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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
Exhaustively researched and updated, South Asia 2022 is an in-depth
library of information on the countries and territories of this
vast world region. General Survey Essays by specialists examine
issues of regional importance. Country Surveys Individual chapters
on each country, containing: - essays on the geography, recent
history and economy of each nation - up-to-date statistical surveys
of economic and social indicators - a comprehensive directory
providing contact details and other useful information for the most
significant political and commercial institutions. In addition,
there are separate sections covering each of the states and
territories of India. Regional Information - detailed coverage of
international organizations and their recent activities in South
Asia - information on research institutes engaged in the study of
the region - a survey of the major commodities of South Asia -
bibliographies of relevant books and periodicals. Additional
features - biographical profiles of almost 300 prominent
individuals in the region.
In this seminal study, Jane Hathaway presents a wide-ranging
reassessment of the effects of Ottoman rule on the Arab Lands of
Egypt, Greater Syria, Iraq and Yemen - the first of its kind in
over forty years. Challenging outmoded perceptions of this period
as a demoralizing prelude to the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab
nation-states in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Hathaway
depicts an era of immense social, cultural, economic and political
change which helped to shape the foundations of today's modern
Middle and Near East. Taking full advantage of a wide range of
Arabic and Ottoman primary sources, she examines the changing
fortunes of not only the political elite but also the broader
population of merchants, shopkeepers, peasants, tribal populations,
religious scholars, women, and ethnic and religious minorities who
inhabited this diverse and volatile region. With masterly concision
and clarity, Hathaway guides the reader through all the key current
approaches to and debates surrounding Arab society during this
period. This is far more than just another political history; it is
a global study which offers an entirely new perspective on the era
and region as a whole.
In the past decade, Sri Lanka has been engulfed by political
tragedy as successive governments have failed to settle the
grievances of the Tamil minority in a way acceptable to the
majority Sinhala population. The new Premadasa presidency faces
huge economic and political problems with large sections of the
island under the control of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF)
and militant separatist Tamil groups operating in the north and
south. This book is not a conventional political history of Sri
Lanka. Instead, it attempts to shed fresh light on the historical
roots of the ethnic crisis and uses a combination of historical and
anthropologial evidence to challenge the widely-held belief that
the conflict in Sri Lanka is simply the continuation of centuries
of animosity between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The authors show
how modern ethnic identities have been made and re-made since the
colonial period with the war between Tamils and the
Sinhala-dominant government accompanied by rhetorical wars over
archeological sites and place-name etymologies, and the political
use of the national past. The book is also one of the first
attempts to focus on local perceptions of the crisis and draws on a
broad range of sources, from village fieldwork to newspaper
controversies. Its interest extends beyond contemporary politics to
history, anthropology and development studies.
- Written accessibly with students of World History in mind -
Provides an up to date synthesis of recent scholarship on the
subject - Fills a gap in easy-to-teach textbooks on the subject -
Author highly respected in the field, endorsed by specialists
Written by the refugees themselves, this highly original anthology
of Palestinians forced to live outside their homeland brings
together stories of what it means to be exiled, reflections on the
events that led to being displaced, and the raw experience of daily
life in a camp. The 11 lives given voice here are unique, each an
expression of the myriad displacements that war and occupation have
forced upon Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948. At the same time,
they form a collective testament of a people driven from their
homes and land by colonial occupation. Each story is singular; and
each tells the story of all Palestinians. As Edward Said argued in
1984, the object of Israel's colonial warfare is not only
material-seeking to minimise Palestinian existence as such-but is
also a narrative project that aims to obliterate Palestinian
history "as possessed of a coherent narrative direction pointed
towards self-determination." In these pages, Palestinian refugees
narrate their own histories. The product of a creative-writing
workshop organized by the Institute for Palestine Studies in
Lebanon, 11 Lives tells of children's adventures in the alleyways
of refugee camps, of teenage martyrs and ghosts next-door, of an
UNRWA teacher's dismay at the shallowness of her colleagues, and of
the love, labour, and land that form the threads of a red keffiyeh.
What unites these 11 stories is "the inadmissible existence of the
Palestinian people" highlighted by Said. Their words persist, as
one contributor writes, "between the Nakba and the Naksa,
throughout defeats and massacres, love affairs and revolutions."
The stories of Palestinians in exile are also open-ended, and will
continue to reverberate across borders until Palestine is free.
