Gustav Stresemann was the exceptional German political figure of his time. His early death in 1929 has long been viewed as the beginning of the end for the Weimar Republic and the opening through which Hitler was able to come to power. Stresemann's personality and talents as a politican held together the coalition that provided the only serious opposition to the Nazi party in the 1920s. On his death this opposition collapsed and along with it the only chance of establishing a stable and democratic Germany at the heart of a stable Europe.

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.

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.

Mental Maps in the Era of Detente and the End of the Cold War recreates the way in which the revolutionary changes of the last phase of the Cold War were perceived by fifteen of its leading figures in the West, East and developing world.

In Jesuit Survival and Restoration leading scholars from around the world discuss the most dramatic event in the Society of Jesus's history. The order was suppressed by papal command in 1773 and for the next forty-one years ex-Jesuits endeavoured to keep the Ignatian spirit alive and worked towards the order's restoration. When this goal was achieved in 1814 the Society entered one of its most dynamic but troubled eras. The contributions in the volume trace this story in a global perspective, looking at developments in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2018

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION

'Extraordinary... A devastating but essential read.' Kevin Powers, bestselling author and National Book Award finalist for The Yellow Birds

'Gripping, darkly humorous...profound.' Phil Klay, bestselling author and National Book Award winner for Redeployment

From the rubble-strewn streets of US-occupied Baghdad, the scavenger Hadi collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and give them a proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realises he has created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive – first from the guilty, and then from anyone who crosses its path.

An extraordinary achievement, Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humour the surreal reality of a city at war.

This volume, by a distinguished group of historians and political scientists, makes an original contribution to the history of democracy in modern Europe. It examines the history of liberalism, anti-Semitism, and democracy and the strengths and weaknesses of different democratic regimes and their evolution since the Second World War.

This volume explores the conceptualization and construction of sacred space in a wide variety of faith traditions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the religions of Japan. It deploys the notion of "layered landscapes" in order to trace the accretions of praxis and belief, the tensions between old and new devotional patterns, and the imposition of new religious ideas and behaviors on pre-existing religious landscapes in a series of carefully chosen locales: Cuzco, Edo, Geneva, Granada, Herat, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Kanchipuram, Paris, Philadelphia, Prague, and Rome. Some chapters hone in on the process of imposing novel religious beliefs, while others focus on how vestiges of displaced faiths endured. The intersection of sacred landscapes with political power, the world of ritual, and the expression of broader cultural and social identity are also examined. Crucially, the volume reveals that the creation of sacred space frequently involved more than religious buildings and was a work of historical imagination and textual expression. While a book of contrasts as much as comparisons, the volume demonstrates that vital questions about the location of the sacred and its reification in the landscape were posed by religious believers across the early-modern world.

Punk rock culture in a preeminently average town Synonymous with American mediocrity, Peoria was fertile ground for the boredom- and anger-fueled fury of punk rock. Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett explore the do-it-yourself scene built by Peoria punks, performers, and scenesters in the 1980s and 1990s. From fanzines to indie record shops to renting the VFW hall for an all-ages show, Peoria's punk culture reflected the movement elsewhere, but the city's conservatism and industrial decline offered a richer-than-usual target environment for rebellion. Eyewitness accounts take readers into hangouts and long-lost venues, while interviews with the people who were there trace the ever-changing scene and varied fortunes of local legends like Caustic Defiance, Dollface, and Planes Mistaken for Stars. What emerges is a sympathetic portrait of a youth culture in search of entertainment but just as hungry for community—the shared sense of otherness that, even for one night only, could unite outsiders and discontents under the banner of music.A raucous look at a small-city underground, Punks in Peoria takes readers off the beaten track to reveal the punk rock life as lived in Anytown, U.S.A.

A lifetime ago, Fakhreddin had been an idealistic young lawyer, seeking to fight corruption from his modest quarter of Cairo. Then, a botched attempt on his life forced him to flee the country, propelling him on a wild journey that would lead to Afghanistan's jihadi training camps. He was transformed into a trained killer, and never once lost sight of his goal: revenge. But did he lose sight of the only person that really mattered to him, his son, Omar? At the very core of Fakhreddin's bold, nail-biting exploits are his broken family, and broken heart, and his search for redemption and a way home.

This volume explores the conceptualization and construction of sacred space in a wide variety of faith traditions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the religions of Japan. It deploys the notion of "layered landscapes" in order to trace the accretions of praxis and belief, the tensions between old and new devotional patterns, and the imposition of new religious ideas and behaviors on pre-existing religious landscapes in a series of carefully chosen locales: Cuzco, Edo, Geneva, Granada, Herat, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Kanchipuram, Paris, Philadelphia, Prague, and Rome. Some chapters hone in on the process of imposing novel religious beliefs, while others focus on how vestiges of displaced faiths endured. The intersection of sacred landscapes with political power, the world of ritual, and the expression of broader cultural and social identity are also examined. Crucially, the volume reveals that the creation of sacred space frequently involved more than religious buildings and was a work of historical imagination and textual expression. While a book of contrasts as much as comparisons, the volume demonstrates that vital questions about the location of the sacred and its reification in the landscape were posed by religious believers across the early-modern world.

