Provides over three hundred concise descriptions of the important people, organizations, events, and the multitude of executive orders, legislative acts, and judicial decisions which played crucial roles in the historic transformation of American society after World War II.

This book is a detailed reference of the twentieth century struggles that were waged across and beyond the decaying Russian Empire at the end of the First World War, as tsarism and democratic alternatives to it collapsed and the world’s first Communist state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was born. At the same time, it is a necessary corrective to studies that have viewed events of the time as a unitary “Russian Civil War” that sprang from the Russian Revolution of 1917. Instead, it contributes to the ongoing process of integrating the civil wars into a “continuum of crises” that wracked the Russian Empire and its would-be successor states across a prolonged period. The Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926 covers the history of this period through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has almost 2,000 cross-referenced entries on individuals, political and governmental institutions and political parties, and military formations and concepts, as well as religion, art, film, propaganda, uniforms, and weaponry. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Russian Civil War.

This first-ever dictionary of important issues in the U.S. Latino struggle for civil rights defines a wide-ranging list of key terms.

As the world’s only English-language historical dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), this book offers a comprehensive coverage of major historical figures, events, political terms, and other matters relevant to this unique period of modern Chinese history that had profound influence on social and cultural movements of the world in the 1960s and 1970s. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this important period in Chinese history.

Throughout the nation's history, from before the Civil War through Reconstruction, across the years of lynchings and segregation to the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the battles over busing, no issue has divided the American people more than race, and at the heart of the race issue has been the conflict over school segregation and desegregation. Prior to the Civil War, South Carolina enacted the first compulsory illiteracy law, which made it a crime to teach slaves to write, and other Southern states soon followed South Carolina's example. After the Civil War, schools for blacks were founded throughout the South, including many Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision established the principle of separate but equal education, which led to decades of segregation. With the 1954 Brown decision, the Supreme Court overturned the separate but equal principle, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 empowered the federal government to affect school desegregation. The process of desegregation continues to this day, with much debate and mixed results. Through more than 260 alphabetically arranged entries, this comprehensive reference book describes persons, court decisions, terms and concepts, legislation, reports and books, types of plans, and organizations central to the struggle for educational equality. The volume covers topics ranging from emotionally laden terms such as busing to complex legal concepts such as de facto and de jure segregation. Each entry includes factual information, a summary of different viewpoints, and a brief bibliography. The book includes an introduction, which outlines the history of school segregation and desegregation, along with a chronology and extensive bibliographic material. Thus this reference is a complete guide to school segregation and desegregation in elementary, secondary, and higher education in the United States.

Historical Dictionary of the Syrian Uprising and Civil War introduces readers to the events and main players that shaped the conflict in Syria since 15 March 2011, as the country entered a new era in its modern history. The “Syrian Revolution,” was part of the Arab Spring that was launched in Tunisia, Egypt, and other countries in the Middle East in late 2010. The Syrian situation turned into a winter, which merits such an all-encompassing book that reveals the complex dynamics of the Syrian civil war. Many of the key players, places, and unfolding events were making headlines for a short period before vanishing from memory, but this book records their emergence and influence. The book traces the political opposition, initially in the form of street-level unrest, targeting the rule of the al-Asad family that ruled for over five decades. The book provides a picture of the fighting groups and their varying agendas, including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremist groups. It depicts a picture of a country whose civil war caused one of the biggest crises in the 21st century. It contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 200 cross-referenced entries on the major events, places, and actors in the Syrian war. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Syrian uprising.

This greatly expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution covers more battles, skirmishes, and raids of the American Revolution than any other printed source. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, maps and photos, a bibliography, and over 1000 cross-referenced dictionary entries.

The evolution of the United States from a late-18th century coalition of rebel British colonies to a 21st century global superpower was shaped by several forces. As the nation expanded its boundaries after the Treaty of Paris confirmed independence from Great Britain in 1783, it acquired a rich variety of resources – coal, fertile soils, forests, iron ore, oil, precious metals, space, and varied climates as well as extensive tracts of territory. Technological innovations, such as the cotton gin and steam power, enabled entrepreneurs to exploit those resources and create wealth. Federal and state legislators provided environments in which the economy could flourish, and military strategists kept the country safe from external attack. Diplomats negotiated commercial agreements with foreign governments and cultivated multinational alliances that strengthened freedoms. Through its focus on the people and places that shaped the country’s economic and political development and its detailed accounts of the processes that enabled the U.S. to expand across the continent Historical Dictionary of the United States contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the United States.

Unlike a conventional war waged against a standing army, a "dirty war" is waged against individuals, groups, or ideas considered subversive. Originally associated with Argentina's military regime from 1976-1983, the term has since been applied to neighboring dictatorships during the period. Indeed, it has become a byword for state-sponsored repression anywhere in the world. The first edition of this reference illustrated the concept by describing the regimes of Argentina, Chile (1973-1990), and Uruguay (1973-1985), which tortured, murdered, and disappeared thousands of people in the name of anticommunism while thousands more were driven into exile. The second edition expands the scope to include Bolivia (1971-1982), Brazil (1964-1985), and Paraguay (1954-1989). Includes a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on the countries; guerrilla and political movements; prominent guerrilla, human-rights, military, and political figures; local, regional, and international human-rights organizations; and artistic figures (filmmakers, novelists, and playwrights) whose works attempt to represent or resist the period of repression.--Publisher.

The tragedy that devastated Spain for 33 months from July 1936 to April 1939, was, first and foremost, a brutal fratricidal conflict, the product of the fatal clash between diametrically opposed views of Spain and an attempt to settle crucial issues which had divided Spaniards for generations: agrarian reform, recognition of the identity of the historical regions (Catalonia, the Basque Country), and the roles of the Catholic Church and the armed forces in a modern state. Being a war between Spaniards, it was particularly brutal, but it was also part of the broader move toward war in Europe and thus sucked in many “volunteers” from abroad. And it left a deep imprint since General Francisco Franco remained at the helm of the country until his death in 1975. The Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil war covers the history of the war, first through a long chronology, which highlights the major steps from the incubation to the conclusion. The overall situation is summed up in the introduction. Then the dictionary section fleshes it out, with over 600 entries on persons, places, events, institutions, battles, and campaigns. More reading can be found in an extensive bibliography. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Spanish Civil War.