With contributions by: Nadia Fahed, Intisar Hajaj, Yafa Talal
El-Masri, Youssef Naanaa, Ruba Rahme, Hanin Mohammad Rashid, Mira
Sidawi, Wedad Taha, Salem Yassin, Taha Younis, Mahmoud Mohammad
Zeidan Co-published with the Institute of Palestine Studies.
In this evocative study of the fall of the Mughal Empire and the
beginning of the Raj, award-winning historian William Dalrymple
uses previously undiscovered sources to investigate a pivotal
moment in history.
The last Mughal emperor, Zafar, came to the throne when the
political power of the Mughals was already in steep decline.
Nonetheless, Zafar--a mystic, poet, and calligrapher of great
accomplishment--created a court of unparalleled brilliance, and
gave rise to perhaps the greatest literary renaissance in modern
Indian history. All the while, the British were progressively
taking over the Emperor's power. When, in May 1857, Zafar was
declared the leader of an uprising against the British, he was
powerless to resist though he strongly suspected that the action
was doomed. Four months later, the British took Delhi, the capital,
with catastrophic results. With an unsurpassed understanding of
British and Indian history, Dalrymple crafts a provocative,
revelatory account of one the bloodiest upheavals in history.
Sunday Times Paperback of the Year The Ottoman Empire has long been
depicted as the Islamic-Asian antithesis of the Christian-European
West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans'
multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep
into Europe's heart. In their breadth and versatility, the Ottoman
rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans'
remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire,
Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian,
Islamic and Byzantine heritage; how they used both religious
toleration and conversion to integrate conquered peoples; and how,
in the nineteenth century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to
ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the dynasty's demise after the
First World War. Upending Western concepts of the Renaissance, the
Age of Exploration, the Reformation, this account challenges our
understandings of sexuality, orientalism and genocide. Radically
retelling their remarkable story, The Ottomans is a magisterial
portrait of a dynastic power, and the first to truly capture its
cross-fertilisation between East and West.
This book offers a lively and fascinating account--from the
perspective of a young lieutenant--of the trials and tribulations
of a soldier in the Third Turkish Brigade in Korea in 1952-53.
Turkey was one of the first countries to support United Nations
action against Communist aggression in Korea. Reaching Korea before
the Chinese entered the conflict, the Turkish Brigades were soon
situated at the front in a series of critical battles. Danisman
recounts the details of these events in a fast-paced,
uncompromising style.
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In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish a new administration in his richest provinces. Run by English merchants who collected taxes using a ruthless private army, this new regime saw the East India Company transform itself from an international trading corporation into something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business.
William Dalrymple tells the remarkable story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
This new edition is fully up to date to give a comprehensive look
at Korea from 1876 to the present day Provides a comparative look
at both North and South Korea Fares well against competitors due to
its length (comparatively short), writing style (suitable for
undergrads) and coverage (covers modern period of both North and
South Korea)
How can we explain Britain's long rule in India beyond the cliches
of 'imperial' versus 'nationalist' interpretations? In this new
history, Roderick Matthews tells a more nuanced story of 'oblige
and rule', the foundation of common purpose between colonisers and
powerful Indians. Peace, Poverty and Betrayal argues that this was
more a state of being than a system: British policy was never clear
or consistent; the East India Company went from a manifestly
incompetent ruler to, arguably, the world's first liberal
government; and among British and Indians alike there were both
progressive and conservative attitudes to colonisation. Matthews
skilfully illustrates that this very diversity and ambiguity of
British-Indian relations also drove the social changes that led to
the struggle for independence. Skewering the simplistic binaries
that often dominate the debate, Peace, Poverty and Betrayal is a
fresh and elegant history of British India.
This fascinating book is an insightful exploration of Western
perceptions and representations of Japanese culture and society,
drawing on social and cultural psychological ideas around
stereotypes and intercultural relations. Hinton considers how the
West views the Japanese as an ideologically different 'other', and
proposes a cultural theory of stereotypes from which to explore
Western observations of the Japanese. The book explores Western
socio-cultural representations of the Japanese alongside Edward
Said's well-known theory of Orientalism. It examines the West's
intercultural relationship with Japan, and how this has changed
over time, to show how the Japanese have been represented in the
Western mind throughout history, to the present day. Hinton argues
that our view of other cultures is based on our own cultural
expectations, which involve complex issues of meaning making and
perceived cultural differences. This book foregrounds this research
through accounts of Westerners about the Japanese, to reveal how
cultural representations can influence the ways in which people
from different cultures communicate in interaction, and how
intercultural understanding or misunderstanding can arise. By
reflecting on the changing Western representations of the Japanese,
and how and why these have emerged, this book will be of interest
to students, academics, and general readers interested in
stereotypes, cultural psychology, intercultural communication, and
Japanese culture and history.
