The Cambridge History of Religion in the Classical World provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the religions of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world in the third millennium BCE to the fourth century BCE.

The Weimar period, which extended from 1919 to 1933, was a time of political violence, economic crisis, generational and gender tension, and cultural experiment and change in Germany. Despite these major issues, the Republic is often treated only as a preface to the study of the rise of Fascism. This text seeks to restore the balance, exploring the Weimar period in its own right. Amongst the topics discussed are: Weimar as the avant-garde artistic centre of Europe in the 1920s when many cultural figures were politically engaged on both sides of the political spectrum; Weimar as a German state racked by conflict over questions of morality versus ideas of greater sexual freedom for women, homosexual rights, abortion and birth control; the struggle to win the hearts and minds of German youth, a struggle won decisively by the right-wing; and Weimar as the first German state in which women played a significant political role. -- .

In 2003 the role of government in the regulation of cannabis is as hotly debated as it was a century ago. In this lively study James Mills explores the historical background of cannabis legislation, arguing that the drive towards prohibition grew out of the politics of empire rather than scientific or rational assessment of the drug's use and effects.

This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the term, and the historical periodisation which it incorporates, have been questioned. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750 provides an account of the development of the subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an integrated and comprehensive survey of present knowledge, together with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It aims both to interrogate the notion of 'early modernity' itself and to survey early modern Europe as an established field of study. The overriding aim will be to establish that 'early modern' is not simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive integrity. Volume I examines 'Peoples and Place', assessing structural factors such as climate, printing and the revolution in information, social and economic developments, and religion, including chapters on Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam.

In the decade following the first Gulf War, most observers regarded it as an exemplary effort by the international community to lawfully and forcefully hold a regional aggressor in check. Interpretations have changed with the times. The Gulf War led to the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia, an important contributing cause of the 9/11 attacks. The war also led to a long obsession with Saddam Hussein that culminated in a second, far longer, American-led war with Iraq. In Into the Desert, Jeffrey Engel has gathered an all-star cast of contributors to reevaluate the first Gulf War: Michael Gordon of the New York Times; Sir Lawrence Freedman, former foreign policy advisor to Tony Blair; Ambassador Ryan Crocker; Middle East specialist Shibley Telhami; and Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations. Engel and his contributors examine the war's origins, the war itself, and its long-term impact on international relations. All told, Into the Desert offers an astute reassessment of one of the most momentous events in the last quarter century.

Part of the Pop Goes the Decade series, this book looks at one of the most memorable decades of the 20th century, highlighting pop culture areas such as film, television, sports, technology, advertising, fashion, and art. All in the Family. Barry Manilow, Donna Summer, and Olivia Newton-John; Styx, Led Zeppelin, and The Jackson Five. Jaws, Rocky, The Exorcist, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Pop Goes the Decade: The Seventies takes a sweeping look at all of the cultural events and developments that made the 1970s a highly memorable era of change and new thinking. This book explores the cultural and social framework of the 1970s, focusing on pop culture areas that include film, television, sports, technological innovations, clothing, and art. A timeline highlights significant cultural moments, and a "controversies in pop culture" section explores the pop culture items and moments of the 1970s that shocked the public and challenged underlying social mores. The book also includes a "Game Changers" section that identifies the public figures and celebrities who had the largest influence during the decade, a technology section that explains how media, news, and culture were shared, and a "Legacy" section that identifies concepts and events from the 1970s that still affect Americans today.

Before he was a civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a man of the church. His father was a pastor, and much of young Martin's time was spent in Baptist churches. He went on to seminary and received a Ph.D. in theology. In 1953, he took over leadership of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta. The church was his home. But, as he began working for civil rights, King became a fierce critic of the churches, both black and white. He railed against white Christian leaders who urged him to be patient in the struggle-or even opposed civil rights altogether. And, while the black church was the platform from which King launched the struggle for civil rights, he was deeply ambivalent toward the church as an institution, and saw it as in constant need of reform. In this book, Lewis Baldwin explores King's complex relationship with the Christian church, from his days growing up at Ebenezer Baptist, to his work as a pastor, to his battles with American churches over civil rights, to his vision for the global church. King, Baldwin argues, had a robust and multifaceted view of the nature and purpose of the church that serves as a model for the church in the 21st century.

Based upon a wealth of primary sources and a life of research in the field, this history provides a fascinating discussion of the development of the House of Commons during the early years of Stuart rule. Mr. Notestein was completing work on the manuscript at his death in 1969. The basic issues characterizing the confrontations between James I and the Commons are examined, including the matters of royal prerogatives that were increasingly questioned by the Commons in the period 1604-1610. To these are added the awkward problems attendant upon the prospective Union of England and Scotland under a monarch of Scottish origins. Mr. Notestein makes it clear that the Commons, following the age of Elizabeth, was consciously searching out a new sense of itself and its powers; neither James nor the House of Lords was able to appreciate fully the trends accompanying the Commons' quest for a broadened role in national affairs. Mr. Notestein's work is a superb narrative constantly enriched by in-depth research and enlivened by an impressive mixture of analytical commentary and personalized speculation.

Richard Brooks examines the strategic importance of the Naval Brigades and their human side from personal testimonies. They were introduced by the Royal Navy as a land warfare force to help the regular British Army during the the 19th century.

