Korea has had a miraculous history of Christian church growth. But it came at a price of much suffering, death, persecution, and hardship. Korean Church history of modern times has been intertwined with American history, such as involving World War 2, and American church politics, such as the Fundamentalist Debate of early 1900s. In this biography of a key figure in Korean Church history, Rev. Sang-Dong Han (the founder of the Korean Presbyterian Church in Korea, Koshin, denomination), Rev. Koon Sik Shim, a personal friend of Rev. Sang-Dong Han and person who also experienced various stages of Korean history as "a living witness" recounts the life and work of Rev. Sang-Dong Han. This book is a "must have" for all those who are interested in Korean history and learning how it relates to American and world church history.

Sicker explores the political history of the Middle East from antiquity to the Arab conquest from a geopolitical perspective. He argues that there are a number of relatively constant environmental factors that have helped "condition"-not determine-the course of Middle Eastern political history from ancient times to the present. These factors, primarily, but not exclusively geography and topography, contributed heavily to establishing the patterns of state development and interstate relations in the Middle East that have remained remarkably consistent throughout the troubled history of the region.

In addition to geography and topography, the implications of which are explored in depth, religion has also played a major political role in conditioning the pattern of Middle Eastern history. The Greeks first introduced the politicization of religious belief into the region in the form of pan-Hellenism, which essentially sought to impose Greek forms of popular religion and culture on the indigenous peoples of the region as a means of solidifying Greek political control. This ultimately led to religious persecution as a state policy. Subsequently, the Persian Sassanid Empire adopted Zoroastrianism as the state religion for the same purpose and with the same result. Later, when Armenia adopted Christianity as the state religion, followed soon after by the Roman Empire, religion and the intolerance it tended to breed became fundamental ingredients, in regional politics and have remained such ever since. Sicker shows that the political history of the pre-Islamic Middle East provides ample evidence that the geopolitical and religious factors conditioning political decision-making tended to promote military solutions to political problems, making conflict resolution through war the norm, with the peaceful settlement of disputes quite rare. A sweeping synthesis that will be of considerable interest to scholars, students, and others concerned with Middle East history and politics as well as international relations and ancient history.

Generals and Scholars is the first work in English to examine fully military rule during the Koryo. Although it lasted for only a century, the period was one of dynamic change -- a time of institutional development, social transformation, and the reassertion of the civil service examination and Confucian ideology coupled with the flowering of Son (Zen) Buddhism.

This study follows the social, intellectual and political development of the Phoenician myth of origin in Lebanon from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th. Asher Kaufman demonstrates the role played by the lay, liberal Syrian-Lebanese who resided in Beirut, Alexandria and America towards the end of the 19th century in the birth and dissemination of this myth. Kaufman investigates the crucial place Phoenicianism occupied in the formation of Greater Lebanon in 1920. He also explores the way the Jesuit Order and the French authorities propagated this myth during the mandate years. The book also analyses literary writings of different Lebanese who advocated this myth, and of others who opposed it. Finally, the text provides an overview of Phoenicianism from Independece in 1943 to the present, demonstrating that despite the general objection to this myth, some aspects of it entered mainstream Lebanese national narratives. Kaufman's works should be of use to anyone interested in the birth of modern Lebanon as we know it today.

Survivors of the Holocaust accounted for fully one-half of the wave of immigration into Israel in the aftermath of World War II. These survivors were among the first to enter the gates of the new state following its founding in 1948.

In this important addition to our understanding of the social integration of Holocaust survivors into postwar society, Hanna Yablonka draws on a wealth of primary materials such as recently released archival material, letters, newspapers, internal army magazines, and personal interviews, to examine, from all sides, the charged encounters between survivors of the Holocaust and the veteran Jewish population in Israel.

Yablonka details the role the new immigrants played in the War of Independence, their settlement of towns and villages abandoned by Arabs during the war, and the ways in which Israeli society accepted-and often did not accept-them into the armed forces, the kibbutz movements, and the trade unions.

Survivors of the Holocaust illuminates the ways in which Israeli society grew and developed through its emotional and sometimes contentious relations with the arriving survivors and how, against all odds, the survivors of the Holocaust and their offspring became pillars of modern Israeli society.

