History Books

Book SynopsisBefore Pep Guardiola and before Jose Mourinho, there was Bela Guttmann: the first superstar football coach, and the man who paved the way for the celebrated coaches of the modern age. He was also a Holocaust survivor. In 1944, much of Europe had wanted Guttmann dead. He hid for months in an attic near Budapest as thousands of fellow Jews in the neighbourhood were dragged off to be murdered. Later, he escaped from a slave labour camp before a planned deportation and almost certain death. His father, sister and wider family were murdered. But by 1961, as coach of Benfica, he had lifted Europe's greatest sporting prize, the European Cup, a feat he repeated the following year. This biography spans two contrasting visions of Europe: one of barbarism and genocide, and one of beauty, wonder and romance, of balmy evenings in magnificent cities, where great players would stretch every sinew in a bid to win football's holy grail. With dark forces rising once again in that continent, the story of Bela Guttmann's life asks the question: which vision will triumph in our times?

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Book SynopsisPerfect guide and map for planning your adventure along Hadrian's Wall.Highlights of this Planning Map include:More than 20 highlighted places of interest with detailed descriptions and attractive photographs, including: the Vindolanda archaeological site, Chester's Roman fort, and Steel Rigg viewpoint.A comprehensive index to more than 400 cities, towns and villagesA clear, visible route plotted across the mapAdvice on safety and security when travelling along the route, as well as the countryside code and the code of conductPart of the National Trail network, this long-distance footpath covers 84 miles (135 km) along the line of Hadrian''s Wall from coast-to-coast. Starting in Wallsend in Newcastle and ending in Bowness-on-Solway, this path weaves through beautiful countryside, encountering historic remains of Roman forts and milecastles, and splendid bridges. A suggested walking itinerary makes it easy for users to plan their journey along this popular route.

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Book SynopsisThis illustrated study lifts the veil on the gladiators of ancient Rome, who provided a bloody spectacle for the people of the Eternal City and its vast empire. By the start of the Principate in 27 BC, the gladiator games were a long-standing part of the social and political life of Rome and its sprawling empire. In the wake of reforms enacted by Augustus, the games continued to be at the heart of Roman culture and politics during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. While prominent citizens harnessed the opportunities offered by the gladiator games to enhance their own reputations and reward their clients, the emperors soon assumed a near-monopoly on the provision of games; several even entered the arena themselves, most notoriously Commodus. In the quest for novelty, prisoners, criminals and women came to participate in this grisly sport'. Only after the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in AD 380 did armed combat between gladiators enter a decline, an

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Splendid. . . . haunting and beautifully written. . . . This is a terrific book.” — Washington Post "An incredible story." — People “A dramatic tale expertly told of rapacious ambition, decadent excess, and covert and overt tyranny and trauma. . . . With resplendent detail, the authors capture the gasp-eliciting extravagance of the Vanderbilt Gilded Age mansions. . . . With its intrinsic empathy and in-depth profiles of women, this is a distinctly intimate, insightful, and engrossing chronicle of an archetypal, self-consuming American dynasty. . . . Irresistible.” — Booklist (starred review) “Marked by meticulous research and deep emotional insight, this is a memorable chronicle of American royalty.” — Publishers Weekly “A remarkably frank and tender undertaking.” — The New York Times on The Rainbow Comes and Goes "Meaningful, revealing." — The Wall Street Journal on The Rainbow Comes and Goes “Fascinating, forthright, philosophical, and inspiring, these mother-and-son musings on family, life, death, forgiveness, fame, and perseverance are at once uniquely personal and deeply human.” — Booklist (starred review) on The Rainbow Comes and Goes “Cooper is a storyteller with plenty of heart. . . . A smart, soulful page-turner. . . . Strong stuff, and in Cooper’s hands, well told.” — People on Dispatches from the Edge “His vignettes from the world’s horrorscapes rise above the swagger of many journalistic memoirs because Cooper writes with competence as well as feeling. . . . Intriguing.” — Washington Post Book World on Dispatches from the Edge

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Book SynopsisA Times Higher Education Book of the WeekA virulent strain of antifeminism is thriving online that treats women's empowerment as a mortal threat to men and to the integrity of Western civilization. Its proponents cite ancient Greek and Latin texts to support their claimsfrom Ovid's Ars Amatoria to Seneca and Marcus Aureliusarguing that they articulate a model of masculinity that sustained generations but is now under siege. Not All Dead White Men reveals that some of the most controversial and consequential debates about the legacy of the ancients are raging not in universities but online. A chilling account of trolling, misogyny, racism, and bad history proliferated online by the Alt-Right Zuckerberg makes a persuasive case for why we need a new, more critical, and less comfortable relationship between the ancient and modern worlds in this important and very timely book.Emily Wilson, translator of The OdysseyExplores how ideas about Ancient Greece and Rome are used and misused by antifeminist thinkers today.TimeZuckerberg presciently analyzes these communities'embrace of stoicism as a self-help tool to gain confidence, jobs, and girlfriends. Their adoration of men like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Ovidis founded in a limited and distorted interpretation of ancient philosophylending heft and authority to sexism and abuse.The NationTraces the applicationand misapplicationof classical authors and texts in online communities that see feminism as a threat.Bitch MediaTrade ReviewA chilling account of trolling, misogyny, racism, and bad history proliferated online by the Alt-Right, bolstered by the apparent authority of Greek and Latin Classics. Zuckerberg makes a persuasive case for why we need a new, more critical, and less comfortable relationship between the ancient and modern worlds in this important and very timely book. -- Emily Wilson, translator of The OdysseyExplores how ideas about Ancient Greece and Rome are used and misused by antifeminist thinkers today. * Time *Zuckerberg characterizes the ‘Red Pill’ online community as the corner of the internet dominated by men’s-rights activists, the alt-right, pickup artists, and the sex-eschewing communities known as Men Going Their Own Way…Virtually all these subgroups appropriate classical literature for their own purposes. * The Atlantic *Zuckerberg presciently analyzes [‘red-pill’] communities’ (and sections of Silicon Valley’s) embrace of stoicism as a self-help tool to gain confidence, jobs, and girlfriends. Their adoration of men like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Ovid, whose Ars Amatoria earned him the reputation of being history’s first pickup artist, is founded in a limited and distorted interpretation of ancient philosophy, she writes, lending heft and authority to sexism and abuse. * The Nation *The book is an achievement… An admirable foray into the difficult and often distressing terrain of far-right politics, and an important contribution to the growing collection of essays, archives and discussions centered on the place of classics in today’s thorny political landscape. * Times Literary Supplement *Traces the application—and misapplication—of classical authors and texts in online communities that see feminism as a threat. * Bitch Media *Zuckerberg argues that it is important to study why classical texts have been weaponized by [The Red Pill] and how, regardless of their ‘appropriation of antiquity,’ the ancient texts are already problematic themselves. * Los Angeles Review of Books blog *Not just an incredibly important book that teaches readers about the tactics of a far-right, antifeminist online community, the ‘manosphere,’ but also demonstrates ways in which experts can use their knowledge to deconstruct the use and abuse of history. * EuropeNow *A clear explanation of the machinations of the red pill community…Offers some sense of how individuals with an interest in progressive politics might respond to not only the abuse of ancient works, but also to the works themselves. In dissecting the far right’s misuse of these texts, Zuckerberg opens the door to a reconsideration of what is and isn’t the ‘foundation of Western Civilization.’ * Ploughshares *Aims to take back the writings of the ancients from misogynist online communities. * Publishers Weekly *This brilliant new book offers a must-read analysis of classicizing antifeminist diatribes that will enlighten or serve as a timely warning to all liberals, as well as to members of the Alt-Right and Red Pill men’s groups (if only they would read it). -- Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A LifeA fearless online pioneer in her role as the editor of Eidolon, Zuckerberg is perfectly placed to guide us through the radicalized virtual territory of the Alt-Right. Not only does she force us to face the worst of what Classical authors say about male superiority and sexual privilege, weaponized in the roiling echo chambers of reddit, she also compels us to reflect on why we nonetheless teach and take pleasure in Greek and Roman texts. -- Joy Connolly, author of The Life of Roman RepublicanismIf there was ever a time to dispel myths of racial and gender superiority, it is now. Donna Zuckerberg has written an important book to help us understand how the Western classical canon is weaponized to diminish the humanity of women by anti-feminist online communities. This is a must-read. -- Safiya Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of OppressionA clear-eyed look at the dangers of misogyny and racism underlying the reception of Classics. Zuckerberg strikes an admirable balance between defending the study of ancient Greek and Roman authors—those all too familiar ‘dead white men’—and rejecting the insidious assertions of patriarchy and white supremacy that the Alt-Right claims to derive from antiquity. This remarkable book never loses sight of what the Classics can mean to the next generation. -- Gregory Nagy, author of The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[Zuckerberg] is ideally placed to analyze the deeply unpleasant phenomenon of these men appropriating ancient authors—Ovid, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius—to try to bolster their vicious world view…This book is her attempt to document this appropriation of Classics by people who neither know nor care how limited their understanding is. * Spectator *Both a survey of the contemporary landscape the alt-right trawls, as well as a primer in the major Classical texts and precepts they (mis)use. * PopMatters *Required reading for classicists who want to understand how the works we study resonate in contemporary politics. -- Ellen Muehlberger * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *With the proliferation of anti-feminist rhetoric online, the extreme right is using ancient philosophy to boost its credibility. As Stoic ethics moves from lecture halls to Reddit, classicist Donna Zuckerberg exposes this misappropriation, meant to enforce the concept of male superiority. * Nature *Zuckerberg tracks the alt-right’s appropriation of the classics, from the use of classical texts among Men’s Rights Activists to the superficial use of Ovid as inspiration for pickup artists. -- Joel Christensen * Boston Review *

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Book SynopsisVivian Lowndes is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham, UK.David Marsh is Director of Research, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, Australia.Gerry Stoker is Professor at the University of Southampton and Centenary Research Professor, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Vivien Lowndes, David Marsh and Gerry Stoker PART I: THEORY AND APPROACHES 1. Behavouralism; David Sanders 2. Rational Choice; Andrew Hindmoor and Brad Taylor 3. Institutionalism; Vivien Lowndes 4. Constructivism and Interpretive Theory; Craig Parsons 5. Feminist and Gender Approaches; Meryl Kenny and Fiona Mackay 6. Marxism: A global perspective; Ray Kiely 7. Poststructuralism; Mark Wenman 8. Political Psychology; Frank Mols and Paul 't Hart 9. Normative Theory; Chris Armstrong PART II: METHODS AND RESEARCH DESIGN 10. Ontology and Epistemology in Political Science; David Marsh, Selen A. Ercan and Paul Furlong 11. Meta-Theoretical Issues in Political Analysis; David Marsh 12. Research Design; Dimiter Toshkov 13. Qualitative Methods; Ariadne Vromen 14. Quantitative Methods; Peter John 15. Comparative Methods; Matt Ryan 16. The Experimental Method: Prospects for field and laboratory studies; Helen Margetts and Gerry Stoker 17. Big Data: Methods for collection and analysis; Michael J. Jensen 18. The Relevance of Political Science; B. Guy Peters, Jon Pierre and Gerry Stoker.

