Vietnam by Nguyen Khac Vien

A long history. the was written in French and first published in Vietnam in 1976. Later, it was translated into English, Russian, German and Spanish. In 1999, L'Hamartan in France re-printed the French edition published by The Gioi in 1993.

The fact that the book has up to now been re-published seven times proves its attractiveness to foreign readers. It was awarded the State Prize in 2001 by the Vitenamese governmetn as a distinguished work in Social Sciences and Humanities. Earlier, the author Nguyen Khac Vien was awarded the Grand Prix de la francophonie by the French Academy of Science in 1992 for this book, together with many of his works written in French.

The Marxian Imagination Representing Class in Literature by Julian Markels

The Marxian Imagination is a fresh and innovative recasting of Marxist literary theory and a powerful account of the ways class is represented in literary texts.

Where earlier theorists have treated class as a fixed identity site, Julian Markels views class in more dynamic terms, as a process of accumulation involving many, often conflicting, sited of identity. This makes it possible to see how racial and gender identities are caught up in the processes of accumulation that define class. Markels shows how a Marxian imagination is at work in readings of important novels, ranging from Dickens' Hard Times to Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, and concludes with a telling critique of the work of the major Marxist literary theorists, Raymond Williams and Fredric Jameson.

Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World by Alan Cassels

Cassels traces the part played by ideology in international relations over the past two centuries. Starting with the French Revolution's injection of ideology into inter-state politics, he finishes by addressing present-day preoccupations with the legacy of nationalist discontent left by the collapse of communism and the resurgence of religious fundamentalism in world politics. Cassels includes discussion of Marxism-Leninism and Nazism but, eschewing exclusive focus on totalitarian dogma, he also shows how the interplay of the less rigid belief systems of conservatism, liberalism and nationalism influence international affairs.

The focus and emphasis given to ideology in an historical survey of such broad scope makes this book unusual and even controversial. Social scientific and philosophical discussions of ideology make only glancing reference to foreign policy. Historians have generally touched on ideology only within the context of the case study, while the realist theorists of international relations play down its influence.

Recognizing European Modernities by Allan Pred

A montage of the present. For over a century Europe has been characterized by a multiplicity of capitalist modernities. At any moment, each country possess its own distinctly modern qualities which are partly shaped through interrelationships with other countries. Each european commodity society has experienced successive, but differently overlapping, periods of industrial modernity (large-scale factories and urban growth) high modernity (the acceleration of modernity, yielding new circumstances and sensibilities). Investigating any part of contemporary hypermodern Europe thus requires that it be brought into constellation with its industrial and high modern past. This book explores a century of civilization through a critical examination of the extreme case of Sweden. Using montage relayering multiple pasts and on-going presents-the book challenges the contemporary obsession with "postmodernity", demanding a deeper, more informed understanding of the extended danger characteristic of the European present.