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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
This book begins with the analysis of America's post-war
intelligence operations, propaganda campaigns, and strategic
psychological warfare in Japan. Banking on nuclear safety myths,
Japan promoted an aggressive policy of locating and building
nuclear power plants in depopulated areas suffering from a
significant decline of local industries and economies. The
Fukushima nuclear disaster substantiated that U.S. propaganda
programs left a long lasting legacy in Japan and beyond and created
the fertile ground for the future nuclear disaster. The book
reveals Japan's tripartite organization of the dominating state,
media-monopoly, and nuclear-plant oligarchy advancing nuclear
proliferation. It details America's unprecedented pro-nuclear
propaganda campaigns; Japan's secret ambitions to develop its own
nuclear bombs; U.S. dumping of reprocessed plutonium on Japan; and
the joint U.S.-Nippon propaganda campaigns for "safe" nuclear-power
and the current "safe-nuclear particles" myths. The study shows how
the bankruptcy of the central state has led to increased burdens on
the population in post-nuclear tsunami era, and the ensuing
dangerous ionization of the population now reaching into the
future.
In Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence
Pim de Zwart examines the Dutch East India Company's
intercontinental trade and its effects on living standards in
various regions on the edges of the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Contrary to conventional views, De Zwart
finds significant evidence of the integration of global commodity
markets, an important dimension of globalization, before the 1800s.
The effects of this globalization, and the associated colonialism,
were diverse and could vary between and within regions. As
globalization and colonialism affected patterns of economic
development across the globe they played a part in the rise of
global economic inequality, known as the 'Great Divergence', in the
early modern period.
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Byzantium
(Hardcover)
Giles Morgan
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R290
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So what's so significant about the Byzantine Empire? It is now
recognised as having had a considerable influence on the
Renaissance and a significant impact in the shaping modern Europe
and modern historians are increasingly acknowledging the role the
Byzantine Empire played in the development of both Islam and
Christianity, and the relationship between the two. The term
'Byzantine' derives from the ancient Greek city of Byzantium
founded in 667 BC by colonists from Megara. It was named in honour
of their leader Byzas. It later became better known as
Constantinople, that gateway between West and East and played a
crucial role in the transmission of Christianity to the West.
Constantine is now generally known as the first Christian Emperor,
and in recent years interest in him has grown, with his role in the
development of Christianity being questioned by Dan Brown, author
of The Da Vinci Code, amongst others. A closer examination of this
formative period in the history of the church reveals a struggle to
gain a coherent and cohesive religious identity. Christianity would
emerge as the major religion of the Byzantine Empire in a departure
from the pagan worship of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire
was often at the centre of profound geopolitical, cultural and
religious forces that threatened to pull it apart. When Byzantine
forces suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks
at the Battle of Manzikert for example, appeals to the West
precipitated the First Crusade. In 1204 during the Fourth Crusade,
Constantinople was conquered by the Crusader army. The dramatic
siege and subsequent fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire
is often seen as marking the end of the medieval period. The
Byzantine Empire lasted for over a thousand years, created
remarkable art and architecture and created a lasting cultural and
religious legacy - even its decline and fall was to have
ramifications that reached far beyond its borders. The fall of
Constantinople which had been a key city on the ancient Silk Road,
linking East and West led many to consider the prospect of opening
up new lines of trade, sea exploration that would eventually lead
to major new discoveries, new routes and new worlds...
For over a decade the Middle East has monopolized news headlines in
the West. Journalists and commentators regularly speculate that the
region's turmoil may stem from the psychological momentum of its
cultural traditions or of a "tribal" or "fatalistic" mentality. Yet
few studies of the region's cultural psychology have provided a
critical synthesis of psychological research on Middle Eastern
societies.
