Middle Eastern history Books
OUP India The SovietIsraeli War 19671973 The Ussrs Military
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£40.50
OUP India Islam and the Arab Revolutions
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£70.00
OUP India Reinventing the Sheikhdom
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£34.95
OUP India The Terrorist Image
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£50.00
OUP India Fear and Insecurity
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£47.50
OUP India Jihadi Politics
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£37.50
OUP India The Sacred Republic
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£60.00
OUP India Americas Middle East
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Soundings at Tell Fakhariyah 79 Oriental
Book SynopsisAn imposing array of scholars have united to pay a debt of piety to the late C. W. McEwan, whose untimely death in 1950 forestalled the publication of his campaign at Tell Fakhariyah, which took place in 1940.
£48.09
The University of Chicago Press Writing Law and Kingship in Old Babylonian
Book SynopsisAncient Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now western Iraq and eastern Syria, is considered to be the cradle of civilization - home of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, as well as the great Code of Hammurabi. This book focuses on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia.Trade Review"Charpin is to be congratulated, for he has furthered considerably our understanding of an important period in Mesopotamian history." - Journal of the American Oriental Society"
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press Jerusalem 1900 The Holy City in the Age of
Book SynopsisPerhaps the most contested patch of earth in the world, Jerusalem's Old City experiences consistent violent unrest between Israeli and Palestinian residents, with seemingly no end in sight. Today, Jerusalem's endless cycle of riots and arrests appears intractable even unavoidable and it looks unlikely that harmony will ever be achieved in the city. But with Jerusalem 1900, historian Vincent Lemire shows us that it wasn't always that way, undoing the familiar notion of Jerusalem as a lost cause and revealing a unique moment in history when a more peaceful future seemed possible. In this masterly history, Lemire uses newly opened archives to explore how Jerusalem's elite residents of differing faiths cooperated through an inter-community municipal council they created in the mid-1860s to administer the affairs of all inhabitants and improve their shared city. These residents embraced a spirit of modern urbanism and cultivated a civic identity that transcended religion and reflected the relatively secular and cosmopolitan way of life of Jerusalem at the time. These few years would turn out to be a tipping point in the city's history a pivotal moment when the horizon of possibility was still open, before the council broke up in 1934, under British rule, into separate Jewish and Arab factions. Uncovering this often overlooked diplomatic period, Lemire reveals that the struggle over Jerusalem was not historically inevitable and therefore is not necessarily eternal. Jerusalem 1900 sheds light on how the Holy City once functioned peacefully and illustrates how it might one day do so again.
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press Return to Casablanca Jews Muslims and an Israeli
Book SynopsisIn this book, Israeli anthropologist Andre Levy returns to his birthplace in Casablanca to provide a deeply nuanced and compelling study of the relationships between Moroccan Jews and Muslims there. Ranging over a century of history-from the Jewish Enlightenment and the impending colonialism of the late nineteenth century to today's modern Arab state-Levy paints a rich portrait of two communities pressed together, of the tremendous mobility that has characterized the past century, and of the paradoxes that complicate the cultural identities of the present. Levy visits a host of sites and historical figures to assemble a compelling history of social change, while seamlessly interweaving his study with personal accounts of his returns to his homeland. Central to this story is the massive migration of Jews out of Morocco. Levy traces the institutional and social changes such migrations cause for those who choose to stay, introducing the concept of contraction to depict the way Jews deal w
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press Giza and the Pyramids
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£999.99
The University of Chicago Press No Exit Arab Existentialism JeanPaul Sartre and
Book SynopsisAn analysis of the major role played by Sartre as both figure and philosopher in the development of political thought in post-colonial Arab countries.
£999.99
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Sumerological Studies in Honor of Thorkild
Book SynopsisA collection of synthetic articles covering the field of Sumerology, including: Nissen on the geography of Sumer, Tom B Jones on the administrative archives, Edzard on the Sumerian oath, Diakonoff on writing, Civil on lexicography, and Sjöberg, Hallo, and Wilcke on different aspects of the Sumerian literary corpus.
£999.99
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Excavations at Nippur Eleventh Season 22 Oriental
Book SynopsisThe first results of a program of research at Nippur, the holy city of Mesopotamia. This program, bringing together an interdisciplinary team to work on a historical site in Mesopotamia, focuses on the entire city, not just the sacred aspects.
£22.58
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Studies in Honor of John A. Wilson 35 Studies in
Book SynopsisThis book is made up of twelve articles, contributed in honour of the seventieth birthday of John A. Wilson by his students and colleagues of the Oriental Institute.
