With North Atlantic post-World War II transatlantic dynamics as the subject, this volume inquires if its theoretical tenets hold in other epochs and Atlantic arenas. Both case and comparative studies of such historical cases as the silver, slave, and commodity trades, and whether ideas, such as faith and democracy, have as much impact as these merchandise flows, simultaneously challenge and strengthen the transatlantic paradigm. They permit transatlantic relations to be stretched as far back as to the 8th Century, in turn exposing transatlantic flows hugging global threads, while revealing the strength and size of several unaccounted types of transatlantic transactions, such as the north-south varieties.

Explores how influential Spanish and Spanish American writers used letters in their literary works to formulate distinctive visions of modernity.

While there are still occasional uses of it today, the term "Central Europe" carries little of the charge that it did in the 1980s and early 1990s, and as a political and intellectual project it has receded from the horizon. Proponents of a distinct cultural profile of these countries—all involved now in the process of Transatlantic integration—used "Central European", as a contestation with the geo-political label of Eastern Europe. This book discusses the transnational set of practices connecting journals with other media in the mid-1980s, disseminating the idea of Central Europe simultaneously in East and West. A range of new methodologies, including GIS-mapping visualization, is used, repositing the political-cultural journal as one central node of a much larger cultural system. What has happened to the liberal humanist philosophy that "Central Europe" once evoked? In the early years of the transition era, the liberal humanist perspective shared by Havel, Konrád, Kundera, and Michnik was quickly replaced by an economic liberalism that evolved into neoliberal policies and practices. The author follows the trajectories of the concept into the present day, reading its material and intellectual traces in the postcommunist landscape. She explores how the current use of transnational, web-based media follows the logic and practice of an earlier, 'dissident' generation of writers.

This book examines the current phase of world order transition in the Atlantic area, focusing on Europe and Northern America, Asia, and Africa. In particular, it describes four processes of world order transition, namely the decreasing American leadership, the rising power of China, the receding effectiveness of economy and security world policies, and the continued but inadequate operation of the world policy-making institutions. Part one of the book presents perspectives on world order transition developed by political science schools, i.e. the world hegemony and the power transition school, and by the experts of complexity theory, a newcomer in social sciences. These theories are best suited to explain the order transition and to supply consistent, complementary data and insights on the juncture of the four processes pushing for the creation of the new world order. Part two looks into the impact of order transition on the Atlantic area. The authors focus on the existing tensions and the potentials for change that affect the long-time relations between the USA, the European countries, and Canada. At the same time, the interference of China into the politics and economy of Europe is analyzed, in particular through a case study of the relations between China and the Baltic states.

Set in Stone: 19th-century American Authors in Florence is a study of American authors whose Florentine sojourns have been honored with commemorative plaques in the city as well as its immediate surroundings. The writers included in the volume are Mark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell. These authors resided temporarily in Florence in the nineteenth century and most of them found the relaxed, dolce-far-niente, atmosphere of the city ideal for creative work. The city and its long history inspired the authors, stirring their imaginations. The volume gathers written testimonies of the impressions Florence awoke in these acclaimed visitors. Quotations have been taken from their writings - be they diaries, letters, autobiographies, novels or poems - in testimony to the importance of the Florentine sojourn to their lives and careers. Photographs and old postcards accompany the selected excerpts in order to offer the reader a comparison between the literary texts produced by the authors and the physical reality that inspired them.