A Concise History of Switzerland
A Concise History of Switzerland

Author: Clive H. Church

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-05-23

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1107244196

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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

Published: 2013-01-10

Total Pages: 751

ISBN-13: 1847658091

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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.

Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland

Author: Leo Schelbert

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-05-21

Total Pages: 663

ISBN-13: 1442233524

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Switzerland's exceptional scenic beauty of valleys, lakes, and mountains, its central location on international trade routes, and its world famous banking system are just a few elements that have contributed to its rise in the global market. It consists of twenty-six member states, called cantons and it’s actively engaged in the maintenance of peace among nations. The history of the Swiss Confederation is as rich and varied as its culture and people. This updated second edition of Historical Dictionary of Switzerland features the nation's multicultural and democratic traditions and institutions, its complex history, and its people's involvement in past and present world affairs. This is done through a list of abbreviations and acronyms, a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, maps, a bibliography, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, and institutions, as well as significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone who wants to know more about Switzerland.

Switzerland: A Village History
Switzerland: A Village History

Author: D. Birmingham

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2000-05-09

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 9780333800140

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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.

Why Switzerland?
Why Switzerland?

Author: Jonathan Steinberg

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-11-19

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0521883075

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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?

Between the Alps and a Hard Place
Between the Alps and a Hard Place

Author: Angelo M. Codevilla

Publisher: Regnery Publishing

Published: 2000-09-01

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 089526238X

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Switzerland's "neutrality" is fully examined and challenged in this groundbreaking study of the economics underpinning the political in that country's successful non-alignment policies.

Switzerland and Migration
Switzerland and Migration

Author: Barbara Lüthi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-30

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 3319942476

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This book explores the history of migration in Switzerland from the late nineteenth century to the present day. It brings together recent scholarship on Switzerland in the field of cultural and migration studies, as well as migration history, and combines various research approaches from postcolonial studies, transnational studies, border studies, and history of knowledge. Since the late nineteenth century, Switzerland has gradually transformed into a migration society, becoming one of the countries in Europe with the highest percentage of migrant population. While migration has become one of most contentious issues in Swiss public and political debates, the volume also shows how migrants have developed various strategies to deal with the country’s discriminatory policies and distinct institutional settings. The authors of the volume convincingly challenge the view that Switzerland still does not represent a migration (or even post-migrant) society and substantially contributes to the long overdue acknowledgement of Switzerland in migration history and studies at the international level.