- Table View
- List View
In the Presence of Power: Court and Performance in the Pre-Modern Middle East
by Maurice A. Pomerantz Evelyn Birge VitzInsights into power, spectacle, and performance in the courts of Middle Eastern rulers In recent decades, scholars have produced much new research on courtly life in medieval Europe, but studies on imperial and royal courts across the Middle East have received much less attention, particularly for courts before 1500AD. In the Presence of Power, however, sheds new light on courtly life across the region. This insightful, exploratory collection of essays uncovers surprising commonalities across a broad swath of cultures. The pre-modern period in this volume includes roughly seven centuries, opening with the first dynasty of Islam, the Umayyads, whose reign marked an important watershed for Late Antique culture, and closing with the rule of the so-called “gunpowder” empires of the Ottomans and Safavids over much of the Near East in the sixteenth century. In between, this volume locates similarities across the Western Medieval, Byzantine and Islamicate courtly cultures, spanning a vast history and geography to demonstrate the important cross-pollinations that occurred between their literary and cultural legacies. This study does not presume the presence of one shared courtly institution across time and space, but rather seeks to understand the different ways in which contemporaries experienced and spoke about these places of power and performance. Adopting a very broad view of performances, In the Presence of Power includes exuberant expressions of love in Arabic stories, shadow plays in Mamluk Cairo, Byzantine storytelling, religious food traditions in Christian Cyprus, advice, and political and ethnographic performances of power.
In the Prince's Bed (The Royal Brotherhood #1)
by Sabrina JeffriesFrom bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries comes the first dazzling novel in a sexy new series featuring three half brothers. Bound together by the royal father who denied them, they've formed a pact to help each other achieve their every desire...including the women of their dreams. Miss Katherine Merivale is desperate to make a respectable match -- if only her childhood sweetheart would propose! Until he does, she can't touch the fortune she's inherited. So the last thing she needs is notorious rogue Alec Black putting her proposed marriage at risk with his distracting, smoldering gaze and moonlit kisses. Alec, the Earl of Iversley -- and one of three bastard sons of the Prince of Wales -- is secretly searching for an heiress bride to pay his debts. Fiery Katherine seems the answer to his prayers, and her passionate response to his practiced seduction soon assures him that she is his. But Alec knows Katherine is looking for a love-match, and he wonders...what will happen when she discovers his deception?
In the Public Good: Eugenics and Law in Ontario (McGill-Queen's/Associated Medical Services Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society #57)
by C. Elizabeth KoesterIn the early twentieth century, the eugenics movement won many supporters with its promise that social ills such as venereal disease, alcoholism, and so-called feeble-mindedness, along with many other conditions, could be eliminated by selective human breeding and other measures. The provinces of Alberta and British Columbia passed legislation requiring that certain “unfit” individuals undergo reproductive sterilization. Ontario, being home to many leading proponents of eugenics, came close to doing the same.In the Public Good examines three legal processes that were used to advance eugenic ideas in Ontario between 1910 and 1938: legislative bills, provincial royal commissions, and the criminal trial of a young woman accused of distributing birth control information. Taken together, they reveal who in the province supported these ideas, how they were understood in relation to the public good, and how they were debated. Elizabeth Koester shows the ways in which the law was used both to promote and to deflect eugenics, and how the concept of the public good was used by supporters to add power to their cause.With eugenic thinking finding new footholds in the possibilities offered by reproductive technologies, proposals to link welfare entitlement to “voluntary” sterilization, and concerns about immigration, In the Public Good adds depth to our understanding. Its exploration of the historical relationship between eugenics and law in Ontario prepares us to face the implications of “newgenics” today.
