The study of islands is booming. Small wonder: islands have played a key role in the history of continents, have been crucial locales of state-making, have served dictatorships as sites of prison systems and have acted as frontiers and stepping stones of empires. However, the role that island environments have played in creating and shaping these histories has so far received little attention. …
Imagine a world in which there is only one history to watch, read, or listen to. If you find this idea difficult, then you have understood something important about history: that there is never just one version of it on offer. Some people might not like this idea, and try to refute it, but no matter how much they argue, or even work to destroy histories, they will be unsuccessful. We live with …
Approximately 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses, and the rate of emergence of zoonotic diseases is on the rise. Bats are being increasingly recognised as an important reservoir of zoonotic viruses of different families, including SARS coronavirus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus and Ebola virus. Understanding bats’ role in emerging zoonotic diseases is crucial to this rapidly expandi…
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…
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…
A visit to a town in the north-west of England 200 years ago would have been anassault on the senses. Though some parts of Liverpool, in particular, experiencedwidespread‘improving’measures from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, in themajority of other places (and indeed throughout significant parts of Liverpool too)it was not until the extensive street-widening schemes of the nineteenth …
Early fifteenth-century travellers such as Spanish writer Pero Tafur praised the city of Bruges because of its liveliness and economic activity: ‘Bruges was a large and wealthy city, and one of the greatest markets of the world [...] anyone who has mon-ey, and wished to spend it, will find in this town alone everything which the world produces’.1 Bruges had played an important…
This book examines one of the most significant aspects of popular engagement with the past in twentieth-century Britain. Historical pag-eants began as an Edwardian craze, but persisted as important events in communities and organisations across Britain for much of the next hundred years. Although popular interest in pageantry has undoubtedly declined, re…
This monograph approaches ancient medicine through the study of a single individual who practiced magico-medical healing in ancient Mesopotamia. The healer’s name was Ki?ir-Aššur and he was the grandson of B?ba-šuma-ibni, the patronymic ancestor of a family of exorcists. We know nothing about Ki?ir-Aššur’s birth and death, except that he lived arou…
This is a book about how the Congo was and continues to be imagined in Kinshasa. I outline the way that coproduced visions of nation, modernity, and stereotypes of culture have taken material form in the postcolonial city. My aim is to trace what remains of past presentations of the Congo in the rich textures of key architectural and artistic sites in Kinsh…
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt uniquely covers 700,000 years of ancient Egypt, from c. 700,000 BC to AD 311. Following the story from the Egyptians' prehistoric origins to their conquest by the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, this book resurrects a fascinating society replete with remarkable historical information. It investigates such subjects as the changing nature of life and death in the…
This volume breaks new ground in applying Benson’s second per-spective to medical history: ‘to explore the history of nonhuman ani-mals as subjects in their own right and for their own sakes’.5 Humans remain important, of course, for ultimately we can only know about animals from the records that humans have created, and which reflect …
Darren Anderton played 30 times for the England men’s national football team and made 299 Premier League appearances for Tottenham Hotspur. To fans of a certain age, he is known by another name: ‘Sicknote’. ‘I had a migraine and was throwing up before a Portsmouth game’, recounted Anderton in 2016, some eight years after his final Football League match…
n March 2013, a group of detainees at Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Cuba, went on hunger strike. At the height of their protest, 106 individuals were refusing to eat. For detainees incarcerated for over a decade without charge or trial, food refusal offered a potent way to rebel. Having been stripped of their capacity for political communication and placed …
In 1745, the Shengjing military governor (jiangjun), Daldangga, wrote to the Qian-long emperor (r. 1736–95) to propose building a guard post at the mouth of the Yalu (K. Amnok) River. The suggested place was Mangniushao, a sandbank located where the confluence of two tributaries of the Yalu River, the Caohe and the Aihe, flowed into the mainstream of the Yalu. These tri…
s the minister responsible for the local police, Lanskoi had particular grounds for concern over their poor performance. His, however, was not the only ministry dependent on the police. A contemporary journalist described the local police as, in effect, the eyes, ears, and hands of the state. “Almost everything discussed by ministerial departments,” he noted, “or…
In 2019, Juha Marttila, the President of the Central Union of Agricultural Pro-ducers and Forest Owners (MTK) in Finland, expressed his astonishment in apress interview about the increasing public criticism of intensive meat and dairyproduction:“The cow has kept us alive for some ten thousand years, so how comeit has now been made a criminal?”1He was quite right about the long interrela-tio…
This pioneering study of the fate of Buddhism during the communist period in Cambodia puts a human face on a dark period in Cambodia’s history. It is the first sustained analysis of the widely held assumption that the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot had a centralized plan to liquidate the entire monastic order. Based on a thorough analysis of interview transcripts and a large body of contemporary m…
Islamic peoples account for one fifth of the world's population and yet there is widespread misunderstanding in the West of what Islam really is. Francis Robinson and his team set out to address this, revealing the complex and sometimes contrary nature of Muslim culture. As well as taking on the issues uppermost in everyone's minds, such as the role of religious and political fundamentalism, th…
E. H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World, an engaging and lively book written for readers both young and old, vividly brings the full span of human experience on Earth to life, from the stone age to the atomic age. Gombrich’s text paints a colorful picture of wars and conquests; of grand works of art; of the advances and limitations of science; of remarkable people and remarkable even…
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.
