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An Imperial Concubine's Tale
by G. G. RowleyJapan in the early seventeenth century was a wild place. Serial killers stalked the streets of Kyoto at night, while noblemen and women mingled freely at the imperial palace, drinking saké and watching kabuki dancing in the presence of the emperor's principal consort. Among these noblewomen was an imperial concubine named Nakanoin Nakako, who in 1609 became embroiled in a sex scandal involving both courtiers and young women in the emperor's service. As punishment, Nakako was banished to an island in the Pacific Ocean, but she never reached her destination. Instead, she was shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in a remote village on the Izu Peninsula, before being set free in an amnesty. Returning to Kyoto, Nakako began a new adventure: she entered a convent and became a Buddhist nun.Recounting the remarkable story of this resilient woman and the war-torn world in which she lived, G. G. Rowley investigates aristocratic family archives, village storehouses, and the records of imperial convents to re-create Nakako's life from beginning to end. She follows the banished concubine as she endures rural exile, receives an unexpected reprieve, and rediscovers herself as the abbess of a nunnery. As she unravels Nakako's unusual tale, Rowley also profiles the little-known lives of samurai women who sacrificed themselves on the fringes of the great battles that brought an end to more than a century of civil war. Written with keen insight and genuine affection, An Imperial Concubine's Tale tells the true story of a woman's extraordinary life in seventeenth-century Japan.
An Imperial Concubine's Tale: Scandal, Shipwreck, and Salvation in Seventeenth-Century Japan
by G. G. RowleyJapan in the early seventeenth century was a wild place. Serial killers stalked the streets of Kyoto at night, while noblemen and women mingled freely at the imperial palace, drinking saké and watching kabuki dancing in the presence of the emperor's principal consort. Among these noblewomen was an imperial concubine named Nakanoin Nakako, who in 1609 became embroiled in a sex scandal involving both courtiers and young women in the emperor's service. As punishment, Nakako was banished to an island in the Pacific Ocean, but she never reached her destination. Instead, she was shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in a remote village on the Izu Peninsula before she was finally allowed to return to Kyoto. In 1641, Nakako began a new adventure: she entered a convent and became a Buddhist nun.Recounting the remarkable story of this resilient woman and her war-torn world, G. G. Rowley investigates aristocratic family archives, village storehouses, and the records of imperial convents. She follows the banished concubine as she endures rural exile, receives an unexpected reprieve, and rediscovers herself as the abbess of a nunnery. While unraveling Nakako's unusual tale, Rowley also reveals the little-known lives of samurai women who sacrificed themselves on the fringes of the great battles that brought an end to more than a century of civil war. Written with keen insight and genuine affection, An Imperial Concubine's Tale tells the true story of a woman's extraordinary life in seventeenth-century Japan.
An Imperial Homeland: Forging German Identity in Southwest Africa (Max Kade Research Institute)
by Adam A. BlacklerAt the turn of the twentieth century, depictions of the colonized world were prevalent throughout the German metropole. Tobacco advertisements catered to the erotic gaze of imperial enthusiasts with images of Ovaherero girls, and youth magazines allowed children to escape into “exotic domains” where their imaginations could wander freely. While racist beliefs framed such narratives, the abundance of colonial imaginaries nevertheless compelled German citizens and settlers to contemplate the world beyond Europe as a part of their daily lives.An Imperial Homeland reorients our understanding of the relationship between imperial Germany and its empire in Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia). Colonialism had an especially significant effect on shared interpretations of the Heimat (home/homeland) ideal, a historically elusive perception that conveyed among Germans a sense of place through national peculiarities and local landmarks. Focusing on colonial encounters that took place between 1842 and 1915, Adam A. Blackler reveals how Africans confronted foreign rule and altered German national identity. As Blackler shows, once the façade of imperial fantasy gave way to colonial reality, German metropolitans and white settlers increasingly sought to fortify their presence in Africa using juridical and physical acts of violence, culminating in the first genocide of the twentieth century.Grounded in extensive archival research, An Imperial Homeland enriches our understanding of German identity, allowing us to see how a distant colony with diverse ecologies, peoples, and social dynamics grew into an extension of German memory and tradition. It will be of interest to German Studies scholars, particularly those interested in colonial Africa.
