Behind Barbed Wire And High Fences

Drawing on first-hand accounts from several players and original research, respected rugby writer Chris Schoeman marks the 50th anniversary of this controversial tour remembered as much for politics as for rugby.

Barbed wire is made of two strands of galvanized steel wire twisted together for strength and to hold sharp barbs in place. As creative advertisers sought ways to make an inherently dangerous product attractive to customers concerned about the welfare of their livestock, and as barbed wire became commonplace on battlefields and in concentration camps, the fence accrued a fascinating and troubling range of meanings beyond the material facts of its construction. In The Perfect Fence, Lyn Ellen Bennett and Scott Abbott explore the multiple uses and meanings of barbed wire, a technological innovation that contributes to America’s shift from a pastoral ideal to an industrial one. They survey the vigorous public debate over the benign or “infernal” fence, investigate legislative attempts to ban or regulate wire fences as a result of public outcry, and demonstrate how the industry responded to ameliorate the image of its barbed product. Because of the rich metaphorical possibilities suggested by a fence that controls through pain, barbed wire developed into an important motif in works of literature from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Early advertisements proclaimed that barbed wire was “the perfect fence,” keeping “the ins from being outs, and the outs from being ins.” Bennett and Abbott conclude that while barbed wire is not the perfect fence touted by manufacturers, it is indeed a meaningful thing that continues to influence American identities.

Often overlooked in the infamous history of U.S. internment during World War II is the plight of internee children. Drawn from personal interviews and multiple primary source materials, Schools behind Barbed Wire is the story of the boys and girls who grew up in the Crystal City, TX internment camp and spent the war years attending one of its three internment camp schools. Visit our website for sample chapters!

For three years, a Japanese concentration camp in the Philippines was home for Church of the Brethren missionaries Edward and Helen Angeny during WW II. Their tale of replacing murdered missionaries in China in 1940 and their subsequent imprisonment was aptly written into this memoir by Helen Angeny when she was 80 years old. Their internment included hunger as well as humor, frustration as well as joy, and threats as well as miracles. It also included the birth of their first child soon after imprisonment. The story ended well for the 500 civilian internees but only after MacArthur's troops accidentally came upon this POW group which had been previously unknown to the US government. Helen Angeny's reflections as well as her soul are revealed in this thought-provoking historical narrative. This book includes period photographs and 17 sketches by the author.

It is 8th December1941. Fresh from England and six months pregnant, Ronny Rynd has left her husband in the suffocating heat of Manila to holiday in the mountain setting of Baguio. Following the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbour, she finds herself caught up in the Japanese attack on the Philippine Islands. Alone and vulnerable, this ordinary woman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time must learn how to survive. Years of incarceration in prisoner of war camps loom as Ronny struggles to bring up her baby, living in constant fear in hostile and primitive conditions. Against this background unlikely friendships blossom to sustain her. Desperate to be a family, the ever-feisty Ronny must confront the dangerous Japanese authorities for permission to be united with her husband, imprisoned in the overcrowded city camp in Manila. But conditions there present different horrors and further heartbreak. A tribute to the remarkable men and women who created their own functioning society within their camps, this book displays their inventiveness, determination and unexpected humour. It is a story of family life lived in spite of the brutal regime of years in prisoner of war camps.

Focusing on television media reporting of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and its aftermath, this book explores how African states directly involved in conflict, western states with geopolitical interests in Africa's Great Lakes region, militia groups, human rights activists and NGOs use gendered media narratives strategically, often engaging in politics of revisionism and denial, to change the behaviour of other actors in the international system. Critically analysing BBC documentary films and news features and drawing on interviews with British, Rwandan and Congolese journalists, filmmakers, political commentators and human rights activists Georgina Holmes argues that documentary films and political discussion programmes are postcolonial contact zones, wherein competing actors perform in an attempt to influence international political decision-making on military and humanitarian intervention and public perceptions of genocide and war. The book breaks new ground in understanding how Rwandan and Congolese women actively engage in producing and shaping international public discourse on genocide and war, despite being depicted as silent, passive victims of conflict. This book is essential reading on the gendered dynamics of media reporting on conflicts and will appeal to anyone with an interest in Feminist Security Studies, Political Communication, Media and Film Studies, African Studies, Genocide Studies and International Relations.

Over three decades have passed since the first wave of Indochinese refugees left their homelands. These refugees, mainly the Vietnamese, fled from war and strife in search of a better life elsewhere. By investigating the Vietnamese diaspora in Asia, this book sheds new light on the Asian refugee era (1975-1991), refugee settlement and different patterns of host-guest interactions that will have implications for refugee studies elsewhere. The book provides: a clearer historical understanding of the group dynamics among refugees - the ethnic Chinese ‘Vietnamese refugees’ from both the North and South as well as the northern ‘Vietnamese refugees’ an examination of different aspects of migration including: planning for migration, choices of migration route, and reasons for migration an analysis of the ethnic and refugee politics during the refugee era, the settlement and subsequent resettlement. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of globalization, migration, ethnicities, refugee histories and politics.