£13.21
MIT Press Ltd Underground The Secret Life of Videocassettes in
Book SynopsisHow Iranians forged a vibrant, informal video distribution infrastructure when their government banned all home video technology in 1983.In 1983, the Iranian government banned the personal use of home video technology. In Underground, Blake Atwood recounts how in response to the ban, technology enthusiasts, cinephiles, entrepreneurs, and everyday citizens forged an illegal but complex underground system for video distribution. Atwood draws on archival sources including trade publications, newspapers, memoirs, films, and laws, but at the heart of the book lies a corpus of oral history interviews conducted with participants in the underground. He argues that videocassettes helped to institutionalize the broader underground within the Islamic Republic.As Atwood shows, the videocassette underground reveals a great deal about how people construct vibrant cultures beneath repressive institutions. It was not just that Iranians gained access to banned movies, but rather
£33.00
Yale University Press Ramesses the Great
Book SynopsisThe life, dramatic reign, and enduring legacy of the pharaoh Ramesses the Great, with lessons for the present, from internationally acclaimed Egyptologist Toby WilkinsonTrade Review“The author succeeds in bringing this distant age to life through telling detail and insightful analysis. . . . Whenever he can, the author takes advantage of opportunities to peer beneath the mask.”—The Economist“In this brilliantly engaging and sympathetic portrait, Toby Wilkinson has harnessed all his investigative and story-telling power to unveil the mystery of the man who became the only Pharaoh in over twenty-six centuries to be given the title ‘Great.’ In Toby’s hands, Ramesses—despite his unique title—feels like a character we all know only too well from the past and the present.”—Michael Scott, author of Ancient Worlds: An Epic History of East and West“To include so much about an amazingly larger-than-life personality within such a small space is a remarkable achievement. A marvel of concise and accurate biography.”—John Coleman Darnell, coauthor of Egypt’s Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth
£18.99
Hachette Books Saladin
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£18.99
Vintage Canada The Moral Lives of Israelis Reinventing the Dream
Book SynopsisThe Moral Lives of Israelis explores the last ten years of life in Israel, a sixty-one-year-old country that has never not been in a state of war. The last words given to David Berlin by his father, a Sabra who had fought for Israel's independence, were not words of love for his son and his grandchildren, but this command: Look after my little country. These words set off a huge voyage of exploration and remembrance for Berlin. The result is a thrilling blend of memoir, reportage and original thinking on the place of Israel in the world. The fundamental question that floats over every page of this passionate book is, with so many missteps and in a region deeply fraught with antagonism, racism and misunderstanding, how can Israel move forward? After many dead ends and twists and turns, it is the nineteenth-century visionary father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, who ultimately sparks Berlin's dream for Israel in the twenty-first century--i
£15.26
Random House USA Inc America and Iran
Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A hugely ambitious, “delightfully readable, genuinely informative” portrait (The New York Times) of the two-centuries-long entwined histories of Iran and America—two powers who were once allies and now adversaries—by an admired historian and former journalist.In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations between these two nations back to the Persian Empire of the eighteenth century—the subject of great admiration by Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams—and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. Drawing on years of archival research both in the United States and Iran—including access to Iranian government archives rarely available to Western scholars—the Iranian-born, Oxford-educated historian leads us through the four seasons of U.S.–Iran relations: the spring of mutual fascination; the summer of early interactions; the autumn of close strategic ties; and the long, dark winter of mutual hatred. Ghazvinian makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong. America and Iran shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies—and why it didn’t have to turn out this way.
