How far was the end of the Ottoman Empire the result of Great Power imperialism and how far the result of structural weaknesses within the Empire itself? These studies of the foreign policy of each of the Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire examine these fundamental issues.

The fragmentation of Bengal and Assam in 1947 was a crucial moment in India's socio-political history as a nation state. Both the British Indian provinces were divided as much through the actions of the Muslim League as by those of Congress and the British colonial power. Attributing partition largely to Hindu communalists is, therefore, historically inaccurate and factually misleading. The Partition of Bengal and Assam provides a review of constitutional and party politics as well as of popular attitudes and perceptions. The primary aim of this book is to unravel the intricate socio-economic and political processes that led up to partition, as Hindus and Muslims competed ferociously for the new power and privileges to be conferred on them with independence. As shown in the book, well before they divorced at a political level, Hindus and Muslims had been cleaved apart by their socio-economic differences. Partition was probably inevitable.

The position of the 19 million Kurds is an extremely complex one. Their territory is divided between 5 sovereign states, none of which have a Kurdish majority. They speak widely divergent dialects, and are also divided by religious affiliations and social factors. It has taken the tragic and horrifying events in Iraq this year to bring the Kurds to the centre of the world stage, but their particular problems, and their considerable geo-political importance, have been the source of growing concern and interest during the last two to three decades. There is a remarkable dearth of reliable and up-to-date information about the Kurds, which this book remedies. Its contributors cover social and political issues, legal questions, religion, language, and the modern history of Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the Soviet Union. The Kurds will be an invaluable source of reference for students and specialists in Middle East studies, and those concerned with wider questions of nationalism and cultural identity. It also offers extremely useful background information for those with a professional concern for the numerous Kurdish immigrants and asylum seekers in Western Europe and North America.

This book provides an overview of the state of Russia after the 2012 presidential election. It considers a wide range of both domestic and international issues, examining both the run up to and the consequences of the election. It covers political, economic, and social topics. It assesses the political scene both before and after the election, and discusses the nature of and likely future of democracy in Russia. The election's impact on the Russian economy is discussed in detail, as are Russia's relationships with the United States, the European Union, and other parts of the world.

The debate about Japan's 'uniqueness' is central to Japanese studies. This book aims to illuminate that debate from a comparative and theoretical perspective. It also tests theories of ethnicity and cultural nationalism through the use of Japan as a case study. Yoshino examines how ideas of national distinctiveness are `produced' and `consumed' in Japanese society through a study of intellectuals, teachers and businessmen. He finds that ideas of Japanese uniqueness, the nihonjinron, have been embraced more by those in business than in education. He looks at the Japanese perception of their own 'uniqueness' and at the ways in which ideas of cultural distinctiveness are formulated in different national and historical contexts. This extremely readable book combines anthropology and sociology to present both a historical analysis of the roots of the Japanese sense of national identity and a discussion of the ways in which that sense is changing.

Structure and Function of the Arabic Verb is a corpus-based study that unveils the morpho-syntax and the semantics of the Arabic verb. Approaches to verbal grammatical categories - the constituents of verbal systems - often rely on either semantic-pragmatic or syntactic analyses. This research bridges the gap between these two distinct approaches through a detailed analysis of Taxis, Aspect, Tense and Modality in Standard Arabic. This is accomplished by showing, firstly, some basic theoretical concerns shared by both schools of thought, and, secondly, the extent to which semantic structures and invariant meanings mirror syntactic representations. Maher Bahloul's findings also indicate that the basic constituents of the verbal system in Arabic, namely the Perfect and the Imperfect, are systematically differentiated through their invariant semantic features in a markedness relation. Finally, this study suggests that the syntactic derivation of verbal and nominal clauses are sensitive to whether or not verbal categories are specified for their feature values, providing therefore a principled explanation to a long-standing debate. This reader friendly book will appeal to both specialists and students of Arabic linguistics, language and syntax.

This book brings together papers which address a range of issues regarding the nature and structure of sign languages and other gestural systems, and how they exploit the space in which they are conveyed. The chapters focus on five pertinent areas reflecting different, but related research topics: * space in language and gesture, * point of view and referential shift, * morphosyntax of verbs in ASL, * gestural systems and sign language, and * language acquisition and gesture. Sign languages and gestural systems are produced in physical space; they manipulate spatial contrasts for linguistic and communicative purposes. In addition to exploring the different functions of space, researchers discuss similarities and differences between visual-gestural systems -- established sign languages, pidgin sign language (International Sign), "homesign" systems developed by deaf children with no sign language input, novel gesture systems invented by hearing nonsigners, and the gesticulation that accompanies speech. The development of gesture and sign language in children is also examined in both hearing and deaf children, charting the emergence of gesture ("manual babbling"), its use as a prelinguistic communicative device, and its transformation into language-like systems in homesigners. Finally, theoretical linguistic accounts of the structure of sign languages are provided in chapters dealing with the analysis of referential shift, the structure of narrative, the analysis of tense and the structure of the verb phrase in American Sign Language. Taken together, the chapters in this volume present a comprehensive picture of sign language and gesture research from a group of international scholars who investigate a range of communicative systems from formal sign languages to the gesticulation that accompanies speech.