In the Ranks of Death: The Irish in the Second World War
by Richard DohertyWhen war broke out in 1939 over 20,000 Irishmen were serving in the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force with the greatest proportion in the Army. During the war this rose to over 120,000, suggesting that about 100,000 enlisted during the war. Nine earned the Victoria Cross; three members of the Royal Navy, including a Fleet Air Arm pilot, four soldiers, including a member of the Australian forces, and two RAF pilots.The author looks at the seven Irish regiments in campaigns across the globe, at Irish soldiers across the Army, at Irish sailors from the Battle of the River Plate to the final actions against Japan, and at Irish airmen from the first bombing raids of the war to the closing days of war. Included are outstanding personalities such as the Chavasse brothers, who earned three DSOs, three DSCs and two MiDs, Bala Bredin, Corran Purden, Brendan 'Paddy' Finucane, Blair Mayne and Roy Farran, the latter pair highly-decorated SAS officers. There are also Irish generals, such as Paddy Warren who died while commanding 5th Indian Division in Burma and Frederick Loftus Tottenham, who commanded 81st (West African) Division, not to mention giants such as Alexander, Auchinleck, Montgomery and McCreery. Irish women are not forgotten in the book which also takes a brief look at the Irish in other Allied forces, including a most unusual volunteer for the US Navy whose application to serve had to be approved by President Roosevelt. He was William Patrick Hitler, a nephew of Germany's fhrer.
In the Realm of a Dying Emperor
by Norma FieldWhen the Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, Japanese newspapers had to use a special, exalted word to refer to his death, and had to depict his life uncritically, as one beginning in turbulence but ending in magnificent accomplishment. To do otherwise would have exposed them to terrorism from the vigilant right wing. Yet this insightful book by a Japanese-American scholar who grew up in both cultures reveals the hidden fault lines in the realm of the dying emperor by telling the stories of three unlikely dissenters: a supermarket owner who burned the national flag; an aging widow who challenged the state's "deification" of fallen soldiers; and the mayor of Nagasaki, who risked his career and his life by suggesting that Hirohito bore some responsibility for World War II.
In the Realm of Ash and Sorrow
by Kenneth W. HarmonWhen the spirit of an American airman befriends a Japanese woman and her daughter in the days before the Hiroshima bomb, he races against time to save the ones he loves the most.When American WWII bombardier Micah Lund dies on a mission over Japan, his spirit remains trapped as a yurei ghost. Dazed, he follows Kiyomi Oshiro, a war widow struggling to care for her young daughter, Ai, as food is scarce, work at the factory is brutal, and her in-laws treat her like a servant. Watching Kiyomi and Ai together, Micah&’s intolerance for the enemy is challenged. As his concern for the mother and daughter grows, so does his guilt for his part in their suffering.Micah discovers a new reality when Kiyomi and Ai dream—one which allows him to interact with them. While his feelings for them deepen, imminent destruction looms. Hiroshima is about to be bombed, and Micah must warn Kiyomi and her daughter.In a place where dreams are real, Micah races against time to save Kiyomi and Ai, while battling the old beliefs he embodied as a soldier and his idea of family.In the Realm of Ash and Sorrow is a tale about love in its most extraordinary forms—forgiveness, sacrifice, and perseverance against impossible odds.
In the Realm of Nachan Kan
by Marilyn Masson"The prevailing view of the lowland Maya during the Postclassic period (A.D. 1050-1500) has been one of an impoverished, ""degenerated"" society devoid of cultural accomplishment. However, Marilyn A. Masson offers a fresh interpretation of this society as one that represented a complex, sophisticated, extensive organization of semiautonomous units that were closely integrated, yet embraced a decentralized political economy.In the Realm of Nachan Kan opens a window on Postclassic Maya patterns of cultural development and organization through a close examination of the small rural island of Laguna de On, a location that was distant from the governing political centers of the day. Using diachronic analysis of regional settlement patterns, ceramic traditions, household and ritual features, and artifacts from the site, Masson tracks developmental changes throughout the Postclassic period. These data suggest that affluent patterns of economic production and local and long-distance exchange were established within northern Belize by the eleventh century, and continued to develop, virtually uninterrupted, until the time of Spanish arrival.In addition, Masson analyzes contemporary political and religious artistic traditions at the temples of Mayapan, Tulum, and Santa Rita to provide a regional context for the changes in community patterns at Laguna de On. These cultural changes, she maintains, are closely correlated with the rise of Mayapan to power and participation of sites like Laguna de On in a pan-lowland economic and ritual interaction sphere. Offering a thoroughly new interpretation of Postclassic Mayan civilization. In the Realm of Nachan Kan is a must for scholars of Mesoamerican history and culture."
