Adam Tooze Recommended Books

An accessible, focused exploration of the field of political ecology The third edition of Political Ecology spans this sprawling field, using grounded examples and careful readings of current literature. While the study of political ecology is sometimes difficult to fathom, owing to its breadth and diversity, this resource simplifies the discussion by reducing the field down into a few core questions and arguments. These points clearly demonstrate how critical theory can make pragmatic contributions to the fields of conservation, development, and environmental management. The latest edition of this seminal work is also more closely focused, with references to recent work from around the world. Further, Political Ecology raises critical questions about “traditional” approaches to environmental questions and problems. This new edition: An excellent resource for undergraduates and academics, the third edition of Political Ecology offers an updated edition of the guide to this diverse, quickly growing field that is at the heart of how humans shape the world and, in turn, are shaped by it.

Geoffrey Barraclough isolates here some of the main themes of contemporary history. His purpose is to show the ways in which, since the closing years of the nineteenth century, the fundamental structure of world politics has changed. Our political vision must be adjusted accordingly.In his analysis contemporary history is not confined to politics. Among the themes he pursues, in a book which boldly envisages the onset of a new epoch in the history of mankind, are the impact of science, the spread of technology, the challenge of Marxist ideology, and the reorientation, in this century, of all the arts.

Global warming skeptics often fall back on the argument that the scientific case for global warming is all model predictions, nothing but simulation; they warn us that we need to wait for real data, "sound science." In "A Vast Machine" Paul Edwards has news for these skeptics: without models, there are no data. Today, no collection of signals or observations -- even from satellites, which can "see" the whole planet with a single instrument -- becomes global in time and space without passing through a series of data models. Everything we know about the world's climate we know through models. Edwards offers an engaging and innovative history of how scientists learned to understand the atmosphere -- to measure it, trace its past, and model its future.

"Marx once observed that ideas can have a material force in history. Dietrich's new book presents powerful evidence in support of that proposition. He shows how a set of ideas about a postcolonial state's right to control its natural resources, oil in particular, transformed the world economy between the late 1940s and the early 1970s.... The originality of the research, especially the excavation of the pivotal role played by transnational oil elites, makes the book an important resource for scholars of international history and international political economy. Indeed, no concise, thorough, and readable narrative of this period in oil history has been available until the publication of this book." -Journal of Interdisciplinary History Through innovative and expansive research, Oil Revolution analyzes the tensions faced and networks created by anti-colonial oil elites during the age of decolonization following World War II. This new community of elites stretched across Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Algeria, and Libya. First through their western educations and then in the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, these elites transformed the global oil industry. Their transnational work began in the early 1950s and culminated in the 1973-4 energy crisis and in the 1974 declaration of a New International Economic Order in the United Nations. Christopher R. W. Dietrich examines how these elites brokered and balanced their ambitions via access to oil, the most important natural resource of the modern era.

Im Juli 1870 ziehen Hunderttausende in einen Krieg, der die Landkarte Europas verändern wird. Manche von ihnen erwarten ein Abenteuer, andere haben Sorge um ihr Leben oder die Zukunft ihrer Familie, doch die meisten Männer auf beiden Seiten tun einfach nur das, was sie für ihre Pflicht halten.Der Deutsch-Französische Krieg von 1870 bis 1871 rundet als letzter der drei sogenannten "Einigungskriege" den blutigen Weg zur Gründung des deutschen Nationalstaats ab. Bewusst von Otto von Bismarck provoziert, erklärt das Second Empire Napoleons III. Preußen den Krieg. Doch die preußische Militärmacht besiegt gemeinsam mit den Verbündeten – u. a. aus Bayern, Württemberg und Baden – in großen Schlachten die Truppen des Kaiserreichs. Dieser Krieg wird von beiden Seiten mit äußerster Brutalität geführt und in vielen Punkten verweist er schon auf den technisierten und nationalistisch aufgeladenen Horror des Ersten Weltkriegs. Für die Gründung des Deutschen Reichs und die Kaiserproklamation im Spiegelsaal von Versailles sterben bis Ende des Krieges fast 200 000 Menschen.Im kollektiven historischen Gedächtnis der Deutschen ist der Krieg von 70/71 von der Erinnerung an die Weltkriege beinah vollständig überlagert worden. Dabei prägen bis heute Bismarckstatuen, Weißenburgstraßen, Sedanplätze, Denkmäler mit brüllenden Löwen, Lorbeerkränzen, "Eisernen Kreuzen" den öffentlichen Raum vieler deutscher Städte und Dörfer.Das Buch zeichnet ein Panorama des Krieges aus Sicht der "kleinen Leute" und der "großen Lenker". Es macht komplizierte Zusammenhänge verständlich und lässt vor allem Menschen und ihre Geschichte wieder lebendig werden. So begleiten den Leser viele Könige, hohe Militärs, einfache Soldaten,Krankenschwestern, Maler, Geistliche, Diplomaten, Gesellschaftstheoretiker, Journalisten und Literaten.