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Not the TIMECUBE guy.
I am still in the process of reading this book, which I think is absolutely important given what is happening in the world today. However, coming here to this site, I think it is a real disservice to the author that his identity is being conflated with another "Gene Ray" (It is a popular name) and mostly, that this confusion has resulted in the book being critiqued unfairly and given one star. I hope that the author of the bad review (Kelly J. Fuhrer @ "Foundation of truth") actually takes the time (out of that which he/she has allotted to surfing the web) to READ THE BOOK before basing his/her review on some silly mistake rooted in his/her own incompetance. ... Read more

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These essays explore the complex articulations and contexts of anti-Semitism in the literature of four cultures - Britain, France, Germany and Italy, in the "long 19th century". Individuals explored in this context include: Cesare Lombroso, Max Nordau, Marcel Proust, and Sir Walter Scott. ... Read more

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This collection of 15 essays looks at the theme of decadence and its recurring manifestations in European literature and literary criticism from medieval times to the present day. Various definitions of the term are explored, including the notion of decadence as physical decay. Some of the essays draw parallels between modernist and postmodernist notions of decadence. Similarities are detected between fin de siecle decadence at the end of the 19th century (which reaches its apotheosis in the character of Eugene Wrayburn in "Our Mutual Friend") and depictions of decadence in our own age as we approach the new millennium. ... Read more

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During the late 19th and throughout the 20th century, social sciences in general and economics in particular have undergone enormous progress. This has led to something of an embarrassment of riches. While certain topics have been fully researched to the point where the marginal benefit from further research is approaching zero, others have remained largely under-researched or were being ignored altogether.

It is this discrepancy which prompted the research paradigm of “Crossing Bridges”. For this volume, ten authors have joined forces to address the problem of under-researched topics, focussing in particular on gaps in interdisciplinary research between economics and other social sciences such as linguistics, art and cultural history. Making use of interdisciplinary methods and approaches, the book makes a case for stronger bonds between the different fields of social science.

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Since the Second World War, Europe has undergone a continual invasion: wave after wave of American popular culture. The diffusion of American culture in Europe is both a European story about America and an American story about Europe. This work examines this cross-cultural phenomenon from the European viewpoint. Nearly two dozen European experts in their respective fields offer an invigorating, engaging, and open-minded examination of America as perceived with the acute insight of the interested European outsider--a fruitful tradition that stretches back to Lafayette, de Tocqueville, and Goethe, to name three. Of interest to scholars, students, and general readers alike. ... Read more

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South Tyrol, a region in the heart of the Alps about half the size of Connecticut,brings into sharp focus an important part of twentieth-century history. Tyrol,a province that had been part of Austria for over 500 years and was almosttotally German-speaking, was split in two after World War I and the southern part awarded to Italy as "spoils of war." ... Read more

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Good introduction to South Tyrol's recent history
Rolf Steininger's treatise on the recent history of the South Tyrol is an interesting story on the plight of a German province within the nation of Italy.Ceded from Austria in 1919 as a result of the Treaty of St. Germain, South Tyrol's German population faced constant harrassment from Italy's Fascist government in terms of their suppressing their culture, language and their general way of life.

The South Tyrol Germans were disappointed at the lack of support from Hitler to reintergrate their province into greater Germany in the late 1930s and that they were not absorbed back into Austria after World War II. Both actions were due to political factors.

Today, the South Tyrol has been granted autonomy by the Rome government to a certain extent and has their own party to represent them in Parliament (the SVP).The book is a good, quick read with a glossary of acronyms, a short bibliography and timeline of events of the South Tyrol in the 20th Century.I recommend this book for scholars of modern European history. ... Read more

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"Now in its fourth edition, this leading textbook has been extensively revised to reflect the sweeping changes the past decade have brought to Europe and to incorporate new research in the field. Hailed for its creativity and intellectual depth, the book for the first time combines lead author Terry Jordan-Bychkov's decades of first-hand experience in Western and Central Europe and Bella Bychkova Jordan's expertise on European Russia to provide a comprehensive view of the region as a whole.The authors employ a humanistic geographical approach that is ideally suited to facilitate understanding of this ancient, complex culture. Their topical organization--including environment, religion, language, geogenetics, demography, geopolitics, industry, and urban and rural life--offers students a holistic understanding of the diverse European culture area. The final chapter offers a fitting capstone with its unique regional classification that pulls together all the strands of the narrative. Inclusive, intellectual, rich in ideas, lively, controversial, humanistic, and above all interesting, The European Culture Area is the text of choice for courses on the geography of Europe." ... Read more

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Great introductory text!
Dr. Jordan writes an excellent introduction to European geography.It is easy to read and understand and chapters are accompanied by lots of self-taken pictures (black and white).It begins with the question of what is Europe and who is European, a very relevant question as the European Union expands.Dr. Jordan lists a dozen empirical characteristics of Europe such as Christian and democratic that isn't universal but serves well as a fundamental description of Europe to a novice.

The best section is on the historical and cultural splits between Northern and Southern Europe, and Western and Eastern Europe.Dr. Jordan details the reasons for the splits; for example, the northerly extent of the Roman Empire and the westerly extent of Islam.

The weakest section is on the European Union which is arguably the most important issue in Europe today and essential for geographers.More detail is needed on what it does and how it works.

I highly recommend it for any geographer, political scientist, or historian interested in Europe but without a lot of background with the region. ... Read more

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Using a stunning array of sources, Kiernan teases out the full range of European attitudes to other peoples. Erudite, ironic, and global in its scope, this book is a definitive guide to the history of racism and Eurocentrism. ... Read more

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The Lords of Human Kind
Victor Kiernan was one of the great historians of the 20th Century, though he seems now undeservedly to have become somewhat obscure. Besides being enormously well-read and erudite and encompassing a great variety of different subjects and themes in his works, he is particularly known as a historian of European imperialism, especially that of the 19th Century. "The Lords of Human Kind" was his first famous work in this field.

