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Books > Humanities > History
During the past several decades, the fetus has been diversely represented in political debates, medical textbooks and journals, personal memoirs and autobiographies, museum exhibits and mass media, and civil and criminal law. Ourselves Unborn argues that the meanings people attribute to the fetus are not based simply on biological fact or theological truth, but are in fact strongly influenced by competing definitions of personhood and identity, beliefs about knowledge and authority, and assumptions about gender roles and sexuality. In addition, these meanings can be shaped by dramatic historical change: over the course of the twentieth century, medical and technological changes made fetal development more comprehensible, while political and social changes made the fetus a subject of public controversy. Moreover, since the late nineteenth century, questions about how fetal life develops and should be valued have frequently intersected with debates about the authority of science and religion, and the relationship between the individual and society. In examining the contested history of fetal meanings, Sara Dubow brings a fresh perspective to these vital debates.
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was one of nineteenth-century America's leading theologians, owing in part to a lengthy teaching career, voluminous writings, and a faculty post at one of the nation's most influential schools, Princeton Theological Seminary. Surprisingly, the only biography of this towering figure was written by his son, just two years after his death. Paul Gutjahr's book, therefore, is the first modern critical biography of a man some have called the Pope of Presbyterianism...Hodge's legacy is especially important to American Presbyterians. His brand of theological conservatism became vital in the 1920s, as Princeton Seminary saw itself, and its denomination, split. The conservative wing held unswervingly to the Old School tradition championed by Hodge, and ultimately founded the breakaway Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The views that Hodge developed, refined, and propagated helped shape many of the central traditions of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American evangelicalism. Hodge helped establish a profound reliance on the Bible among evangelicals, and he became one of the nation's most vocal proponents of biblical inerrancy. Gutjahr's study reveals the exceptional depth, breadth, and longevity of Hodge's theological influence and illuminates the varied and complex nature of conservative American Protestantism.
The topic of certitude is much debated today. On one side,
commentators such as Charles Krauthammer urge us to achieve "moral
clarity." On the other, those like George Will contend that the
greatest present threat to civilization is an excess of certitude.
To address this uncomfortable debate, Susan Schreiner turns to the
intellectuals of early modern Europe, a period when thought was
still fluid and had not yet been reified into the form of
rationality demanded by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
'An unusual and compelling insight into Jewish history... sheer detail and breadth of scale' BBC History Magazine This newly revised and updated edition of Martin Gilbert's Atlas of Jewish History spans over four thousand years of history in 154 maps, presenting a vivid picture of a fascinating people and the trials and tribulations which have haunted their story. The themes covered include:
This new edition is also updated to include maps showing Jewish museums in the United States and Canada, and Europe, as well as American conservation efforts abroad. Other topics covered in this revised edition include Jewish educational outreach projects in various parts of the world, and Jews living under Muslim rule. Forty years on from its first publication, this book is still an indispensible guide to Jewish history.
Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis that pronounces two men as brothers. It has its origin as a spiritual blessing in the monastic world of late antiquity, and it becomes a popular social networking strategy among lay people from the ninth century onwards, even finding application in recent times. Located at the intersection of religious and social history, brother-making exemplifies how social practice can become ritualized and subsequently subjected to attempts of ecclesiastical and legal control. Wide-ranging in its use of sources, from a complete census of the manuscripts containing the ritual of adelphopoiesis to the literature and archaeology of early monasticism, and from the works of hagiographers, historiographers, and legal experts in Byzantium to comparative material in the Latin West and the Slavic world, this book is the first exhaustive treatment of the phenomenon.
The phrase "popular music revolution" may instantly bring to mind
such twentieth-century musical movements as jazz and rock 'n' roll.
In Sounds of the Metropolis, however, Derek Scott argues that the
first popular music revolution actually occurred in the nineteenth
century, illustrating how a distinct group of popular styles first
began to assert their independence and values. London, New York,
Paris, and Vienna feature prominently as cities in which the
challenge to the classical tradition was strongest, and in which
original and influential forms of popular music arose, from
Viennese waltz and polka to vaudeville and cabaret.
