Search results for ""Author Merchant"

It has been called a "Noble Possession", abused as "A Nest of Corsairs" and extolled as "The Pearl of the Mediterranean". This city of Tripoli, one of the oldest on both the Mediterranean and the fringes of the Sahara, and never deserted, has meant many different things to many different people over the past 2,500 years. To its first outside visitors, the trading Phoenicians, it was a safe haven and a market. To its later Roman colonizers it was an outlet for the low grade pastoral produce of its Saharan hinterland. Under Muslim Arab rule it became a wealthy transit market, trading with three continents, while under its Turkish and Karamanli rulers, it was notorious for its corsair galleys that preyed on the merchant shipping of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. After the Napoleonic Wars the city took on a new role as a base for the trans-Saharan exploration and penetration of inner Africa, with British pioneers followed by Germans, French and Italians. In 1911 Italy invaded this last remaining Turkish possession in North Africa, soon transforming a neglected exiles' outpost into an imposing capital symbolizing Fascist imperial pretensions. Tripoli's fall to the British Eighth Army in January 1943 was seen as a turning point in World War Two, while in 1951 its role as joint capital of the newly-independent Kingdom of Libya marked the start of Africa's post- colonial era. Oil found in Libya in the 1950s and 1960s made Tripoli rich - and a prize that fell in 1969 to the rising forces of Arab nationalism personified by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. During his 42 years of eccentric rule, Tripoli was transformed into a mega-city, one hundred times greater in extent and population that it had been a century earlier. But by 2015 continuing post-Gaddafi anarchy and depleting oil reserves made the city's future seem as precarious and uncertain as ever it had been. Mixing personal observation and research with accounts from foreign travellers and residents, John Wright reveals the reality of this unique, remarkable and ever-vibrant city: a city with special social, cultural and linguistic "flavours" that not even visitors from other parts of the Arab World can always understand or define.

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Democracy is overrated. Capitalism, on the other hand, doesn't get enough credit. In this provocative and engaging book, John Mueller argues that these mismatches between image and reality create significant political and economic problems--inspiring instability, inefficiency, and widespread cynicism. We would be far better off, he writes, if we recognized that neither system is ideal or disastrous and accepted instead the humdrum truth that both are "pretty good." And, to Mueller, that means good enough. He declares that what is true of Garrison Keillor's fictional store "Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery" is also true of democracy and capitalism: if you can't get what you want there, "you can probably get along without it." Mueller begins by noting that capitalism is commonly thought to celebrate greed and to require discourtesy, deceit, and callousness. However, with examples that range from car dealerships and corporate boardrooms to the shop of an eighteenth-century silk merchant, Mueller shows that capitalism in fact tends to reward behavior that is honest, fair, civil, and compassionate. He argues that this gap between image and reality hampers economic development by encouraging people to behave dishonestly, unfairly, and discourteously to try to get ahead and to neglect the virtuous behavior that is an important source of efficiency and gain. The problem with democracy's image, by contrast, is that our expectations are too high. We are too often led by theorists, reformers, and romantics to believe that democracy should consist of egalitarianism and avid civic participation. In fact, democracy will always be chaotic, unequal, and marked by apathy. It offers reasonable freedom and security, but not political paradise. To idealize democracy, Mueller writes, is to undermine it, since the inevitable contrast with reality creates public cynicism and can hamper democracy's growth and development. Mueller presents these arguments with sophistication, wit, and erudition. He combines mastery of current political and economic literature with references to figures ranging from Plato to P. T. Barnum, from Immanuel Kant to Ronald Reagan, from Shakespeare to Frank Capra. Broad in scope and rich in detail, the book will provoke debate among economists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the problems (or non-problems) of modern democracy and capitalism.

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In Fierce Enigmas, prize-winning historian Srinath Raghavan argues that we cannot understand the US's entanglement in South Asia without first understanding the long sweep of American interaction with the nations and peoples who comprise it. Starting with the first attempts by Americans in the late eighteenth century to gain a foothold in the India trade, Raghavan narrates the forgotten role of American merchants, missionaries, and travelers in the history of region. For these early adventurers and exploiters, South Asia came to be seen not just as an arena of trade and commerce, but also as a site for American efforts-religious and secular-to remake the world in its own image. By the 1930s, American economic interests and ideals had converged in support for decolonization; not only should the peoples of the region be free to determine their own governments and futures, but they should be fully integrated into a liberal capitalist global order. These dreams were partially realized after the Second World War, with Indian Independence and Partition in 1947-and with Britain no longer in the picture, US involvement in the region steadily increased, in the form of short-sighted and ultimately counterproductive policies. In the 1950s, the Truman administration centered its approach to South Asia on the containment of communism, thereby helping split the region in two: while Pakistan was eager for American weapons and military support, India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to align with either the US or the Soviet Union. In the 1970s, the US chose to support Islamists in Afghanistan, seeing them as a bulwark against communist advance. Yet Pakistan would become a formidable adversary for the US, while the militants in Afghanistan would eventually be using their arms against American troops. Time and time again, India, Pakistan, and to a lesser extent Afghanistan have each managed to extract commitments and concessions from the US that have served mostly to fuel the fires of nationalism and sectarianism, even as signs of liberalization have continued to entice American policymakers. Drawing on a vast and diverse array of official documents and private correspondence, Raghavan has written a sweeping, definitive history of the US in South Asia that at the same time suggests the many challenges ahead.

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Revised by John V. Noel, Jr., Captain, U.S. Navy [Ret.] Associate Editors: Commander Frank E. Bassett, U.S. Navy [Ret.] Dr. Carvel Blair and Prof. Dee Fitch Steer by this venerable guide to shiphandling and safety and you’ll easily see why, since publication of the first edition 83 years ago, it has been the single-most trusted "beacon" for millions of pleasure boaters and professional seamen alike. Now in its eighteenth edition, Knight’s Modern Seamanship continues the salty tradition of its predecessors. It supplies all the navigation techniques, safety laws and procedures, and maintenance practices you need to make each ocean-going trip safe and enjoyable. Typhoon up ahead? Knight’s explains the effects of weather on ocean travel and spells out exactly what you have to do to avoid dangerous weather systems. What kind of communication equipment should you have on board? A new section on ship communications tells you how to select and operate modern communication devices. This eighteenth edition also provides you with new sections on channel marking, towing and salvage, and the maritime buoyage system. Updated guidance is given on: the rules of the road—you get clear explanations of right of way, the use of radar to avoid collisions, and the law in fog; included is the complete text of the Inland Navigational Rules Act of 1980. Every vessel over 12 meters in length is required by law to have a copy of these rules on board. shiphandling—you’ll find expert discussions on docking, mooring, and anchoring; helicopter operations; and ice seamanship ship and boat operation—you get concise explanations of ship structure and stability, propulsion and steering, ground tackle, and cargo handling and underway replenishment You’ll even learn the art of knotting and splicing. Without a doubt, Knight’s Modern Seamanship, Eighteenth Edition, is your foremost guide to mastering the lore of the sea. It is an indispensable reference source for pleasure boaters, merchant marine personnel, and anyone who needs expert seagoing advice.

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Rice University, one of America's preeminent institutions of higher education, grew out of the vision, direction, and leadership of one man: Edgar Odell Lovett (1871--1957). University Builder is the fascinating story of this extraordinary educator and the unique school he created. Widely acknowledged, almost from its founding in 1912, as one of America's best universities, Rice is distinguished as both the smallest and the youngest institution in the top tier of American universities. In telling the tale of Lovett and his innovative, enduring vision for Rice, John Boles provides both a compelling biographical narrative and a refreshing new view of American higher education in the first half of the twentieth century.Lovett was not a Texan; he was not even a southerner. Rather, with two Ph.D.'s in hand, he was a rising star at Princeton University when the trustees of the newly founded Rice Institute--chartered in 1891 by wealthy Houston merchant William Marsh Rice--called him in 1907 to be the school's first president. Working with a significant endowment, a vague charter, a supportive board, and a visionary's gift for planning, Lovett set out on a fact-finding tour of educational institutions around the globe. He transformed the idea of the Institute into a complete university, one that emphasized research as much as teaching and aspired to world-class status. He sought the best architect available to design the campus, lured distinguished faculty from leading universities across the globe to Texas, and constructed a far-reaching vision of a small, carefully planned, elite university that incorporated the most advanced educational practices and shaped Rice's development for the next century. Lovett served as president of Rice for nearly forty years, proving himself to be an exemplary and charismatic leader who inspired two generations of students. He was the creator of Rice University in practically every way. Indeed, perhaps no other American university has been so shaped by its founder's vision. Boles's exceptional account of Lovett's remarkable academic achievement is a vital contribution to the legacy of Rice University and an important addition to the historiography of education in the early twentieth-century South.

