Robert Ross - Böcker

The perfect gift for fans of the UK’s best comedy shows, from Dad's Army and Fawlty Towers to Blackadder and the Vicar of Dibley! In seasons one and two of The Vicar of Dibley, which heartthrob's photo does Geraldine display next to the one of Jesus?According to Del in Only Fools and Horses, how did the character Colin Ball acquire the nickname ‘Trigger’?What is the ingredient missing from the Waldorf salad Mr Hamilton orders in Fawlty Towers: celery, apples, _____, grapes.***How well do YOU know your classic British sitcoms?Challenge your friends and family to the ultimate trivia head-to-head, with questions on all your favourite shows!

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) has perhaps attracted more critical and biographical attention in recent years than any other writer of the late-nineteenth century. By the turn of the 1890s, he was emerging as one of the most influential essayists of his time. In the four years leading up to the trials of 1895, he produced four theatrically innovative Society comedies that transformed the Victorian stage.This 15 volume boxed set reprints the 1908 collected works together with the first trade edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Also included is Stuart Mason's comprehensive Bibliography of Oscar Wilde, which remains an indispensable tool of research.In his introduction to these volumes, Joseph Bristow discusses the major developments in critical understandings of Wilde and his works. He draws particular attention to the significance of recent debates within Anglo-Irish studies, in lesbian and gay studies, and in theatre history. Locating the Collected Works in the main cultural, historical, and political contexts of late-Victorian England, Bristow examines how Wilde's writing frequently adopts parodic masks to subvert the social order of the day, not least where sexual desire and sexual identity are concerned. He considers how and why Wilde's reputation suffered such harsh blows during the months leading up to the author's imprisonment with two years hard labour and solitary confinement in Reading Gaol.

This volume brings together a group of leading international scholars to discuss how US-China-EU relations will shape the future of international politics.Arguing that these three powers will play a key role in establishing and managing a new world order, the contributors examine how a future global order is developed by the interaction of these leading actors in the international system. The authors also address how the US, China and the EU promote cooperation and manage conflict of interests on a wide spectrum of issues including new security challenges. By linking the management of international affairs to specific policy issues, the book shows that the US-China-EU triangular configuration is a pivotal relationship for understanding contemporary international relations.This book offers a comprehensive assessment of US-China-EU interactions and will be of great interest to students of Asian politics, US foreign policy, EU politics and security studies and IR in general.Robert S. Ross is Professor of Political Science at Boston College, Associate, John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, Associated Professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Senior Advisor, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Øystein Tunsjø is Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. Zhang Tuosheng is director of the research department and senior fellow at the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.

This volume brings together a group of leading international scholars to discuss how US-China-EU relations will shape the future of international politics.Arguing that these three powers will play a key role in establishing and managing a new world order, the contributors examine how a future global order is developed by the interaction of these leading actors in the international system. The authors also address how the US, China and the EU promote cooperation and manage conflict of interests on a wide spectrum of issues including new security challenges. By linking the management of international affairs to specific policy issues, the book shows that the US-China-EU triangular configuration is a pivotal relationship for understanding contemporary international relations.This book offers a comprehensive assessment of US-China-EU interactions and will be of great interest to students of Asian politics, US foreign policy, EU politics and security studies and IR in general.Robert S. Ross is Professor of Political Science at Boston College, Associate, John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, Associated Professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Senior Advisor, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Øystein Tunsjø is Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. Zhang Tuosheng is director of the research department and senior fellow at the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.

This book offers an assessment of the naval policies of emerging naval powers, and the implications for maritime security relations and the global maritime order. Since the end of the Cold War, China, Japan, India and Russia have begun to challenge the status quo with the acquisition of advanced naval capabilities. The emergence of rising naval powers is a cause for concern, as the potential for great power instability is exacerbated by the multiple maritime territorial disputes among new and established naval powers. This work explores the underlying sources of maritime ambition through an analysis of various historical cases of naval expansionism. It analyses both the sources and dynamics of international naval competition, and looks at the ways in which maritime stability and the widespread benefits of international commerce and maritime resource extraction can be sustained through the twenty-first century.This book will be of much interest to students of naval power, Asian security and politics, strategic studies, security studies and IR in general.

