Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement

Book Description

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Citation Details
Title: Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement.(Review)
Author: Rima D. Apple
Publication: Journal of Consumer Affairs (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 1999
Publisher: American Council on Consumer Interests
Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Page: 438

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The 1956 Hungarian revolution, and its suppression by the U.S.S.R., was a key event in the cold war, demonstrating deep dissatisfaction with both the communist system and old-fashioned Soviet imperialism. But now, fifty years later, the simplicity of this David and Goliath story should be revisited, according to Charles Gati's new history of the revolt.

Denying neither Hungarian heroism nor Soviet brutality, Failed Illusions nevertheless modifies our picture of what happened. Imre Nagy, a reform communist who headed the revolutionary government and turned into a genuine patriot, could not rise to the occasion by steering a realistic course between his people’s demands and Soviet geopolitical and ideological interests. The United States was all talk, no action, while Radio Free Europe simultaneously backed the insurgents' unrealizable demands and opposed Nagy. In the end, the Soviet Union followed its imperial impulse instead of seeking a political solution to the crisis in the spirit of de-Stalinization.

Failed Illusions is based on extensive archival research, including the CIA’s operational files, and hundreds of interviews with participants in Budapest, Moscow, and Washington. Personal observations by the author, a young reporter in Budapest in 1956, bring the tragic story vividly to life.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful and disturbing.......2007-02-02

This is the first book I've read on the Hungarian Revolt, but I found it well doicumented, insightful and disturbing. I've read alot of books on history and this was truly riveting. I, like so many Americans, am very ignorant of Eastern European History and felt truly enlightened by this analysis. I also felt it particularly relevant to what is happening today. Our country's inaction then and and our actions today show little understanding of the peoples or culture or politics of other societies. We in this country have a great heritage and enlighted leaders,such as Lincoln, who set up a government we can be proud of. However, today we are acting in a way that shows blindness and misguidedness.. We have shown again that we have not learned anything from events such as the Hungarian Revolt. Our leaders want to spread democracy but are doing it in a way that is both ignorant and arrogant. We did it then and are doing it now.
I'm glad a man such as Mr. Gati was able to immigrate to this country and contribute to it. I look forward to readin more books by him.

Excellent analysis of the Hungarian-Soviet-Western interaction.......2006-12-04

Gati's book is written with the perspective of the forces at work in Budapest, Moscow and Washington before and during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He briefly recounts his own experience as a young Hungarian journalist during the 12 days of the Revolution, and then proceeds to profile in detail the events and personalities of that time. He manages to capture the spontaneity of the event, and how leaders in the three capitals misinterpreted and finally acted (or failed to act), often with limited understanding. The book is well-researched (almost every page has footnotes), and despite criticism by an earlier commenter, is quite in line with more recent interpretations of the 1956 events, using recently released Soviet, American and Hungarian archives, which were not available to earlier authors. As it has been mentioned by another reviewer, it is a human story, not an encyclopedic one, and I found it engrossing.

Nothing new in Gati's "new history" of the Hungarian Revolution.......2006-11-12

Gati's treatment of the Hungarian Revolution and its actors gives the impression that he wrote a book with preconceived conclusions supported by selected documentation and by omission of those not fitting in his concept. Exploitation of the 50th anniversary of the seminal historic event is evident in the timing of publication. He treats Imre Nagy, the Freedom Fighters and America unfairly. He unrealistically expects the revolutionaries to be practitioners of real politic. His assumption of Soviet willingness to compromise, to meaningfully revise its relationship with its satellites seemed so hopefully evidential only in the flashlight of the revolution. It is surprising that Gati is still dazzled.

There is very little new in Gati's "new history" of the Hungarian Revolution that is significant. Robert Murphy in his autobiography: Diplomat among warriors explained the American inaction regarding the Hungarian Revolution in a few pages more concisely, with more insight than Gati does in his book. There is no surprise that Gati neglects to mention him and his views.

Murphy concludes his assessment of why the Hungarian Revolution was defeated, or in better words, why it was left to be defeated, with this remarkably humble statement:

"For sheer perfidy and relentless suppression of a courageous people longing for their liberty, Hungary will always remain a classic symbol. Perhaps history will demonstrate that the free world could have intervened to give the Hungarians the liberty they sought, but none of us in the State Department had the skill or the imagination to devise a way."

