In 1878 a young man named William Pryer was sent to North Borneo (now Sabah) to 'establish' the British North Borneo Company there. In 1894 his wife Ada published her account of his early years as an administrator along with some sketches of their life together. The memoir has unique value both as a travel narrative in its own right and for understanding the international politics of the British takeover of North Borneo. The new edition will reproduce the text of the original 1894 edition, including an introductory essay as well as annotations to explain and contextualize references of historical and biographical significance.

Concepts of historical progress or decline and the idea of a cycle of historical movement have existed in many civilizations. In spite of claims that they be transnational or even universal, periodization schemes invariably reveal specific social and cultural predispositions. Our dialogue, which brings together a Sinologist and a scholar of early modern History in Europe, considers periodization as a historical phenomenon, studying the case of the "Renaissance." Understood in the tradition of J. Burckhardt, who referred back to ideas voiced by the humanists of the 14th and 15th centuries, and focusing on the particularities of humanist dialogue which informed the making of the "Renaissance" in Italy, our discussion highlights elements that distinguish it from other movements that have proclaimed themselves as "r/Renaissances," studying, in particular, the Chinese Renaissance in the early 20th century. While disagreeing on several fundamental issues, we suggest that interdisciplinary and interregional dialogue is a format useful to addressing some of the more far-reaching questions in global history, e.g. whether and when a periodization scheme such as "Renaissance" can fruitfully be applied to describe non-European experiences.

When the Bolshevik Revolution broke out in October 1917, much of Central Asia was still ruled by autonomous rulers such as the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva. By 1920 the khanates had been transformed into People's Republics. In 1924, Stalin re-drew the frontiers of the region on ethno-linguistic lines creating, amongst other statelets, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan - the land of the Uzbeks. But the Turkic Uzbeks were not the only significant ethnic group within the new Uzbekistan's frontiers. The Persian-speaking Tajiks formed a considerable part of the population. This book describes how, often in the teeth of Uzbek opposition, the Tajiks gained, first an autonomous oblast (administrative region) within Uzbekistan, then an autonomous republic, and finally, in 1929, the status of a full Soviet Union Republic. Once the Tajiks had been granted a territory of their own, they began to strive for a national identity and to create national pride. Their new government had not only to survive the civil war that followed the revolution but then to build an entirely new country in an immensely inhospitable terrain. New frontiers had to be wrested from neighbours, and a new cultural identity, 'national in form but socialist in content', had to be created, which was to be an example to other Persian speakers in the region. Paul Bergne has produced the first documentation of how the idea of a Tajik state came into being and offers a vivid history of the birth of a nation.

This book critically examines the Confucian political imagination and its influence on the contemporary Chinese dream of a powerful China. It views Confucianism as the ideological supplement to a powerful state that is challenging Western hegemony, and not as a political philosophy that need not concern us. Eske Mollgaard shows that Confucians, despite their traditionalist ways, have the will to transform the existing socio-ethical order. The volume discusses the central features of the Confucian political imaginary, the nature of Confucian discourse, Confucian revivals, Confucian humanism and civility, and the political ideal of the Great Unity. It concludes by considering if Confucianism can be universalized as an ideology in competition with liberal democracy.

The Chief Black Eunuch, appointed personally by the Sultan, had both the ear of the leader of a vast Islamic Empire and held power over a network of spies and informers, including eunuchs and slaves throughout Constantinople and beyond. The story of these remarkable individuals, who rose from difficult beginnings to become amongst the most powerful people in the Ottoman Empire, is rarely told. George Junne places their stories in the context of the wider history of African slavery, and places them at the centre of Ottoman history. The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire marks a new direction in the study of courtly politics and power in Constantinople.

This open access book considers a pivotal era in Chinese history from a global perspective. This book's insight into Chinese and international history offers timely and challenging perspectives on initiatives like "Chinese characteristics", "The New Silk Road" and "One Belt, One Road" in broad historical context. Global History with Chinese Characteristics analyses the feeble state capacity of Qing China questioning the so-called "High Qing" (sheng qing ) era's economic prosperity as the political system was set into a "power paradox" or "supremacy dilemma". This is a new thesis introduced by the author demonstrating that interventionist states entail weak governance. Macao and Marseille as a new case study aims to compare Mediterranean and South China markets to provide new insights into both modern eras' rising trade networks, non-official institutions and interventionist impulses of autocratic states such as China's Qing and Spain's Bourbon empires.