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Grubb's comprehensive analysis of his subjects' compelling, if inconspicuous, lives investigates every significant aspect of private experience during the Renaissance: marriage, birth, death, household relations, work, land, social status, and spirituality. Winner of the Society for Italian Historical Studies's Howard R. Marraro PrizeOriginally published in 1996. Historical writing on the Renaissance has usually focused on the social extremes that co-existed in the great metropolitan centers—on either elites or the underclass. As a result, the world of the middling families and provincial societies remains largely unexplored. Daily experiences in the lesser cities are, however, no less rich and revealing than those of Florence, Venice, and Milan. In addition, writes historian James Grubb, these experiences offer new perspectives from which to reassess familiar assumptions about domestic life in the fifteenth century. Based on memoirs and other records left by thirteen merchant families from the Veneto cities of Verona and Vincenza, Provincial Families of the Renaissance is an engrossing study of daily lives that have until now been overlooked by scholars. Grubb examines the attitudes and experiences of families undistinguished in their modest means and local ambitions from the majority of their compatriots, uncovering a detailed historical landscape rich in social obligations, commercial activities, and religious beliefs.Grubb's comprehensive analysis of his subjects' compelling, if inconspicuous, lives investigates every significant aspect of private experience during the Renaissance: marriage, birth, death, household relations, work, land, social status, and spirituality. In reconstructing provincial life in the Veneto, Grubb discovers in his subjects an independence of mind that mediated their reception of metropolitan ideologies far more than the historiography of the Renaissance might suggest. These "unremarkable" provincials were agents of their own destiny, influenced in equal measures by prevailing attitudes, local customs, and personal convictions. "James Grubb is exploring new terrain in this book. Distinguished by its clarity and eloquence, this is a superior work of historical writing and analysis that merits comparison with the best monographs on the social history of Renaissance Italy."—Gene Brucker, University of California at Berkeley

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Hawaiian: Past, Present, Future presents aspects of Hawaiian and its history that are rarely treated in language classes. The major characters in this book make up a diverse cast: Dutch merchants, Captain Cook’s naturalist and philologist William Anderson, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia (the inspiration for the Hawaiian Mission), the American lexicographer Noah Webster, philologists in New England, missionary-linguists and their Hawaiian consultants, and many minor players.The account begins in prehistory, placing the probable origins of the ancestor of Polynesian languages in Mainland Asia. An evolving family tree reflects the linguistic changes that took place as these people moved east. The current versions are examined from a Hawaiian-centered point of view, comparing the sound system of the language with those of its major relatives in the Polynesian triangle. More recent historical topics begin with the first written samples of a Polynesian language in 1616, which led to the birth of the idea of a widespread language family. The next topic is how the Hawaiian alphabet was developed. The first efforts suffered from having too many letters, a problem that was solved in 1826 through brilliant reasoning by its framers and their Hawaiian consultants. The opposite problem was that the alphabet didn’t have enough letters: analysts either couldn’t hear or misinterpreted the glottal stop and long vowels. The end product of the development of the alphabet—literacy—is more complicated than some statistics would have us believe. As for its success or failure, both points of view, from contemporary observers, are presented. Still, it cannot be denied that literacy had a tremendous and lasting effect on Hawaiian culture.The last part of the book concentrates on the most-used Hawaiian reference works—dictionaries. It describes current projects that combine print and manuscript collections on a searchable website. These projects can include the growing body of manuscript and print material that is being made available through recent and on-going research. As for the future, a proposed monolingual dictionary would allow users to avoid an English bridge to understanding, and move directly to a definition that includes Hawaiian cultural features and a Hawaiian world view.

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The success of German submarines during the First World War in almost cutting off Britain's vital imports had not been forgotten by Adolf Hitler and when, in March 1935, he repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, Britain, magnanimously, signed up to an Anglo-German Naval Agreement. This allowed the Germans to build their submarine strength up to one third of the British Royal Navy's tonnage. When war broke out in 1939, German U-boats went quickly into action, but with only four years of production and development, the main armament of these submarines was considerably weaker than equivalent boats in other navies and many of the other main features, such as living and the fighting conditions, were also significantly inferior. Nevertheless, the German U-boat onslaught against British merchant ships during the autumn of 1940 was highly successful because the attacks were made on the surface at night and from such close range that a single torpedo would sink a ship. Soon, though, Allied technology was able to detect U-boats at night, and new convoy techniques, combined with powerfully-armed, fast modern aircraft searching the seas, meant that by 1941 it was clear that Germany was losing the war at sea. Something had to be done. The new generation of attack U-boats that had been introduced since Hitler came to power needed urgent improvement. This is the story of the Types II, VII and IX that had already become the workhorse' of the Kriegsmarine's submarine fleet and continued to put out to sea to attack Allied shipping right up to the end of the war. The Type II was a small coastal boat that struggled to reach the Atlantic; the Type VII was perfectly at home there, but lacked the technology to tackle well protected convoys; whilst the Type IX was a long-range variety that was modified so that it could operate in the Indian Ocean. In this latest book by the renowned Kriegsmarine historian Jak Mallmann Showell, these attack U-boats are explored at length. This includes details of their armament, capabilities, crew facilities, and just what is was like to operate such a vessel, and of course the story of their development and operational history.

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When most people think of the War of 1812, they think of the Niagara frontier, the British burning of the White House, the harrowing tale of Laura Secord, and the much-ballyhooed Battle of New Orleans. But there was more of British North America involved in the war than Upper and Lower Canada. With Great Britain locked in battle with Napoleon's France, the United States pounced on the chance to declare war on Britain. In New Brunswick, the threat of invasion was a very real possibility. Fearing for their lives, families, and property, the people and their legislative assembly adopted every possible measure to make New Brunswick ready for war. However, an officially undeclared state of neutrality was established along the Maine border, and the threat faded. Supporting the British army in its efforts in Upper and Lower Canada and the navy in its operations along the Atlantic coast led to major growth in the province's war economy.As the war moved into its final year and Napoleon's empire fell in Europe, Britain became much more aggressive in its North American campaign. Buoyed by this, the New Brunswick government decided to press its claims to the unresolved international border with Maine. The British military thus occupied the Penobscot River Valley, and northern Maine was declared part of New Brunswick. By the end of the war, and the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, the unresolved border remained unresolved.The economic, political, geographical, and societal results of the War of 1812 continue to be felt in New Brunswick. The war strengthened the colony's ties to Britain, built up its economy, and led to the growth of major cities, especially with the settlement of retiring soldiers. Shipbuilding and supplying the British troops had led to growing profits for farmers, fishermen, merchants, and labourers. Although it would be decades later before the boundary issue was officially settled, there were areas still in dispute. Unlike its Upper and Lower Canadian cousins, the war in New Brunswick may not have involved the burning and pillaging of towns and villages, but its effects were nonetheless important and far-reaching.A Neighbourly War is volume 19 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.

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The authoritative edition of The Comedy of Errors from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is the slapstick farce of his youth. In it, the lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon—both named Antipholus—find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other’s existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive—and has been sentenced to death for the “crime” of being from Syracuse. To add to the confusion, the two Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. As the four men unwittingly encounter each other, the play is crammed with wildly escalating misunderstandings before the truth emerges and Egeon is pardoned. Shakespeare bases his story on Plautus’s Menaechmi, a play about identical twins who accidentally meet after a lifetime apart. He borrows from another Plautus play by having Adriana, the wife of one Antipholus, entertain the other. The spirited Adriana often gives speeches evoking strong emotions—as do other characters at times. Even here, Shakespeare suggests complexities beyond the farce. This edition includes: -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading Essay by Arthur F. Kinney The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

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Ship masters and officers may not seem like pioneers of trade unionism. However, this history of their unique union, Nautilus International, shows how they have been pitched into the forefront of a long struggle for decent jobs, fair pay and conditions, employment rights, and health and safety – all in an international industry marked by savage and cut-throat competition. This book traces the evolution of today’s trans-boundary organisation from its roots in the Victorian-era expansion of the merchant fleet and the moves to raise the status and professionalism of its seafarers. It tells how successive unions have sought to overcome such seemingly perennial problems as piracy, criminalisation, substandard ships, excessive working hours and the threat of being replaced by low-cost crews – not to mention the battle against government indifference and public ignorance of an industry that is essential for an island nation. From the formation, in 1857, of the Mercantile Marine Service Association (MMSA) – the foundation stone in the building of today’s union – the book explains the remarkable ways in which the union has adapted and developed to meet the changing and complex challenges faced by members. From the provision of specialist welfare services and a global network of legal support to its leading role in the development of the international ‘bill of rights’ for seafarers, the union and its forerunners have been at the cutting edge of cradle- to-grave support for members. Pulling Together also describes the way in which the union has helped to produce trail-blazing systems of structure and organisation to represent members against the backdrop of a volatile ‘boom and bust’ industry, often in the face of intense shipowner hostility. Helping to build national negotiating machinery in one of the most open markets of all industries, the union and its predecessors have worked across borders to create a united response to the global challenges they face. With the shipping industry now entering its fourth industrial revolution, this book shows how Nautilus can draw from more than 160 years of history to continue the fight for a fair future for its members.