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Book SynopsisA beautiful book to record your family history, with space for family and individual records, ancestry charts, family traditions and achievements

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Book SynopsisPresents the history of Japan from c 8000 BC to the present day. This title covers a range of subjects, including geology, climate, agriculture, government and politics, culture, literature, media, foreign relations, imperialism, and industrialism.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations. Conventions Used. Acknowledgements. Preface. Maps. Introduction. Part I: Beginnings:. 1. Geology, Climate, and Biota. 2. From Origins to Agriculture. Part II: The Age of Dispersed Agriculturalists (400 BCE - 1250 CE):. 3. Political Consolidation to 671 CE. 4. Establishing the Ritsuryô Order (672-750). 5. Ritsuryô Adaptation and Decay (750-1250). 6. Classical Higher Culture (750-1250). Part III: The Age of Intensive Agriculture (1250-1890):. 7. The Centuries of Disorder (1250-1890). 8. Medieval Higher Culture (1250-1550). 9. Establishing the Bakuhan Order (1550-1700). 10. The Age of Growth (1590-1700). 11. Stasis and Decay (1700-1850). 12. Crisis and Redirection (1800-1890). Part IV: The Age of Industrialism: Early Decades (1890-Present):. 13. Early Imperial Triumph (1890-1914). 14. Early Imperial Society and Culture. 15. Later Imperial Politics and Economy (1914-1945). 16. Later Imperial Society and Culture (1914-1945). 17. Drift to Disaster (1914-1945). 18. Entrepreneurial Japan: Politics and Economy (1945-1990). 19. Society and Environment (1945-1990). 20. The Culture of Entrepreneurial Japan (1945-1990). Epilogue: Japan Today and Tomorrow. Endnotes. Appendices. A. Tables I-X. B. Chinese Words: Wade-Giles & Pinyin Orthographies. C. Glossary of Japanese Terms. D. Supplemental. Readings. Index

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Book SynopsisMust the sins of America’s past poison its hope for the future? Lately the American Left, withdrawing into the halls of academe to rue the nation’s shame, has answered yes in word and deed. Rorty challenges this lost generation to understand its potential role in the tradition of democratic intellectual labor that began with Whitman and Dewey.Trade ReviewRichard Rorty [is] John Dewey’s ablest intellectual heir and one of the most influential philosophers alive… In lively prose, [Achieving Our Country] offers a pointed and necessary reminder that left academics have too often been content to talk to each other about the theory of hegemony while the right has been busy with the practice of it. If those criticized in the book dismiss it the way they brush aside the Blooms and D’Souzas of the world, an opportunity will be lost. Rorty invites a serious conversation about the purposes of intellectual work and the direction of left politics. I wouldn’t want him to have the last word, but the conversation should be joined. If it is conducted with the verve of Achieving Our Country, and if it shares Rorty’s genuine commitment to revitalizing the left as a national force, it will be a very good thing. * The Nation *Achieving Our Country is an appeal to American intellectuals to abandon the intransigent cynicism of the academic, cultural left and to return to the political ambitions of Emerson, Dewey, Herbert Croly and their allies. What Rorty has written—as deftly, amusingly and cleverly as he always writes—is a lay sermon for the untheological… [Americans] do not need to know what God wants but what we are capable of wanting and doing… [Rorty argues] that we would do better to try to improve the world than lament its fallen condition. On that he will carry with him a good many readers. -- Alan Ryan * New York Times Book Review *Richard Rorty is remarkable not just for being a gadfly to analytical philosophers, but for his immense reading, his lively prose and his obvious moral engagement with the issues… The conversation of philosophy would be much poorer without him… Achieving Our Country is a valuable addition to Rorty’s writings… He has things to say that are important and timely… They are said powerfully. -- Hilary Putnam * Times Literary Supplement *In his philosophically rigorous new book, Achieving Our Country, Richard Rorty raises a provocative if familiar question: Whatever happened to national pride in this country? …[and] he offers a persuasive analysis of why such pride has been lost. -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt * New York Times *The heart of Achieving Our Country is Professor Rorty’s critique of the ‘cultural left.’ Barricaded in the university, this left has isolated itself, he asserts, from the bread-and-butter issues of economic equality and security and the practical political struggles that once occupied the reform tradition… Controversies are seeded like land mines in every paragraph of this short book. -- Peter Steinfels * New York Times *Richard Rorty’s Achieving Our Country is short, comprehensible and urges a civic and political agenda—the re-engagement of the Left… Rorty seeks to revive the vision of Walt Whitman and John Dewey, and what he sees as the real American Dream—a compassionate society held together by nothing more absolute than consensus and the belief that humane legal and economic agreements stand at the centre of democratic civilisation. -- Brian Eno * The Guardian *[In this] slim, elegantly written book…Rorty scolds other radical academics for abandoning pride in the nation’s democratic promise; in their obsession with ‘victim studies,’ he argues, they have neglected to inspire the ‘shared social hope’ that motivated every mass movement against injustice from the abolitionists to the voting rights campaign. -- Michael Kazin * Washington Post Book World *A succinct, stimulating, crisply written book… Rorty proposes a return to the liberal values that animated American reform movements for the first two-thirds of this century: from the long struggle of labor unions to obtain better conditions for workers, to the efforts of leaders like Woodrow Wilson, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson to redistribute the nation’s wealth more equitably… Although Rorty is an academic philosopher, in this book, addressed to the general reader, he employs clear, vigorous language that makes reading a pleasure rather than a chore. -- Merle Rubin * Christian Science Monitor *Achieving Our Country criticizes academic theorists and reminds us that left-wing reformers in previous periods of American history either made their careers outside the university or, at least, developed strong links with the decidedly non-academic labor movement… Rorty’s distinction between a ‘cultural Left’ and a ‘reformist Left’ is useful. As Freud replaced Marx in the imagination of academic theorists, Rorty explains, a cultural left—one that ‘thinks more about stigma than about money, more about deep and hidden psychosexual motivations than about shallow and evident greed’—came into being. -- Alan Wolfe * The Chronicle of Higher Education *It is refreshing to find so hard-hitting a portrait of the contemporary academic Left in the work of one of its own. -- Peter Berkowitz * Commentary *On behalf of countless readers whose reaction to most left academic writing over the past two decades has increasingly been not so much either agreement or disagreement as an overpowering sense of So what?, the eminent philosopher Richard Rorty has composed a marvelous philippic against the entrenched irrelevance of much of the American left… Rorty’s most important insight is into the political worldview of the academic left: that it is essentially nonpolitical… He offers a withering comparison of the core beliefs of the current cultural left with those of one of its forebears, Walt Whitman. -- Harold Meyerson * Dissent *Mr. Rorty calls for a left which ‘dreams of achieving’ America, a patriotic left he recognises from the days of the New Deal and which he remembers from the early 1960s when, for example, people campaigned for civil-rights laws to make their country better. Where, he wonders, has such reformist pride gone? In place of ‘Marxist scholasticism’, Mr. Rorty wants a left which makes reducing inequalities part of a ‘civic religion’. Yet material differences are not the only sort of thing that bothers Mr. Rorty about the contemporary United States. On a communitarian note, he argues that the ‘civic religion’ he advocates should include commitment to shared values that rise above ethnic or minority loyalties. * The Economist *Rorty made us realise how much poorer we are if Jefferson, Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Stowe, Peirce, William James, Santayana and Dewey are not familiar landmarks in our intellectual scenery… If we [scoff] at Rorty’s patriotic American leftism, we may find that it sets off some doubts that will come back to haunt us. When we quibble over his interpretations of our favourite thinkers, are we not confirming his stereotype of left pedantry? When we sniff at him for keeping company with rightists and renegades, do we not bear out his idea of a Left that is keener on its own purity than on fighting for the poor? As we look down our noses at the etiolation of socialism in America, should we not reckon the costs and benefits of European mass movements, and reflect on the political history of the anti-Americanism that comes to us so easily? Before leftist subjects of Her Majesty get snooty about American democracy, we might stop and wonder whose interests are served by our unshakable optimism about the past. The unguarded naiveties of Achieving Our Country are not quite as negligent as they look, and the book may well turn out to be one of the first signs of a long-delayed breaking of the ice in socialist politics following the end of the Cold War. The fact that Rorty’s old-style American leftism is closer to British New Labour than to good old socialism may prove not that he is confused, but that it is time to reset our political chronometers. -- Jonathan Rée * London Review of Books *Politically progressive academics should consider carefully Rorty’s arguments… They pose important questions about American politics and public intellectual practice. -- Harvey Kaye * Times Higher Educational Supplement *There is much to be debated, much that will probably infuriate, in Rorty’s picture of contemporary Left intellectuals… Achieving Our Country is meant to be pointedly polemical, and Rorty…[has] succeeded at stirring up emotions as well as thoughts. -- Vincent J. Bertolini * American Literature *Richard Rorty is an inspirational writer who makes a valiant effort in this book to create an atmosphere of cooperation among those he characterizes as ‘the Reformist Left.’ He wants us to return to the ideals of John Dewey and Walt Whitman and achieve the greatness that is possible in a country of our wealth and dominance. -- Edward J. Bander * Bimonthly Review of Law Books *Rorty offers a resolute defense of pragmatic and reformist politics, coupled with a sophisticated rereading of the history of 20th-century American leftist thought. The result is a book that ends up reaffirming the great achievements of American left liberalism—strong unions, Social Security, and the principled regulation of corporate power—even as it illuminates the ways in which the cultural myopia of today’s academic left has placed those achievements in jeopardy… In his insistence that there is a great American tradition of leftist reform, and that this rendition can be reinvigorated only by a return to the idea of the nation, Rorty has constructed as humane and as hopeful a defense of patriotism as one can imagine. -- James Surowiecki * Boston Phoenix *A bracing tonic against the jejune profundities and the self-centered talking points by the far Right that find their way into the media. In sharply etched arguments Rorty weaves in philosophical and historical perspectives… His message isn’t one of resignation, rather of hope grounded in the Left’s potential for reinventing itself. He thinks it’s time for the Left to stop demonizing capitalist America and to develop once again a political program of its own. -- Terry Doran * Buffalo News *For many years now, Rorty has been one of the most important American pragmatists, defending the experimental modes of inquiry first propounded by John Dewey from both traditionalists and postmodernists… In Achieving Our Country, a brief but eloquent book, Rorty begs his academic colleagues to return to the real world. ‘I am nostalgic for the days,’ he writes, ‘when leftist professors concerned themselves with issues in real politics (such as the availability of health care to the poor and the need for strong labor unions) rather than with academic politics.’ -- Jefferson Decker * In These Times *Richard Rorty is considered by many to be America’s greatest living philosopher. That assessment is firmly supported in this short, profound, and lucid volume. In Achieving Our Country, Rorty does what many of us think philosophers ought to do, namely, lay a foundation and establish a framework within which we as individuals and as a society can conceptualize and fashion operational theories by which to live and prosper together… I can think of no more important book that I have read in recent years or one that I could more fervently recommend to the readers of this journal that Rorty’s Achieving Our Country. -- Thomas R. DeGregori * Journal of Economic Issues *‘Achieving our country’ (the phrase is culled from James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time) isn’t just a redeemable aim, it’s what good radical politics has always been about. -- Gideon Calder * Radical Philosophy *Rorty’s new book urges a return to American liberalism’s days of hope, pride, and struggle within the system… Subtle without being dense, good-natured in its defiance of a whole spectrum of conventional wisdoms, Achieving Our Country is a rare book. It should be compulsory reading—if that weren’t contrary to all it stands for. -- Richard Lamb * The Reader's Catalog *A deeply considered diagnosis, a vital set of prophecies. * Publishers Weekly *[The] book contains criticism for the political left as earnestly constructive and thoughtfully formulated as any I have encountered…[Rorty’s] book is worth revisiting as the Democratic Party smarts from losses in recent special elections and considers how it might win back the House in the 2018 midterms. -- Conor Friedersdorf * The Atlantic *Table of ContentsAmerican National Pride: Whitman and Dewey The Eclipse of the Reformist Left A Cultural Left Appendixes Movements and Campaigns The Inspirational Value of Great Works of Literature Notes Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisWe know more of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, than of any other Roman. Besides much else, his work conveys the turmoil of his time, and the part he played in a period that saw the rise and fall of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.