A timely and compelling examination of the Palestinian dilemma,
named one of the 100 best books of the year by Publishers Weekly
In Resurrecting Empire, Rashid Khalidi dissected the failures of
colonial policy over the entire span of the modern history of the
Middle East, predicted the meltdown in Iraq that we are now
witnessing with increasing horror, and offered viable alternatives
for achieving peace in the region. His newest book, The Iron Cage,
hones in on Palestinian politics and history. Once again Khalidi
draws on a wealth of experience and scholarship to elucidate the
current conflict, using history to provide a clear-eyed view of the
situation today.
The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state begins in
the era of British control over Palestine and stretches between the
two world wars, when colonial control of the region became
increasingly unpopular and power began to shift toward the United
States. In this crucial period, and in the years immediately
following World War II, Palestinian leaders were unable to achieve
the long-cherished goal of establishing an independent state--a
critical failure that throws a bright light on the efforts of the
Palestinians to create a state in the many decades since 1948. By
frankly discussing the reasons behind this failure, Khalidi offers
a much-needed perspective for anyone concerned about peace in the
Middle East.
"Rashid Khalidi is a historian's historian. The Iron Cage is his
most accomplished effort to date . . . Magisterial in scope,
meticulous in its attention to detail, and decidedly dispassionate
in its analysis, The Iron Cage is destined to be a benchmark of its
genre." --Joel Schalit, Tikkun
"At heart a historical essay, an effort to decide why the
Palestinians . . . have failed to achieve an independent state."
--Steven Erlanger, New York Times
"Khalidi, tackling 'historical amnesia, ' brilliantly analyses the
structural handicap which hobbled the Palestinians throughout 30
years of British rule . . . Khalidi restores the Palestinians to
something more than victims, acknowledging that for all their
disadvantages, they have played their role and can (and must) still
do so to determine their own fate." --Ian Black, Guardian
"Khalidi uses history to provide a clear-eyed view of the region
and assess the prospects for peace. He strives successfully for
even-handedness." --Anthony Lewis, author of Gideon's Trumpet and
Make No Law
." . . we have to open a dialogue with Hamas--not to embrace it,
but to lay out a gradual pathway that will bring it into relations
with Israel. As Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University's Palestinian
expert and author of The Iron Cage points out: 'If we let the
Palestinian Authority be destroyed, and then we keep Hamas
isolated'--even though it won a democratic election that we
sponsored--'we will end up with the hard boys, the gangs you see
today on the streets of Gaza, who respond to no authority at all.'"
--New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman
Covid-19 has given renewed, urgent attention to 'the pandemic' as a
devastating, recurrent global phenomenon. Today the term is freely
and widely used-but in reality, it has a long and contested
history, centred on South Asia. Pandemic India is an innovative
enquiry into the emergence of the idea and changing meaning of
pandemics, exploring the pivotal role played by-or assigned
to-India over the past 200 years. Using the perspectives of the
social historian and the historian of medicine, and a wide range of
sources, it explains how and why past pandemics were so closely
identified with South Asia; the factors behind outbreaks'
exceptional destructiveness in India; responses from society and
the state, both during and since the colonial era; and how such
collective catastrophes have changed lives and been remembered.
Giving a 'long history' to India's current pandemic, the book
offers comparisons with earlier epidemics of cholera, plague and
influenza. David Arnold assesses the distinctive characteristics
and legacies of each episode, tracking the evolution of public
health strategies and containment measures. This is a historian's
reflection on time as seen through the pandemic prism, and on the
ways the past is used-or misused-to serve the present.
The most authoritative and highly regarded single-volume history of
India - from ancient time to the modern day. Five millennia of the
sub-continent's social, economic, political and cultural history
are interpreted by one of our finest writers on India and the Far
East. India's history begins with a highly advanced urban
civilisation in the Indus valley, regressing to a tribal and
pastoral nomadism, and then evolving into a uniquely stratified
society. The pattern of inward invasion plus outward migration was
established early: from Alexander the Great via the march of Islam
and the great Moghuls to the coming of the East India Company and
the establishment of the British Raj. Older, richer and more
distinctive than almost any other, India's culture furnishes all
that the historian could wish for in the way of continuity and
diversity. The peoples of the Indian subcontinent, while sharing a
common history and culture, are not now, and never have been, a
single unitary state; the book accommodates Pakistan and
Bangladesh, as well as other embryonic nation states like the Sikh
Punjab, Muslim Kashmir and Assam. In this brilliant new edition,
John Keay continues the narrative of India's history - covering
events from partition to the present day and examining the very
different fortunes of the three successor states: Pakistan,
Bangladesh and the Republic of India. Based on the latest research,
this is an indispensible history of a country set to be a
definitive influence on the future of world economics, politics and
culture.