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MinaLima, the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film franchise and the creators of the illustrated Jungle Book and Peter Pan, reimagine the beloved French fairy tale The Beauty and the Beast in this deluxe unabridged edition illustrated with stunning full-color artwork and nine 3-D interactive features-published to coincide with the release of the blockbuster Disney live-action musical film starring Emma Watson, Ian McKellen, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, and Emma Thompson. Generations of readers have been bewitched by the epic love story of a beautiful young girl imprisoned in the magical castle of a monstrous beast. Now, the classic fairy tale is brought to life in this spectacular illustrated edition as originally envisioned by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. The Beauty and the Beast is packed with specially commissioned, full-color artwork and nine exclusive interactive features, including: * a fold-out map of the rich French city where the Merchant (Beauty's father) and his family reside;* a fold out that reveals the interior of the Beast's enchanted palace;* a series of flaps (similar to an Advent calendar) that open to reveal different entertainments; available to Beauty in the Beast's palace;* a dial of the ring Beauty turns on her finger to return to the Beast. This unique gift edition takes readers on a captivating journey through a mystical land filled with enchanting inhabitants. MiniLima's imaginative artwork, exquisite detail, and engaging design recreate this timeless romantic adventure as never before in a lush unabridged gift edition sure to be cherished for years to come. Disney's live-action movie musical version of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon (Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Dreamgirls), stars Harry Potter alumna Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Luke Evans as Gaston, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Kevin Kline as Maurice, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, and Audra McDonald as Garderobe.

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Essential for any fan of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, this stunning and beautifully illustrated gift book - complete with pull out map - details everything you could possible want and need to know about Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's principal city. Maps, directories, walking tours, accommodation, food and drink - everything is included. No traveller destined for Ankh-Morpork should leave home without it!What readers are saying...'Marvellous - had me giggling like a loon for hours' -- ***** Reader review'A work of art' -- ***** Reader review'I started laughing 2 seconds after opening this book' -- ***** Reader review'Sumptuous' -- ***** Reader review'Amazing' -- ***** Reader review'A must have for all Discworld fans' -- ***** Reader review********************************************************************************Greetings, adventurer! We lay before you this most comprehensive gazetteer encompassing all the streets of Ankh-Morpork, as well as information on its principal businesses, hotels, taverns, inns, and places of entertainment and refreshment - all enhanced by the all-new and compleat map of our great city state.We ask that when you pore over this glorious work, you spare some thought for the humble cartographers and surveyors who made journeys into the darker corners of our metropolis - no less dangerous than the wilds of Skund or Bhangbhangduc. To some the only memorial is the map you now possess. Others, in their quest for knowledge, paid the highest price that scholarship demands, which is to say, a day off in lieu.And so we dedicate this map and these accompanying words to the officers, councillors and members of the Merchants' Guild and to all who will find in its pages paths yet to tread and places yet to explore within the magnificent wonder that is the city of Ankh-Morpork.A gift like no other, this stunning package expertly conjures up the sights, sounds, people and places of Ankh-Morpork in ways fans have previously only been able to imagine.

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Shelby Scates’s thirty-five-year career as a prize-winning journalist and columnist for International News Service, United Press International, the Associated Press, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has taken him to centers of action across this country and to wars and conflicts in many of the world’s danger zones. Born in the rural South in the 1930s, Scates rejected the racism he saw there and in his late teens set out across the United States — eventually to land in Seattle, attend the University of Washington, and launch himself into a world of work, travel, and adventure as a merchant seaman and soldier. He entered journalism as a wire-service reporter hired in Manhattan and assigned to the Dallas bureau. Reporting the political beat brought Scates to Baton Rouge and New Orleans to observe the remarkable performance and influence of Earl Long as governor of Louisiana; in 1957 to Little Rock, Arkansas, to witness a constitutional crisis, the early struggle to integrate the public schools; to Oklahoma City and Dallas; and to Washington, D.C., where he became familiar with both the corridors of Congress and Lyndon Johnson’s Oval Office and Air Force One. He was in Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and its aftermath; in Lebanon and Egypt to learn about the Palestine Liberation Organization; in the Suez to investigate the “War of Attrition”; and in Cambodia during guerrilla fighting against the Vietnamese Army. As a newsman he reported on those American climbers who triumphed, though not without suffering great personal losses, by reaching the top of K2 in 1978. Scates used his considerable journalistic experience and inventiveness to get the story of this epic climb quickly back to the United States. He also describes his own midlife climb of Mt. McKinley with two friends. In a straightforward portrayal of professional life that manifests elements of both The Front Page and All the President’s Men, this memoir is about the particular combination of idealism, persistence, skepticism, and dedication to truthful reporting that marks the best of American journalism.

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An overarching message of Capitalist Manifesto is... WE WERE WARNED In 1965, Robert Kiyosaki left Hilo, Hawaii and reported to the US Merchant Marine Academy, at Kings Point, New York. At the academy, Robert’s economics teacher, encouraged the class to read Marx’s Communist Manifesto, Hitler’s Mein Kompf, and Mao’s Little Book. In 1972, Robert was a US Marine Corp pilot, flying in Vietnam, witnessing lessons learned about communism, at the academy, coming true in real life. In 1973, returning to California, Robert and his troops were greeted by anti-war protestors, hippies of the Woodstock Generation. Marx’s Communist Manifesto was alive and well in America. Marx’s ideology was spreading through America via the education system. In 2020, protestors are parents, protesting mandatory vaccines for their children, wearing of masks, and the teaching of Critical Race Theory, gender identity, and Post-Modernist Education... all Marxist in heritage. WE WERE WARNED. Capitalist Manifesto is a book of warnings. For example: On capitalism Marx warned: “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.” On education Lenin warned: “Give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.” On elections Stalin warned: “It's not the people who vote that count…It's the people who count the votes.” On the Federal Reserve bank Lenin warned: “The establishment of a central bank is 90% of communizing a nation.” On printing money, taxes and inflation Lenin said: “The way to crush the bourgeoise is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. Capitalist Manifesto is dedicated to our freedoms, especially the Freedom of Truth. Capitalist Manifesto is dedicated to seeking out the truth behind the NEA, IRS, and FED — the National Education Association, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Reserve Bank. In Capitalist Manifesto I offer alternatives that any person or family can put in motion. How can we counter communism taught in our schools? By teaching capitalism in our homes.

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WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2020A SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, THE TIMES AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEARFor most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples - for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands. By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves.Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans. From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the globe: 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective - not, as in most global histories, from the land, but from the boundless seas.

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How a pioneering merchant blended religion and business to create a unique American shopping experience On Christmas Eve, 1911, John Wanamaker stood in the middle of his elaborately decorated department store building in Philadelphia as shoppers milled around him picking up last minute Christmas presents. On that night, as for years to come, the store was filled with the sound of Christmas carols sung by thousands of shoppers, accompanied by the store’s Great Organ. Wanamaker recalled that moment in his diary, “I said to myself that I was in a temple,” a sentiment quite possibly shared by the thousands who thronged the store that night. Remembered for his store’s extravagant holiday decorations and displays, Wanamaker built one of the largest retailing businesses in the world and helped to define the American retail shopping experience. From the freedom to browse without purchase and the institution of one price for all customers to generous return policies, he helped to implement retailing conventions that continue to define American retail to this day. Wanamaker was also a leading Christian leader, participating in the major Protestant moral reform movements from his youth until his death in 1922. But most notably, he found ways to bring his religious commitments into the life of his store. He focused on the religious and moral development of his employees, developing training programs and summer camps to build their character, while among his clientele he sought to cultivate a Christian morality through decorum and taste. Wanamaker’s Temple examines how and why Wanamaker blended business and religion in his Philadelphia store, offering a historical exploration of the relationships between religion, commerce, and urban life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and illuminating how they merged in unexpected and public ways. Wanamaker's marriage of religion and retail had a pivotal role in the way American Protestantism was expressed and shaped in American life, and opened a new door for the intertwining of personal values with public commerce.