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Book SynopsisCovering the origins, key features, and legacy of the Islamic tradition, the third edition of A New Introduction to Islam includes new material on Islam in the 21st century and discussions of the impact of historical ideas, literature, and movements on contemporary trends. Includes updated and rewritten chapters on the Qur'an and hadith literature that covers important new academic research Compares the practice of Islam in different Islamic countries, as well as acknowledging the differences within Islam as practiced in Europe Features study questions for each chapter and more illustrative material, charts, and excerpts from primary sources Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Preface to the Third Edition xv Source Acknowledgments xvii Part I The Formation of the Islamic Tradition 1 1 Islam in Global Perspective 3 The Problem of Defining Islam 3 Mapping the Islamic World 5 Arabs and Non-Arabs 9 Sunnis and Shiʿites 10 Islamic Ritual 11 What to Expect from This Book 14 Essential Resources for the Study of Islam 16 Questions for Study and Discussion 17 2 Arabia 19 Geography 19 Pre-Islamic Poetry 21 Arab Religion 25 Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia 27 Mecca and the Quraysh 28 The Gifts of the Arabs 31 Resources for Further Study 34 Questions for Study and Discussion 35 3 The Pre-Islamic Near East 37 Christianity in the Near East 39 Saints and Relics 45 Zoroastrianism 46 Judaism 47 Manichaeism 49 Mazdak 49 The Place of the Arabs in the Near East 50 Chronology of the Near East of Late Antiquity 52 Resources for Further Study 53 Questions for Study and Discussion 54 4 The Life of Muhammad 55 Prologue and Setting 56 Birth and Childhood 57 Early Adulthood 59 The Beginning of Revelation 61 Opposition 63 The Night Journey and Ascent to Heaven 65 The Hijra 66 The Battle of Badr 68 Confrontation with the Jews of Medina 69 The Battle of Uh. ud 70 The Peace of al-H. udaybiya and the Farewell Pilgrimage 72 Evaluation 73 Resources for Further Study 74 Questions for Study and Discussion 75 5 The Qur ʾan 77 The Qurʾan in Modern Imagination 77 The History of the Text 79 The Language of the Qurʾan 84 The Context of the Qurʾan 87 Jesus in the Qurʾan 88 The Qurʾan in Muslim Piety 90 The Eternity of the Qurʾan 91 The Inimitability of the Qurʾan 93 Interpreting the Qurʾan 94 Central Themes 95 Qurʾanic Narratives 96 Qurʾanic Law and the Problem of Abrogation 97 Women and Gender in the Qurʾan 98 Qurʾan, Sīra, and Hadith 99 Resources for Further Study 99 Questions for Study and Discussion 100 6 The Tradition Literature 103 The Science of Hadith 104 The Origins of the Hadith 108 In Quest of the Historical Muhammad 111 The Sīra and the Shaping of an Islamic Worldview 115 Resources for Further Study 119 Questions for Study and Discussion 120 Part II The Expansion of Islam 121 7 The Conquests 123 Psychological Impact 127 Archeological Data: The “Invisible” Conquests 129 Resources for Further Study 131 Questions for Study and Discussion 132 8 Religion of Empire 133 Early Arab Administration 134 Conversion to Islam 137 Leadership 138 The First Civil War 139 The Martyrdom of Ḥusayn 140 The Deputy of God 141 Personal Piety 142 The Dome of the Rock 144 The Constitution of Medina 149 Resources for Further Study 151 Questions for Study and Discussion 151 9 The Caliphate 153 Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ 153 The Shiʿite Vision 156 The ʿAbbasids 158 Twelvers 159 Ismāʿīlīs 160 Nizārī “Assassins” 161 Kharijites 163 The Sasanian Revival 164 Al-Māwardī and the Sunni Compromise 166 Resources for Further Study 169 Questions for Study and Discussion 170 Part III Islamic Institutions 171 10 Islamic Law 173 The Coffee Debate 173 Revelation and Reason 175 Qiyās 176 The Schools of Law 177 Islamic Law and the State 179 Ijmāʿ 180 The Uṣūl al-Fiqh 181 The Substance of the Law 183 Ritual Purity 184 Acts of Worship 185 Marriage and Divorce 186 The Origins of Islamic Law 189 Al-Shāfiʿī and Islamic Legal Theory 189 Resources for Further Study 192 Questions for Study and Discussion 193 11 Islamic Theology and Philosophy 195 Freedom and Determinism 196 God’s Attributes 198 Anthropomorphism 200 Faith and Works 200 Leadership 203 The Sunni Consensus 203 Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal 204 Al-Ashʿarī 205 Kalām 206 Al-Māturīdī and other Alternatives to Ashʿarite Kalām 208 Jewish and Christian Influences 209 The Challenge of Philosophy 210 Prophecy and Revelation in Islamic Philosophy 212 Philosophy and Mysticism 215 Resources for Further Study 216 Questions for Study and Discussion 217 12 Sufism 219 The Parliament of Birds 219 Stages on the Path 221 The Spiritual Master 223 Sufi Brotherhoods 224 Sufi Ritual 226 The Destination 229 Sufi Cosmology 230 Sufism in History: The Case of al-Ḥallāj 233 Beginnings to the Tenth Century 237 Classical Manuals and the Growth of Ṭarīqas 239 Resources for Further Study 241 Questions for Study and Discussion 242 Part IV Crisis and Renewal in Islamic History 243 13 Turks, Crusaders, and Mongols 245 The Saljūqs 245 Al-Ghazālī and the Sunni Revival 246 Slave Soldiers 248 The Crusades 250 The Mongols 254 The Impact of the Mongol Invasions 257 Resources for Further Study 261 Questions for Study and Discussion 262 14 Revival and Reform 263 The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires 263 The Rise of European Power 266 The Religious Environment 267 The ʿUlamāʾ 267 Sufi Reformers 269 The Wahhabi Movement 274 Resources for Further Study 277 Questions for Study and Discussion 278 15 Islam and the West 279 Napoleon’s Invasion of Egypt 279 The Birth of Orientalism 282 Jihad Movements 284 Al-Afghānī 285 Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Aligarh 287 Resources for Further Study 289 Questions for Study and Discussion 289 16 The Turbulent Twentieth Century 291 The Abolition of the Caliphate 291 Nationalism 293 Secularism 295 Rashīd Riḍā and al-Manār 298 The Muslim Brotherhood 299 Jihad and Martyrdom 300 From Shariʿa to Secular Law and Back 302 Modern Qurʾan Interpretation 304 The Problem of Sunna 305 Ijtihād and Ijmāʿ 306 A New Kalām? 307 Muhammad ʿAbdūh 307 Muhammad Iqbal 309 Sufism and Modernity 311 The Modernist Moment 314 Resources for Further Study 315 Questions for Study and Discussion 315 17 Salafism 317 Café Salafis 317 Salafi Doctrine 319 The Ibn Taymiyya Connection 320 The Albanian Watchmaker’s Son 322 Salafi Apocalypse 324 Salafi Spring? 329 The Appeal of Salafism 331 Salafis and Sufis 332 Resources for Further Study 334 Questions for Study and Discussion 334 18 Islam in the Twenty-First Century 335 The Challenge of Pluralism 336 Islamic Liberalism 340 Islam in the West 342 Islamic Feminism 346 The Challenge of Islam 350 Questions for Study and Discussion 351 Glossary 353 Bibliography 367 Index 391

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Book SynopsisA companion volume to his bestselling Armageddon', Max Hastings' account of the battle for Japan is a masterful military history.Featuring the most remarkable cast of commanders the world has ever seen, the dramatic battle for Japan of 194445 was acted out across the vast stage of Asia: Imphal and Kohima, Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Soviet assault on Manchuria.In this gripping narrative, Max Hastings weaves together the complex strands of an epic war, exploring the military tactics behind some of the most triumphant and most horrific scenes of the twentieth century. The result is a masterpiece that balances the story of command decisions, rivalries and follies with the experiences of soldiers, sailors and airmen of all sides as only Max Hastings can.Trade Review‘A monumental achievement…compassionate but unsparing in its judgements.’ Sunday Times ‘An outstandingly gripping and authoritative account of the battle for Japan, and a monument to human bravery and savagery.’ Daily Telegraph ‘Absolutely excellent.’ John Simpson, Observer ‘Magisterial…it is truly cathartic to reach the end of the Second World War in Hastings’s company.’ The Times ‘Brilliantly though Hastings lays out the strategic context, his real talent lies in his account of the “terrible human experience” that it involved…This is a book for anyone who wants to understand what happened in half the world during one of the bloodiest periods of the blood-soaked 20th century.’ Spectator ‘Spectacular…Hastings makes important points about the war in the East that have been all too rarely heard…excellent…compelling…searingly powerful.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘As Hastings brilliantly describes, conditions for fighting men on both sides were appalling…the fire-bombing of Tokyo and the decision to drop the atomic bombs were influenced by the urge to 'get this business over with', but the argument, as Hastings explains so well with his usual exemplary judgement, is far more complex.’ Financial Times

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Book SynopsisAn illustration-packed new account of the powerful Royal Navy fleet that fought alongside the US Navy throughout the last year of the Pacific War.The British Pacific Fleet was the Royal Navy''s primary contribution to the direct defeat of Japan in 1945, and is among the most powerful fleets Britain has ever sent into action. With naval supremacy in home waters achieved by 1944, many of the best and most modern ships in the Royal Navy could be sent to the Pacific, including battleships, submarines, light forces, replenishment groups, and shore establishment. However, the main striking force was the fast carrier force.Illustrated throughout with dramatic new artwork, 3D diagrams, maps and archive photos, this book explains how the Royal Navy joined the Pacific carrier war, and how the fleet adopted the US Navy''s ruthlessly effective fast carrier doctrine. With ships optimized for short-range operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the BPF had to rapidly adapt to the long-raTable of Contents(Subject to Confirmation) THE FLEET'S PURPOSE FLEET FIGHTING POWER The Ships Technical Factors HOW THE FLEET OPERATED Doctrine, Command, and Communication Intelligence and Deception Logistics and Facilities COMBAT AND ANALYSIS The Fleet in Combat Analysis FURTHER READING

