The Modern Period examines how and why Americans adopted radically new methods of managing and thinking about menstruation during the twentieth century. In the early twentieth century women typically used homemade cloth "diapers" to absorb menstrual blood, avoided chills during their periods to protect their health, and counted themselves lucky if they knew something about menstruation before menarche. New expectations at school, at play, and in the workplace, however, made these menstrual traditions problematic, and middle-class women quickly sought new information and products that would make their monthly periods less disruptive to everyday life.Lara Freidenfelds traces this cultural shift, showing how Americans reframed their thinking about menstruation. She explains how women and men... Less

This collective study examines the transformation (metamorphosis) that Greece has experienced over the course of the 20th century by exploring its gradual evolution into a consolidated democracy, an advanced economy in the Eurozone and a balanced partner in the EU and NATO promoting a stabilizing role in southeastern Europe.The book examines the variables contributing to the profiling of contemporary Greece, emphasizing the conceptual inertia bedevilling the studies of Greece in recent years by focusing on the elements that indicated the slow pace in the country's modernization. In conclusion, there is a need for Greece's constant commitment to functional adjustments regarding the country's economic, political and strategic priorities in order to promote effectively the role of regional... Less

Issues spawned by the headlong pace of developments in science and technology fill the courts. How should we deal with frozen embryos and leaky implants, dangerous chemicals, DNA fingerprints, and genetically engineered animals? The realm of the law, to which beleaguered people look for answers, is sometimes at a loss-- constrained by its own assumptions and practices, Sheila Jasanoff suggests. This book exposes American law's long-standing involvement in constructing, propagating, and perpetuating a variety of myths about science and technology. Science at the Bar is the first book to examine in detail how two powerful American institutions-- both seekers after truth--interact with each other. Looking at cases involving product liability, medical malpractice, toxic torts, genetic... Less

Book Makers presents an absorbing insider account of the changing environment of British book publishing during the twentieth century. Iain Stevenson has worked for some of Britain’s most well-known publishers, and he uses his personal experience to accurately detail how the industry grew from a small elite trade to a world-class business with enormous cultural influence.  Organized chronologically by decade, Book Makers considers not only fiction and general trade publishing, but also academic, scientific, children’s, technical, and professional publishing. Stevenson profiles many key figures in the industry, such as educational publisher William Heinemann; Jonath an Cape, publisher of Ian Fleming’s James Bond series; Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books; Paul Hamlyn; and media mogul... Less

Winner of the American Sociological Association PEWS Award (1995) for Distinguished Scholarship The Long Twentieth Century traces the epochal shifts in the relationship between capital accumulation and state formation over a 700-year period. Giovanni Arrighi masterfully synthesizes social theory, comparative history and historical narrative in this account of the structures and agencies which have shaped the course of world history over the millennium. Borrowing from Braudel, Arrighi argues that the history of capitalism has unfolded as a succession of "long centuries" -- ages during which a hegemonic power deploying a novel combination of economic and political networks secured control over an expanding world-economic space. The modest beginnings, rise and violent unravel-ing of the... Less

The Straight State is the most expansive study of the federal regulation of homosexuality yet written. Unearthing startling new evidence from the National Archives, Margot Canaday shows how the state systematically came to penalize homosexuality, giving rise to a regime of second-class citizenship that sexual minorities still live under today. Canaday looks at three key arenas of government control-- immigration, the military, and welfare--and demonstrates how federal enforcement of sexual norms emerged with the rise of the modern bureaucratic state. She begins at the turn of the twentieth century when the state first stumbled upon evidence of sex and gender nonconformity, revealing how homosexuality was policed indirectly through the exclusion of sexually "degenerate" immigrants and... Less

How do we define an economic disaster? A difficult question. Most centuries would claim that they have had their share of disasters, but the twentieth century certainly seems to have been more prone to them than the previous one. A number of leading economists and economic historians assemble here to examine nine key disasters with international or global implications. The First and Second World Wars, the great depression, oil shocks, inflation, financial crises, stock market crashes, the collapse of the Soviet command economy and Third World disasters are discussed in this comprehensive book.The contributors subject these disasters to in-depth assessment, carefully considering their costs and impact on specific countries and regions, as well as assessing them in a global context. The... Less

Finland in the Twentieth Century was first published in 1980. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Finland's search for a national identity is the underlying theme of this book. A small nation, geographically isolated and linguistically distinct from its neighbors, Finland has long maintained close ties with Sweden and also has had to come to terms with a powerful eastern neighbor, the Soviet Union. D.G. Kirby opens his history with a description of Finland at the turn of the century, when it was a Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire, and traces its emergence as an independent state with the collapse of the Empire in 1917. He examines the... Less

One of the most authoritative texts on modern America, this concise, readable survey of twentieth century American history has been a reliable source for more than twenty years. The text has evolved from a book which primarily covered political and diplomatic history to one which devotes considerable space to areas of special interest such as African American history, women's history, urbanization, the role of ethnic groups, changing sexual mores, the power of corporations and the conflict of economic groups, and trends in regional and national values. The author offers contemporary interpretations and presents various sides of controversial issues.