A broad introduction to a major turning point in human development, this book guides the reader through the emergence of civilization in Mesopotamia, when city life began and writing was invented. Covering Mesopotamia from around 3000 BCE to the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE, Mesopotamia and the Rise of Civilization: History, Documents, and Key Questions combines narrative history material and reference entries that enable students to learn about the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia and its enormous influence on western civilization with primary source documents that promote critical thinking skills. The book provides essential background via a historical overview of early development of society in Mesopotamia. This introduction is followed by reference entries on key topics; 4,000-year-old primary sources that explore Mesopotamian civilization through voices of the time and bring to light the events of a schoolboy's day, the boasts of kings, and personal letters about family concerns, for example; and a section of argumentative essays that presents thought-provoking perspectives on key issues. While the intended readership is high school students, the book's authoritative coverage of intriguing subject matter will also appeal to the wider public, especially in these times of heightened focus on the Middle East. Includes reference entries that explore important aspects of Mesopotamian civilization, such as key historical developments, technological and intellectual innovations, and aspects of social, economic, political, and domestic life Enables readers to gain insight into the thinking and life experience of ancient Mesopotamians through primary sources Provokes discussion through the debate of three major questions about the rise of civilization Combines several different approaches to the subject to promote critical thinking skillls and support Common Core State Standards Supports NCHS World History standards for Era 2, Standards 1A and 1B, and Common Core critical thinking skills for English Language Arts/World History and Social Studies

is an important book for the study of Korean Christianity in Australia and New Zealand. This important book contains 8 articles by Korean Christian clergy and scholars who have experienced the vibrancy of Korean Christianity in Australia and New Zealand. Many of these scholars have been participants in the history-making process. This book, therefore, is an indispensable resource for scholars, pastors, lay people, and interested public who want to understand the experience of Korean Christians better. The editor, Yong-Sun Yang, is Professor of Systematic Theology at Wesley Institute in Sydney, Australia.

This comprehensive exploration of language and literacy in the multi-lingual environment of Roman Palestine (c. 63 B.C.E. to 136 C.E.) is based on Michael Wise's extensive study of 145 Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean contracts and letters preserved among the Bar Kokhba texts, a valuable cache of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts. His investigation of Judean documentary and epistolary culture derives for the first time numerical data concerning literacy rates, language choices, and writing fluency during the two-century span between Pompey's conquest and Hadrian's rule. He explores questions of who could read in these ancient times of Jesus and Hillel, what they read, and how language worked in this complex multi-tongued milieu. Included also is an analysis of the ways these documents were written and the interplay among authors, secretaries, and scribes. Additional analysis provides readers with a detailed picture of the people, families, and lives behind the texts.

The Sufi thinker 'Abd al-Karim al-Jili (d. 1408) is best-known for his treatment of the idea of the Perfect Human, yet his masterpiece, al-Insan al-kamil (The Perfect Human), is in fact a wide-ranging compendium of Sufi metaphysical thought in the Ibn 'Arabian tradition. One of the major topics treated in that work is sacred history, the story of God's revelation of the truth to humanity through His prophets and scriptures. Fitzroy Morrissey provides here the first in-depth study of this important section of al-Jili's major work and the key ideas contained within it. Through a translation and analysis of the key passages on the Qur'an, Torah, Psalms and Gospel, it shows how al-Jili's view of sacred history is conditioned by his Ibn 'Arabian Sufi metaphysics, whereby the phenomenal world is viewed as a manifestation of God, and the prophets and scriptures as special places where the divine attributes appear more completely. It also looks at how this idea influences al-Jili's understanding of the hierarchy of prophets, scriptures and religions. The book argues that, contrary to common assumptions, al-Jili's Sufi metaphysical view of sacred history is in keeping with the common medieval Muslim view of sacred history, whereby the Qur'an is viewed as the best of scriptures, Muhammad as the best of prophets, and Islam as the best religion. The book therefore not only gives an insight into a key text within medieval Sufi thought, but also has ramifications for our understanding of medieval Sufi views on the relationship between Islam and other religions.

This book celebrates the achievements in Viet Nam of the US Special Forces soldiers, popularly known as "The Green Berets." These are America's finest warriors, our elite force who fuse military and civil skills in a new form of victorious warfare. This book focuses on Viet Nam during 1968 and 1969, the two most crucial years of that conflict. The Berets learned many lessons in Viet Nam. Not only are these historically interesting, but they are the keys to success in our Global War on Terrorism. The first lesson emphasizes the proper advisory relationships that must exist when our American military train and work with the military of other coalition nations. The second lesson stresses the need for the integration of the military and civilian sides of any war. Little is accomplished if bloody battles only result in producing more enemy. Rather our strategies must combine appropriate military measures with psychological operations and civic actions that win over nonaligned groups, and attract even hostile forces. The third lesson demands mutual and unwavering loyalty between America's forces and those they train and advise. An enemy has no greater weapon than to boast that Americans will eventually grow weary and desert their friends while the enemy will always endure. The fourth lesson calls for our American military to know how to work with others, not merely in spite of differences, but actually appreciating and building upon this diversity of races, religions, cultures, political views, and tribal backgrounds. I am positive that the reader will find many more lessons from the accomplishments of the Green Berets related in this book.

