The Kingdom (2007)
When a terrorist bomb detonates inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an international incident is ignited. While diplomats slowly debate equations of territorialism, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) quickly assembles an elite team and negotiates a secret five-day trip into Saudi Arabia to locate the madman behind the bombing. Upon landing in the desert kingdom, however, Fleury and his team discover Saudi authorities suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they consider a local matter. Hamstrung by protocol, and with the clock ticking on their five days, the FBI agents find their expertise worthless without the trust of their Saudi counterparts who want to locate the terrorist in their homeland on their own terms. Fleury's crew finds a like-minded partner in Saudi Police Captain Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), who helps them navigate royal politics and unlock the secrets of the crime scene and the workings of an extremist, hell bent on further destruction.

Jarhead (2006)
An adaptation of former Marine Anthony Swofford's Gulf War memoir. Young recruit Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) joins up with the US Marines (nicknamed 'Jarheads' because of their distinctive haircuts) on the eve of the 1990 Gulf War. After a brutal spell in boot camp, during which Swofford and his fellow recruits are systematically geared up for the conflict, the Marines are dispatched to the deserts of the Persian Gulf to take part in a war that sees them required to do very little in the way of fighting. Bored and frustrated in the middle of nowhere, the young soldiers resort to a macabre sense of humour as they wait for the war to happen to them.

A fresh new approach to Victorian medievalism, showing it to be far from the preserve of the elite. This book offers a challenge to the current study of nineteenth-century British medievalism, re-examining its general perception as an elite and conservative tendency, the imposition of order from above evidenced in the work of Walter Scott, in the Eglinton Tournament, and in endless Victorian depictions of armour-clad knights. Whilst some previous scholars have warned that medievalism should not be reduced to the role of an ideologically conservative discourse which always and everywhere had the role of either obscuring, ignoring, or forgetting the ugly truths of an industrialised modernity by appealing to a green and ordered Merrie England, there has been remarkably little exploration of liberal or radical medievalisms, still less of working-class medievalisms. Essays in this book question a number of orthodoxies. Can it be imagined that in the world of Ivanhoe, the Eglinton Tournament, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, the working class remained largely oblivious to, or at best uninterested in, medievalism? What, if any, was the working-class medievalist counter-blast to conservatism? How did feminism and socialismdeploy the medieval past? The contributions here range beyond the usual canonical cultural sources to investigate the ephemera: the occasional poetry, the forgotten novels, the newspapers, short-lived cultural journals, fugitive Chartist publications. A picture is created of a richly varied and subtle understanding of the medieval past on the part of socialists, radicals, feminists and working-class thinkers of all kinds, a set of dreams of the Middle Agesto counter what many saw as the disorder of the times.

Christian theology is an increasingly non-Western enterprise now that the highest concentrations of Christians in the world are no longer found in the West. Christian Theology and African Traditions takes seriously the movement of Christianity from Western to non-Western settings and focuses on one place in particular: Africa. It repositions Christian theology and faith in order to engage the African traditions in the classical category of theology proper, as well as bibliology, anthropology, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Matthew Michael provides unique insights into the problems that these classical and systematic categories pose to African Christianity, and offers a theological blueprint for non-Africans interested in knowing the nature and shape of Christian theology in non-Western settings. Consequently, Christian Theology and African Traditions goes beyond the mere criticism of Western misrepresentation of African traditions to seeing how the Christian theology in its systematic character engages the African traditions. With this methodological template, the work describes in the space of twelve chapters the different classical teachings of the Christian faith on God, scriptures, spirits and demons, the nature of the human person, the persons of Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the church, and the future life in dialogue with some specific traditions of the African people. Matthew Michael is the Academic Dean of ECWA Theological Seminary, Kagoro, Nigeria. Dr. Michael has taught and presented papers on Christian theology in non-Western settings, issues in Old Testament, and African spirituality and world-views in universities and seminaries across Africa. Michael's treatment of the contemporary historical Jesus debate, the African christological quest, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the church, the spirit world in Africa, and eschatology is quite refreshing. This book promises to be an immense resource for students and teachers in Bible colleges, theological seminaries, and universities, and pastors and Christians at large in Africa. Gwamna Dogara Je'adayibe, Nasarawa State University, Keffi

As separate entities and later a unified state, the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago boast very unique histories. Initially claimed by the Spanish in 1498, these territories were affected by the imperialist thrusts of various European nations including the French, British and Dutch. The mercantilist infiltrations of these groups, particularly in the 18th century, led to the islands' belated development as sugar producers and, particularly Trinidad, as a cradle of migration. World War II and the development of the oil and tourism industries in the 20th century transformed the economies, culture and society of these islands. The country has been one of the most important in the region in relation to economic and political leadership and as a centre of cultural development. Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Trinidad and Tobago.

