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.

Yezidism is a fascinating part of the rich cultural mosaic of the Middle East. Yezidis emerged for the first time in the 12th century in the Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq. Their religion, which has become notorious for its associations with "devil worship," is in fact an intricate syncretic system of belief, incorporating elements from proto-Indo-European religions, early Persian faiths like Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, Sufism and regional paganism like Mithraism. Birgul Acikyildiz offers a comprehensive appraisal of Yezidi religion, society and culture. Written without presupposing any prior knowledge about Yezidism, and in an accessible and readable style, her book examines Yezidis not only from a religious point of view but as a historical and social phenomenon. She throws light on the origins of Yezidism, and charts its historical development -- from its beginnings to the present -- as part of the general history of the Kurds. The author describes the Yezidi belief system (which considers Melek Taus -- the "Peacock Angel" -- to be ruler of the earth) and its religious practices and observances, analyzing the most important facets of Yezidi religious art and architecture and their relationship to their neighbours throughout the Middle East. Richly illustrated, with accompanying maps, photographs and illustrations, the book will have strong appeal to all those with an interest in the culture of the Kurds, as well as the wider region.

Saudi Arabia is generally and justifiably viewed as a country with some of the fewest democratic institutions and the weakest traditions of pluralism. It is therefore surprising to learn that at least in one corner of the Saudi world, there can be found a plurality of opinions and lively debate. Jorg Matthias Determann brings this element to light by analyzing an important field of cultural activity in Saudi Arabia: historical writing. Since the 1920s local, tribal, Shi'i and dynastic histories have contributed to a growing plurality of narratives. Paradoxically, this happened because of the expansion of the Saudi state, including state provision of mass education. It was also due to globalizing processes, such as the spread of the internet. In challenging the widely-held perception of Saudi Arabia as an irredeemably closed and monolithic society, Historiography in Saudi Arabia provides a deeper understanding of modern Arab historiography, the Saudi state, and education and scholarship in the Middle East.

An American woman plays a redeeming role amidst America's duplicity and betrayal of the Philippine struggle for independence during the revolution against Spain, which culminated in the Spanish-American and Philippine American wars. The fiction/nonfiction novel highlights the military and romantic exploits of the dashing and legendary hero, 23-year old General Gregorio Del Pilar, then the youngest in the Philippine army and American Christine Kelcher's intimate relationship with him and her allegiance to his country. Aide-de-camp to Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo in exile in Hong Kong, the young general was euphoric over the coming of the Americans, espousing to his president acceptance of their offer of help in liberating Manila from the Spanish. When Commodore George Dewey and General Wesley Merritt betrayed the insurgency in a secret agreement with the Spanish to wage a mock battle to liberate the city to the exclusion of the insurgents "to protect the pride and honor of Spain," the general vowed to protect the president from capture, "or else the Republic dies." Military maneuvers by Major Peyton March and Colonel Charles Gilbert and their well-armed and well-trained soldiers are matched by surprise maneuvers by the insurgent general, making his last stand in Tirad Pass with 60 soldiers against 600 Texas Volunteers of the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Expeditionary Force. The president avoided capture for 11 months more after the battle.

"Fight of the Phoenix" is a historical personal account of duties as an Advisor in the Delta of Vietnam in 1972. The author counters claims of other Advisors and Academics and sets the record straight on the vicious nature of the Communist insurgency that killed their own people and the spectacular success of the Phoenix Program throughout the country and especially in the Delta Region MR-4 in targeting and neutralizing the enemy Viet Cong insurgents.

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.

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.

Former Republican Congressman John LeBoutillier criticizes current Republican policies toward Vietnam and forcefully argues for normalizing relations with Hanoi. LeBoutillier exposes what he terms the hypocrisy of present U.S. policy toward its former foe and reveals, for the first time, Oval Office secrets about the abandonment of hundreds of American prisoners of war. "Vietnam NoW" clearly demonstrates the advantages of normalized relations, including a severe weakening of Soviet influence throughout Southeast Asia and a reassertion of American economic and diplomatic power in the world's most rapidly growing region.

"Vietnam NoW" is the first book written by a Republican to challenge the conservative policies that govern U.S. relations with Vietnam. LeBoutillier counters what he calls a handful of super-conservative Republicans who continue to preach the policy of Vietnam isolation. He argues that it is finally time to recognize our former foe and, in the words of a Vietnamese diplomat, stop the bleeding that still continues from the war.

Investigative reporter Patrick J. Sloyan, a former member of the White House Press Corps, revisits the last years of John F. Kennedy's presidency, his fateful involvement with Diem's assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement. Using recently released White House tape recordings and interviews with key inside players, The Politics of Deception reveals: The Politics of Deception is a fresh and revealing look at an iconic president and the way he attempted to manage public opinion and forge his legacy, sure to appeal to both history buffs and those who were alive during his presidency.