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Book SynopsisDrawing on a wide range of unpublished material and observations gathered from his visit to Yugoslavia in 1999, Michael Parenti challenges mainstream media coverage of the war, uncovering hidden agendas behind the Western talk of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and democracy.Trade ReviewProminent social critic Parenti pens a fierce, elegantly constructed elegy not just for the lives sacrificed in the Balkan wars, but for concepts of national sovereignty and constitutionality, which appear to be lost to a corporate-sanctioned new world order. Extremely disturbing, but, for the brave, jolting and necessary reading. * Kirkus Reviews *Thought-provoking ... Parenti makes compelling points about biased media coverage of Serbia. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisThe modern art market was born on a single night. On 15 October 1958 Sotheby's of Bond Street staged an event sale' of Impressionist paintings from the collection of an American banker, Erwin Goldschmidt: three Manets, two Cézannes, one Van Gogh and a Renoir. Movie stars and other celebrities attended in black tie and saw the seven lots go for 781,000 at the time the highest price for a single art sale.Overnight, London became the world centre of the art market and Sotheby's an international auction house. The event signalled a shift in power from dealers to auctioneers and pointed the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years. In this climate Sotheby's and Christie's became a great business duopoly as aggressive, dominant and competitive in the field of art sales as Pepsi and Coca-Cola were in soft drinks. The resulting expansion of the market was accompanied by rocketing prices, colourful scandals and legal dramas. Over the decades,

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Book SynopsisA magisterial history of South Africa, from the earliest known human inhabitation of the region to the present. It also includes a chapter chronicling the first presidential term of Mbeki and ending with the celebrations of the centenary of South Africa's ruling African National Congress in January 2012.Trade Review"Lynn Berat’s brilliant addition to Leonard Thompson’s superlative history takes the reader on a riveting tour of twenty-first century South Africa in all its triumph and tragedy."—Cindy Kaplan, Committed Artists of South Africa

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Book SynopsisEncompassing the period from Rome's founding in the eighth century BC through Justinian's rule in the sixth century AD, the author offers a distinctive perspective on the Romans and their civilization by employing fundamental Roman values as a lens through which to view both their rise and spectacular fall.Trade Review"In this survey of ancient Greek history and civilization, Martin skillfully blends social, cultural, political, and military data to create a panoramic view of the Greek world. Novices will find the work both comprehensible and entertaining."—Library Journal"Some 20 years after the success of his Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale UP), Thomas R. Martin gives the same treatment to a potted history of Rome, with great success. . . . It is to the credit of the author that, even in a few pages, there seem to be no omissions of events, incidents or figures who helped shape the history of Rome. . . . It remains . . . an immensely readable and engaging history, which shows incredible breadth, given its brevity."—Geoff Lowsley, Minerva"Some 20 years after the success of his Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale UP), Thomas R Martin gives the same treatment to a potted history of Rome, with great success. . . . It is to the credit of the author that, even in a few pages, there seem to be no omissions of events, incidents or figures who helped shape the history of Rome. . . . It remains . . . an immensely readable and engaging history, which shows incredible breadth, given its brevity."—Geoff Lowsley, Minerva