An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, 54 BC - AD 409 (Penguin History of Britain)
by David MattinglyPart of the Penguin History of Britain series, An Imperial Possession is the first major narrative history of Roman Britain for a generation. David Mattingly draws on a wealth of new findings and knowledge to cut through the myths and misunderstandings that so commonly surround our beliefs about this period. From the rebellious chiefs and druids who led native British resistance, to the experiences of the Roman military leaders in this remote, dangerous outpost of Europe, this book explores the reality of life in occupied Britain within the context of the shifting fortunes of the Roman Empire.
An Imperial State at War: Britain From 1689-1815
by Lawrence StoneThe study of eighteenth century history has been transformed by the writings of John Brewer, and most recently, with The Sinews of Power, he challenged the central concepts of British history. Brewer argues that the power of the British state increased dramatically when it was forced to pay the costs of war in defence of her growing empire. In An Imperial State at War, edited by Lawrence Stone (himself no stranger to controversy), the leading historians of the eighteenth century put the Brewer thesis under the spotlight. Like the Sinews of Power itself, this is a major advance in the study of Britain's first empire.
An Imperial War and the British Working Class: Working-Class Attitudes and Reactions to the Boer War, 1899-1902
by Richard PriceFirst published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
An Imperial World at War: The British Empire, 1939–45
by Ashley Jackson Yasmin Khan Gajendra SinghAt the start of the Second World War, Britain was at the height of its imperial power, and it is no surprise that it drew upon the global resources of the Empire once war had been declared. Whilst this international aspect of Britain’s war effort has been well-studied in relation to the military contribution of individual dominions and colonies, relatively little has been written about the Empire as a whole. As such, An Imperial World at War makes an important contribution to the historiography relating to the British Empire and its wartime experience. It argues that the war needs to be viewed in imperial terms, that the role of forces drawn from the Empire is poorly understood and that the war's impact on colonial societies is barely grasped at all in conventional accounts. Through a series of case studies, the volume demonstrates the fundamental role played by the Empire in Britain’s war effort and highlights some of the consequences for both Britain and its imperial territories.Themes include the recruitment and utilization of military formations drawn from imperial territories, the experience of British forces stationed overseas, the use of strategic bases located in the colonies, British policy in the Middle East and the challenge posed by growing American power, the occupation of enemy colonies and the enemy occupation of British colonies, colonial civil defence measures, financial support for the war effort supplied by the Empire, and the commemoration of the war. The Afterword anticipates a new, decentred history of the war that properly acknowledges the role and importance of people and places throughout the colonial and semi-colonial world.’ This volume emanates from a conference organized as part of the ‘Home Fronts of the Empire – Commonwealth’ project. The project was generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by Yasmin Khan and Ashley Jackson with Gajendra Singh as Postdoctoral Research Assistant.
An Imperial World: Empires and Colonies Since 1750
by Douglas NorthropThis text helps students understand world history by focusing on an issue that has profoundly shaped the modern world order: the establishment and collapse of global empires since 1750. An Imperial World uses a combination of primary documents and analytical essays, both tightly focused around four case studies: India, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It examines the historical development of colonial systems and shows their enormous role in shaping the modern world order. It is meant to be thematic and suggestive, offering arguments and information to serve as a starting point for discussion and exploration.
An Imperialist Love Story: Desert Romances and the War on Terror
by Amira JarmakaniA curious figure stalks the pages of a distinct subset of mass-market romance novels, aptly called “desert romances.” Animalistic yet sensitive, dark and attractive, the desert prince or sheikh emanates manliness and raw, sexual power. In the years since September 11, 2001, the sheikh character has steadily risen in popularity in romance novels, even while depictions of Arab masculinity as backward and violent in nature have dominated the cultural landscape. An Imperialist Love Story contributes to the broader conversation about the legacy of orientalist representations of Arabs in Western popular culture. Combining close readings of novels, discursive analysis of blogs and forums, and interviews with authors, Jarmakani explores popular investments in the war on terror by examining the collisions between fantasy and reality in desert romances. Focusing on issues of security, freedom, and liberal multiculturalism, she foregrounds the role that desire plays in contemporary formations of U.S. imperialism. Drawing on transnational feminist theory and cultural studies, An Imperialist Love Story offers a radical reinterpretation of the war on terror, demonstrating romance to be a powerful framework for understanding how it works, and how it perseveres.
