The Poisoners is a history of four devastating chapters in the making of the region, seen through the disturbing use of toxins and accusations of poisoning circulated by soldiers, spies, and politicians in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Imraan Coovadia’s fascinating new book exposes the secret use of poisons and diseases in the Rhodesian bush war and independent Zimbabwe, and the apparent connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States; the enquiry into the chemical and biological warfare programme in South Africa known as Project Coast, discovered through the arrest and failed prosecution of Dr Wouter Basson; the use of toxic compounds such as Virodene to treat patients at the height of the Aids epidemic in South Africa, and the insistence of the government that proven therapies like Nevirapine, which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, were in fact poisons; and the history of poisoning and accusations of poisoning in the modern history of the African National Congress, from its guerrilla camps in Angola to Jacob Zuma’s suggestion that his fourth wife collaborated with a foreign intelligence agency to have him murdered.

But The Poisoners is not merely a book of history. It is also a meditation, by a most perceptive commentator, on the meaning of race, on the unhappy history of black and white in southern Africa, and on the nature of good and evil.

One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story.

As the planet emerged from the last ice age, a language was born between Europe and Asia. This ancient tongue, which we call Proto-Indo-European, soon exploded out of its cradle, changing and fragmenting as it went, until its offspring were spoken from Scotland to China. Today those descendants constitute the world’s largest language family, the thread that connects disparate cultures: Dante’s Inferno to the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings to the love poetry of Rumi. Indo-European languages are spoken by nearly half of humanity. How did this happen?

Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We follow in the footsteps of nomads and monks, Amazon warriors and lion kings – the ancient peoples who spread these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve those lost languages: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed this ancient diaspora. What they have learned has vital implications for our modern world, as people and their languages are on the move again.

Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

Outside In presents the newest scholarship that narrates and explains the history of the United States as part of a networked transnational past. This work tells the stories of Americans who inhabited the border-crossing circuitry of people, ideas, and institutions that have made the modern world a worldly place. Forsaking manifestos of transnational history and surveys of existing scholarship for fresh research, careful attention to concrete situations and transactions, and original interpretation, the vigorous, accomplished historians whose work is collected here show how the transnational history of the United States is actually being written. Ranging from high statecraft to political ferment from below, from the history of religion to the discourse of women's rights, from the political left to the political right, from conservative businessmen to African diaspora radicals, this set of original essays narrates U.S. history in new ways, emphasizing the period from 1870 to the present. The essays in Outside In demonstrate the inadequacy of any unidirectional concept of "the U.S. and the world," although they stress the worldly forces that have shaped Americans. At the same time, these essays disrupt and complicate the very idea of simple inward and outward flows of influence, showing how Americans lived within transnational circuits featuring impacts and influences running in multiple directions. Outside In also transcends the divide between work focusing on the international system of nation-states and transnational history that treats non-state actors exclusively. The essays assembled here show how to write transnational history that takes the nation-state seriously, explaining that governments and non-state actors were never sealed off from one another in the modern world. These essays point the way toward a more concrete and fully internationalized vision of modern American history.

The role of women in Iran has commonly been viewed solely through the lens of religion, symbolized by veiled females subordinated by society. In this work, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, an Iranian-American historian, aims to explain how the role of women has been central to national political debates in Iran. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, the book examines issues impacting women's lives under successive regimes, including hygiene campaigns that cast mothers as custodians of a healthy civilization; debates over female education, employment, and political rights; conflicts between religion and secularism; the politics of dress; and government policies on contraception and population control. Among the topics she will examine are the development of a women's movement in Iran, perhaps most publicly expressed by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. The narrative comes up to the present, looking at reproductive rights, the spread of AIDS, and fashion since the Iranian Revolution.

