How do you respond to the distress of a man who is sitting before you, in his own flat, towels draped around his shoulders, newspaper wedged beneath the brim of his hat, an upturned frying pan over his hat and a partially filled washing-up bowl balanced on top of the frying pan? He holds the bowl with one hand and a cigarette in the other, while he force- fully proclaims the secret services have placed someone in the flat above to drop radioactive dust down on him all day and all night. To start with, you could offer him a light for his cigarette. The most likely medical response would be to...

Focusing on freedom of speech, the book deals with the perennial problem of how a small country should react in the face of pressure threatening its sovereignty. Should it give way or resist? The author describes in detail how the Soviet Union operated both overtly and covertly in the propaganda war and discusses the reactions of the west - the United States, Great Britain, West Germany and Sweden.

Heikki Mikkeli charts the history of the idea of Europe and European identity. The first part introduces the various attempts to unify Europe from antiquity to the European Union. In the second part the relationship of Europe with America and Russia is considered, as well as the ambivalent role of Central Europe.

The city of Belfast tends to be discussed in terms of its distinctiveness from the rest of Ireland, an industrial city in an agricultural country. However, when compared with another 'British' industrial port such as Bristol it is the similarities rather than the differences that are surprising. When these cities are compared with Dublin, the contrasts become even more painfully evident. This book seeks to explore these contrasting urban centres at the start of the twentieth century.

Women's lives in southern Africa have undergone immense changes. War and economic hardship have separated families, education and outside influences have changed ideas about family life. This book records some of the stories of the women of the area and the changing world in which they live.

The principles and value framework of the postwar welfare consensus were called into question with the general election of 1979. This book assesses developments in key areas of the welfare state, providing a comprehensive appraisal of the impact of Thatcherism. The contributors also examine the prospects for the 'new welfare' into the 1990s.

An approach to the subject of menstruation which claims that women's feelings about their periods are shaped by men's attitudes and the imposition of their views on women. Sophie Law's research covered men as lovers, fathers, husbands, doctors and "experts."

An analysis and defence of Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist feminism which examines the existentialist ethics, character ethics and ethics for violence produced in her novels and philosophical essays of the 1940s.

In Religion, Ethnicity and Social Change the author argues that the recent focus on religious fundamentalism in ethnic conflict has obscured the ambiguous role of 'mainstream' Western religion. The book examines the relationship between the religious and secular spheres at a time of rapid transition in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

Provides an accessible account of the social construction of racialized groups. Using both primary (in-depth interviews) and secondary data, four nations are examined: the UK, US, South Africa and Jamaica. Little attention has traditionally been given to theorizing multiracial identity in the context of white supremacist thought and practice.