Politics at Continuum

How to Submit a Proposal

To download our proposal writing guidelines, please click here:

Download book_proposal_guidelines_continuum.doc

The World Vote for the US Presidential Election

With a week to go before the US Presidential Elections, polls are competing to forecast voter behavior and results. This Gallup Poll took it a step further by asking, "What if the world could vote next Tuesday?"

Check out the results and the world electoral map at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/gallup/

This Day in History: October 22, 1962

October 22, 1962 President John F. Kennedy announces an air and naval blockade of Cuba after the discovery of Soviet missile installation on the island.

The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Threat of Nuclear War: Lessons from History by Len Scott  details the Cuban Missile Crisis in light of new research and draws parallels with political and military decisions in the present climate.

Published in March 2008 by Continuum, the book has earned praise:

"chilling testimony to the high risk of future nuclear catastrophe."
-- John Moore in Morning Star, 2008

"Scott follows the crisis and its possible outcomes from every point of view."
-- Michael Simmons in History Today, 2008

"An impressive work by a leading political scientist...masterly"

-- Jeremy Black, The Historical Association, 2008.

"Written by Len Scott, an authoritative voice within the field of international politics and history, this thorough research into the crisis examines the actions from all sides of the conflict... Scott--  has produced an insightful, entertaining and comprehensive account of many facets surrounding the crisis...this book should be enjoyed by all."

-- Stuart Lee in Birmingham Post, 2008

You can read more about the books on our website by clicking here.

ISA 2009

Hello!

Continuum will have a booth at the International Studies Association (ISA) meeting in New York, February 15-18, 2009.

Be sure to come by and visit us!

In the meantime, you can consult the ISA 2009 Preliminary Program at http://isanet.ccit.arizona.edu/newyork09/program.pdf

And you're always welcome to drop me a note at mantoine@continuum-books.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Marie-Claire Antoine

 

Review: Young, British and Muslim by Philip Lewis

 “In this well-written and timely book, Lewis (peace studies, Univ. of Bradford) describes the Islamic community in the UK, including who they are, where they live, and what they believe. Using statistical information as well as individual narratives, the author tells of a community united by Islam but divided by ethnicity, generation, class, and country of origin…Summing Up: Highly recommended. General collections and up.”  –G. M. Farr, CHOICE, Vol. 45 No. 11, August 2008

For detailed information on the work, please click here.

Table Of Contents
1. Introduction

2. Britain’s Muslim Communities: A Sketch

3. Mind the Gap – Understanding Inter-Generational Tensions

4. Debating Islam: Muslim Professionals Find their Voice

5. Only Connect: Can the ‘ulama Address the Crisis in the Transmission of Islam to Young British Muslims?

6. British Muslims, Radical Islam and its Critics

7. Conclusion

Martin Luther King, Jr.

This day in History: October 14, 1964 -- Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

You can now access the FBI's complete files on Martin Luther King, Jr. at http://www.thememoryhole.org/

Also, for a look at the tumultuous history of the 60s in the United States, including the Civil Rights Movement, you may want to check Klaus P. Fischer's  America in White, Black, and Gray: A History of the Stormy 1960s.
 

A post by Bruno Sergi, Author of Misinterpreting Modern Russia

I wrote Misinterpreting Modern Russia: Western Views of Putin and His Presidency, while I was at New York University during my summer teaching terms of 2005 and 2007. I was intent at the time to reinterpret the Russians, Russia, and Vladimir Putin more fairly than the West overall had done thus far. Today, I can confidently say that this new analysis is vastly more realistic and accurate as it captures Putin, Russia, and the Russians in a more objective light! Over the past quarter century, Russia and the West have witnessed the rapid changes experienced by the Russian people and Russian politics. In fact, Russia has been through a dynamic process since Mikhail Gorbachev’s notionally correct --but ill-managed-- perestroika and glasnost.

My new book is of timely importance, not least because president Putin had to stepped down following the appointment of a new president by the Russians on March 2008 (i.e., Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin confidant), but is now serving as Russia’s Prime Minister.

It is difficult to imagine a timelier book on Western-Russian relations, or even Western-Soviet relations in the Cold War period.  As mentioned, Putin is now Prime Minister, a post that is, in spite of everything, highly approved and rated by the ordinary Russians. This book thus represents an excellent opportunity to bridge the seemingly expanding gap between Western perceptions of Russian realities and the realities faced by Russia from the time of perestroika and glasnost, through the 1990s and Putin’s presidency.  It is also interesting to note that this book is being released at a time when the U.S., and possibly the Western world, are experiencing what might be the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The West has continually applied double standards and bias judgment on many world issues, but times today clearly call for reinterpreting not only the financial crises faced by such companies all over the world, but for reinterpreting Russia as well.

I hope to have accomplished the unnaturally noble task of being the first writer, observer, and chronicler of Russian realities and of Mr. Putin’s performance to actually get it right. The book aims to accurately convey the seeming contradictions between Western perceptions of Mr. Putin as just another would-be autocrat of all Russia and actual perceptions of the Russian leader from the Russians themselves, including a real appreciation of their institutions, policies, and actual performance in domestic and world affairs.  This is no small, or even great, accomplishment –but it is, I believe, a very thorny one! I have endeavored to observe Russian realities under one leader, Vladimir Putin, although I do compare him throughout the book with two of his predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.

