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The Environmental Crusaders highlights citizens in Israel, the former Czechoslovakia, and the United States who challenged serious ecological problems and demanded a safe environment and an accountable society. The men and women portrayed here confronted the threat of nuclear contamination, chemical waste and pollution, exposure to garbage and industrial refuse, untreated sewage, and other serious dangers. Drawing upon 140 interviews, Myron Peretz Glazer and Penina Migdal Glazer portray the personal transformation of those who moved from uninvolved residents to political activists working collectively to improve the quality of community life. In the process, they show how environmentalism is adapting to the new global economy. An important feature of this book is its comparative approach. While the United States has a long tradition of environmental activism and a well-developed infrastructure to support environmental groups, Israel represents a society where security issues, economic development, and absorption of immigrants have superseded environmental concerns. A small group of early Israeli activists has recently been joined by others in forming a new and still fragile environmental movement. A parallel environmental group in the Israeli Arab community combines similar ecological concerns with a larger quest for equality and social justice. In a different national context, environmental dissidence has resulted in dramatic revolutionary change in Czechoslovakia. The book recounts the role of environmental activists in bringing down the Communist government in 1989 as well as post-Velvet revolutionary developments. The Glazers argue that grassroots activists in all three countries have become the bedrock of an international social movement to expose and respond to environmental threats to their communities. Following on their pathbreaking work on whistleblowers, the Glazers show the power of personal courage in the face of government and corporate bureaucracies that fail to meet our collective needs. ... Read more

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In the immediate post-communist environment of East-Central Europe, local governments have had to find new ways of reforming institutions in an effort to manage emerging market economies and provide better service for their citizens. Based on extensive analysis and surveys of local leaders and citizens in hundreds of cities and towns throughout the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, this book compares experiences in these countries. It portrays the relationships between citizens and local elites, showing the constraints and achievements in cultivating working forms of local democracy. ... Read more

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This book deals with aspects of national formation in Slovakia from October 1918 through September 1938, and especially with the role of secondary and higher education in the process. ... Read more

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This book systematically examines an animal bone assemblage in order to ascertain its spatial patterning. The study was first undertaken to discover the likely animal actors responsible for any horizontal spatial patterning. There is much data to support the long-held notion that the cave was a hibernation den for bears. In this study, the author provides fresh insight by arguing that there is powerful evidence that these bear carcasses had been scavenged by wolves and hyenas. He also argues that animals can create spatial patterns in the absence of culture or modern human cognitive abilities. Gargett suggests that an effort must be made to identify distinctive spatial patterns that result from human cognitive processes, such as language and culture. Only then, he argues, will spatial analysis achieve its potential as a means to help resolve questions about the origins of modern humans. This book will appeal to Paleolithic archaeologists and Paleoanthropologists. Its analyses will interest vertebrate paleontologists and paleobiologists as well. ... Read more

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Scene Change - A Theatre Diary ... Read more

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After World War I, diplomats and leaders at the Paris Peace Talks redrew the map of Europe, carving up ancient empires and transforming Europe's eastern half into new nation-states. Drawing heavily on the past, the leaders of these young countries crafted national mythologies and deployed them at home and abroad. Domestically, myths were a tool for legitimating the new state with fractious electorates. In Great Power capitals, they were used to curry favor and to compete with the mythologies and propaganda of other insecure postwar states.

The new postwar state of Czechoslovakia forged a reputation as Europe's democratic outpost in the East, an island of enlightened tolerance amid an increasingly fascist Central and Eastern Europe. In Battle for the Castle, Andrea Orzoff traces the myth of Czechoslovakia as an ideal democracy. The architects of the myth were two academics who had fled Austria-Hungary in the Great War's early years. Tomáas Garrigue Masaryk, who became Czechoslovakia's first president, and Edvard Benes, its longtime foreign minister and later president, propagated the idea of the Czechs as a tolerant, prosperous, and cosmopolitan people, devoted to European ideals, and Czechoslovakia as a Western ally capable of containing both German aggression and Bolshevik radicalism. Deeply distrustful of Czech political parties and Parliamentary leaders, Benes and Masaryk created an informal political organization known as the Hrad or "Castle." This powerful coalition of intellectuals, journalists, businessmen, religious leaders, and Great War veterans struggled with Parliamentary leaders to set the country's political agenda and advance the myth. Abroad, the Castle wielded the national myth to claim the attention and defense of the West against its increasingly hungry neighbors. When Hitler occupied the country, the mythic Czechoslovakia gained power as its leaders went into wartime exile. Once Czechoslovakia regained its independence after 1945, the Castle myth reappeared. After the Communist coup of 1948, many Castle politicians went into exile in America, where they wrote the Castle myth of an idealized Czechoslovakia into academic and political discourse.

