When Si Zheng, the Shaanxi regional military commissioner, was a young man, he organized many young men of ill repute into a “righteous brother-hood.” If one member was attacked, they would combine forces and take revenge. Zheng had beaten to death a man at a singing loft in the provincial capital.1 The owner was powerless to apprehend him, and Zheng escaped. They seized a certain Mr. Liu, …
Following a successful period working in the colonial capital of Batavia ( Jakarta), Prawiradinata, a young and ambitious clerk in the indigenous civil service, was transferred to a new post in Purwakarta, a small town in Java’s interior. His enthusiasm about his career advancement quickly evaporated when he discovered that beyond the capital, …
Aphotograph presents the bourgeois family idyll in Léopoldville. The father,sit-ting in an armchair in the foreground, dominates the livingroom scene. He iswearingawhiteshirt and tie, polished leather shoes and trousers withacreasein them. His elbowsresting on the arms of the chair,heisengrossed in theVoixdu Congolais,anewspaper for thevernacular elite published by theBelgian Con-go’sGeneral…
The Japanese occupation of both British Borneo – Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo – and Dutch Borneo in 1941 to 1945 is a much understudied subject. Of particular interest is the occupation of Dutch Borneo, governed by the Imperial Japanese Navy that had long-term plans for ‘permanent possession’. This book surveys Borneo under Western colonialism, examines pre-war Japanese interests in…
This book has two main aims. First, the book will discuss various modes ofstudying and defining the medieval self. This will encompass a wide range ofsource material from Scandinavia,c. 800–1500, such as archaeological, archi-tectural and artistic, documentary and literary sources, and runic inscriptions.The second main aim of the book will be to discuss what processes and practi-ces the self…
From Book 1: Previously published as Ancient Science, Secret History contains 150 pages of new material. It is the definitive edition in a new format. The Secret History of The World and How To Get Out Alive is the definitive book of the real answers where Truth is more fantastic than fiction. Laura Knight-Jadczyk, wife of internationally known theoretical physicist, Arkadiusz Jadczyk, an exper…
Throughout history, military engagements have altered the course of historical events, causing major changes both on a global scale (the battles of Yarmouk & al-Qadisiyyah in 636 determined the religious/linguistic orientation of the Middle East that persists today) as well as within individual cultures (the 1836 battle of San Jacinto gave the United States nearly one-third of its continental t…
When Raphael Cilento drafted his unpublished autobiography, he called it ‘The World, My Oyster’. Some of the other titles he considered—such as ‘Confessions of an International Character’, ‘20th Century Spotlight’, ‘Mankind in the Raw’ and ‘Tapestry of Humanity’—similarly evoked his international career. Other alternatives—such as ‘Topical Confessions of a Tropical D…
From the Wright brothers' first flight and the First Russian Revolution to the horrors of war, to the development of motor and air travel and the birth of the digital revolution, the changes seen in the twentieth century were global in scope and monumental in terms of impact. Modern History in Pictures: A Visual Guide to the Events that Shaped Our World explores these earth-shattering events as…
Belgium once had an empire in Central Africa. The historical processes inform-ing this imperial presence – the foundation of the Congo Free State (CFS) in 1885, its demise, the emergence of the Belgian Congo in 1908, and the subse-quent absorption of ‘Ruanda-Urundi’ by Belgium under the aegis of the League of Nations in 1922 – are well documented and …