The book of itself is really quite simply a description of the different attitudes adopted by European imperialist powers towards the peoples of the world they subjugated or controlled insofar as these were outside the European continent. Kiernan systematically discusses each continent/region and within it, each representative nation affected by imperialism and colonialism, and uses a vast repertoire of 19th Century sources to chronicle the (mostly imperialist and Orientalist) views of European travellers, administrators, diplomats and adventurers concerned with those areas. This is similar to the well-known works of Edward Said in this field, but this book predates those, and does not deal with literary representations as Said does but purely with practical and political ones.

What makes this book special however is the tone and style V.G. Kiernan uses. This is best described as a very sarcastic laconic tone, making the fullest possible use of the British flair for understatement and euphemism. Kiernan constantly compares the imperialist attitudes of contempt, hatred and disgust for the subject peoples and their behavior with the completely comparable or worse behavior and practices of the imperial powers themselves throughout the book, but in an extremely matter-of-fact manner so that it seems as if Kiernan purely wants to add some colorful information, rather than making an immediate political criticism, as he obviously actually is doing. The whole of the book is suffused with a distant, airy style which is devastatingly effective in piercing the hypocrisy of imperialist perceptions of self and others, perhaps more so than an outright polemic would have been, even one as polite as Said's.

Another strong point of the book is how Kiernan deftly avoids the trap of idolizing or romanticizing the political and social structures of the various areas before the Europeans (or Americans) arrived. No 'noble savage' for him; but nonetheless, he is clear to point out how bad structures were generally made worse by the imperialist powers, how colonial invaders immediately inclined themselves for practical reasons toward propping up old aristocracies or even creating new ones, and as a result how in between the old society and modern independence, colonialism is on the whole for the local populations the worst of both worlds. He is not afraid to point to imperialist or aggressive tendencies on the part of non-European realms or states, from the Incas to the Zulu, but this just makes the claims of imperial powers with regard to the evils of other regimes than theirs stand out as all the more hypocritical.

This very readable and almost entertaining book is a must-read and belongs on any history shelf. ... Read more

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Selected Reviews
`Meyer's book is the first major study of European strategic culture to be published and as such merits serious reflection by scholars and justifies the lengthy synopsis given above (...) he has trailblazed a highly productive and indicative theoretical-empirical approach to the understanding of this important concept' (Professor Jolyon Howorth, Security and Defence Policy in the European Union (Palgrave, 2007), p. 192)

`Closet historians will certainly find appealing his in-depth look at deep-seated norms, beliefs and ideas (...) Social scientists will be impressed by the layered approach of constructivist, realist and sociological institutionalist theories marshalled to explore his four goals. (...) Meyer provides a timely and well researched picture of European strategic culture and ESDP potential, and is to be commended for his attempts at analysing the infinitely tougher connection between the two' (Amelia Hadfield, University of Kent, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol 45, No 3, 2007.


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Without understanding the legal culture of the judges a full understanding of Strasbourgs rulings seems hardly possible. Through interviews, field observations and case law analysis, this book fills this need and offers a fresh approach towards convergence in Europe. ... Read more

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This paperback edition of Mendelssohn, Goethe, and the Walpurgis Night addresses tolerance and acceptance in the face of cultural, political, and religious strife. Its point of departure is the Walpurgis Night. The Night, also known as Beltane or May Eve, was supposedly an annual witches' Sabbath that centered around the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains. After exploring how a notoriously pagan celebration came to be named after the Christian missionary St. Walpurgis (ca. 710-79), John Michael Cooper discusses the Night's treatments in several closely interwoven works by Goethe and Mendelssohn. His book situates those works in their immediate personal and professional contexts, as well as among treatments by a wide array of other artists, philosophers, and political thinkers, including Voltaire, Lessing, Shelley, Heine, Delacroix, and Berlioz. In an age of decisive political and religious conflict, Walpurgis Night became a heathen muse: a source of spiritual inspiration that was neither specifically Christian, nor Jewish, nor Muslim. And Mendelssohn's and Goethe's engagements with it offer new insights into its role in European cultural history, as well as into issues of political, religious, and social identity -- and the relations between cultural groups -- in today's world. ... Read more

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This volume analyzes the conflation of "Jewishness" and satiric humour arising in conjunction with the authors M.G. Saphir, Ludwig Borne and Heinrich Heine, whose wit inspired considerable public controversy in the period 1820-1850. It also traces the influence of the idea of Judenwitzon later conceptions of German literary and cultural history. Chase's inter-disciplinary approach, which combines detailed historical research, humour theory and textual interpretation, describes Judenwitz as both a negative stereotype and a positive authorial strategy. The result is the story of a discourse that offered Jewish writers an entry into the German mainstream at the same time as it programmed an antisemitic response. With its unique focus and methodology, "Inciting Laughter" offers new perspectives on questions of majority and minority identity in German culture. ... Read more

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'Alternative Empires' emerges from a convergence within contemporary film, media and cultural studies. In offering new perspectives on the history of Soviet montage cinema and on the British documentary movement, it connects with the growing body of work analyzing manifestations of orientalism, Eurocentrism and colonial discourse in the cinema.

The book integrates theoretical discussion and textual analysis with primary source historical research, particularly into film reception. Using individual films as case studies, the book questions received understanding of European film history, and offers new insights into canonical films already familiar to many readers, including Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', Eisenstein's 'October', Vertov's 'The Man with the Movie Camera' and the Griersonian Documentary, as well as 'forgotten' films of the period. ... Read more