In this colorfully-illustrated reference for young adult readers, the history of ancient Rome is traced from the mythic founding of the city by the twins Romulus and Remus, through its many emperors and wars, to the disintegration of the empire in the third and fourth centuries CE. Boxed information provides further details on aspects of daily life, traditions, and laws; the Roman military; fam…
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…
Were the pyramids of the pharaohs conceived in Britain? The acclaimed coauthors of Civilization One think so, and they take readers on a gripping excursion into ancient religion and astronomy. Knight and Butler not only establish the existence of an advanced civilization with astonishing, almost modern knowledge, but they also explain how the oldest Neolithic monuments--the henges of North York…
Today, images of fetuses and pregnant bodies are ubiquitous. We encoun-ter them everywhere—from ultrasound pictures of expected babies in family albums to childbirth scenes in reality television shows or on social media platforms. Images of fetal bodies are also frequently seen in antiabortion campaigns. The capacity of fetal photographs and ultrasound images …
This study offers a radically new perspective on Dutch Neorealism, one that emphasizes the role of film as an apparatus, the effects of which, when emulated in painting, can reproduce the affective experience of film-watching. More of a tendency than a tightly defined style or "ism," Neorealism is the Dutch variant of Magic Realism, an uncanny mode of figurative painting identified with Neue Sa…
By invoking Flora Nwapa, this monograph draws attention to Nigerian women writers in world literature, with an emphasis on femininity and spirituality. Flora Nwapa’s Efuru was the first internationally published novel in English by a female African writer (Nwapa 1966). With the establishment of Tana Press in 1977, Flora Nwapa also became the first fe…
n a suggestive passage, Wilfred Thesiger, or, as his Arab friends affectionately called him, Mubarak bin London, described his encounter with the people of the Empty Quarter in the following terms:“The northern Arabs had no traditions of civiliza-tion behind them. To arrange three stones as a fireplace on which to set a pot was the only archi-tecture that many …
In a blog post on a recent trip to a Peruvia n monastery, Sa ra Salem recounts the moment she recognized Andalusia n tiles da ting from the era of Spa nish coloniza tion. Reflecting on this encounter with the lasting ma terial legacy of imperial expa nsion, she concludes tha t “[w]e could tell a nice story ... a bout how a rt travels a nd spreads a nd crosses bo…
A World You Do Not Know explores the wilful ignorance demonstrated by North America’s settlers in establishing their societies on lands already occupied by indigenous nations. Using the Innu of Labrador-Quebec as one powerful contemporary example, Colin Samson shows how the processes of displacement and assimilation today resemble those of the 19th century as the state and corporations scramb…
Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej, the only king ever born in the United States, came to the throne of his country in 1946 and at the time of his death, in October 2016, was the world’s longest serving monarch. The King Never Smiles, the first independent biography of Thailand's monarch, tells the unexpected story of Bhumibol's life and sixty-year rule—how a Western-raised boy came to be seen…
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 History of Pakistan explores the rich and intricate past of a highly diverse nation still in the process of determining its own identity. Rooted in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, shaped by the cultures of both the Middle and Far East, and now predominantly devoted to Islam, Pakistan has emerged as a unique Indo-Muslim community, viewed with caution and curiosity by the rest of the w…
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…
Imagine the delight and challenge of entering into a one-on-one political and personal conversation with the founding father of modern Singapore. This is exactly the timely treat that awaits you in Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew. The first in the Giants of Asia series, this succinct, penetrating, richly detailed and candid book on Lee Kuan Yew represents the Asian legend s first extended conve…