This evaluation remains the most authoritative, most honest, factually correct and durable judgment of American - or for that matter the free World's - inability to
act at a time when action was warranted.

A remarkable and exceptional book.......2006-10-02

When I read Charles Gati's prize winning "Hungary and the Soviet Bloc," I then thought that he had written the last and best word on our understanding of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 during the Cold War. Then, unexpectedly, several years later the Berlin Wall came down, Hungary and the USSR's East European satellites regained independence, and heretofore closed Cold War archives began to open. From archives in Budapest and Moscow as well as from dozens of interviews with participants of '56 both East and West, Professor Gati has written a classic of Cold War history and analysis which arguably will become the definitive account of the multi-sided, tragic events of 1956 in Hungary. No stone has been left unturned -- the author has read the minutes of the Politburo meetings in the Soviet Union and Hungary, as well as the interrogation and trial transcripts from the last days before his execution of Imre Nagy, former Prime Minister of Hungary. This fluently written, masterfully organized, and exeptionally well integrated small volume deserves to sit on the Cold War history shelf along with Allison's "Essence of Decision," the study of another major event of the era, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In his overarching Introduction, Gati includes a brief but fascinating autobiographical recounting of his own experiences in Budapest as a young reporter during the tumultuous years after his high school graduation in 1953 to his flight with tens of thousands of Hungarians across the Austrian border after Soviet troops crushed the revolution in late 1956.

The author's thesis is the existence of the possibility of an alternative "limitationist" approach to demands, expectations, methods, and outcomes by all parties to the challenges of Hungary '56. Instead, however, as is vividly recounted in the book, the Hungarian leadership, the Budapest insurgents, Moscow, and Washington displayed variably, vacillating responses, revolutionary romanticism, imperial intransigence, and absolutist anti-communism, all of which produced disaster and great bloodshed for Budapest and its population 50 years ago this early November. As the author makes clear, it need not necessarily have ended in a zero-sum tragedy, but with some restraint on all sides might well have become a non-zero-sum outcome.

All parties to the failed revolution come in for well deserved criticism -- Nagy for his ineffectiveness as a leader (his portrait from the 1930s to his death in 1958 is the most complete and nuanced account of a foreign leader I have ever read), the young Hungarian insurgents for their unbridled demands and intemperate actions, Washington for the hypocrisy of its East European policies of "liberation" and "rollback," and most of all the Soviet Union for the extraordinary brutality and violence it rained down upon the people of Budapest.

In his splendid Epilogue, Charles Gati's well told story of the "failed illusions" of a half century ago, as well as his own life as a former Hungarian citizen, came full circle when he witnessed Nagy's cermonial reburial in Budapest's Heroes Square late spring 1989, with the demise of the Communist system in Hungary and East Europe in sight just months away. This is a remarkable and exceptional book.

A HumanJourney.......2006-09-29

Take the experts' word that this study is a reliable, extensive, and insightful account of the 1956 Hungarian Revolt. What strikes me is the personal element. We go from the recollections of a young, unsophisticated journalist of 22, caught in the tide of momentous events he does not understand, to the retrospection of a highly sophisticated scholar revisiting those events and doing his very best to look behind history's curtain to resolve their meaning. It is a gripping, honest, and personal account, rendered with the binocularity of five decades of study. A century from now, this will still be the book to read, not just for the facts but also for the feel of one of the 20th century's signal struggles.

Austrian Review of International and European Law 1999 (Austrian Review of International & European Law)

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Austrian Review of International and European Law 1999 (Austrian Review of International & European Law)
Gerhard Loibl
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Law | Subjects | Books

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General | International Law | Law | Subjects | Books

European Union | International Law | Law | Subjects | Books

International Law | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 9041115366

Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 19441948

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On the Road from Fascism to Communism

Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 19441948
Peter Kenez
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 052185766X

Book Description

Hungary was the last ally of Nazi Germany, and as such suffered dreadful destruction in the course of the fighting during the last year of the war. Although the war discredited the political and social elite and gave opportunity for a new beginning. early optimism in democratic circles quickly dissipated. The communists, who had negligible indigenous support, with the help of the Soviet Army, in a short time managed to destroy any organized opposition to their taking power. Based on archival and other primary sources, this concise book describes the methods of communist conquest of power in one country in Eastern Europe to make the origin of the Cold War more understandable.