In the Realm of Nachan Kan: Postclassic Maya Archaeology at Laguna De On, Belize (Mesoamerican Worlds)
by Marilyn A. MassonThe prevailing view of the lowland Maya during the Postclassic period (A.D. 1050-1500) has been one of an impoverished, "degenerated" society devoid of cultural accomplishment. However, Marilyn A. Masson offers a fresh interpretation of this society as one that represented a complex, sophisticated, extensive organization of semiautonomous units that were closely integrated, yet embraced a decentralized political economy. In the Realm of Nachan Kan opens a window on Postclassic Maya patterns of cultural development and organization through a close examination of the small rural island of Laguna de On, a location that was distant from the governing political centers of the day. Using diachronic analysis of regional settlement patterns, ceramic traditions, household and ritual features, and artifacts from the site, Masson tracks developmental changes throughout the Postclassic period. These data suggest that affluent patterns of economic production and local and long-distance exchange were established within northern Belize by the eleventh century, and continued to develop, virtually uninterrupted, until the time of Spanish arrival. In addition, Masson analyzes contemporary political and religious artistic traditions at the temples of Mayapan, Tulum, and Santa Rita to provide a regional context for the changes in community patterns at Laguna de On. These cultural changes, she maintains, are closely correlated with the rise of Mayapan to power and participation of sites like Laguna de On in a pan-lowland economic and ritual interaction sphere. Offering a thoroughly new interpretation of Postclassic Mayan civilization. In the Realm of Nachan Kan is a must for scholars of Mesoamerican history and culture.
In the Realms of Gold: Pioneering in African History
by Roland OliverThe core of the book is Oliver's account of his research travels throughout tropical Africa from the 1940s to the 1980s; his efforts to train and foster African graduate students to teach in African universities; his role in establishing conferences and journals to bring together the work of historians and archaeologists from Europe and Africa; his encounters with political and religious leaders, scholars, soldiers, and storytellers; and the political and economic upheavals of the continent that he witnessed.
In the Red and in the Black: Debt, Dishonor, and the Law in France between Revolutions
by Erika Vause"The most dishonorable act that can dishonor a man." Such is Félix Grandet’s unsparing view of bankruptcy, adding that even a highway robber—who at least "risks his own life in attacking you"—is worthier of respect. Indeed, the France of Balzac’s day was an unforgiving place for borrowers. Each year, thousands of debtors found themselves arrested for commercial debts. Those who wished to escape debt imprisonment through bankruptcy sacrificed their honor—losing, among other rights and privileges, the ability to vote, to serve on a jury, or even to enter the stock market.Arguing that French Revolutionary and Napoleonic legislation created a conception of commercial identity that tied together the debtor’s social, moral, and physical person, In the Red and in the Black examines the history of debt imprisonment and bankruptcy as a means of understanding the changing logic of commercial debt. Following the practical application of these laws throughout the early nineteenth century, Erika Vause traces how financial failure and fraud became legally disentangled. The idea of personhood established in the Revolution’s aftermath unraveled over the course of the century owing to a growing penal ideology that stressed the state’s virtual monopoly over incarceration and to investors’ desire to insure their financial risks. This meticulously researched study offers a novel conceptualization of how central "the economic" was to new understandings of self, state, and the market. Telling a story deeply resonant in our own age of ambivalence about the innocence of failures by financial institutions and large-scale speculators, Vause reveals how legal personalization and depersonalization of debt was essential for unleashing the latent forces of capitalism itself.
