Economic Tensions and Conflict in the Commonwealth, 1945-c.1951

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, economicrelations between Britain and the Commonwealth were very close,and the Empire was of greater economic importance to Britainthan at any previous time. International economic conditionswere dominated by the dollar shortage, and especially afterthe sterling crisis of 1947 most of the sterling area membersof the Commonwealth were drawn into even closer interdependence.But, in contrast to the expectations of many policy makers,the world economy after the war was characterized by buoyantdemand and limited supply. In particular, the demands placedon British production and finance highlighted the limitationsof capacity. Development in both the independent and ColonialCommonwealth was frustrated. The inadequacies of the closedsystem revealed in the late 1940s encouraged Commonwealth countriesto push for the restoration of currency convertibility and ofmultilateralism in the 1950s.     

美国对奥地利政策的演变(1945-1955年)

第二次世界大战结束以后 ,美国对奥地利政策偏离了《莫斯科宣言》的方向 ,将奥地利作为被盟国解放的国家 ,反对追究奥地利的战争责任 ,极力推动奥地利的经济复兴和国内秩序稳定。美国国家安全委员会第 38 4号文件和第 1 6 4 1号文件乃是美国对奥地利政策的重要纲领。美国以奥地利只能向苏联支付实物赔偿和武装中立为条件 ,同意签署《奥地利国家条约》。促进奥地利的亲西方倾向 ,成为美国对奥地利政策的长期目标与重要特点。     

The New Morality--Victor Gollancz, 'Save Europe Now'and the German Refugee Crisis, 1945-46

This article looks at the origins and development of a campaignin Britain in late 1945 to raise public awareness about deterioratingconditions in Central Europe and to rally support behind measuresto find a political solution at an inter-state level to theGerman refugee crisis and the expulsion of German populationsfrom Poland and Czechoslovakia seen to be contributing to it.It focuses on the activities of the publisher Victor Gollancz,who became closely associated with the issue of post-war Europeanrelief and reconstruction and the plight of Germany and itsrefugees. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, as wellas a comprehensive analysis of contemporary media, this articletraces the development of these initiatives as well as of publishedand parliamentary opinion on this issue. In doing so, it notonly brings to light a buried chapter in immediate post-warBritish history, it also raises important questions about thehierarchy of British interests in post-war Europe and shiftingattitudes towards Britain's former wartime allies in EasternEurope.     

1939-1945年苏联的东欧政策剖析

从第二次世界大战前夕的1939年到1945年战争结束后,无论是在战前短暂的和平时期,还是在炮火连天的激烈战争环境中,苏联从没有忘记,也从不忽视对东欧地区的争夺。它先是与法西斯德国,继而与英国,最后与美英集团多次谈判、斗争和妥协,对该地区进行了多次划分和交易。关于这一问题的研究,国内外尚未见有专,涉及的作倒不鲜见,     

从"宽容"到"严格限制"的转变--战后初期英国对日经济政策(1945-1951)

战后初期,英国对日经济政策有一个变化的过程。初期,英国主张对日本应该采取宽容的政策,既要翦除日本对外侵略的威胁,又要复兴日本经济。后期,由于亚洲冷战战略的需要,美国改变对日政策,开始全面扶植日本;而日本则在美国的帮助下在东南亚寻找经济出路,这与英国的利益发生了冲突。这两方面的原因促使英国政府调整对日经济政策,强调限制日本的经济扩张以维护本国利益。     

No Italian Stalingrads. The C.G.I.L. and the working class in the northern industrial heartlands, 1945-1955

ABSTRACT

This article challenges conventional wisdom on the northern Italian industrial heartlands during the first decade after the Second World War. For there still exists a certain mythology about the post-war proletarian north as a region that was both intensely political and united in purpose. What this article demonstrates is that the ‘industrial triangle’ of Genoa, Milan and Turin was far more divided than historians have assumed. By revisiting the manifold (wildcat) strikes, trade union demonstrations, and factory occupations of the early post-war years, it shows the industrial north to be divided along both social and geographical lines. In doing so, it sheds fresh light on the series of defeats that the main Italian trade union confederation (C.G.I.L.) suffered in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It argues that these defeats were due as much to the explicit politicization of labour struggles and their exclusive focus on the interests of skilled workers as to the hostile socio-political climate in which the C.G.I.L. had to operate.     

Stirring Resistance from Moscow: The German Communists of Czechoslovakia and Wireless Propaganda in the Sudetenland, 1941-1945

This is a study of the radio propaganda campaign targeted atthe Sudetenland from the USSR from November 1941 to May 1945.Under the supervision of the Czechoslovak communist party andthe Comintern, the broadcasts were composed and conducted bySudeten German communists stationed first in Ufa and then inMoscow. At first, on the basis of limited information, theystrove simply to divide Sudeten Germans at home from the Nazirégime. But from May 1942 they stepped up their appealfor active resistance alongside that of their Czech ‘brothers’in the Protectorate. Through 1943 the appeal remained positive,assuring all German anti-fascists that they would be secureand treated equally in a future Czechoslovak state. By 1944,however, the message subtly altered in tune with Moscow's decisionto expel most Sudeten Germans. The broadcasts failed to spellthis out, but tried to warn their listeners of what might happenif they did not resist. In reality, though many in the Sudetenlandwere disillusioned with Nazism, the level of active resistanceseems to have been small and the broadcasts probably had a minimaleffect. Nevertheless, they alarmed the Nazi authorities andsome of the propaganda arguments certainly matched the growinganxieties of many Sudeten Germans. By 1944 the Sudeten communistbroadcasters themselves were divided over what tone to adopt.Some still felt a certain Sudeten allegiance and vainly resisteda policy line based on presumed Sudeten ‘collective guilt’.The majority bowed before the official, more critical line,accepting that most Sudeten Germans would be expelled afterthe war. The article seeks for the first time to probe the mindsetof Sudeten German communists, and to set this alongside thatof their target audience in the wartime Sudetenland.     

The Presidency and National Security: Presidential Foreign Policymaking, 1945-1999

Busby, Robert. Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair: The Politics of Presidential Recovery. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. Pp. xi, 222. $65.00, hardbound.

Garrison, Jean A. Games Advisors Play: Foreign Policy in the Nixon and Carter Administrations. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1999. Pp. xi, 192. $34.95, hardbound.

Hogan, Michael J. A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. v, 525. $37.95, hardbound.

Hyland, William G. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999. Pp. i, 221. $24.95, hardbound.     

The Political Importance of Provincial Newspapers, 1903-1945: The Rowntrees and the Liberal Press

This article argues that the political importance of provincialnewspapers run by the Rowntree family in the Liberal cause declinedbetween 1903 and 1945. This decline is identified in changingattitudes to the funding of newspapers, and in the reasons forthose changes. Before the Second World War the Rowntrees consideredsubsidies to provincial newspapers vital, to keep the pressat the forefront of partisan campaigning, until at last it beganto pay its way. Yet such newspapers' eventually strong financescontrasted with their political weakness, as they appeared helplessto prevent the Liberal Party's electoral decline. After 1945the Rowntrees, in contrast to their earlier strategy, no longerconsidered the funding of newspapers a priority. Instead, theytargeted money directly at the strengthening of the LiberalParty, both in Parliament and in the party organization, insteadof at the press. This switch of strategy was the earliest exampleof a wider Liberal emphasis, from the 1940s, on improving parliamentaryrecruitment and party organization. The fading political importanceof the Rowntrees' newspapers and of the wider Liberal presswould lead to loss-making Liberal papers closing, while survivingones ceased to support the Liberal Party. Instead, the Liberalscame to depend on television and community politics.