Turning Points

"Lucidly written and accessible, Lothar Kettenacker’s book offers a vivid, informative and well-presented overview of the political and diplomatic history of German reunification."
Dr. Riccardo Bavaj, University of St. Andrews

In autumn 1989 the world watched transfixed as East German citizens, demonstrating under the banner ‘We are the people!’, staged the only successful, totally peaceful revolution in German history. By October 1990, the process of reunification was formally concluded, bringing together a nation that had been divided for almost four decades.

Now, nearly twenty years later, it is possible to judge the causes and consequences of the revolution more clearly. Was the fall of the Berlin Wall an unexpected fluke, or was it, in fact, the result of a long process of engagement between East and West? And did the momentous events of 1989 really signal the start of a bright new future for a united Germany?

In this probing and wide-ranging account, Lothar Kettenacker considers the background behind the division of Germany and explains how the Berlin Wall and its death trap border proved to be the most horrendous manifestation of East-West antagonism. He also looks beyond 1990 to show how the confusion caused by the sudden collapse of the GDR and the fusion of two radically different economies is proving to be a challenge that will preoccupy Germany for generations to come.

 Tightly-argued and profoundly thought-provoking, this history considers the birth of the nuclear age and its impact on the world and attitudes to modern warfare. 

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire is a key event in the shaping of the modern Near and Middle East. From the ruins of the empire arose, in addition to the Balkan states, a series of successor states and mandated territories including Turkey, Albania, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Trans Jordan (Jordan), Palestine (Israel) and Saudi Arabia and with them many flashpoints of future international tension down to our own time. This thoughtful and lucid volume surveys the events leading up to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire; sets them in their full international context (particularly the rivalry of the European Great Powers); identifies the many factors contributing to the empire's collapse; and examines the aftermath.

The mass migration of the Boer farmers from Cape Colony to escape British domination in 1835-36 - the Great Trek - has always been a potent icon of Afrikaaner nationalism and identity. For African nationalists, the Mfecane - the vast movement of the Black populations in the interior following the emergence of a new Zulu kingdom as a major military force in the early 19th century - offers an equally powerful symbol of the making of a nation. These two stories became part of divided South Africa's separate mythologies, treated as unconnected events taking place in separate universes. The end of Apartheid and the beginning of democracy in South Africa demands a new kind of history. Few present day historians believe the old assertion that the 'Great Trek' is the central event of South African history. This book puts an 's' on the phrase 'Great Trek' as a way of signaling its intention to deal with all the movements of people and their leaders which occurred in South Africa during the early nineteenth century.  Featuring a wealth of interesting anecdotes and stories, The Great Treks provides a fascinating new history for twenty-first century South Africa.  

A timely and informative new look at the oil crisis, which examines both the causes and consequences of events, not only within the oil industry and the Middle East, but also their impact on the world economy, the role of Third World nations in the international system, and relations between the leading oil consuming nations.

 An authoritative introduction to the biggest, and the last, of the cycle of popular revolutions in western Europe that began in 1789. The Parisians, reeling from French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the German siege of Paris that ensued, set up their own interim government in opposition to the National Assembly at Versailles. The short-lived Commune and its subsequent repression were important enough in their own right; but they cast an even longer shadow. In his stirring account, Robert Tombs sets these tumultuous events in their political and social context, and considers their long-term significance for both France and Europe.