In the Region of the Summer Stars: Eirlandia, Book One (Eirlandia Series #1)
by Stephen R. LawheadIn the Region of the Summer Stars is a new Celtic fantasy from Stephen R. Lawhead, the critically-acclaimed author of the Pendragon Cycle.Ravaged by barbarian Scálda forces, the last hope for Eirlandia lies with the island’s warring tribes.Wrongly cast out of his tribe, Conor, the first-born son of the Celtic king, embarks on a dangerous mission to prove his innocence.What he discovers will change Eirlandia forever. For the Scálda have captured the mystical Fae to use as an ultimate weapon.And Conor’s own people have joined in the invasion.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
In the Restaurant: Society in Four Courses
by Christoph Ribbat Jamie Lee SearleThe deliciously cosmopolitan story of the restaurant from eighteenth-century Paris to El BulliWhat does eating out tell us about who we are? The restaurant is where we go to celebrate, to experience pleasure, to see and be seen - or, sometimes, just because we're hungry. But these temples of gastronomy hide countless stories.As this dazzlingly entertaining, eye-opening book shows, the restaurant is where performance, fashion, commerce, ritual, class, work and desire all come together. Through its windows, we can glimpse the world.This is the tale of the restaurant in all its guises, from the first formal establishments in eighteenth-century Paris serving 'restorative' bouillon, to today's new Nordic cuisine, via grand Viennese cafés and humble fast food joints. Here are tales of cooks who spend hours arranging rose petals for Michelin stars, of the university that teaches the consistency of the perfect shake, of the lunch counter that sparked a protest movement, of the writers - from Proust to George Orwell - who have been inspired or outraged by the restaurant's secrets.
In the Rogue Blood
by James Carlos Blake"Powerful. . . impressive. . . [an] epic of the 1840s frontier." —Dallas Morning NewsWith soaring and masterful prose, James Carlos Blake brings to life an enthralling historical time and place—and a cast of memorable characters—in a stunning tale of dark instinct, blood reckoning, and fates forged in the zeal of America's "Manifest Destiny."The offspring of a whore mother and a homicidal father, Edward and John Little are driven from their home in the Florida swamplands by a scheming parent's treacheries, and by a shameful, horrific act that will haunt their dreams for the rest of their days. Joining the swelling ranks of the rootless—wandering across an almost surreal bloodland populated by the sorrowfully lost and defiantly damned—two brothers are separated by death and circumstance in the lawless "Dixie City" of New Orleans, and dispatched by destiny to opposing sides in a fierce and desperate territorial struggled between Mexico and the United States. And a family bond tempered in hot blood is tested in the cruel, all-consuming fires of war and conscience.
In the Ruins of Empire
by Ronald H. SpectorWhile he is perhaps overly optimistic in suggesting that the American experience in Iraq has made it "unnecessary to explain that military occupations that follow on the complete disruption of a country's old order are often ill-conceived, confused, messy affairs that can result in unforeseen consequences for both the occupied and the occupiers," Spector (history and international relations, George Washington U. ) has perhaps made that lesson clearer with his historical examination of British, Chinese, US, and Soviet occupations of vast areas of mainland Asia following the collapse of the Japanese empire in World War II, which recounts great power rivalries, shifting political and military alliances, and social and political upheaval across post-1945 Asia. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West (The Wellek Library Lectures)
by Wendy BrownAcross the West, hard-right leaders are surging to power on platforms of ethno-economic nationalism, Christianity, and traditional family values. Is this phenomenon the end of neoliberalism or its monstrous offspring?In the Ruins of Neoliberalism casts the hard-right turn as animated by socioeconomically aggrieved white working- and middle-class populations but contoured by neoliberalism’s multipronged assault on democratic values. From its inception, neoliberalism flirted with authoritarian liberalism as it warred against robust democracy. It repelled social-justice claims through appeals to market freedom and morality. It sought to de-democratize the state, economy, and society and re-secure the patriarchal family. In key works of the founding neoliberal intellectuals, Wendy Brown traces the ambition to replace democratic orders with ones disciplined by markets and traditional morality and democratic states with technocratic ones.Yet plutocracy, white supremacy, politicized mass affect, indifference to truth, and extreme social disinhibition were no part of the neoliberal vision. Brown theorizes their unintentional spurring by neoliberal reason, from its attack on the value of society and its fetish of individual freedom to its legitimation of inequality. Above all, she argues, neoliberalism’s intensification of nihilism coupled with its accidental wounding of white male supremacy generates an apocalyptic populism willing to destroy the world rather than endure a future in which this supremacy disappears.
