The Making Of A Special Relationship

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of Five Days and The Blue Hour comes an unforgettable novel about a woman who seemingly has it all, until the man she trusted the most threatens to take it all away. About an hour after I met Tony Hobbs, he saved my life. Thirty-seven-year-old American journalist Sally Goodchild quite literally married her hero. Both foreign correspondents, both on assignment in Cairo, they quickly fell in love and settled into domestic life in London. From the outset, Sally’s relationship with both Tony and his hometown was an uneasy one—as she found both to be far more unfamiliar than imagined. But her adjustment problems are soon overshadowed by a troubled pregnancy. When she goes into premature labor, there are doubts whether her child will survive unscathed. And then, out of nowhere, Sally is hit by an appalling postpartum depression—a descent into a temporary, but very personal hell, which even sees her articulating a homicidal thought against her baby. However, when she does manage to extricate herself from this desperate state, she finds herself in a fresh new nightmare, as she discovers that the man she thought knew her better than anyone—loved her more than anyone—now considers her an unfit mother and wants to bar her from ever seeing her child again.

Special Relations reevaluates Anglo-American cultural exchange by exploring metropolitan London's culture and counterculture from the 1950s to the 1970s. It challenges a tendency in cultural studies to privilege local reception and attempts to restore the concept of Americanization in this critical era of mass tourism, professional exchange, and media globalization—while acknowledging an important degree of cultural hybridity and circularity. The study begins with the influence of American modernism in the built environment and in "Swinging London" generally, and then moves to its central project, the re-exploration of British counterculture—the anti-war movement, student rebellion, hippies, popular music, the alternative press, and the late Sixties triad of black, feminist, and gay liberationisms—as intimately tied to American experience and to American agents of cultural change. Special Relations retrieves these phenomena as more central and enduring in British metropolitan life than the current orthodoxy allows, and subjects to sharp critical scrutiny prevalent assertions of cultural "authenticity" in their British variants. Finally, the book looks at aspects of the turn against modernism and the counterculture in the 1970s.

In 1953, Winston Churchill received the Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, Churchill was a professional writer before he was a politician, and published a stream of books and articles over the course of two intertwined careers. Now historian Peter Clarke traces the writing of the magisterial work that occupied Churchill for a quarter century, his four-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples.As an author, Churchill faced woes familiar to many others; chronically short of funds, late on deadlines, scrambling to sell new projects or cajoling his publishers for more advance money. He signed a contract for the English-Speaking project in 1932, a time when his political career seemed over. The magnum opus was to be delivered in 1939, but in that year, history overtook history-writing. When the Nazis swept across Europe, Churchill was summoned from political exile to become Prime Minister. The English-Speaking Peoples would have to wait.The book would indeed be written and become a bestseller, after Churchill left public life. But even before he took office, the massive project was shaping his worldview, his speeches and his leadership. In these pages, Peter Clarke follows Churchill's monumental quest to chronicle the English-Speaking Peoples - a quest that helped to define the enduring 'special relationship' between Britain and America. In the process, Clarke gives us not just an untold chapter in literary history, but a fresh perspective on this iconic figure: a life of Churchill the author.

This unique volume seeks to offer an original collection of essays on the theme of America’s ‘special relationships’. The essays vary in their focus; some are primarily historical, some are more contemporary. All consider the quality of ‘specialness’ in the context of America’s relationship with particular countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Russia, Iran and Israel.

The development of the Thai-American alliance from 1947 to 1958 dramatically transformed both countries' involvement in Southeast Asia. Bounded by two important political events in Thailand, an army coup in 1947 and the military's assumption of complete control of government in 1958, the period witnessed both the entrenchment of authoritarian military government in Thailand and a revolution in U.S.-Thai relations. During these years the modern Thai political system emerged, and the United States established its interest and influence in mainland Southeast Asian affairs. The developments of the period made possible American's later, more extensive, involvement in Indochina. A Special Relationship provides the most comprehensive analysis of this critical founding period of the Thai-American alliance. It reveals surprising new information on joint covert operations in Indochina, American support for suppression of government opponents, and CIA involvement in Thai domestic politics.

"Ho Ying Chan provides an expert analysis of Malaysia–Indonesia relations. He demystifies the concept of a 'special relationship', rescuing it from woolly, sentimental rhetoric that often emanates from political figures and popular commentators. His well-informed study shows how a state’s will to survive in the amoral world of international relations drives its conduct even in circumstances of common identities and common strategic interests with other states. He evaluates comparative evidence to shed light on how a special relationship leads to the emergence of a pluralistic security community. This is a conclusion of insight and value, not only to the field of Southeast Asian Studies, but also to the wider community of International Relations scholars." — Professor Clinton Fernandes, University of New South Wales, Australia "Empirically rich and theoretically interesting, this book offers an illuminating account of how material and ideational dynamics shape the evolution of Malaysia–Indonesia relations. Focusing on what is arguably the most vital bilateral relationship in Southeast Asia, it addresses the circumstances, conditions and constraints that determine the double-edged effects of the culturally bound 'special relationship'. Ho Ying Chan argues that while their shared serumpun identities and strategic interests do give rise to a considerable closeness between Malaysia and Indonesia, the politics of power (im)balance have prevented the transformation of the special relationship into a 'pluralistic security community', as their egoistic understanding averts the formation of collective self. The book generates useful insights on the interplay of cross-border cultural affinity and political necessity, inviting readers to ponder the politics of identity and survivability at the international level. It is a welcome addition to the growing literature of Southeast Asian international relations." — Dr Kuik Cheng-Chwee, National University of Malaysia (UKM) "Ho Ying Chan’s important study brings home the international and theoretical significance of the interaction between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two major states of Muslim Southeast Asia — products of the territorial division between the British and Dutch colonial empires. This welcome and revealing review of the Malaysia–Indonesia story deepens our understanding of the concept of a 'special relationship' — explaining both the cooperative and competitive dynamics that can be present, and the way such relationships are influenced by state identities and power imbalances." — Anthony Milner, University of Malaya; University of Melbourne

This is the first full-length study of the fraught and controversial personal relationship between Prime Minister Harold Wilson and President Lyndon B Johnson, placed in the context of such issues as the Vitnam War, British economic weakness and the UK.

"Bringing the tale right up to the current era of globalization, when British architects are gaining much work in the USA, this book makes for a lively and well-written account. Structured as a series of 7 thematic chapters, it blends the detailed study of key buildings with a wider analysis of socio-economic and cultural trends. Never before has such a synoptic view been taken of this subject."--BOOK JACKET.

A Course in Miracles (ACIM)—the self-study spiritual-thought system that teaches the way to love and forgiveness—has captured the minds and hearts of millions of people, and delivered inner peace where fear and pain once prevailed. Its universal message is unsurpassed in its power to heal. Yet many students report that they have difficulty grasping the principles, or encounter resistance to the lessons. So, even while they yearn for the spiritual freedom the Course offers, they put the book aside, hoping one day to get to it. Alan Cohen, ACIM student and teacher for over 30 years, takes the Big Picture ideas of the Course and brings them down to earth in practical, easy-to-understand lessons with plenty of real-life examples and applications. A Course in Miracles Made Easy is the Rosetta stone that will render the Course understandable and relatable; and, most importantly, generate practical, healing results in the lives of students. This unique reader-friendly guide will serve longtime students of the Course, as well as those seeking to acquaint themselves with the program.