Should immigrants have to pass a literacy test in order to enter the United States? Progressive-Era Americans debated this question for more than twenty years, and by the time the literacy test became law in 1917, the debate had transformed the way Americans understood immigration, and created the logic that shaped immigration restriction policies throughout the twentieth century. Jeanne Petit argues that the literacy test debate was about much more than reading ability or the virtues of education. It also tapped into broader concerns about the relationship between gender, sexuality, race, and American national identity. The congressmen, reformers, journalists, and pundits who supported the literacy test hoped to stem the tide of southern and eastern European immigration. To make their case, these restrictionists portrayed illiterate immigrant men as dissipated, dependent paupers, immigrant women as brood mares who bore too many children, and both as a eugenic threat to the nation's racial stock. Opponents of the literacy test argued that the new immigrants were muscular, virile workers and nurturing, virtuous mothers who would strengthen the race and nation. Moreover, the debaters did not simply battle about what social reformer Grace Abbott called "the sort of men and women we want." They also defined as normative the men and women they were -- unquestionably white, unquestionably American, and unquestionably fit to shape the nation's future. Jeanne D. Petit is Associate Professor of History at Hope College.

"Paradoxes of Social Capital" critically examines the robustness of social capital theory as an analytical tool in explaining the various 'integration' patterns amongst Moroccans in London. The book also considers how structural factors impact on the ways in which Moroccans - across generations - sustain, access and use social capital at the levels of family, ethnic community, migrant associations and schools. Furthermore, this research elaborates on how social capital serves as an identity (re)source that is continuously negotiated and redefined through (in)active group (family, ethnic, religious and national) memberships. An original model of studying the second-generation processes of adaptation - viewed as 'transversal adaptation'- is also introduced, shifting the focus from predetermined 'integration' patterns to a circular and a longitudinal approach to 'integration', where new opportunities and constraints emerge, structured by the temporal flow of life trajectories.

'Beautifully written, sumptuously illustrated, constantly fascinating' The Times On 26 November 1922 Howard Carter first peered into the newly opened tomb of an ancient Egyptian boy-king. When asked if he could see anything, he replied: 'Yes, yes, wonderful things.' In Tutankhamun's Trumpet, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes a unique approach to that tomb and its contents. Instead of concentrating on the oft-told story of the discovery, or speculating on the brief life and politically fractious reign of the boy king, Wilkinson takes the objects buried with him as the source material for a wide-ranging, detailed portrait of ancient Egypt - its geography, history, culture and legacy. One hundred artefacts from the tomb, arranged in ten thematic groups, are allowed to speak again - not only for themselves, but as witnesses of the civilization that created them. Never before have the treasures of Tutankhamun been analysed and presented for what they can tell us about ancient Egyptian culture, its development, its remarkable flourishing, and its lasting impact. Filled with surprising insights, unusual details, vivid descriptions and, above all, remarkable objects, Tutankhamun's Trumpet will appeal to all lovers of history, archaeology, art and culture, as well as all those fascinated by the Egypt of the pharaohs. 'I've read many books on ancient Egypt, but I've never felt closer to its people' The Sunday Times

As a nuclear engineer, Zsolt StanA k lived for decades in the fascinating world of atoms, nuclear reactions and reactors and was continually surrounded by the language of the trade. One day, it dawned on him that there was also another world a " the everyday life of people a " that was inspiring and often amusing. His stories and books spring from this revelation and deal with absurd situations and common human challenges. Many of his stories are now available in English at www.amazon.co.uk and an electronic version of this book is available at www.kosmas.cz. A true Czechoslovak, fluent in both the Czech and Slovak languages, Zsolt StanA k absorbed both cultures in his formative years. He was born and spent his early youth in KoA!ice, Slovakia, and later studied nuclear physics and engineering in Prague, Czech Republic. His work often took him to Vienna, Austria, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is located and where a " between 1993 and retirement in 2006 a " he held the position of information manager. At present, he lives in Alhaurin de la Torre, Spain. He has two children, Danny and Lucie, three grandchildren, Anetka, David and NatA!lka and two greatgrandchildren, MatAE j and Marek. To learn more about Zsolt StanA k, please visit his website at www.stanik.name and www.kosmas.cz

India is the forgotten heart of the ancient world.

