Books by "Charles F. Hermann"
12 books found
National Security Entrepreneurs and the Making of American Foreign Policy
by Vincent Boucher, Charles-Philippe David, Karine Prémont
2020 · McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Since the advent of the contemporary US national security apparatus in 1947, entrepreneurial public officials have tried to reorient the course of the nation's foreign policy. Acting inside the National Security Council system, some principals and high-ranking officials have worked tirelessly to generate policy change and innovation on the issues they care about. These entrepreneurs attempt to set the foreign policy agenda, frame policy problems and solutions, and orient the decision-making process to convince the president and other decision makers to choose the course they advocate. In National Security Entrepreneurs and the Making of American Foreign Policy Vincent Boucher, Charles-Philippe David, and Karine Prémont develop a new concept to study entrepreneurial behaviour among foreign policy advisers and offer the first comprehensive framework of analysis to answer this crucial question: why do some entrepreneurs succeed in guaranteeing the adoption of novel policies while others fail? They explore case studies of attempts to reorient US foreign policy waged by National Security Council entrepreneurs, examining the key factors enabling success and the main forces preventing the adoption of a preferred option: the entrepreneur's profile, presidential leadership, major players involved in the policy formulation and decision-making processes, the national political context, and the presence or absence of significant opportunities. By carefully analyzing significant diplomatic and military decisions of the Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton administrations, and offering a preliminary account of contemporary national security entrepreneurship under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, this book makes the case for an agent-based explanation of foreign policy change and continuity.
The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri
by Charles Van Ravenswaay
2006 · University of Missouri Press
Many Germans who immigrated to America in the nineteenth century settled in the lower Missouri River valley between St. Charles and Boonville, Missouri. In this magnificent book, which includes some six hundred photographs and drawings, Charles van Ravenswaay examines that immigration--who came, how, and why--and surveys the distinctive Missouri-German architecture, art, and crafts produced in the towns or on the farms of the rural counties of Cooper, Cole, Osage, Gasconade, Franklin, Montgomery, Warren, and St. Charles from the 1830s until the closing years of the century. As the immigrants sought to transplant their native culture to the Missouri backwoods, the compromises they were forced to make with conditions in Missouri produced many fascinating and individualistic structures and objects. They built half-timbered, stone, and brick houses and barns with designs reflecting the traditions of the many German regions from which the builders emigrated. The author's far-reaching study of immigrants' arts and crafts included furniture in traditional peasant designs as well as the Biedermeier and eclectic styles, redware and stoneware pottery, textiles, wood and stone carving, metalwares, firearms, baskets, musical instruments, prints, and paintings and identifies craftsmen working in all of these fields. One chapter is devoted to the objects the immigrants brought with them from the Old World. Added to this new printing of The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri is a touching and informative introduction by Adolf E. Schroeder. Schroeder's long friendship with Charles van Ravenswaay allows him to reflect on the vast contributions this author made to our knowledge of Missouri's German culture. Everyone interested in architecture, crafts, or Missouriana will find this book indispensable as they savor van Ravenswaay's excellent presentation of the craftsmen and their products against the background of the aspirations and folkways of a distinctive culture.
The story of how Europe was converted to Christianity from 300AD until the barbarian Lithuanians finally capitulated at the astonishingly late date of 1386. It is an epic tale from one of the most gifted historians of today. This remarkable book examines the conversion of Europe to the Christian faith in the period following the collapse of the Roman Empire to approximately 1300 when the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire was firmly established. One of the book’s great strengths is the degree to which it shows how little was inevitable about this process, how surrounded by uncertainties. What was the origin of the missionary impulse? Who were the activists who engaged in this work – the toilsome, often unrewarding, sometimes dangerous work of evangelisation, and how did they set about putting over this faith? How did a structure of ecclesiastical government come into being? Above all, at what point can one say that an individual or a society has become Christian? Fletcher’s range, lucidity and mastery of his sources brings the answers to these and many other questions as far within our grasp as they probably ever can be. Like Alan Bullock and Simon Schama, Fletcher is a historian with the true gift of a storyteller and a wide general readership ahead of him. Fletcher’s previous book, The Quest for El Cid won both the Wolfson History Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History. This book is even better – the most impressive achievement so far of this strikingly gifted historian.
At the close of the twentieth century, political protests have erupted throughout the world. While the collapse of communism was certainly one of the most spectacular protest- related events, smaller protests have become ubiquitous. In Los Angeles, labor activists campaign against commercial real estate owners to unionize janitors, mainly Latina immigrants. In the People's Republic of China, peasants revolt against tax collectors. Amazonian Indians protest public and economic policies that destroy their culture and rainforest habitat. This book analyzes the reciprocal impact of cultural beliefs, sociopolitical structures, and individual behaviors on protests throughout the world. Why do individuals participate in protest activities? How do cultural beliefs, personal attitudes, and subjective perception influence the potential protester? Addressing the issue of agency in protest, the authors also examine why protestors enlist different tactics to achieve their goals. Why are some protests violent and others nonviolent? When and why do activists conclude that it is better to accommodate than confront? Finally, and crucially, what are the consequences of protest movements?
This new reader in international theory brings together nine new essays and four classics, two of them heavily revised for republication here, to provide a clear introduction to the two dominent traditions in contemporary international relations: realism and neoliberalism. As well as setting out the current state of each approach and mapping out the possibilities of creative synthesis, the book focuses on emerging neorealist and neoliberal perspectives on such key issues as international trade and organisation, arms control and morality in foreign policy.