Battle for the Castle demonstrates how this founding myth became enshrined in Czechoslovak and European history. It powerfully articulates the centrality of propaganda and the mass media to interwar European cultural diplomacy and politics, and the tense, combative atmosphere of European international relations from the beginning of the First World War well past the end of the Second. ... Read more

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Living Within the Truth is dedicated to 'The Plastic People of the Universe," the wildly popular Czech rock band, whose members were harassed, arrested, tried, and jailed by the communist authorities in the early 1970s. Among those inspired by this affront to the freedom of creative expression was Václav Havel, a well-known playwright and satirist. Havel and and other leaders from across Central and Eastern Europe set in motion those events which ultimately led to freedom and independence for the nations throughout the region. Revolutionary leaders Adam Michnik of Poland and János Kis of Hungary are also profiled.This comprehensive study traces the history of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland from earliest times to the present. It includes a look at civil society from a historic and contemporary perspective, discusses the nature of foreign aid aimed at assisting the transition to democracy, and reviews various studies designed to evaluate the impact of the revolutions in creating viable and enduring civil societies. ... Read more

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The Czechoslovak New Wave was originally published in 1985 and was quickly established as the world's leading authoritative English-language text. A study of the most significant movement in post-war Central and East European cinemas, it examines the origins of a movement against the political and cultural developments of the 1960s leading to the Prague Spring of 1968. Peter Hames also summarizes key aspects of Czech and Slovak histories between the wars and in the 1940s and 1950s. Directors discussed include Milos Forman, Jan Svankmajer, Jiri Menzel, Jan Nemec.

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Media Events That Shaped The New Croatia reviews the public affairs aspects of how a 1996 UN Mission to Serbia/Croatia used Special Event Media planning to win the peace in a little known corner of the world called Vukovar. U.S. Ambassador Jacques Klein called Temple Black while he was stationed at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia in February '96 asking if he would be interested in serving as a UN Spokesman to help bring Serbia & Croatia together. Only the Americans and British seemed truly engaged in the mission. The other countries in the contact group didn't seem all that interested and their troops were clearly just interested in the money they could make from the deployment. They worked very long days, 7 days-a-week, trying to make progress and in the end, we were successful in bringing Vukovar into the new Croatia. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Dance Magazine, Inc. on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 667 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Light and shadow: dance in Prague today.
Author: Lizzy Le Quesne
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Dance Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 80Issue: 1Page: 22(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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In Germany, interpretations of the epochal year 1968 range from its being a "second founding" of West-German democracy to the epitome of leftist fascism. In the Czech Republic, on the other hand, this year marks a clear break in history: The invasion of tanks from the Warsaw Pact into Prague represents a clear fissure of the "Golden 60's" and "Prague Spring" from the following time of normalization - which for some two million Czecks and Slovaks meant direct repressions. The authors pursue the question whether above and beyond that there were phenomena such as a protest culture and new systems of symbols that transcended the borders of individual countries; whether there were common causes that breached the time between 1968 and 1989. Especially important is the question of how this time period is depicted in the learning materials of the respective countries. German text. ... Read more

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The story of how a U.S. broadcasting station helped win the Cold War.

