The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
The former Soviet Union and those (formerly) communist states that were politically and economically allied with it are often informally called the Second World. The term developed after World War II to distinguish communist bloc states from powerful capitalist states (First World) and from smaller, nonaligned developing states (Third World). These terms developed as a part of theories that the world's countries together made up a single dynamic system in which these three sectors interacted. Although the term is often used to indicate countries and regions of intermediate economic strength, its proper meaning has to do with political economy, or the politics of communist-socialist economics. In recent years, with the shrinking role and then disintegration of the communist bloc, the term has become much less common than those of First and Third Worlds.