China is now the most powerful country on earth - its manufacturing underpins the world's economy; its military is growing at the fastest rate of any nation and its leader - Xi Jinping - is now to set
For centuries the waters of the Red Sea have been amongst the most hazardous and feared in the world. Strong or erratic winds have taken lives and broken boats, smashed against rocks or hidden sandbar
In 1939, a ten-year-old Igor Golomstock accompanied his mother, a doctor, to the vast network of labour camps in the Russian Far East. While she tended patients, he was minded by assorted 'trusty' pri
Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who – unpredictable, embattled, mercurial - has raised many fresh issues for followers of the Timelord. In this book, international experts on the show come together to explore
In the second half of the 20th century, Germany became the dominant political and economic power in Europe – and the arbiter of all important EU decisions. Yet Germany's leadership of the EU is geared
The enigmatic and richly illustrative tarot deck reveals a host of strange and iconic mages, such as The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and The Fool: over which loom the terrifying figure
In 1915, at the height of World War I, the Central Powers sent a secret mission, led by Oskar Ritter von Niedermayer and Werner Otto von Hentig, to the court of the emir of Afghanistan, Habibullah Kha
World War I was the first truly global conflict and its effects were felt across the British Empire. When war broke out in 1914, Great Britain had the largest empire, encompassing one quarter of the p
This book tells the remarkable story of Palazzo Rucellai from behind its celebrated façade. The house, beginning with its piecemeal assemblage by one of the richest men in Florence in the fifteenth ce
Nusantaria – often referred to as 'Maritime Southeast Asia' – is the world's largest archipelago and has, for centuries, been a vital cultural and trading hub. Nusantara, a Sanskrit, then Malay, word
Rhonda Wilcox is the world's foremost authority on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its characters, and its themes. Wilcox argues that Buffy is enduring as art by exploring its excellence in both long-term
This book explores the formation of the first Persian Empire under the Achaemenid Persians. It brings together a multi-disciplinary view of ancient Iran in the first millennium BC and concentrates on
When Edwin Cameron announced to a stunned local and international media that he – one of South Africa’s most prominent citizens - was himself living with the virus cutting swathes through the populati
In Islamic law the world was made up of the House of Islam and the House of War with the Ottoman Sultan--the perceived successor to the Caliphs--supreme ruler of the Islamic world. However, Suraiya Fa
Interest in Shi'i Islam is running at unprecedented levels. International tensions over Iran, where the largest number of Shi'i Muslims live, as well as the political resurgence of the Shi'i in Iraq a
This book reveals the history of Iran through its cinema as Sadr uses the films themselves to tell the story of shifting political, economic and social situations. The book covers the broad spectrum o
G. R. Evans brings this formative era to life both for the student of religious history and general reader. She concentrates as much on the colourful human episodes of the time as on broader institut
Lina Khatib examines the cinematic depictions of major political issues, from the Arab-Israeli conflict to the Gulf War, to Islamic fundamentalism, looking at films made in the US, in Egypt, Tunisia,
Remarkably Georgia, no larger than Switzerland, ranks in the world's top twelve for geographical diversity. It contains the heart of the Caucasus mountains--larger and more dramatic than the Alps--sub