Drawing on autobiographies, literary works, ethnographic accounts,
and life-history interviews, The Middle East: A Cultural
Psychology, offers the first comprehensive summary of psychological
writings on the region, reviewing works by psychologists,
anthropologists, and sociologists that have been written in
English, Arabic, and French. Rejecting stereotypical descriptions
of the "Arab mind" or "Muslim mentality, ' Gary Gregg adopts a
life-span- development framework, examining influences on
development in infancy, early childhood, late childhood, and
adolescence as well as on identity formation in early and mature
adulthood. He views patterns of development in the context of
recent work in cultural psychology, and compares Middle Eastern
patterns less with Western middle class norms than with those
described for the region's neighbors: Hindu India, sub-Saharan
Africa, and the Mediterranean shore of Europe. The research
presented in this volume overwhelmingly suggests that the region's
strife stems much less from a stubborn adherence to tradition and
resistance to modernity than from widespread frustration with
broken promises of modernization--with the slow and halting pace of
economic progress and democratization.
A sophisticated account of the Middle East's cultural psychology,
The Middle East provides students, researchers, policy-makers, and
all those interested in the culture and psychology of the region
with invaluable insight into the lives, families, and social
relationships of Middle Easterners as they struggle to reconcile
the lure of Westernized life-styles with traditional values.
Since its inception in 1974, Southeast Asian Affairs (SEAA) has
been an indispensable annual reference for generations of
policy-makers, scholars, analysts, journalists, and others.
Succinctly written by regional and international experts, SEAA
illuminates significant issues and events of the previous year in
each of the Southeast Asian nations and the region as a whole.
Southeast Asian Affairs 2008 provides an informed and readable
analysis of the events and developments in the region in 2007. In
the regional section, the first two articles provide the political
and economic overview of Southeast Asia. They are followed by an
article on India's geopolitics and Southeast Asia, and two articles
on ASEAN. Eleven country reviews as well as four country-specific
thematic chapters follow, delving into domestic political,
economic, security, and social developments during 2007 and their
implications for countries in the region and beyond.
This book is a collection of essays on Ottoman history, focusing on
how sultans of the Ottoman Empire were viewed by the public.
Originally published in 1931, this is a systematic and
comprehensive history of caste in India and its influence on Hindu
law, social institutions and society as a whole. Many of the
earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and
before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive.
Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in
affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text
and artwork. Contents Include: The Caste System - Caste in the
Rigveda - Caste during the Brahmana Period - Caste in the Sutras -
Caste in the Sutras Continued - Appendix - Verifications from
Non-Brahmanical Writings - Caste in Early Buddhist Literature -
Caste in Greek Accounts - Bibliography
This classic in the annals of village studies will be widely read
and debated for what it reveals about China's rural dynamics as
well as the nature of state power, markets, the military, social
relations, and religion. Built on extraordinarily intimate and
detailed research in a Sichuan village that Isabel Crook began in
1940, the book provides an unprecedented history of Chinese rural
life during the war with Japan. It is an essential resource for all
scholars of contemporary China.
The Middle East in the Global Era features scholarly perspectives
that explore a variety of topics related to the Middle East and
North African regions, including politics, international relations,
economics, history, gender issues, and culture. Students are
encouraged to think analytically regarding issues of prosperity,
peace, stability, sustainable development, and more. Section I
explores the physical and political landscapes of the Middle East,
underscoring the importance of geography in shaping contemporary
affairs. In Section II, students read articles about regional
powers, including the rivalry of Iran and Saudi Arabia and the role
of Turkey in the Middle East. Section III focuses on political
economy with chapters that cover the regional impact of the 2011
Arab uprisings and the rentier economy that prevails in many Gulf
states. Section IV examines recent changes in the region that
consider political, cultural, and social changes. In the final
section, students consider the intricacies involved in pursuing
peace in the Middle East. The Middle East in the Global Era is an
ideal textbook for any course that explores the social, political,
and cultural facets of the Middle East.
Annexation and the Unhappy Valley: The Historical Anthropology of
Sindh's Colonization addresses the nineteenth century expansion and
consolidation of British colonial power in the Sindh region of
South Asia. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and employs a
fine-grained, nuanced and situated reading of multiple agents and
their actions. It explores how the political and administrative
incorporation of territory (i.e., annexation) by East India Company
informs the conversion of intra-cultural distinctions into
socio-historical conflicts among the colonized and colonizers. The
book focuses on colonial direct rule, rather than the more commonly
studied indirect rule, of South Asia. It socio-culturally explores
how agents, perspectives and intentions vary-both within and across
regions-to impact the actions and structures of colonial
governance.
