K. F. McDermott Bücher

An intimate photographic tour of Edward Gorey's strange and wonderful house.

High Line Nudes, published by Ten Avenues Press in collaboration with Friends of the High Line, features photographer Kevin McDermott's nude series shot in 2006 on the abandoned tracks that became NYC's High Line park. The book captures a unique moment in the area's history with stunning color and duotone images.

Few Europeans in the twentieth century have been subject to the repeated buffetings by foreign powers, ideologically driven transformations and internal upheaval of the Czechs and the Slovaks. The period of Communist rule was complex, and those who gleefully overthrew the regime in 1989 were the very grandchildren of those who had voted for Communism with hope in the free elections of 1946.This concise account includes both political and social history, analysing half a century of Communism from at all strata of society. Kevin McDermott is equally intrigued by those in power and ordinary citizens, asking what motivates a young Czech worker-believer to join the Communist Party in the early 1950s, enrol in the People's Militia and remain in the party during the dark years of 'normalisation', yet end up welcoming the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989.Using Czech and Slovak archival sources and the most recent historiography, McDermott challenges the still dominant 'totalitarian' paradigm and argues that the forty year communist experience in Czechoslovakia cannot simply be dismissed as a Soviet-imposed aberration.

In the future much of the world has been flooded after the Arctic ice cap melted, and with only the temperate zones still habitable, one small island is teeming with climate change refugees. Valentina is one of the lucky ones, living a privileged life in the heavily protected Citadel. She's the president's daughter, sheltered, spoilt and arrogant, but when she makes a secret trip outside the Citadel and into the Badlands, she is forced to face up to the realities of life on the island. First person recount. Suggested level: secondary.

Stalin's massive impact on Soviet history is often explained in terms of his inherent evil, personality defects, and power lust. This volume argues that Stalin's thoughts and actions are best contextualized in the inter-relationship between war and revolution in the first half of the twentieth century. Kevin McDermott incorporates recently declassified materials from the former Soviet Party archives and provides a critical review of western and Russian historiography.

This accessible text provides a comprehensive narrative and interpretative account of the entire history of the Communist International, 1919-1943. By incorporating the most recent Western and Soviet research the authors explain the legendary complexities of Comintern history and chart its degeneration from a revolutionary internationalist organisation into an obedient instrument of Soviet foreign policy. Key themes include: continuities and discontinuities between the Leninist and Stalinist phases, Bolshevisation versus national traditions, and the role of leading individuals in the Comintern apparatus. A selection of documents will elucidate these central themes.

Kniha z pera britských historiků Kevina McDermotta a Jeremy Agnewa je fundovanou a zároveň čtivou monografií o dějinách Komunistické internacionály. Autoři svůj text založili nejen na studiu velkého množství východní i západní odborné literatury, ale také na vlastním výzkumu v moskevských archivech. Publikace podává přehled dějin mezinárodního komunismu v letech 1919-1943 z perspektivy jeho centrální organizace i jednotlivých národních sekcí. Namísto kategorických soudů se snaží v maximální šíři představit odborné diskuze, které se ke klíčovým otázkám historie Kominterny v historiografii vedou, a nabídnout tak množství podnětů k dalšímu promýšlení historického fenoménu komunismu. Dodnes se jedná o nejucelenější a nejmodernější syntézu dějin někdejší Třetí internacionály.