In the Sargasso Sea
by Thomas A JanvierRoger Stetworth believes himself lucky when he manages to secure passage on the Golden Hind for a mere fifty dollars—but his travels will be anything but fortunate. When he stands his ground against the villainous Captain Luke Chilton, Roger is tossed overboard and his real journey begins. The lone American traveler must travel a sea of dead ships—and the dead men aboard—to make his way home again.
In the Season of the Sun
by Kerry NewcombTorn apart by betrayal, two brothers search for each other on the Western plainsWhile their family&’s wagon train stops for a rest, Jacob Milam goes hunting with his younger brother, Tom. They are hoping for a rabbit, a deer, or even a buffalo, but they haven&’t managed to catch anything bigger than a rattlesnake when they see the Indian raiding party galloping over the plains. Jacob races back to camp, desperate to warn his parents, but it is already too late. Betrayed by their Indian guide, the settlers have been slaughtered. Jacob and Tom are the only survivors.When the Indian guide kidnaps Tom to raise him as a warrior, Jacob is left to wander the plains. Rescued by a shaman, he is initiated into the mystical rites of the Blackfeet people. As they come of age in an unfamiliar land, Jacob and Tom are finally reunited in an unlikely place: the killing fields of the Old West.
In the Serpent's Wake
by Rachel HartmanFrom the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Seraphina comes a piercing new fantasy adventure that champions our resilience and humility.MIND OF THE WORLD,OPEN YOUR EYES. At the bottom of the world lies a Serpent, the last of its kind.Finding the Serpent will change lives. Tess is a girl on a mission to save a friend.Spira is a dragon seeking a new identity.Marga is an explorer staking her claim on a man&’s world.Jacomo is a priest searching for his soul. There are those who would give their lives to keep it hidden.And those who would destroy it. But the only people who will truly find the Serpent are those who have awakened to the world around them—with eyes open to the wondrous, the terrible, and the just.Discover more critically-acclaimed YA from Rachel Hartman!SeraphinaShadow ScaleTess of the Road
In the Serpent's Wake
by Rachel HartmanTess sets out a sea-faring adventure to stop a war in the latest fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hartman.Tess has a mission from the Queen: sail across the oceans to the bottom of the world and prevent a war. Unbeknownst to the Queen, Tess also intends to find the last World Serpent -- a once-mythical creature with the magical ability to heal her best friend Pathka from a life-threatening injury. Tess never was one to follow the rules and this self-assigned mission feels like her duty, her calling, her destiny.Destiny has other ideas.When someone from Tess's past makes a surprise return, old wounds are cracked open, throwing her mission -- both the Queen's and Tess's personal agenda -- into complete disarray. What's more, Tess's personal pain is intertwined with a history greater than her own and the mending of it threatens the delicate balance of the entire Southlands. Tess was sent on this journey to prevent a war, but she may be starting one of her own.
In the Service of the Emperor: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1931–1945
by N.S. NashThe expansion of the Japanese Empire between 1931 until its defeat in 1945 is one of the most extraordinary yet shocking episodes in human history. Extraordinary in that a relatively non-industrialised island nation was prepared to go to war, concurrently, with China, the most populous country, Great Britain with its world-wide empire and the USA, the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth. Shocking, as those 'in the service of the Emperor’ practiced persistent and unrestrained brutality as they conquered and occupied swathes of South East Asia. But, as this superbly researched work reveals, there is no denying their fighting and logistical expertise. The author examines the political, economic and strategic effects of the rapid Japanese expansion and explores the cult of deity that surrounded the Emperor. The contribution of the Allied forces and their leadership is given due attention. When retribution duly came, it was focussed on the military leadership responsible for unspeakable atrocities on their military and civilian victims. The physical perpetrators remaining largely unpunished. Japan, today, has still not acknowledged its wartime guilt. The result is an authoritative, balanced and highly readable account of a chapter of world history that must never be forgotten.
