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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
Linking two defining narratives of the twentieth century, Sutton's
comparative study of Hong Kong and Cyprus - where two of the
empire's most effective communist parties operated - examines how
British colonial policy-makers took to cultural and ideological
battlegrounds to fight the anti-colonial imperialism of their
communist enemies in the Cold War. The structure and intentional
nature of the British colonial system grants unprecedented access
to British perceptions and strategies, which sought to balance
constructive socio-political investments with regressive and
self-defeating repression, neither of which Britain could afford in
the Cold War conflict of empires.
Scholars often assume that the nature of Mesopotamian kingship was
such that questioning royal authority was impossible. This volume
challenges that general assumption, by presenting an analysis of
the motivations,methods, and motifs behind a scholarly discourse
about kingship that arose in the final stages of the last
Mesopotamian empires. The focus of the volume is the proliferation
of a literature that problematizes authority in the Neo-Assyrian
period, when texts first begin to specifically explore various
modalities for critique of royalty. This development is symptomatic
of a larger discourse about the limits of power that emerges after
the repatriation of Marduk's statue to Babylon during the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar I in the 12th century BCE. From this point onwards,
public attitudes toward Marduk provide a framework for the
definition of proper royal behavior, and become a point of
contention between Assyria and Babylonia. It is in this historical
and political context that several important Akkadian compositions
are placed. The texts are analyzed from a new perspective that
sheds light on their original milieux and intended functions.
This book provides a systematic study of the political, economic,
cultural, and educational changes that have taken place in China
since 1978, and examines the impacts of these changes on the
Chinese people's thinking and behavior. Jing Lin traces the gradual
change of the Chinese from obedient, unquestioning citizens to
critical and intelligent thinkers. She points out that with the
more relaxed political and economic environment the Chinese people
have gone through a period of reflection on their communist past,
which has resulted in a new sense of identity and a more
independent spirit. The book also looks at how the Chinese have
begun to learn from other countries, resulting in an ongoing desire
for openness and democracy.
The rise of China is no doubt one of the most important events in
world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. Mainstream
economics, especially the institutional theory of economic
development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive
political institutions, is highly inadequate in explaining China's
rise. This book argues that only a radical reinterpretation of the
history of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West (as
incorrectly portrayed by the institutional theory) can fully
explain China's growth miracle and why the determined rise of China
is unstoppable despite its current 'backward' financial system and
political institutions. Conversely, China's spectacular and rapid
transformation from an impoverished agrarian society to a
formidable industrial superpower sheds considerable light on the
fundamental shortcomings of the institutional theory and mainstream
'blackboard' economic models, and provides more-accurate
reevaluations of historical episodes such as Africa's enduring
poverty trap despite radical political and economic reforms, Latin
America's lost decades and frequent debt crises, 19th century
Europe's great escape from the Malthusian trap, and the Industrial
Revolution itself.
Between 1954 and 1963, President Ngo Dinh Diem, against great odds
but with U.S. assistance, built a functioning South Vietnamese
state. But gravely misled by American journalists in Saigon, the
U.S. embassy, in league with second-tier members of the State
Department, urged certain South Vietnamese generals to stage a coup
against Diem, resulting in his brutal murder. Despite the
instability after Diem's murder, the South Vietnamese Army
performed well during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the 1972 Easter
Offensive. In proportion to population, South Vietnamese Army
losses were much greater than American losses. Nevertheless, the
American media ignored South Vietnamese sacrifices, and completely
misrepresented the consequences of the Tet Offensive. The
disastrous "peace agreement" the U.S. forced on the South
Vietnamese in 1973 made continuing American support vital. But
Congress began to slash aid to South Vietnam, so that its soldiers
had to fight on with dwindling supplies of fuel, ammunition, and
medicine. Under these circumstances, the South Vietnamese attempted
to regroup their army into the provinces around Saigon, an effort
that ended in disaster. The final chapter reflects on the meaning
of the conflict and the tragedy that abandonment by Washington and
conquest by Hanoi brought upon the South Vietnamese people. An
Appendix presents a strategy for preserving a South Vietnamese
state with the commitment of a relatively small number of U.S.
forces.