Miles to Go is the story of a family from Africa in search of authentic America along the country's most famous highway, Route 66. Traveling the scenic byway from Illinois to California, they come across a fascinating assortment of historical landmarks, partake in quirky roadside attractions, and meet more than a few colorful characters. Brennen Matthews, along with his wife and their son, come face to face with real America in all of its strange beauty and complicated history as the family explores what many consider to be the pulse of a nation. Their unique perspective on the Main Street of America develops into a true appreciation for what makes America so special. By joining Matthews and his family on their cross-country adventure, readers not only experience firsthand the sights and sounds of the road, but they are also given the opportunity to reflect on American culture and its varied landscapes. Miles to Go is not just a travel story but a tale of hopes, ambitions, and struggles. It is the record of an America as it once was and one that, in some places, still persists.

This work is a study on the stylistic features of the divine speeches within the Abrahamic narratives. It engages the representations of Yahweh through speech's attribution in Abrahamic narratives. In particular, it shows the high concentration of metaphors/figurative images, similes, alliterations, wordplays, euphemisms, hyperboles, repetitions, allusions, and other distinctive literary features in Yahweh's speeches which are deliberately denied other characters of the Abrahamic narratives.

The conquest of the New World would hardly have been possible if the invading Spaniards had not allied themselves with the indigenous population. This book takes into account the role of native peoples as active agents in the Conquest through a review of new sources and more careful analysis of known but under-studied materials that demonstrate the overwhelming importance of native allies in both conquest and colonial control.

In "Indian Conquistadors," leading scholars offer the most comprehensive look to date at native participation in the conquest of Mesoamerica. The contributors examine pictorial, archaeological, and documentary evidence spanning three centuries, including little-known eyewitness accounts from both Spanish and native documents, paintings (lienzos) and maps (mapas) from the colonial period, and a new assessment of imperialism in the region before the Spanish arrival.

This new research shows that the Tlaxcalans, the most famous allies of the Spanish, were far from alone. Not only did native lords throughout Mesoamerica supply arms, troops, and tactical guidance, but tens of thousands of warriors--Nahuas, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Mayas, and others--spread throughout the region to participate with the Spanish in a common cause.

By offering a more balanced account of this dramatic period, this book calls into question traditional narratives that emphasize indigenous peoples' roles as auxiliaries rather than as conquistadors in their own right. Enhanced with twelve maps and more than forty illustrations, "Indian Conquistadors" opens a vital new line of research and challenges our understanding of this important era.

In February 2003 the tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica hung in the anteroom to the UN Security Council Chamber was curtained over, at American insistence - not 'an appropriate backdrop', it was explained, for official statements to the world media on the forthcoming invasion of Iraq. The episode became an emblem: of the state's relentless will to control the minutiae of appearance, as part of - essential to - its drive to war. But was the crudity of the attempt at censorship not counterproductive? And did not the whole incident speak above all to the state's anxiety as it tried to micro-manage the means of symbolic production? A manifesto for the new anti-war generation, Afflicted Powers is the first formal Situationist response to 9/11 and its aftermath. In a short, readable intervention the Bay Area Report Collective take an idiosyncratic and highly critical look at US foreign policy and the methods it employs. They perpetuate the legacy of Guy Debord with his hatred of the image-life, upon which so much of 9/11 and after has revolved. Topics explored include 'Islamism and the Crisis of the Secular Nation-State', 'Permanent War', 'Blood for Oil?' quirkily significant book, which will resonate for years to come - long after the current US administration has had its day. Afflicted Powers is an account of world politics since 11 September 2001. It aims above all to confront the perplexing doubleness of the present -- its lethal mixture of atavism and new-fangledness. The world careers backward into forms of ideological and geo-political combat that call to mind now the Scramble for Africa, now the Wars of Religion. But this brute return of the past is accompanied by an equally monstrous political deployment of (and entrapment in) the apparatus of a modern, not to say hypermodern, production of appearances. Capital is on the move again. In the Middle East and elsewhere it is attempting, nakedly, a new round of primitive accumulation and enclosure. Now, however, it is obliged to do so in unprecedented circumstances. for hegemony in the world of images; and never before has the dominant world power been subject to real catastrophe in the realm of the Spectacle, as happened to the US on September 11. The present turn to empire and enclosure - what Afflicted Powers terms military neo-liberalism - is confronted not only by various forms of radical Islam but by a new kind of vanguardism armed with the toolkit of spectacular politics. This book attempts to rethink certain key aspects of the current global struggle within this overall perspective, and to provide some critical support for present and future oppositions. Its main themes are: the Spectacle and September 11; blood for oil; permanent war and illusory peace; the U.S.-Israel relationship; revolutionary Islam; and modernity and terror.