From antiquity until the nineteenth century, there have been two types of state: macro-states, each dotted with a number of cities, and regions broken up into city-states, each consisting of an urban centre and its hinterland. A region settled with interacting city-states constituted a city-state culture and Polis opens with a description of the concepts of city, state, city-state, and city-state culture, and a survey of the 37 city-state cultures so far identified. Mogens Herman Hansen provides a thoroughly accessible introduction to the polis (plural: poleis), or ancient Greek city-state, which represents by far the largest of all city-state cultures. He addresses such topics as the emergence of the polis, its size and population, and its political organization, ranging from famous poleis such as Athens and Sparta through more than 1,000 known examples.
The city of Constantinople was named New Rome or Second Rome very
soon after its foundation in AD 324; over the next two hundred
years it replaced the original Rome as the greatest city of the
Mediterranean. In this unified essay collection, prominent
international scholars examine the changing roles and perceptions
of Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity from a range of
different disciplines and scholarly perspectives. The seventeen
chapters cover both the comparative development and the shifting
status of the two cities. Developments in politics and urbanism are
considered, along with the cities' changing relationships with
imperial power, the church, and each other, and their evolving
representations in both texts and images. These studies present
important revisionist arguments and new interpretations of
significant texts and events. This comparative perspective allows
the neglected subject of the relationship between the two Romes to
come into focus while avoiding the teleological distortions common
in much past scholarship.
It was a dark and stormy night in 1991 when a magician took over the bridge of the Oceanos, an ageing passenger liner travelling up the Wild Coast. The captain was nowhere to be found. The ship started taking in water in the auxiliary engine room just a few hours after it had set sail from East London. Panicking, the crew scrambled into the lifeboats, leaving passengers largely to fend for themselves. The ship’s entertainment staff bravely started to calm passengers and coordinated the abandon-ship operation and rescue effort. The story of this dramatic rescue, which made headlines across the world, is told from the perspective of all the key role players and describes their extraordinary heroism.
A key study on writer and activist Keorapetse Kgositsile that presents a new approach to studying the radicalism of Africa and its diaspora, and makes a major contribution to the histories of Black lives, gender studies, jazz studies, politics, and creativity. The cultural configurations of the Black Atlantic cannot be fully understood without recognising the significant presence of writers and artists from the African continent itself. Among the most influential was South African poet laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile, or Bra Willie, as he was affectionately known. Yet, until now, there has been no full-length study of his work. Uhuru Portia Phalafala’s wide-ranging book reveals the foundational influence of Kgositsile’s mother and grandmother on his craft and unveils the importance of Tswana oral andaural traditions, indigenous knowledge systems, and cosmologies he carried with him into and after exile. It illuminates a southern African modernity that was strongly gendered and expressed robust anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-apartheid, and civil rights struggles. Using the original concept of ‘elsewhere’, the author maps the sources of Kgositsile’s transformative verse, which in turn generated ‘poetics of possibility’ for his contemporaries in the Black Arts and Black Power Movements and beyond - among them Maya Angelou, Larry Neal, Gwendolyn Brooks, Tom Dent, members of The Last Poets, Otabenga Jones & Associates, and rapper Earl Sweatshirt – who all looked to his work to model their identities, cultural movements and radical traditions.
In 1940 few Americans had heard of mutual funds. Today U.S. mutual funds are the largest financial industry in the world, with over 88 million shareholders and over $11 trillion in assets. Cottage Industry to Financial Giant describes the developments that have produced mutual funds' long history of success. Among these developments are: * formation of the first mutual funds in the roaring 20s * how the 1929 stock market crash, a disaster for most financial institutions, spurred the growth of mutual funds * establishment in 1934, over FDR's objection, of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that regulates mutual funds * enactment of the Revenue Act of 1936, the tax law that saved mutual funds from extinction * passage of the Investment Company Act of 1940, the "constitution" of the mutual fund industry * the creation in 1972 of money market funds, which totally changed the mutual fund industry and the entire U.S. financial system *enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which created Individual Retirement Accounts * the accidental development of 401(k) plans, which have revolutionized the way Americans save for retirement * the 2003 trading abuses, the greatest scandal ever in the history of the mutual fund industry Many events have never been reported before. Others have been discussed in works on other subjects such as retirement plans. Thus, this is first book that pulls together the many strands of mutual funds' unique history. Moreover, the author was personally involved in developments over the past forty years, and much of the book is a personal narrative regarding the people and events that have produced mutual funds' success.
