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The issues of immigration and integration are at the forefront of contemporary politics. Yet debates over foreign workers and the desirability of their incorporation into European and American societies too often are discussed without a sense of history. McCook’s examination questions static assumptions about race and white immigrant assimilation a hundred years ago, highlighting how the Polish immigrant experience is relevant to present-day immigration debates on both sides of the Atlantic. Further, his research shows the complexity of attitudes toward immigration in Germany and the United States, challenging historical myths surrounding German national identity and the American “melting pot.”

In a comparative study of Polish migrants who settled in the Ruhr Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania, McCook shows that in both regions, Poles become active citizens within their host societies through engagement in social conflict within the public sphere to defend their ethnic, class, gender, and religious interests. While adapting to the Ruhr and northeastern Pennsylvania, Poles simultaneously retained strong bonds with Poland, through remittances, the exchange of letters, newspapers, and frequent return migration. In this analysis of migration in a globalizing world, McCook highlights the multifaceted ways in which immigrants integrate into society, focusing in particular on how Poles created and utilized transnational spaces to mobilize and attain authentic and more permanent identities grounded in newer broadly conceived notions of citizenship.

The Byzantine Empire centered at the city of Constantinople grew from a small Greek colonial village into the capital of the Eastern Roman empire. Ultimately, Byzantium represented what remained of Roman power in late antiquity. Established as the seat of Constantine the Great in 328 AD, the empire grew and matured over the centuries, reaching its pinnacle in the sixth century during the reign of Justinian and his loyal general, Belisarius. In the process of empire building, Byzantium battled the Goths, the Germanic tribes, the Persians, the Lombards, and ultimately the Islamic armies of the Near East. Byzantium remained a buffer against Muslim expansion, and by the time the remnants of the empire and the city of Constantinople were finally conquered by the Ottomans in the fourteenth century, European states to the west were able to resist any further encroachment.

In tracing the empire’s history from its humble beginnings through its ascendancy and final decay, distinguished historian Charles W. C. Oman blends his engaging narrative style with his impeccable command of primary source material. Here, Oman dispels the misconception that the Byzantine court was one plagued by corruption and intrigue—a canard that added “Byzantine” to the English language; instead, Byzantium was one of the most stable governments of late antiquity. Never before reprinted in paperback, The Byzantine Empire is a model of concise popular scholarship.

The Definitive Account of the Battle of the Marne, One of World War I's Most Important Events

"A masterly account of the First World War in the West."—John Keegan

"A distinguished piece of historical writing."—Journal of Modern History

"Admirable... clear and interesting."—Foreign Affairs

"Direct and clear... it lays bare a most complicated course of events so that even the layman can follow."—New Republic

Named as One of The 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century

With diplomacy unraveling during the summer of 1914, Germany swept into Belgium during the first week of August in an audacious attempt to catch France and England off guard. First contemplated after the Franco-Prussian War, the Schlieffen Plan was designed to keep Germany from fighting on two fronts. With a quick and decisive victory over France and its allies to the west, Germany could then confront Russia to the east. Despite the surprise of Germany's initial advance, the plan ultimately failed because it required much more mobile troops than were available at the time - something that would have to await the mechanized blitzkrieg of World War II—allowing France and British Expeditionary Forces to establish a tenacious defense. What followed was a stalemate along the Marne River and the beginning of four long years of destructive trench warfare that would only be lifted by a joint French, British, and American offensive across this same river plain in 1918. In The Campaign of the Marne, the entire genesis of the Schlieffen Plan, its modification, implementation, and the complex series of grueling battles that followed is laid out with the intent to make the entire episode comprehensible to the general reader. Hailed as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century by eminent military historian John Keegan, this is the first time the book has been available since its original publication in 1935.

The Catholics and German Unity was first published in 1954. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

The period of German history between the overthrow of the old German Confederation in 1866 and the establishment of the Second Reich in 1871 was critical and far-reaching in its influence upon subsequent events in Germany and in Europe. It is, therefore, a period that still merits close scrutiny and analysis in all its aspects by historians.

In this detailed study, Professor Windell traces the development of political movements among German Catholics during those years and explores the relationship of the various streams of Catholic political action to the larger questions of German history. The War of 1866, which ended Austrian predominance in Germany, was a shattering blow to German Catholics. During the next five years they gradually adjusted to the new situations and were responsible for a series of political movements which exerted a powerful and generally underestimated effects on state governments, on other political parties, and on the domestic and foreign policy of Bismarck.

Although a substantial amount of material was available on Catholic political activity in the individual German states, it had not, until now, been synthesized into a comprehensive, single work placing these events in proper perspective against the broader canvas of history.

Of this book Hans Rothfels, professor of history at the University of Chicago and the University of Tubingen, Germany, says: "Without being partial to any side, in fact with considerable circumspection, the author analyzes and interprets a great nineteenth century dilemma to which the foundation of the German Reich adds only a specific issue."

Poor Edward the Fifth was young killed in his bed
By his uncle, Richard, who was knocked on the head
By Henry the Seventh, who in fame grew big
And Henry the Eighth, who was fat as a pig!

By the time "Mr. Collins" had written this verse, George III, the King of England, had been noticeably missing for seven years—having spent much of the time in his final period of illness at Windsor Castle—and the country had forever lost its American colonies. For many English citizens this dismal period was considered to be the beginning of the end for the British monarchy. The Chapter of Kings, offered here in a facsimile edition, provides a good deal of illustration to that effect.

For the first time since 1818, these charming verses, which were written for children but remain a biting satire ofthe British monarchy, are available for our edification and amusement, each accompanied by hand-drawn "portraits" of England's kings, from Caesar through George, the prince and future king.

Written and illustrated with a keen sense of irony, The Chapter of Kings is a fascinating peek, both for children and parents, into nineteenth-century attitudes toward the royals.

The Color of Liberty addresses four major themes: the evolution of race as an idea in France; representations of "the other" in French literature, art, government, and trade; the international dimensions of French racial thinking, particularly in relation to colonialism; and the impact of racial differences on the shaping of the modern French city. The many permutations of race in French history—as assigned identity, consumer product icon, scientific discourse, philosophical problem, by-product of migration, or tool in empire building—here receive nuanced treatments confronting the malleability of ideas about race and the uses to which they have been put.

Contributors. Leora Auslander, Claude Blanckaert, Alice Conklin, Fred Constant, Laurent Dubois, Yaël Simpson Fletcher, Richard Fogarty, John Garrigus, Dana Hale, Thomas C. Holt, Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Dennis McEnnerney, Michael A. Osborne, Lynn Palermo, Sue Peabody, Pierre H. Boulle, Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, Tyler Stovall, Michael G. Vann, Gary Wilder

The Community of St. Cuthbert in the Late Tenth Century: The Chester-le-Street Additions to Durham Cathedral Library A.IV.19 reveals the dynamic role a seemingly marginalized community played during a defining period for the emergence of English religious identity. Based on her new critical edition of additions made to Durham Cathedral Library A.IV.19 and by questioning the purpose of those late tenth-century additions, Karen Louise Jolly is able to uncover much about the Chester-le-Street scribes and their tumultuous time, rife as it was with various political tensions, from Vikings and local Northumbrian nobles to an increasingly dominant West Saxon monarchy.

Why, for instance, would a priest laboriously insert an Old English gloss above every Latin word in a collection of prayers intended to be performed in Latin? What motivated the same English scribe to include Irish-derived Christian materials in the manuscript, including prayers invoking the archangel Panchiel to clear birds from a field?