An Imperishable Heritage: A Study of Selected Works
by Stephen TownThe rehabilitation of British music began with Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford. Ralph Vaughan Williams assisted in its emancipation from continental models, while Gerald Finzi, Edmund Rubbra and George Dyson flourished in its independence. Stephen Town's survey of Choral Music of the English Musical Renaissance is rooted in close examination of selected works from these composers. Town collates the substantial secondary literature on these composers, and brings to bear his own study of the autograph manuscripts. The latter form an unparalleled record of compositional process and shed new light on the compositions as they have come down to us in their published and recorded form. This close study of the sources allows Town to identify for the first time instances of similarity and imitation, continuities and connections between the works.
An Impetuous Abduction
by Patricia Frances RowellBeauty and the blackguardMoments after Persephone Hathersage stumbled upon a band of thieves, the terrified young lady was spirited away on horseback! But trepidation soon gave way to scandalous desire when her brooding captor tenderly nursed a feverish Phona back to health. Spellbound by the battle-scarred blackguard who kept her confined in an ancient fortress, Phona knew any impropriety with this nameless rogue would tarnish her reputation forever, not to mention plunge her into even further peril! However, appearances could be quite deceiving. . . .
An Import of Intrigue: A Novel Of The Maradaine Constabulary (Maradaine Constabulary #2)
by Marshall Ryan MarescaThis second novel in the Maradaine Constabulary series blends high fantasy, murder mystery, and gritty urban magic...The neighborhood of the Little East is a collision of cultures, languages, and traditions, hidden away in the city of Maradaine. A set of streets to be avoided or ignored. When a foreign dignitary is murdered, solving the crime falls to the most unpopular inspectors in the Maradaine Constabulary: exposed fraud Satrine Rainey, and Uncircled mage Minox Welling.With a murder scene deliberately constructed to point blame toward the rival groups resident in this exotic section of Maradaine, Rainey is forced to confront her former life, while Welling's ignorance of his own power threatens to consume him. And the conflicts erupting in the Little East will spark a citywide war unless the Constabulary solves the case quickly.
An Important Family (Sound Ser.)
by Dorothy EdenThe saga of an English family in New Zealand and the secret that haunts them, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The American Heiress. For Kate O&’Connor, desperate to escape her tragic past in England, the opportunity to immigrate to New Zealand with Sir John Devenish and his wife and daughter is a chance to start over. Exhilarated by this wild, primitive place on the other side of the world, Kate&’s happiness is marred by a love she knows is taboo. When a sudden and suspicious death throws her life into turmoil, she begins to uncover the real reason the Devenish family left England. From a grand townhouse in London to a sheep farm in New Zealand, An Important Family, which was hailed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as &“a compulsive page turner,&” is the story of a country in the midst of colonization—a transformation that parallels Kate O&’Connor&’s own rite of passage into womanhood as she finds her future in a magnificent new land.
An Important Matter of Principle: The Decline of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (Routledge Revivals)
by David SeawrightFirst published in 1999, this book examines the dramatic decline of the Conservative Party in Scotland. In 1955 the party secured over 50 per cent of the Scottish vote. At the last election it won a mere 17 per cent of the vote, losing its representation at Westminster in the process. But, until the publication of this work and despite its importance, relatively little was known about why the Conservative Party had declined so precipitously in Scotland. Many of the explanations for the party’s decline had largely remained untested. These included that the party had lost its Protestant base, suffered for its opposition to devolution and become too right wing for a normally progressive Scottish electorate. Using a unique collection of survey data, this work casts doubt on all three claims. Thus, this book makes a major academic contribution and examines, what for the Scottish Unionists, was An Important Matter of Principle.