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How vermin went from being part of everyone's life to a mark of disease, filth, and lower status.For most of our time on this planet, vermin were considered humanity's common inheritance. Fleas, lice, bedbugs, and rats were universal scourges, as pervasive as hunger or cold, at home in both palaces and hovels. But with the spread of microscopic close-ups of these creatures, the beginnings of sanitary standards, and the rising belief that cleanliness equaled class, vermin began to provide a way to scratch a different itch: the need to feel superior, and to justify the exploitation of those pronounced ethnically—and entomologically—inferior. In Getting Under Our Skin, Lisa T. Sarasohn tells the fascinating story of how vermin came to signify the individuals and classes that society impugns and ostracizes. How did these creatures go from annoyance to social stigma? And how did people thought verminous become considered almost a species of vermin themselves? Focusing on Great Britain and North America, Sarasohn explains how the label "vermin" makes dehumanization and violence possible. She describes how Cromwellians in Ireland and US cavalry on the American frontier both justified slaughter by warning "Nits grow into lice." Nazis not only labeled Jews as vermin, they used insecticides in the gas chambers to kill them during the Holocaust.Concentrating on the insects living in our bodies, clothes, and beds, Sarasohn also looks at rats and their social impact. Besides their powerful symbolic status in all cultures, rats' endurance challenges all human pretentions. From eighteenth-century London merchants anointing their carved bedsteads with roasted cat to repel bedbugs to modern-day hedge fund managers hoping neighbors won't notice exterminators in their penthouses, the studies in this book reveal that vermin continue to fuel our prejudices and threaten our status. Getting Under Our Skin will appeal to cultural historians, naturalists, and to anyone who has ever scratched—and then gazed in horror.

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Volume d'Hommage presente a Monsieur H. Limet, professeur de sumerologie honoraire. Le volume contient des articles sur des textes sumeriens et akkadiens, l'histoire et l'archeologie mesopotamienne.Papers on the sumerian and akkadian texts, mesopotamian history and archaeology offered to H. Limet, honorary professor of sumerology from the University of Liege.Table des matieres / Contents:Avant-propos - Bibliographie - B. ALSTER, He Who Pays With Valid Money: On the Status of Merchants in Early Mesopotamia - M. ANBAR, L'origine tribale de Zimri-Lim, roi de Mari - A. CAVIGNEAUX, Miettes de l'Edubba - M.E. COHEN, The Gods of Suburban Umma - G. COLBOW, Die spataltbabylonische Einfuhrungsszene. Zum Fortleben eines zentralen Bildmotivs der Ur-III-Zeit - P. FRONZAROLI, A propos de quelques mots eblaites d'orfevrerie - W.W. HALLO, Notes on Neo-Sumerian Animal Husbandry - J.-R. KUPPER, Les differents moments de la journee, d'apres les textes de Mari - B. LAFONT, L'extraction du minerai de cuivre en Iran a la fin du IIIe millenaire - J.-Cl. MARGUERON, Mari a l'epoque de "shakkanakku" - O. ROUAULT, Terqa et l'epoque des "sakkanaku" - M. SIGRIST, Deux signes, sous-multiples de gur - A.W. SJOBERG, UET VII, 73: An Exercise Tablet Enumerating Professions - A. SPYCKET, La role funeraire des ceintures a anneaux de coquille - H. STEIBLE - F. Yildiz, Kupfer ain ein Herdenamt in Suuppak? - M. STEPIEN, The Organisation of Animal Pasturing in the Light of Balanced Accounts, Inventories of Sheep and Goat Herdsmen from Umma - M. STOL, THe Reversibility of Human Fate in Ludlul II - Ph. TALON, Un nouvel exemplaire d'un cone de Nur-Adad de Larsa - M. TANRET, Noms sumeriens ou noms acadiens - M. TROKAY, Glyptique pseudo-kassite: glyptique kassite commune - D. DEHESELLE, la distribution "aklu" a Nippur a l'epoque kassite - O. TUNCA, A propos de la genese des orthostates neo-assyriens.

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More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city's major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence—including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York—Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring—full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage—and significant—the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by "practical abolition," person by person, family by family.

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On the four sides of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, serried tablets display the names of 660 honoured commanders of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Most are those of generals and marshals of the French Army – but 26 are the names of admirals, commanders of the fleets of Republican and Napoleonic France.In Napoleon's Admirals, Richard Humble presents not only their individual stories, but an entirely new appraisal of the Anglo-French naval war of 1793–1814: the longest sea war in modern history, exploding many myths along the way.The aristocratic officers of the French Navy did not emigrate en masse when the Revolution came, leaving the Navy leaderless and doomed to repeated defeats at sea. Of the 26 ‘Admirals of the Arc,’ 23 had learned their trade in the French royal and merchant navies of the Ancien Régime. Republican France could call on a wide range of seasoned combat veterans from the American Revolutionary War (1778–83), whose stories are a revelation in themselves. These former King’s officers stayed, and loyally tried to serve their country as the Revolution pursued its wasteful and unpredictable course. Three of them paid for their loyalty under the guillotine.Contrary to popular British belief, the naval war did not end with Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in October 1805. Thanks to an energetic warship-building program, the French Navy recovered quickly from Trafalgar, and Napoleon’s conquests created an ever-widening network of new French naval bases for the British Admiralty to cover. Collingwood, Nelson’s deputy at Trafalgar, was still commanding in the Mediterranean four years later. The Admiralty had not dared to recall him and he died at sea, utterly exhausted, in March 1810. Four months later the French inflicted the greatest humiliation suffered by the Royal Navy in the entire naval war: the annihilation of an entire British frigate squadron in the battle of Grand-Port, Mauritius, in August 1810.In this account of the men who imposed such a strain on the world’s greatest navy for 21 years, Richard Humble has provided a remarkable addition to the well-worn pages of conventional naval history.

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During World War One the Scandinavian countries played a dangerous and sometimes questionable game; they proclaimed their neutrality but at the same time pitched the two warring sides against one another to protect their import and export trades. Germany relied on Sweden, Norway and Denmark for food and raw materials, while Britain needed to restrict the flow of these goods and claim them for herself. And so the battle for the North Sea began. The campaign was ferociously fought, with the Royal Navy forced to develop new tactical thinking, including convoy, to combat the U-boat threat. Many parts of Scandinavia considered that the War had 'missed' the region, and that it was just a distant 'southern thunder'; Much of that thunder was over the North Sea. This new book tells this little-known, and often ignored, story from both a naval and a political standpoint, revealing how each country, including the USA, tried to balance the needs of diplomacy with the necessities of naval warfare. Starting from the declaration of a British blockade and its impact and reception in Scandinavia, the narrative progresses to cover the struggle to prevent supplies reaching Germany, the negotiations to gain preferential British access to Scandinavian trade and the work of the sailors, both of the merchant marine and Royal Navy who had to make the system function. By the end of 1916, the British-Scandinavian trade was so important that a new system of convoyed vessels was developed, not without much Admiralty infighting, leading to the growth of naval operations all along the East Coast of Britain in places such as Immingham, Lerwick and Mehil. Two years later, the Germans, desperate to break the tightening stranglehold, even brought out their big-gun ships to hunt and disrupt the Scandinavian convoys, and at one point US Navy battleships were perilously close to engaging with the High Sea Fleet as a result. Detailed analysis and first-hand accounts of the fighting from those who took part create a vivid narrative that demonstrates how the Royal Navy helped to bring about Germany's downfall and protect Britain's vital Scandinavian supply lines.

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Though central to the social, political, and cultural life of the nineteenth-century city, the urban volunteer fire department has nevertheless been largely ignored by historians. Redressing this neglect, Amy Greenberg reveals the meaning of this central institution by comparing the fire departments of Baltimore, St. Louis, and San Francisco from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Volunteer fire companies protected highly flammable cities from fire and provided many men with friendship, brotherhood, and a way to prove their civic virtue. While other scholars have claimed that fire companies were primarily working class, Greenberg shows that they were actually mixed social groups: merchants and working men, immigrants and native-born--all found a common identity as firemen. Cause for Alarm presents a new vision of urban culture, one defined not by class but by gender. Volunteer firefighting united men in a shared masculine celebration of strength and bravery, skill and appearance. In an otherwise alienating environment, fire companies provided men from all walks of life with status, community, and an outlet for competition, which sometimes even led to elaborate brawls. While this culture was fully respected in the early nineteenth century, changing social norms eventually demonized the firemen's vision of masculinity. Greenberg assesses the legitimacy of accusations of violence and political corruption against the firemen in each city, and places the municipalization of firefighting in the context of urban social change, new ideals of citizenship, the rapid spread of fire insurance, and new firefighting technologies. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Go from eBay beginner to eBay pro in no time! Whether you aim to browse, buy, sell, or open up your own eBay shop, this third edition of Britain's bestselling guide to eBay gets you up and running with everything you need to know. Fully updated and packed with new information on eBay apps, creating and running an eBay business, becoming a PowerSeller and much more, it covers every aspect of eBay.co.uk, from security issues and avoiding scams to making serious cash in your spare time or as a full-time eBay merchant. Get acquainted – from registering and setting up a homepage to organising eBay sales and communicating using the 'My eBay' page, you'll quickly feel right at home on eBay Bid and buy with confidence – discover how to search for and evaluate items, make bids and win auctions, or use the 'Buy It Now' option Sell like a pro – get the lowdown on how to choose and post items for sale, set prices and conduct auctions for maximum profits, as well as how to ship stuff and collect payments Keep the taxman happy – how to keep track of your earnings and comply with all the relevant tax rules and regulations, including the VAT Give your auctions pizzazz – get expert tips on how to spice up your auctions with pictures and graphics as well as links to other websites Stay safe and secure – learn everything you need to know about avoiding fraudsters, scammers and hackers and safeguarding your privacy and your identity Open the book and find: How to register and buy and sell on eBay Advice on bidding and winning eBay auctions Expert tips on choosing items to sell and picking the ideal auction time How to set up sale listings and monitor your transactions Tips for marketing your stuff on eBay The lowdown on avoiding cons and protecting your privacy Guidance on setting up an eBay business account How to open your own eBay shop Learn to: Make serious money selling your wares Bid, win and buy the easy way Build and expand your eBay business Stay safe on eBay.co.uk

