Alan Hirson's Books

Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle

The Lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker

By: Alan Kirkaldy

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Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle

The Lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker

By: Alan Kirkaldy

This book explores the role of social movements in the Southern African liberation struggle, through the lens of two ‘everyday communists’. Focusing on the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the author explores the lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker, whose contribution to the party was more clandestine than that of leaders such as Bram Fischer and Joe Slovo. They represent how ‘ordinary’ people could play significant roles based on stances more rooted in common decency and morality than in Marxist theory. The book also sheds light on the interplay between transnational and national tendencies during the liberation movement, particularly between the 1940s and the 1960s. The Schermbruckers changed their views in response to the shifting national and international political landscape, the rise of Stalinism, and the flight of South African activists into exile from the 1960s. Both fluent in African languages, they were able to create relationships of trust with African members of the CPSA. Examining tensions and conflicts during the liberation struggle, this book provides fresh insights into ‘underground’ activism.

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Page Count

397

Publisher

Springer Nature

Published Date

ISBN 10

3030839214

ISBN 13

9783030839215

Fleeing France

A WWII Novel of Sacrifice and Rescue in the French Ambulance Service

By: Alan Hlad

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Fleeing France

A WWII Novel of Sacrifice and Rescue in the French Ambulance Service

By: Alan Hlad

Inspired by real wartime events, including the evacuation of Dunkirk and the sinking of RMS Lancastria—one of the most harrowing disasters in British maritime history—this is a riveting, superbly researched slice of historical fiction, and a timeless story of strength and sacrifice. Will appeal to fans of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and Eternal. France, 1939: A talented singer, Ruth Lacroix has left Maine to live with her aunt and uncle, dreaming of performing at the Casino de Paris. But with the outbreak of war, and the heartbreaking news that her cousin has been killed by German forces, that goal is supplanted by another—to support France in any way she can. Though Ruth has never driven a vehicle larger than the tractor on her parents’ farm, she joins a friend in enlisting as a driver for the French ambulance corps. On their way to transfer injured soldiers to Dunkirk for evacuation, they encounter Jimmie, a British Royal Air Force pilot with No. 73 Squadron RAF, who has bailed out of his burning plane. As Dunkirk falls, blocking off the route to the northern coast, word spreads of a daring Allied plan to rescue the remaining troops and civilians from ports in western France: code name Operation Aerial. Over two hazardous weeks, Ruth and Jimmie will journey hundreds of miles together, helping other refugees as they rush to reach the sea before they are overtaken by the Germany army. But all their courage and resilience offer no certainty in wartime, when a single stroke of luck, or a split-second decision, can mean the difference between life and death . . .

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Page Count

430

Publisher

A John Scognamiglio Book

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496745574

ISBN 13

9781496745576

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

By: Alan Wieder

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Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

By: Alan Wieder

Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were leaders of the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Communists, scholars, parents, and uncompromising militants, they were the perfect enemies for the white police state. Together they were swept up in the growing resistance to apartheid, and together they experienced repression and exile. Their contributions to the liberation struggle, as individuals and as a couple, are undeniable. Ruth agitated tirelessly for the overthrow of apartheid, first in South Africa and then from abroad, and Joe directed much of the armed struggle carried out by the famous Umkhonto we Sizwe. Only one of them, however, would survive to see the fall of the old regime and the founding of a new, democratic South Africa. This book, the first extended biography of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, is a remarkable account of one couple and the revolutionary moment in which they lived. Alan Wieder’s deeply researched work draws on the usual primary and secondary sources but also an extensive oral history that he has collected over many years. By weaving the documentary record together with personal interviews, Wieder portrays the complexities and contradictions of this extraordinary couple and their efforts to navigate a time of great tension, upheaval, and revolutionary hope.

