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  The New Third Rome - The Russian...

  Jardar Østbø

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  This fascinating book analyzes the sources, contents, and implications of contemporary Russian messianism. 
  
  The medieval idea of Moscow as the ‘Third Rome’ has been fascinating scholars and students of Russia for more than 150 years. Since its rediscovery, ideologists, writers, and politicians ranging from Western critics of Moscow’s foreign policy to ardent Russian imperialists have used the concept as ‘evidence’ of Russian particularism and expansionism. But for the author of the idea of the Third Rome, the Orthodox monk Filofei (Philotheus) of Pskov, it was a religious concept he referred to when criticizing what he saw as the apostasy of his time. 
  
  Authors of Russian history textbooks often see it as a political, even imperialist idea, whereas specialist medievalists for decades have been arguing that it cannot be regarded as anything else than religious and other-worldly.
  
  This book is the first to look beyond this dichotomy between the ‘original religious idea’ of the Third Rome and its ‘use’ for political purposes. Drawing on theories of political myth and concepts of nationalism, Østbø develops a novel analytical perspective. Rather than dismissing political uses of the religious, medieval idea as ‘wrong’, the author analyzes the modern content and ideological function of the myth of the Third Rome.
  
  Through case studies of four prominent nationalist intellectuals, the author shows how this messianic myth is used to ‘reinvent’ Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These writers use their own constructed image of the Russian nation to demonstrate what Russia ‘should be’ and its allegedly rightful place in the world. Existing in radically diverging versions, the myth of the Third Rome routinely conveys particularism and rabid anti-Westernism. At ‘best’, the myth is used to forge a self-image of the Russians as an essentially isolationist civilization. At worst, it is used to ‘explain’ how the Russians, superior to all other nations, are divinely elected to be the rulers of a world empire.

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  Revolution and Terror

  Graeme Gill

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  This book is a study of the relationship between revolution and terror. Historically many have claimed that revolution inevitably devolves into terror, best reflected in the way in which after coming to power the revolutionary elite turns on itself, and one section of it uses terrorist means to eliminate another section. Graeme Gill argues that in order to understand the relationship between revolution and terror, it is necessary to distinguish between different types of terror. There are three such types: revolutionary terror, in which the aim is to destroy enemies and thereby consolidate the regime; transformational terror, designed to drive the politico-socio-economic transformation of society that is the purpose of the 'great' revolutions; and inverted terror, which is when terror is turned against part of the elite and regime more broadly. The analysis explains how these different types of terror are related to the revolutionary seizure of power, showing that revolutionary and transformational terror are organically connected to revolution while for inverted terror the connection is mediated through the leader. The argument is prosecuted through detailed analysis of the French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions. The study ends by assessing the contemporary salience of the lessons of the great revolutions in the light of the low level of violence in the negotiated revolutions of 1989.

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  The Narrative Gym - Introducing...

  Randy Olson

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  The Narrative Gym by Dr. Randy Olson presents a new model for messaging and communication. It's a short, practical guide to the ABT Framework (And, But, Therefore) which needs to be on the desk of everyone crafting a message, essay, strategy, novel, campaign, proposal, presentation, screenplay, argument, joke, ballad, report … pretty much all communication.There is no other book on the ABT Framework. There is no other analytical model for narrative structure like the ABT Framework. This is a new and unique resource. The ABT seems like something from elementary school and at its core is as old as the ancient Greeks, but the formulation only began less than a decade ago.The original insights for this communication model come from Hollywood screenwriting. The importance of the three words (And, But, Therefore) began with legendary screenwriting instructor Frank Daniel of the U.S.C. School of Cinematic Arts who in a 1986 speech first talked of replacing the word “and” with either “but” or “therefore” to strengthen the narrative content of a text. This was propagated by his students, then articulated by the co-creators of the animated series, “South Park,” in a 2011 documentary. Randy Olson formulated the ABT Narrative Template (“___ AND ___ BUT ___ THEREFORE ___”) in his 2013 TEDMED Talk, and his 2015 book, “Houston, We Have A Narrative.” It is at the heart of how humans have communicated for thousands of years. You can see it in the Gettysburg Address, nursery rhymes, argumentation, comic structure, myths, the billion-viewed “Call Me Maybe” song from Carlie Rae Jepsen, the 1600’s poem “To His Coy Mistress,” blockbuster movies — on and on. It's at the core of everything memorable because it is narrative itself. The bottom line is: You’ve got something to say AND you know it’s important, BUT you’re having trouble boiling it down to its powerful and essential core, THEREFORE you need the ABT Framework.

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  The Land of Flickering Lights -...

  Michael Bennett

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  The Colorado Senator offers “a sweeping diagnosis of the nation’s political ills . . . stitched together with assurances that room for redemption still exists” (New York Times Book Review). 
   
  In The Land of Flickering Lights, Senator Michael Bennet lifts a veil on the inner workings of Congressional politics to reveal, in his words, “a series of actual stories—about the people, the politics, the motives, the money, the hypocrisy . . .” each of which demonstrates “the pathological culture of the capital and the consequences for us all.” 
   
  Bennet unfolds the dramatic backstories behind the highly politicized confirmation battles over judicial nominations at all levels; the passage of the Trump tax law; the shredding of the Iran nuclear deal; the pervasive corruption unleashed by the influence of “dark money”; and the sabotage by a congressional minority of the “Gang of Eight’s” bi-partisan deal to reform America’s immigration policies. 
   
  With frankness and refreshing candor, Bennet pulls the machinations behind these episodes into full public view, shedding vital new light on today’s political dysfunction. Arguing that each of us has a duty to act as a founder, he calls on Americans of all political persuasions to demand that the “winners” of our political battles be all the American people, nor one party or the other.

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  The Entrepreneurial State -...

  Mariana Mazzucato

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  The world's most popular products, from the iPhone to Google Search, were funded not by private companies, but the taxpayer.In this sharp and controversial international bestseller, an award-winning economist debunks the pervasive myth that the government is sluggish and inept, and at odds with a dynamic private sector. She reveals in detailed case studies that the opposite is true: the state is, and has been, our boldest and most valuable innovator. Denying this history is leading us down the wrong path. A select few get credit for what is an intensely collective effort, and the U.S. government has started disinvesting from innovation. The repercussions could stunt economic growth and increase inequality. Mazzucato teaches us how to reverse this trend before it is too late.

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  Rebellion in Black & White -...

  Robert Chen, David J Snyder

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  A “brilliant, comprehensive collection” of scholarly essays on the importance and wide-ranging activities of southern student activism in the 1960s (Van Gosse, author of Rethinking the New Left). 
   
  Most accounts of the New Left and 1960s student movement focus on rebellions at the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and others northern institutions. And yet, students at southern colleges and universities also organized and acted to change race and gender relations and to end the Vietnam War. Southern students took longer to rebel due to the south’s legacy of segregation, its military tradition, and its Bible Belt convictions, but their efforts were just as effective as those in the north.  
   
  Rebellion in Black and White demonstrate how southern students promoted desegregation, racial equality, free speech, academic freedom, world peace, gender equity, sexual liberation, Black Power, and the personal freedoms associated with the counterculture of the decade. The original essays also shed light on higher education, students, culture, and politics of the American south.  
   
  Edited by Robert Cohen and David J. Snyder, the book features the work of both seasoned historians and a new generation of scholars offering fresh perspectives on the civil rights movement and many others.

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