Originally published in 1908. Author: Lord John De Joinville
Language: English Keywords: History / Crusades Many of the earliest
books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are
now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are
republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality,
modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Listen, Copy, Read: Popular Learning in Early Modern Japan
endeavors to elucidate the mechanisms by which a growing number of
men and women of all social strata became involved in acquiring
knowledge and skills during the Tokugawa period. It offers an
overview of the communication media and tools that teachers,
booksellers, and authors elaborated to make such knowledge more
accessible to a large audience. Schools, public lectures, private
academies or hand-copied or printed manuals devoted to a great
variety of topics, from epistolary etiquette or personal ethics to
calculation, divination or painting, are here invoked to illustrate
the vitality of Tokugawa Japan's 'knowledge market', and to show
how popular learning relied on three types of activities:
listening, copying and reading. With contributions by: W.J. Boot,
Matthias Hayek, Annick Horiuchi, Michael Kinski, Koizumi Yoshinaga,
Peter Kornicki, Machi Senjuro, Christophe Marquet, Markus
Ruttermann, Tsujimoto Masashi, and Wakao Masaki.
Recent attention to historical, geographic, and class differences
in the studies of women and gender in China has expanded our
understanding of the diversity and complexity of gendered China.
Nevertheless, the ethnic dimension of this subject matter remains
largely overlooked, particularly concerning women's conditions and
gender status. Consequently, the patriarchy and its oppression of
women among the Han, the ethnic majority in China, are often
inaccurately or erroneously associated with the whole gendered
heritage of China, epitomized by the infamous traditions of
footbinding and female-infanticide. Such academic and popular
predisposition belies the fact that gender systems in China span a
wide spectrum, ranging from extreme Han patriarchy to Lahu
gender-egalitarianism. The authors contributing to this book have
collectively initiated a systematic effort to bridge the gap
between understanding the majority Han and ethnic minorities in
regard to women and gender in contemporary Chinese societies. By
achieving a quantitative balance between articles on the Han
majority and those on ethnic minorities, this book transcends the
ghettoization of ethnic minorities in the studies of Chinese women
and gender. The eleven chapters of this volume are divided into
three sections which jointly challenge the traditions and norms of
Han patriarchy from various perspectives. The first section focuses
on gender traditions among ethnic minorities which compete with the
norms of Han patriarchy. The second section emphasizes the impact
of radical social transformation on gender systems and practices
among both Han and ethnic minorities. The third section underscores
socio-cultural diversity and complexity in resistance to Han
patriarchal norms from a broad perspective. This book complements
previous scholarship on Chinese women and gender by expanding our
investigative lens beyond Han patriarchy and providing images of
the multiethnic landscape of China. By identifying the Han as an
ethnically marked category and by bringing to the forefront the
diverse gender systems of ethnic minorities, this book encourages
an increasing awareness of, and sensitivity to the cross-cultural
diversity of gendered China both in academia and beyond.
Since the 1950s, China and India have been locked in a monumental
battle for geopolitical supremacy. Chinese interest in the ethnic
insurgencies in northeastern India, the still unresolved issue of
the McMahon Line, the border established by the British imperial
government, and competition for strategic access to the Indian
Ocean have given rise to tense gamesmanship, political intrigue,
and rivalry between the two Asian giants. Former Far Eastern
Economic Review correspondent Bertil Lintner has drawn from his
extensive personal interviews with insurgency leaders and civilians
in remote tribal areas in northeastern India, newly declassified
intelligence reports, and his many years of firsthand experience in
Asia to chronicle this ongoing struggle. His history of the "Great
Game East" is the first significant account of a regional conflict
which has led to open warfare on several occasions, most notably
the Sino-India border war of 1962, and will have a major impact on
global affairs in the decades ahead.
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