In earlier times, for the Chinese, Korea was 'the country of
courteous people from the east', and for westerners 'the land of
the morning calm' or 'hermit kingdom'. In this fascinating
collection of writings on times past in Korea the author helps to
lift the veil on this once closed country, providing the reader
with a wide selection of first-hand accounts by travellers who
'discovered' Korea - some as snapshots by those passing through,
others more detailed evaluations of Korean culture and everyday
life by those who spent time there. The collection covers a period
of over 400 years - from Hendrik Hamel's journal of the 1600s to
early 20th century records, such as Roy C. Andrew's 1918 published
account of his expedition, entitled Exploring Unknown Corners of
the 'Hermit Kingdom'.
This book chronicles individual perspectives and specific
iterations of Muslim community, practice, and experience in the
Himalayan region to bring into scholarly conversation the presence
of varying Muslim cultures in the Himalaya. The Himalaya provide a
site of both geographic and cultural crossroads, where Muslim
community is simultaneously constituted at multiple social levels,
and to that end the essays in this book document a wide range of
local, national, and global interests while maintaining a focus on
individual perspectives, moments in time, and localized
experiences. It presents research that contributes to a broadly
conceived notion of the Himalaya that enriches readers'
understandings of both the region and concepts of Muslim community
and highlights the interconnections between multiple experiences of
Muslim community at local levels. Drawing attention to the
cultural, social, artistic, and political diversity of the Himalaya
beyond the better understood and frequently documented
religio-cultural expressions of the region, this book will be of
interest to academics in the fields of Anthropology, Geography,
History, Religious Atudies, Asian Studies, and Islamic Studies.
When Mao Zedong proclaimed The People's Republic of China in 1949,
China was a poor and wrecked society after years of continuous
wars. For centuries, in fact, China had been seen as a sort of
plunder-zone to be invaded, and then a backwater until the late
1980s, when domestic policy brought about monumental changes. The
result was that in the past quarter-century China has grown to be
the second largest economy in the world, and its military has grown
proportionately. Successive decades of economic growth have
transformed China - in addition to the weapons revolution during
the computer age - so that by now the People's Liberation Army
(PLA) has become a modern fighting force. No longer having to rely
on massed infantry attacks, it now features a formidable arsenal
including nuclear submarines, ICBMs, stealth fighters, and modern
battle tanks. Perhaps ominously for other maritime powers, the
Chinese have also focused on beyond-the-horizon missile technology,
as well as anti-aircraft systems, and have also explored the
possibilities of cyber-warfare. What is today's PLA really like?
What are its traditions and histories, and how is it armed and
equipped? How does it recruit and train? This book describes some
of the lesser known battles and wars the Chinese have undertaken,
and the development of their key weapons systems. The United
States, having opened the door to "drone warfare," have had an
attentive audience for such technologies in Beijing. The last
chapter provides thoughts on how the Chinese view matters of
security. It is not yet known whether foreign powers can still
enforce their territorial wills on China, but future attempts will
meet an increased challenge. This book will be of interest not only
to general readers but to policy-makers and militaries in the West,
who may not yet realize that a new China has replaced the old.
What's Next for the Middle East...and How Will It Affect Us? Iran
has repeatedly declared its intention to destroy Israel. ISIS
continues to gain ground, leaving a trail of death and terror in
its wake. And Russia is inserting itself into Middle Eastern
affairs in a power play prophesied long ago. ISIS, Iran, Israel is
an updated edition of the book Iran and Israel by prophecy scholar
Mark Hitchcock, with all-new information on ISIS, Russian
involvement in Syria and Iran, and the state of relations between
Israel and Iran. Hitchcock brings a strong biblical perspective to
the latest conflicts, while answering important questions such
as... Where did ISIS come from-and why are its tactics so brutal?
Are we on the road to the Apocalypse? Will there ever be peace in
the Middle East? What can we expect in the days to come? How are
events in the Middle East affecting America today? An eye-opening
survey of where things stand and how it all ties in with Bible
prophecy.
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