“(Sosin) tells [Radio Liberty’s] story in a sober, judicious manner, extolling its achievements without concealing its shortcomings.His is the first authoritative account of an institution that played a major role in undermining Soviet authority and paving the road to its collapse.”—The New Leader

It is also a story of Jewish interest, intersecting at key junctures with the tale of the struggle to free Soviet Jewry."—Forward

“A valuable contribution to our understanding of how the Cold War was won. Radio Liberty was an important instrument in that struggle, and Gene Sosin’s memoir provides a detailed and informative account of how that struggle was waged.” —Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor

"One of the most important lessons still to be learned from a study of the Cold War period concerns the ambiguities and dilemmas associated with our quasi-governmental efforts to break through the Soviet monopoly of propaganda and information.Gene Sosin, in Sparks of Liberty, has provided a useful resource for future studies of this problem."—Marshall D. Shulman, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Columbia University

“Gene Sosin has produced an animated and readable history of Radio Liberty. He enlivens the story with many deftly written thumbnail sketches of staff members and contributors, providing a virtual who’s who of American intellectual life and the Soviet dissident and émigré intelligentsia. It is fortunate for the historical record that Sosin has written this book.”—Robert V. Daniels, University of Vermont

“A well-documented, lively account of one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the Cold War.Gene Sosin’s story of Radio Liberty is a major contribution to the annals of the ideological war between the United States and the Soviet Union that was waged from Stalin’s death in 1953 to the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1991.”—Maurice Friedberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

During the Cold War, one of America’s most powerful weapons struck a major blow against tyranny every day over the airwaves.Radio Liberty became a critical source of information for listeners within the Soviet Union, broadcasting in Russian and more than a dozen other languages, and covering all aspects of Soviet life.

Sparks of Liberty provides an insider’s look at the origins, development, and operation of Radio Liberty.Gene Sosin, a key executive with the station for thirty-three years, combines vivid eyewitness reports with documents from his personal archives to offer the first complete account of Radio Liberty, tracing its evolution from Stalin’s death to the demise of the USSR, to its current role in the post-Soviet world.

Sosin describes Radio Liberty’s early efforts to cope with KGB terrorism and Soviet jamming, to minimize interference from the CIA, and to survive pressure exerted by J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who considered Radio Liberty a deterrent to détente.The insider’s perspective sheds important light on world affairs as Sosin tells how, over the years, Radio Liberty took the advice of experts on Soviet politics to adapt the content and tone of its messages to changing times.

The book is rich in anecdotes that bring home the realities of the Cold War.Sosin tells how famous Western political figures, educators, and writers broadcast messages about workers’ rights, artistic freedom, and unfettered scholarly inquiry—and also how, beginning in the late 1960s, Radio Liberty beamed the writings of Soviet dissidents back into the country.During these tumultuous years, Sosin and his associates saturated the airwaves with the words of Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn, and others, while many dissidents who had emigrated from the Soviet Union joined Radio Liberty to help strengthen its credibility among listeners.Radio Liberty ultimately became the most popular station from the West, its influence culminating with the crucial support of Gorbachev and Yeltsin during the attempted coup against them in August 1991.

As Radio Liberty entered the post-Soviet era, it became a model for the Russian media.It is now a voice for democratic education in the post-Soviet nations— broadcasting from Prague, with local bureaus in several major cities of the former Soviet Union.Capturing the work and legacy of this enterprise with authority and exhilaration,Sparks of Liberty is a testament to an enterprise that saw its message realized and continues to broadcast a message of hope. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Fascinating Account of Winning the Cold War
Anyone who is interested in the history of international media and how the Cold War was won by the West should read this book--it was extremely well-written, informative and engaging. The author, a former Radio Liberty programming executive and PhD in Russian from Columbia, has put together afascinating account of the mission of Radio Liberty (RL) from its beginningbroadcast at the time of Stalin's death in 1953 to its joining force withRadio Free Europe (RFE) in 1976 as RFE/RL. The book ends with RFE/RL'scurrent status at the end of the 1990s. It was very interesting to readthis account from a Western viewpoint of how the emigre Russianintelligentsia connected with the intelligentsia and averagecitizen inthe Soviet Union during the Cold War. In many ways this account is a heroicbut not overly aggrandized portrait of how the idea of freedom of speechrent the Iron Curtain by means of radio broadcasts--it could have been verypro-Western and propagandistic in outlook but wasn't, thank goodness. Thebook seems fairly balanced in that it also discusses internal problems theRadio staff had over a period of time--these conflicts were in effectmicrocosms of the ethnic tensions that existed within the Soviet Union. Ifound it also to be a case study on international broadcasting and how theU.S. government has decided to fund it in the past and the present. Afterfinishing this, I wanted to read more books about the history of thedissident movement in the Soviet Union and the history of Westernbroadcasting. ... Read more