£17.10
Three Rivers Press In the Shadow of the Sword
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£17.85
Harperchristian Resources Conquest Canaanites and the Holy City
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£18.23
Mariner Books The Good Assassin
Book SynopsisInspiration for the hit new podcast 'Hunting the Butcher'The untold story of an Israeli spy’s epic journey to bring the notorious Butcher of Latvia to justice—a case that altered the fates of all ex-Nazis. Before World War II, Herbert Cukurs was a famous figure in his small Latvian city, the “Charles Lindbergh of his country”. But he was soon better known as the Butcher of Latvia, a man who murdered some thirty thousand Jews. By 1965, a statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes threatened to expire, potentially absolving ex-Nazis like Cukurs of their crimes. Jacob Medad, the misfit Mossad agent who had previously kidnapped Adolf Eichmann, knew if Cukurs was not captured soon, he may never be brought to justice. In a thrilling undercover operation, Medad traveled to Cukurs’ new home in Brazil in an elaborate disguise, befriended him, and earned his trust, while negotiations to extend Nazi innoce
£15.29
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc The Arab World
Book SynopsisIn the ten years since Anchor first published Elizabeth and Robert Fernea''s award-winning The Arab World: Personal Encounters, vast political and economic shifts have taken place: the end of the Iran/Iraq War and the Lebanese civil war; the outbreak of the Gulf War; the historic 1993 peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians, to name just a few. Which is why the Ferneas, leading scholars in Middle Eastern studies, felt a need to return to the same towns and cities they had written about previously-to see how these changes had affected the region and the people who live in it.The authors reveal the human face of the Arab World as they revisit and talk with newsmakers and colleagues, old friends and new. Their forty years of experience in the region help illuminate the human consequences of changes all too often discussed in abstractions and generalizations: the military conflicts, new urbanization, labor migration, religious revival, as well as radical changes in
£14.24
WW Norton & Co Angels in the Sky
Book SynopsisReads like a World War II thriller, only better because every word is true.... One of the great untold stories of history. Robert Gandt has brought it vividly, unforgettably to life. -Steven Pressfield, best-selling author of Gates of FireTrade Review"Compellingly readable.… [Gandt] recreates the early battles of the War of Independence with an unbridled enthusiasm that captures the reader’s heart." -- The Jerusalem Post"It is always so rewarding to read a book about combat flying written by an author who obviously knows the subject firsthand! Robert Gandt’s latest book on the infant Israeli Air Force fills a real need and shines new light on one of the most heroic battles in history. The prowess of the IAF in recent years has caused us to forget just how precarious was its beginning, and how joyfully the battle was joined by a wide variety of pilots flying airplanes better suited for a museum than combat." -- Walter Boyne, former director of the National Air and Space Museum"These are the forgotten ‘Flying Tigers’ who stepped forward when the world turned away, to fly and fight for the highest stakes—the survival of Israel. A cinematic mélange of heart-pounding history, Angels in the Sky does justice to an epic, unsung story." -- Adam Makos, New York Times best-selling author of A Higher Call"In 1948 a group of ragtag aerial warriors from the four corners of the earth helped save the newborn state of Israel from the armed forces of five Arab states—a David facing Goliath. Improbably, Israel won the war in a miraculous military victory. Books like Angels in the Sky come along once in a generation. You must read it." -- Stephen Coonts, New York Times best-selling author of Flight of the Intruder"Angels in the Sky reads like a World War II thriller, only better because every word is true. The saga of Israel’s fledgling air force and the motley crew of heroes who saved the Jewish state is one of the great, untold stories of history. Robert Gandt has brought it vividly, unforgettably to life." -- Steven Pressfield, best-selling author of Gates of Fire"Angels in the Sky is the best of Robert Gandt. He details the extreme measures that were required to get aircraft out of the United States, Britain, and other countries and into Israel in 1948. But more importantly, he gives life to the aircraft buyers, mechanics, and pilots that were to make up what would become one of the most formidable air forces in the world. Gandt shows us the joy, sorrow, comradeship, and trust that was shared by the foreign and Jewish members of the group. A terrific read for anyone." -- David North, former editor in chief, Aviation Week & Space Technology"A well-told aviation history unlike any other. Beechcraft Bonanza bombers, B-movie Beaufighters, ersatz Messerschmitts, a bogus airline, and battle-tested veterans from every corner of the world—all to save a new nation in terrible peril. A truly amazing yarn." -- William Garvey, editor in chief, Business & Commercial Aviation"It takes a serious pilot to adequately describe serious aerial