Whether defined as essentially 'Turkish', and therefore alien to the Lebanese experience, or remembered in its final years as a tyrannical and brutal dictatorship, the period has not been thought of fondly in most Lebanese historiography. In a far-reaching and much-needed analysis of this complex legacy, James A. Reilly looks at Arabic-language history writing emanating from Lebanon in the post-1975 period, focusing on the three main Ottoman administrative centres of Saida, Beirut and Tripoli. This examination highlights key aspects of Lebanon's current political and cultural climate, and emphasises important points of agreement and conflict in contemporary historical discourse. The 1989 Ta'if Accords, for example, which ended the Lebanese Civil War, were accompanied by calls for reinterpretation of how the country's history could assist in creating a sense of national cohesion. The Ottoman Cities of Lebanon is invaluable to all historians and researchers working on Lebanese history and politics, and wider issues of identity, post-imperialist discourse and nationhood in the Middle East.

The first of two volumes, this book examines Gandhi's contribution to an understanding of the scientific and evolutionary basis of the psychology of nonviolence, through the lens of contemporary researches on human cognition, empathy, morality and self-control. While, psychological science has focused on those participants that delivered electric shocks in Professor Stanley Milgram's famous experiments, these books begin from the premise that we have neglected to fully explore why the other participants walked away. Building on emergent research in the psychology of self control and wisdom, the authors illustrate what Gandhi's life and work offers to our understanding of these subjects who disobeyed and defied Milgram. The authors analyze Gandhi's actions and philosophy, as well as original interviews with his contemporaries, to elaborate a modern scientific psychology of nonviolence from the principles he enunciated and which were followed so successfully in his Satyagrahas. Gandhi, they argue, was a practical psychologist from whom we can derive a science of nonviolence which, as Volume 2 will illustrate, can be applied to almost every subfield of psychology, but particularly to those addressing the most urgent issues of the 21st century. This book is the result of four decades of collaborative work between the authors. It marks a unique contribution to studies of both Gandhi and the current trends in psychological research that will appeal in particular to scholars of social change, peace studies and peace psychology, and, serve as an exemplar in teaching one of modern psychology's hitherto neglected perspectives.

This is a fascinating and hard-hitting account kept in the journal of a young Marine Corps infantryman during his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. The epilogue follows the author back to Vietnam in the 1990's.

The origin of world civilization can be traced to the Sindhu and Sarasvati river valleys (located in present-day Pakistan) as early as 8,000 BC. Here, innovation and originality in every aspect of human endeavor, from mathematics and science to art and sports, flourished. Yet the importance of this civilization, known as the Vedic period, has been deliberately downplayed.

Thoroughly researched and including an extensive bibliography, "From Bharata to India" rectifies this mistake in the perspective of world history and seeks to offer a comprehensive reference source. Author M. K. Agarwal shows how this early culture, where ideation by enlightened philosopher Brahmin kings, brought material and spiritual wealth that was to remain unchallenged until the colonial era. This Vedic-Hindu-Buddhist legacy subsequently influenced peoples and paradigms around the globe, ushering in an era of peace and plenty thousands of years before the Europeans.

By using original sources in Sanskirt as well as regional literature, Agarwal compares corresponding situations in other civilizations within the context of their own literary traditions and records to prove that Bharata forms the basis of world civilization. This is in direct contrast to the "Greek or Arab miracle" hypothesis put forth by numerous scholars.

The first of two volumes in this series, "From Bharata to India" offers a fascinating, in-depth glimpse into ancient India's contribution to the modern world.

This book examines forced migration of two refugees groups in South Asia. The author discusses the claims of "belonging" of refugees, and asserts that in practice "belonging" can extend beyond the state-centric understanding of membership in South Asian states. She addresses two sets of interrelated questions: what factors determine whether refugees are relocated to their home countries in South Asia, and why do some repatriated groups re-integrate more successfully than others in "post-peace" South Asian states? This book answers these questions through a study of refugees from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh who sought asylum in India and were later relocated to their countries of origin. Since postcolonial societies have a typical kind of state-formation, in South Asia's case this has profoundly shaped questions of belonging and membership. The debate tends to focus on citizenship, making it a benchmark to demarcate inclusion and exclusion in South Asian states. In addition to qualitative analysis, this book includes narratives of Sri Lankan and Chakma refugees in post-conflict and post-peace Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively, and critiques the impact of macro policies from the bottom up.