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Book SynopsisNo one in the twentieth century had a greater impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China's boldest strategist-the pragmatic, disciplined force behind China's radical economic, technological, and social transformation.Trade ReviewA masterful new history of China's reform era. It pieces together from interviews and memoirs perhaps the clearest account so far of the revolution that turned China from a totalitarian backwater led by one of the monsters of the 20th century into the power it has become today...Vogel has a monumental story to tell. His main argument is that Deng deserves a central place in the pantheon of 20th-century leaders. For he not only launched China's market-oriented economic reforms but also accomplished something that had eluded Chinese leaders for almost two centuries: the transformation of the world's oldest civilization into a modern nation...[An] illuminating book. -- John Pomfret * Washington Post *Ezra Vogel's new biography portrays Deng as not just the maker of modern China, but one of the most substantial figures in modern history...[A] meticulously researched book...Vogel knows China's elites extremely well, not least because of his years as an intelligence officer in East Asia for the Clinton administration. This book is bolstered by insider knowledge and outstanding sources, such as interviews with Deng's interpreters...The definitive account of Deng in any language. Vogel eloquently makes the case for Deng's crucial role in China's transformation from an impoverished and brutalized country into an economic and political superpower. * The Economist *A lively portrait of the man...Vogel provides a wealth of fascinating material, from vivid accounts of Deng's political and organizational skills in reviving the economy in the mid-1970s to his up-and-down relations with Vietnam and its leaders. The author also offers astute insights into the reformist roles played by Hua Guofeng, Mao's immediate successor after his 1976 death, and by two of Deng's own associates, both ultimately purged by him, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. The book is at its best in portraying the tense interplay of personal relations and ambition among Mao's many lieutenants. On the surface, lockstep Communist ideology prevailed during Mao's rule, but behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, Beijing's central leadership compound, the dual drive for self-preservation and advancement fed a kind of political nihilism. -- Howard French * Wall Street Journal *When Chinese historians are able one day to ply their subversive trade without control or censorship, their judgment will surely be that their country should revere Deng Xiaoping way above his predecessor Mao Zedong...Ezra Vogel's massive biography assembles the case for Deng (1904-97) with narrative skill and prodigious scholarship. -- Chris Patten * Financial Times *Vogel has gone to enormous lengths to document his subject...Vogel's painstaking research provides plenty of fascinating detail. The description of the period after Tiananmen, for example--when the octogenarian was forced to call on a lifetime's accumulated political wiles to defeat an attempt by conservatives to almost completely reverse his reforms--is eye-opening. The pages in which Deng effectively threatens to have then Communist Party Secretary Jiang Zemin dismissed unless he throws his support behind renewing the reform drive are very nearly worth the price of the book alone...On the ways through which Deng set about the enormous task of rebuilding the gutted economy, shattered by decades of turmoil under Mao Zedong, Vogel is exhaustive. -- Simon Elegant * Time *Ezra Vogel's encyclopedic Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China is the most exhaustive English retelling of Deng's life. Vogel, an emeritus professor at Harvard, seems to have interviewed or found the memoirs of nearly every person who spoke with Deng, and has painstakingly re-created a detailed and intimate chronology of Deng's roller-coaster career. -- Joshua Kurlantzick * The Nation *A virtue of Vogel's book is that it collects and organizes a huge amount of material on the struggles within the elite power circles in China over several decades. In these accounts we learn how Deng tried to protect his allies and how he sought to undermine his enemies; he fell, rose, fell again, then rose again to the pinnacle position in the second generation of the Communist dynasty. Vogel's materials will be very useful to students of elite power struggles in China. -- Fang Lizhi * New York Review of Books *One of the virtues of Vogel's analysis is that he understands the thinking of Deng's rivals as well as he does Deng's own...Deng was infatuated with everything he viewed as modern, and wanted China to have it all. By entering into Deng's vision, Vogel helps readers see how the person who forged the world's most successful example of modernizing authoritarianism believed that such a combination would work. -- Andrew J. Nathan * New Republic *[An] exhaustive biography...Vogel's book is an encyclopedic look at Deng's career. -- Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore * The Independent *Deng was perhaps the most intriguing leader that I met while traveling with Mr. Blumenthal and President Jimmy Carter. I had to wait another 30 years, however, before a definitive biography would be written about Deng, arguably the most globally transformational leader of the 20th century. This year Ezra Vogel delivered it with Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. -- Richard W. Fisher * Wall Street Journal *Vogel, one of the world's preeminent Asia scholars, has produced the most comprehensive and authoritative account of Deng's career as a revolutionary, party leader, and architect of China's reform. Meticulously researched and highly readable, the book is not a typical biography. It does not dwell much on Deng's personal life. Instead, the focus of the book is Deng's unusual career trajectory, his unique style of rule, and the strategic choices he made during and after the Cultural Revolution...This book should be read by anyone who wants to understand the domestic and international dynamics that have led to China's rise as a great power. -- Yanzhong Huang * Foreign Affairs *If anybody still nurtures the illusion that Deng was a closet liberal, this book will bring them back to reality. For all the changes he championed and the vicissitudes of his life, the diminutive, blunt Deng has received much less biographical attention than Mao, which makes Ezra Vogel's huge account particularly welcome. The product of 10 years of work by a leading China scholar, it is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the evolution of China to the status it occupies today. It offers an enormous compendium of material about the lifelong Communist whose story, even more than that of Mao, reflects the dramatically varying fortunes of his nation in the 20th century...Vogel is an admiring biographer who presents a treasure trove of new information that will delight modern China scholars for years to come. -- Jonathan Fenby * Times Higher Education *Deng [is] a fit subject for a weighty, probing and judicious biography, which is just what Ezra F. Vogel has produced...Vogel is the master of this complex material. He had access to many who knew and worked with Deng, including Jiang Zemin. Deng selected him as Party leader in 1989 to succeed Zhao Ziyang, who had been sacked and disgraced because of his opposition to the use of force in Tiananmen Square. Vogel also spoke to two of Deng's children. The documentary sources are copious and, in terms of access to material, this study is unlikely to be bettered until the Party opens its most sensitive archives--which could be a long wait. It is hard to disagree with much of what Vogel writes and there is much to admire, particularly his judicious contextualization of Deng's motives. -- Graham Hutchings * Literary Review *A major biography of the man who may turn out to have done more to transform the world than any other leader of the 20th century. Deng's market Leninism has massively increased China's wealth, while repressing democracy. Vogel's portrait is sympathetic, although not uncritical. * Financial Times *This is the most ambitious biography of Deng Xiaoping by a western scholar so far. Drawing on numerous Chinese sources, including the Deng family, it tells the story of a man who, the author says, may have had more impact on world history than anyone else in the 20th century...This is a monumental work, carried out in the author's retirement and intended to cap a distinguished career in Asian studies. His diligent use of official papers and his privileged access to members of the Chinese Communist elite make this biography of Deng Xiaoping the most complete we are likely to have under the present ruling order. -- Michael Sheridan * Hong Kong Economic Journal *Deng led a long and remarkable life, packed with drama and global significance, one that deserves to be dissected in detail. So we must be thankful to Harvard professor Ezra Vogel for devoting a large chunk of his academic career to compiling a prodigious biography, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, the most ambitious account of the man so far. In writing this volume, Vogel has done an enormous amount of work. He appears to have absorbed the documents from every single Chinese Communist Party plenum since 1921...There have been several Deng biographies before this...but Vogel's can be regarded as the most comprehensive and informative of the lot...There's no question that Vogel has gone farther than anyone else to date in telling Deng's story. For that he is to be applauded; there is a whole hoard of valuable material here that we probably would not have gained otherwise. -- Christian Caryl * Foreign Policy *China scholars might think they have read enough about Deng Xiaoping. After all, at least three biographies of Deng were available prior to the release of this massive new book. But Vogel, one of the world's preeminent Asia scholars, has produced the most comprehensive and authoritative account of Deng's career as a revolutionary, party leader, and architect of China's reform. Meticulously researched and highly readable, the book is not a typical biography. It does not dwell much on Deng's personal life. Instead, the focus of the book is Deng's unusual career trajectory, his unique style of rule, and the strategic choices he made during and after the Cultural Revolution. Vogel considers the extent to which Deng fundamentally and irreversibly transformed China's society, governance, and relations with the outside world...This book should be read by anyone who wants to understand the domestic and international dynamics that have led to China's rise as a great power. -- Yanzhong Huang * Foreign Affairs *The big picture is the key to this book. Those hoping for hidden secrets and untold stories about Deng in Vogel's book will be disappointed. Comprehensive as it is, the book is not an expose. But it does ring with authority. The Harvard professor spent most of the 10 years lining up interviews with people who had first-hand experience of Deng. In the end he spoke to dozens, if not a hundred, of people who knew something about the man...As a result, his depiction of Deng is rich, balanced and colorful. Vogel portrays a Deng who is determined, resourceful, at times uncompromising and difficult, but always pragmatic...This is where the strength of Vogel's book lies. It is all about the grand historic view. And that is fitting: out of all of Deng's amazing qualities, it is his grasp of a broad perspective and his keen sense of history that enabled him to achieve what so many had deemed impossible. -- Chow Chung-yan * South China Morning Post *If you're going to read one book about modern China in the period after Mao, then this is the book you should read. Though the book is framed around the rise of Deng Xiaoping and his reforms that transformed China into an economic powerhouse, Ezra Vogel's compelling biography examines how China went from being a desperately poor country to certainly one of the two most important countries in the world today. -- Bill Gates * Gates Notes *From arguably the most important scholar of East Asia, this is an important book on the force behind China's transformation in the late twentieth century, whose full fruits are visible only today. Deng ordered the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, but he was also the person most responsible for modernizing China and opening it to trade with the West. Again and again he survived threatening challenges in the Chinese political bureaucracy, to emerge at the top in the late 1970s. His role in subverting Chinese orthodoxy from the inside is comparable to that of Gorbachev with respect to the Soviet Union--and he deserves sustained attention such as this landmark book offers. -- Anis Shivani * Huffington Post *Not just a definitive biography of a world-class leader, but also the most authoritative and riveting account of the secretly contrived U.S.-Chinese strategic accommodation of 1978 and of how that in turn facilitated China's domestic transformation. -- Zbigniew BrzezinskiThis is an impressive and important biography of one of the most important men of the twentieth century. Deng Xiaoping transformed China economically, politically, and socially. One of the most significant achievements for his and my country was the establishment of diplomatic relations between us. The book provides an excellent account of this historic event. -- President Jimmy CarterVogel offers a nuanced portrait of China's great reform leader Deng Xiaoping and a shrewd analysis of the political maneuvers by which he made such a large mark on history. By entering deeply into Deng's vision for China, Vogel shows how the person who forged the world's most successful example of modernizing authoritarianism understood how such a system could work. And he shows how a major leader can steer a huge country in a new historical direction. A terrific accomplishment. -- Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia UniversityA multilayered study of change and adaptability. At the core is one man's response to the dangers of a complex revolution. Around him is the transformation of the largest political entity in history from rural disarray and helplessness to an industrial and manufacturing giant. In between are ambitious and bewildered people in search of leadership. Vogel has made Deng Xiaoping's vision convincing, the Chinese maze comprehensible, and even the bit actors come alive. -- Wang Gungwu, National University of SingaporeDeng Xiaoping's skill, vision, and courage in overcoming seemingly insuperable obstacles and guiding China onto the path of sustained economic development rank him with the great leaders of history. And yet, too little is known about the life and career of this extraordinary man. In this superbly researched and highly readable biography, Vogel has definitively filled this void. This fascinating book provides a host of insights into the factors that enabled Deng to triumph over repeated setbacks and lay the basis for China to regain the wealth and power that has eluded it for two centuries. -- J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. Ambassador to ChinaDeng could be tough, but he was direct and engaged. He was a person we could do business with, and I liked him a lot. He played an extraordinary role, bringing the world's largest nation into the modern world. We are fortunate that Vogel, one of our foremost China scholars, has now brought the man alive in this uniquely researched biography. -- Brent ScowcroftA thorough picking-over of Deng Xiaoping's record and accomplishments, setting him firmly as the linchpin linking an antiquated authoritative thinking to modern growth and acceleration...Vogel meticulously considers all facets of this complex leader for an elucidating--and quite hefty--study. * Kirkus Reviews *[An] impressive and exhaustively researched biography...Vogel reminds readers that it was under this pragmatic politician's watch that the party made three moves that helped it outlast so many other Leninist organizations. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom * Miller-McCune.com *This intensely researched doorstop delivers a step-by-step political biography of the man who gets most of the credit for China's spectacular rise to an economic juggernaut. Vogel recounts how Deng (1904–1997), a leading figure from the 1950s on, was banished when his preference for practicality over class struggle angered Mao Zedong during the disastrous 1969–1975 Cultural Revolution. Returning to power after Mao's 1976 death, he eliminated the anti-intellectualism and chaotic policy swings that characterized Mao's rule while opening the nation to Western ideas. The result was China's emergence as the world's most dynamic economy, with a free market but still with a disturbing absence of political freedom (he gives a nuanced analysis of the Tiananmen Square massacres)...Scholars will value it. * Publishers Weekly *If you want to understand China today, you must understand Deng Xiaoping (1904–97)...Deng shared Mao's ambition to make China a strong nation under party leadership, but he cannily built an unassailable position within the party to take it in new directions. Vogel interviewed dozens of leaders and China experts, as well as Deng's family, did exhaustive documentary research, and mines the scholarly literature (a good deal of it by his former students) to analyze Deng's initial success in building China's economy and international position, frustration in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and ultimate legacy...Massive but fascinating, this is highly recommended for those with a serious interest in modern China. Indispensable in understanding Deng, what he accomplished, and where he fell short. -- Charles W. Hayford * Library Journal *In an authoritative biography of Deng, Harvard sociologist Ezra F. Vogel, a renowned specialist on China and Japan who rose to international prominence in 1979 with the publication of Japan as Number One: Lessons for America, has attempted the difficult task of providing a comprehensive look at the experiences and influences that shaped this remarkable individual. He has succeeded superbly...Vogel's book provides extensive insights into how Deng was able to use his experience, his network of associations among China's aging revolutionaries, and the force of his personality to direct China's course, all while allowing others to hold the top government and party titles...For those of us who as U.S. government officials participated in or monitored many of the developments in China and in the bilateral relationship Vogel describes, he has illuminated events in ways that would have been invaluable to us had we had such a clear picture at the time. The transformation of China that Deng set in motion is likely to confront the United States with its most significant foreign-policy challenge over the next several decades. We are fortunate indeed that Vogel has written this timely and highly informative biography of Deng Xiaoping, which provides a wealth of insights into one of history's great leaders -- J. Stapleton Roy * Wilson Quarterly *Deng Xiaoping is one of the most influential men in modern history and here his dramatic story, one intertwined with elite intrigues in the Chinese Communist Party, is recounted in detail by one of the most eminent scholars of Asia...Regarding the debate over whether Deng was more despot than reformer, Ezra Vogel emphasizes the successful consequences of his economic reforms, but does not shy from criticizing his failures. The portrait that emerges is of a visionary authoritarian who helped his nation overcome the self-inflicted wounds of Mao Zedong and achieve enormous economic advances. -- Jeff Kingston * Japan Times *This monumental book, not so much biography as political history, is overdue. -- Rowan Callick * The Australian *As one of the foremost scholars of modern China, Vogel is an appropriate authority to pen such a thorough account of Deng Xiaoping's tumultuous journey from political exile to paramount leader of China. A detailed study into Deng's dedication to the Chinese establishment of the People's Republic, to his reemergence as unrivaled decision-maker of the Chinese people, the book details how Deng's policies continue to shape the nation, and how it will most likely require a number of generations before scholars can fully appreciate his impact. In capturing the most turbulent period in the modern 20th century in this 928-page tome, Vogel contributes an important piece to the historiography of Chinese history. -- A. Cho * Choice *[A] masterful biography. -- Arun Maira * Indian Express *

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Book SynopsisA fully illustrated study of how the US-led half of the Normandy invasion fleet was composed, commanded, and how it fought, from D-Day until the fall of Cherbourg.The D-Day landings and their aftermath were among the most complex and important naval operations in history. With the target beaches divided into two areas of responsibility one US-commanded, one British this armada launched a month-long operation to first support the landings, then to protect, supply, and support the troops ashore, as they fought to expand their toehold in occupied Europe.In this book, illustrated throughout with 3D diagrams, photos, maps and dramatic artwork, naval historian Brian Lane Herder explains how the US Navy-led Western Task Force was built, and outlines its operations off Normandy during June 1944. It covers this multinational fleet's organization, assembly, and training, as well as the intelligence and logistics picture, and explores its actions that were so crucial t

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Book SynopsisFrom war with the British to the enslavement of Indians, Ivermee uncovers the dark history of France's doomed imperial project in South Asia.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAltogether a tremendous acheivement...This volume provides us with an immediate sense of the scale and diverseity of Gramsci's project. Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction Chronology Prison Notebooks Notebook 1 (1929-1930): First Notebook Notebook 2 (1929-1933): Miscellaneous I Notes Notebook 1: Description of the Manuscript Notes to the text Notebook 2: Description of the Manuscript Notes to the text Illustrations

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Book SynopsisThe battle to keep the nation fed during the Second World War was waged by an army of workers on the land and the resourcefulness of the housewives on the Kitchen Front. The rationing of food, clothing and other substances played a big part in making sure that everyone had a fair share of whatever was available.In this fascinating book, Katherine Knight looks at how experiences of rationing varied between rich and poor, town and country, and how ingenuous cooks often made a meal from poor ingredients. Charting the developments of the rationing programme throughout the war and afterwards, Spuds, Spam and Eating for Victory documents the use of substitutions for luxury ingredients not available, resulting in delicacies such as carrot jam and oatmeal sausages. The introduction of Spam in America in the forties led to this canned spiced pork and ham becoming an iconic symbol of the worse period of shortage in the twentieth century.Seventy years after the outbreak of the Second World War, this book listens to some of the people who were young during the conflict share their memories, both sad and funny, of what it was like to eat for Victory.

