Ruptured Lives Refugee Crises in Historical Perspective

Growing directly out of the experiences of a team of historians at Washington State University who designed a new foundational course for WSU's common requirements, the Roots of Contemporary Issues series is built on the premise that students will be better at facing current and future challenges, no matter their major or career path, if they are capable of addressing controversial and pressing issues in mature, reasoned ways using evidence, critical thinking, and clear written and oral communication skills. To help students achieve these goals, each title in the Roots of Contemporary Issues series argues that we need both a historical understanding and an appreciation of the ways in which humans have been interconnected with places around the world for decades and even centuries.

Much of the world's politics revolves around questions about refugees and other migrating peoples, including debating the scope and limits of humanitarianism; the relevance of national borders in a globalized world; racist rhetoric and policies; global economic inequalities; and worldwide environmental disasters. There are no easy answers to these questions, but the decisions that all of us make about them will have tremendous consequences for individuals and for the planet in the future.

Ruptured Lives works from the premise that studying the history of refugee crises can help us make those decisions more responsibly. Examining conflicts--in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa--that have produced migrations of people fleeing dangers or persecution, it aims to provide an intellectual framework for understanding how to think about the conflicts that produce refugees and the effects that refugee crises have on individuals and societies.

Jesse Spohnholz is Professor of History and Director of the Roots of Contemporary Issues program at Washington State University.

Each chapter ends with a Conclusion.

List of Maps and Figures
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Series Introduction: Connecting the Past and Present

Introduction

Chapter 1. Reformation, Refugees, and the Creation of Europe
The Creation of Christendom
The Collapse of Christendom and the Age of Religious Wars
The Creation of Europe

Chapter 2. Colonialism, Refugees, and the Invention of America
The Invention of America
European Refugees in the Americas
African Refugees in the Americas
American Refugees in the Americas

Chapter 3. Nation-States and the Refugee Crises of the Great War
The Invention of Nation-States
Multiethnic Empires during the Rise of Nation-States
The Refugee Crises of World War I
Refugees Crises after World War I

Chapter 4. Self-Determination, Decolonization, and Asia's Postwar Refugee Crises
The Emergence of Nationalisms in Colonial Palestine
Refugee Crisis in Israel/Palestine
The Emergence of Nationalisms in Colonial India
Refugee Crisis in India/Pakistan

Chapter 5. The Many Africas and Refugee Crises in Algeria, Uganda, and the Great Lakes
Decolonization and the Refugee Crises of the Algerian War
Decolonization, Africanization, and the Expulsion of Uganda's Asians
Racialized Politics and Refugee Crises around Africa's Great Lakes

Conclusion

Index