Rebels and Robbers is about the political economy of violence in post-colonial Angola. This book provides the first comprehensive attempt at analyzing how the military and non-military dynamics of more than four decades of conflict created the structural violence that stubbornly defines Angolan society even in the absence of war. The book clearly demonstrates that the end of the civil war has not ushered in positive peace. The focus on structural violence enables the author to explore the continuities since colonial times, especially in the ways race, class, ethnicity, and power have been used by governing elites as mechanisms to oppress the powerless. Thus, although corruption as structural violence manifesting itself so ubiquitously in Angola today may have been taken to new levels after independence, its origin is unmistakably colonial. Similarly, the zero-sum character of political interactions that defined colonial Angola is yet to be fully exorcized. But there are also important discontinuities. The unabashed propensity to capture public resources for personal aggrandizement is purely post-colonial. So is the tendency toward personal, unaccountable rule. Given its rich endowments, the end of the civil war provides Angola with an opportunity to finally realize its developmental potential. This will depend on whether the wealth resulting from the exploration of natural resources is directed toward creating the conditions for the citizens " realization of their aspirations for the good life thus ensuring sustainable peace. This book will be valuable to academics, practitioners, and the general public interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the political economy of violence in Africa and, more specifically, the interplay between violence, wealth and power in Angola.

This volume delivers a comprehensive study of banditry in Latin America and of its cultural representation. In its scope across the continent, looking closely at nations where bandit culture has manifested itself forcefully ― Mexico (the subject of the case study), the Hispanic south-west of the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba ― it imagines a ‘Golden Age’ of banditry in Latin America from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1940s when so-called ‘social bandits’, an idea first proposed by Eric Hobsbawm and further developed here, flourished. In its content, this work offers the most detailed and wide-ranging study of its kind currently available.

Meet the rebels, robbers, radicals, determined teenagers, and ordinary Americans who shaped our Constitutional rights. The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution—known as the Bill of Rights—include the guarantee that no person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Yet this soaring vision of human rights was written by enslavers who deprived others of these rights. The struggle to resolve this paradox continues to the present day. From lawyer and award-winning author Teri Kanefield comes the story of the Bill of Rights, from the founding of America to the first sedition laws, slavery, women’s equality, the Civil War, Prohibition, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, the Civil Rights movement, gun control, and more. Using real court cases, Kanefield explains the meaning of each of the first ten amendments. The result is the story of Americans who have tested the limits of their rights or demanded that their rights be recognized. With full-color illustrations and thought-provoking text, Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals explores how our rights evolve as the nation grows and changes.

Mohamed’s Mission spans the fall of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the rise of Mengistu Haile Mariam and the Soviet Derg, and the attempt by the Somalian dictatorial president, Ziad Barre, to reconquer Ethiopian territory that was once considered part of Greater Somalia before western powers divvied up the Horn of Africa. Those arbitrary national boundaries fractured previous clan territorial arrangements on all sides of Somalia, ensuring conflict in the future. Mohamed Osmaan’s life threads through the story, a light trace illuminating the plight of the Oromo, the largest ethnonation in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. The reader witnesses the heavy hand of the naftagna, and deaths from cholera and famine due to wilful government negligence. Mohamed, his character strengthened by his devotion to Allah and the Quraan, resolves many disputes, consoles the mistreated, and brings justice to bear within a violent environment, and in so doing suffers frequent imprisonment and torture. Mohamed parlays a collaboration between the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) founded by Jaarraa Abbaa Gadaa and the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), and is responsible for an all-Oromo three-battallion Saddahaad within the WSLF, which serves to protect the many defenceless, neutral Oromo villages in the battle zone during the Ethio-Somali war, and chases off Somali rebel bandits afterwards. Befriending members of the Afran Qalloo Network and village elders along the way, Mohamed forges an escape route to Hargeeysa that allows prominent and homeless Oromos to flee Ethiopian persecution. Before becoming a member of the diaspora, Mohamed sought to unify the two OLF factions: one under the command of Jaarraa, the other led by Leencoo Lattaa. Realizing a divided OLF would remain ineffective, he traveled to Saudi Arabia to try to persuade the powerful Sheekh Amaan to negotiate a reconciliation. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. While in Saudi, he experienced Hajj. These are some of the highpoints. There is so much more!

In this thrilling sequel, Gemma continues to pursue her destiny to bind the magic of the Realms and restore it to the Order. Gemma and her friends from Spence use magical power to transport themselves on visits from their corseted world of Victorian London (at the height of the Christmas season), to the visionary country of the Realms, with its strange beauty and menace. There they search for the lost Temple, the key to Gemma's mission, and comfort Pippa, their friend who has been left behind in the Realms. After these visits they bring back magical power for a short time to use in their own world. Meanwhile, Gemma is torn between her attraction to the exotic Kartik, the messenger from the opposing forces of the Rakshana, and the handsome but clueless Simon, a young man of good family who is courting her. This is the second book in Libba Bray's engrossing trilogy, set in a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, about a girl who saw another way.