As a child I would often lie awake at night, praying that through some miracle I would be woken up by people who had come to take me back to my rightful family, and that those I had come to know as my parents would tell me the truth: that I was, in fact, adopted and had been born a girl and they had had a doctor operate on me.’

Growing up as Kgositsile, meaning ‘king’,  Tshiamo Modisane  always knew that she was a girl despite her assigned birth gender. This talented child of a pastor from KwaThema and Daveyton townships near Johannesburg was expected to conform to conservative black culture’s expectations for a male, and would endure censure and even abuse from family, friends, peers and strangers into adulthood. Yet Tshiamo began making courageous choices at the age of five, a journey of both self-doubt and self-belief that culminated in gender-affirmation surgery in her thirties. With sass, faith and baked-in confidence from her family ties to the entertainment world, she successfully transitioned from male to female while navigating a career as an actress, celebrity stylist and Lux’s first gender-non-conforming brand ambassador.

As admirable as it is affirming, this poignant memoir examines past hurts and present truths, and opens up a sorely needed discussion about unconditional acceptance.

Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict, Third Edition, Four Volume Set provides timely and useful information about antagonism and reconciliation in all contexts of public and personal life, from the interpersonal to the global. Building on the highly-regarded 1st and 2nd editions (1999, 2008), and publishing at a time of increasing conflict and violent behavior the world over, this book is an essential reference for students and scholars working in the social scientific study of peace and conflict, criminology, public policy and international relations, as well as for those seeking to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for social justice and change. Covering topics as diverse as Sexual Assault, Terrorism, Arms Control, Nonviolent Movements, Child Abuse, Folklore, and Political Assassinations, the Encyclopedia comprehensively addresses an extensive information area in over 250 transdisciplinary, cross-referenced and authoritatively authored articles.

If this book saves just one person’s life, Leo Prinsloo will be happy.

Leo became an internet sensation after footage of his reaction to an attempted high-value goods-in-transit heist went viral. Stunned by his cool attitude and focused action in a crisis situation, South Africans had an example of what can happen when good people take a stand. With decades of experience in security – first as a policeman, then in the South African Police Service’s Special Task Force, and now providing arms handling and security training in the private sector – Leo has a wealth of knowledge on how to manage life-threatening incidents.

Driven by a desire to empower South Africans and help them claim back their sense of safety, he offers advice for dealing with every risky situation, from how to handle hijackings and road rage, to how to keep your children safe, to the best way to secure your home and business. He also provides comprehensive information about handling firearms and basic first aid.

Leo’s Guide to Not Becoming a Statistic is a guide to living your safest life in South Africa – something which has become increasingly important as our crime statistics continue to rise. Straight-talking and honest – much like Leo himself – it is an easy to use manual that makes keeping safe accessible, with relatable information and easy to implement tips.

Leo says that taking the first step towards securing your safety is the most important, and his book will help you take that step.

The first comprehensive book on alcohol in pre-modern India, An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian History and Religions uses a wide range of sources from the Vedas to the Kamasutra to explore drinks and styles of drinking, as well as rationales for abstinence from the earliest Sanskrit written records through the second millennium CE. Books about the global history of alcohol almost never give attention to India. But a wide range of texts provide plenty of evidence that there was a thriving culture of drinking in ancient and medieval India, from public carousing at the brewery and drinking house to imbibing at festivals and weddings. There was also an elite drinking culture depicted in poetic texts (often in an erotic mode), and medical texts explain how to balance drink and health. By no means everyone drank, however, and there were many sophisticated religious arguments for abstinence. McHugh begins by surveying the intoxicating drinks that were available, including grain beers, palm toddy, and imported wine, detailing the ways people used grains, sugars, fruits, and herbs over the centuries to produce an impressive array of liquors. He presents myths that explain how drink came into being and how it was assigned the ritual and legal status it has in our time. The book also explores Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain moral and legal texts on drink and abstinence, as well as how drink is used in some Tantric rituals, and translates in full a detailed description of the goddess Liquor, Suradevi. Cannabis, betel, soma, and opium are also considered. Finally, McHugh investigates what has happened to these drinks, stories, and theories in the last few centuries. An Unholy Brew brings to life the overlooked, complex world of brewing, drinking, and abstaining in pre-modern India, and offers illuminating case studies on topics such as law and medicine, even providing recipes for some drinks.

Property in Housing unpacks the right of access to adequate housing (section 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996) from a property perspective. The purpose of the volume is to reassess how and to what extent property plays a role in the protection, promotion and fulfilment of this right.

The characteristics of access to ‘adequate’ housing – as articulated by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment 4 – serve as an organising framework for the volume. It is within this framework that we explore how property law can be used and aligned to implement the right of access to adequate housing as a vehicle for large-scale transformative aims.

