As the cold war took shape during the late 1940s, policymakers in the United States and Great Britain displayed a marked tendency to regard international communism as a "monolithic" conspiratorial movement. The image of a "communist monolith" distilled the messy realities of international relations into a neat, comprehensible formula. Its lesson was that all communists, regardless of their native land or political program, were essentially tools of the Kremlin. Marc Selverstone recreates the manner in which the "monolith" emerged as a perpetual framework on both sides of the Atlantic. Though more pervasive and millennial in its American guise, this understanding also informed conceptions of international communism in its close ally Great Britain, casting the Kremlin's challenge as but one more in a long line of threats to freedom. This illuminating and important book not only explains the cold war mindset that determined global policy for much of the twentieth century, but reveals how the search to define a foreign threat can shape the ways in which that threat is actually met.

Make Software Architecture Choices That Maximize Value and Innovation "[Vernon and Jaskuła] provide insights, tools, proven best practices, and architecture styles both from the business and engineering viewpoint. . . . This book deserves to become a must-read for practicing software engineers, executives as well as senior managers." --Michael Stal, Certified Senior Software Architect, Siemens Technology Strategic Monoliths and Microservices helps business decision-makers and technical team members clearly understand their strategic problems through collaboration and identify optimal architectural approaches, whether the approach is distributed microservices, well-modularized monoliths, or coarser-grained services partway between the two. Leading software architecture experts Vaughn Vernon and Tomasz Jaskuła show how to make balanced architectural decisions based on need and purpose, rather than hype, so you can promote value and innovation, deliver more evolvable systems, and avoid costly mistakes. Using realistic examples, they show how to construct well-designed monoliths that are maintainable and extensible, and how to gradually redesign and reimplement even the most tangled legacy systems into truly effective microservices. Link software architecture planning to business innovation and digital transformation Overcome communication problems to promote experimentation and discovery-based innovation Master practices that support your value-generating goals and help you invest more strategically Compare architectural styles that can lead to versatile, adaptable applications and services Recognize when monoliths are your best option and how best to architect, design, and implement them Learn when to move monoliths to microservices and how to do it, whether they're modularized or a "Big Ball of Mud" Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

How do you detangle a monolithic system and migrate it to a microservice architecture? How do you do it while maintaining business-as-usual? As a companion to Sam Newman’s extremely popular Building Microservices, this new book details a proven method for transitioning an existing monolithic system to a microservice architecture. With many illustrative examples, insightful migration patterns, and a bevy of practical advice to transition your monolith enterprise into a microservice operation, this practical guide covers multiple scenarios and strategies for a successful migration, from initial planning all the way through application and database decomposition. You’ll learn several tried and tested patterns and techniques that you can use as you migrate your existing architecture. Ideal for organizations looking to transition to microservices, rather than rebuild Helps companies determine whether to migrate, when to migrate, and where to begin Addresses communication, integration, and the migration of legacy systems Discusses multiple migration patterns and where they apply Provides database migration examples, along with synchronization strategies Explores application decomposition, including several architectural refactoring patterns Delves into details of database decomposition, including the impact of breaking referential and transactional integrity, new failure modes, and more

Now in its second edition: the trailblazing introduction and textbook on construction includes a new section on translucent materials and an article on the use of glass.

This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.

“When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...” Arthur Conan Doyle - On the banks of the river Thames a massive new building is being completed. A stunning creation of glass and concrete that will be a new landmark on London's skyline. And people are dying because of it...Dozens of mysterious unexplained accidents have claimed the lives of workmen during the construction and journalist Jessica Anderson is convinced that the owner of the building, a billionaire Russian businessman, knows more about the accidents than he is revealing. Enlisting the help of a former colleague, Jess tries to investigate the shadowy industrialist but finds that far harder than she imagined. Protected by a private security force and cocooned by his entourage, this powerful man proves to be as elusive as anyone she has ever known. He values his privacy and seems willing to go to any ends to protect it. But what is he hiding? As she delves into his background she discovers that one of his ancestors lived in London during the 1930's on the same site where the Crystal Tower was constructed and death and destruction surrounded that ancestor too. Is there a link between these two men? Jess is convinced there is and when a series of horrific attacks and murders take place, perpetrated against men who want to stop the Russians next building project, she finds herself plunged into a maelstrom of fear and events that threaten not just her life but her very sanity...Something from the darkest reaches of myth and superstition has been unleashed upon a modern world and it seems no one can stop it...

In brute-force struggles for survival, such as the two World Wars, disorganization and divisions within an enemy alliance are to one's own advantage. However, most international security politics involve coercive diplomacy and negotiations short of all-out war. Worse Than a Monolith demonstrates that when states are engaged in coercive diplomacy--combining threats and assurances to influence the behavior of real or potential adversaries--divisions, rivalries, and lack of coordination within the opposing camp often make it more difficult to prevent the onset of conflict, to prevent existing conflicts from escalating, and to negotiate the end to those conflicts promptly. Focusing on relations between the Communist and anti-Communist alliances in Asia during the Cold War, Thomas Christensen explores how internal divisions and lack of cohesion in the two alliances complicated and undercut coercive diplomacy by sending confusing signals about strength, resolve, and intent. In the case of the Communist camp, internal mistrust and rivalries catalyzed the movement's aggressiveness in ways that we would not have expected from a more cohesive movement under Moscow's clear control. Reviewing newly available archival material, Christensen examines the instability in relations across the Asian Cold War divide, and sheds new light on the Korean and Vietnam wars. While recognizing clear differences between the Cold War and post-Cold War environments, he investigates how efforts to adjust burden-sharing roles among the United States and its Asian security partners have complicated U.S.-China security relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Of all prehistoric monuments, few are more emotive than the great stone circles that were built throughout Britain and Ireland. From the tall, elegant, pointed monoliths of the Stones of Stenness to the grandeur of Stonehenge and the sarsen blocks at Avebury, circles of stone exert a magnetic fascination to those who venture into their sphere. In Britain today, more people visit these structures than any other form of prehistoric monument and visitors stand in awe at their scale and question how and why they were erected. Building the Great Stone Circles of the North looks at the enigmatic stone structures of Scotland and investigates the background of their construction and their cultural significance.