This volume provides a coherent and comprehensive understanding of Chinese security policy, comprising essays written by one of America's leading scholars.Chinese Security Policy covers such fundamental areas as the role of international structure in state behavior, the use of force in international politics (including deterrence, coercive diplomacy, and war), and the sources of great-power conflict and cooperation and balance of power politics, with a recent focus on international power transitions. The research integrates the realist literature with key issues in Chinese foreign policy, thereby placing China’s behaviour in the larger context of the international political system. Within this framework, Chinese Security Policy considers the importance of domestic politics and leadership in Chinese policy making.This book examines how Chinese strategic vulnerability since U.S.-China rapprochement in the early 1970s has compelled Beijing to seek cooperation with the United States and to avoid U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan. It also addresses the implications of the rise of China for the security of both United States and of Chinese neighbors in East Asia, and considers the implications of China’s rise for the regional balance of power and the emerging twenty-first century East Asian security order.This book will be of great interest to all students of Chinese Security and Foreign Policy, Chinese and Asian Politics, US foreign policy and International Security in general.

This volume provides a coherent and comprehensive understanding of Chinese security policy, comprising essays written by one of America's leading scholars.Chinese Security Policy covers such fundamental areas as the role of international structure in state behavior, the use of force in international politics (including deterrence, coercive diplomacy, and war), and the sources of great-power conflict and cooperation and balance of power politics, with a recent focus on international power transitions. The research integrates the realist literature with key issues in Chinese foreign policy, thereby placing China’s behaviour in the larger context of the international political system. Within this framework, Chinese Security Policy considers the importance of domestic politics and leadership in Chinese policy making.This book examines how Chinese strategic vulnerability since U.S.-China rapprochement in the early 1970s has compelled Beijing to seek cooperation with the United States and to avoid U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan. It also addresses the implications of the rise of China for the security of both United States and of Chinese neighbors in East Asia, and considers the implications of China’s rise for the regional balance of power and the emerging twenty-first century East Asian security order.This book will be of great interest to all students of Chinese Security and Foreign Policy, Chinese and Asian Politics, US foreign policy and International Security in general.

"A brilliant and beautiful book, the mature work of a lifetime, must reading for students of the globalization debate."---Tom Hayden"Slaves to Fashion is a remarkable achievement, several books in one: a gripping history of sweatshops, explaining their decline, fall, and return; a study of how the media portray them; an analysis of the fortunes of the current anti-sweatshop movement; an anatomy of the global traffic in apparel, in particular the South-South competition that sends wages and working conditions plummeting toward the bottom; and not least, a passionate declaration of faith that humanity can find a way to get its work done without sweatshops. This is engaged sociology at its most stimulating."---Todd Gitlin". . . unflinchingly portrays the reemergence of the sweatshop in our dog-eat-dog economy."---Los Angeles TimesJust as Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed uncovered the plight of the working poor in America, Robert J. S. Ross's Slaves to Fashion exposes the dark side of the apparel industry and its exploited workers at home and abroad. It's both a lesson in American business history and a warning about one of the most important issues facing the global capital economy-the reappearance of the sweatshop.Vividly detailing the decline and tragic rebirth of sweatshop conditions in the American apparel industry of the twentieth century, Ross explains the new sweatshops as a product of unregulated global capitalism and associated deregulation, union erosion, and exploitation of undocumented workers. Using historical material and economic and social data, the author shows that after a brief thirty-five years of fair practices, the U.S. apparel business has once again sunk to shameful abuse and exploitation. Refreshingly jargon-free but documented in depth, Slaves to Fashion is the only work to estimate the size of the sweatshop problem and to systematically show its impact on apparel workers' wages. It is also unique in its analysis of the budgets and personnel used in enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act.Anyone who is concerned about this urgent social and economic topic and wants to go beyond the headlines should read this important and timely contribution to the rising debate on low-wage factory labor. Robert J.S. Ross is Professor of Sociology, Clark University. He is an expert in the area of sweatshops and globalization. He is an activist academic who travels and lectures extensively and has published numerous related articles.

