William Shirer (1904-1993), a star foreign correspondent with the Chicago Tribune in the 1920s and ’30s, was a prominent member of what one contemporary observer described as an extraordinary band of American journalists, "some with the Midwest hayseed still in their hair," who gave their North American audiences a visceral sense of how Europe was spiralling into chaos and war. In 1937, Shirer left print journalism and became the first of the now legendary "Murrow boys," working as an on-air partner to the iconic CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. With Shirer reporting from inside Nazi Germany and Murrow from blitz-ravaged London, the pair built CBS’s European news operation into the industry leader and, in the process, revolutionized broadcasting. But after the war ended, the Shirer-Murrow relationship shattered. Shirer lost his job and by 1950 found himself blacklisted as a supposed Communist sympathizer. After nearly a decade in the professional wilderness, he began work on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Published in 1960, Shirer's magnum opus sold millions of copies and was hailed as the masterwork that would "ensure his reputation as long as humankind reads." Ken Cuthbertson's A Complex Fate is a thought-provoking, richly detailed biography of William Shirer. Written with the full cooperation of Shirer’s family, and generously illustrated with photographs, it introduces a new generation of readers to a supremely talented, complex writer, while placing into historical context some of the pivotal media developments of our time.

In discussions of economics, governance, and society in the Nordic countries, “the welfare state” is a well-worn analytical concept. However, there has been much less scholarly energy devoted to historicizing this idea beyond its postwar emergence. In this volume, specialists from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland chronicle the historical trajectory of “the welfare state,” tracing the variable ways in which it has been interpreted, valued, and challenged over time. Each case study generates valuable historical insights into not only the history of Northern Europe, but also the welfare state itself as both a phenomenon and a concept.

As the last volume in the series sponsored by the SSRC Committee on Comparative Politics, this book reflects—as does the preceding volume—the Committee's decision to devote renewed attention to the original state building experiences of the West, after having studied political development in the newer countries of the Third World. The contributors attempt to discern patterns of historical change in the different sequences of crises that affect all states in their development. Following an introductory and theoretical statement by Raymond Grew, each chapter focuses on a different country or area. Each of these essays applies and evaluates the Committee's concept of crises of development, i.e., crises of identity, legitimacy, participation, penetration, and distribution. The distinguished historians and political scientists who contribute to the volume are: Keith Thomas (on the United Kingdom), Aristide R. Zolberg (on Belgium), Folke Dovring (on Scandinavia), J. Rogers Hollingsworth (on the United States), Stanley G. Payne (on Spain and Portugal), David D. Bien (on France), Raymond Grew (on France and Italy), John R. Gillis (on Germany), Walter M. Pintner (on Russia), and Roman Szporluk (on Poland), with Lucian W. Pye providing the Preface. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.