Is film a medium of communication? This is a basic question of film studies. It is about as old as the field itself, and the discursive frameworks and underlying assumptions that make the question relevant are about as old as the medium, or the art form, of cinema itself. As John Durham Peters argues, “only since the late nineteenth century have we defined ourselves in terms our ability to co…
Twenty years ago, very few music scholars examined Broadway musicals. If musicologists were a bit slow to approach the musical theater reper-toire (and they were), theorists and analysts arrived—and are only now arriving—more than fashionably late to the party. We hope that this vol-ume loudly announces that we are here.Music theorists care about musical theater. We kn…
How We Use Stories and Why That Matters guides the reader through the tangled undergrowth of communication and cultural expression towards a new understanding of the role of group-mediating stories at global and digital scale. It argues that media and networked systems perform and bind group identities, creating bordered fictions within which economic and political activities are made meaningfu…
Our best science tells us wonderful things. The cold and dark skies of our universe were not so long ago in their entirety in a state of unimaginably high energy and temperature. The detritus that exploded from it congealed into stars, planets, and galaxies. These systems of celestial masses are in turn held together by a curvature of the geometry of space and time itself. On a most minute scal…
Discover the amazing inventions throughout history that have shaped the world as we know it. This stunning visual guide explores and explains the greatest inventions, ideas, and discoveries throughout the ages, and introduces their inventors. From fire, stone tools, and the wheel to ploughs and paper, discover the first inventions that shaped societies and grew mighty civilizations and empir…
Pack up your bags for a round the world trip! You’ll take in natural wonders far and wide as this spectacular visual encyclopedia leads the exciting exploration of Earth and beyond.?? From the tallest snowy peak of Mount Everest to the deep, dark waters of the Mariana Trench, you’ll see it all in stunning color images that bring the world to life. Feel the heat in the African desert,…
In 1976 a deadly virus emerged from the Congo forest. As swiftly as it came, it disappeared, leaving no trace. Over the four decades since, Ebola has emerged sporadically, each time to devastating effect. It can kill up to 90 percent of its victims. In between these outbreaks, it is untraceable, hiding deep in the jungle. The search is on to find Ebola's elusive host animal. And until we find i…
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia?but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases sh…
Plagues in World History provides a concise, comparative world history of catastrophic infectious diseases, including plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. Geographically, these diseases have spread across the entire globe; temporally, they stretch from the sixth century to the present. John Aberth considers not only the varied impact that disease has had upon human hist…
Uncertainty and interconnecting crises are no longer exceptional. In almost everypart of the world, living with water crises is an everyday reality for many. Yet,water supply sustains a functioning society, and as such any threat to it must becountered head-on. Frontline water suppliers, routinely forced to respond andadapt so they can deliver water in the face of all challenges, have found tha…
This book critically examines assumptions about age, women, and gender. Amidst all the attention that has been granted to difference and inequality, however uneven and unsatisfactory in terms of class and caste, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, disability, religion, and nation, questions of age and its importance for feminism have been less well defined. Drawing on recent literature on…
This open access edited volume reports on a unique network of innovative in-school and out-of-school programs, University-Community Links. UC Links connects university faculty and students with young people and their families in diverse communities around the world. Chapters in this volume describe programs in the United States (California) as well as Germany, Italy, Spain, Uganda, and Uruguay.…
Discover 10,000 years of the shadowy side of our world in this treasure trove of alternative history. The Encyclopedia of Secret Societies features detailed information about.
This is an illustrated history of Britain from prehistoric times to the present day. The book analyzes the major political and military events in British history, and where appropriate, looks at these within a wider, international context. It also describes everyday life for men and women from different levels of society in different ages: the kind of work they did, family life, etc. Emphasis i…
Complemented by more than 1,300 photographs and illustrations, a comprehensive reference for owners of freshwater and saltwater fish provides the latest information on keeping an aquarium or pond, highlighting more than eight hundred species of popular freshwater, saltwater, tropical, and cold water fish, along with information on feeding, breeding, and care. Reprint.