Customer Reviews:

On the Road from Fascism to Communism.......2007-08-02

I read this book both as a person who lived through the times described and as an academic observer of kindred subjects for the past five decades. The country discussed in this volume is Hungary, the years are 1944-48 during which the country was taken through its fate and fortunes from the fascist dictatorship of the Arrow Cross to full-blown communism under the sponsorship of the U.S.S.R. Though its focus is on one country, the message of the narrative far exceeds the narrow geographical and chronological boundaries of the subject. The text is illuminating not only as a study of a small country, but also as history that sheds more light on the beginnings of the cold war and on Soviet strategies of establishing one-party governments in the eastern half of Europe.

For years academic discussions on this subject pivoted around two questions. One, did the USSR have an expansionist design for these countries early on, and two, would more circumspect or courageous attitude on the part of Hungarian politicians of the transitional period have prevented the eventual outcome of full-blown communism? Kenez's answers to these questions are straightforward: Soviet strategies were contingent on world political events, and two, once the decision was made, no amount of clever maneuvering could have prevented the imposition of communist government. The proof for conclusions unfolds through a book that cleverly blends analytic and chronological elements. While the Soviets are mulling over the implications of the advance of their armies deep into Central Europe, unforeseen developments in local and international politics shape their tactical and strategic decisions. Within this context, separate chapters discuss the rise of the communist controlled security police, a troubled project of building democracy, the Soviet domination of the International Control Commission, foci of local resistance with special emphasis on the Catholic Church, the dilemmas of a Jewish community facing another dictatorship after emerging from a regime of systematic destruction, and the first show trial that turned out to be a major instrument in liquidating the weak structures of the emerging democratic state.

Kenez's fusing these analytic and chronological elements produces a text that flows freely and elegantly. It is based on a careful synthesis of a rather large Hungarian monographic literature with the author's detective work in the archives. Kenez is a native of Hungary who, as a professional, has become a foremost historian of the Soviet Union ("from beginning to the end" as the subtitle of one of his many books brightly states). As a child he was eyewitness to many of the events described in this volume caught up in the destructive urges of two dictatorships and in the vagaries of the transition process. Given these facts, he is strikingly dispassionate in writing about the subject. Very much recommended.

Social Environmental Research in the European Union: Research Networks and New Agendas

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Social Environmental Research in the European Union: Research Networks and New Agendas
Elizabeth Shove , Barend Van Der Meulen , and Sujatha Raman
Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Social Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1840642114

Book Description

This book explores the making of international social science, and the parts which academics, policymakers and research managers play in creating European social environmental research. The authors present and analyze a complex picture of overlapping institutional interests within six countries of the EU - The Netherlands, UK, Spain, Greece, Finland and Austria - and develop new models with which to capture the transnational interaction of researchers and funding agencies.

The contributors consider the practical and intellectual challenges facing European research managers charged with the task of building a community of social researchers willing to engage with a policy-relevant environmental agenda. The book analyzes the shape and character of European social science and the values and commitments of research activity on the environment.

Book Description

When the Euro was introduced in the EU, the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) was one of the cornerstones of the architecture of fiscal policy in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). But the discussion about the necessity and functioning of the specific SGP fiscal rule never stopped since then. The call for a reform of the pact got momentum since many Member States of the euro area broke the regulations of the pact at least once. The reform of the SGP succeeded in 2005.

In this book, renowned lawyers and economists from all over Europe present their views about the legal and economic foundations of the SGP and its performance so far. The major part of the book deals with the economic problems with the pact, its theoretical basis, possible improvements and the implications of the reformed SGP. The book has the advantage not only to report and analyze the experiences with the old SGP but it offers also a first ex ante assessment of the future aspects of the reformed SGP.

These and other highly relevant issues make this book indispensable for everybody who is concerned with European integration and the functioning of EMU in particular.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book on Austerlitz
C'mon... this is one of the best uniform books around!
Dropped black from color plates
Printing Messed up on Color plates.
Dropped black plate?

