Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson – författare

Comparing the lives and goals of two icons of Black resistanceOne man dreamed of a country united in true racial equality. Another saw this as a nightmare that served only the interest of wealthy white people. Both were sons of Baptist ministers. Both grew up to be icons of the civil rights movement.Integration versus separatism. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X have come to symbolize the two primary strands of Black political thought during the civil rights movement, much as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had more than a half-century earlier. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. points out in his foreword, the parallels and divergences between the two men remain striking.Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson compares and contrasts these two giants in her fascinating dual biography. She offers a concise account of their lives, accomplishments, and challenges. In a crisp, fascinating narrative, she reveals the interconnectedness of their goals, their visions, and their legacies. Most provocative, she suggests what might have been, as their philosophies began to converge, were it not for a pair of assassins' bullets.

Inventing the Silent Majority in Western Europe and the United States examines the unprecedented mobilization and transformation of conservative movements on both sides of the Atlantic during a pivotal period in postwar history. Convinced that 'noisy minorities' had seized the agenda, conservatives in Western Europe and the United States began to project themselves under Nixon's popularized label of the 'silent majority'. The years between the early 1960s and the late 1970s witnessed the emergence of countless new political organizations that sought to defend the existing order against a perceived left-wing threat from the resurgence of a new, politically organized Christian right to the beginnings of a radicalized version of neoliberal economic policy. Bringing together research by leading international scholars, this ground-breaking volume offers a unique framework for studying the phenomenon of conservative mobilization in a comparative and transnational perspective.

Inventing the Silent Majority in Western Europe and the United States examines the unprecedented mobilization and transformation of conservative movements on both sides of the Atlantic during a pivotal period in postwar history. Convinced that 'noisy minorities' had seized the agenda, conservatives in Western Europe and the United States began to project themselves under Nixon's popularized label of the 'silent majority'. The years between the early 1960s and the late 1970s witnessed the emergence of countless new political organizations that sought to defend the existing order against a perceived left-wing threat from the resurgence of a new, politically organized Christian right to the beginnings of a radicalized version of neoliberal economic policy. Bringing together research by leading international scholars, this ground-breaking volume offers a unique framework for studying the phenomenon of conservative mobilization in a comparative and transnational perspective.

Die von der Amerikanerin Mary Baker Eddy 1875 begründete Lehre von der Christlichen Wissenschaft (Christian Science) geht davon aus, dass alles Böse in der Welt – einschließlich jeder Form von Krankheit – letztendlich nur eine Illusion ist, die durch die Erkenntnis der wahren Natur Gottes und seiner Schöpfung vollkommen überwunden werden kann. Aufgrund ihrer Heilungserfolge erfreute sich die neue Glaubensgemeinschaft bald großer Popularität auch über die Grenzen der USA hinaus. Insbesondere in Deutschland fand sie viele Anhänger und erlangte vorübergehend beachtlichen gesellschaftlichen Einfluss, trotz zahlreicher Gegner, die sie als "gefährliche Sekte" bekämpften.Das vorliegende Buch untersucht den Werdegang von Christian Science im Lande Luthers – von der Etablierung im Kaiserreich, über die Verfolgung durch das Nazi-Regime und die Herausforderungen der Nachkriegszeit bis zur heutigen Situation. Durch die Einbeziehung bislang unbekannter historischer Quellen sowie zahlreicher Interviews mit Befürwortern und Kritikern der Christlichen Wissenschaft gelingt es der Autorin, ein bemerkenswert vielseitiges und lebendiges Bild dieser Glaubensgemeinschaft und ihrer Geschichte zu zeichnen.