Yemen is an arid and mountainous country in the southern corner of
the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is mostly rural, with over half the
population below age 15, and more than one-fifth of its 22 million
people are malnourished. One of the poorest Arab countries, Yemen's
birth and population growth rates are also among the world's
highest. With an annual growth rate of 3.4 %, the population could
double by 2030. The country's current fertility rate is 6.2. This
reflects a high birthrate, 39.2 per 1,000 population, and a
declining mortality rate, 11 per 1,000 population. Yemen's infant
mortality rate, however, still ranks as one of the highest in the
world. This includes a mortality rate of 102 per 1,000 live births
for children under 5 years old in 2003. From the late 1980s through
the late 1990s, Yemen experienced a high maternal mortality ratio
of 351 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Maternal deaths
account for about 42% of all deaths among Yemeni women between the
ages of fifteen and forty-nine. Since the unification of Yemen in
1990, several structural reforms and policy changes have been
introduced to control its population growth. Although the
government recognizes population growth as a major challenge to
development, little progress has been made in implementing
population policy and societal consensus remains elusive. Thus, the
structural context of reproduction in Yemen exposes women to a
large number of risks. The disadvantages of poverty and poor health
among women are passed on from one generation to the next. Even
during the course of reproduction, poor women face several threats
to their physical and mental well being. While these disadvantages
have been well chronicled in most societies, not much is known
about reproductive health in many poor Arab countries. But for a
few rich Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, the state of
reproductive health among women in poor Arab states has been hardly
investigated. Although, more recently, several studies have
attempted to document poor reproductive health conditions in this
part of the world, a few countries go unnoticed mostly due to the
lack of access to national level data. The Republic of Yemen, one
of the poorest countries in the Middle East, has for several
reasons failed to draw the attention of social science researchers.
The authors began a number of studies to learn more about Yemeni
women's reproductive health under the conditions of dire social and
economic disadvantages caused by extreme poverty. This book is a
compilation of the authors' studies on Yemen and attempts to draw
conclusions which would not have been possible with a single study.
The book examines the reproductive health of women in Yemen.
Women's reproductive health has emerged as an area of concern among
development agencies and international agencies such as the United
Nations. However, theoretical models for examining reproductive
health appear to lag behind the massive amount of reproductive
health rhetoric in the recent years. Even though there is no
uniform definition of reproductive health, we characterize
reproductive health by focusing on the three components of
fertility: intercourse, conception and gestation. This method
directs attention to the context of reproduction in developing
countries. In addition, the book reveals the previously
underappreciated role of abortion in contributing to the first
stages of fertility decline. The study finds that higher economic
levels and improved social conditions for women do help bring about
real improvements in many dimensions of reproductive health.
Women's Reproductive Health in Yemen is an important book for
scholars in demography and population health.
This fully updated second edition provides a succinct and
self-contained history of China. The text emphasizes the
relationship between China's modern era and its past, employing a
unique approach that presents the story in terms of traditional
Chinese historical theories. When the West enters the scene in
modern times, Schrecker fits its impact into the Chinese story,
rather than the reverse, as is commonly done. This study
demonstrates that traditional China was not homogeneous or
changeless, thus offering a much-needed corrective to common
stereotypes about other cultures that is essential for both
classroom use and for the general reader. The Chinese Revolution in
Historical Perspective, available here in a fully updated second
edition, provides a succinct and self-contained history of China.
The text emphasizes the relationship between China's modern era and
its past, employing a unique approach that presents the story in
terms of traditional Chinese historical theories. When the West
enters the scene in modern times, Schrecker fits its impact into
the Chinese story, rather than the reverse, as is commonly done.
This study demonstrates that traditional China was not homogeneous
or changeless, thus offering a much-needed corrective to common
stereotypes about other cultures that is essential for both
classroom use and for the general reader. Schrecker's approach
permits a full appreciation of the connections between the
contemporary scene and the Chinese past-an appreciation that is
increasingly important as China moves away from typical Communist
practices and returns to more traditional Chinese patterns-for
example, recreating a lively entrepreneurial economy of the sort
that characterized China for a thousand years. This edition brings
China's story up to the present. An additional preface and map are
included, along with an updated bibliography and supplemental
notes. A new appendix details the traditional understanding of the
key Chinese historiographical terms used in the book.