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Book SynopsisA brilliant appraisal of the Civil War and its long-term consequences, by an acclaimed historian.The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule.In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins - the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell''s rule and the Restoration - while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.Trade ReviewWorden is a spellbinding writer ... he skewers the myriad shifting issues with precision, his every sentence commanding respect for his measured judgment and the marvellous suppleness of his language * DAILY EXPRESS *It is hard to imagine a better introduction to the subject * HISTORY TODAY *Straightforward, stimulating and a joy to read ... It makes you want to know more * LITERARY REVIEW *As an introduction to the English civil wars, Worden's book is peerless. Brief, though it is, it is a work of exceptionally large achievement * THE SPECTATOR *An exemplary piece of popular history... opening up perhaps the most important national story to the nation, passionately retold yet unadorned ... If you want to be informed about that unfortunate period of English history, Blair Worden's crisp 160-pager may well be the best place to start -- Nicholas Bagnal * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewKent Flannery and Joyce Marcus have done a remarkable job in synthesizing the two key disciplines of social anthropology and archaeology, and their book represents a significant advance in our understanding of the evolution of complex societies. -- Peter Turchin * Times Literary Supplement *This is a work of profound importance… [It] yields insights into a multitude of societies in the recent and prehistoric past… Flannery and Marcus’s magnum opus… [This] is a deeply impressive achievement. -- Steven Mithen * London Review of Books *Extraordinarily erudite… It would be an excellent addition to collections on the rise of civilization or on how to use the data gathered by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists to understand broad patterns of social change. Professionals in the field will also benefit from this tour de force by two of archaeology’s most provocative scholars. -- L. L. Johnson * Choice *This provocative work, likely to become an important contribution to the literature of social and political anthropology, will be of interest both to scholars in the field and to anthropology and archaeology enthusiasts seeking understanding of the development and perpetuation of inequality in human societies. -- Elizabeth Salt * Library Journal *The origin of inequality is one of the most basic questions about human societies. We all arose from egalitarian hunter/gatherer ancestors. Why, then, do almost all of us poor peasants now tolerate affluent leaders, whether they are democratically elected presidents or military dictators? In this clear, readable survey, the distinguished archaeologists Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus extract the answers by comparing the histories of societies over the whole world for the last 10,000 years. This book will become the standard account of long-term political evolution. -- Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and CollapseBy carefully articulating and integrating archaeological and ethnographic data, Flannery and Marcus present a panoramic view of the development of particular cultures in various parts of the world. Moreover, in selecting case studies the authors have gone beyond the familiar examples so often cited in anthropology textbooks. The Creation of Inequality promises to be a landmark work. -- Robert L. Carneiro, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus and Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural HistoryFlannery and Marcus are two of the most distinguished anthropological archaeologists in the world. The Creation of Inequality distills two lifetimes of work on the origin and evolution of complex societies throughout the ancient world. This work brings much of this together in an eminently readable and fascinating way. -- Charles S. Stanish, Ph.D., Director, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

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Book SynopsisDynamic and meticulously researched, A History of Korea continues to be one of the leading introductory textbooks on Korean history. Assuming no prior knowledge, Hwang guides readers from early state formation and the dynastic eras to the modern experience in both North and South Korea. Structured around episodic accounts, each chapter begins by discussing a defining moment in Korean history in context, with an extensive examination of how the events and themes under consideration have been viewed up to the present day. By engaging with recurring themes such as collective identity, external influence, social hierarchy, family and gender, the author introduces the major historical events, patterns and debates that have shaped both North and South Korea over the past 1500 years.This textbook is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Korean or Asian history. The first half of the book covers pre-20th century history, and the second half the modern era, makTrade ReviewUnique in its discussion of women and marginalized groups, it gives readers a much fuller understanding of Korean society throughout history. It offers historical depth and accuracy for university use while engaging readers with its episodic narrative. I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about Korea, past and present. * Jennifer Jung-Kim, University of California, Los Angeles, USA *Full of eye-catching episodes and illustrations, this is probably the most readable guide for anyone interested in learning Korean history from ancient to contemporary times. * Deokhyo Choi, The University of Sheffield, UK *Kyung Moon Hwang’s A History of Korea is the most reader-friendly guide for anyone who is interested in the historical changes of the Korean Peninsula. Hwang’s masterful selections of historical themes and episodes on Korean history from antiquity to the present are well organized in this book. An indispensable work for helping students and general readers understand one of the most dynamic countries in the world. * Seok-Won Lee, Rhodes College, USA *Table of ContentsList of Chronologies and Maps Brief Chronology Maps Acknowledgements Introduction Note on Romanization 1. Goguryeo and Ancient Korea 2. Queen Seondeok and Silla's Unification of Korea 3. The Unified Silla Kingdom 4. Founding of the Goryeo Dynasty 5. Religion and Regionalism in the Goryeo Order 6. The Mongol Overlord Period 7. Goryeo-Joseon Transition 8. Confucianism and the Family in the Early Joseon Era 9. The Great Invasions, 1592-1636 10. Ideology, Family, and Nationhood in the Mid-Joseon Era 11. Intellectual Opening in the Late Eighteenth Century 12. Popular Culture in the Late Joseon Era 13. Nineteenth-Century Unrest 14. 1894, A Fateful Year 15. The Great Korean Empire 16. The Japanese Takeover, 1904-1918 17. The Long 1920s 18. Nation, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Late Colonial Period 19. Wartime Mobilization, 1938-45 20. The Liberation Period, 1945-50 21. The Korean War^rth Korea 23. 1960s South Korea 24. Culture and Politics in 1970s South Korea 25. Monumental Life in North Korea 26. South Korean Democratization 27. South Korea in the 21st Century 28. Epilogue: Historical Reckoning in the Two Koreas, 2010-2020.- Further Readings Index.

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Book SynopsisA history of the early medieval German Armies from the fragmentation of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire to the rise of the German, or Holy Roman Empire. This text looks in detail at the period of the Saxon wars and the Crusades including the rise of the Teutonic Knights. From the religious and political strife that rocked Germany in the early 11th century to civil war, campaigns in Italy and Henry IV's brief capture of Rome, and the successes of the Teutonic Knights and the Ministeriales - the serf-knights.Table of ContentsBackground · Chronological Table · Organisation · The Ministeriales · The Teutonic Knights · Campaigns · Further Reading · The Plates

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Peter Marshall has written a fine history of a momentous time as seen from the bottom up, drawing on a wide range of primary sources and his evident scholarship. . . . A riveting account of the losers as well, the English zealots and cynics who wanted a better world, or an unchanging one.”—The Economist“A balanced and judicious account of the English Reformation.”—Arnold Hunt, Times Literary Supplement“An eminently readable narrative that avoids flattening out irregularities in the story. . . . Marshall’s analysis, his control of documentary material and his imaginative maneuvers between the corridors of power and the streets and alehouses is impressive.”—Malcolm Gaskill, Financial Times“A profound book with a light touch—and all the more impressive in that the author is covering almost a century of intellectual, social, and religious history. . . . It will be a long time before the book is surpassed.”—Michael Coren, Globe and Mail“With pleasing dispatch Peter Marshall’s compelling new history of England’s Reformation sweeps all the historians down into the footnotes and just tells the story as he sees it. . . . This is the human story within the grand narrative, written with fluidity and warmth, its scholarship providing a firm foundation without being intrusive, its analysis thoughtful, not polemical.”—Lucy Wooding, Literary Review“The joy of Peter Marshall’s book is that it makes this most hackneyed of historical epics feel fresh and unexpected. More so than any historian of the period working today, Marshall is equally sensitive and perceptive in dealing with both Protestants and Catholics. . . . It is a much-told tale, but I don’t think it has ever been told with more humanity, balance, atmosphere, wit and learning. I wish I’d written it. Buy it, and make time to read it.”—Alec Ryrie, The Tablet“Marshall has a knowledge of the personalities and the detail and texture of events which few living scholars can match. He makes masterly use of the enormous range of quotable texts to bring to life the dilemmas that his characters faced.”—G. R. Evans, Church Times“Marshall’s account of this seemingly well-worn topic never seems stale or perfunctory. There is a sense of real people being affected by real issues, the distant hubbub of which can still just about be heard in the pages of this insightful and immersive book.”—Mark Jones, Albion“A tour de force that transforms our understanding of, what Marshall himself terms, ‘one of the best-known and most widely discussed epochs in English history’: the Reformation of the sixteenth century.”—Henry Jeffries, Irish Historical Studies“This is a superb narrative history of the English Reformation. . . . If you want a book that tells the story in a powerful, effective way, held together with an excellent thesis and illustrative anecdotes, this will serve you well. I foresee that this will become a standard text for those who teach the English Reformation.”—Norman Jones, Renaissance Quarterly“Outstanding work. . . . Aagrand, sweeping view of the Reformation’s impact in England, perhaps the first large scale revisiting of a people’s history approach to the religious upheaval of the Tudor period since Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars.”—Chris Skidmore, Books of the Year 2017, BBC History“An outstanding study of one of the most eventful periods in English history. . . . This is historical scholarship at its accessible best.”—Rev. Dr. Martin Wellings, Methodist Recorder“Heretics and Believers provides readers with a wonderful opportunity to expand their historical horizons. Peter Marshall does an excellent job in tracing the antecedents of the English Reformation, profiling key figures and institutions and tracing the chronological development of attempts at reform (and opposition to it).”—Philip Scheepers, Vox Reformata“This is an utterly reliable history of the English Reformation, but it is also its imaginative biography, treating the story as a single narrative, watching its birth, its growth, its growing complexity. . . . Marshall is a historian’s historian, probing the close-up warp and weft of the period with admirable curiosity and archival expertise, but he also enjoys an enviably light touch for the general reader.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, Ecclesiastical History“The book contains a massive amount of detail, and it is well written” —Fiction’s Fan Book ReviewsWINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2018 “A beautifully judged account of the English Reformation. Marshall weaves a single narrative through a contentious century without loss of detail or depth of understanding. Full of wise and humane analysis, this is ambitious in scope and brilliant in execution.”—Wolfson Prize Judges“A remarkable book that will, without doubt, become the definitive narrative of the English Reformation for years to come. Marshall writes with deep understanding and great panache, moving us masterfully beyond tired debates about whether the Reformation was ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and bringing his subject vividly to life.”—Christopher Marsh, author of Popular Religion in Sixteenth-Century England“A commanding re-interpretation of a deeply significant process of change: analytically subtle, thematically all-encompassing, and full of real people.”—Steven Gunn, author of Henry VII’s New Men and the Making of Tudor England“In a field crowded with exceptionally able histories, Heretics and Believers stands out as a treasure.”—Mark Noll, author of Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction“A magisterial, panoramic and compelling new account of a phenomenon that was never just a top-down, institutionalised and ordered act of state. Peter Marshall reveals how the English Reformation was nurtured within the religious beliefs, culture and polity that it profoundly transformed, and thereby recovers its momentousness.”—Mark Greengrass, author of Christendom Destroyed: Europe, 1517–1648

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Book SynopsisAlmost from the moment of its publication in 1863, Nikolai Chernyshevsky's novel, What Is to Be Done?, had a profound impact on the course of Russian literature and politics. The idealized image it offered of dedicated and self-sacrificing intellectuals transforming society by means of scientific knowledge served as a model of inspiration for...Trade ReviewNo work in modern literature, with the possible exception of Uncle Tom's Cabin, can compete with What Is to Be Done? in its effect on human lives and its power to make history. For Chernyshevsky's novel, far more than Marx's Capital, supplied the emotional dynamic that eventually went to make the Russian Revolution. * The Southern Review *In the Russian revolutionary movement, no literary work can compare in importance with Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done?.... Katz and Wagner have provided us with a version that is worthy of the novel's importance. Katz's translation is faithful to the original, yet cast in words that bring Chernyshevsky's meaning alive to modern readers.... Wagner, in turn, provides abundant notes, explaining obscure references, making connections between parts of the novel that could easily be missed on first reading, and alerting the reader to those many passages where Chernyshevksy hinted at what he could not say outright. * Russian History *