Themes that are used to explore the vigorous relationship between property and housing include the centrality of the home in housing versus proprietary conflicts; the extent to which property narrates the conception of adequate housing, absent dedicated legislative reform; and the instrumentality of property as a vehicle for transforming the housing sphere.

The property paradox in the context of the housing clause is threefold: the property institution must be curtailed to make way for housing interests; it must be utilised (with legislative measures and sometimes without) to do some of the section 26(1) heavy lifting – for instance, to provide secure tenure or ensure access to services; and it must foster a culture of regulation by way of the constitutional property clause (section 25), to provide the required access to the spaces that we envision adequate, at the costs that we consider reasonable.

The monograph first introduces the authors’ approach, methodologically and theoretically, with reference to the history of property in housing in South Africa, the limited juridical development of our understanding of ‘adequate’ housing in the constitutional dispensation, the way in which housing relates to other constitutional rights, and the characteristics of having adequate housing. The remainder explores each of the internationally recognised characteristics by drawing on property law – security of tenure, services, accessibility, habitability, affordability, location and cultural adequacy – as components of the organising framework to interpret the progressive realisation of the South African housing mandate and respecting its anti-eviction measures. The development of the normative and substantive content of the right of access to adequate housing lies in the space left incomplete by property law. As such, this monograph is a call to action for this development to be achieved in order to foster a democratic South Africa for all who live in it.

Property in Housing will be a valuable resource for subject specialists, researchers, advanced students, practitioners and the judiciary alike.

It's time to meet the real Vikings.

A comb, preserved in a bog, engraved with the earliest traces of a new writing system. A pagan shrine deep beneath a lava field. A note from an angry wife to a husband too long at the tavern. Doodles on birch-bark, made by an imaginative child.

From these tiny embers, Eleanor Barraclough blows back to life the vast, rich and complex world of the Vikings. These are not just the stories of kings, raiders and saga heroes. Here are the lives of ordinary people: the merchants, children, artisans, enslaved people, seers, travellers and storytellers who shaped the medieval Nordic world.

Immerse yourself in the day-to-day lives of an extraordinary culture that spanned centuries and spread from its Scandinavian heartlands to the remote fjords of Greenland, the Arctic wastelands, the waterways and steppes of Eurasia, all the way to the Byzantine Empire and Islamic Caliphate.

Studente sal hierdie boek van groot waarde vind by hulle studie van die Strafprosesreg. Dit maak lesers vertroud met die fundamentele beginsels en waardes onderliggend aan hierdie gebied van die reg en lei hulle stelselmatig deur die proses wat op strafsake van toepassing is.

Professor J P Swanepoel (voormalige staatsadvokaat met beduidende praktiese ondervinding in die strafhowe) en Professor J J Joubert is beide afgetrede lede van die Departement Straf- en Prosesreg van die Universiteit van Suid-Afrika. Professor S S Terblanche (voorheen ’n landdros) is ’n lid van die Departement Straf- en Prosesreg van die Universiteit van Suid-Afrika en het al ruim bygedra tot die literatuur met betrekking tot vonnisoplegging. Professor S E van der Merwe was professor in Publiekreg aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch en is steeds ’n produktiewe skrywer oor hierdie vakgebied. Professor G P Kemp is ’n lid van die Departement Publiekreg van die Universiteit Stellenbosch en sy publikasies oor die strafregspleging verwys gereeld na sy spesialiseringsgebied, die internasionale strafreg. Professor D Ally is Hoof van die Departement Regte van die Tshwane University of Technology en het ’n aantal artikels geskryf met die strafproses as onderwerp, en met besondere verwysing na die impak van die Grondwet op die strafproses. Dr M T Mokoena is Hoof van die Departement Straf- en Prosesreg van die Universiteit van Suid-Afrika en lewer publikasies oor die strafprosesreg, insonderheid borgtog.

In an increasingly globalised world, despite reductions in costs and time, transportation has become even more important as a facilitator of economic and human interaction; this is reflected in technical advances in transportation systems, increasing interest in how transportation interacts with society and the need to provide novel approaches to understanding its impacts. This has become particularly acute with the impact that Covid-19 has had on transportation across the world, at local, national and international levels. Encyclopedia of Transportation, Seven Volume Set - containing almost 600 articles - brings a cross-cutting and integrated approach to all aspects of transportation from a variety of interdisciplinary fields including engineering, operations research, economics, geography and sociology in order to understand the changes taking place. Emphasising the interaction between these different aspects of research, it offers new solutions to modern-day problems related to transportation. Each of its nine sections is based around familiar themes, but brings together the views of experts from different disciplinary perspectives. Each section is edited by a subject expert who has commissioned articles from a range of authors representing different disciplines, different parts of the world and different social perspectives. The nine sections are structured around the following themes: Transport Modes; Freight Transport and Logistics; Transport Safety and Security; Transport Economics; Traffic Management; Transport Modelling and Data Management; Transport Policy and Planning; Transport Psychology; Sustainability and Health Issues in Transportation. Some articles provide a technical introduction to a topic whilst others provide a bridge between topics or a more future-oriented view of new research areas or challenges. The end result is a reference work that offers researchers and practitioners new approaches, new ways of thinking and novel solutions to problems. All-encompassing and expertly authored, this outstanding reference work will be essential reading for all students and researchers interested in transportation and its global impact in what is a very uncertain world.

