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OverviewFew moments in history have seen as many seismic transformations as 1979. That one year marked the emergence of revolutionary Islam as a political force on the world stage, the beginning of market revolutions in China and Britain that would fuel globalization and radically alter the international economy, and the first stirrings of the resistance movements in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. More than any other year in the latter half of the twentieth century, 1979 heralded the economic, political, and religious realities that define the twenty-first.In Strange Rebels, veteran journalist Christian Caryl shows how the world we live in today--and the problems that plague it--began to take shape in this pivotal year. 1979 saw a series of counterrevolutions against the progressive consensus that had dominated the postwar era. The year's epic upheavals embodied a startling conservative challenge to communist and socialist systems around the globe, fundamentally transforming politics and economics worldwide. In China, 1979 marked the start of sweeping market-oriented reforms that have made the country the economic powerhouse it is today. 1979 was also the year that Pope John Paul II traveled to Poland, confronting communism in Eastern Europe by reigniting its people's suppressed Catholic faith. In Iran, meanwhile, the Islamic Revolution transformed the nation into a theocracy almost overnight, overthrowing the shah's modernizing monarchy. Farther west, Margaret Thatcher became prime minister of Britain, returning it to a purer form of free-market capitalism and opening the way for Ronald Reagan to do the same in the United States. And in Afghanistan, a Soviet invasion fueled an Islamic holy war with global consequences; the Afghan mujahedin presaged the rise of al-Qaeda and served as a key factor in the fall of communism.Weaving the story of each of these counterrevolutions into a brisk, gripping narrative, Strange Rebels is a groundbreaking account of how these far-flung events and disparate actors and movements gave birth to our modern age. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Christian Caryl , Patrick Girard Lawlor , Patrick Girard LawlorPublisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Imprint: Blackstone Audiobooks ISBN: 9781470879532ISBN 10: 1470879530 Publication Date: 30 April 2013 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Audio Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In stock We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationChristian Caryl is deputy editor at Foreign Policy, a contributing editor at Newsweek, and a senior fellow of the Center for International Studies at MIT. He has also served as Washington chief editor for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Tokyo bureau chief of Newsweek, and Moscow bureau chief of both Newsweek and US News & World Report. He has worked as a correspondent in Berlin and Hong Kong. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, he has also written for the Economist, Der Spiegel, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, New Republic, Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, Sunday Times, New Statesman, and Boston Globe, among others. He is a graduate of Yale. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |