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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history
We are living in a world in which the visible and invisible borders
between nations are being shaken at an unprecedented pace. We are
experiencing a wave of international migration, and the diversity
of migrants - in terms of how they identify, their external and
self-image, and their participation in society - is increasingly
noticeable. After the introduction of the Reform and Opening Up
policy, over 10 million migrants left China, with Europe the main
destination for Chinese emigration after 1978. This volume provides
multidisciplinary answers to open questions: How and to what extent
do Chinese immigrants participate in their host societies? What
kind of impact is the increasing number of highly qualified
immigrants from China having on the development and perception of
overseas Chinese communities in Europe? How is the development of
Chinese identity transforming in relation to generational change?
By focusing on two key European countries, Germany and France, this
volume makes a topical contribution to research on (new) Chinese
immigrants in Europe.
This book is an anthology of English writing on education by Tao
Xingzhi, the great Chinese educator and thinker. It includes
several articles that represent his educational ideas and life
philosophy, such as China in Transition, Creative Education, The
Little Teacher and the Literacy Movement, and Education for All.
These works are not only highly readable, but also present
educational philosophies that are closely related to real life, and
can be used to highlight and correct the deviations of strongly
utilitarian educational concepts in modern society. Further, the
appendix includes stories, fables, and poems translated by Tao
Xingzhi, as well as his own poems written in Chinese and translated
into English. This book offers readers interested in education's
new perspectives and inspiration. It also contributes to a more
comprehensive and accurate understanding of Tao Xingzhi as well as
his educational theories.
The book shows how the Franciscans in Jerusalem in the fourteenth
to sixteenth centuries wrote works which standardized the cultural
memory of the Holy Land. The experience of the late medieval Holy
Land was deeply connected to the presence of the Franciscans of the
Convent of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, who welcomed and guided
pilgrims. This book analyses this construction of a shared memory
based on the continuous availability of these texts in the
Franciscan library of Mount Zion, where they were copied and
adapted to respond to new historical contexts. This book shows how
the Franciscans developed a representation of the Holy Land by
elaborating on its history and describing its religious groups and
the geography of the region. This representation circulated among
pilgrims and influenced how contemporaries imagined the Holy Land
This book features a collection of essays on China's modern
Catholic Church by a scholar of China-West intellectual and
religious exchange. The essays and reflections were mostly written
in China while the author was traveling by train, or staying in
villages or large cities near to Roman Catholic cathedrals or other
important historical sites during research trips to the country. It
is clear that Clark's understanding of Catholicism in China evolved
from the first entry to the final ones in 2019. The essays included
in this compendium were written in disparate contexts and in
response to different events. As such, there is no obvious theme or
order to the content. However, despite this, the book provides
valuable insights for readers wishing to gain a better
understanding of the complex topography of Catholic history in
China, the contours of which have undergone stark transformations
with each dynastic, political, and ecclesial transition. The
information presented serves to highlight and explain the lives of
Catholic people and the events that have punctuated one of the most
significant dimensions of China's long history of friendship,
conflict and exchange with the West.
Japan's emergence as a modern state in the middle of the nineteenth
century was a unique socio-political event. The accompanying
economic development - achieved without tariff autonomy and with
practically no injection of foreign capital - was certainly no less
remarkable. A major portion of this important volume discusses how
this transformation was accomplished.This important book presents a
unique insight into the institutional development of capitalism in
Japan through a series of Shigeto Tsuru's papers, some of which are
published here for the first time. The volume also includes a
critical appraisal of Japan's economy during her invasion of China,
discussion of general historical trends in capitalism and an
assessment of the present, and future, economic problems of Japan.
The Economic Development of Modern Japan will be welcomed by
scholars and students with an interest in Japan's economic
development and her present and future role in the world. Economic
Theory and Capitalist Society, the first volume of Shigeto Tsuru's
essays, is also available.
Originally published in 1908. Author: Lord John De Joinville
Language: English Keywords: History / Crusades Many of the earliest
books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are
now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are
republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality,
modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Stacy Bannerman's husband, Lorin was a 43-year-old Sergeant First
Class in the reserve army who had never thought he'd be called upon
to wage war, but in October 2003 he was called to active duty as an
Infantry Mortar Platoon Sergeant. He had completed his duty and
commitment to the U.S. Army as of 22 June, 2004, but due to
President Bush's Stop Loss order, he was on the war's front-lines
until at least April 2005. Stacy Bannerman has a unique vantage
point for writing "When The War Came Home". On the one hand, she is
like the many thousands of women left behind while their reservist
husbands and partners are sent to fight in Iraq - for as
ill-equipped as their husbands are to wage war, the families left
behind are often even less equipped to cope. On the other hand,
Stacy Bannerman has the singular viewpoint of being a high-profile
career peace activist, who ultimately finds herself at odds with
her husband fighting on the front lines of Iraq in one of the most
dangerous assignments in the Army. Bannerman describes the
countdown to her husband's deployment, and documents her ongoing
struggle to reconcile her anti-war sentiments with the need to
support and honor her husband for the choice he made and for the
risks he's taking for his country.
More Than A Few Good Men tells the compelling soldiers story of
Robert J. Driver's life from childhood to his retirement from the
United States Marine Corps. Driver witnessed and was part of many
extreme, and sometimes chilling, events. These actions come to life
through Driver's own letters home to his wife, encompassing the
challenge of boot camp, Officer's Candidate School, and his tours
of duty in the Vietnam War. Driver collected declassified documents
and information from many of the Marines he served with in Vietnam
in order to provide the reader with this exceptionally detailed
account. Driver's letters home offer a clear reckoning of the
traumatic events of combat and the bravery of his young Marines.
The book also features biographies of the many contributors.
Driver's admiration for the men he fought with is evident-they were
More Than A Few Good Men.
Miyazawa Kiichi played a leading role in Japan's government and
politics from 1942 until 2003, during which time he served as Prime
Minister, and also as Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Minister of International Trade and Industry, Director
General of the Economic Planning Agency, and Chief Cabinet
Secretary. In this oral history autobiography, he discusses with
candor and detail a wide range of topics, including his 1939 visit
to the United States, recovery policies during the postwar
occupation, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and Japan's role in
international organizations such as GATT and OECD, and gives a
thoughtful insider's view of six decades of Japanese politics,
closing with his thoughts on Japan's role in the 21st century.
Miyazawa's testimony contains the unmistakable richness of the
words of one who was present as history was being made. The
political candor, unmatched scope, and largely first-person
narrative make this book unique.
Madeline C. Zilfi s latest book examines gender politics through
slavery and social regulation in the Ottoman Empire. In a challenge
to prevailing notions, her research shows that throughout the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries female slavery was not only
central to Ottoman practice, but a critical component of imperial
governance and elite social reproduction. As Zilfi illustrates
through her graphic accounts of the humiliations and sufferings
endured by these women at the hands of their owners, Ottoman
slavery was often as cruel as its Western counterpart. The book
focuses on the experience of slavery in the Ottoman capital of
Istanbul, also using comparative data from Egypt and North Africa
to illustrate the regional diversity and local dynamics that were
the hallmarks of slavery in the Middle East during the early modern
era. This is an articulate and informed account that sets more
general debates on women and slavery in the Ottoman context.
This book addresses the problem of a country telling a grand
narrative to itself that does not hold up under closer examination,
a narrative that leads to possibly avoidable war. In particular,
the book explains and questions the narrative the United States was
telling itself about East Asia and the Pacific in the late 1930s,
with (in retrospect) the Pacific War only a few years away. Through
empirical methods, it details how the standard narrative failed to
understand what was really happening based on documents that later
became available. The documents researched are from the Diet
Library in Japan, the Foreign Office in London, the National
Archives in Washington, the University of Hawai'i library in
Honolulu and several other primary sources. This research reveals
opportunities unexplored that involve lessons of seeing things from
the "other side's" point of view and of valuing the contribution of
"in-between" people who tried to be peacemakers. The crux of the
standard narrative was that the United States, unlike European
imperialist powers, involved itself in East Asia in order to bring
openness (the Open Door) and democracy; and that it was
increasingly confronted by an opposing force, Japan, that had
imperial, closed, and undemocratic designs. This standard American
narrative was later opposed by a revisionist narrative that found
the United States culpable of a "neo-imperialism," just as the
European powers and Japan were guilty of "imperialism." However,
what West Across the Pacific shows is that, while there is
indubitably some truth in both the "standard" and the "revisionist"
versions, more careful documentary research reveals that the most
important thing "lost" in the1898-1941 period may have been the
real opportunity for mutual recognition and understanding, for
cooler heads and more neutral "realistic" policies to emerge; and
for more attention to the standpoint of the common men and women
caught up in the migrations of the period. West Across the Pacific
is both a contribution to peace research in history and to a
foreign policy guided modestly by empiricism and realism as the
most reliable method. It is a must read for diplomats and people
concerned about diplomacy, as it probes the microcosms of
diplomatic negotiations. This brings special relevance and
approachability as yet another generation of Americans returns from
war and occupation in Iraq. The book also speaks to Vietnam
veterans, by drawing lessons from the Japanese war in China for the
American war in Vietnam. This is particularly true of the
conclusion, co-authored by distinguished Vietnam specialist Sophie
Quinn-Judge.
Noted Middle East military expert Anthony H. Cordesman details the
complex trends that come into play in determining the military
balance in a region that has become so critical to world peace.
This ready resource provides a wealth of information on military
expenditures and major arms systems, as well as qualitative trends,
by country and by zone. However, as Cordesman stresses, because the
"greater Middle East" is more a matter of rhetoric than military
reality, mere data summarizing trends in 23 different countries is
no substitute for a substantive explanation. Using tables, graphs,
and charts, this study explores every aspect of the regional
military balance with attention to sub-regional balances, internal
civil conflicts, and low level border tensions. The Middle East is
certainly one of the most militarized areas in the world, and
changes in technology, access to weapons of mass destruction, and
political instability contribute to a situation that has long been
in constant flux. Some of the regional flashpoints covered in this
study include the Maghreb (North Africa); the Arab-Israeli conflict
(dominated by Israel versus Syria); and the Gulf (divided into
those states that view Iran as the primary threat and those who
lived in fear of Iraq). Internal conflicts, such as those in
Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, and Yemen, increasingly dominate regional tensions. In
addition, border conflicts within the region and with neighboring
countries could further aggravate the delicate balance.
This is the first major study of the mass sequestration of Armenian
property by the Young Turk regime during the 1915 Armenian
genocide. It details the emergence of Turkish economic nationalism,
offers insight into the economic ramifications of the genocidal
process, and describes how the plunder was organized on the ground.
The interrelated nature of property confiscation initiated by the
Young Turk regime and its cooperating local elites offers new
insights into the functions and beneficiaries of state-sanctioned
robbery. Drawing on secret files and unexamined records, the
authors demonstrate that while Armenians suffered systematic
plunder and destruction, ordinary Turks were assigned a range of
property for their progress.
Tajikistan is the poorest and only Persian-speaking country among
the post-Soviet independent states. Historically, the Tajiks of
Central Asia and Afghanistan along with the Persians of modern Iran
came from a related ethnic group. When the Tajik Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic was established in late 1924, it became the
first modern Tajik state that remained one of the 15 union
republics of the Soviet Union until 1991. Almost immediately after
the collapse of the USSR, Tajikistan became a scene of brutal civil
war, taking place in one of the global hubs of religiously
motivated political struggle, militancy, mass cross-border refugee
flows, insurgency, and drug trafficking. During the first decade of
the 21st century, the country was making modest progress toward
stability. However, the heavy burden of socio-economic problems, in
addition to continuing conflict in the neighboring
Afghanistan-Pakistan, presented even bigger challenges for
Tajikistan. In addition, Western economic sanctions against Russia
in 2014, coinciding with continuing lower oil prices, have
negatively affected one million of Tajik labor migrants in Russia.
Yet Tajikistan has become neither weaker nor less important as a
player in world politics. This third edition of Historical
Dictionary of Tajikistan contains a chronology, an introduction,
appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section
has over 800 cross-referenced entries on important personalities,
politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This
book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone
wanting to know more about Tajikistan.