AUSTERLITZ: The Empire at its Zenith
F Hourtouille
Manufacturer: Histoire and Collections
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Austria | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Czech Republic | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 2913903711

Book Description

The fourth book in an excellent series from Histoire and Collections, Austerlitz covers the faous battle, the results of which saw Napoleon at the height of his power.

A detailed text is accompanied by contemporary paintings and a vast array of graphics illustrating the uniforms and equipment of the soldiers of the time.

By the same author and available from Casemate

Jena-Auerstaedt: The Triumph of the Eagle

Borodino-The Moskova: The Battle for the Redoubts

Wagram: At the Heyday of the Empire

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book on Austerlitz.......2007-04-30

This is an Excellent book on the Austerlitz campaign, how Napoleon outmanouvered ad destroyed the Russian and Austrian army. I especially like the fact that it has many of the officers names and which units they fought in and little biography. Excellent plates, which are excellent painting guides for the wargamer or military modeller.

C'mon... this is one of the best uniform books around!.......2006-01-04

There is only one plate in a hundred with a printing (slight) problem...

So, now you can see the Prussians were not dressed as the prussians at Waterloo!... neither the French Hussars looked the same...

Would you wargame the ACW with a UNION army dressed in Mexican War UNIFORMS?

GET TO GRIPS WITH REALITY BOYS (AND GIRLS WITH HEART IN RIGHT PLACE!) THIS IS ONE OF THE BETTER PRICE/QUALITY UNIFORM BOOKS AROUND!

Dropped black from color plates.......2004-07-02

I have all the books in this series (four to date) plus a few others by H&C. I have to agree with Christopher. This installment seems to have some printing problems. But in my book, its only two pages (pages 14 and 15) that the black plate didn't print, giving the uniform plates on those pages large areas of a pale bluish gray where the black should have been. This might not seem that major since only two pages are affected, but since the plates are one of the stronger reasons why I collect the books, this is actually a big deal to me. For the price we pay, and the the fact that these books are of very nice quality, you would think that they would proof the printed material looking for mistakes before and during printing. My reason for the 3star rating for this book. The other books get 5stars for color plates.

Printing Messed up on Color plates........2004-06-26

One of the benefits of this series is the beautiful color
uniform plates. Unfornately in this book they are really
messed up. This book should have never reached the marketplace
is this condition!!!

Dropped black plate?.......2003-10-14

I have all the books in this wonderful series, but this installment seems to have printing problems with ten pages of uniform illustrations (all among the Austrian forces). The black plate didn't print, so that the uniforms have large areas of a pale bluish gray where the black should have been. Since the plates are a large reason why I collect these books, this is actually a big deal. I'll give it 3 stars just for being available, but I found the problems to be a major disappointment.

Explosion: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956

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Explosion: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956
John P. C. Matthews
Manufacturer: Hippocrene Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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Hungary | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0781811740

Austria (The European Union: Political, Social, and Economic Cooperation)

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Austria (The European Union: Political, Social, and Economic Cooperation)
Jeanine Sanna
Manufacturer: Mason Crest Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Europe | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1422200396

Austria and the European Union presidency: Background and perspectives

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Austria and the European Union presidency: Background and perspectives

Manufacturer: Keele European Research Center, Keele University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1899488162

Austria in the European Union (Contemporary Austrian Studies)

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A calculating appraisal of a nation's future

Austria in the European Union (Contemporary Austrian Studies)

Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0765808994

Customer Reviews:

A calculating appraisal of a nation's future.......2002-07-14

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Gunter Bishchof (Professor of History and Executive Director of the international Studies Center, University of New Orleans), Anton Pelinka (Professor of Political Science, University of Innsbruck and Directory of the Institute of Conflict Research, Vienna, Austria), and Michael Gehler (Professor of Contemporary History, University of Innsbruck), Austria In The European Union is the tenth volume in the "Contemporary Austrian Studies" series. Offering the reader a series of scholarly assessments of the first five years of Austria's membership in the European Union, as well as assessments with the legacy of Austria's past (particularly in the dark days before and during World War II), Austria In The European Union is a highly detailed, expertly researched blend of history, economics, and a calculating appraisal of a nation's future within the context of the evolving European international collaboration. Austria In The European Union is strongly recommended for European Studies, Political Science, and International Relations supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

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