An infantry officer's view of the fall of the Sikhs
The author of this book served with No 6 company of HM 24th Regiment-an infantry regiment of the British Army-which saw much service in the Second Sikh War and suffered greatly in the fighting particularly at Chillianwalla. So there could hardly be a more qualified writer-or one with closer connections to other participants-to take on the task of reporting the war. At the conclusion of the First Sikh War there remained a sense of business unfinished. The Sikhs were yet masters of the Punjab and the Khalsa remained one of the most formidable armies the Sub-Continent had ever seen. Most importantly the centre of Sikh power, the seemingly impregnable and daunting fortress of Mooltan remained defiant. Once again the British Empire learnt the lesson of what a formidable foe the Sikhs were as they joined battle with them at Ramnuggar, Chillianwalla, Mooltan and Googerat. Archer takes us through this campaign in compelling detail embellished by an insight only first hand experience can provide.

The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this book is now available. This compelling book provides a vivid firsthand account of the student demonstrations and massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Uniquely placed as a Western observer drawn into active participation through Chinese friends in the uprising, Philip J Cunningham offers a remarkable day-by-day account of Beijing students desperately trying to secure the most coveted political real estate in China in the face of ever more daunting government countermoves. Tiananmen Moon takes the reader into the thick of the 1989 protests while also following the parallel response of an unprepared but resourceful Western media. Cunningham recounts rare vignettes about life in Tiananmen Square under student leadership, including a near riot when a reporter is mistaken for Gorbachev, the saga of a tearful leader who quits and dictates her last will and testament to the author, and a dramatic account of futile resistance in the face of an unforgiving crackdown. He chronicles the opportunistic and awkward tango between naive student activists and jaded foreign journalists, in which, after a month of mutual courting, the tables turn and the now-savvy students watch the journalists, seduced and confused, run circles just trying to keep up. During the hunger strike under the light of a full moon, China bares its conflicted soul to the world, the mournful cry for reform amplified by the footsteps of a million peaceful marchers. This remarkable testament to a searing month that changed China forever serves as a witness to the rise and fall of an uprising, capturing the plaintive and lyrical beauty of a dream that endures and continues to haunt the country today.

How were the American people prepared for the war on Iraq? How have political agents and media gatekeepers sought to develop public support for the first preventive war of the modern age? Bring 'Em On highlights the complex links between media and politics, analyzing how communication practices are modified in times of crisis to protect political interests or implement political goals. International contributors in mass communication, political science, and sociology address how U.S. institutional media practices, government policy, and culture can influence public mobilization for war.

In 1860, Damascus was a sleepy provincial capital of the weakening Ottoman Empire, a city defined in terms of its relationship to the holy places of Islam in the Arabian Hijaz and its legacy of Islamic knowledge. Yet by 1918 Damascus had become a seat of Arab nationalism and a would-be modern state capital. How can this metamorphosis be explained? Here Leila Hudson describes the transformation of Damascus. Within a couple of generations the city changed from little more than a way-station on the Islamic pilgrimage routes that had defined the city's place for over a millennium. Its citizens and notables now seized the opportunities made available through transport technology on the eastern Mediterranean coast and in the European economy. Shifts in marriage patterns, class, education and power ensued. But just when the city's destiny seemed irrevocably linked to the Mediterranean world and economy, World War I literally starved the urban centre of Damascus and empowered its Bedouin hinterland. The consequences shaped Syria for the rest of the twentieth century and beyond.

Unbounded Loyalty investigates how frontiers worked before the modern nation-state was invented. The perspective is that of the people in the borderlands who shifted their allegiance from the post-Tang regimes in North China to the new Liao empire (907-1125). Naomi Standen offers new ways of thinking about borders, loyalty, and identity in premodern China. She takes as her starting point the recognition that, at the time, ""China"" did not exist as a coherent entity, neither politically nor geographically, neither ethnically nor ideologically. Political borders were not the fixed geographical divisions of the modern world, but a function of relationships between leaders and followers. When local leaders changed allegiance, the borderline moved with them. Cultural identity did not determine people's actions: Ethnicity did not exist. In this context, she argues, collaboration, resistance, and accommodation were not meaningful concepts, and tenth-century understandings of loyalty were broad and various. ""Unbounded Loyalty"" sheds fresh light on the Tang-Song transition by focusing on the much-neglected tenth century and by treating the Liao as the preeminent Tang successor state. It fills several important gaps in scholarship on premodern China as well as uncovering new questions regarding the early modern period. It will be regarded as critically important to all scholars of the Tang, Liao, Five Dynasties, and Song periods and will be read widely by those working on Chinese history from the Han to the Qing.