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Page Count

391

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1583673563

ISBN 13

9781583673560

The Donkeys

By: Alan Clark

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The Donkeys

By: Alan Clark

The landmark exposé of incompetent leadership on the Western Front - why the British troops were lions led by donkeys On 26 September 1915, twelve British battalions – a strength of almost 10,000 men – were ordered to attack German positions in France. In the three-and-a-half hours of the battle, they sustained 8,246 casualties. The Germans suffered no casualties at all. Why did the British Army fail so spectacularly? What can be said of the leadership of generals? And most importantly, could it have all been prevented? In The Donkeys, eminent military historian Alan Clark scrutinises the major battles of that fateful year and casts a steady and revealing light on those in High Command - French, Rawlinson, Watson and Haig among them - whose orders resulted in the virtual destruction of the old professional British Army. Clark paints a vivid and convincing picture of how brave soldiers, the lions, were essentially sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent officers – the donkeys. ‘An eloquent and painful book... Clark leaves the impression that vanity and stupidity were the main ingredients of the massacres of 1915. He writes searingly and unforgettably’ Evening Standard

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Page Count

234

Publisher

Random House

Published Date

ISBN 10

1448104025

ISBN 13

9781448104024

From Colonization to Democracy

A New Historical Geography of South Africa

By: Alan Lester

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From Colonization to Democracy

A New Historical Geography of South Africa

By: Alan Lester

This account of the development of modern South African society seeks to establish the geographical and historical context in which change has taken place. The author describes important historical continuities in South Africa which have shaped present society, including social groupings and their stratification, policital institutions, the patterns of human geography, economic structure, and external links and influences.

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Page Count

288

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0755632028

ISBN 13

9780755632022

Little Caesar

A Biography of Edward G. Robinson

By: Alan L. Gansberg

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Little Caesar

A Biography of Edward G. Robinson

By: Alan L. Gansberg

Emanuel Goldenberg was born in Romania and from the age of ten grew up in New York's Lower East Side. He trained at the legendary Theater Guild, changed his name, and starred in many successful Broadway plays before moving to Hollywood. Among his most famous films were Double Indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck, The Stranger with Orson Welles, Key Largo with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, The Cincinnati Kid with Steve McQueen, and, of course, Little Caesar. After twenty successful years in film, Robinson's career was shattered by the McCarthy Commission. Although there was never any concrete proof that Robinson was in fact a member of the Communist party, it took five years for him to clear his name. In this fascinating biography, Alan L. Gansberg reveals the man behind the public face, his many memorable roles among more than 100 films, and his struggle to find steady work in Hollywood again. Includes 16 pages of photos.

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Page Count

336

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1461669375

ISBN 13

9781461669371

South Africa, Past, Present and Future

Gold at the End of the Rainbow?

By: Tony Binns,Alan Lester,Etienne Nel

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South Africa, Past, Present and Future

Gold at the End of the Rainbow?

By: Tony Binns,Alan Lester,Etienne Nel

This is the first book to combine a discussion of post-apartheid development initiatives with an extended historical analysis of South Africa's dynamic race, class, gender and ethnic identities. Bringing together the research of an historical geographer and two development geographers, the book enables us to locate the post-apartheid transition in a broad historical and spatial perspective. Within this perspective, the limitations as well as the achievements of South Africa's current transformation are highlighted.