In the Shade of the Almond Trees: A Novel
by Dominique MarnyIn the aftermath of World War I, a family estate hangs in the balance For generations, the Barthélemy family tended to the olive trees of Restanques, a sprawling property in Cotignac whose olive oil and almonds were as incredible as the countryside that produced them. But all that changed when war came to France. Robert Barthélemy never returned from the trenches, and without him, the farm is beginning to die. His widow has lost the will to live, and only the fierce efforts of their daughter, Jeanne, have kept the creditors at bay. Jeanne is spending an afternoon at home with the family’s grim financial statements when a handsome stranger appears on the front steps. His name is Jérôme Guillaumin and he is a brilliant botanist about to embark on a journey around the globe. From the moment they meet, Jeanne is struck by feelings she never thought possible: feelings that could save her life or destroy everything she has ever known.
In the Shade of the Sunna: Salafi Piety in the Twentieth-Century Middle East
by Aaron Rock-SingerSalafis explicitly base their legitimacy on continuity with the Quran and the Sunna, and their distinctive practices—praying in shoes, wearing long beards and short pants, and observing gender segregation—are understood to have a similarly ancient pedigree. In this book, however, Aaron Rock-Singer draws from a range of media forms as well as traditional religious texts to demonstrate that Salafism is a creation of the twentieth century and that its signature practices emerged primarily out of Salafis’ competition with other social movements amid the intellectual and social upheavals of modernity. In the Shade of the Sunna thus takes readers beyond the surface claims of Salafism’s own proponents—and the academics who often repeat them—into the larger sociocultural and intellectual forces that have shaped Islam’s fastest growing revivalist movement.
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills
by Jennifer Haupt"...more than a page-turning narrative; it's an embrace of the Kinyarwanda greeting amahoro--'peace.'"—Oprah.comAn evocative page-turner and an eye-opening meditation on the ways we survive profoundly painful memories and negotiate the complexities of love.&”—Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much is TrueFinalist – National Reading Group—Great Group Reads 2018Finalist – Foreword Indies Book of the YearIn 1968, a disillusioned and heartbroken Lillian Carlson left Atlanta after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda.Three decades later, in New York City, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer.When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father. Set against the backdrop of a country grieving and trying to heal after a devastating civil war, follow the intertwining stories of three women who discover something unexpected: grace when there can be no forgiveness."An intensely beautiful debut.&”—Library Journal"Good choice for those seeking tales of hope . . . and it may prove popular with book clubs.&”—Booklist
In the Shadow of a Sword: The Memoir of a Woman Leader in the LTTE
by Thamizhini Nedra Rodrigo (Translator)Thamizhini joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the age of nineteen and spent eighteen years as a combatant, educator and, for some time, head of the women’s division of its Political Wing. Her memoir, In the Shadow of a Sword, weaves back and forth between reminiscences of her childhood experiences of state violence and her decision to join the LTTE. It recounts the many projects she undertook for the civilian population; her participation in the Peace Talks of 2002; the freedoms granted and constraints placed upon her during the armed struggle; and her experiences in combat training, on the battlefield, and in political negotiations and diplomacy. It is a narrative weighted with grief and remorse yet glistening with moments of humour and thick with compassion. The memoir contains wry observations on gender roles and media manipulation in times of war and is a valuable archive that rescues female combatants from oblivion.
In the Shadow of Auschwitz: German Massacres against Polish Civilians, 1939–1945
by Daniel BrewingThe Nazi invasion of Poland was the first step in an unremittingly brutal occupation, one most infamously represented by the network of death camps constructed on Polish soil. The systematic murder of Jews in the camps has understandably been the focus of much historical attention. Less well-remembered today is the fate of millions of non-Jewish Polish civilians, who—when they were not expelled from their homeland or forced into slave labor—were murdered in vast numbers both within and outside of the camps. Drawing on both German and Polish sources, In the Shadow of Auschwitz gives a definitive account of the depredations inflicted upon Polish society, tracing the ruthless implementation of a racial ideology that cast ethnic Poles as an inferior race.