The proposed interpretation may well be the unknown factor Western observers were looking for, primarily because Western looks at Soviet and Russian affairs have always overall lacked in trustworthiness.  Western news organizations, Western academic disciplines, and Western organizational and institutional time frame limitations and attention span do not, have not, and perhaps never will allow others to achieve the kind of nonstop, near year-by-year account of realities this book describes, analyzes, and contextualizes. The book therefore is willing to spend the time required for accurate observation of Mr. Putin’s Russian realities.

The positive accolades Mr. Putin has received from the Russian people, their acceptance and admiration of his achievements, and ultimately –yes— his expansion of democratic opportunity throughout Russia in the eyes of many if not most Russians, is categorized, explained, and finally legitimized by Western standards. In short, the book is the first to allow Western observational periods about Russia not to distort, distend, or alter Russia’s interpretation of itself at all levels of policy interpretation, not least among the Russians as well as non-westerners.  May one offer a strongly felt opinion that this book is a heroic effort by any measure, in light of Western double standards in the Western world.  If you aren’t surrounded by demagogy regarding Russia and Putin, and don’t fear being “unpatriotic with patriotism,” then please acknowledge Russia’s present time to be seen rationally as a watershed in Russian and world history.  Traditional western reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy interpretation regarding Russia, and now Putin or post-Putin and Russia, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, has reached unprecedented levels.  Blind faith in Western patriotism has proven more potent than truth when it comes to Russians, Russia, and how to make Russia a credible partner on the global scale.

Provocative in its commentary and conclusions, the book will inspire anyone who wants to read on key questions. Undeniably, Putin’s Kremlin has had positive results and made tactical mistakes. Misinterpreting Modern Russia provides an informed look at how and why benefits and drawbacks associated with this controversial Kremlin policy over the past eight years occurred. It is about both the Kremlin’s triumphs and failures, which are explained coherently around logical, fact-based arguments. Enjoy the read!

Bruno Sergi

Coming Soon: Misinterpreting Modern Russia

Misinterpreting Modern Russia: Western Views of Putin and His Presidency by Bruno Sergi offers a unique interpretation of the last twenty years of Russian history.

Description
In this new study, Bruno Sergi argues that the way to know the complete story behind how Putin’s presidency has been viewed in Russia, is to examine closely the hard realities that conditioned Putin’s policies and responses. Sergi looks beyond the stereotypes to the hard logic of the 1990s and asks provocative questions about the disintegration of the old Soviet empire and the extraordinary riches that have caused so much opportunity and turmoil in recent years.

When President Vladimir Putin ascended to the Kremlin at the end of the 1990s, he had to struggle with the after-effects of Boris Yeltsin’s political agenda: outrageous corruption, endless social injustice, and deeply entrenched interests dating back to Gorbachev and beyond. Stabilization of the political system and cleaning up the widespread corruption were Putin’s aims, and the Russian people supported him wholeheartedly.

Many observers in the West were quick to condemn Putin and depict him as an authoritarian leader who was still linked to the KGB. When asked why Russians were supporting the new Kremlin, many experts explained that it was a paradox that combined the country’s supposed history of tyranny and its people’s inclination towards it. These explanations helped shape the West’s understanding of modern Russia.

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE
1 FROM THE REIGN OF LIES TO MODERN RUSSIA: AN ASTONISHING STORY
2 MODERN RUSSIA—THREE  REFORMING VISIONS
3 THE DISTORTED LOGIC OF THE 1990S IN RUSSIA
4 CONSCIOUSNESSES OF RUSSIA’S REALITIES
5 EXPERTS CENSURED MODERN RUSSIA’S WESTERN-DRIVEN ECONOMIC REFORMS
6 RUSSIA’S MANHATTAN BOYS—SOME OF THEM FELL INTO DISGRACE
7 RUSSIA INTO THE 2000S—OIL AND GAS BONANZA
8 A DIVIDED SOCIETY
9 RUSSIA’S DEMOCRACY AND RUSSIANS’ ATTITUDES
10 CLAMPING DOWN ON CORRUPTION—IS IT LEGITIMATE OR NOT?
11 TOWARD NEXT RUSSIA’S KREMLIN
12 RUSSIA AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
EPILOGUE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
STATISTICAL APPENDIX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX

About the Author
Bruno S. Sergi is currently teaching International Economics at the University of Messina.  He was born in 1963 and studied in Messina and London. Before moving back to Messina in the second half of the 1990s, and afterwards, he researched and taught at several academic institutions in Europe and the U.S., as well as presented papers at conferences around the world. His research interest concerning unstable economic contexts of Russia and all post-communist states has led him to publish numerous reference books and scholarly articles about economic transformation in Eastern Europe and global business themes. He also works with several scientific journals as either an editor or a member of the editorial board.

Will my manuscript be edited?

Will my manuscript be copyedited? Will it be proofread? --There are two questions authors often, and legitimately, ask.

The answer to both is Yes!

Once you deliver your manuscript to Continuum, I will transmit to production. The production manager will then send it to a professional copy editor, who will take care of all style and grammar points, while querying you as needed on specific issues. Once copyediting is completed, the manuscript will be read by a proofreader, who will check for typos and like errors. You will review the pages as well.

Here at Continuum, we strive to publish high-quality, scholarly work. If you have any questions or concerns about the process or your manuscript, never hesitate to contact me at mantoine@continuum-books.com.

Cheers!

Marie-Claire Antoine
Acquisitions Editor
Politics & IR