adventures, and Robert Gandt does that better than anyone. Angels in the Sky digs into one of the most exciting chapters in aviation history: the three-dimensional battle for the birth of a nation—Israel. He brings the ragtag pilots and their ragtag air force to life in a way that gives new dimension to the meaning and value of independence." -- Budd Davisson, editor in chief, Flight Journal"Robert Gandt understands pilots and he understands flying, which are not always the same thing. Angels in the Sky is… an enjoyable, balanced description of the origin of one of the world’s leading air forces. Strap in tight, turn up the oxygen, and set the gunsight for ‘pegged range,’ because it’s a wild ride." -- Barrett Tillman, author of Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942–1945"Fascinating." -- Elliot Resnick - Jewish Press
£12.99
WW Norton & Co They Will Have to Die Now
Book SynopsisA Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2019 “It’s a small miracle that a writer as good as James Verini witnessed the battle of Mosul.… It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades.” —George PackerTrade Review"[James Verini] has written not only a deeply human account of the conflict but also a fascinating historical investigation of Mosul itself." -- Elliott Ackerman - New York Times Book Review"Verini’s firsthand account of the Battle of Mosul is a thing of terrible beauty." -- Jonathan Franzen"[A] deeply reported, beautifully written first-person account." -- Anne Barnard - Foreign Affairs"Superb.… Verini has provided us, at great physical risk, and with impressive intellectual rigor, a map of the complex factors that determined—and still determine—our success or failure against groups like ISIS in Iraq." -- Phil Klay - American Affairs Journal"A painful, moving, and necessary read.… [Verini] was able to capture the truth of war in Iraq (and of Iraq itself) in a way that precious few writers have. In fact, he helped me to make more sense, over a decade later, of my own deployment." -- David French - National Review"A vivid and bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS. They Will Have to Die Now will stand up with some of the best war reporting." -- Tom Bowman - NPR"They Will Have to Die Now is an exceptional study both of modern war and of the most significant battle in the war against Islamic State. I read each page with relish and gratitude." -- Anthony Lloyd - Times (UK)"[An] eloquent, awesome account." -- Robert Fisk - Independent"A necessary book… Verini’s front-line reporting is exhilarating." -- Duncan White - Telegraph"Most war reporters pay short visits to the front lines, grabbing images and stories that shock us and, at their best, sketch a few details of the larger story. Great ones, like Verini, immerse you in the danger and horror and thrill and black comedy of these places with novelistic detail." -- Mark Bowden - Airmail
£13.29
WW Norton & Co Tutankhamuns Trumpet Ancient Egypt in 100
Book SynopsisMarking the one hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s magnificent tomb, its incredible treasures are revealed as never before.Trade Review"British historian Toby Wilkinson tells everything we need to know about pharaonic Egypt…Wilkinson writes beautifully, melodically." -- David Luhrssen - Shepherd Express"A fresh history of King Tut and his world, generously illustrated and lucidly written." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)"Wilkinson’s expert discussions touch on each item’s significance to Tutankhamun and what they reveal about daily life in ancient Egypt…Accentuated with black-and-white and color photos, this is an informative and immersive survey of the ancient world." -- Publishers Weekly"Beautifully written, sumptuously illustrated, constantly fascinating and the work of a man who is practised at explaining the past to the present" -- David Aaronovitch - Times (UK)"The cleverness of the book lies in how individual grave goods are used to crack open the mindset of a civilisation… This book thrums with life. To the ancient Egyptians, a pharaoh’s tomb was a ‘resurrection machine’ and, in a sense, they were right. The dead cannot be resurrected but, through the artefacts they used, we can sense the lives they lived. I’ve read many books on ancient Egypt, but I’ve never felt closer to its people." -- James McConnachie - Sunday Times (UK)
£24.69
WW Norton & Co Gods Wolf The Life of the Most Notorious of all
Book Synopsis“[Jeffrey Lee] brings a blockbuster sensibility to this slice of the 12th century Levant.”—Dan Jones, Sunday Times (UK)Trade Review"[Jeffrey Lee] brings a blockbuster sensibility to this slice of the 12th-century Levant, dropping his man in the mountains of the Holy Land and letting him go to work, swinging swords, wooing princesses, toadying to emperors and smearing his enemies in honey before chaining them to the battlements… Reynald was a crusader on steroids: audacious, adventurous and violent. He earned his reputation, and like him or loathe him, his story is worth retelling, more than eight centuries on." -- Dan Jones - The Sunday Times (UK)"Always entertaining… There is nothing saintly, dull or life-denying about God’s Wolf. Reynald’s deliberate excesses are lovingly delineated; the shock value that was his hallmark runs undiluted through its easy and personal chronology… Reynald…is one of those giants of history who may repel but can never be forgotten." -- Minoo Dinshaw - The Spectator (UK)"A cracking read." -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads"A swashbuckling yet scholarly biography of the infamous 12th-century crusader Reynald de Chatillon." -- Sebastian Shakespeare - Tatler"God’s Wolf is well written, well informed, and exciting; in fact, it hooked me in straightaway… It is by far the liveliest work I’ve read on the subject." -- Patricia Crone, former professor of Islamic history, Institute for Advanced Study"God’s Wolf is enormously readable. It is written in a very lively style and with vigour and pace… This is a very exciting book, both scholarly and at the same time accessible to a wider readership." -- Carole Hillenbrand, professor of Islamic history, University of Edinburgh
