To many observers, Anastasio Somoza, who ruled Nicaragua from 1936 until his assassination in 1956, personified the worst features of a dictator. While not dismissing these characteristics, Knut Walter argues that the regime was in fact more notable for its achievement of stability, economic growth, and state building than for its personalistic and dictatorial features. Using a wide range of sources in Nicaraguan archives, Walter focuses on institutional and structural developments to explain how Somoza gained and consolidated power. According to Walter, Somoza preferred to resolve conflicts by political means rather than by outright coercion. Specifically, he built his government on agreements negotiated with the country's principal political actors, labor groups, and business organizations. Nicaragua's two traditional parties, one conservative and the other liberal, were included in elections, thus giving the appearance of political pluralism. Partly as a result, the opposition was forced to become increasingly radical, says Walter; eventually, in 1979, Nicaragua produced the only successful revolution in Central America and the first in all of Latin America since Cuba's.
From a decidedly multidisciplinary perspective, the articles in Transnational Political Spaces address the notion that political space is no longer fully congruent with national borders. Instead there are areas called transnational political spaces—caused by factors such as migration and social transformation—where policy occurs oblivious to national pressure. Organized into three sections—transnational actors, transnational spaces, and critical encounters—this volume explains how these spaces are formed and defined and how they can be traced and conceptualized. Aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive gehen die Beiträge der Frage nach, wie transnationale politische Räume hervorgebracht und gestaltet werden. Dabei sind diese nicht rein territorial definiert: Einbezogen werden Identitäten und Interaktionen, die nationale Grenzen überschreiten – wie sie etwa durch Migration entstehen.
Prophecy of the Swan covers twenty-nine years in the history of the Peace River valley in northeastern British Columbia. A vivid portrayal of life in some of the most isolated fur trade posts, it describes the intense competition between the North West and the Hudson's Bay companies, the individuals who were involved in exploration and commerce, and, finally, the shocking 'massacre of St. Johns.' It is unique in its integration of historic information and archaeological discovery, as it combines information recovered from many years of archaeological excavation with first-hand impressions of day-to-day life drawn from the few existing journals kept by company clerks.
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