This comprehensive study of China's Cold War experience reveals the crucial role Beijing played in shaping the orientation of the global Cold War and the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The success of China's Communist revolution in 1949 set the stage, Chen says. The Korean War, the Taiwan Strait crises, and the Vietnam War--all of which involved China as a cent…
Thoroughly updated in light of new scholarship, including revised sections on President Nixon’s policies in Vietnam and President Reagan’s approach to U.S.-Soviet relations Features six all new "counterparts" sections that juxtapose important historical figures to illustrate the contrasting viewpoints that characterized the Cold War Argues that the success of Western capitalism during th…
Zaytun’s True Wealth Marco Polo was impressed by Zaytun’s gems, pearls, porcelain, and silk, but he overlooked the true wealth of this mythic port—the place and the people! Zaytun was blessed with an unparalleled natural wealth and beauty that the enlightened inhabitants maintained as meticulously as their miniature landscapes, which have been…
When Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to reach India in 1497–1498, he had not only discovered a new sea route between Europe and Asia but also opened up a new world of commerce that would shape European consumption, manufacturing, and ultimately industrial production over the following centuries. While goods from the East had reached Europe much ear-lier …
Under the slogan ‘Merdeka!’ the Republic of Indonesia rushed into a battle for independence – a struggle of which no one could predict the outcome. Harry Poeze and Henk Schulte Nordholt provide a new narrative about the revolution, one that focuses not only on the fight against the Dutch but also on the precarious rise of the Republic. After the horrors of the Japanese occupation, the Rep…
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…
Finland has been often labelled a ‘green superpower’. In 2016, according to the EPI (Environmental Performance Index) prepared by Yale and Columbia Universities, Finland was the world’s cleanest and greenest country.1 Gener-ally speaking, Nordic countries have tended to be idealised as ‘pristine and green’ compared to the rest of the rapidly contaminating world where the r…
In 1937 an offi cial from the Mexican forest service visited the rugged Sierra Tarahumara mountains in southern Chihuahua, which even today remain one of the nation’s most isolated places. Th e landscape that greeted An-tonio H. Sosa was unlike anything he had seen in central Mexico. He ad-mired the “immensity, beauty, and potential” of the untouched Ponderosa and Montezuma pines tha…
Ippolito II d’Este was born in 1509 into a Ferrara ruled by his father, Duke Al-fonso I d’Este. His mother was Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, who had orchestrated the marriage in the hope of tying his lineage to an established Italian family. The Este had been ruling over Ferrara, Modena and Reggio since the thirteen century and had increasingly extended their territori…
Between 1945 and 1949, Indonesia defended its recently declared indepen-dence, and the Netherlands waged its last major colonial war.1 Much is now known about this war, but a great deal has also remained unclear or con-tested. At the end of 2016, the second Rutte cabinet decided to finance a broad-based study – conducted by the kit lv, the nimh and niod2 – on the …
Compared with other pre-industrial societies, a rather high percentage of the Roman population in the Gallic and Germanic provinces was not involved in agrarian production during the High Empire. Rural produce was needed to feed soldiers and the inhabitants of vici, small towns and cities. To maintain this system the Gallo-Roman villae – the rural settlements whose…
In Authoritarian Modernization in Indonesia’s Early Independence Period, Farabi Fakih offers a historical analysis of the foundational years leading to Indonesia’s New Order state (1966–1998) during the early independence period. The study looks into the structural and ideological state formation during the so-called Liberal Democracy (1950–1957) and Sukarno’s Guided Democracy (1957…
Upon the fall of the Han empire, the warlord Cao Cao (155–220) established a new political domain. The Cao court became known for its accomplished writers, including the warlord himself and two of his sons, Cao Pi (187–226) and Cao Zhi (192–232). Afflicted by sibling rivalry and an epidemic, these poets distinguished themselves by writing about frustration, sorrow, and death. Yet, as obse…