Books published by Cornell University Press

"This book investigates the social and political role of local Jewish museums in Polish lands and in independent Poland from the 1890s up to the Holocaust, as well as Jewish ethnographic initiatives"--

"A cultural history of the collapse of the USSR, focused on the highly visible flourishing of radical spiritual movements and worldviews that emerged in Soviet cities at that time, revealing the nature of Soviet ideology as it unraveled and the common features of societies undergoing crisis"--

The German-Soviet War revises the conflict's generally accepted understanding through case studies, demonstrating the complexity of the war at the local level. The contributors assembled by Jeff Rutherford and Robert von Maier examine the multiplicity of experiences of individuals caught in this savage war, starting with the German war of annihilation launched against Soviet state and society in June 1941.This detailed collection shows that the particular nature of the war in the east resulted from an intertwining of military, ideological, and economic motives. The German-Soviet War puts Germany's murderous policies toward Soviet Jews and prisoners of war, and the justification for these policies and actions within the ranks of the army, into the larger context of battlefield events.The neglected topic of the destructive German scorched-earth retreats receives detailed analysis, demonstrating the importance of ideology and economic thinking in the German army's war. The difficulty in reconciling economic and ideological considerations also played a prominent role in Soviet attempts to rebuild after the war. The German-Soviet War not only brings attention to these devastating events but also revises the general narrative of the war.By internationalizing the conflict through examinations into the various Axis and Allied nations and peoples who participated in the fighting, this volume provides new ways of conceptualizing their motivations, actions, and importance in its eventual outcome. Together, the contributions to The German-Soviet War provide new ways of examining the defining conflict of the Second World War.

"Gender and Authority in the Late Medieval Church analyzes the relationship between patriarchy and governance in the English church between 1200 and 1500."--

The Dutch World of Washington Irving tells an alternative origin story of American literary culture. In December of 1809, before finding fame with "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Washington Irving published his satirical History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. Elisabeth Paling Funk explains that the History of New-York and the Hudson Valley folktales that followed are part of an early trend to respond to the national desire for a historical record. Funk argues that these works uniquely describe this part of the American scene in the period of the Early Republic and bring forward the Dutch strain in its history and culture. Funk explores what the young Irving would have read, heard, and observed during his early life and career in New York City, once part of the former colony of New Netherland, where he was surrounded by Dutch-speaking neighbors, relatives, and Dutch literature. Based on these sources, The Dutch World of Washington Irving argues that Irving's Knickerbocker works-not only his History but also his Hudson Valley stories-represent a crucial effort to preserve Dutch life and folk customs in the Hudson Valley in the face of Anglo-Americanization. Providing the first complete glossary of Irving's Dutch vocabulary and drawing on untranslated Dutch sources, Funk offers cultural historians, scholars of American folklore and literature, and the latest generation of Irving's readers unprecedented access into the Dutch world of Washington Irving and his American contemporaries.

"The chapters in this book build on a growing body of scholarly literature that challenges the traditional temporal and geographic frameworks of World War II, expanding the timeline to include a series of regional wars and revolutions that precede (from 1931) and follow (to the mid 1950s) the "central paroxysm" defined by the active participation of the United States. This approach works to decenter US- and Europe-centric accounts of the war and to highlight "bottom-up" agency in ways that destabilize conventional narratives"--

"An intellectual biography of American abolitionist and reformer William Goodell (1792-1878)"--

"This book examines the ideology of Russian civilizationism, according to which history does not march in a single direction but rather consists of multiple civilizations advancing in multiple directions. The book analyzes the main strands of Russian civilizationism and how civilizational rhetoric has now become commonplace in Russian official discourse"--

How do foreign policy-makers learn from history? When do states enter alliances? Beginning with these two questions, Dan Reiter uses recent work in social psychology and organization theory to build a formative-events model of learning in international politics.

Richard Polt provides a lively and accessible introduction to one of the most influential and intellectually demanding philosophers of the modern era. Covering the entire range of Heidegger's thought, Polt skillfully communicates the essence of the...

The Roots of Resilience examines governance from the ground up in the world's two most enduring electoral authoritarian or "e;hybrid"e; regimes-Singapore and Malaysia-where politically liberal and authoritarian features are blended to evade substantive democracy. Although skewed elections, curbed civil liberties, and a dose of coercion help sustain these regimes, selectively structured state policies and patronage, partisan machines that effectively stand in for local governments, and diligently sustained clientelist relations between politicians and constituents are equally important. While key attributes of these regimes differ, affecting the scope, character, and balance among national parties and policies, local machines, and personalized linkages-and notwithstanding a momentous change of government in Malaysia in 2018-the similarity in the overall patterns in these countries confirms the salience of these dimensions. As Meredith L. Weiss shows, taken together, these attributes accustom citizens to the system in place, making meaningful change in how electoral mobilization and policymaking happen all the harder to change. This authoritarian acculturation is key to the durability of both regimes, but, given weaker party competition and party-civil society links, is stronger in Singapore than Malaysia. High levels of authoritarian acculturation, amplifying the political payoffs of what parties and politicians actually provide their constituents, explain why electoral turnover alone is insufficient for real regime change in either state.

"The Dialectics of Absolute Nothingness examines the influence of German philosophical traditions on the development of the Kyoto School. Contributors explore the Kyoto School's engagement with Western thought, highlighting the centrality of German philosophy while also showing the many ways the Kyoto School critiques the philosophical traditions it incorporates"--

"This book explores the "traditional values" strategy of the Russian Orthodox Church under president Vladimir Putin and in particular its views on family and sex, which is one of its most important concerns"--

"Study of the impact that famine had on the social bonds of a medieval city"--