This book presents a comprehensive overview of the Nanjing
Massacre, together with an in-depth analysis of various aspects of
the event and related issues. Drawing on original source materials
collected from various national archives, national libraries,
church historical society archives, and university libraries in
China, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States, it
represents the first English-language academic attempt to analyze
the Nanjing Massacre in such detail and scope. The book examines
massacres and other killings, in addition to other war crimes, such
as rape, looting, and burning. These atrocities are then explored
further via a historical analysis of Chinese survivors' testimony,
Japanese soldiers' diaries, Westerners' eyewitness accounts, the
news coverage from American and British correspondents, and
American, British and German diplomatic dispatches. Further, the
book explores issues such as the role and function of the
International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone, burial records of
massacre victims, post-war military tribunals, controversies over
the Nanjing Massacre, and the 100-Man Killing Contest. This book is
intended for all researchers, scholars, graduate and undergraduate
students, and members of the general public who are interested in
Second World War issues, Sino-Japanese conflicts, Sino-Japan
relations, war crimes, atrocity and holocaust studies, military
tribunals for war crimes, Japanese atrocities in China, and the
Nanjing Massacre.
Japan's population is shrinking. Based on current trends, it will
decline by an average of half a million people per year for the
next forty years. The country is also getting older and the ratio
of dependants to active workers is expected to approach 1:1 by
around 2030. These two interdependent processes will bring great
changes to Japan in the coming decades. In the twenty-first
century, a historic turnaround in global demographic trends will
occur. Europe and East Asia are especially vulnerable to
demographic shrinkage. Germany is already shrinking, as is Russia.
South Korea will begin to shrink soon and, importantly, so will
China from around 2035. Overall, this is good news, but it brings
with it worldwide changes to ways of living and working. Japan's
rural areas have been shrinking for decades. Entire villages have
vanished; some have even been "sold." Thousands of municipalities
have been judged "non-viable" and merged. Thousands more private
and public enterprises have collapsed, leaving colossal debts,
while hundreds of thousands of older people live miserable lives in
neighbourless communities. Rural shrinkage has been the unseen
corollary of Japan's extraordinarily dynamic twentieth century
urban expansion; indeed, Japan's postwar economic miracle has been
achieved at the expense of rural retreat. Potentially disastrous is
the negative-sum game that national depopulation triggers, as one
community's gain becomes another's loss. Japan's Shrinking Regions
in the 21st Century reveals how communities are responding
positively to these emerging circumstances, delivering a message of
hope and vitality to shrinking regions worldwide. Setting Japan
alongside Europe, and with an epilogue describing the T hoku
earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown of 11 March 2011, the
book offers policy makers and practitioners up to date advice for
community revival born of extensive collaborative fieldwork across
the whole Japanese archipelago. Japan's Shrinking Regions in the
21st Century brings together the work of 18 international scholars
to present the first comprehensive study of regional shrinkage
under Japan's national depopulation. Interspersed throughout with
numerous illustrations, the book reveals a richly textured
examination of shrinkage at the local level, from which emerges the
overall story of Japan's depopulation and its place within the
trajectory of world development. This will be an important source
for all social science collections, as well as for researchers,
policy makers, students, and practitioners with interests in
regional development, demography, East Asia, and post-industrial
change.
Yokohama Street Life: The Precarious Career of a Japanese Day
Laborer is a one-man ethnography, tracing the career of a single
Japanese day laborer called Kimitsu, from his wartime childhood in
the southern island of Kyushu through a brief military career to a
lifetime spent working on the docks and construction sites of
Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama. Kimitsu emerges as a unique voice from
the Japanese ghetto, a self-educated philosopher whose thoughts on
life in the slums, on post-war Japanese society and on more
abstract intellectual concerns are conveyed in a series of
conversations with British anthropologist Tom Gill, whose
friendship with Kimitsu spans more than two decades. For Kimitsu,
as for many of his fellow day laborers at the bottom of Japanese
society, offers none of the comforting distractions of marriage,
family life, or a long-term career in a settled workplace. It leads
him through existential philosophy towards Buddhist mysticism as he
fills the time between days of hard manual labor with visits to
second-hand bookshops in search of enlightenment. The book also
portrays Kimitsu's living environment, a Yokohama slum district
called Kotobuki. Kotobuki is a 'doya-gai'-a slum inhabited mainly
by men, somewhat similar to the skid row districts that used to be
common in American cities. Traditionally these men have earned a
basic living by working as day laborers, but the decline in
employment opportunities has forced many of them into welfare
dependence or homelessness. Kimitsu's life and thought are framed
by an account of the changing way of life in Kotobuki, a place that
has gradually been transformed from a casual laboring market to a
large, shambolical welfare center. In Kotobuki the national
Japanese issues of an aging workforce and economic decline set in
much earlier than elsewhere, leading to a dramatic illustration of
the challenges facing the Japanese welfare state.
The passage of time has not slowed the production of books and
articles about World War I. This volume provides a guide to the
historiography and bibliography of the Dardanelles Campaign,
including the Gallipoli invasion. It focuses on military history
but also provides information on political histories that give
significant attention to the handling of the Dardanelles Campaign.
The opening section of the book provides background information
about the campaign, discusses the major sources of information, and
lays out the major interpretative disputes. A comprehensive
annotated bibliography follows. This book nicely complements the
two earlier volumes on World War I battles--The Battle of Jutland
by Eugene Rasor and The Battles of the Somme by Fred R. van
Hartesveldt.
This book brings together our present-day knowledge about textile
terminology in the Akkadian language of the first-millennium BC. In
fact, the progress in the study of the Assyrian dialect and its
grammar and lexicon has shown the increasing importance of studying
the language as well as cataloging and analysing the terminology of
material culture in the documentation of the first world empire.
The book analyses the terms for raw materials, textile procedures,
and textile end products consumed in first-millennium BC Assyria.
In addition, a new edition of a number of written records from
Neo-Assyrian administrative archives completes the work. The book
also contains a number of tables, a glossary with all the discussed
terms, and a catalogue of illustrations. In light of the recent
development of textile research in ancient languages, the book is
aimed at providing scholars of Ancient Near Eastern studies and
ancient textile studies with a comprehensive work on the Assyrian
textiles.
The State of Israel is the only Western state where the majority of
lands are still owned by the State and by a public body related to
it (The Jewish National Fund). At the root lies the divine command
stating that the Land of Israel belongs to God and therefore should
not be traded in perpetuity (Leviticus 25). This principle has been
applied to almost all of the State lands, and was established in a
Basic Law. Since the 1980s there were many pressures in Israel to
privatize at least part of the State's and JNF's lands, due to the
general privatization process of Israel's economy, the deepening
globalization process, and the transformation of Israel to an
individualistic society. However, only a small portion of the lands
were privatized, constituting 4% of the area of Israel. The book is
based wholly on primary sources. It describes and analyzes the
history of the ideological, social and legal processes that took
place and their development since the beginning of the 20th century
until today - processes that brought about the unique phenomenon of
the State of Israel as an advanced capitalistic state whose lands
are mostly state-owned.