This book examines the ways in which racial and economic stratification were brought to coincide in pre-industrial South Africa by describing in detail the history of one group, the Griquas of Philippolis and Kokstad. These people, of very mixed origins, were central, both physically and symbolically, to the processes of South African history in the nineteenth century. They were able to gain control over a very large area of the southern Orange Free State, where they established what was, for a time, a prosperous little state. Very many Griquas became Christian, although this did not mean that they were dominated by the missionaries - rather the reverse. A substantial number were literate. Moreover, they made use of all possible means of developing their own wealth, first as ivory hunters and then as successful horse and sheep ranchers. In short, they fulfilled all the criteria for acceptance into the ruling class of white South Africa. except that they were not white.

In a compelling example of the cultural history of South Africa, Robert Ross offers a subtle and wide-ranging study of status and respectability in the colonial Cape between 1750 and 1850. His 1999 book describes the symbolism of dress, emblems, architecture, food, language, and polite conventions, paying particular attention to domestic relationships, gender, education and religion, and analyses the values and the modes of thinking current in different strata of the society. He argues that these cultural factors were related to high political developments in the Cape, and offers a rich account of the changes in social identity that accompanied the transition from Dutch to British overrule, and of the development of white racism and of ideologies of resistance to white domination. The result is a uniquely nuanced account of a colonial society.

Coming fifteen years after South Africa's achievement of majority rule, this book takes a critical and searching look at the country's past. It presents South Africa's past in an objective, clear, and refreshing manner. With chapters contributed by ten of the best historians of the country, the book elaborately weaves together new data, interpretations, and perspectives on the South African past, from the Early Iron Age to the eve of the mineral revolution on the Rand. Its findings incorporate new sources, methods, and concepts, for example providing new data on the relations between Africans and colonial invaders and rethinking crucial issues of identity and consciousness. This book represents an important reassessment of all the major historical events, developments, and records of South Africa - written, oral, and archaeological - and will be an important new tool for students and professors of African history worldwide.

In a compelling example of the cultural history of South Africa, Robert Ross offers a subtle and wide-ranging study of status and respectability in the colonial Cape between 1750 and 1850. His 1999 book describes the symbolism of dress, emblems, architecture, food, language, and polite conventions, paying particular attention to domestic relationships, gender, education and religion, and analyses the values and the modes of thinking current in different strata of the society. He argues that these cultural factors were related to high political developments in the Cape, and offers a rich account of the changes in social identity that accompanied the transition from Dutch to British overrule, and of the development of white racism and of ideologies of resistance to white domination. The result is a uniquely nuanced account of a colonial society.

Lays emphasis on the continuing influence of the country's African heritage whilst also chronicling the processes of colonial conquest and of economic development stemming from the industrial revolution. This is followed by an analysis of the fundamental political changes South Africa has undergone, and a background for understanding those many things which have not changed.

This book surveys South African history from the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand in the late nineteenth century to the first democratic elections in 1994. Written by many of the leading historians of the country, it pulls together four decades of scholarship to present a detailed overview of South Africa during the twentieth century. It covers political, economic, social and intellectual developments and their interconnections in a clear and objective manner. This book, the second of two volumes, represents an important reassessment of all the major historical events, developments and records of South Africa and will be an important new tool for students and professors of African history worldwide, as well as the basis for further development and research.

In virtually all the countries of the world, men, and to a lesser extent women, are today dressed in very similar clothing. This book gives a compelling account and analysis of the process by which this has come about. At the same time it takes seriously those places where, for whatever reason, this process has not occurred, or has been reversed, and provides explanations for these developments.The first part of this story recounts how the cultural, political and economic power of Europe and, from the later nineteenth century North America, has provided an impetus for the adoption of whatever was at that time standard Western dress. Set against this, Robert Ross shows how the adoption of European style dress, or its rejection, has always been a political act, performed most frequently in order to claim equality with colonial masters, more often a male option, or to stress distinction from them, which women, perhaps under male duress, more frequently did. The book takes a refreshing global perspective to its subject, with all continents and many countries being discussed. It investigates not merely the symbolic and message-bearing aspects of clothing, but also practical matters of production and, equally importantly, distribution.