As recent discussions in medieval studies have demonstrated, however, the response of literature to history—the witness that literature provides within history—is never a straightforward one. It is, at this point, impossible to state flatly that texts such as the Decameron, Guillaume de Machaut’s Jugement dou Roy de Navarre, or William Langland’s Piers Plowman stand as “accu…
The Angkorian World explores the history of Southeast Asia’s largest ancient state from the first to mid-second millennium CE. Chapters by leading scholars combine evidence from archaeology, texts, and the natural sciences to introduce the Angkorian state, describe its structure, and explain its persistence over more than six centuries. Comprehensive and accessible, this book will be an indis…
Everyone knows Vietnam for its turbulent environment during the second half of the 20th century, but few know that archaeologists believe that civilization there existed as far back as the Bronze Age. Vietnam's history runs rampant with clashing dynasties, civil wars and power struggles between the North and South, and conflicts with neighboring and other countries. First ruled under China's cl…
Culturally and politically, Indonesia is one of the more complex countries in the world, with 336 ethnic groups speaking 583 languages and dialects. It is only recently that these people have been contained within one political framework. Throughout most of history, Indonesia's inhabitants were divided politically in many different ways as a bewildering array of kingdoms and empires rose and fe…
The book provides a clear portrayal of Thailand's culture and society, and explains its significance in the history of human civilization, its strategic geographic location, and its attraction as a tourist destination. Thailand is a fascinating country with a very rich culture and history. Today, it is home to over 60 million people, and is a newly industrialized nation with an emerging worl…
The 1940s was probably the most dramatic and decisive decade of the 20th century. This volume explores the Second World War and the origins of the Cold War from the vantage point of two of the great powers of that era, Britain and the USA, and of their wartime leaders, Churchill and Roosevelt. It also looks at their chequered relations with Stalin and at how the Grand Alliance crumbled into an …
The first Creighton Lecture took place on 4 October 1907, almost seven years after the death of the scholar and bishop whom it honoured. Apart from being delivered by a lifelong friend, its published version stands in no discernible relation to Mandell Creighton himself, except for treating of his narrower patria, the Anglo-Scottish border. In fact the whole subsequent lect…
In this book the author takes an unusual multi-disciplinary approach to debates about contemporary art and poetry, ideas about the mind and its representations, and theories of knowledge and being. Arts practices are considered as enactments of mind and as transformative modes of consciousness. Ideas drawn from poetics, philosophy and consciousness studies are used to illuminate the conceptual …
What is the experience of truth and reconciliation? What is the purpose of a truth commission? What lessons can be learned from established truth and reconciliation processes? Flowers in the Wall explores the experience of truth and reconciliation Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific, with and without a formal truth commission. Although much has been written about the operational phases of …
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverishe…
No country in Asia in recent years has undergone so massive a political shift in so short a time as Myanmar. Until recently, the former British colony had one of the most secretive, corrupt, and repressive regimes on the planet, a country where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was held in continual house arrest and human rights were denied to nearly all. Yet events in Myanmar since t…
John McMurry
On the first day of Christmas day, my true love gave to me A partridge in a pear tree.
Statistics is interesting and useful because it provides strategies and tools for using data to gain insight into real problems. As the continuing revolution in computing automates most of the tiresome details, an emphasis on statistical concepts and on insight from data becomes both more practical for students and teachers and more important for users who must supply what is not automated. No …
The control of food additives has been much discussed in a newspapers and other parts of the media and yet, rather surprisingly, there have been few scientific books about additives. There have been detailed reports of the work of expert committees such as the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and informative and commentaries on individual and legislative controls, notably those …
The Battle of Mantzikert had profound consequences for both Byzantine and Turkish history, yet the historical sources for this campaign contain significant gaps. This book presents the results of a project that seeks to demonstrate the important role computer simulation can play in the analysis of pre-modern military logistics.
The inextricability of the connection between the Roman limes and the lands it ran through is easily observed and perfectly illustrated in Bulgaria. For a considerable distance it follows the Danube; both a major natural obstacle and at the same time a convenient communication route, it was easily defendable and facilitated control of trade routes.