£20.89
WW Norton & Co They Will Have to Die Now Mosul and the Fall of
Book Synopsis"They Will Have to Die Now is the story of what happened after most Americans stopped paying attention to Iraq…It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades." —George Packer, author of Our Man and The Assassins’ GateTrade Review"Most war reporters pay short visits to the front lines, grabbing images and stories that shock us and, at their best, sketch a few details of the larger story. Great ones, like Verini, immerse you in the danger and horror and thrill and black comedy of these places with novelistic detail." -- Mark Bowden - Airmail"(Verini) has written not only a deeply human account of the conflict but also a fascinating historical investigation of Mosul itself." -- Elliott Ackerman - New York Times"(A) deeply reported, beautifully written first-person account." -- Anne Barnard - Foreign Affairs"A painful, moving, and necessary read… Verini is almost recklessly brave. He embedded himself, whenever he could, with virtually every kind of allied unit fighting ISIS, and he found himself in the middle of the action, constantly. He was present when the snipers opened up, when the car bombs came, and when the mortars fell. (And) because he was so brave — because he spent days, weeks, and months with the men who fought — he was able to capture the truth of war in Iraq (and of Iraq itself) in a way that precious few writers have. In fact, he helped me to make more sense, over a decade later, of my own deployment." -- David French - National Review"A vivid and bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS." -- Tom Bowman - NPR"(An) eloquent, awesome account." -- Robert Fisk - The Independent"A poignant and detailed profile, beautifully written, of people in war… They Will Have to Die Now is an exceptional study both of modern war and of the most significant battle in the war against Islamic State. I read each page with relish and gratitude." -- Anthony Lloyd - The Times"A necessary book… Verini’s front-line reporting is exhilarating." -- Telegraph"Verini’s account is startlingly candid and informed. A deeply thoughtful boots-on-the-ground work about a topic that many of us have stopped thinking about." -- Kirkus Reviews"Verini offers up a searing account of the battle against the Islamic State in Mosul in 2016 and 2017, focusing not just on the clashes with the jihadi fighters but also on the plight of the people caught in the middle of the battling forces ... Verini presents with sensitivity the bloody and complicated history of the area, the fraught feelings Iraqis have towards America and its involvement in their country, and the way conflict with the Islamic State has ripped families apart. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand this ongoing and tragic conflict." -- Booklist"A deadly accurate, richly illuminating, profoundly saddening work." -- Gen. Merrill McPeak, US Air Force Chief of Staff, Ret."They Will Have to Die Now is the story of what happened after most Americans stopped paying attention to Iraq. It’s a small miracle that a writer as good as James Verini witnessed the battle of Mosul. His book is erudite, humane, bleakly funny, and unbearably sad. It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades." -- George Packer, author of Our Man and The Assassins’ Gate"An urgent, scalding, hallucinatory work of war reportage, in the tradition of Michael Herr and Philip Gourevitch. His account…captures the horror, the nobility, and the sheer grinding absurdity of twenty-first-century warfare…A significant achievement." -- Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times best-selling author of Say Nothing"They Will Have to Die Now is a vivid, captivating, compelling, and graphic account of the major battle against the Islamic State in Iraq, the Battle for Mosul…James Verini conveys brilliantly the often tragic ancient and modern history of Iraq, and he captures superbly the brutal reality of one of the most intense urban battles since WWII. In so doing, he describes the terrible hardships experienced by the Moslawis and both the worst and the best of mankind in war." -- Gen. David Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) former commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, and former director of the CIA"Verini’s firsthand account of the Battle of Mosul is a thing of terrible beauty." -- Jonathan Franzen"James Verini’s book stands comparison with the pathbreaking works of modern war journalism that meld into great literature. One has to go back to the Vietnam War