In virtually all the countries of the world, men, and to a lesser extent women, are today dressed in very similar clothing. This book gives a compelling account and analysis of the process by which this has come about. At the same time it takes seriously those places where, for whatever reason, this process has not occurred, or has been reversed, and provides explanations for these developments.The first part of this story recounts how the cultural, political and economic power of Europe and, from the later nineteenth century North America, has provided an impetus for the adoption of whatever was at that time standard Western dress. Set against this, Robert Ross shows how the adoption of European style dress, or its rejection, has always been a political act, performed most frequently in order to claim equality with colonial masters, more often a male option, or to stress distinction from them, which women, perhaps under male duress, more frequently did. The book takes a refreshing global perspective to its subject, with all continents and many countries being discussed. It investigates not merely the symbolic and message-bearing aspects of clothing, but also practical matters of production and, equally importantly, distribution.

The Latin American Agribusiness Development Corporation (LAAD) was one of many initiatives taken at the height of the Cold War to alleviate poverty in countries threatened by communist insurgencies. Its mission was to promote rural development by funding local agribusiness enterprises to create new permanent jobs and new economic activity. In Mission Possible, Ross, president of LAAD from 1972 to 1998, gives a richly detailed insider's account of the company's first three decades.Originally capitalized with a little over $2 million, and beginning with the small economies of Central America, it gradually expanded into the Caribbean islands and South America and now is a factor in 25 countries. To date, LAAD has provided over $300 million to 700 projects, generating tens of thousands of new jobs and new annual exports of $500 million. Always profitable, it has paid a dividend for twenty years. Its capitalization has grown to over $30 million by reinvesting most of its earnings in Latin America. Since LAAD was committed exclusively to Latin America, it had to contend with an often unsettled political environment; it could not simply stand on the sidelines and wait for conditions to improve. Indeed in a broader sense LAAD's mission was to help improve those conditions.Mission Possible describes a small but significant chapter in a broader context of how the world's rich countries have tried to raise living standards among their poorer neighbors. Students of economic development and international business management will learn much from the story of how this unique experiment grew into a dynamic enterprise."[Ross] offers innumerable studies [in Mission Possible] of investment projects that stimulated the commercial production of agricultural produce in the region. He recounts the frustrating negotiations with uncomprehending central bankers and the difficulties of developing marketing and other infrastructural networks that are so important for assuring the success of any business, and is pleased with what he identifies as the two most significant changes that profoundly affected agriculture: the decline in the role of the state in Latin America and in protectionism in the industrialized world. ... He stresses the fundamental roles that innovative entrepreneurs can play, taking advantage of opportunities created by organizations like LAAD, and using market information to reduce uncertainty." -David Barkin, Latin American Research ReviewRobert L. Ross, a Harvard-educated development economist, has worked for forty years in Latin America. He taught economics at the Latin American Economic and Social Planning Institute in Santiago, Chile and worked on the first development plans in Haiti and Paraguay. He was president of the Latin American Agribusiness Development Corporation from 1972 until his retirement in 1998.

Fiction from the old British Commonwealth once took second place to the literature of England and the United States, but his is no longer the case. Writers from around the globe-Africa, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, and the Caribbean-have recorded their encounters with colonialism from its beginnings to its collapse and aftermath to produce an impressive body of work that internationalizes literature in English. Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction in English draws from this great common wealth of writing of offer 35 selections by major writers from both indigenous and settler cultures, from the nineteenth century through the contemporary era. The anthology is organized into sets of short stories and stand-alone selections from significant novels; colonial, postcolonial, immigrant, and personal encounters are represented. Each section includes a general introduction to help readers place the works in historical and cultural perspective. Biographical and critical material is provided for each writer, along with commentary on each selection. This anthology is an appropriate textbook for courses in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and in Literature and Cultural Studies. It will also interest general readers.