Up until the end of World War II, academe in central Europe showed little interest in American culture. However, this rapidly changed as American culture became an increasingly inescapable part of everyday life in the postwar period. Drawing on a series of transatlantic encounters in the years following 1945, George Blaustein chronicles how issues like race, gender, and empire, as they relate to the United States, became areas of intense interest among members of the European academy. A major part of Blaustein's book revolves around the exchange of ideas that took place at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, founded in 1947. Through the period of occupation, the seminar hosted a who's-who of American and European intellectual life: figures like F. O. Matthiessen, Margaret Mead, Alfred Kazin, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Alain Locke, and John Hope Franklin. In four concise chapters, Nightmare Envy and Other Stories explores how the ruin of postwar Europe led writers and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic to understand America in new ways. Nightmare Envy and Other Stories will interest scholars in the fields of American Studies, postwar intellectual history, and cultural diplomacy.

Written by twelve expert historians, this well-illustrated account of the great confrontations of medieval Europe (c.700-1500) examines major developments in the methods of warfare from the time of Charlemagne through to the end of the Crusades. The result is a rich and fascinating history of a culture steeped in martial ideas, whose aristocrats were also warriors in a society organized by its desire to wage war.

Anne Murphy offers a groundbreaking exploration of the material aspects of Sikh identity, showing how material objects, as well as holy sites, and texts, embody and represent the Sikh community as an evolving historical and social construction. Widening traditional scholarly emphasis on holy sites and texts alone to include consideration of iconic objects, such as garments and weaponry, Murphy moves further and examines the parallel relationships among sites, texts, and objects. She reveals that objects have played dramatically different roles across regimes-signifers of authority in one, mere possessions in another-and like Sikh texts, which have long been a resource for the construction of Sikh identity, material objects have served as a means of imagining and representing the past. Murphy's deft and nuanced study of the complex role objects have played and continue to play in Sikh history and memory will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Sikh history and culture.

The essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of distinguished scholars, combine to explore the way in which fascism is understood by contemporary scholarship, as well as pointing to areas of continuing dispute and discussion.
From a focus on Italy as, chronologically at least, the 'first Fascist nation', the contributors cover a wide range of countries, from Nazi Germany and the comparison with Soviet Communism to fascism in Yugoslavia and its successor states. The book also examines the roots of fascism before 1914 and its survival, whether in practice or in memory, after 1945. The analysis looks at both fascist ideas and practice, and at the often uneasy relationship between the two.
The book is not designed to provide any final answers to the fascist problem and no quick definition emerges from its pages. Readers will rather find there historical debate. On appropriate occasions, the authors disagree with each other and have not been forced into any artificial "consensus," offering readers the chance to engage with the debates over a phenomenon that, more than any other single factor, led humankind into the catastrophe of the Second World War.

This book explains in detail the most ancient of all spiritual paths called, The Way of the Medicine Wheel. It describes every aspect of the powerful sacred ceremony performed to construct a medicine wheel, and how it can be used to merge the physical and spiritual realms together in our daily lives. The nineteen Teaching Sessions presented in this book also explain the specifi c steps involved in conducting many ancient ceremonies that, collectively, can create a personal lifestyle that produces peace, harmony, and balance within the Sacred Circle of Life. The words to the songs associated with those ceremonies are printed in the Appendix. In addition, detailed information is given about some of the major Native American prophecies concerning the coming Earth Changes-what most Native Americans call "The Time of Great Cleansing". The reader will also learn how this ancient sacred path can help people properly prepare themselves for the devastating Earth Changes which are about to engulf us as we rapidly approach the near horizon of time.

The people who lived at Brant's Ford, or in the countryside around it, have made a considerable contribution to Canadian history. Since Joseph Brant first established himself and the Indians of the Six Nations, there in 1784, the region has been affected by, and has reacted to, great events in Europe and North America, and in the process has grown from a precarious pioneer settlement to a well-developed agricultural and industrial society. This book is an account of nearly two centuries of economic and social change in the Brant area. The author records the effects of these changes on Indian and non-Indian alike and relates them to developments in Ontario and the rest of Canada. He gives much attention to such notables as Joseph Brant himself, Hiram 'King' Capron (the founder of the town of Paris), George Brown, the politician-turned-farmer, and his 'agricultural factory', Alexander Graham Bell, Pauline Johnson, Sara Jeannette Duncan, and to such industrial and philanthropic families as the Veritys and the Cockshutts. This book is published under the auspices of the Ontario Historical Society. It is one that everyone interested in Canadian history will want to read.

The Chinese and the Romans created the largest empires of the ancient world. Separated by thousands of miles of steppe, mountains and sea, these powerful states developed independently and with very limited awareness of each other's existence. This parallel process of state formation served as a massive natural experiment in social evolution that provides unique insight into the complexities of historical causation. Comparisons between the two empires shed new light on the factors that led to particular outcomes and help us understand similarities and differences in ancient state formation. The explicitly comparative perspective adopted in this volume opens up a dialogue between scholars from different areas of specialization, encouraging them to address big questions about the nature of imperial rule. In a series of interlocking case studies, leading experts of early China and the ancient Mediterranean explore the relationship between rulers and elite groups, the organization and funding of government, and the ways in which urban development reflected the interplay between state power and communal civic institutions. Bureaucratization, famously associated with Qin and Han China but long less prominent in the Roman world, receives special attention as an index of the ambitions and capabilities of kings and emperors. The volume concludes with a look at the preconditions for the emergence of divine rulership. Taken together, these pioneering contributions lay the foundations for a systematic comparative history of early empires.