This volume offers a reconstruction of the court culture of the
taifa kings of al-Andalus (11th century A.D.), using both visual
and textual evidence. A focus of particular attention is the court
of the Ban? H?d at Zaragoza, and that dynasty's palace, the
Aljaferma. Principle written sources are not histories and
chronicles, but the untranslated poetic anthologies of al-?imyar?
and al-Fat? ibn Kh?q?n.
From the days of early tribes that hunted and fished to the tourists who later relaxed on the beaches, St. Simons Island has been part of the changing landscape of Georgia's coast. When Gen. James E. Oglethorpe established Fort Frederica to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the threat of Spain, it was, for a short time, a vibrant hub of British military operations. During the latter part of the 1700s, a plantation society thrived on the island until the outbreak of the War Between the States. Never returning to an agricultural community, by 1870 St. Simons re-established itself with the development of a booming timber industry. And by the 1870s, the pleasant climate and proximity to the sea drew visitors to St. Simons as a year-round resort. Although the causeway had brought large numbers of summer people to the island, St. Simons remained a sleepy little place with only a few hundred permanent residents until 1941.
Two distinct communities which share equally vibrant histories, the twin cities of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor possess a rich heritage rooted in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and tourism. Through more than 200 photographs, this book documents the cities' development from the time when pioneers first struggled to create a community in the wilderness. It pays tribute to the men and women who labored to establish farms and industries, and celebrates the delightful beaches and amusement parks-such as the House of David and Silver Beach-that have brought joy to generations of residents and visitors alike.
'The thing that haunts me most to this day is that blokes were dying and I could do bugger all about it - do you look after the bloke who you know is going to die or the bloke who's got a chance?' - Australian ex-POW doctor, 1999 During World War II, 22 000 Australian military personnel became prisoners of war under the Japanese military. Over three and a half years, 8000 died in captivity, in desperate conditions of forced labour, disease and starvation. Many of those who returned home after the war attributed their survival to the 106 Australian medical officers imprisoned alongside them. These doctors varied in age, background and experience, but they were united in their unfailing dedication to keeping as many of the men alive as possible. This is the story of those 106 doctors - their compassion, bravery and ingenuity - and their efforts in bringing back the 14 000 survivors. 'You are unfortunate in being prisoners of a country whose living standards are much lower than yours. You will often consider yourselves mistreated, while we think of you as being treated well.' - Japanese officer to Australian POWs, 1943
We Shall Suffer There chronicles the experiences of Hong Kong's Prisoners of War and civilian internees from their capture by the Japanese in December 1941, to -- for those fortunate or resourceful enough to survive -- liberation, rescue, and repatriation.
By the middle years of the nineteenth century, there seem to have been few places on the globe where British and French commercial, colonial, or religious interests could not clash; and thanks to the extent and flexibility of their sea power the two rivals were able to support these interests with naval force virtually wherever there was enough water to float a warship. The Crimean War brought the British and French navies, the most technologically advanced in the world, into alliance after many years of common hostility. It was a period of enormous technological innovation and development, witnessing the transition from sail to screw, and the birth of the ironclad. In this extensively researched and thorough study, C. I. Hamilton traces the technological development of both British and French navies and analyses the political and diplomatic policies which formed the backdrop to the naval history of the period 1840-1870. Dr Hamilton compares the two navies in a variety of important ways: their recruitment and training systems, dockyard facilities, naval administrations, strategy and tactics. His book makes a noteworthy contribution both to naval history and to our knowledge of Anglo-French relations in the nineteenth century.
For jazz historians, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings mark the first revolution in the history of a music riven by upheaval. Yet few traces of this revolution can be found in the historical record of the late 1920s, when the records were made. Even black newspapers covered Armstrong as just one name among many, and descriptions of his playing, while laudatory, bear little resemblance to those of today. For this reason, the perspective of Armstrong's first listeners is usually regarded as inadequate, as if they had missed the true significance of his music. This attitude overlooks the possibility that those early listeners might have heard something valuable on its own terms, something we ourselves have lost. If we could somehow recapture their perspective-without abandoning our own-how might it change our understanding of these seminal recordings? In Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings, Harker selects seven exceptional records to study at length: "Cornet Chop Suey," "Big Butter and Egg Man," "Potato Head Blues," "S.O.L. Blues"/"Gully Low Blues," "Savoy Blues," and "West End Blues." The world of vaudeville and show business provide crucial context, revealing how the demands of making a living in a competitive environment could catalyze Armstrong's unique artistic gifts. Technical achievements such as virtuosity, structural coherence, harmonic improvisation, and high-register playing are all shown to have a basis in the workaday requirements of Armstrong's profession. Invoking a breadth of influences ranging from New Orleans clarinet style to Guy Lombardo, and from tap dancing to classical music, this book offers bold insights, fresh anecdotes, and, ultimately, a new interpretation of Louis Armstrong and his most influential body of recordings.