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Page Count

393

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317880404

ISBN 13

9781317880400

The Battle of Verdun

By: Alan Axelrod

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The Battle of Verdun

By: Alan Axelrod

The Great War ate men, machines, and money without mercy or remission. At the end of 1915, the German army chief of staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, believed he knew how to finally kill the beast and win the war. On Christmas day, 1915, Falkenhayn sent a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II proposing a campaign to demoralize Britain, whose industrial might and maritime power were the foundation of the alliance against Germany, while also knocking France out of the war. He wrote that the “strain on France has reached breaking point …. If we succeed in opening the eyes of her people to the fact that in a military sense they have nothing more to hope for, that breaking point would be reached and England’s best sword knocked out of her hand.” His plan was to attack a single point the French perceived as so vital that they would be compelled “to throw in every man they have.” Falkenhayn concluded: “If they do so, the forces of France will bleed to death” or, as he put it later, the “French army would be bled white.” Falkenhayn’s target of choice was Verdun, a place that, throughout virtually all of the history of Europe, had been a fortress. Located within a loop of the Meuse River, it occupied a strategic blocking position in the Meuse River valley. As recently as the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Verdun had been the last of the French fortified cities to hold out against the German onslaught. After that war, it had been vastly augmented, so that it was now a circle of detached forts surrounding a central citadel. The town of Verdun itself, also fortified, was likewise encircled by forts distributed in a five-mile radius. The combined massive complex guarded not only passage through the river valley region, but also dominated a key railroad junction leading to points south, southwest, west, and north in France. Along with the related, but separate, Battle of the Somme, Verdun was among the most deadly battles in history. To understand this struggle is to understand all of World War I, including the principal stated motive of Woodrow Wilson for bringing the United States into the “European War” in April 1917. For him, Verdun proved both France’s determination to win at all costs and the likelihood that, without help, it would be defeated nevertheless. The unparalleled barbarity of Verdun, a product of the Old World, convinced the American president that only the principal nation of the New World could finally alter the grim course of human destiny. While many, both in 1916 and in the decades that followed, saw Verdun as a bloody monument to the inescapable futility of war, Wilson saw in it a hope for fighting what he would call a “war to end all wars.”

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Page Count

321

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1493022105

ISBN 13

9781493022106

Hazleton North

The excavations of a Neolithic long cairn of the Cotswold-Severn group

By: Alan Saville

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Hazleton North

The excavations of a Neolithic long cairn of the Cotswold-Severn group

By: Alan Saville

Hazleton North is an Early Neolithic chambered long cairn of the Cotswold-Severn group, which was selected for total excavation between 1979 and 1982 after survey showed continued damage from ploughing. This trapezoidal long cairn is an example of the laterally-chambered type of tomb with two very similar L-shaped chambered areas near its centre, entered from opposite sides of the monument. Particular attention is given to two aspects which make Hazleton North of outstanding importance for the study of Neolithic chambered cairns in Britain: the details of the cairn construction and the burial remains. The account is supported by a full range of specialist studies, including analysis of the artefacts, human and animal bones, plant and molluscan remains, soils, geology, and numerous radiocarbon samples, and is concluded by a discussion of the results of the excavation and its significance for the study of Cotswold-Severn cairns and the earlier Neolithic of the region.

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Page Count

308

Publisher

English Heritage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1848021615

ISBN 13

9781848021617

The Voice Clinic Handbook

By: Tom Harris,John S. Rubin,David M. Howard,Sara Harris,Alan Hirson

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The Voice Clinic Handbook

By: Tom Harris,John S. Rubin,David M. Howard,Sara Harris,Alan Hirson

The first half of this book provides an outline of the structure and function of a voice clinic, a review of the structure and function of the vocal tract and an outline of the most common forms of voice disorder likely to be encountered in a clinic. It also provides brief descriptions of the various forms of therapy available for the treatment of non-cancerous voice disorder and suggests appropriate treatment modalities. The second half of the book is based in science and contains an overview of the instrumentation available for the investigation and documentation of voicing.

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Page Count

300

Publisher

Singular Publishing Group

Published Date

ISBN 10

1565939158

ISBN 13

9781565939158

Book's by Alan Hirson

Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle

Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle

Fleeing France

Fleeing France

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

The Donkeys

The Donkeys

From Colonization to Democracy

From Colonization to Democracy

Little Caesar

Little Caesar

South Africa, Past, Present and Future

South Africa, Past, Present and Future

The Battle of Verdun

The Battle of Verdun

Hazleton North

Hazleton North

The Voice Clinic Handbook

The Voice Clinic Handbook

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