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific.

William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India's oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world – and our world today as we know it.

The book follows the development of a Welsh town and neighbourhood from its early beginnings in the 16th century through to the present day, and shows the effects on its development by the growth of Religion, Industry, Commerce and the War years up to the present day.

Pendley has accumulated over 1,700 years of history - from: Ancient Britons and Romans, who settled this area at least some 1,700 years ago, to England's last great heathen King, the warlike and impressively vigorous, Penda, who seems to have given his name to this area, sired a child when he was aged 77 and died, in battle, aged 80; The Anglo-Saxon nun, Eddeva, via William the Conqueror's half-brother, Robert, to Sir Robert Whittingham, who demolished mediaeval Pendley and built the first manor house in its place; The Verneys and the sixteenth century's changeable politics to the Andersons, who facilitated the initially illicit union which was to produce US President, George Washington; The Harcourts who, in the end, didn't care about Pendley and let the old manor house be destroyed, and the trade-wealthy Grouts with their illegitimate heir, Lawrence Williams, who secured his family's fortune by marrying into his own family and then buying Pendley; His son, JG - supervisor of the building of the new manor house, a successful agriculturalist who also shepherded his brother's children and, so, secured the future of Pendley for a century - to Dorian, the last of the Williams' line at Pendley; The short-term ownership of David Evans and the Grass Roots Partnership to the current owner, Vinu Bhattessa, who's turned the place into a hotel and conference centre. Along the way, Pendley Manor acquired some peacocks, a famous Shakespeare Festival, a couple of ghosts and a host of stories. Many of these are unrecorded but some, at least, have come down to us through the ages - and these are told within this book.

In 1921 Blair Mountain in southern West Virginia was the site of the country's bloodiest armed insurrection since the Civil War, a battle pitting miners led by Frank Keeney against agents of the coal barons intent on quashing organized labor. It was the largest labor uprising in US history. Ninety years later, the site became embroiled in a second struggle, as activists came together to fight the coal industry, state government, and the military- industrial complex in a successful effort to save the battlefield-sometimes dubbed 'labor's Gettysburg'-from destruction by mountaintop removal mining. The Road to Blair Mountain is the moving and sometimes harrowing story of Charles Keeney's fight to save this irreplaceable landscape. Beginning in 2011, Keeney-a historian and great-grandson of Frank Keeney-led a nine-year legal battle to secure the site's placement on the National Register of Historic Places. His book tells a David-and-Goliath tale worthy of its own place in West Virginia history. A success story for historic preservation and environmentalism, it serves as an example of how rural, grassroots organizations can defeat the fossil fuel industry.

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.

The result of 30 years of genealogical sleuthing is a book which does not easily fit into any one particular genre. the main theme is four famous dog men from Gilling West who were national giants in their time. Rich Henry Brown, a co-director of Shoolbred and Co. in London sold bull dogs to royalty while Tom raper was the Prince of Slippers for the Waterloo Cup. George Raper was Britain's greatest dog judge and journalist who bred out the Yorkshire terrier in Victorian times and crossed the Atlantic on over thirty occasions. He also famously won foot races running backwards. Although two inns, The White Swan and the Angel Inn in Gilling West, are a starting point the story moves to the Green Tree Inn in Darlington, home of Britain's earliest dog shows. There are many fascinating anecdotes of Dales incidents in times past which trace both of the author's parents to Gilling. Not least is the scandalous story of a Gilling man's married daughter who ran away from her family to start a life with a famous actor James Herbert Standing. The final chapter is where the author, a well-known mountaineer shows how his hunting, shooting and fishing ancestors bred a generation which spread from Richmond, Yorkshire to make their name in a modern new world after the Second World War.