The traditional legal textbooks aim to give students of the law a synoptic overview of the present state of law in a particular area. In doing so, most books offer only a cursory assessment of how the law came to be the way it is and what economic, political and social forces were brought to bear during its evolution. This study seeks to offer students a different kind of text, which takes as its starting point the law as it was in 1945. Guiding the student through four-and-a-half decades of almost continuous legislative activity, Davies and Freedland show how the law was created, and why it looks as it does today. The history explored is from 1945 to 1990, but not including the period since Mr Major succeeded Mrs Thatcher as Prime Minister. Paul Davies is also the editor of the "Industrial Law Journal". Mark Freedland has also written "The Contract of Employment" and "Labour Law, Cases and Materials" (with Paul Davies).
This is the first comprehensive, multi-author survey of German
history that features cutting-edge syntheses of major topics by an
international team of leading scholars. Emphasizing demographic,
economic, and political history, this Handbook places German
history in a denser transnational context than any other general
history of Germany. It underscores the centrality of war to the
unfolding of German history, and shows how it dramatically affected
the development of German nationalism and the structure of German
politics. It also reaches out to scholars and students beyond the
field of history with detailed and cutting-edge chapters on
religious history and on literary history, as well as to
contemporary observers, with reflections on Germany and the
European Union, and on 'multi-cultural Germany.'
Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450 was one of the most important popular uprisings to take place in England during the Middle Ages. It began as an orchestrated demonstration of political protest by the inhabitants of south-eastern England against the corruption, mismanagement, and oppression of Henry VI's government. When no assurance of any remedy came from the king the rising soon collapsed into violence. This is the first full-length study of Cade's revolt to be published this century. I. M. W. Harvey charts the course of the rebellion and its associated troubles during the early 1450s, and explores the nature of the society which gave rise to these upheavals. She makes full use of the available contemporary evidence, as well as the work of subsequent historians, in order to uncover the identities of the rebels, explain their actions, assess their relations with the magnates, and to examine their achievements. Dr Harvey's lucid and scholarly analysis of Jack Cade's rebellion helps make intelligible the eventual collapse of Henry VI's reign into the Wars of the Roses.
The civil wars that brought down the Roman Republic were fought on more than battlefields. Armed gangs infested the Italian countryside, in the city of Rome mansions were besieged, and bounty-hunters searched the streets for "public enemies." Among the astonishing stories to survive from these years is that of a young woman whose parents were killed, on the eve of her wedding, in the violence engulfing Italy. While her future husband fought overseas, she staved off a run on her father's estate. Despite an acute currency shortage, she raised money to help her fiance in exile. And when several years later, her husband, back in Rome, was declared an outlaw, she successfully hid him, worked for his pardon, and joined other Roman women in staging a public protest. The wife's tale is known only because her husband had inscribed on large slabs of marble the elaborate eulogy he gave at her funeral. Though no name is given on the inscriptions, starting as early as the seventeenth century, scholars saw saw similarities between the contents of the inscription and the story, preserved in literary sources, of one Turia, the wife of Quintus Lucretius. Although the identification remains uncertain, and in spite of the other substantial gaps in the text of the speech, the "Funeral Speech for Turia" (Laudatio Turiae), as it is still conventionally called, offers an extraordinary window into the life of a high-ranking woman at a critical moment of Roman history. In this book Josiah Osgood reconstructs the wife's life more fully than it has been before by bringing in alongside the eulogy stories of other Roman women who also contributed to their families' survival while working to end civil war. He shows too how Turia's story sheds rare light on the more hidden problems of everyday life for Romans, including a high number of childless marriages. Written with a general audience in mind, Turia: A Roman Woman's Civil War will appeal to those interested in Roman history as well as war, and the ways that war upsets society's power structures. Not only does the study come to terms with the distinctive experience of a larger group of Roman women, including the prudence they had to show to succeed , but also introduces readers to an extraordinary tribute to married love which, though from another world, speaks to us today. |
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