At the dawn of the 1990s, as the United States celebrated its victory in the Cold War and sole superpower status by waging war on Iraq and proclaiming democratic capitalism as the best possible society, the 1990s underground punk renaissance transformed the punk scene into a site of radical opposition to American empire. Nazi skinheads were ejected from the punk scene; apathetic attitudes were challenged; women, Latino, and LGBTQ participants asserted their identities and perspectives within punk; the scene debated the virtues of maintaining DIY purity versus venturing into the musical mainstream; and punks participated in protest movements from animal rights to stopping the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal to shutting down the 1999 WTO meeting. Punk lyrics offered strident critiques of American empire, from its exploitation of the Third World to its warped social relations. Numerous subgenres of punk proliferated to deliver this critique, such as the blazing hardcore punk of bands like Los Crudos, propagandistic crust-punk/dis-core, grindcore and power violence with tempos over 800 beats per minute, and So-Cal punk with its combination of melody and hardcore. Musical analysis of each of these styles and the expressive efficacy of numerous bands reveals that punk is not merely simplistic three-chord rock music, but a genre that is constantly revolutionizing itself in which nuances of guitar riffs, vocal timbres, drum beats, and song structures are deeply meaningful to its audience, as corroborated by the robust discourse in punk zines.

With his bestseller, Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates established himself as a unique voice in his generation of American authors; a brilliant writer and thinker in the tradition of James Baldwin.

In his keenly anticipated new book, The Message, he explores the urgent question of how our stories – our reporting, imaginative narratives and mythmaking – both expose and distort our realities. Travelling to three resonant sites of conflict, he illuminates how the stories we tell – as well as the ones we don’t – work to shape us.

The first of the book’s three main parts finds Coates on his inaugural trip to Africa – a journey to Dakar, where he finds himself in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and the ghost-haunted country of his imagination. He then takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on the banning of his own work and the deep roots of a false and fiercely protected American mythology – visibly on display in this capital of the confederacy, with statues of segregationists still looming over its public squares. Finally in Palestine, Coates sees with devastating clarity the tragedy that grows in the clash between the stories we tell and reality on the ground.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world – and our own souls – and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.

b>'ROBERT FISK HAS BEEN REPORTING FROM THE MIDDLE EAST WITH INCOMPARABLE DEPTH AND UNDERSTANDING…AND EXTRAORDINARY COURAGE' NOAM CHOMSKY

In this final work from renowned journalist Robert Fisk, he picks up reporting on the Middle East where his internationally bestselling The Great War of Civilisation left off.

From the Arab uprisings and the Syrian civil war to Israel’s conflicts with Palestine and Lebanon, Fisk condemns the West’s ongoing hypocrisy and interference while revealing the horrific truth of life on the ground. Unafraid to criticise authority and unpick complex truths, hecreates a compelling narrative of passionate and engaging journalism, historical analysis and eyewitness reporting.

With a Postscript by Nelofer Pazira-Fisk and a foreword by Patrick Cockburn, Night of Power delivers an essential and prophetic account of the last twenty years, which exposes the inescapable consequences of colonial oppression and violence in the Middle East.

‘This is a masterly work by a unique and gifted “historian of the present”, who was unafraid to criticise authority while revealing the horrific realities of life and death on the ground’ Conor O’Clery, Irish Times

‘Every sentence of Robert Fisk radiates his loathe of wars and the inevitable dehumanization they produce, which makes his (sadly) last book an everlasting warning, beyond its value as a meticulous historical recount and analysis of today's events’ Amira Hass, journalist, Haaretz

'Fisk's reporting is clear-eyed and unflinching, a model for what journalists should aspire to practice in their ever more important and widely threatened craft' Anthony Arnove, editor, Iraq Under Siege and author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal

‘I was at the funeral of a friend of mine, in Kilternan cemetery … I came across Robert Fisk’s grave. Someone has to bear witness to the unspeakable, and he did it, whatever the cost to himself’ Neil Jordan, film director and writer