The present work is based on a little-known booklet, published by the Rev. Dr John Hunt (born Bridgend, Perth, 1827, died Otford, Kent, 1907).1 The original copy that I have used is in the possession of the Norris Museum, St Ives, Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire) and contains manuscript annotations by Mrs Eliza Hunt,2 the first wife of the author…
Yet we cannot foreclose the extent to which some thinkers and theorists, especially looking back over the long arc of TV reception, have raised concerns about the medium’s deleterious potential: its apparent agency in human dissipation and degeneracy. While Raymond Williams offered a critical materialist approach equipped with a searing interest in how serious criticism of …
We have seen how, as a consequence of the Revolution and of the cold, destructive, criticism of the eighteenth century, there was a demand for constructive thought. This was a desire common not only to the Traditionalists but to De Biran and Cousin. They aimed at intellectual reconstruction. While, however, there were some who combated the principles of the Revolution, as did the Traditionalist…
This chapter sets out the aims of this book and explains themethods and approaches applied in its production. It alsoaspires to be a guide, offering readers instructions as to howbest to use the book. We therefore strongly encourage allreaders to read this chapter carefully, so as to gain a clearerunderstanding of all the different aspects analysed in thisbook. This chapter also provides essent…
Doctoral education has become a key element of the higher education landscape everywhere. With the spread of higher education massification and the rise of the global knowledge economy that began in the late twentieth century and continues today, doctoral education has expanded tremendously. There have been significant changes in doctoral education worldwide in the twent…
In view of the mercurial nature of one half of the dual-fold topic of this analysis, perhaps it would hold both me, as the author, and you, as the reader, jointly in good stead to open with an attempt at a definition. What is sincerity? Sincerity is a noun. Among other things, it refers to the absence of pretense, deceit, and/or hypocrisy. Its synonyms include the followi…
Thinking back, it seems fitting that my relationship with manhua, usually called cartoons or comics in English, started with a magazine, because this book is about both. Why both? Cartoons are cartoons, and magazines are magazines; what is to be gained by combining the two? My reply is that many hours spent marveling at, puzzling over, and gradually deciph…
By the end of the first millennium CE, a vast portion of Central Eurasia was con-trolled by nomadic powers: the Sinicized Khitans (907–1125), who were later replaced by the Jurchens (1115–1234) and the Tanguts (1038–1227) in North and Northwest China; and the Turko-Islamic dynasties such as the Qarakhanids (840–1212), the Ghaznavids (977–1163) and the Saljuqs (1037–1194, and 1077–…
e migration of the Normans across Europe is a well-known and much written about subject. Originating in the principality of Normandy that took its name from the ‘men of the north’ who came from Scandinavia to settle on the French coast from the ninth century onwards, the Normans then established themselves during the eleventh century in two main areas some , mil…
In May 1951, Francisco Franco attended an international social security congressin Madrid. In the audience were experts and officials from across Spain, LatinAmerica, and western Europe, including ministers from various foreign govern-ments and representatives from international bodies such as the InternationalLabour Organization (ILO). Addressing the conference, Franco told delegates thattwo f…
Public interest in modern art continues to grow, as witnessed by the spectacular success of the Tate Modern in London and the Bilbao Guggenheim. Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction engages general readers, offering them not only information and ideas about modern art, but also explaining its contemporary relevance and history. The book focuses on interrogating the idea of "modern" art by aski…
The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents - Bush and Obama - drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, …
A comprehensive and authoritative short guide, this Very Short Introduction to Medieval Britain covers the establishment of the Anglo-Norman monarchy in the early Middle Ages, through to England's failure to dominate the British Isles and France in the later Middle Ages. Out of the turbulence came stronger senses of identity in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Yet this was an age, too, of growing …
Visit and explore Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania during your trip to the Baltic States. From top restaurants, bars, and clubs to standout scenic sites and walks, our insider tips are sure to make your trip outstanding. Whether you're looking for unique and interesting shops and markets, or seeking the best venues for music and nightlife, we have entertainment and hotel recommendations for ever…
From beautiful palaces such as Seville's Real Alcázar and the magical Alhambra in Granada, splendid religious edifices such as the Mezquita in Córdoba, Seville Cathedral and La Giralda, to the historic coastal cities of Málaga and Cádiz, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Seville & Andalucía will show you all of the top sights in this especially colorful part of Spain. Learn about Hispano-Moorish…
Visit and explore Las Vegas, a.k.a. Sin City, and walk along the strip, gamble in the casinos, eat amazing food, or stop by a show in the entertainment capital of the world. From top restaurants, bars, and clubs to standout scenic sites and walks, our insider tips are sure to make your trip outstanding. Whether you're looking for unique and interesting shops and markets, or seeking the best ve…
Civil engineering has made an inestimable contribution to modern life, providing the crucial expertise behind our vast transportation systems and the wide array of built structures where we work, study, and play. In this Very Short Introduction, engineer David Muir Wood turns a spotlight on a field that we often take for granted. He sheds light on the nature and importance of civil engineering …
This Very Short Introduction to Classics links a haunting temple on a lonely mountainside to the glory of ancient Greece and the grandeur of Rome, and to Classics within modern culture-from Jefferson and Byron to Asterix and Ben-Hur. We are all Classicists - we come into touch with the Classics daily: in our culture, politics, medicine, architecture, language, and literature. What are the tr…