Fiction from the old British Commonwealth once took second place to the literature of England and the United States, but his is no longer the case. Writers from around the globe-Africa, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, and the Caribbean-have recorded their encounters with colonialism from its beginnings to its collapse and aftermath to produce an impressive body of work that internationalizes literature in English. Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction in English draws from this great common wealth of writing of offer 35 selections by major writers from both indigenous and settler cultures, from the nineteenth century through the contemporary era. The anthology is organized into sets of short stories and stand-alone selections from significant novels; colonial, postcolonial, immigrant, and personal encounters are represented. Each section includes a general introduction to help readers place the works in historical and cultural perspective. Biographical and critical material is provided for each writer, along with commentary on each selection. This anthology is an appropriate textbook for courses in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and in Literature and Cultural Studies. It will also interest general readers.

This study of the Gamtoos River floodplain in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province traces its transformation from an eighteenth-century natural landscape of thick bush into an agricultural zone now threatened by climate change.The first half of the book explains how missionaries from the London Missionary Society and residents of the Hankey Mission Station introduced irrigation, turning the area into a community of small-scale farmers. Despite early failures, by 1849 they had constructed South Africa’s first major irrigation tunnel and aqueduct. However, conflicts between the missionaries and residents led to the loss of communal lands to privatization, which ultimately impoverished the local farmers.The second half explores efforts to develop the valley for large-scale agriculture, addressing challenges like drought, flash floods, and saline water. By the mid-twentieth century, Afrikaners dominated the area, benefiting from the construction in 1970 of the Kouga Dam, which provided fresh water for the floodplain. This led to the rise of a wealthy white farming community, sustained by apartheid policies and labor from the “Coloured” and African populations. In the early twenty-first century, however, this prosperity has become threatened by severe droughts linked to global climate change.In view of these historical transformations, the Gamtoos River floodplain exemplifies the complex interplay between human ambition, environmental challenges, and sociopolitical forces.

This study of the Gamtoos River floodplain in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province traces its transformation from an eighteenth-century natural landscape of thick bush into an agricultural zone now threatened by climate change.The first half of the book explains how missionaries from the London Missionary Society and residents of the Hankey Mission Station introduced irrigation, turning the area into a community of small-scale farmers. Despite early failures, by 1849 they had constructed South Africa’s first major irrigation tunnel and aqueduct. However, conflicts between the missionaries and residents led to the loss of communal lands to privatization, which ultimately impoverished the local farmers.The second half explores efforts to develop the valley for large-scale agriculture, addressing challenges like drought, flash floods, and saline water. By the mid-twentieth century, Afrikaners dominated the area, benefiting from the construction in 1970 of the Kouga Dam, which provided fresh water for the floodplain. This led to the rise of a wealthy white farming community, sustained by apartheid policies and labor from the “Coloured” and African populations. In the early twenty-first century, however, this prosperity has become threatened by severe droughts linked to global climate change.In view of these historical transformations, the Gamtoos River floodplain exemplifies the complex interplay between human ambition, environmental challenges, and sociopolitical forces.

Mike Myers thinks he was "a genius", while John Cleese regards him as "a true cultural icon". He was an architect of British comedy, paving the way for Monty Python, and then became a major Hollywood star, forever remembered as Igor in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. A writer, director, performer and true pioneer of his art, he died aged only 48. His name was Marty Feldman, and here, at last, is the fi rst ever biography. Acclaimed author Robert Ross has interviewed Marty's friends and family, including his sister Pamela, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, and also draws from extensive, previously unpublished and often hilarious interviews with Marty himself, taped in preparation for the autobiography he never wrote. No one before or since has had a career quite like Marty's. Beginning in the dying days of variety theatre, he went from the behind the scenes scriptwriting triumphs of Round the Horne and The Frost Report to onscreen stardom in At Last the 1948 Show and his own hit series Marty. That led to transatlantic success, his work with Mel Brooks, and a five-picture deal to write and direct his own movies.From his youth as a tramp on the streets of London, to the height of his fame in America - where he encountered everyone from Orson Welles to Kermit the Frog, before his Hollywood dream became a nightmare - this is the fascinating story of a key figure in the history of comedy, fully told for the first time.