Between Two Empires

'Between Two Empires' probes the complexities of prewar Japanese American community to show how Japanese in America occupied an in-between space between American nationality and Japanese racial identity.

The incarceration of Japanese Americans has been discredited as a major blemish in American democratic tradition. Accompanying this view is the assumption that the ethnic group help unqualified allegiance to the United States. Between Two Empires probes the complexities of prewar Japanese America to show how Japanese in America held an in-between space between the United States and the empire of Japan, between American nationality and Japanese racial identity.

The Hungarian defeat to the Ottoman army at the pivotal Battle of Mohács in 1526 led to the division of the Kingdom of Hungary into three parts, altering both the shape and the ethnic composition of Central Europe for centuries to come. Hungary thus became a battleground between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. In this sweeping historical survey, Géza Pálffy takes readers through a crucial period of upheaval and revolution in Hungary, which had been the site of a flowering of economic, cultural, and intellectual progress—but battles with the Ottomans lead to over a century of war and devastation. Pálffy explores Hungary's role as both a borderland and a theater of war through the turn of the 18th century. In this way, Hungary became a crucially important field on which key debates over religion, government, law, and monarchy played out. Reflecting 25 years of archival research and presented here in English for the first time, Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711 offers a fresh and thorough exploration of this key moment in Hungarian history and, in turn, the creation of a modern Europe.

"Ahmet Agaoglu's life and writings reflect huge 20th-century historical events, such as revolutions in Russia in1905 and 1917, in Ottoman Turkey in 1908, World War I, the Turkish War of Independence and the establishment of Azerbaijan. His life is a mirror of the tangled politics in a region where his role in establishing the Republic of Azerbaijan was decisive. This work is based on Agaoglu's journalistic output and fieldwork in the Caucasus, as well as literature of the period."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Korea Between Empires chronicles the development of a Korean national consciousness. It focuses on two critical periods in Korean history and asks how key concepts and symbols were created and integrated into political programs to create an original Korean understanding of national identity, the nation-state, and nationalism. Looking at the often-ignored questions of representation, narrative, and rhetoric in the construction of public sentiment, Andre Schmid traces the genealogies of cultural assumptions and linguistic turns evident in Korea's major newspapers during the social and political upheavals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Newspapers were the primary location for the re-imagining of the nation, enabling readers to move away from the conceptual framework inherited from a Confucian and dynastic past toward a nationalist vision that was deeply rooted in global ideologies of capitalist modernity. As producers and disseminators of knowledge about the nation, newspapers mediated perceptions of Korea's precarious place amid Chinese and Japanese colonial ambitions and were vitally important to the rise of a nationalist movement in Korea.

The fascinating and highly relevant history of the turbulent relationship between the United States and the Holy See, recounted and analyzed by Italian journalist and Vatican insider Massimo Franco Drawing on unique access to the archives of the Holy See and a range of sources both in Washington, D.C. and Rome, Parallel Empires charts the path of U.S.-Vatican relations to reveal the dramatic religious and political tensions that have shaped their dealings and our world. Starting with the Holy See’s initial diplomatic overtures to the United States in the 1780’s, Franco illuminates a two-hundred-year-old history of alliances, mutual exploitation, and misperceptions. From the nativist anti-Catholicism of the nineteenth century, through JFK’s election as America’s first Catholic president and the cold war anti-Communist partnership between the United States and the Holy See, to the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1984, the story has never before been told quite like this. With U.S.-Vatican affairs still evolving in the present day, Parallel Empires also details the most recent developments of this ever-changing and often-tenuous relationship, including contemporary disagreements over the Iraq War and engagement with the Islamic world, and the Papacy of Benedict XVI. Parallel Empires leaves no doubt regarding the impact that the struggle between these two great powers—one of secular might and the other of moral influence—has had on both our history and on today’s world. Franco’s insights are sure to have lasting relevance as U.S.-Vatican relations continue to evolve, and with religion’s undeniable influence on everything from domestic elections to international terrorism, his work will prove invaluable in coming years.

Ahmet Agaoglu's life and writings reflect huge 20th-century historical events, such as revolutions in Russia in1905 and 1917, in Ottoman Turkey in 1908, World War I, the Turkish War of Independence and the establishment of Azerbaijan. His life is a mirror of the tangled politics in a region where his role in establishing the Republic of Azerbaijan was decisive. This work is based on Agaoglu's journalistic output and fieldwork in the Caucasus, as well as literature of the period.