An Impossible Attraction
by Brenda JoyceWith her mother's passing, Alexandra Bolton gave up on love to take care of her family. Now, with the Bolton name in disgrace due to her father's profligate ways, marrying an elderly squire might be the only way to save her family from absolute ruin. But when she meets the infamous Duke of Clarewood, old dreams-and old passions-are awakened as never before. Yet she cannot accept his shocking proposition!He is the wealthiest, most powerful peer in the realm, and having witnessed the cold horror of marriage as a child, he has vowed never to wed. But Alexandra Bolton inflames him as no woman has ever done, and she also serves him his first rejection! Now Clarewood-who always gets what he wants-will choose which rules to play by. But when passion finally brings them together, a terrible secret threatens to tear them apart....
An Impossible Distance to Fall
by Miriam McNamaraA story about falling—falling from grace, falling in love—as well as soaring to heights you wouldn’t know were possible if you never stepped out into thin air.A story about falling—falling from grace, falling in love—as well as soaring to heights you wouldn’t know were possible if you never stepped out into thin air. It’s 1930, and Birdie William’s life has crashed along with the stock market. Her father’s bank has failed, and worse, he’s disappeared along with his Jenny biplane. When Birdie sees a leaflet for a barnstorming circus with a picture of Dad’s plane on it, she goes to Coney Island in search of answers. The barnstorming circus has lady pilots, daredevil stuntmen, fire-spinners, and wing walkers, and Birdie is instantly enchanted—especially with a girl pilot named June. Birdie doesn’t find her father, but after stumbling across clues that suggest he’s gone to Chicago, she figures she’ll hitch a ride with the traveling circus doing what she does best: putting on a convincing act and insisting on being star of the show. But the overconfidence that made her belle of the ball during her enchanted youth turns out to be far too reckless without the safety net of her charmed childhood, and a couple of impulsive missteps sends her and her newfound community spinning into freefall.
An Impossible Dream: Reagan, Gorbachev, And A World Without The Bomb
by Guillaume SerinaThe riveting untold story behind the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik to stop the nuclear arms race. When Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sat down in Reykjavik in 1986, George Shultz, the American secretary of state at the time, said that it was “the poker game with the highest stakes ever played.” It was the last time the world had a chance to do away entirely with nuclear weapons. This is the behind-the-scenes story of this remarkable summit conference in the remote Icelandic capital. An Impossible Dream is the first exploration of recently-available archives of both sides—top-secret archives of the Kremlin and the personal papers of Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as the archives of Ronald Reagan. These chronicles, personal diaries and previously classified memoranda are deeply enriched by the personal reminiscences of many of the key players at this era.But above all, the stage is set with a personal and exclusive preface from Mikhail Gorbachev himself. An Impossible Dream is the deeply important examination of the present and the future. The hazards of the nuclear age are legion, from aging weapons to new software that is vulnerable to terrorist attacks. With elements of the Trump administration considering a unilateral abrogation of the intermediate range nuclear missile (INF) treaty, the roots of which were laid at Reykjavik. Serina lays out this pivotal moment in history clearly and dramatically in this landmark work, as the world stands poised on the edge of a potential new arms race.
An Impossible Friendship: Group Portrait, Jerusalem Before and After 1948 (Religion, Culture, and Public Life #47)
by Sonja Mejcher-AtassiIn Jerusalem, as World War II was coming to an end, an extraordinary circle of friends began to meet at the bar of the King David Hotel. This group of aspiring artists, writers, and intellectuals—among them Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Sally Kassab, Walid Khalidi, and Rasha Salam, some of whom would go on to become acclaimed authors, scholars, and critics—came together across religious lines in a fleeting moment of possibility within a troubled history. What brought these Muslim, Jewish, and Christian friends together, and what became of them in the aftermath of 1948, the year of the creation of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba?Sonja Mejcher-Atassi tells the story of this unlikely friendship and in so doing offers an intimate cultural and social history of Palestine in the critical postwar period. She vividly reconstructs the vanished social world of these protagonists, tracing the connections between the specificity of individual lives and the larger contexts in which they are embedded. In exploring this ecumenical friendship and its artistic, literary, and intellectual legacies, Mejcher-Atassi demonstrates how social biography can provide a picture of the past that is at once more inclusive and more personal. This group portrait, she argues, allows us to glimpse alternative possibilities that exist within and alongside the fraught history of Israel/Palestine. Bringing a remarkable era to life through archival research and nuanced interdisciplinary scholarship, An Impossible Friendship unearths prospects for historical reconciliation, solidarity, and justice.
