Karl Schlogel s In Space We Read Time is a unique book, both path breaking and stocktaking at the same time. Following the spatial turn in historiography in the 1980s and 90s but also following his own extraordinary city-writing in the Soviet bloc of those same decades (later published as Moscow 1937 by Polity Press in 2012, and designated by The Atlantic as one of the five best books of the year and winner of the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding), this book is both a model for thinking about the history in space, and a stimulating history of thinking about space in (mostly) Germany and the East in the twentieth century; the book also contains wonderful little essays on the United States and Los Angeles. Schlogel s discussions range from intellectual history of the highest order (discussing the history of geography in Germany and France at the end of the nineteenth century), to hidden narratives of the spatial (hand-drawn maps made in and of the Kovno ghetto by inmates) to microhistories (study of the Berlin phone book of the early 1930s). And always there is Schlogel s keen eye for the important detail and his ability to build out from the microanalysis to the world-historical. Bringing his background as both a historian of Russia and a frequent contributor to the German feuilleton sections, Schlogel sees space the way a historian sees a source and a writer sees a story. The combination is thrilling. Because of its erudite base, this book could as easily function as an introduction to spatial studies as it could a highly specialized examination of the way space has played a role in eastern European history in the twentieth century. There is no one else who brings together these skills and viewpoints along with the style to grip readers. Or you can use/adapt Hanser s description: Finding your Bearings The narratives of traditional historiography have too often neglected space and place. Karl Schlogel s fascinating new book engages with the spatial turn, reading historical periods and sequences of events within the context of their geographical location. Taking as his inspiration Walter Benjamin s flaneur, who investigates the history of a city by strolling through it, Schlogel explores the topography of history. In his quest for a type of history that takes full account of space, he reads landscapes, towns, maps, directories and railway timetables. Do you know the origin of the name Everest ? Have you thought about what the layout of American towns can tell you about the American Dream? This book reveals this and much, much more. The book is packed, moreover, with fascinating insights drawn from unusual sources. Examining a town directory from early 1930s Berlin, Schlogel brings to light a whole variety of trades that have since disappeared, allowing the reader a glimpse of a bygone era. Poring over a railway timetable from pre-1914 Austria-Hungary, he shows how vast expanses of territory could be covered relatively simply the journeys were not hindered by border controls. Schlogel hones in on the idea of map reading and deals with the significance of maps of all kinds. Of course, maps always contain a subjective dimension, often traditionally emphasising the importance of the home territory. They can also be used to serve a whole variety of purposes, one poignant example of this being the atlas of emigration produced by the German Jewish community in 1938, which showed the few remaining possibilities for escape. Another example of a map with a specific purpose, albeit of a very different kind, is Henry Beck s map of the London Underground. Here, the sole purpose was to facilitate the journey, while other normal features of maps, for example scale, were ignored. The overall importance of maps and mapping history is underlined by reference to Jefferson s map of the United States, the British survey of India, and the presence of so many cartographers in the entourage of President Wilson at the Versailles Treaty of 1919, where the aim was to redraw Europe s boundaries on the basis of ethnicity. Moving easily from the voyages of discovery to 9/11 and from Vermeer s paintings to the fall of the Berlin wall, this intriguing book presents history from a new perspective. "

From the nineteenth century to the present, literary entanglements between Latin America and East Central Europe have been socio-politically and culturally diverse, but never random. The Iron Curtain, in particular, forced both regions to negotiate transatlantic «elective affinities», to take a stance in relation to the West, and to position themselves within world literature. As a result, the intellectual fields and creative productions of these regions have critically engaged with notions such as «post-imperial», «marginal», or «peripheral». In this edited volume, scholars from Germany, Brazil, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain cross the globe from South to East and back to uncover transcultural and transareal convivialities. Their papers explore literary history, poetics, intellectual networks, and aesthetic theory, while discussing new key concepts in global literary history.

The exciting and heartbreaking biography of a woman willing to fight for liberation during a tumultuous time in Mexican history--Provided by publisher.

The emergence of a geopolitical war scenario, establishing a form of global governance that utilizes methods of surveillance and control. In times of war the law is silent. —from Field of Battle Field of Battle presents the world today as nothing less than a war in progress, with Mexico an illustrative microcosm of the developing geopolitical scenario: a battlefield in which violence, drug trafficking, and organized crime—as well as the alegal state that works alongside all of this in the guise of fighting against it—hold sway. The rule of law has been replaced by the dominance of alegality and the rise of the “a-state.” This war scenario is establishing a form of global governance that utilizes methods of surveillance and control developed by the United States government and enforced through its global network of military bases and the multinational corporations that work in synergy with its espionage agencies. Geopolitics take advantage of social instability, drug cartels, state repression, and paramilitarism to establish the foundations of a world order. Sergio González Rodríguez argues that this surveillance and control model has been imposed on the international community through extreme neoliberal ideology, free markets, the globalized economy, and the rise of the information society. The threats are clear. Nation-states are increasingly unable to respond to societal needs, and the individual has been displaced by money and technique—the axis of the transhumanist future foretold by today's electronic devices. The human being as the prosthesis of an artificial world and as an object of networks and systems: citizens are the victims of a perverse vision of reality, caught between the defense of their rights and their will to insurrection.

Amb els mapes, a més de ciència, es fa política. El 1939 els catalans algueresos, i altres pobles d'Itàlia, foren eliminats d'un mapa etnogràfic de tot Europa elaborat a Milà pel Touring Club Italiano. Les minories en qüestió hi havien figurat des de 1927, però finalment els mussolinians van imposar sobre aquella obra els postulats feixistes més extrems. Aquest llibre, bastit sobre mapes «de pobles i llengües» dels segles XIX i XX, es deté en la confluència de les disciplines cartogràfica, etnològica i lingüística, les conviccions ideològiques i l'exercici del poder polític. L'obra, que ha estat mereixedora del Premi Joan Coromines 2013 d'investigació filològica, històrica o cultural, patrocinat per la Societat Coral «El Micalet», reflexiona sobre les visions exògenes d'unes identitats socioterritorials que continuen concitant estudis i pulsions.

La pandemia ha cambiado nuestras vidas, pero nos ofrece la oportunidad de modificar las rutinas de enseñanza para mejorar la educación ciudadana desde la geografía e historia. Nuestra vinculación como docentes en la formación del profesorado y en el Geoforo Iberoamericano nos hace reforzar la didáctica como instrumento válido para producir el conocimiento y las habilidades básicas para los futuros docentes interesados en la geografía escolar de Iberoamérica. Así, la enseñanza geográfica necesita una práctica para desmembrar las noticias, comprobarlas, contrastarlas y entender su significado en el espacio territorial local y global; es decir, identificar y ponderar la relevancia y trascendencia de los hechos que se producen. Este libro responde al convencimiento que sus autores confieren a las tareas realizadas por el alumnado en general y los estudiantes de la formación del profesorado en particular. Se trata de “poner los tubos de neón” sobre quienes son uno de los ejes centrales del futuro de la educación, que por el desarrollo de su función docente serán los constructores no solo del futuro escolar sino del social y ciudadano.