Monasticism was the dominant form of religious life both in the
medieval West and in the Byzantine world. Latin and Greek
Monasticism in the Crusader States explores the parallel histories
of monasticism in western and Byzantine traditions in the Near East
in the period c.1050-1300. Bernard Hamilton and Andrew Jotischky
follow the parallel histories of new Latin foundations alongside
the survival and revival of Greek Orthodox monastic life under
Crusader rule. Examining the involvement of monasteries in the
newly founded Crusader States, the institutional organization of
monasteries, the role of monastic life in shaping expressions of
piety, and the literary and cultural products of monasteries, this
meticulously researched survey will facilitate a new understanding
of indigenous religious institutions and culture in the Crusader
states.
This is a pioneering book about the impact that knowledge produced
in the Maghrib (Islamic North Africa and al-Andalus = Muslim
Iberia) had on the rest of the Islamic world. It presents results
achieved in the Research Project "Local contexts and global
dynamics: al-Andalus and the Maghrib in the Islamic East (AMOI)",
funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and
Universities (FFI2016-78878-R AEI/FEDER, UE) and directed by
Maribel Fierro and Mayte Penelas. The book contains 18
contributions written by senior and junior scholars from different
institutions all over the world. It is divided into five sections
dealing with how knowledge produced in the Maghrib was integrated
in the Mashriq starting with the emergence and construction of the
concept 'Maghrib' (sections 1 and 2); how travel allowed the
reception in the Maghrib of knowledge produced in the Mashriq but
also the transmission of locally produced knowledge outside the
Maghrib, and the different ways in which such transmission took
place (sections 3 and 4), and how the Maghribis who stayed or
settled in the Mashriq manifested their identity (section 5). The
book will be of interest not only for those whose research
concentrates on the Maghrib but more generally for those who want
to understand the complex and shifting dynamics between 'centres'
and 'peripheries' as regards intellectual production and
circulation.
This book is the first extensive research on the role of poetry
during the Iranian Revolution (1979) and the Iran-Iraq War
(1980-1988). How can poetry, especially peaceful medieval Sufi
poems, be applied to exalt violence, to present death as martyrdom,
and to process war traumas? Examining poetry by both Islamic
revolutionary and established dissident poets, it demonstrates how
poetry spurs people to action, even leading them to sacrifice their
lives. The book's originality lies in fresh analyses of how themes
such as martyrdom and violence, and mystical themes such as love
and wine, are integrated in a vehemently political context, while
showing how Shiite ritual such as the pilgrimage to Mecca clash
with Saudi Wahhabi appreciations. A distinguishing quality of the
book is its examination of how martyrdom was instilled in the minds
of Iranians through poetry, employing Sufi themes, motifs and
doctrines to justify death. Such inculcation proved effective in
mobilising people to the front, ready to sacrifice their lives. As
such, the book is a must for readers interested in Iranian culture
and history, in Sufi poetry, in martyrdom and war poetry. Those
involved with Middle Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies, Literary
Studies, Political Philosophy and Religious Studies will benefit
from this book. "From his own memories and expert research, the
author gives us a ravishing account of 'a poetry stained with
blood, violence and death'. His brilliantly layered analysis of
modern Persian poetry shows how it integrates political and
religious ideology and motivational propaganda with age-old
mystical themes for the most traumatic of times for Iran." (Alan
Williams, Research Professor of Iranian Studies, University of
Manchester) "When Asghar Seyed Gohrab, a highly prolific
academician, publishes a new book, you can be certain he has paid
attention to an exciting and largely unexplored subject. Martyrdom,
Mysticism and Dissent: The Poetry of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) is no exception in the sense that
he combines a few different cultural, religious, mystic, and
political aspects of Iranian life to present a vivid picture and
thorough analysis of the development and effect of what became
known as the revolutionary poetry of the late 1970s and early
1980s. This time, he has even enriched his narrative by inserting
his voice into his analysis. It is a thoughtful book and a
fantastic read." (Professor Kamran Talattof, University of Arizona)
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