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When Israeli Nobel Laureate S. Y. Agnon published the novel Only Yesterday in 1945, it quickly became recognized as a major work of world literature, not only for its vivid historical reconstruction of Israel's founding society. The book tells a seemingly simple tale about a man who immigrates to Palestine with the Second Aliya--the several hundred idealists who returned between 1904 and 1914 to work the Hebrew soil as in Biblical times and revive Hebrew culture. This epic novel also engages the reader in a fascinating network of meanings, contradictions, and paradoxes all leading to the question, what, if anything, controls human existence?Seduced by Zionist slogans, young Isaac Kumer imagines the Land of Israel filled with the financial, social, and erotic opportunities that were denied him, the son of an impoverished shopkeeper, in Poland. Once there, he cannot find the agricultural work he anticipated. Instead Isaac happens upon house-painting jobs as he moves from secular, Zionist Jaffa, where the ideological fervor and sexual freedom are alien to him, to ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist Jerusalem. While some of his Zionist friends turn capitalist, becoming successful merchants, his own life remains adrift and impoverished in a land torn between idealism and practicality, a place that is at once homeland and diaspora. Eventually he marries a religious woman in Jerusalem, after his worldly girlfriend in Jaffa rejects him.Led astray by circumstances, Isaac always ends up in the place opposite of where he wants to be, but why? The text soars to Surrealist-Kafkaesque dimensions when, in a playful mode, Isaac drips paint on a stray dog, writing "Crazy Dog" on his back. Causing panic wherever he roams, the dog takes over the story, until, after enduring persecution for so long without "understanding" why, he really does go mad and bites Isaac. The dog has been interpreted as everything from the embodiment of Exile to a daemonic force, and becomes an unforgettable character in a book about the death of God, the deception of discourse, the power of suppressed eroticism, and the destiny of a people depicted in all its darkness and promise.

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A timely, well-researched, and vibrant new history of Hong Kong that reveals the untold stories of the diverse peoples who have made it a multicultural world metropolis-and whose freedoms are endangered today.Hong Kong has always been many cities to many people: a seaport, a gateway to an empire, a place where fortunes can be dramatically made or lost, a place to disappear and reinvent oneself, and a mixing pot of diverse populations from literally everywhere around the globe. A British Crown Colony for 155 years, Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communist Party who continues to threaten its democracy and put its rich legacy at risk. Here, renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into Hong Kong's complex history and its people-diverse, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan-who have made this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today.Rather than a traditional history describing a town led by British Governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese empire, Fortune's Bazaar is the first thorough examination of the varied peoples who made Hong Kong. While British traders and Asian merchants had long been busy in the Indian and South East Asian seas, there were many from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds who arrived in Hong Kong, met and married-despite all taboos-and created a distinct community. Many of Hong Kong's most influential figures during its first century as a city were neither British nor Chinese-they were Malay or Indian, Jewish or Armenian, Parsi or Portuguese, Eurasian or Chindian-or simply, Hong Kongers. England describes those overlooked in history including the opium-traders who built synagogues or churches, ship-owners carrying gold-rush migrants, property tycoons, and more. Here, too, is the visionary who plumbed Hong Kong's harbor depths to spur reclamation, the half-Dutch Chinese gentleman with two wives who was knighted by Queen Victoria, and the landscape gardeners who settled Kowloon and became millionaires.A story of empire, race, and sex, Fortune's Bazaar combines deep archival research and oral history to present a vivid history of a special place-a unique city made by diverse people of the world, whose part in its creation has never been properly told until now.

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Offering a cutting-edge, transdisciplinary approach to bio-physical and bio-cultural scales of sustainability, this Companion explores diverse understandings of the what, how, why and where questions of sustainability. It examines the key notion of how to optimize human quality of life whilst minimizing environmental suffering. Integrating a range of disciplines through the social sciences, natural sciences and arts and humanities, this Companion focuses on the human component of sustainability, using a place-based and life-scape approach to environmental questions. Chapters analyze critical topics including: urbanization and city life, environmental conservation and rural landscapes, long-term interactions with natural life, climate change and the importance of mountain regions. Looking beyond an economic analysis of sustainability and well-being, this Companion incorporates cross-cutting social, cultural, judicial and spiritual dimensions of sustainability and regenerative development. With a combination of international case studies and an interdisciplinary framework for understanding the topic, this will be an interesting read for those studying sustainability from a range of disciplinary bases including ecological economists, human ecologists and geographers. It will also be beneficial to urban planners and ecologists interested in how the profoundly impactful evolutionary trend towards the urban environment is impacting human geographies around the world. Contributors include: B. Antaki, J. Balsiger, A. Barreau, S. Boillat, B. Boley, A. Borsdorf, F. Boyer, M. Bush, J.B. Campbell, M. Carré, R. Cheddadi, T.J. Christoffel, B. Debarbieux , M.E. Donoso-Correa, N. Dudley, W. Dunbar, F. Ficetola, L. François, L.M. Frolich, E. Guevara, J.A. González, A. Haller, C.P. Harden, D. Harmon, A.-J. Henrot, S.L. Hitchner, G.A. Holdridge, K. Huang, J.T. Ibarra, K. Ichikawa, E.A. Macdonald, C. Mena, C. Merchant, A. Michaels, C. Monterrubio-Solís, E. Müller, M. Navarro, H. Norberg-Hodge, M. Oliva, S. Padgett-Vasquez, S.E. Pilaar Birch, D. Quiroga, J.K. Reap, L.M. Resler, A. Rhoujjati, R. Rozzi, F.O. Sarmiento, J.W. Schelhas, Y. Shao, C. Stadel, P. Taberlet, K. Taylor, S.J. Walsh, K.R. Young, Z. Zheng, F.M. Zimmermann, S. Zimmermann-Janschitz

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Peter Levi (1931-2000) was one of the most romantic and complicated of twentieth-century Oxford characters. Although descended on his father's side from Jewish carpet-merchants in Constantinople, he was brought up a Catholic and was a Jesuit from late adolescence until he left to marry at the age of 45. Part-way through his training for the priesthood, Levi joined the small Jesuit intellectual elite as an undergraduate at Campion Hall, Oxford. Already a compulsive poet, he made literary friends and experimented with hard, bright lyrics on a variety of themes. His first collection, From the Gravel Ponds, was Poetry Book Society choice for spring 1960. From then onwards he maintained an uneasy balance as a Jesuit, tolerated for his literary activities but always subject to disciplinary correction. When, in 1963, his seniors declared that he had broken so many rules that he could not be ordained that year, he persuaded them to let him visit Greece. That summer he fell in love with the country and formed lasting friendships with several Greek poets. As classics tutor at Campion Hall from 1965 to 1977, he was an intriguing figure to many undergraduates.Intolerant of Oxford damp, he was allowed to spend winters in Greece. From 1967 onwards he passionately supported the resistance to the junta; twice banned from Greece, he later made a television documentary about the evils of the regime. After leaving the Jesuits he wrote autobiographical works, translations, thrillers and elegiac verse, supplementing his literary earnings with casual tuition. Elected Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1984, he used his lectures to convey his enthusiasm for the work of other poets, from Shakespeare to Pasternak, Larkin, Lowell and his defeated electoral rival and former pupil James Fenton. This deeply researched, sensitively written biography explores Levi's many friendships, with figures such as Cyril Connolly, George Seferis, David Jones, Iris Murdoch, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bruce Chatwin. It relates his poetic development to an intense emotional life, in which love, often concealed in landscape imagery, eventually won out against religious inhibition.

