Barrel of a Gun: Political Power in Africa and the Coup d'Etat (African)

Politics & Social Sciences

First, Ruth

Politics & Government

Penguin Books, Ltd.

"By God I am confused" exclaimed Colonel Gadafi at one Libyan popular conference. Where Libya is concerned who isn't? Ruth First's main emphasis falls on the causes and consequences of the 1969 revolution in which a group of young officers ousted the monarchy. This through survey provides a wealth of information about the religious, economic and social springs of Libyan politics, the sudden explosion of oil revenues and the fanatical often naive, pursuit of Arab unity. She introduces the reader to 20th century social revolution based on the Koran; to an oil rich state determined not to copy Kuwait; to a new center of pan Arabism which has almost invited the hostility of other Arab states; and to a regime which exhorts the people to embrace its historic role but suffocates all independent action.

Libya: The Elusive Revolution

History

Africa

Penguin??Books

An unforgettable account of defiance against political terror by one of South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid activists An invaluable testimonial of the excesses of the apartheid system, 117 Days presents the harrowing chronicle of journalist Ruth First's isolation and abuse at the hands of South African interrogators after her arrest in 1963. Upon her arrest, she was detained in solitary confinement under South Africa's notorious ninety-day detention law. This is the story of the war of nerves that ensued between First and her Special Branch captors-a work that remains a classic portrait of oppression and the dignity of the human spirit. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

117 Days: An Account of Confinement and Interrogation Under the South African 90-Day Detention Law (Penguin Classics)

Humor & Entertainment

Penguin Publishing Group

Power in Africa

Pantheon Books

This book is about army intervention in politics, but more about politics than armies.  This in in the hope that, from an examination of the crises in politics, coup and counter-coup, there will grow, tentatively at least, a general theory of power for newly independent states which explains why they are so vulnerable to army interventions in politics.  It is not, accordingly, a book about the mechanics of armies and coups d'etat, their logistics and command structures, but about the way army interventions in politics reveal the nature of political power and its areas of failure in Africa.  The army coup d'etat is plainly a short-circuit of power conflicts in a situation where arms do the deciding..  What is the kind of conflict?  And what does the decision entail?

The barrel of a gun: Political power in Africa and the coup d'état

Allen Lane.

A personal account of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa chronicles the author's imprisonment in the early 1960s for her participation in the opposition movement of the African National Congress

117 Days: An Account of Confinement and Interrogation Under the South African Ninety-Day Detention Law

Biographies & Memoirs

Bloomsbury Pub Ltd

First, Ruth And Ann Scott, Olive Schreiner: A Biography

Olive Schreiner

Scott, Ann

Community & Culture

Schocken Books

Originally published in 1980 and long out of print, this fine work illuminates Schreiner's life and major writings through a portrayal of her "conscious struggles for self-definition" as a novelist, feminist and political activist. Born in 1855 to English missionaries working in Africa, hers was a lonely, self-educated childhood. She worked as a governess during the late 1870s, and when she sailed to England for medical training in 1881, had with her the manuscripts of three novels, including The Story of an African Farm, her best known. She was quickly taken up by London's intellectual circles; Havelock Ellis and Eleanor Marx were among her closest friends. On her return to Africa, Schreiner supported the Boer cause and took what she herself called an "almost painfully intense interest" in empire-builder Cecil Rhodes, although she quickly became disillusioned with both. Abhorring treatment of blacks as an "engine of labour," she became an outspoken advocate for black citizenship; and her Women and Labour published in 1911 reflected a lifetime of thought on "the Woman Question" and became a crucial work for early-20th-century feminists. The authors write insightfully of the split sense of self in a woman who made such an impact yet felt her life a failure.

Rutgers University Press

Holmes & Meier Pub

An unforgettable account of defiance against political terror by one of South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid activistsAn invaluable testimonial of the excesses of the apartheid system, 117 Days presents the harrowing chronicle of journalist Ruth First's isolation and abuse at the hands of South African interrogators after her arrest in 1963. Upon her arrest, she was detained in solitary confinement under South Africa's notorious ninety-day detention law. This is the story of the war of nerves that ensued between First and her Special Branch captors-a work that remains a classic portrait of oppression and the dignity of the human spirit.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

One Hundred Seventeen Days (Voices of Resistance)

Monthly Review+press

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Books by First, Ruth