The Sanskrit Mahabharata is one of the greatest works of world literature and pivotal for the understanding of both Hindu traditions and wider society in ancient, medieval and modern South Asia. This book presents a new synthesis of philological, anthropological and cognitive-linguistic method and theory in relation to the study of narrative text by focusing on the form and function of the Mahabharata in the context of early South Asia. Arguing that the combination of structural and thematic features that have helped to establish the enduring cultural centrality of religious narrative in South Asia was first outlined in the text, the book highlights the Mahabharata's complex orientation to the cosmic, social and textual past. The book shows the extent to which narrative is integral to human social life, and more generally the creation and maintenance of religious ideologies. It highlights the contexts of origin and transmission and the cultural function of the Mahabharata in first millennium South Asia and, by extension, in medieval and modern South Asiaby drawing on both textual and epigraphic sources. The book draws attention to what is culturally specific about the origination and transmission of early South Asian narrative and what can be used to enrich our orientation to narrative in human social life more globally.

In the early and mid-1900s, several African countries demobilized part of their armed forces. This book analyzes, in the light of Africa's large development challenges and continuing wars and insecurity, the question of how demobilizations have contributed to peace and human development. It also explores what we can learn from the different approaches that have been taken.

This special issue of Aphasiology brings together papers from six countries in three continents on the ways in which computers are being used in the domain. Information technology is now well established as a means of delivering treatment to people with aphasia and this issue includes papers which describe the latest ways in which this is being carried out. Doesborgh et. al. report on Multicue, a way in which the capabilities of computers are used to support cueing approaches to the treatment of naming difficulties; and Mortley et. al. use the internet as a means of delivering innovative treatment approaches to the client at home. It is important that the high tech glamour of the technology does not obscure the need to critically evaluate the contribution of this mode of treatment. Two papers, Wallesch & Johanssen-Horbach, and Wertz & Katz, review and critique the outcomes and effectiveness of computer mediated therapy. In the 21st century computers are increasingly a part of everyday life and two papers address ways in which people with aphasia may benefit from this and engage in the emerging "information society", Van de Sandt-Koenderman looks at ways in which the technology can be used to support communication in day to day life by the provision of appropriate communication aids. Egan et. al. report on training people with aphasia to access the internet on their own account so that they may fully engage with this resource as active citizens.

This volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to the combinatory tradition that dominated premodern and early modern Japanese religion, known as honji suijaku (originals and their traces). It questions received, simplified accounts of the interactions between Shinto and Japanese Buddhism, and presents a more dynamic and variegated religious world, one in which the deities' Buddhist originals and local traces did not constitute one-to-one associations, but complex combinations of multiple deities based on semiotic operations, doctrines, myths, and legends. The book's essays, all based on specific case studies, discuss the honji suijaku paradigm from a number of different perspectives, always integrating historical and doctrinal analysis with interpretive insights.

During World War 2, President Franklin D.Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill pooled their nations' resources in the desperate race to beat the Germans to the secret of the atomic bomb. This book tells the story of the British scientists who journeyed to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to help develop the world's first nuclear weapons. The contributions of the British Mission to Los Alamos, which have been largely overlooked, were vital to the completion of the project. In addition, the two dozen scientists who collaborated with their American and Canadian allies were to have a profound effect on the post-War world, helping to shape the nuclear programs of the United States, Great Britain and, more controversially, the USSR.

Over the last twenty years, Native American literary studies has taken a sharp political turn. In this book, Matthew Herman provides the historical framework for this shift and examines the key moments in the movement away from cultural analyses toward more politically inflected and motivated perspectives. He highlights such notable cases as the prevailing readings of the popular within Native American writing; the Silko-Erdrich controversy; the ongoing debate over the comparative value of nationalism versus cosmopolitanism within Native American literature and politics; and the status of native nationalism in relation to recent critiques of the nation coming from postmodernism, postcolonialism, and subaltern studies. Herman concludes that the central problematic defining the last two decades of Native American literary studies has involved the emergence in theory of anti-colonial nationalism, its variants, and its contradictions. This study will be a necessary addition for students and scholars of Native American Studies as well as 20th-century literature.

This is the first book in the English language to examine the tangled web of relationships linking newspaper owners, editors and reporters, with leading politicians and power-holders. Duncan McCargo has been granted unique access to the editorial meetings of Thailand's leading newspapers, and drawing on this, the book uncovers the contradictions and dichotomies which underlie political coverage in the Thai press.

