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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Shortlisted for the 2020 Cundill
History Prize 'Riveting and original ... a work enriched by solid
scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of
the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this
deeply unequal conflict ' Noam Chomsky The twentieth century for
Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial
of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. The
Hundred Years War on Palestine is Rashid Khalidi's powerful
response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the
fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their
own terms. Beginning in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,
Khalidi reveals nascent Palestinian nationalism and the broad
recognition by the early Zionists of the colonial nature of their
project. These ideas and their echoes defend Nakba - the
Palestinian term for the establishment of the state of Israel - the
cession of the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, the Six Day
War and the occupation. Moving through these critical moments,
Khalidi interweaves the voices of journalists, poets and resistance
leaders with his own accounts as a child of a UN official and a
resident of Beirut during the 1982 seige. The result is a
profoundly moving account of a hundred-year-long war of occupation,
dispossession and colonialisation.
"Vengeance" is a true story that reads like a novel. It is the
account of five ordinary Israelis, selected to vanish into "the
cold" of espionage secrecy -- their mission to hunt down and kill
the PLO terrorists responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli
athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
This is the account of that secret mission, as related by the
leader of the group -- the first Mossad agent to come out of "deep
cover" and tell the story of a heroic endeavor that was shrouded in
silence and speculation for years. He reveals the long and
dangerous operation whose success was bought at a terrible cost to
the idealistic volunteer agents themselves.
"Avner" was the leader of that team, handpicked by Golda Meir to
avenge the monstrous crime of Munich. He and his young companions,
cut off from any direct contact with Israel, set out systematically
to find and kill the central figures of the PLO's Munich operation,
tracking them down wherever they lived.
The mechanics, the horror, the day-by-day suspense of what they
did surpass by far anything John le Carre or Robert Ludlum could
imagine, as they themselves were tracked in turn (and some killed)
by PLO assassins, changing identities constantly, moving from
country to country, devoting their young lives to the brutal task
of vengeance.
"Vengeance" is a profoundly human document, a real-life
espionage classic that plunges the reader into the shadow world of
terrorism and political murder. But it goes far beyond that, to
explore firsthand the feelings of disgust and doubt that gradually
came to torment each member of the Israeli team, and that in the
end inexorably changed their view of the mission -- and
themselves.
"Vengeance" opens a window onto a secret world, a book that at
the same time inspires and horrifies. For its subject is an act of
revenge that goes to the very heart of the ancient biblical
questions of good and evil.
Inspired by the discovery of her father's long-forgotten photos,
diaries and letters from home, the author set about creating this
book as a tribute to the bravery and sacrifices made by the armed
forces in the often over-looked Indian sub-continent area of
conflict, 5,000 miles away from home. Now, after six years of work
and research, this book has culminated in a tremendous insight into
the appalling hardships and working conditions as well as the
ingenuity of the often forgotten RAF ground crew who kept the
warbirds in the air. Deprived by the RAF of his Pilot's Licence due
to colour blindness, Peter was based firstly in central India,
maintaining old planes that were already obsolete, and then in
Burma where the ground crew were also flying as cargo handlers and
stretcher bearers, having to land and take off in the most
hazardous of conditions on short bush strips hacked out of the
Japanese-infested jungles.
The end of the Second World War led to the United States' emergence
as a global superpower. For war-ravaged Western Europe it marked
the beginning of decades of unprecedented cooperation and
prosperity that one historian has labeled "the long peace". Yet
half a world away, in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea and
Malaya-the fighting never really stopped, as these regions sought
to completely sever the yoke of imperialism and colonialism with
all-too-violent consequences. East and Southeast Asia quickly
became the most turbulent regions of the globe. Within weeks of the
famous surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri, civil war,
communal clashes and insurgency engulfed the continent, from
Southeast Asia to the Soviet border. By early 1947, full-scale wars
were raging in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, with growing guerrilla
conflicts in Korea and Malaya. Within a decade after the Japanese
surrender, almost all of the countries of South, East and Southeast
Asia that had formerly been conquests of the Japanese or colonies
of the European powers experienced wars and upheavals that resulted
in the deaths of at least 2.5 million combatants and millions of
civilians. With A Continent Erupts, acclaimed military historian
Ronald H. Spector draws on letters, diaries and international
archives to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive military
history and analysis of these little-known but decisive events. Far
from being simply offshoots of the Cold War, as they have often
been portrayed, these shockingly violent conflicts forever changed
the shape of Asia, and the world as we know it today.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Qiu Guangming, the author of this book, has been a researcher on
the measuring and weighing systems in China for more thirty years.
He has been collecting historical data and examining actual
objects, which has resulted in numerous research papers and books.
This book examines the systems she has researched.
Marco Polo (c.1254-1324) was an Italian merchant traveler from the
Republic of Venice whose travels are recorded in Livres des
merveilles du monde, a book which did much to introduce Europeans
to Central Asia and China. With his father and uncle, Niccolo and
Maffeo, he traveled on an epic journey through Asia and returned
after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa. Imprisoned on his
return, Marco was imprisoned and dictated his stories to a
cellmate.
An introduction to the rich history of Yemen and its strong
relationship with Britain - from the first Yemeni sailors who
immigrated to Britain in the 19th century, to the British Crown
colony in Aden and right up to the integration of Yemeni
communities into British society today. The Yemeni community has
been a part of British society since the late 1890's and was one of
the first Muslim communities to settle here. British Yemenis have
lived here for over 100 years, fighting for Britain in both world
wars and contributing to British society in many other ways. This
book is a celebration of their achievements.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
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