Mahamudra in India and Tibet presents cutting-edge research by European and North American scholars on the Indian origins and Tibetan interpretations of one of the most popular and influential of all Tibetan meditation traditions, Mahamudra, or the great seal. The contributions shed fresh light on important areas of Mahamudra studies, exploring the Great Seal's place in the Mahayana Samadhirajasutra, the Indian tantric Seven Siddhi Texts, Dunhuang Yogatantra texts, Mar pa's Rngog lineage, and the Dgongs gcig literature of the 'Bri gung, as well as in the works of Yu mo Mi bskyod rdo rje, the Fourth Zhwa dmar pa Chos grags ye shes, the Eighth Karma pa Mi-bskyod rdo rje, and various Dge lugs masters of the 17th-18th centuries. Contributors are: Jacob Dalton, Martina Draszczyk, Cecile Ducher, David Higgins, Roger R. Jackson, Casey Kemp, Adam Krug, Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Jan-Ulrich Sobisch, and Paul Thomas.

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.

Japan's so-called 'peace constitution' renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation, and bans the nation from possessing any war potential. Yet Japan also maintains a large, world-class military organization, namely the Self-Defence Forces (SDF). In this book, Tomoyuki Sasaki explores how the SDF enlisted popular support from civil society and how civil society responded to the growth of the SDF. Japan's Postwar Military and Civil Society details the interactions between the SDF and civil society over four decades, from the launch of rearmament in 1950. These interactions include recruitment, civil engineering, disaster relief, anti-SDF litigation, state financial support for communities with bases, and a fear-mongering campaign against the Soviet Union. By examining these wide-range issues, the book demonstrates how the militarization of society advanced as the SDF consolidated its ideological and socio-economic ties with civil society and its role as a defender of popular welfare. While postwar Japan is often depicted as a peaceful society, this book challenges such a view, and illuminates the prominent presence of the military in people's everyday lives.

This comprehensive assessment by experts of the significant literature and research about the Korean War has been designed for students, teachers, and researchers at various levels and for broad interdisciplinary use. Edited by Brune, this one-volume research tool evaluates traditional interpretations and recent findings and trends and points to studies that are still needed on various topics. Twenty-three topical chapters cover the historical background and general references, international aspects of the war and the role and perspectives of major combatants, military policies and the strategies and tactics of the various armed forces, the Korean unification struggle after the war, and the relationship of the U.S. homefront to the Korean War. The book is fully indexed and is easily accessible.

Twenty-three topical chapters cover the historical background and general references; international aspects of the war and the role and perspectives of major combatants--from the United Nations and Korea to European and Asian and Pacific nations, including information on the most recent sources from the Soviet Union and Communist China; the military policies and the strategies and tactics of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines, and Air Force; the Korean unification struggle after the war; and the relationship of the U.S. homefront to the Korean War--from the Administration and Congress to public opinion, and the war as seen by women and minorities and through the eyes of the cinema and TV. The book is fully indexed and is easily accessible for varied use by students, teachers, and researchers in different fields and at all levels.

A spasm of extreme radicalism that rocked China to its foundations in the mid- to late 1960s, the Cultural Revolution has generated a vast literature. Much of it, however, is at a birds-eye level, and we have very few detailed accounts of how it worked on the ground. Long after the event, Tan Hecheng, now a retired Chinese writer and editor, was sent to Daoxian, Mao's home county, to report on the official investigation into the massacre that took place there during the Cultural Revolution. In The Killing Wind, Tan recounts how over the course of 66 days in 1967, over 9,000 Chinese "class enemies" were massacred in the Daoxian, in the Hunan Province. The killings were unprovoked and carried out with incredible, stomach-churning brutality, which is documented here in excruciating detail. But although this could easily be just a compendium of horrors, it's also a meditation on memory, moral culpability, and the failure of the Chinese government to come to terms with the crimes of the Maoist era. Tan interweaves the story of his research with the recollections of survivors and reflections on the long-term consequences of the Cultural Revolution. Akin to Jan Gross's Neighbors, about the Holocaust in a Polish town, The Killing Wind likewise paints a single episode in extraordinary detail in order to make a broader argument about the long term consequences flowing from one of the twentieth century's greatest human tragedies.

O. R. Dathorne pursues the phenomenon of "contact" or "encounter" particularly as it relates to China and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He looks at how the Chinese have perceived their Other as heathen and exotic, and how the West has in turn similarly perceived the Chinese. The failure of the West to relate to China in human terms is subtly documented, and is contrasted to the European experience in the New World and the African encounter of both China and the West. Dathorne breaks new ground in his analysis of the construct of the Other on the Pacific Islands. Using indigenous oral accounts, early texts of European explorers and castaways, and imaginative accounts, he reconstructs the period of contact from the native viewpoint, of those who acted as translators, pilots, guides, chartmakers and male and female companions. He calls attention to the Western habit of romancing the place while denigrating or mythologizing the people.

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.

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.