The Jesuits tells the fascinating, sprawling story of the most provocative and prodigious religious order in Roman Catholic history Over the course of five centuries, members of the Society of Jesus have travelled as missionaries to every corner of the globe, founding haciendas in Mexico, exploring the Mississippi and Amazon rivers and serving Chinese emperors as map-makers, painters and astronomers. These far-flung travels helped to establish their influence on the political and social history of countless countries over hundreds of years. The Jesuits accomplishments were wide-ranging: as well as the predictable roll call of saints and martyrs, the Society can also lay claim to the thirty-five craters on the moon named for Jesuit scientists. Jesuits have been pilloried and idolised on a scale unknown to members of any other religious order - they have died the most horrible deaths and done the most outlandish deeds. Whether they were loved or loathed, the dramatic impact of the Society of Jesus could never be ignored. It disrupted the certainties and hierarchies of the Roman Catholic Church, transformed the intellectual, cultural and spiritual landscapes of Europe, Asia and the Americas, and staked its claim as a potent force in the classroom, the pulpit and the loftiest bastions of political power. Though facing fresh crises and controversies, today's Jesuits are still active in the worlds of science and politics, education and devotion, playing their part in the complex transformations of the modern Catholic church. Jonathan Wright's fascinating study draws the reader into a gripping tale of myth and counter-myth, of adoration and banishment, of extraordinary achievements and spectacular failures. Contained within the Jesuits' rise, fall and rebirth are the successive chapters of Discovery, Reformation, Enlightenment and Revolution that have shaped our modern world.

Sinan Antoon returns to the Iraq war in a poetic and provocative tribute to reclaiming memory Widely-celebrated author Sinan Antoon's fourth and most sophisticated novel follows Nameer, a young Iraqi scholar earning his doctorate at Harvard, who is hired by filmmakers to help document the devastation of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the excursion, Nameer ventures to al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, famed for its bookshops, and encounters Wadood, an eccentric bookseller who is trying to catalogue everything destroyed by war, from objects, buildings, books and manuscripts, flora and fauna, to humans. Entrusted with the catalogue and obsessed with Wadood's project, Nameer finds life in New York movingly intertwined with fragments from his homeland's past and its present-destroyed letters, verses, epigraphs, and anecdotes-in this stylistically ambitious panorama of the wreckage of war and the power of memory.

From legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, Blasim’s stories blend the fantastic with the everyday, the surreal with the all-too-real. Taking his cues from Kafka, his prose shines a dazzling light into the dark absurdities of Iraq’s recent past and the torments of its countless refugees. The subject of this, his second collection, is primarily trauma and the curious strategies human beings adopt to process it (including, of course, fiction). The result is a masterclass in metaphor – a new kind of story-telling, forged in the crucible of war, and just as shocking.

A brilliant collection of fictions in the vein of Roald Dahl, Etgar Keret and Amy Hempel. These are stories of what the world looks like from a child's pure but sometimes vengeful or muddled perspective. These are stories of life in a war zone, life peppered by surreal mistakes, tragic accidents and painful encounters. These are stories of fantasist matadors, lost limbs and perplexed voyeurs. This is a collection about sex, death and the all-important skill of making life into a joke. These are unexpected stories by a very fresh voice. These stories are unforgettable.

Elevated homocysteine is a powerful, independent risk factor in more than 100 major medical conditions, including heart disease, strokes, and Alzheimer's disease. The authors discuss factors that contribute to high homocysteine, tell how to detect it if it's too high, and explain how to dramatically lower it.

In his latest exploration of the Egyptian malaise, Galal Amin first looks at the events of the months preceding the Revolution of 25 January 2011, pointing out the most important factors behind popular discontent. He then follows the ups and downs (mainly the downs) of the Revolution: the causes of rising hopes and expectations, mingled with successive disappointments, sometimes verging on despair, not least in the case of the presidential elections, when the Egyptian people were invited to choose between a rock and a hard place. This is followed by an outline of a possible brighter future for Egypt, based on a more balanced and faster growing economy, and a more democratic and equitable society, within a truly independent, modern, and secular state.
The story of what happened to the 2011 Revolution may be a sad one, but if viewed within the larger context of Egypt's economic and social developments of the last century, on which the author's previous books threw very useful light, it can be regarded as one important step forward toward a much better future.