A Concise History of Switzerland

A Concise History of Switzerland
Author: Clive H. Church
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2013-05-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107244196

Despite its position at the heart of Europe and its quintessentially European nature, Switzerland's history is often overlooked within the English-speaking world. This comprehensive and engaging history of Switzerland traces the historical and cultural development of this fascinating but neglected European country from the end of the Dark Ages up to the present. The authors focus on the initial Confederacy of the Middle Ages; the religious divisions which threatened it after 1500 and its surprising survival amongst Europe's monarchies; the turmoil following the French Revolution and conquest, which continued until the Federal Constitution of 1848; the testing of the Swiss nation through the late nineteenth century and then two World Wars and the Depression of the 1930s; and the unparalleled economic and social growth and political success of the post-war era. The book concludes with a discussion of the contemporary challenges, often shared with neighbours, that shape the country today.

Swiss Made

Swiss Made
Author: R. James Breiding
Publisher: Profile Books
Total Pages: 751
Release: 2013-01-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1847658091

Why has Switzerland - a tiny, land-locked country with few natural advantages - become so successful for so long at so many things? In banking, pharmaceuticals, machinery, even textiles, Swiss companies rank alongside the biggest and most powerful global competitors. How did they get there? How do they continue to refresh themselves? Does the Swiss 'Sonderfall' (special case) provide lessons others can learn and benefit from? Can the Swiss continue to perform in a hyper-competitive global economy? Swiss Made offers answers to these and many other questions about the country as it describes the origins, structures and characteristics of the most important Swiss companies. The authors suggest success is due to a large degree to sound entrepreneurial thinking and an openness to new ideas. And they venture a surprising forecast on the country's ability to keep pace in an age of globalisation.

Slow Train to Switzerland

Slow Train to Switzerland
Author: Diccon Bewes
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2013-11-07
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1857889762

A travel diary from 1863 inspires author Diccon Bewes to retrace Thomas Cook's historic train trip that revolutionized tourism forever.

Why Switzerland?

Why Switzerland?
Author: Jonathan Steinberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2015-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521883075

Revised and completely updated edition of Jonathan Steinberg's classic account of Switzerland's unique political and economic system. Why Switzerland? examines the complicated voting system that allows citizens to add, strike out, or vote more than once for candidates, with extremely complicated systems of proportional representation; a collective and consensual executive leadership in both state and church; and the creation of the Swiss idea of citizenship, with tolerance of differences of language and religion, and a perfectionist bureaucracy which regulates the well-ordered society. This third edition tries to test the flexibility of the Swiss way of politics in the globalized world, social media, the huge expansion of money in world circulation and the vast tsunamis of capital which threaten to swamp it. Can the complex machinery that has maintained Swiss institutions for centuries survive globalization, neo-liberalism and mass migration from poor countries to rich ones?

The Radical Right in Switzerland

The Radical Right in Switzerland
Author: Damir Skenderovic
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1845459482

There has been a tendency amongst scholars to view Switzerland as a unique case, and comparative scholarship on the radical right has therefore shown little interest in the country. Yet, as the author convincingly argues, there is little justification for maintaining the notion of Swiss exceptionalism, and excluding the Swiss radical right from cross-national research. His book presents the first comprehensive study of the development of the radical right in Switzerland since the end of the Second World War and therefore fills a significant gap in our knowledge. It examines the role that parties and political entrepreneurs of the populist right, intellectuals and publications of the New Right, as well as propagandists and militant groups of the extreme right assume in Swiss politics and society. The author shows that post-war Switzerland has had an electorally and discursively important radical right since the 1960s that has exhibited continuity and persistence in its organizations and activities. Recently, this has resulted in the consolidation of a diverse Swiss radical right that is now established at various levels within the political and public arena.

Switzerland: A Village History

Switzerland: A Village History
Author: D. Birmingham
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2000-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780333800140

Switzerland is a remarkable country half of whose territory lies in the Alps. The raising of cattle and the making of cheese eventually brought a modest wealth to the peasants but the destructive Napoleonic invasion brought revolution and poverty. The democratic unification of Switzerland created a common market and a single currency. This history of one alpine village illustrates a one-thousand-year struggle for survival on the edge of this white wilderness.

Swiss Watching

Swiss Watching
Author: Diccon Bewes
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2012-03-09
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1857889916

A Financial Times Book of the Year and international bestseller.

Swisstory

Swisstory
Author: Laurie Theurer
Publisher: Bergli
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2019-09-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9783038690849

Finally, the real history of Switzerland for clever kids and clever kids-at-heart: dukes slaughtered by filthy peasants, innocent "witches" hung up by their necks, buried gold, female mountaineers and, of course, all those murderous cows... Not the fake history of Heidi and William Tell, but 'Swisstory' - from ancient mountain people right up to women's right to vote. Hilariously illustrated by bestselling Swiss artist Michael Meister (The Monster Book of Switzerland), Swisstory is outrageous, fascinating, gruesome - and completely true.

Target Switzerland

Target Switzerland
Author: Stephen P. Halbrook
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2009-08-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786751185

Countless books have been written on the military history of World War II, however astonishingly little information has appeared about the one country that stared the Nazis down and refused to become an accomplice to the horrors of the Third Reich. This book provides an objective, year-by-year account of Switzerland's military role in World War II, including her defensive strategies, details of Nazi invasion plans, and Switzerland's moral, material and humanitarian links to the Allies. Swiss neutrality in World War II has been criticized in recent years, but the country was entirely surrounded by Axis powers and managed, as revealed here, to render considerable assistance to the Allies.