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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history
This volume provides a series of contributions on the crucial
aspects relating to the Bible and the Late Bronze Age period. The
volume is introduced with a background essay surveying the main
areas of history and current scholarship relating to Late Bronze
Age Palestine and to the Egyptian New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20)
domination of the region, as well as the question of the biblical
account of the same geographical area and historical period.
Specific chapters address a range of key concerns: the history of
Egypt's dealing with Canaan is surveyed in chapters by Grabbe and
Dijkstra. The Amarna texts are also dealt with by Lemche, Mayes and
Grabbe. The archaeology is surveyed by van der Steen. The Merenptah
Stela mentioning Israel is of considerable interest and is
discussed especially by Dijkstra. This leads on to the burning
question of the origins of Israel which several of the contributors
address. Another issue is whether the first Israelite communities
practised egalitarianism, an issue taken up by Guillaume, with a
response by Kletter.
The Chinese Communist government has twice invoked large-scale
military might to crush popular uprisings in capital cities. The
second incident-the notorious massacre in Tiananmen Square in
1989-is well known. The first, thirty years earlier in Tibet,
remains little understood today. Yet in wages of destruction,
bloodshed, and trampling of human rights, the tragic toll of March
1959 surpassed Tiananmen. Tibet in Agony provides the first clear
historical account of the Chinese crackdown in Lhasa. Sifting facts
from the distortions of propaganda and partisan politics, Jianglin
Li reconstructs a chronology of events that lays to rest lingering
questions about what happened in those fate-filled days and why.
Her story begins with throngs of Tibetan demonstrators who-fearful
that Chinese authorities were planning to abduct the Dalai Lama,
their beloved leader-formed a protective ring around his palace. On
the night of March 17, he fled in disguise, only to reemerge in
India weeks later to set up a government in exile. But no peaceful
resolution awaited Tibet. The Chinese army soon began shelling
Lhasa, inflicting thousands of casualties and ravaging heritage
sites in the bombardment and the infantry onslaught that followed.
Unable to resist this show of force, the Tibetans capitulated,
putting Mao Zedong in a position to fulfill his long-cherished
dream of bringing Tibet under the Communist yoke. Li's extensive
investigation, including eyewitness interviews and examination of
classified government records, tells a gripping story of a crisis
whose aftershocks continue to rattle the region today.
This groundbreaking work provides an original and deeply
knowledgeable overview of Chinese women and gender relations during
the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Bret Hinsch explores in detail the
central aspects of female life in this era, including family and
marriage, motherhood, political power, work, inheritance,
education, religious roles, and virtues. He considers not only the
lived world of women, but also delves into their emotional life and
the ideals they pursued. Drawing on a wide range of Western and
Chinese primary and secondary sources-including standard histories,
poetry, prose literature, and epitaphs-Hinsch makes an important
period of Chinese women's history accessible to Western readers.
"Uruk: The First City" is the first fully historical analysis of
the origins of the city and of the state in southern Mesopotamia,
the region providing the earliest evidence in world history related
to these seminal developments. Contrasting his approach - which has
been influenced by V. Gordan Childe and by Marxist theory - with
the neo-evolutionist ideas of (especially) American anthropological
theory, the author argues that the innovations that took place
during the 'Uruk' period (most of the fourth millennium B.C.) were
a 'true' revolution that fundamentally changed all aspects of
society and culture. This book is unique in its historical
approach, and its combination of archaeological and textual
sources. It develops an argument that weaves together a vast amount
of information and places it within a context of contemporary
scholarly debates on such questions as the ancient economy and
world systems. It explains the roots of these debates briefly
without talking down to the reader. The book is accessible to a
wider audience, while it also provides a cogent argument about the
processes involved to the specialist in the field.
"State, Economy and the Great Divergence" provides a new analysis
of what has become the central debate in global economic history:
the 'great divergence' between European and Asian growth. Focusing
on early modern China and Western Europe, this book offers a new
level of detail on comparative state formation that has
wide-reaching implications for European, Eurasian and global
history.Beginning with a comprehensive overview of the
historiography, Peer Vries goes on to extend and develop the
debate, critically engaging with the huge volume of literature
published on the topic to date. Incorporating new insights into the
case of Europe, he offers a compelling alternative to the
exaggerated claims to East-West equivalence, or Asian superiority,
which have come to dominate discourse surrounding this issue.This
is a vital update to a key issue in global economic history and, as
such, is essential reading for students and scholars interested in
keeping up to speed with the on-going debates.
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