and Michel Herr’s Dispatches to find such a vivid, poignant, and historically grounded narrative of an appalling war; a war caused no little by the misdeeds, missteps, and malevolence of the myriad powers and forces that have tried to dominate the Middle East." -- Ali Allawi, former minister of finance, defense, and trade of Iraq"With the eye of a novelist and a historian’s sweep, James Verini tells a moving, gripping, complexly layered story of Mosul, from the private calamities of its present to the buried dynasties of its past." -- Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning"This is a stunning book, brave in its reporting and beautiful in its writing. It is funny and sad and seared into me, and I can’t recommend it highly enough, not just to people interested in the truth of a war but to anyone in search of the truth of humanity." -- David Finkel, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter at the Washington Post and author of The Good Soldiers"This is such an important and deeply nuanced book. Verini paints absolutely convincing portraits of the Iraqi soldiers trying to take their broken country back, and in humanizing them, he joins the ranks of Liebling and Pyle and Gellhorn—American journalists able to embed so selflessly with soldiers, to listen first and theorize rarely, to tell a story as it happened. He does us and the Iraqis trying to rebuild, after decades of catastrophic war, a service." -- Dave Eggers, best-selling author of Zeitoun, A Hologram for the King, and The Circle"The definitive account of one of the most pivotal and bitter military campaigns of the modern era…This isn’t typical military history, though, but an eyewitness account of what happens to ordinary people who find themselves living on the battlefield, the compromises they must make to stay alive…This is war reporting at its very best." -- Scott Anderson, author of Lawrence in Arabia"James Verini plunges you into the heart of the climactic battle of the Iraq War and won’t let you leave. He seems to be everywhere, gets to know everyone, vividly chronicles everything he sees and hears—and never once calls attention to himself. The weapons may be new—drones and iPads and executions on YouTube—but the blood and confusion and betrayal are as old as war itself. They Will Have To Die Now is an astonishment." -- Geoffrey C. Ward, coauthor of Ken Burns’s The Civil War, The War, and The Vietnam War
£20.89
WW Norton & Co A World Beneath the Sands The Golden Age of
Book SynopsisA thrilling history of the West’s scramble for the riches of ancient Egypt by the foremost Egyptologist of our time.Trade Review"Riveting… [Wilkinson] has mastered the facts with painstaking research and allowed them to speak for themselves. Rarely do facts speak this clearly." -- Rosemary Mahoney - New York Times Book Review"A fascinating new history." -- The Economist"Wilkinson marshals a wealth of detail into a cohesive and entertaining narrative. The result is an essential portrait of how the rediscovery of '[Egypt’s] ancient past paved the way for its modern rebirth.'" -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Few can bring us ancient Egypt with such dynamism as Toby Wilkinson. In A World Beneath the Sands, he has excelled himself in bringing to life the intriguing and swashbuckling story of Egypt’s discovery. He shows us how much what we seek from the past has always told us about ourselves." -- Michael Scott, author of Ancient Worlds
£13.99
University of Michigan Press Baghdad Bulletin Dispatches on the American Occupation
£999.99
The University of Michigan Press Between the Middle East and the Americas
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£999.99
Not Stated Egyptian Made
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£24.00
Random House USA Inc Red Line
Book SynopsisIn Red Line, Joby Warrick, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Black Flags, shares the thrilling unknown story of America’s mission in Syria: to find and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons and keep them out of the hands of the Islamic State.In August 2012, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. When secret intelligence revealed that the dictator might resort to using chemical weapons, President Obama warned that doing so would cross “a red line.” Assad did it anyway, bombing the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas, killing hundreds of civilians, and forcing Obama to decide if he would mire America in another unpopular war in the Middle East. When Russia offered to broker the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, Obama leapt at the out. So began an electrifying race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the midst of a raging civil war. The extraordinary little-known effort is a triumph for the Americans, but soon Russia’s long game becomes clear: it will do anything to preserve Assad’s rule. As America’s ability to control events in Syria shrinks, the White House learns that ISIS, building its caliphate in Syria’s war-tossed territory, is seeking chemical weapons for itself, with an eye to attack the West. Drawing on astonishing original reporting, Warrick crafts a character-driven narrative that reveals how the United States embarked on a bold adventure to prevent one catastrophe but could not avoid a tragic chain of events that led to another.