An Impossible Impostor (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery #7)
by Deanna RaybournWhile investigating a man claiming to be the long-lost heir to a noble family, Veronica Speedwell gets the surprise of her life in this new adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.London, 1889. Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian beau Stoker are summoned by Sir Hugo Montgomerie, head of Special Branch. He has a personal request on behalf of his goddaughter, Euphemia Hathaway. After years of traveling the world, her eldest brother, Jonathan, heir to Hathaway Hall, was believed to have been killed in the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa a few years before. But now a man matching Jonathan&’s description and carrying his possessions has arrived at Hathaway Hall with no memory of his identity or where he has been. Could this man truly be Jonathan, back from the dead? Or is he a devious impostor, determined to gain ownership over the family's most valuable possessions—a legendary parure of priceless Rajasthani jewels? It's a delicate situation, and Veronica is Sir Hugo's only hope. Veronica and Stoker agree to go to Hathaway Hall to covertly investigate the mysterious amnesiac. Veronica is soon shocked to find herself face-to-face with a ghost from her past. To help Sir Hugo discover the truth, she must open doors to her own history that she long believed to be shut for good.
An Impossible Inheritance: Postcolonial Psychiatry and the Work of Memory in a West African Clinic
by Katie Kilroy-MaracWeaving sound historical research with rich ethnographic insight, An Impossible Inheritance tells the story of the emergence, disavowal, and afterlife of a distinctive project in transcultural psychiatry initiated at the Fann Psychiatric Clinic in Dakar, Senegal during the 1960s and 1970s. Today’s clinic remains haunted by its past and Katie Kilroy-Marac brilliantly examines the complex forms of memory work undertaken by its affiliates over a sixty year period. Through stories such as that of the the ghost said to roam the clinic’s halls, the mysterious death of a young doctor sometimes attributed to witchcraft, and the spirit possession ceremonies that may have taken place in Fann’s courtyard, Kilroy-Marac argues that memory work is always an act of the imagination and a moral practice with unexpected temporal, affective, and political dimensions. By exploring how accounts about the Fann Psychiatric Clinic and its past speak to larger narratives of postcolonial and neoliberal transformation, An Impossible Inheritance examines the complex relationship between memory, history, and power within the institution and beyond.
An Impossible Love
by Christine AngotAn agonizing turbulence lies just beneath the surface of this skillfully wrought novel by the French phenom who caused a sensation with the publication of her novel Incest.Reaching back into a world before she was born, Christine Angot describes the inevitable encounter of two young people at a dance in the early 1950s: Rachel and Pierre, her mother and father. Their love is acute. It twists around Pierre's decisive judgments about class, nationalism, and beauty, and winds its way towards dissolution and Christine's own birth. Though it's Pierre whose ideas are most often voiced, it's Rachel who slowly comes into view, her determination and patience forming a radiant, enigmatic disposition. Equal parts subtle and suspenseful, An Impossible Love is an unwavering advance toward a brutal sequence of events that mars both Christine's and Rachel's lives. Angot the author carves Angot the narrator out of this corrosive element, exposing an unmendable rupture, and at the same time offering a portrait of a striking, ineradicable bond between mother and daughter.