During the reign of Diocletian (284-305) Christians suffered widespread persecution, even to the point of death. This book introduces the Syriac texts along with translations of the tales of the martyrs themselves as well as the miraculous deliverance of Euphemia.

The concepts of economic backwardness, Asiatic despotism and orientalism have strongly influenced perceptions of modernization, democracy and economic growth over the last three centuries. This book provides an original view of Russian and Asian history that views both in a global perspective. Via this analysis, Alessandro Stanziani opens new dimensions in the study of state formation, the global slave trade, warfare and European and Asian growth. After Oriental Despotism questions conventional oppositions between Europe and Asia. By revisiting the history of Eurasia in this context, the book offers a serious challenge to existing ideas about the aims and goals of economic growth.

In the decades since the "forgotten war" in Korea, conventional wisdom has held that the Eighth Army consisted largely of poorly trained, undisciplined troops who fled in terror from the onslaught of the Communist forces. Now, military historian Thomas E. Hanson argues that the generalizations historians and fellow soldiers have used regarding these troops do little justice to the tens of thousands of soldiers who worked to make themselves and their army ready for war.
In Hanson's careful study of combat preparedness in the Eighth Army from 1949 to the outbreak of hostilities in 1950, he concedes that the U.S. soldiers sent to Korea suffered gaps in their professional preparation, from missing and broken equipment to unevenly trained leaders at every level of command. But after a year of progressive, focused, and developmental collective training--based largely on the lessons of combat in World War II--these soldiers expected to defeat the Communist enemy.
By recognizing the constraints under which the Eighth Army operated, Hanson asserts that scholars and soldiers will be able to discard what Douglas Macarthur called the "pernicious myth" of the Eighth Army's professional, physical, and moral ineffectiveness.

In recent years the world's focus on South Asia has increased dramatically. With the events of 9/11, the detonation of atomic weapons by both India and Pakistan, the discovery of an illicit nuclear proliferation network based in Islamabad, regime change in an unstable Afghanistan, and the rise of India as an economic power, global interest in the region has reached perhaps an all-time high. Leading experts analyze the key strategic, political, and economic issues touching on South Asia and its role in the world in the essays that make up this inaugural volume in the Current History Books Series.

Focusing on modern South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, this authoritative volume provides an overview of the events and trends that have rocked this increasingly volatile region over the past decade. Edited and with an introduction by Sumit Ganguly, a leading expert on the region, this volume provides a critical introduction to South Asia. South Asia also contains current maps as well as a "Recent Chronology of Events" that provides a decade's worth of information on the region, organized by year and by country. This timely and comprehensive collection of essays provides a definitive account of modern South Asia.

The Partition of India in 1947 involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and the Punjab, based on district-wise Hindu or Muslim majorities. The Partition displaced between 10 and 12 million people along religious lines. This book provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the resettlement and rehabilitation of Partition refugees in Pakistani Punjab between 1947 and 1962. It weaves a chronological and thematic plot into a single narrative, and focuses on the Punjabi refugee middle and upper-middle class. Emphasising the everyday experience of the state, the author challenges standard interpretations of the resettlement of Partition refugees in the region and calls for a more nuanced understanding of their rehabilitation. The book argues the universality of the so-called 'exercise in human misery', and the heterogeneity of the rehabilitation policies. Refugees' stories and interactions with local institutions reveal the inability of the local bureaucracy to establish its own 'polity' and the viable workability of Pakistan as a state. The use of Pakistani documents, US and British records and a careful survey of both the judicial records and the Urdu and English-language dailies of the time, provides an invaluable window onto the everyday life of a state, its institutions and its citizens. A carefully researched study of both the state and the everyday lives of refugees as they negotiated resettlement, through both personal and official channels, the book offers an important reinterpretation of the first years of Pakistani history. It will be of interest to academics working in the field of refugee resettlement and South Asian History and Politics.

Following the myths and legends about Nazis recruited by the French Foreign Legion to fight in Indochina, Eric Meyer's new book is based on the real story of one such former Waffen-SS man who lived to tell the tale. The Legion recruited widely from soldiers left unemployed and homeless by the defeat of Germany in 1945. They offered a new identity and passport to men who could bring their fighting abilities to the jungles and rice paddies of what was to become vietnam. These were ruthless, trained killers, brutalised by the war on the Eastern Front, their killing skills honed to a razor's edge. They found their true home in Indochina, where they fought and became a byword for brutal military efficiency.