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As she did in The Return of Martin Guerre, Natalie Zemon Davis here retrieves individual lives from historical obscurity to give us a window onto the early modern world. As women living in the seventeenth century, Glikl bas Judah Leib, Marie de l’Incarnation, and Maria Sibylla Merian, equally remarkable though very different, were not queens or noblewomen, their every move publicly noted. Rather, they were living “on the margins” in seventeenth-century Europe, North America, and South America. Yet these women—one Jewish, one Catholic, one Protestant—left behind memoirs and writings that make for a spellbinding tale and that, in Davis’ deft narrative, tell us more about the life of early modern Europe than many an official history.All these women were originally city folk. Glikl bas Judah Leib was a merchant of Hamburg and Metz whose Yiddish autobiography blends folktales with anecdotes about her two marriages, her twelve children, and her business. Marie de l’Incarnation, widowed young, became a mystic visionary among the Ursuline sisters and cofounder of the first Christian school for Amerindian women in North America. Her letters are a rich source of information about the Huron, Algonquin, Montagnais, and Iroquois peoples of Quebec. Maria Sibylla Merian, a German painter and naturalist, produced an innovative work on tropical insects based on lore she gathered from the Carib, Arawak, and African women of Suriname. Along the way she abandoned her husband to join a radical Protestant sect in the Netherlands.Drawing on Glikl’s memoirs, Marie’s autobiography and correspondence, and Maria’s writings on entomology and botany, Davis brings these women to vibrant life. She reconstructs the divergent paths their stories took, and at the same time shows us each amid the common challenges and influences of the time—childrearing, religion, an outpouring of vernacular literature—and in relation to men. The resulting triptych suggests the range of experience, self-consciousness, and expression possible in seventeenth-century Europe and its outposts. It also shows how persons removed from the centers of power and learning ventured in novel directions, modifying in their own way Europe’s troubled and ambivalent relations with other “marginal” peoples.

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The adventurer and artist John Castle, of mixed British and Prussian descent, was one of several foreigners commissioned by the Russian Empire to take part in the Orenburg Expedition which started in 1734. Its aims were to secure and encircle Bashkiria, to the north of present-day western Kazakhstan. The Russians planned to establish a line of forts, a trading base and centre for overseeing the Kazakhs at Orenburg at the junction of the Or and Ural (Jaik) rivers and to investigate the natural resources of the region. The Expedition attracted numerous merchants, surveyors and curious travellers. Castle volunteered to visit Khan Abulkhayir of the Lesser Kazakh Horde and to negotiate with him on behalf of the Russians. At the time Abulkhayir had been compelled, against the will of his people, to swear an oath of allegiance to Russia, and the situation with the Kazakhs remained volatile. Castle set off into virtually uncharted territory in the midst of chaos due to a major Bashkir rebellion prompted by the Orenburg Expedition. During his two-month journey he recorded his impressions of places, people and customs. Castle's diary describes this dangerous journey, subsequent events and his return to safety. It provides information on the tense political dynamics of the time, on the ethnography, geography and natural resources of Kazakhstan and on the difficult interactions between foreign members of the Expedition and Russian officials. The diary's rich ethnographic content, which includes first-hand observations of exorcism and divination rituals and the local administration of justice, gives clear - and for its time extremely rare - insights into the combined use of customary Kazakh steppe practices and Islam. It is a major historiographical source because it is written from the point of view of a foreigner and not a Russian. This book is the first English translation (by Sarah Tolley) and edition of John Castle's Journal von der AO 1736 aus Orenburg zu dem Abul Geier Chan der Kirgis-Kaysak Tartarichen Horda - , Riga 1784 (Journal of a Journey undertaken in AO 1736 from Orenburg to Abul Geier, Khan of the Kirgis Caysak Horde - ). It reproduces the diary in full, with its glossary and 13 plates. These include unique illustrations of the Khan, his yurt and life on the steppe. An introduction provides the context of the Expedition, and footnotes accompany the text giving further clarifications and explanations.

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No one present at the Battle of Cape Lopez in 1722 could have known that they were on the edge of history. There was no way to predict just how monumental an impact this obscure but fierce naval battle off the coast of West Africa would have on British colonies and the future of slavery in America. Gentlemen of Fortune is a groundbreaking exploration of the figures and events surrounding this lesser-known naval battle, the outcome of which signaled a major turning point in the Atlantic slave trade and triggered a deep and lasting legacy.Gentlemen of Fortune focuses on three fascinating figures whose fates would violently converge: Jan Conny, a charismatic leader of the Akan people who made lucrative deals with pirates and smugglers while making enemies out of the British and Dutch; the infamous pirate Black Bart, who worked his way from an anonymous navigator to a pirate king and one of the British Empire’s most notorious enemies in the region; and British naval captain Chaloner Ogle, tasked by the Crown with hunting down and killing Black Bart at all costs. At the Battle of Cape Lopez, these three men and the massive historical forces at their backs would finally find each other—and the world would be transformed forever.By defeating Black Bart at the Battle of Cape Lopez, the British Empire was able to achieve supremacy in the West African slave trade. Chattel slavery—in which an enslaved person is considered fully the private property of an owner—was born, and it was soon brought to America.In this landmark narrative history, historian Angela Sutton outlines the complex network of trade routes spanning the Atlantic Ocean trafficked by agents of empire, private merchants, and brutal pirates alike. Drawing from a wide range of primary historical sources, most of which—because they are written in Dutch and German—have not been engaged with by popular audiences, Sutton offers a new perspective on how a single battle played a pivotal role in reshaping the slave trade in ways that affect America to this day. Between its engaging narrative style filled with swashbuckling naval battles and tales of adventure at sea, its wide array of rigorous and detailed research, and its implications towards modern America, Gentlemen of Fortune is an essential addition to every history reader’s shelves.

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Now available for the first time—more than 50 years after it was written—is the memoir of Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka (1915–62), the British doctor and Buddhist monastic novice chiefly known to scholars of sex, gender, and sexuality for his pioneering transition from female to male between 1939 and 1949, and for his groundbreaking 1946 book Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology. Here at last is Dillon/Jivaka’s extraordinary life story told in his own words. Out of the Ordinary captures Dillon/Jivaka’s various journeys—to Oxford, into medicine, across the world by ship—within the major narratives of his gender and religious journeys. Moving chronologically, Dillon/Jivaka begins with his childhood in Folkestone, England, where he was raised by his spinster aunts, and tells of his days at Oxford immersed in theology, classics, and rowing. He recounts his hormonal transition while working as an auto mechanic and fire watcher during World War II and his surgical transition under Sir Harold Gillies while Dillon himself attended medical school. He details his worldwide travel as a ship’s surgeon in the British Merchant Navy with extensive commentary on his interactions with colonial and postcolonial subjects, followed by his “outing” by the British press while he was serving aboard The City of Bath. Out of the Ordinary is not only a salient record of an early sex transition but also a unique account of religious conversion in the mid–twentieth century. Dillon/Jivaka chronicles his gradual shift from Anglican Christianity to the esoteric spiritual systems of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky to Theravada and finally Mahayana Buddhism. He concludes his memoir with the contested circumstances of his Buddhist monastic ordination in India and Tibet. Ultimately, while Dillon/Jivaka died before becoming a monk, his novice ordination was significant: It made him the first white European man to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Out of the Ordinary is a landmark publication that sets free a distinct voice from the history of the transgender movement.

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American by Birth explores the history and legacy of Wong Kim Ark and the 1898 Supreme Court case that bears his name, which established the automatic citizenship of individuals born within the geographic boundaries of the United States. In the late nineteenth century, much like the present, the United States was a difficult, and at times threatening, environment for people of color. Chinese immigrants, invited into the United States in the 1850s and 1860s as laborers and merchants, faced a wave of hostility that played out in organized private violence, discriminatory state laws, and increasing congressional efforts to throttle immigration and remove many long-term residents. The federal courts, backed by the Supreme Court, supervised the development of an increasingly restrictive and exclusionary immigration regime that targeted Chinese people. This was the situation faced by Wong Kim Ark, who had been born in San Francisco in the 1870s and who earned his living as a cook. Like many members of the Chinese community in the American West he maintained ties to China. He traveled there more than once, carrying required re-entry documents, but when he attempted to return to the United States after a journey from 1894 to 1895, he was refused entry and detained. Protesting that he was a citizen and therefore entitled to come home, he challenged the administrative decision in court. Remarkably, the Supreme Court granted him victory.This victory was important for Wong Kim Ark, for the ethnic Chinese community in the United States, and for all immigrant communities then and to this day. Though the principle had links to seventeenth-century English common law and in the United States back to well before the American Civil War, the Supreme Court's ruling was significant because it both inscribed the principle in constitutional terms and clarified that it extended even to the children of immigrants who were legally barred from becoming citizens. American by Birth is a richly detailed account of the case and its implications in the ongoing conflicts over race and immigration in US history; it also includes a discussion of current controversies over limiting the scope of birthright citizenship.