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Book SynopsisPrequel to the author's 40,000-copy bestseller Nelson's Navy

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZEValkyries: the female supernatural beings that choose who dies and who lives on the battlefield. They protect some, but guide spears, arrows and sword blades into the bodies of others. Viking myths about valkyries attempt to elevate the banality of war to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies of young men, glorious and worthwhile. Rather than their death being futile, it is their destiny and good fortune, determined by divine beings. The women in these stories take full part in the power struggles and upheavals in their communities, for better or worse. Drawing on the latest historical and archaeological evidence, Valkyrie introduces readers to the dramatic and fascinating texts recorded in medieval Iceland, a culture able to imagine women in all kinds of roles carrying power, not just in this world, but pulling the strings in the other-world, too. In the pTrade Review[Friðriksdóttir] brilliantly manages to make the Vikings feel far closer to us than ever before ... 4 stars. * Mail on Sunday *Valkyrie includes Old Norse poetry alongside archaeological finds and painted runestones to show how the lived experiences of women in the Viking world were varied and fascinating. -- Janina Ramirez * The Guardian *Friðriksdóttir weaves a complex picture in which different kinds of evidence successfully illuminate each other to provide a rich and detailed picture ... This book is intelligent, engaging and well written, with many new insights. * BBC History Magazine *Valkyries have an obvious appeal, but the real women of the Viking age are more exciting. In Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir’s significant new history, they are brought engagingly to life. * Times Literary Supplement *[A] fascinating overview of women's roles in the Viking world, from infancy to death. It's a period of history that continues to grip the popular imagination, here brought evocatively to life through archaeological discoveries and contemporary sources, including emotive stories and verse. * History Revealed *Valkyrie's true colour comes from the Old Norse literature that underpins much of the analysis. The pages sparkle with tales of the fierce Valkyries and vengeful wives of poetic legend, the goddesses of Asgard and the women who feature in the Old Norse sagas... Yeild[s] new insights into the complex nature of the Viking Age. * Literary Review *This deep dive into the lives of the women of the Viking era is a fascinating one, combining as it does both the realities and mythology of the time ... Friðriksdóttir's investigation merges these two worlds brilliantly ... 4 stars. * All About History *The author’s dilemma, in this scholarly study, is to reconcile the larger-than-life legends of monstrous mothers and terrifying shield maidens with the more mundane and complex reality of daily life for Viking women from childhood to old age. -- Fiona Capp and Cameron Woodhead * Brisbane Times *Through an excellent insight into both the written, as well as archaeological sources the author weaves a clear picture of women’s lives from birth to death in the Viking Age. Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World is a significant book. * Professor Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, University of Oslo *Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, has crafted a compelling study of Viking Age female life courses using her expertise in written sources to provide the first such comprehensive overview in almost three decades. It is a welcome update, guaranteed to become an invaluable tool, both for students and others seeking an accessible overview of a complex field. ... Valkyrie contributes a weighty redress of this imbalance, providing an accessible, wide-ranging, and not least enjoyable platform for future scholarship into varied life courses and gendered ways of being. * Journal of British Studies *Authoritative and provocative, bang up-to-date, yet steeped in historical knowledge, JKF’s Valkyrie is indispensable for all Viking enthusiasts. Her lively style, profound knowledge and brilliant insights signal a stunning new voice in the debate about the Vikings. * Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature, University of Oxford *This is the new standard work on women in the Viking Age – a lively, authoritative and staunchly feminist survey that combines both textual and material sources in a ground-breaking study of the female life-course. With this superb book, Jóhanna Katrín has put Viking scholars in her debt. * Neil Price, Professor of Archaeology, Uppsala University *What a wonderful book. For the first time readers can understand the importance of the Valkyries in the Viking Age and see the impact these mythical women had more broadly on culture and society in the early medieval world. The scholarship is excellent, interpretation thorough, yet the writing style is accessible. It's a pleasure to read and be plunged into a world of sagas, runes, myth and magic. * Dr Janina Ramirez FRSA, University of Oxford *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Infancy and Childhood 2. Between Two Worlds: Teenage Girls 3. Adulthood 4. Pregnancy and Childbirth 5. Widows 6. Old Age and Death Epilogue

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Book Synopsis A World of Many Worlds is a search into the possibilities that may emerge from conversations between indigenous collectives and the study of science''s philosophical production. The contributors explore how divergent knowledges and practices make worlds. They work with difference and sameness, recursion, divergence, political ontology, cosmopolitics, and relations, using them as concepts, methods, and analytics to open up possibilities for a pluriverse: a cosmos composed through divergent political practices that do not need to become the same. Contributors. Mario Blaser, Alberto Corsín Jiménez, Déborah Danowski, Marisol de la Cadena, John Law, Marianne Lien, Isabelle Stengers, Marilyn Strathern, Helen Verran, Eduardo Viveiros de CastroTrade Review"The strength of this book is its presentation and varied discussion of the omission of all of the 'other-than-human-persons' who comprise the heterogeneity of cultures that form worlds beyond the Anthropocene. . . . This book provides excellent fodder for readers to reflexively consider their individual roles in the global knowledge-making process, the outcomes they create (and are creating), and the frames within which they dwell." -- Sally A. Applin * Journal of International and Global Studies *“A World of Many Worlds is a rich and welcome collection of essays that offers a complex and exploratory response to a timely problematic. Its statement is forthright and hallmark....” -- Mat Keel * AAG Review of Books *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Pluriverse: Proposals for a World of Many Worlds / Mario Blaser and Marisol de la Cadena 1 1. Opening Up Relations / Marilyn Strathern 23 2. Spiderweb Anthropologies: Ecologies, Infrastructures, Entanglements / Alberto Corsín Jiménez 53 3. The Challenge of Ontological Politics / Isabelle Stengers 83 4. The Politics of Working Cosmologies Together While Keeping Them Separate / Helen Verran 112 5. Denaturalizing Nature / John Law and Marianne Lien 131 6. Humans and Terrans in the Gaia War / Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Deborah Danowski 172 Contributors 205 Index 209

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Examining nearly every aspect of Vietnamese politics and society, from the economy and family life, to religion and the plight of indigenous minorities, Hayton gives a balanced, intelligent account of a country whose history so differs from our own."—Justin Wintle, Financial Times "This is a cleverly pitched book, one that will appeal equally to a businessman or investor seeking a briefing on Vietnam, an old Asia hand, or an inquisitive backpacker."—Petroc Trelawny, Irish Times"[An] insightful book."—Leanda de Lisle, The Spectator". . . a shrewd and compelling analysis of the growth of capitalism…a very readable introduction to the recent history of Vietnam. It contrasts personal individual stories with the big picture and as a result illuminates both."—Beverley Pullen, Permanent Revolution"Bill Hayton’s Vietnam: Rising Dragon is welcome. . . . He writes with clarity and crispness. . . . Hayton is at his most valuable and incisive."—Paul Cheeseright, Asian Affairs"Hayton has a keen eye for the detail of everyday life as well as larger cultural, economic, social, and political currents. This book leaves one with the feeling of having been in the hands of an expert craftsman, and illuminates some of the major issues confronting contemporary Vietnam."—Carlyle A. Thayer, author of Vietnam People’s Army

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Book SynopsisThe Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict and as many European settlers were driven into exile. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture.Nearly a half century has passed since this savagely fought war ended in Algeria’s independence, and yet—as Alistair Horne argues in his new preface to his now-classic work of history—its repercussions continue to be felt not only in Algeria and France, but throughout the world. Indeed from today’s vantage point the Algerian War looks like a full-dress rehearsal for the sort of amorphous struggle that convulsed the Balkans in the 1990s and that now ravages the Middle East, from Beirut to Baghdad—struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism, and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity.A Savage War of Peace is the definitive history of the Algerian War, a book that brings that terrible and complicated struggle to life with intelligence, assurance, and unflagging momentum. It is essential reading for our own violent times as well as a lasting monument to the historian’s art.

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Book Synopsis''Beautiful, like a muddy journey through time . . . a really important book'' RAYNOR WINN, author of The Salt Path Lisa Woollett has spent her life combing beaches and mudlarking, collecting curious fragments of the past: from Roman tiles and Tudor thimbles, to Victorian buttons and plastic soldiers. In a series of walks from the Thames, out to the Kentish estuary and eventually to Cornwall, she traces the history of our rubbish and, through it, reveals the surprising story of our changing consumer culture.Timely and beautifully written, Rag and Bone shows what we can learn from what we''ve thrown away and urges us to think more about what we leave behind.Trade ReviewLisa Woollett's beautifully descriptive language intertwines the stories of the river's history with that of her family, like a muddy journey through time. But it's so much more than that - in recording the waste and the lives we've left behind she's given us a chance to change our ways and possibly head towards a cleaner future -- Raynor WinnWonderful . . . If you loved The Salt Path, you'll love this book. A glorious celebration of where the natural world meets the human (and the messes we make) -- Viv GroskopRag and Bone digs deep into the mud of the Thames estuary, and comes up with something compelling and urgent - history told through rubbish. Lisa Woollett is a genuine mudlark, alert and closely attuned to the ways of the intertidal zone. A fascinating book -- Philip MarsdenA delicious confection of a book, blending history and memoir with thoughts and close observation. I so enjoyed watching shadows of the past flit across Lisa Woollett's watery pages. It is a timely book, too, when, as Woollett writes, "our waste threatens to overwhelm us" -- Sara WheelerTracing the remote and recent past - her own, and ours - through watery debris, Lisa Woollett conjures up, in poetic prose and brilliant stories, the spin cycle of history. In Rag and Bone, she elegantly picks her way through the trash, to reveal something gloriously and richly strange: a portrait of what we were and what we might become -- Philip HoareMudlark and beachcomber Lisa Woollett journeys into her family's past, our collective history and our possible futures. Subtle, dark and funny, with flashes of beauty and wonder, Rag and Bone is a compelling meditation on the consumer culture and its consequences -- Caspar HendersonEntrancing -- Patrick GaleLisa Woollett spins narrative gold out of literal dross in this gorgeous story of our waterways that lulls you like a punt on the Cam before making you seasick at the damage we've wrought on the oceans * Evening Standard, Books to Read This Summer *Absorbing . . . Woollett has a gift for bringing to life the strange borderlands of the foreshore * Observer *Discursive, lyrical and intriguing . . . Woollett writes beautifully * Literary Review *Rag and Bone is more than a history in a hundred objects: it is a meditation on our relationship with objects themselves * Times Literary Supplement *[A] beguiling blend of memoir, nature writing and social history * The Bookseller, Editor's Choice *More than personal memoir, this is a powerful book that has much to say about the present and future state of our world * Countryfile *Woollett weaves the story of her own London family within the wider social history of recycling . . . the book is illustrated with photographs of her finds arranged in ways that often say as much as the words do about the subject matter * Caught by the River, Book of the Month *A constant delight . . . highly recommended * Eden Magazine *Accompanied by the fantastically beautiful photographs of her finds, Woollett . . . traces her own family history in poetic prose * Simple Things *[Woollett's] mudlarking (preferred tool: a butter knife) reveals no end of social history washed up on the shore and awaiting interpretation * Strong Words *Subtle, lyrical and funny * The Lady *

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Book Synopsis‘No freeman is to be taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed … except through the lawful judgment of his peers or through the law of the land.’ ‘To no one shall we sell, to no one shall we deny or delay right or justice.’ Magna Carta (or ‘Great Charter’ of English Liberties) is one of the most important documents in legal history. Originating as a peace treaty agreed between King John and a group of powerful barons at Runnymede near Windsor on 15 June 1215, it enshrined in law the concept of individual liberty and defined the role of the monarch towards the people. The charter was successively revised and reissued throughout the thirteenth century by England’s monarchs, and the ideas expressed in it had a profound influence, as seen in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Latin text of one version of this landmark document (the 1217 issue of Henry III) is transcribed here in full, together with a modern translation and an introduction which traces the background to the making of the charter and its subsequent revisions through the centuries. It also explains how this text has become an enduring symbol of freedom in Britain and throughout the world.