On September 11, 1814, an American naval squadron under Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough defeated a formidable British force on Lake Champlain under the command of Captain George Downie, effectively ending the British invasion of the Champlain Valley during the War of 1812. This decisive battle had far-reaching repercussions in Canada, the United States, England, and Ghent, Belgium, where peace talks were under way. Examining the naval and land campaign in strategic, political, and military terms, from planning to execution to outcome, The Battle of Lake Champlain offers the most thorough account written of this pivotal moment in American history. For decades the Champlain corridor - a direct and accessible invasion route between Lower Canada and the northern United States - had been hotly contested in wars for control of the region. In exploring the crucial issue of why it took two years for the United States and Britain to confront each other on Lake Champlain, historian John H. Schroeder recounts the war's early years, the failed U.S. invasions of Canada in 1812 and 1813, and the ensuing naval race for control of the lake in 1814. To explain how the Americans achieved their unexpected victory, Schroeder weighs the effects on both sides of preparations and planning, personal valor and cowardice, command decisions both brilliant and ill-conceived, and sheer luck both good and bad. Previous histories have claimed that the War of 1812 ended with Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans. Schroeder demonstrates that the United States really won the war four months before - at Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. Through a comprehensive analysis of politics and diplomacy, Schroeder shows that the victory at Lake Champlain prompted the British to moderate their demands at Ghent, bringing the war directly and swiftly to an end before Jackson's spectacular victory in January 1815.

The image of western ranchers making a stand for their "rights"-against developers, the government, "illegal" immigrants-may be commonplace today, but the political power of the cowboy was a long time in the making. In a book steeped in the culture, traditions, and history of western range ranching, Michelle K. Berry takes readers into the Cold War world of cattle ranchers in the American West to show how that power, with its implications for the lands and resources of the mountain states, was built, shaped, and shored up between 1945 and 1965. After long days working the ranch, battling human and nonhuman threats, and wrestling with nature, ranchers got down to business of another sort, which Berry calls "cow talk." Discussing the best new machinery; sharing stories of drought, blizzards, and bugs; talking money and management and strategy: these ranchers were building a community specific to their time, place, and work and creating a language that embodied their culture. Cow Talk explores how this language and its iconography evolved and how it came to provide both a context and a vehicle for political power. Using ranchers' personal papers, publications, and cattle growers association records, the book provides an inside view of how range cattle ranchers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana created a culture and a shared identity that would frame and inform their relationship with their environment and with society at large in an increasingly challenging, modernizing world. A multifaceted analysis of postwar ranch life, labor, and culture, this innovative work offers unprecedented insight into the cohesive political and cultural power of western ranchers in our day.

Pervasive myths of European domination and indigenous submission in the Americas receive an overdue corrective in this far-reaching revisionary work. Despite initial upheavals caused by the European intrusion, Native people often thrived after contact, preserving their sovereignty, territory, and culture and shaping indigenous borderlands across the hemisphere. Borderlands, in this context, are spaces where diverse populations interact, cross-cultural exchanges are frequent and consequential, and no polity or community holds dominion. Within the indigenous borderlands of the Americas, as this volume shows, Native peoples exercised considerable power, often retaining control of the land, and remaining paramount agents of historical transformation after the European incursion. Conversely, European conquest and colonialism were typically slow and incomplete, as the newcomers struggled to assert their authority and implement policies designed to subjugate Native societies and change their beliefs and practices. Indigenous Borderlands covers a wide chronological and geographical span, from the sixteenth-century U.S. South to twentieth-century Bolivia, and gathers leading scholars from the United States and Latin America. Drawing on previously untapped or underutilized primary sources, the original essays in this volume document the resilience and relative success of indigenous communities commonly and wrongly thought to have been subordinated by colonial forces, or even vanished, as well as the persistence of indigenous borderlands within territories claimed by people of European descent. Indeed, numerous indigenous groups remain culturally distinct and politically autonomous. Hemispheric in its scope, unique in its approach, this work significantly recasts our understanding of the important roles played by Native agents in constructing indigenous borderlands in the era of European imperialism. Chapters 5, 6, 8, and 9 are published with generous support from the Americas Research Network.