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Empires Apart
America and Russia from the Vikings to Iraq

Synopsis:

The American road to Baghdad started when the first English settlers landed in Virgina determined to impose their values on everyone they encountered. Simultaneously, the first Russians crossed the Urals and the two empires that would dominate the twentieth century were born. "Empires Apart" covers the history of the Americans and Russians from the Vikings to the present day. It shows the two empires developed in parallel as they expanded to the Pacific and launched wars against the nations around them. They both developed an imperial 'ideology' that was central to the way they perceived themselves. Then, in the period between the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War, the American ideology changed and the lust for new territory to conquer largely disappeared. It is argued that what caused this change was the advent of Big Business which set out to conquer the world in a different way.Soon after, the ideology of the Russian Empire also changed with the advent of Communism. The key argument of this book is that these changes did not alter the core imperial values of either nation; both Russians and Americans continued to believe that their manifest destiny was to impose their will on others. Corporatist and Communist imperialism changed only the mechanics of Empire. Both nations have shown that they are still willing to use military force and clandestine intrigue to enforce imperial control. In order to support these arguments, it is necessary to strip away many of the preconceptions of popular history and this book uses numerous anecdotes to illustrate events as they really happened. The most pervasive preconception is that America has never been an 'imperial' power, by recounting the history of the two nations alongside each other this preconception is decisively dissolved.

Author Biography:

Brian Landers is Finance Director of a major international publishing house. After forsaking academia to become a political adviser in the City, Brian Landers has acquired a wealth of experience of business and public policy issues. As well as senior management positions with leading british companies, his public appointments include Finance Director of HM Prison Service, Trustee of the Royal Armouries and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service. In addition, he spent two years with a development charity in various parts of the Third World, worked for an insurance company in Buenos Aires and an American multinational in Amsterdam, was a management consultant with Price Waterhouse and has written on subjects as varied as quangoes, Europe and House of Commons committees. He has an MBA from the London Business School.His essay 'Of Ministers, Mandarins and Managers' in 'Quangos, Accountability and Reform' ed. by M Flinders & M Smith was published by Macmillan, 1999; his article 'Encounters with the Public Accounts Committee' can be found in Public Administraton, Vol 77, Number 1, 1999.

Table of Contents:

Prologue, Americans, Russians and Vikings- Understanding America- Competing Ideologies- Empires Apart- The Empires Today- The Vikingschapter 1, Rurik's Island- The Influence of Champagne- West and East Divide- The Coming of Christ- Russian History, True or False?chapter 2, Amerigo's Land- Spanish Exploration and Conquest- Before Columbus- The Scramble for America- The English and Civilization- Slaverychapter 3, Legacy of The Mongol Terror- The Mongols- From Novgorod to Kulikovo- Ivan The Terrible- Russia After Ivanchapter 4, Legacy of The Mystic Massacre- Frying Natives- Thanksgiving- Pilgrims and Puritans- Between God and Stavechapter 5, Russia Between West and East- Yermak Timofeyevich, King of The Wild Frontier- The Eastern Frontier- Life in The Wild East- Empire- The First Romanovschapter 6, America Betwen East and West- The Rule of Law- French America- Prelude to Revolution- The American Rebellion- Thomas Paine and Tadeusz Kosciuszkochapter 7, The Empires Get Going- Enlightenment, Russian and American Style Territorial Aggrandizement- Tadeusz Kosciuszko and The Polish Question- Napoleon and Alexander- The 1812 Overtureschapter 8, Determined Opportunism and Conquest- King Andrew- A Time for Guns- Manifest Destiny, Chechnya to Cuba- The Road to Civil Warchapter 9, More Conquest- The War Between The States- Slaves and Serfs- To The Little Bighorn and Anadyrsk- Empire Marches Onchapter 10, Soul Searching- Dissidents- The Soul of Identity- New Model Empires- Territory Belonging to The United Stateschapter 11, Communism and Corporatism- Bolshevism Arrives- Come The Revolution- Communism Arrives- Corporatism, A Digression- Ideologies in Transitionchapter 12, Empires Old and New- The New Tsars, Lenin and Stalin The Terrible- The Bolshevik Empire- The Red Menace- Corporatism v Communism- The Invisibilsation of Empirechapter 13, Hot and Cold Runing War- Allies Apart- Empires Re-emerge- Bipolarity- Regime Change- Russian Regime Change, The Death of The Ultimate Tsarchapter 14, Winning The War That Wasn't!- Hot War, Cold War, Phony War- Monroe Marches On- The Use of Force- More Dissidents- The End of The Russian Empire?chapter 15, Pax Americana - American Democracy- American Justice- American Efficiency- America Delivers- From Invisible Empires to The Neo-empire- The Lessons of History

Additional Information:

Related subjects: World history