissemination during the Cold War.




A Dual Role


Book Description




Contested Transparencies, Social Movements and the Public Sphere


Book Description

This edited collection examines the multi-faceted phenomenon of transparency, especially in its relation to social movements, from a range of multi-disciplinary viewpoints. Over the past few decades, transparency has become an omnipresent catch phrase in public and scientific debates. The volume tracks developments of ideas and practices of transparency from the eighteenth century to the current day, as well as their semantic, cultural and social preconditions. It connects analyses of the ideological implications of transparency concepts and transparency claims with their impact on the public sphere in general and on social movements in particular. In doing so, the book contributes to a better understanding of social conflicts and power relations in modern societies. The chapters are organized into four parts, covering the concept and ideology of transparency, historical and recent developments of the public sphere and media, the role of the state as an agent of surveillance, and conflicts over transparency and participation connected to social movements.




The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism


Book Description

The impact of Communism on the twentieth century was massive, equal to that of the two world wars. Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party, and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism is genuinely global in its coverage, paying particular attention to the Chinese Revolution. It is 'global', too, in the sense that the essays seek to integrate history 'from above' and 'from below', to trace the complex mediations between state and society, and to explore the social and cultural as well as the political and economic realities that shaped the lives of citizens fated to live under communist rule. The essays reflect on the similarities and differences between communist states in order to situate them in their socio-political and cultural contexts and to capture their changing nature over time. Where appropriate, they also reflect on how the fortunes of international communism were shaped by the wider economic, political, and cultural forces of the capitalist world. The Handbook provides an informative introduction for those new to the field and a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship for those seeking to deepen their understanding.




The Last Druid Standing


Book Description

Six thousand years ago, in the time before the first megaliths and stone circles, Druids appeared in small numbers throughout Europe. They began an inexplicable migration toward the Western Isles of Scotland. Among these was a Druid prophet, Lazwin. Lazwin predicted the coming of the Beltane child. The child would reunite the rune casters, gather the Druid faithful, and set in motion a series of events that would alter the history of Druid healing magic. Sadly, Lazwin's prophecies were lost to time. In 1820 a Druid child named Finn was playing near the Fary Pools on Skye. He found a small opening behind a waterfall. Stored within this hollow were the perfectly preserved scrolls containing the prophecies of the elder Lazwin. This is the story of his prophesied Beltane child and his effect on Scottish culture. The pages describe the Beltane child's quest to many of Scotland's sacred sites and his travels around the world, meeting shamans and healers. They share his journey along the eightfold path and his understanding of herbal medicines and essential oils. You will learn of the child's discoveries on a bus trip from Kathmandu to London. In these pages, Dr. Mellen helps you realize there should be some reason for the things that have gone into making you you. If you have ever wondered, "Why am I here?" "Where am I going?" and "How am I going to get there?" Dr. Mellen provides you with a fresh perspective and some rather surprising answers.