I Know myself, I know myself, I am One With God -From the Pert Em
Heru "The Ru Pert em Heru" or "Ancient Egyptian Book of The Dead,"
or "Book of Coming Forth By Day" as it is more popularly known, has
fascinated the world since the successful translation of Ancient
Egyptian hieroglyphic scripture over 150 years ago. The astonishing
writings in it reveal that the Ancient Egyptians believed in life
after death and in an ultimate destiny to discover the Divine. The
elegance and aesthetic beauty of the hieroglyphic text itself has
inspired many see it as an art form in and of itself. But is there
more to it than that? Did the Ancient Egyptian wisdom contain more
than just aphorisms and hopes of eternal life beyond death? In this
volume Dr. Muata Ashby, the author of over 25 books on Ancient
Egyptian Yoga Philosophy has produced a new translation of the
original texts which uncovers a mystical teaching underlying the
sayings and rituals instituted by the Ancient Egyptian Sages and
Saints. "Once the philosophy of Ancient Egypt is understood as a
mystical tradition instead of as a religion or primitive mythology,
it reveals its secrets which if practiced today will lead anyone to
discover the glory of spiritual self-discovery. The Pert em Heru is
in every way comparable to the Indian Upanishads or the Tibetan
Book of the Dead." $28.95 ISBN# 1-884564-28-3 Size: 81/2" X
Examining the 160 year relationship between America and Japan, this
cutting edge collection considers the evolution of the relationship
of these two nations which straddle the Pacific, from the first
encounters in the 19th century to major international shifts in a
post 9/11 world. It examines the emergence of Japan in the wake of
the 1905 Russo-Japanese War and the development of U.S. policies
toward East Asia at the turn of the century. It goes on to study
the impact of World War One in Asia, the Washington Treaty System,
the issue of Immigration Issue and the deterioration of US-Japan
relations in the 1930s as Japan invaded Manchuria. It also reflects
on the Pacific War and the Occupation of Japan, and the country's
postwar Resurgence, democratization and economic recovery, as well
as the maturing and the challenges facing the US Japan relationship
as it progresses into the 21st century. This is a key read for
those interested in the history of this important relationship as
well as for scholars of diplomatic history and international
relations.
In the opening days of the World War II, a joint U.S.-Filipino army
fought desperately to defend Manila Bay and the Philippines against
a Japanese invasion. Much of the five-month campaign was waged on
the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island. Despite dwindling
supplies and dim prospects for support, the garrison held out as
long as possible and significantly delayed the Japanese timetable
for conquest in the Pacific. In the end, the Japanese forced the
largest capitulation in U.S. military history. The defenders were
hailed as heroes and the legacy of their determined resistance
marks the Philippines today. Drawing on accounts from American and
Filipino participants and archival sources, this book tells the
story of these critical months of the Pacific War, from the first
air strikes to the fall of Bataan and Corregidor.
The World of the Aramaeans is a three-volume collection of
definitive essays about the Aramaeans and the biblical world of
which they were a part. Areas of interest include the language,
epigraphy and history of the Aramaeans of Syria as well of their
neighbours, the Israelites, Phoenicians, Ammonites, Moabites and
Edomites. The third volume, on language and literature, includes
essays by Michael Weigl, William Marrow, Grant Frame, James M.
Lindenberger, Pierre Bordreuil, Amir Harrak, Theodore Lutz, Josef
Tropper, Dennis Pardee and Clemens Leonhard.>
This book uses gender as a framework to offer unique insights into
the socio-cultural foundations of Buddhism. Moving away from
dominant discourses that discuss women as a single monolithic,
homogenous category-thus rendering them invisible within the
broader religious discourse-this monograph examines their sustained
role in the larger context of South Asian Buddhism and reaffirms
their agency. It highlights the multiple roles played by women as
patrons, practitioners, lay and monastic members, etc. within
Buddhism. The volume also investigates the individual experiences
of the members, and their equations and relationships at different
levels-with the Samgha at large, with their own respective Bhiksu
or Bhiksuni Sangha, with the laity, and with members of the same
gender (both lay and monastic). It rereads, reconfigures and
reassesses historical data in order to arrive at a new
understanding of Buddhism and the social matrix within which it
developed and flourished. Bringing together archaeological,
epigraphic, art historical, literary as well as ethnographic data,
this volume will be of interest to researchers and scholars of
Buddhism, gender studies, ancient Indian history, religion, and
South Asian studies.
In April of 1975, Lebanon, the tranquil Middle Eastern country
called the Switzerland of the Orient, exploded into a violent
conflict that lasted almost two decades. This book explores the
convoluted politics and forces within Lebanon and the Near East
that made the atmosphere in that tiny republic highly charged, thus
inhibiting conflict resolution. This comprehensive study describes
the strategies, battles, and conferences that kept Lebanon aflame,
despite the best efforts of all concerned parties to terminate the
bloodshed. Abraham looks at Lebanon from the inside-out,
highlighting the conflicting politics of Lebanese leaders, the
failure of the democratic left to take over the state, and the
underlying problem of the PLO's presence in the country.
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