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Book SynopsisWhen the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the forces of resistance were disparate and divided mujahideen groups, as interested in fighting each other and competing for Western arms as opposing the Russians. The exception was Ahmed Shah Massoud, the military strategist and political operator who solidified the resistance and undermined the Russian occupation by leading its members to a series of defensive victories. Sandy Gall was embedded with Massoud during Soviet offences and reported on the war in Afghanistan for a number of years. He has now written an illuminating biography of this charismatic guerrilla commander, which contains excerpts from the surviving volumes of Massoud's diaries. Massoud's prolific diary-keeping was little known during his lifetime, and his entries detail crucial moments in his life and throw fascinating light on his struggles, both in the resistance and in his personal life. Born into an ostensibly liberalising Afghanistan in the 1960s, Massoud ardently opposed communism and Mohammed Daoud, Afghanistan's puppet leader. He quickly rose to prominence and distinguished himself by coordinating the defence of the Panjshir Valley against repeated Soviet offensives. As the occupation wore on, Massoud became the resistance's unifying force. Massoud's assassination in 2001 presaged the attack on the Twin Towers just two days later and it is widely believed to have been ordered by Osama bin Laden. Forever the underdog in a life dominated by conflict, Massoud's attempts to build political consensus in Afghanistan were ultimately frustrated. Despite that, he is recognised today as a national hero.Trade Review"A new book drawing on... years of reporting from Afghanistan and Massoud's personal diaries."-- "Diplomat" "Ahmad Shah Massoud was one of the greatest military commanders of the 20th century and was instrumental in forcing the Soviets to retreat from Afghanistan in 1989. Yet, he is now barely known in the West. That will surely change as a result of Gall's authoritative, beautifully written and deeply reported biography of Massoud."--Peter Bergen, author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden "Gall's knowledge of the jihad is encyclopaedic. He was the first well-known journalist to make the dangerous journey into occupied Afghanistan and bring the human cost of this terrible war to our TV screens. To produce such a book at the age of 93 deserves admiration. . . .A strength of Gall's book is its detailed discussion of Pakistan's malign interference in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are their proxy force."--Matthew Leeming "Spectator" "I can think of no one better than the legendary foreign correspondent Sandy Gall to tell the compelling story of Ahmad Shah Massoud's extraordinary life and death. . . . Gall weaves analysis, first-hand reporting and primary sources into a brilliant and important book."--Jeremy Bowen "The unputdownable story of an authentic Afghan hero by one of the greatest chroniclers of modern Afghanistan's travails, and occasional triumphs."--Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British Ambassador to Afghanistan, and British Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan "This book is essential reading for those who want an insider's understanding of the Afghan civil war."-- "Literary Review" "This is a remarkable book, both a coruscating memoir by Gall and a revealing insight into a guerrilla leader--one whose reputation ranks with the icons of revolutionary insurgency and whose thinking is here revealed in his own words."--Hew Strachan "When conceived several years ago, the book was planned as the largely admiring record of one of the great might-have-beens of history, and also-obliquely-as the last testament of the gallant Sandy Gall himself, who will be 94 in October. It remains both of those things, but the events of the past fortnight also give an urgency to the story."--Charles Moore "Telegraph" "With the West's own military venture in Afghanistan now unravelling, Gall's book serves two timely purposes. One is to retell Massoud's legendary campaign against the Soviets, which saw him dubbed 'the Afghan who won the Cold War'. The other, though, is to ask whether more Western support for him in the 1990s could have led to a better Afghanistan."--Colin Freeman "Telegraph" "Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud by British journalist Sandy Gall, dedicated to Afghanistan's illustrious statesman, is a remarkable undertaking that delves into the multifaceted intricacies of a nation devastated by war and ruined by its adverse geography."-- "Eurasia Review" "Afghan Napoleon offers an overdue portrait of one of the most remarkable figures of the twentieth century. Napoleon tried to conquer the world; Massoud by contrast fought the world-scale Soviet empire to a stand still on behalf of his people from a tiny valley in Afghanistan. In this book we see, not just the daily nuts and bolts of his military genius but catch glimpses of the social graces and the warmth that made this man so beloved among his followers."--Tamim Ansary, author of The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

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Book SynopsisMost accounts of Nigeria's colonisation were written by British officials, presenting it as a noble civilising mission to rid Africans of barbaric superstition and corrupt tribal leadership. Thanks to this skewed writing of history, many Nigerians today still have Empire nostalgia and view the colonial period through rose-tinted glasses. Max Siollun offers a bold rethink: an unromanticised history, arguing compellingly that colonialism had few benevolent intentions, but many unjust outcomes. It may have ended slavery and human sacrifice, but it was accompanied by extreme violence; ethnic and religious identity were cynically exploited to maintain control, while the forceful remoulding of longstanding legal and social practices permanently altered the culture and internal politics of indigenous communities. The aftershocks of this colonial meddling are still being felt decades after independence. Popular narratives often suggest that the economic and political turmoil are homegrown, b

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Book SynopsisExplore the glories of Scotland on an evocative trip to Outlander country. This beautiful book, a companion to the bestselling Outlander's Scotland, introduces more than 25 of the locations featured in the hugely popular TV show, concentrating this time on Seasons 4–6. The intrepid Claire and Jamie Fraser are starting a new life in America that is packed full of the adventure and romance fans have come to expect, against a backdrop of stunning scenery – still provided by breathtaking Scottish settings. Discover the woods near Stirling where the Frasers make their new home, Fraser's Ridge, and the farm shop in East Lothian where the villainous Stephen Bonnet hosts his fight club. You'll see the very tree where Jamie carves his claim to Fraser's Ridge, the beach where Brianna is dramatically rescued in Season 4, and the house that became River Run, Aunt Jocasta's palatial home. Included in the book are useful guides to attractions that can be visited, along with several longer walks around the countryside showcased so beautifully on screen. We also reveal some secret locations for the upcoming Season 7! This gorgeous travel guide is a must-have for the legions of passionate Outlander fans, as well as everyone who loves Scotland.Trade Review‘A real bargain for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the Outlander universe … For the complete experience, why not purchase the original guide book at the same time? That way, no matter where in Scotland you happen to be, or which season’s locations you want to discover, you will be able to make a memorable Outlander connection!’ Outlander Home Page

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Book SynopsisMaged Mandour is an Egyptian political analyst who writes regularly for outlets such as Middle East Eye, openDemocracy, the Arab Digest, and the journal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has made a number of media appearances as a commentator on Egyptian affairs and is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, UK.Trade ReviewMaged Mandour's is a voice that is crucial to an understanding of contemporary Egypt. The acute economic analyses and political acumen he brings to all his work is the measure of a writer committed to rigorous, objective and robust journalism. For anyone even mildly interested in the country and its trajectory Egypt Under Sisi is a must-read. * Wlliam Law, Editor, Arab Digest *Mandour captured the essence of the past decade’s trajectory in Egypt. Maged carefully traces the re-emergence of Egypt’s military within a polarized social and political context. Painstaking, thoughtful, and vivid, Mandour’s voice not only bears witness but cuts through to the crux of Egypt's current dynamics. A highly recommended read for anyone looking to understand Egypt and grapple with its future. * Intissar Fakir, Senior Fellow and Director, Middle East Institute · *In this striking and beautifully written analysis of Egypt under Al-Sisi, Maged Mandour tears away the façade of military continuity, laying bare how, in the wake of Tahrir Square, deep restructuring and ideological transformation concentrated power in a dictatorship that is a radically new phenomenon – not only violently repressive but also structurally barricaded against democracy. It is a shocking, meticulously documented account of the complete militarization of the Egyptian state, which Mandour subtly reveals is also ruinously brittle, a flaw that could eventually shatter the whole edifice. * Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Dr, University of Cambridge, UK *Mandour demonstrates powerfully through this detailed anatomy of the regime of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi that it represents a radical break in modern Egyptian history, differing significantly from all the authoritarian regimes that preceded it since the army overthrew the monarchy in 1952. Mandour makes two special contributions. First, revealing the extent to which “the regime is following a deliberate policy of militarization of civilian institutions.” And second, showing that this regime is wedded to violence to a pathological degree - we are used to associating depraved, pleasure-taking violence to the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, but Sisi’s draws from similar wells. * Yezid Sayigh, Senior Fellow, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center *Egypt under El-Sisi is without a doubt a necessary read for anyone trying to grasp the basic ways Egyptian political life has been transformed under Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. -- Usman Butt * The New Arab *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Genesis Chapter 2: The New Leviathan Chapter 3: There will be blood Chapter 4: Pots, Pans, and Guns Chapter 5: Ozymandias

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Book SynopsisExamines Eighth Army''s 1,000-strong tank force rebuilt, reorganized, and equipped with brand-new Sherman and Churchill tanks that secured victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein.When Eighth Army retired into the defensive line at El Alamein on 30 June 1942, it was tired, dispirited and had lost almost all its tanks during a string of defeats at Gazala, Tobruk and Mersa Matruh. After savage defensive fighting at First Alamein, the reinforced Desert Rats defeated Rommel''s last offensive in a tank-to-tank clash at Alam Halfa in September. The next month, a completely rebuilt and reorganized Eighth Army, equipped with over 1,000 tanks including the American M4 Sherman, launched the offensive that would finally drive Rommel out of Africa.Montgomery shaped the Eighth Army according to his own military ideas, and on 23 October was able to attack the Axis defenses with the largest force of armoured divisions in its history, with the 1st, 8th and 10th united in Table of ContentsCONTENTS INTRODUCTION - Armoured force evolution, organization and doctrine - October 1942: The Eighth Army Order of Battle TECHNICAL FACTORS - Cruisers and Crusaders - Stuarts, Grants and Shermans - Infantry support tanks THE CAMPAIGN - The assault: 23rd October 1942 - Reset and 'dog fight' - Operation Supercharge ASSESSMENT AND IMPLICATIONS FURTHER READING INDEX

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