The Nationbuilders

This is a collection of linked essays on individuals and companies from 1931 to 1984 who contributed in major ways to building the New Zealand nation. It captures the intertwining of the lives of politicians, their advisers, and those influence them, as well as the ideas and experiences that drove them. While it focuses on economic strategy, the book also looks at the cultural, social, union, business, and foreign policy strands of nationbuilding. An original and provocative book, it is backed by powerful nationalistic emotions and by a deep distaste for the kind of country that has been fashioned in New Zealand since 1984.

No nation was born great. Nations are built by men of passion, vision and wisdom. A poor nation is not necessarily a nation without money, but a nation void of men of ideas. Nation Builders are not necessarily politicians; for a politician to become a Nation Builder, he or she must experience real heart and soul conversion. Most politicians are merely opportunists, clamoring for greater portion of their national cake for self aggrandizement. True Nation Builders are treasures in every nation; and their absence is one of the greatest deprivations a nation can ever experience. Who are Nation Builders? How are they prepared for their mission? History is full of ordinary individuals whose passion, vision and wisdom expressed in the nation building story of their nations was superior to that of their peers. These breed of individuals are the true makers of history in every nation. They have their names written in the hearts of their people and the world. Researching on these special breed of individuals and uncovering the attributes, which made them the builders of their nations is what has made this work possible. In this extraordinary classic on Nation Builders, Dr. Benard Etta shares light on the qualities of Nation Builders. The book 'Nation Builders' provide answers to the question of who Nation Builders are and how they are prepared for their mission. This book takes the subject nation building from the palaces of politics into the streets, prison houses, schools, marketplaces, etc, with the aim of inspiring just everyone to become a nation builder in their respective nations. Dr. Benard Etta believes everyone is supposed to be a nation builder in the best way possible based on each individual's potential. No nation can progressively develop without the contribution of its people in nation building. Serving one's nation and contributing to its development is the greatest achievement of one's citizenship. Citizenship is not just a privilege for one to demand from his or her country, but a responsibility to contribute in making a difference in one's nation. I see this book inspiring a fresh passion and involvement in the hearts and minds of people the world over for the building of their nations.

A history of the tens of thousands of children who emigrated from Britain, from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, to become home children in Canada.

In May 2003, President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq. But while we won the war, we catastrophically lost the peace. Our failure prompted a fundamental change in our foreign policy. Confronted with the shortcomings of "shock and awe," the U.S. military shifted its focus to "stability operations": counterinsurgency and the rebuilding of failed states. In less than a decade, foreign assistance has become militarized; humanitarianism has been armed. Combining recent history and firsthand reporting, Armed Humanitarians traces how the concepts of nation-building came into vogue, and how, evangelized through think tanks, government seminars, and the press, this new doctrine took root inside the Pentagon and the State Department. Following this extraordinary experiment in armed social work as it plays out from Afghanistan and Iraq to Africa and Haiti, Nathan Hodge exposes the difficulties of translating these ambitious new theories into action. Ultimately seeing this new era in foreign relations as a noble but flawed experiment, he shows how armed humanitarianism strains our resources, deepens our reliance on outsourcing and private contractors, and leads to perceptions of a new imperialism, arguably a major factor in any number of new conflicts around the world. As we attempt to build nations, we may in fact be weakening our own. Nathan Hodge is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who specializes in defense and national security. He has reported from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and a number of other countries in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. He is the author, with Sharon Weinberger, of A Nuclear Family Vacation, and his work has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and many other newspapers and magazines.

America’s rise from revolutionary colonies to a world power is often treated as inevitable. But Charles N. Edel’s provocative biography of John Q. Adams argues that he served as the central architect of a grand strategy whose ideas and policies made him a critical link between the founding generation and the Civil War–era nation of Lincoln.

Historians traditionally claim to be myth-breakers, but national history since the nineteenth century shows quite a record in myth-making. This exciting new volume compares how national historians in Europe have handled the opposing pulls of fact and fiction and shows which narrative strategies have contributed to the success of national histories.

A childhood biography of the great political and social leader. Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) studied law in England, then spent 20 years defending the rights of immigrants in South Africa. In 1914 he returned to India and became the leader of the Indian National Congress. Gandhi urged non-violence and civil disobedience as a means to independence from Great Britain, with public acts of defiance that landed him in jail several times. In 1947 he participated in the postwar negotiations that led to Indian independence. He was shot to death by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. This childhood biography highlights the events that informed Gandhi's indomitable spirit.