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When Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haitian independence on January 1, 1804, Haiti became the second independent republic, after the United States, in the Americas; the Haitian Revolution was the first successful antislavery and anticolonial revolution in the western hemisphere. The histories of Haiti and the early United States were intimately linked in terms of politics, economics, and geography, but unlike Haiti, the United States would remain a slaveholding republic until 1865. While the Haitian Revolution was a beacon for African Americans and abolitionists in the United States, it was a terrifying specter for proslavery forces there, and its effects were profound. In the wake of Haiti's liberation, the United States saw reconfigurations of its geography, literature, politics, and racial and economic structures. The Haitian Revolution and the Early United States explores the relationship between the dramatic events of the Haitian Revolution and the development of the early United States. The first section, "Histories," addresses understandings of the Haitian Revolution in the developing public sphere of the early United States, from theories of state sovereignty to events in the street; from the economic interests of U.S. merchants to disputes in the chambers of diplomats; and from the flow of rumor and second-hand news of refugees to the informal communication networks of the enslaved. The second section, "Geographies," explores the seismic shifts in the ways the physical territories of the two nations and the connections between them were imagined, described, inhabited, and policed as a result of the revolution. The final section, "Textualities," explores the wide-ranging consequences that reading and writing about slavery, rebellion, emancipation, and Haiti in particular had on literary culture in both the United States and Haiti. With essays from leading and emerging scholars of Haitian and U.S. history, literature, and cultural studies, The Haitian Revolution and the Early United States traces the rich terrain of Haitian-U.S. culture and history in the long nineteenth century. Contributors: Anthony Bogues, Marlene Daut, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Michael Drexler, Laurent Dubois, James Alexander Dun, Duncan Faherty, Carolyn Fick, David Geggus, Kieran Murphy, Colleen O'Brien, Peter P. Reed, Siân Silyn Roberts, Cristobal Silva, Ed White, Ivy Wilson, Gretchen Woertendyke, Edlie Wong.

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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the U.S. Navy had a total of 111 submarines. However, this fleet was not nearly as impressive as the number suggests. It was mostly a collection of ageing boats from the late teens and early twenties, with only a few of the newer, more modern Gato-class boats. Fortunately, with the war in Europe already two years old and friction with Japan ever-increasing, help from what would become known as the Silent Service in the Pacific was on the way: there were 73 of the new fleet submarines under construction. The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America’s intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan. The enemy had already begun to deploy advanced boats, but the U.S. was soon able to match them. By 1943 the new Gato-class boats were making a difference, carrying the war not just to the Japanese Imperial Navy, but to the vital merchant fleet that carried the vast array of material needed to keep the land of the Rising Sun afloat. As the war progressed, American success in the Solomons, starting with Guadalcanal, began to constrict the Japanese sea lanes, and operating singly or in wolfpacks they were able to press their attacks on convoys operating beyond the range of U.S. airpower, making daring forays even into the home waters of Japan itself in the quest for ever more elusive targets. Also taking on Japanese warships, as well as rescuing downed airmen (such as the grateful first President Bush), U.S. submarines made an enormous contribution to our war against Japan. This book takes you through the war as you learn what it was like to serve on submarines in combat, the exhilaration of a successful attack, and the terror of being depth-charged. And aside from enemy action, the sea itself could prove to be an extremely hostile environment as many of these stories attest. From early war patrols in obsolescent, unreliable S-boats to new, modern fleet submarines roving the Pacific, the forty-six stories in this anthology give you a full understanding of what it was like to be a U.S. Navy submariner in combat.

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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the U.S. Navy had a total of 111 submarines. However, this fleet was not nearly as impressive as the number suggests. It was mostly a collection of ageing boats from the late teens and early twenties, with only a few of the newer, more modern Gato-class boats. Fortunately, with the war in Europe already two years old and friction with Japan ever-increasing, help from what would become known as the Silent Service in the Pacific was on the way: there were 73 of the new fleet submarines under construction.The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America's intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan. The enemy had already begun to deploy advanced boats, but the U.S. was soon able to match them. By 1943 the new Gato-class boats were making a difference, carrying the war not just to the Japanese Imperial Navy, but to the vital merchant fleet that carried the vast array of material needed to keep the land of the Rising Sun afloat.As the war progressed, American success in the Solomons, starting with Guadalcanal, began to constrict the Japanese sea lanes, and operating singly or in wolfpacks they were able to press their attacks on convoys operating beyond the range of U.S. airpower, making daring forays even into the home waters of Japan itself in the quest for ever more elusive targets. Also taking on Japanese warships, as well as rescuing downed airmen (such as the grateful first President Bush), U.S. submarines made an enormous contribution to our war against Japan.This book takes you through the war as you learn what it was like to serve on submarines in combat, the exhilaration of a successful attack, and the terror of being depth-charged. And aside from enemy action, the sea itself could prove to be an extremely hostile environment as many of these stories attest. From early war patrols in obsolescent, unreliable S-boats to new, modern fleet submarines roving the Pacific, the forty-six stories in this anthology give you a full understanding of what it was like to be a U.S. Navy submariner in combat.

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Churchill famously claimed that the only thing that had really frightened him during the war was the Battle of the Atlantic. Keeping open the lifeline between the US arsenal of democracy' and the UK was essential to preparations for the invasion of Europe and in the final analysis this came down to building merchant ships faster than German U-boats could sink them. Crucial to this achievement was the British-designed Liberty Ship', a simple cargo ship that could be built rapidly, combined with the untapped industrial potential of the USA that could build them in vast numbers. Undoubtedly the most important individual in the rapid expansion of US wartime shipyard capacity was Henry Kaiser, a man with no previous shipbuilding experience but an entrepreneur of vision and drive. This book tells the story of how he established huge new yards using novel mass-production techniques in the most surprising location - Oregon, one of the least industrially developed areas of the US and one without an existing pool of skilled labour to draw on. But it did have space, and large tracts of virgin waterfront were ideal for laying out new shipyards from scratch. The workforce was created by encouraging people from all over the US to move to the area, and to facilitate this the company built its own housing - in fact, a whole new city for 44,000 workers - and provided a level of social care unheard of in present-day America let alone in the 1940s. It was keen to recruit women workers so to encourage mothers to go out to work it also built its own schools and nursery facilities. The result was a well-motivated workforce that turned the Kaiser yards into the most efficient shipbuilders in the country. In total Kaiser's Oregon yards built over 600 Liberties' and the follow-on Victory Ships' - including one built in the record time of 10 days - as well as around 150 tankers, some 50 escort carriers and nearly 100 amphibious warfare ships. Curiously, this truly remarkable achievement, of huge significance to the eventual Allied victory, has been consigned to the footnotes of history, but is fully documented and celebrated for the first time in this book.

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How did news from the East—carried in ship logs and mariners' reports, journals, and correspondence—shape early Americans' understanding of the world as a map of dangerous and incoherent sites?Winner of the John Lyman Book Award by the North American Society for Oceanic HistoryFreed from restrictions of British mercantilism in the years following the War of Independence, Yankee merchants embarked on numerous voyages of commerce and discovery into distant seas. Through the news from the East, carried in mariners' reports, ship logs, journals, and correspondence, Americans at home imagined the world as a map of dangerous and deranged places. This was a world that was profoundly disordered, hobbled by tyranny and oppression or steeped in chaos and anarchy, often deadly, always uncertain, unpredictable, and unstable, yet amenable to American influence. Focusing on four representative arenas—the Ottoman Empire, China, India, and the Great South Sea (collectively, the East Indies, Oceana, and the American continent's Northwest coast)—Eastward of Good Hope recasts the relationship between America and the world by examining the early years of the republic, when its national character was particularly pliable and its foundational posture in the world was forming. Drawing on recent scholarship in global ethnohistory, Dane A. Morrison recounts how reports of cannibal encounters, shipboard massacres, shipwrecks, tropical fever, and other tragedies in distant seas led Americans to imagine each region as a distinct set of threats to their republic. He also demonstrates how the concept of justification through self-doubt allowed for aggressive expansionism and for the foundations of imperialism to develop.Morrison reconsiders American ideas about the world through three questions: How did British Americans imagine the world before independence allowed them to travel "Eastward of Good Hope"? What were the signal encounters that filled the public sphere in their early years of global encounter? And finally, how did Americans' contacts with other peoples inflect their ideas about the world and their place in it? Written in a lively, engaging style, Eastward of Good Hope will appeal to scholars and the general public alike.

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In 1893, after a major British bank failure, a run on U.S. gold reserves, and a late-June stock-market crash, America was in the throes of a serious economic depression. Unemployment rose, foreclosures climbed, and popular unrest mounted. By the following spring, businessman and Populist agitator Jacob S. Coxey was fed up with government inactivity in the face of the crisis. With the help of eccentric showman Carl Browne, he led a group of several hundred unemployed wage earners, small farmers, and crossroads merchants on a march from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., to present a "petition in boots" for government-financed jobs building and repairing the nation's roads. On May 1, the Coxeyites descended on the center of government, where Coxey attempted to deliver a speech on the Capitol steps. The police attacked, a melee ensued, and Coxey and Browne spent a month in jail. Meanwhile, other Coxey-inspired contingents were on their way east from places as far away as San Francisco and Portland. Some of them even hijacked trains along the way. Who was Coxey, and what motivated him-along with the angry marchers who joined his cause? What did other Americans think of the protesters? Was there ever any chance that the protesters' demands would be met? Where did the agitators fit in with the politics of their day, and how did their actions jibe with the other labor-related protests happening that year? In this concise and gripping narrative, Benjamin F. Alexander contextualizes the march by vividly describing the misery wrought by the Panic of '93. Alexander brings both Coxey and his fellow leaders to life, along with the reporters and spies who traveled with them and the diverse group of captivated newspaper readers who followed the progress of the marches and train heists. Coxey's Army explains how the demands of the Coxeyites-far from being the wild schemes of a small group of cranks-fit into a larger history of economic theories that received serious attention long before and long after the Coxey march. Despite running a gauntlet of ridicule, the marchers laid down a rough outline of what, some forty years later, emerged as the New Deal.