£15.30
Mariner Books Hunting Eichmann
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£15.15
Random House USA Inc The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt
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£21.60
Random House USA Inc Arab and Jew
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£17.85
Random House USA Inc Papyrus
£14.71
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Papyrus
Book SynopsisA rich exploration of the importance of books and libraries in the ancient world that highlights how humanity’s obsession with the printed word has echoed throughout the ages • “Accessible and entertaining.” —The Wall Street JournalLong before books were mass-produced, scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world. Emperors and Pharaohs were so determined to possess them that they dispatched emissaries to the edges of earth to bring them back. When Mark Antony wanted to impress Cleopatra, he knew that gold and priceless jewels would mean nothing to her. So, what did her give her? Books for her library—two hundred thousand, in fact. The long and eventful history of the written word shows that books have always been and will always be a precious—and precarious—vehicle for civilization. Papyrus is the story of the book’s journ
£31.50
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Book SynopsisSUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning historian and broadcaster comes an immersive, awe-inspiring tour of the ancient sites that kindle our imagination and afford us a glimpse into our shared history“This fascinating book is brimming with stories of people and places, all told with Bettany’s natural sense of wonder and adventure.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, New York Times bestselling author of The WorldFor millennia, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have been known for their aesthetic sublimity, ingenious engineering, and sheer, audacious magnitude: The Great Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus, the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse at Alexandria. Echoing down time, each of these persists in our imagination as an emblem of the glory of antiquity, but beneath the familiar images is a surprising, revelatory history. Guiding us through it is historian Bettany Hughes, who has traveled to each of the sites to uncover the latest archaeological discoveries and bring these monuments and the distinct cultures that built them back to breathtaking life. Spellbinding, richly illustrated, and full of insight, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is a journey into the indomitable ambition and creativity of the human spirit.Learned and insightful. . . . Vivid. . . . Hughes is particularly adept at conjuring atmosphere from the scantiest ruin. —The Wall Street Journal
£17.00
Westminster/John Knox Press,U.S. Life in Biblical Israel Library of Ancient Israel
Book SynopsisThis volume in the "Library of Ancient Israel" presents a description of the world of Ancient Israel, covering such topics as domestic life, the means of existance, cultural expression and religious practices. It aims to open the door to everyday life in biblical Israel for all readers.
£53.16
Harvard University Press The First Crusade
Book SynopsisAccording to tradition, the First Crusade began at Pope Urban II’s instigation and culminated in July 1099, when western European knights liberated Jerusalem. But what if the First Crusade’s real catalyst lay far to the east of Rome? Countering nearly a millennium of scholarship, Peter Frankopan reveals the First Crusade’s untold history.Trade ReviewHighly readable… The First Crusade tells a complex story, but its presentation of political machinations, compromises, and betrayals seems utterly convincing. The harsh truths of realpolitik are, alas, with us always. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post *Frankopan’s reassessment of the first crusade through the prism of Byzantium is a useful corrective to the mass of western-centric crusade history… This book offers an accessible and convincing account of the crusade, which was both concocted and executed under the long shadow of Byzantium. -- Josh Glancy * Sunday Times *In his project to give fuller credit to those Byzantine and Turkish leaders who actually caused the First Crusade, Frankopan proves refreshingly undaunted by the prospect of scaling the citadel of almost a thousand years of scholarship. He is like the Byzantine warrior he describes who invented an ingenious flying bomb, ‘coating young birds with pine resin mixed with wax and sulphur before setting fire to them and despatching them back to their nests inside the walls of the city he was besieging.’ Scholarly and yet accessible, and unapologetically partisan, The First Crusade, as any vibrant history should, is bound to set a lot of feathers flying… All in all, The First Crusade is a persuasive and bracing work. Peter Frankopan is not yet well known, but he deserves to be. One trusts him to go on ploughing his own furrow and not join the brat-pack of historians. -- Nicholas Shakespeare * The Telegraph *Frankopan’s qualities as a historian and a writer are of a high order… It is pleasing to see [the Byzantine view of the First Crusade] updated with scholarship and flair. * BBC History *The Crusades have been at the center of Western thought for 1,000 years, and have been the subject of too many books to count: For Crusades buffs, it sometimes feels like there is nothing new under the sun, and for beginners, it can be difficult to know where to start. Oxford historian Peter Frankopan has crafted a narrative and an argument that will appeal to both groups. In the popular imagination, the First Crusade begins with Pope Urban II’s stirring speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Frankopan reminds us there is another side to the story. The idea for the crusade, he writes, originated in the East, in a desperate yet