John A. Williams

Clifford Pepperidge, a Black, gay jazz musician imprisoned in Dachau during the 1930s and World War II, records his experiences in a diary that reveals the struggle for survival in the camp through his perspective as a Black American

Covering the transition from the Cold War to an uncertain post-Cold War era, this volume shows policy makers and political leaders grappling with the loss of a paradigm that provided intellectual stability for 50 years. It examines changes in the security landscape, institutions, weapons, and U. S. military actions. The volume includes U. S. government documents from 1987 to 1994 covering national security institutions, changing visions of the international security landscape, post-Cold War East-West relations, nuclear strategy and arms control, and U. S. involvement in Central America, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, and Haiti. Each chapter begins with an introduction to frame the issues, events, and policy proposals. An introductory chapter establishes a framework for the study of U. S. national security. The concluding chapter is a note on primary research sources on the subject. This volume establishes a sense of history and perspective in the study and teaching of contemporary national security. A careful reading of these documents should bring insights into the policy process along with the meaning of American values, interests, and national strategy—at least from the perspective of U. S. government officials. In this respect, the primary documents speak for themselves.

This book transcends recent debates about political correctness to address the underlying problems of teaching controversial subjects in the college and university history classroom. The author criticizes both sides of the debate, rejecting, on the one hand, calls for a uniform, chronological history curriculum and, on the other hand, claims that only ethnic or racial "insiders" are qualified to teach about their communities. In chapters on colonial, comparative, and African history, Williams applies the concept of "Gandhian truth" to historical subjects, moving through tentative and flexible perspectives to achieve a complex picture of historical episodes. And in chapters on imperialism, nationalism, racism, and the problem of "the other," he discusses the difficult and contingent nature of conceptual language. In the second half of the book, he addresses framing rules of discussion by which sensitive issues can be discussed with diverse audiences, the relationship of American pluralism to a world perspective, and what can be accomplished through an education in pluralism.

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