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The success of German submarines during the First World War in almost cutting off Britain's vital imports had not been forgotten by Adolf Hitler and when, in March 1935, he repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, Britain, magnanimously, signed up to an Anglo-German Naval Agreement. This allowed the Germans to build their submarine strength up to one third of the British Royal Navy's tonnage. When war broke out in 1939, German U-boats went quickly into action, but with only four years of production and development, the main armament of these submarines was considerably weaker than equivalent boats in other navies and many of the other main features, such as living and the fighting conditions, were also significantly inferior. Nevertheless, the German U-boat onslaught against British merchant ships during the autumn of 1940 was highly successful because the attacks were made on the surface at night and from such close range that a single torpedo would sink a ship. Soon, though, Allied technology was able to detect U-boats at night, and new convoy techniques, combined with powerfully-armed, fast modern aircraft searching the seas, meant that by 1941 it was clear that Germany was losing the war at sea. Something had to be done. The new generation of attack U-boats that had been introduced since Hitler came to power needed urgent improvement. This is the story of the Types II, VII and IX that had already become the workhorse' of the Kriegsmarine's submarine fleet and continued to put out to sea to attack Allied shipping right up to the end of the war. The Type II was a small coastal boat that struggled to reach the Atlantic; the Type VII was perfectly at home there, but lacked the technology to tackle well protected convoys; whilst the Type IX was a long-range variety that was modified so that it could operate in the Indian Ocean. In this latest book by the renowned Kriegsmarine historian Jak Mallmann Showell, these attack U-boats are explored at length. This includes details of their armament, capabilities, crew facilities, and just what it was like to operate such a vessel, and of course the story of their development and operational history.

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The emperor is dead; long live the emperors! The assassinated Shah Jahan lies entombed beside his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal, while their progeny drag the Mughal Empire into a three-sided struggle over the succession to the Peacock Throne. The diplomatic and trade mission from the United States of Europe is openly siding with Princess Jahanara and her brother Dara Shikoh. The mission, made up largely of Americans transplanted in time by the Ring of Fire, is providing the siblings with technical assistance as they prepare to fight their rivals for the throne, Aurangzeb and Shah Shuja. Meanwhile, the Afghan adventurer Salim Gadh Yilmaz, confidant of two emperors—Shah Jahan and now his son Dara Shikoh—has been elevated to the position of general. He has great challenges to face, not the least of which is resisting the fierce and forbidden mutual attraction between himself and Princess Jahanara. As the conflict deepens, the junior members of the mission are sent east to buy opium needed by the USE’s doctors. Their guide, merchant Jadu Das, has an agenda of his own, one entrusted to him by Jahanara: seek out her great uncle, Asaf Khan, and promise whatever is needed to bring his army over to Dara’s side. The USE’s mission was sent to India in search of goods needed in Europe. But now they find that straightforward task has become enmeshed in a great civil war — for control of The Peacock Throne. About 1635: A Parcel of Rogues: "The 20th volume in this popular, fast-paced alternative history series follows close on the heels of the events in The Baltic War, picking up with the protagonists in London, including sharpshooter Julie Sims. This time the 20th-century transplants are determined to prevent the rise of Oliver Cromwell and even have the support of King Charles."—Library Journal About 1634: The Galileo Affair: "A rich, complex alternate history with great characters and vivid action. A great read and an excellent book."—David Drake "Gripping . . . depicted with power!"—Publishers Weekly About Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series: “This alternate history series is . . . a landmark . . .”—Booklist “[Eric] Flint's 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.”—Booklist “ . . . reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis . . . ”—Publishers Weekly

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When Robert Brundle took the SS Harmatris to Russia with Convoy PQ8 he was 47 years of age. Both ship and master were veterans and had already sailed in convoys across the North Atlantic and to South Africa. The 5,395 ton coal fired ship, laden with 8,000 tons of armaments originally set sail on 27 November 1941 to join convoy PQ6 but encountered a fierce storm in which a lorry broke free in the hold and started a fierce blaze below decks. Despite valiant attempts to extinguish the fire the Harmatris was forced to return to Glasgow for repair. Having discharged its cargo, examined and repaired the holds, it restowed and finally put to sea again on 26 December. She was now to join PQ8 and Brundle was elected Convoy Commodore. Two minesweepers, a cruiser and two destroyers escorted the eight merchant vessels. On 8 January the convoy left Reykjavik bound for Murmansk. Harmatris was struck by two torpedoes in No 1 hold which caused flooding. A third torpedo struck her a few hours later and the crew evacuated to HMS Speedwell in attendance. A volunteer crew reboarded and Speedwell took the wounded ship in tow. During the night the same U Boat that had struck Harmatris sunk the destroyer Matabele with the loss of all but two of her crew. A tug eventually replaced Speedwell and the entire crew now returned to their still stricken vessel. On 18 January the ships were twice attacked by low flying Heinkels. The stricken Harmatris finally berthed in Murmansk at 0800 on 20 January.Once unloaded the battered ship entered dry dock on 10 February. The damage was considerable. In a temperature of 40 degrees below zero the crew set about the repairs. It was difficult to locate engine parts and local labour was scarce. During the following months the crew continued to work on the ship, food was scarce and the port was frequently bombed by the Luftwaffe. Several ships close to Harmatris were sunk. It was 21 July when the ship finally left for Archangel. She took aboard a cargo of 3,000 tons of steel pipes and on 13 September she was instructed to join a convoy of 20 ships, QP14 for her return voyage. On 19 September the minesweeper HMS Leda, steaming close by Harmartris, was torpedoed. The convoy was under almost continuous U Boat attack and suffered six losses.As a result of his heroic efforts to preserve his ship and crew Captain Brundle was awarded the OBE and the Lloyds War Medal. He died in 1960 at the age of 66.

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A wonderfully concise and readable, yet comprehensive, history of the Mediterranean Sea, the perfect companion for any visitor -- or indeed, anyone compelled to stay at home.'The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean.'Samuel Johnson, 1776The Mediterranean has always been a leading stage for world history; it is also visited each year by tens of millions of tourists, both local and international. Jeremy Black provides an account in which the experience of travel is foremost: travel for tourism, for trade, for war, for migration, for culture, or, as so often, for a variety of reasons. Travellers have always had a variety of goals and situations, from rulers to slaves, merchants to pirates, and Black covers them all, from Phoenicians travelling for trade to the modern tourist sailing for pleasure and cruising in great comfort.Throughout the book the emphasis is on the sea, on coastal regions and on port cities visited by cruise liners - Athens, Barcelona, Naples, Palermo. But it also looks beyond, notably to the other waters that flow into the Mediterranean - the Black Sea, the Atlantic, the Red Sea and rivers, from the Ebro and Rhone to the Nile. Much of western Eurasia and northern Africa played, and continues to play, a role, directly or indirectly, in the fate of the Mediterranean. At times, that can make the history of the sea an account of conflict after conflict, but it is necessary to understand these wars in order to grasp the changing boundaries of the Mediterranean states, societies and religions, the buildings that have been left, and the peoples' cultures, senses of identity and histories.Black explores the centrality of the Mediterranean to the Western experience of travel, beginning in antiquity with the Phoenicians, Minoans and Greeks. He shows how the Roman Empire united the sea, and how it was later divided by Christianity and Islam. He tells the story of the rise and fall of the maritime empires of Pisa, Genoa and Venice, describes how galley warfare evolved and how the Mediterranean fired the imagination of Shakespeare, among many artists. From the Renaissance and Baroque to the seventeenth-century beginnings of English tourism - to the Aegean, Sicily and other destinations - Black examines the culture of the Mediterraean. He shows how English naval power grew, culminating in Nelson's famous victory over the French in the Battle of the Nile and the establishment of Gibraltar, Minorca and Malta as naval bases. Black explains the retreat of Islam in north Africa, describes the age of steam navigation and looks at how and why the British occupied Cyprus, Egypt and the Ionian Islands. He looks at the impact of the Suez Canal as a new sea route to India and how the Riviera became Europe's playground. He shows how the Mediterranean has been central to two World Wars, the Cold War and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. With its focus always on the Sea, the book looks at the fate of port cities particularly - Alexandria, Salonika and Naples.

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