LSE BOOKS A selection of recent books by LSE academics and alumni. For more information on books by LSE authors see lse.ac.uk. For books by alumni, and to let us know about books you have coming out, see the news section at Houghton Street Online.
LSE AUTHORS
FEATURED BOOK
Ed: Ken Keable Merlin Press Ltd, 296pp £15.95 p/b By the mid 1960s, it appeared as if the fight against apartheid in South Africa was dead. The leaders of the liberation movement, including Nelson Mandela, were either in prison or in exile. In those darkest days, a spark of light emerged in the form of banned leaflets circulated through the postal system and showered from rooftops. Banners were unfurled from buildings with the slogan “ANC fights”, while firework-type “bucketbombs” discharged leaflets at busy public venues and tape-recorded speeches simultaneously blared out the call to resistance in major cities. For a long time, the perpetrators of these acts were unknown. A new book, London Recruits: the secret war against apartheid, is a collection of firstperson accounts that reveal who carried out those secret missions, their recruitment, training, motivations and the significance of their actions. The recruitment for these activities primarily took place in England, which, with its high concentration of South African exiles,
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became the centre of anti-apartheid activities. Ronnie Kasrils, who later served in the Mandela and Mbeki governments, arrived in London with his family towards the end of 1965. He, along with three others, made up the command group of the special ANC-SACP London unit tasked with reviving clandestine propaganda and underground resistance within South Africa. The 1960s were a tumultuous time, with “student and worker occupations and protests around the world; the anti-Vietnam war, the 1968 student protests in France and the mobilising work of the Anti-Apartheid movement”. Revolution was very much in the air at LSE, where Kasrils enrolled and where students held protests against the Vietnam War and the School authorities alike. It is no surprise, therefore, that LSE proved to be a fruitful recruiting ground for Kasrils for his missions to South Africa. At least three students – Ted Parker, Sarah Griffith and Danny Schechter – were involved in the first mission in the summer of 1967. Of the 32 accounts in the book, seven are by former LSE students (the other three alumni whose accounts are included are John Rose, Mike Milotte and George Paizis). Apart from the LSE Socialist Society, the Young Communists League also proved to be a rich source of willing recruits for anti-apartheid activity. Overall, London Recruits reveals the role that solidarity around the world played in getting rid of apartheid. It paints a vivid picture of the era, with tales of student radicalism, the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, the Regime of Colonels in Greece, and Ian Smith’s white-minority rule in Zimbabwe, as well as the Fascist regimes in Cape Verde, Portugal and Spain. The accounts, although very engaging, can at times seem repetitive, as multiple people went on similar missions, but idealism and the reckless bravery of youth shine through. Syerramia Willoughby, editor, Africa at LSE blog blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse
Global Matters for NonGovernmental Public Action Ed: Jude Howell Palgrave Macmillan, 248pp £57.50 h/b This unique collection of comparative studies on the politics of non-governmental public action at the global level explores themes such as child rights, access to medicine, global security and environmentalism.
New and Old Wars: organized violence in a global era Mary Kaldor Wiley, 224pp £55 h/b New and Old Wars has fundamentally changed the way both scholars and policymakers understand contemporary war and conflict. This fully revised and updated third edition will be essential reading for all those interested in the changing nature and prospect of warfare.
The Foreign Policy of Counter Secession: preventing the recognition of contested states James Ker-Lindsay Oxford University Press, 240pp £50 h/b How do states prevent the recognition of territories that have unilaterally declared independence? Drawing on history, politics and international law, this book is the first and only comprehensive account of this increasingly important field of foreign policy.
Children, Risk and Safety on the Internet: research and policy challenges in comparative perspective Eds: Sonia Livingstone, Leslie Haddon with Anke Görzig Policy Press, 408pp £23.99 p/b Based on an in-depth survey of children’s internet use by the EU Kids Online network, this book examines the