The Hemshin are without doubt one of the most enigmatic peoples of Turkey and the Caucasus. As former Christians who converted to Islam centuries ago yet did not assimilate into the culture of the surrounding Muslim populations, as Turks who speak Armenian yet are often not aware of it, as Muslims who continue to celebrate feasts that are part of the calendar of the Armenian Church, and as descendants of Armenians who, for the most part, have chosen to deny their Armenian origins in favour of recently invented myths of Turkic ancestry, the Hemshin and the seemingly irreconcilable differences within their group identity have generated curiosity and often controversy. The Hemshin is the first scholarly work to provide an in-depth study of these people living in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. This groundbreaking volume brings together chapters written by an international group of scholars that cover the history, language, economy, culture and identity of the Hemshin. It is further enriched with an unprecedented collection of maps, pictures and appendices of up-to-date statistics. The Hemshin forms part of the Peoples of the Caucasus series, an indispensable and yet accessible resource for all those with an interest in the Caucasus.

A comprehensive introduction to the historical forces and recent social and political developments that have shaped today's Armenian people. With contributions from leading Armenian, American and European specialists, the book focuses on identity formation, exploring how the Armenians' perceptions of themselves and their place in the world are informed by their history, culture and present-day situation. The book also covers contemporary politics, economy and society, and relates these to ongoing debates over future directions for the Armenian people, both in the homeland and in the diaspora communities.

An essential insight into this central figure in the modern history of Israel and Zionism. This important new study explores the years that built up to the Six Day War and details the crucial issues and events the world is still grappling with today. This book traces Daniel Ben-Gurion's waning years in Israeli politics. After his resignation from the office of prime minister in 1963, the 'Old Man' soon lost faith in his self-chose successor, Levi Eshkol, and ceaselessly tried to undermine the latter's premiership, eventually forming a breakaway party. The events leading up to the Six-Day War in June 1967 caught Ben-Gurion by surprise. During the weeks-long 'waiting period' prior to the outbreak of hostilities, he paid little attention to daily security issues. But when war did erupt, he displayed one of his key leadership skills - the ability to formulate an accurate, independent situation assessment. It will be of interest to scholars working in Israeli politics and history, this is a lucid, thoroughly researched account of the sunset years of the driving force behind the Israeli nation-state.

The Kimberley, the far north-west of Australia, is one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the continent. Some fifty-five Aboriginal languages belonging to five different families are spoken within its borders. Few of these languages are currently being passed on to children, most of whom speak Kriol (a new language that arose about half a century ago from an earlier Pidgin English) or Aboriginal English (a dialect of English) as their mother tongue and usual language of communication. This book describes the Aboriginal languages spoken today and in the recent past in this region.

Globalization, modernity and identity are fundamental issues in contemporary Islam and Islamic Studies. This collection of essays reflects the wide diversity that characterises contemporary Islamic Studies. The case studies cover regions stretching from China and Southeast Asia to diaspora communities in the Caribbean and Tajikistan. There is significant participation of intellectual voices from all areas concerned, providing a real contribution to the academic exchange between the Muslim and the Euro-American worlds.

This book provides new perspectives on recent Asian dynamism which go beyond the mainstream views, by attempting to situate the recent economic expansion within a broader analysis of capitalist accumulation and the various processes that it generates both within and across economies. The contributions in the book include analyses of recent growth patterns in both China and India; assessments of the sustainability of such growth and potential constraints and pitfalls; the role of international finance in affecting both national and international growth and employment patterns; the factors determining particular accumulation strategies and the results of these strategies. These forces within the two economies of China and India are situated within a broader assessment of the impacts on the world economy, by identifying long run tendencies in international capitalism and changing patterns of uneven development. Specific issues emerging within the Asian region are identified, including not just the relations between the three large Asian economies, but also the wider geopolitical implications as well as the political economy of these changes. This book therefore provides a more comprehensive examination of the longer run dynamics of the global capitalist system in which these economies are necessarily destined to play more significant roles in future.

Written by an internationally recognized specialist on Buraku studies, this book casts new light on majority-minority relations and the struggle for Buraku liberation. Ian Neary focuses on the Burakumin activist, left-wing politician, family company manager and arguably the most important Buraku leader of the twentieth century: Matsumoto Jiichiro. Based on primary material reflecting recent research, each chapter locates Matsumoto Jiichiro's experience within the broader developments in Japan's social, political and economic history and illuminates dimensions of its social history during the twentieth century that are frequently left unconsidered. As an examination of Buraku history this book will appeal to scholars and students of Japanese political and economic history, ethnic and racial studies, socialism, social thought and social movements.

Published in 1988, Essays on the Economic History of the Middle East is a valuable contribution to the field of Middle Eastern Studies.

First Published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Brian Hodgson lived in Nepal from 1820 to 1843 during which time he wrote and publisged extensively on Nepalese culture, religion, natural history, architecture, ethnography and linguistics. Contributors from leading historians of Nepal and South Asia and from specialists in Buddhist studies, art history, linguistics, ornithology and ethnography, critically examine Hodgson's life and achievement within the context of his contribution to scholarship. Many of the drawings photographed for this book have not previously been published.

Working time is a crucial issue for both research and public policy. This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of both paid and unpaid work time, integrating a unique discussion of overwork, underwork, shortening of the working week, and flexible work practices. Time at work is affected by a complex web of evolving culture and social relations, as well as market, technological, and macroeconomic forces, and institutions such as collective bargaining and government policy. Using a variety of new data sources, the authors review the latest trends on working time in numerous countries.