strategic plea to the West issued by Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, whose bold but misguided policies had placed his empire in grave danger. Much of the book is devoted to this often-overlooked Byzantine context, and it makes for a welcome rectification and lively reading. Frankopan’s most interesting contribution is the idea that Alexios ‘knew how to appeal to Westerners,’ and created the Jerusalem objective as a selling point. -- Benjamin Soloway * The Daily *Frankopan [writes] with tremendous literary verve… [The] cry to free Jerusalem has never been better expressed… Frankopan’s creative revisionism pierces the armor of medieval history with a new weapon: the call of the East. -- Colin Gardiner * Oxford Times *That rare thing—a truly fresh interpretation of an old story. * Time Out *Frankopan’s work will challenge scholars while interesting and entertaining general readers… The overall contribution of this engagingly written and well-researched book is substantial. -- S. A. Throop * Choice *In a field near Clermont, France, on November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II issued a rousing call to arms, a march to Jerusalem to retake the Holy City from the infidel Muslims who for more than 20 years had been invading and conquering lands belonging to Christians. Four years later, European armies arrived in Jerusalem and drove out the Muslims, retaking the city for Christendom. Yet, as historian Frankopan, a fellow at Oxford, so forcefully reminds us in this cracking good story of political and religious intrigue, the real reason that Urban II rallied the forces that day was an urgent message from Alexios I Komnenos, emperor of Byzantium, whose political authority had begun to decline and whose empire was under attack on all sides by Muslim forces. Alexios called upon Urban, who sent troops immediately. Frankopan draws deeply upon the Alexiad, written several decades later by Komnenos’s daughter, Anna, and he presents a vivid portrait of a man whose early political ineptness created division in his empire, but whose boldness launched the Crusades and changed the shape of the medieval world by expanding the geographic, cultural, and political horizons of Europe. * Publishers Weekly *Filled with Byzantine intrigue in every sense, this book is important, compellingly revisionist and impressive in its scholarly use of totally fresh sources. It refocuses the familiar western story through the eyes of the emperor of the east and fills in the missing piece of the puzzle of the Crusades. -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The BiographyA dazzling book, perfectly combining deep scholarship and easy readability. The most important addition to Crusading literature since Steven Runciman. -- John Julius Norwich, author of ByzantiumIn this fluent and dramatic account, Peter Frankopan rightly places the Emperor Alexios at the heart of the First Crusade and in doing so skillfully adds a dimension frequently missing from our understanding of this seminal event. Frankopan illuminates the complex challenges that faced Alexios and deftly depicts the boldness and finesse needed to survive in the dangerous world of medieval Byzantium. -- Jonathan Phillips, author of Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the CrusadesPeter Frankopan’s reassessment of the Byzantine contribution to the origins and course of the First Crusade offers a compelling and challenging balance to traditional accounts. Based on fresh interpretations of primary sources, lucidly written and forcefully argued, The First Crusade: The Call from the East will demand attention from scholars while providing an enjoyable and accessible narrative for the general reader. -- Christopher Tyerman, author of God’s War: A New History of the Crusades
£19.90
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Israel
Book Synopsis“The most comprehensive account of Israeli history yet published.” — The Sunday Telegraph“An epic history . . . a picture of an Israel that persevered and prevailed, that was determined to survive and was unwilling to trust its independence to others but sought peace whenever possible.” — Foreign AffairsIsrael is a small and relatively young country, but since the day of its creation more than half a century ago, its turbulent history has placed it squarely at the center of the world stage. For two millennia the Jews, dispersed all over the world, prayed for a return to Zion. Until the nineteenth century, that dream seemed a fantasy, but then a secular Zionist movement was born and soon the initial trickle of Jewish immigrants to Palestine turned into a flood as Jews fled persecution in Europe. From these beginnings, preeminent histori
£21.59
Yale Babylonian Collection Ex Oriente Lux et Veritas
Book SynopsisThe essays in this book place Edward Elbridge Salisbury in the context of 19th-century Orientalism, with emphasis on the interconnected growth of Assyriology in Northern Europe and America. Salisbury was a founding figure in the development of ancient Near Eastern, Arabic, and Sanskrit studies. 3 colour and 4 b&w illustrations.Trade Review Table of Contents Acknowledgments About the Cover Salisbury and Yale (Karen Polinger Foster) Orientalism's Lonely Years: The Case of Edward Salisbury (Suzanne Marchand) Edward Salisbury and A. I. Silvestre de Sacy (Benjamin R. Foster) Assyriological Peripheries: Early Mesopotamian Studies in Scandinavia (Gojko Barmamovic) Between Microphilology, Academic Politics, and the Aryan Jesus: Paul Haupt, Hermann Hilprecht, and the Birth of American Assyriology (Eckart Frahm) Appendix I: Salisbury's Letter of Appointment Appendix II: Salisbury's Seals, 160 Years Later: Two Neo-Assyrian Cylinders from AOS to YBC (Agnete Wisti Lassen) Notes on Contributors
£999.99
British Museum Press The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia A New
Book Synopsis
£34.68
Free Press Israelis Ordinary People In an Extraordinary Land
Book Synopsis
£16.99
