International Library of Twentieth Century History – serie

The First World War in German Southern and East Africa was fought in extremely different circumstances to the war on the Western Front. Very little has been written on the South West Africa campaign whilst, conversely, much attention has been granted to the military aspects of the East Africa campaign. This book returns the spotlight to both of these campaigns, seeking to understand the impact which policy decisions and the interplay of individuals made on the course of the war in East and Southern Africa. The author illuminates the roles of two key players: General Jan Christian Smuts who led the army of South Africa to take on German forces in East Africa in 1915, and the undefeated Lettow-Vorbeck, famed for being the only German general to occupy British territory. The paths of these military protagonists crossed over events in Africa from 1899 and continued to cross as adversaries in battle, until the two men, who held each other in extremely high regard, finally met in London in 1929.Although they died in 1950 and 1964 respectively, the profound effect they had on Africa still continues - as does that of Lord Kitchener who stood alone in London trying to keep East Africa out of active war. In trying to understand the interplay of the individual and politics on the military, World War One in Africa attempts to take as holistic a view of the campaigns as possible. The study, using primary and secondary material from Britain, South Africa and other countries involved, seeks to undermine Clemenceau's claim that war should not be left to the Generals. Had it not been for the ill-informed decisions of individual politicians, a great proportion of the 102,260 deaths would have been prevented and a total war debt of GBP95 million avoided.

Lenin was an unambiguous supporter of total censorship and control of culture, while, interestingly, a young Stalin defended Bulgakov against charges of 'bourgeois' leanings. By charting the direction of theatre, literature and the Bolshevik leadership in this period, Steven Richmond provides a fascinating history of cultural life in communist Russia - and an insight into the character of totalitarianism itself. Essential reading for students and scholars of twentieth century social, literary and cultural history, this will become one of the key works on censorship in the early Soviet Union.

In the early twentieth century, the Labour Party was a growing political force in Britain. Founded in 1900, as an amalgamation of a number of small socialist groups brought together by the Trade Union Congress, by the 1920s it had overtaken the Liberal Party in terms of general election success. It went on to form its first, albeit minority, governments in 1924 and 1929-1931 under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald, who became the first ever Labour Prime Minister. This book, by the acclaimed Labour historian, the late Duncan Tanner, looks at the early years of the Labour Party's history, from the 1906 election, in which the Labour Representative Committee won just 29 seats, to the 1929 election when Labour became the largest party in the House of Commons for the first time. He considers the reasons behind Labour's meteoric rise, together with an analysis of the political and social climate of the time and the impact of World War I and prominent left-wing intellectuals. The catastrophic split of the Liberal Party at the height of World War I gave a large boost to the fledgling Labour Party, who provided a new ideological home for many disenchanted Liberal supporters.The first Labour government, of 1924, lasted a mere nine months, but managed to pass a number of key pieces of social legislation - including the Wheatley Housing Act which provided for the construction of 500,000 homes to be rented to working class families - which was to set the tone for Labour policy for the first of the century. By the time the Party came to power a second time in 1929 they had a stronger base of support, but were still reliant on the floundering Liberal Party in order to pass legislation.

Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam? What led US policy makers to become convinced that Vietnam posed a threat to American interests? In The Road to Vietnam, Pablo de Orellana traces the origins of the US-Vietnam War back to 1945-1948 and the diplomatic relations fostered in this period between the US, France and Vietnam, during the First Vietnam War that pitted imperial France against the anti-colonial Vietminh rebel alliance. With specific focus on the representation of the parties involved through the processes of diplomatic production, the book examines how the groundwork was laid for the US-Vietnam War of the 60’s and 70’s. Examining the France-Vietminh conflict through poststructuralist and postcolonial lenses, de Orellana reveals the processes by which the US and France built up the perception of Vietnam as a communist threat. Drawing on archival diplomatic texts, the representation of political identity between diplomatic actors is examined as a cause leading up to American involvement in the First Vietnam War, and will be sure to interest scholars in the fields of fields of diplomatic studies, international relations, diplomatic history and Cold War history.

For the first time, Britain and the United States in Greece provides an in-depth analysis of Anglo-American diplomacy in Greece from 1946 to 1950. After Word War II, as Europe floundered economically, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee looked to disengage Britain from some of its broad international obligations and increase American support for its new foreign agenda. One place he sought to do so was in Greece.Spero Simeon Z. Paravantes reveals how the relationship between Britain and the US developed in this formative period, arguing that Britain used the fast-escalating tensions of the Cold War to direct US policy in Greece and encourage the Americans to take a more active role – effectively taking Britain’s place – in the region. In the process, Paravantes sheds new light on how the American experience in Greece contributed to the formulation of the Truman Doctrine and the containment of communism, the structure of Greek institutions, and ultimately, the birth of the Cold War.Drawing on a wide range of sources from Britain, the US, Greece and the Balkans, this book is essential reading for all scholars looking to gain fresh insight into the complex origins of the Cold War, 20th-century Anglo-American relations, and the history of modern Greece.

In the English language World War I has largely been analysed and understood through the lens of the Western Front. This book addresses this imbalance by examining the war in Eastern and Central Europe. The historiography of the war in the West has increasingly focused on the experience of ordinary soldiers and civilians, the relationships between them and the impact of war at the time and subsequently. This book takes up these themes and, engaging with the approaches and conclusions of historians of the Western front, examines wartime experiences and the memory of war in the East. Analysing soldiers' letters and diaries to discover the nature and impact of displacement and refugee status on memory, this volume offers a basis for comparison between experiences in these two areas. It also provides material for intra-regional comparisons that are still missing from the current research. Was the war in the East wholly 'other'? Were soldiers in this region as alienated as those in the West? Did they see themselves as citizens and was there continuity between their pre-war or civilian and military identities? And if, in the Eastern context, these identities were fundamentally challenged, was it the experience of war itself or its consequences (in the shape of imprisonment and displacement, and changing borders) that mattered most? How did soldiers and citizens in this region experience and react to the traumas and upheavals of war and with what consequences for the post-war era? In seeking to answer these questions and others, this volume significantly adds to our understanding of World War I as experienced in Central and Eastern Europe.

Marion Cave Rosselli is remembered as the ‘perfect companion’ of the Italian Antifascist leader Carlo Rosselli, assassinated in Paris in June 1937. But little is known about the young English student fired with revolutionary enthusiasm who moved to Florence in 1919, witnessed the violent march of fascism to power and thereafter became a resolute adversary of the Mussolini dictatorship. Based on a wealth of little-used private and public archives, this biography retraces her journey from a modest home on the outskirts of London to the first underground Antifascist opposition in Italy, from the prison island of Lipari to exile in Paris and the United States. It reveals the social, cultural and existential factors which underpinned her unflinching political engagement alongside her husband. It also highlights the many challenges faced by Antifascist women within a highly patriarchal movement by bringing to life the figure of a woman who challenged the traditional division of labour within the family and struggled to carve a political role for herself. Reconstructing Marion Cave Rosselli’s experience in relation to the multiple political, social and cultural worlds she moved in, this book broadens our understanding of the Antifascist movement and offers a richly detailed portrait of a time full of hopes, anxieties and disappointments.