An Impossible Marriage: The Modern Classic
by Pamela Hansford Johnson'As her work reappears, another missing jigsaw piece is replaced' Independent Described by the New York Times upon her death as 'one of Britain's best-known novelists', plunge yourself into the wry world of Pamela Hansford Johnson in this story of seduction and marriage, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Jane Howard and Barbara Pym.******************It's between the wars, and Christine - Christie, to her friends - is tired of London, her job in a travel agency, her friends, and the young men she's being set up with. So when, by chance, she meets the older Ned Skelton, who seems sophisticated and experienced, she quickly becomes besotted. Before Christie knows it, they are engaged. But will marriage to a man she doesn't know well truly offer this young woman an escape? Or is she walking into another prison of her own making? A classic coming-of-age story set in the 1930s, by one of Britain's best-loved and almost-forgotten novelists.'A story so vivid it might be the memoir of a real person' Britannia and Eve******************Praise for Pamela Hansford Johnson:'Witty, satirical and deftly malicious' Anthony Burgess'A remarkable craftswoman' A.S. Byatt'Hansford Johnson at her wittiest is Waugh mingled with Malcolm Bradbury Ruth Rendell'A writer whose memory fully deserves to be kept alive' Jonathan Coe
An Impossible Marriage: The Modern Classic
by Pamela Hansford-JohnsonPlunge yourself into the wry world of Pamela Hansford Johnson in this story of seduction and marriage, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Jane Howard and Barbara Pym.Living out her happy teenage years in south-west London, Christine's only worries are living in the shadow of her beautiful, dazzling best friend Iris, and avoiding the disapproval of her manager if she's late from her lunch break. But when Chris is suddenly whisked off her feet by the mysterious - and much older - Ned, her life takes a swift about turn. Choosing to give up her job as a secretary in order to marry, Chris commits herself to life with Ned, only to discover that this beguiling man may not be the person she originally thought... "I told him that I would do whatever he said, that I would learn from him, that I would trust my life to him. When he thought I was sufficiently conscious of my errors he took me and kissed me until I was breathless with joy and on the edge of hysterical tears; but inside of me a small, cold critic sat aloof..."
An Impossible Marriage: What Our Mixed-Orientation Marriage Has Taught Us About Love and the Gospel
by Laurie Krieg Matt Krieg"People say our marriage is impossible." Laurie and Matt Krieg are in a mixed-orientation marriage: a marriage in which at least one partner's primary attraction isn't toward the gender of their spouse. In the Kriegs' case, Laurie is primarily attracted to women—and so is Matt. Some find the idea of mixed-orientation marriage bewildering or even offensive. But as the Kriegs have learned, nothing is impossible with God—and that's as true of their marriage as anyone else's. In An Impossible Marriage, the Kriegs tell their story: how they met and got married, the challenges and breakthroughs of their journey, and what they've learned about marriage along the way. Christianity teaches us that marriage is a picture of Jesus’ love for the church—and that's just as true in a mixed-orientation marriage as in a straight one. With vulnerability and wisdom, this book lays out an engaging picture of marriage in all its pain and beauty. It's a picture that points us, over and over again, to the love and grace of Jesus—as marriage was always meant to do.
An Impossible Promise (Providence Falls #2)
by Jude Deveraux Tara Sheets&“Time travel romance at its best!&”—Fresh Fiction on Chance of a Lifetime They can&’t be together, but they can&’t stay apart… Liam O&’Connor has one purpose in this life—to push the woman he loves into the arms of another man. The Irish rogue unknowingly changed the course of destiny when he fell in love with Cora McLeod over a century ago. Their passion was intense, brief and tragic. And the angels have been trying to restore the balance of fate ever since. Now police officers in Providence Falls, North Carolina, Liam and Cora are partners on a murder investigation. The intensity of the case has drawn them closer together—exactly what Liam is supposed to avoid. The angels have made it clear Cora must be with Finley Walsh. But headstrong Cora makes her own decisions and she&’s starting to have feelings for Liam—the only thing he&’s ever really wanted. Liam knows this is the last chance to save his soul. But does he love Cora enough to let her go? Providence Falls Book 1: Chance of a LifetimeBook 2: An Impossible Promise