From the outset, society in Japan has been shaped by its environmental context. The lush green mountainous archipelago of today supports a population of over 127 million people and one of the most adv
Morocco has long been a mythic land, firmly rooted in the European imagination. For more than a century it has been appropriated by writers, artists and explorers such as Pierre Loti, Edith Wharton, E
Taking place in the skies over London, the plazas of Rotterdam, and the hallways of museums worldwide, a new kind of art has emerged since the 1990s. Known as Relational Art, this controversial practi
The Table Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge is a wonderful collection of anecdotes by judge and litterateur al-Tanukhi. He offers an entertaining personal view of the Middle East of the tenth century, reve
The geopolitical importance of the Gulf region is a source both of great interest and great tension. David Commins here provides an in-depth narrative of the modern political history of the Gulf State
Is the EU multi-level governance system weakening the implementation of policies at a state level? It does appear that a clear gap exists between European Union level policy-making and Member State im
Arriving in Europe in the 14th century, the Qipchaq Tatars are the longest surviving Muslim people in Europe. They form the historical core of the Muslim community in the Baltic States, Belarus and Po
One in every six Israeli citizens is a Palestinian Arab. While much has been written about the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, the struggle for political rights by Palestinian citizens of Isra
The Frankfurt Auschwitz trial was a milestone event in West German history. Between 1963 and 1965, twenty-two former Auschwitz personnel were tried in Frankfurt am Main. It was a trial that saw the en
The question of Kosovan sovereignty and independence has a history which stretches far back beyond the outbreak of war in 1998. This volume is a compilation of key documents on Kosovo from the first h
Henry Lansdell was one of the great travellers of the Victorian age. Unlike many explorers of the time he refused to see these remote lands as simply regions of thrills and barbarity. His cultural ope
From the Ottoman Empire to the boldness of Turkey's new Republic, Istanbul has been home to some of the great thinkers of history. In the twentieth century, Talat Sait Halman, the writer and poet, exe
In terms of visual impact, television has long been regarded as inferior to cinema. It has been characterised as sound-led, dull to look at and consumed by a distracted audience. Today, it is tempting
After the collapse of the Soviet Union a team of young economic reformers led by Yegor Gaidar worked to create a new economic future for Russia. Against an overwhelming threat of looming hunger and ci
What people wear matters. Copiously illustrated, this book is the story of what people on both sides wore on the front line and on the home front through the seismic years of World War I.
What reader could fail to be enthralled by the Iliad and the Odyssey, those greatest heroic epics of antiquity? Yet the author of these immortal texts remains, in the end, an enigma. The central parad
`The Zayn al-Akhbar of Gardizi is a major historical source on the eastern Iranian lands during 650-1041 AD. This work is of particular importance for the histories of Samanid and Ghaznawid rule over
Air power has come to be seen as a country’s first line of defense; in the First World War views were vastly different. Aircraft were a novelty not always welcomed by the traditionalist military, and
Abu Sa'id 'Abd al-Hayy Gardizi was an author and historian living in the mid-eleventh century at the height of the Turkish Ghazvanid dynasty. His only known work, The Ornament of Histories ('Zayn al-a
Human wisdom is of little or no value', wrote Plato in his Apology. And yet the ancient Greeks, including Plato himself, more than any other people of antiquity were fascinated by the pursuit of the w
Why do the states of the Arab world seem so unstable? Why do alliances between them and with outside powers change? In The Struggle for the State in Jordan, Jamie Allinson argues that the answer lies
The day after New Labour took office in May 1997, Frank Field's appointment as Minister for Welfare Reform was high on the government's news agenda. Yet, by August 1998, Field was out of office and w
At the height of the Cold War, art produced in divided Germany contested the cultural demarcation of East and West. Here Claudia Mesch shows how a wide group of artists struggled to take visual art be
'When the Nazi power was broken, I asked myself what was the best advice I could give to my fellow citizens here in this island and across the channel in our ravaged continent. There was no difficulty
Buddhism is often characterised as one of the most complex and enigmatic of all the world's religions. This work shows that the story of Buddhism as a global system of belief begins with the life of t
World War I is one of the iconic conflicts of the modern era. For many years the war at sea has been largely overlooked; yet, at the outbreak of that war, the British Government had expected and inten
A short walk from the glistening Nile nestled in a dusty Cairo street lies the Coptic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, known locally as the Boutrosiya. If one were to enter through one of the seven d
Inequality is widening. In the twenty-first century, the gap between those who have more and those who have less is growing: 1 per cent of the world owns as much as the other 99 per cent. Should we be
Women's emancipation through productive labour was a key tenet of socialist politics in post-World War II Yugoslavia. Mass industrialisation under Tito led many young women to join traditionally 'femi
Understanding Urban Tourism applies methods and concepts that are currently transforming our understanding of society in other areas of social sciences and applying them to urban tourism. With an emph
Understanding Urban Tourism applies methods and concepts that are currently transforming our understanding of society in other areas of social sciences and applying them to urban tourism. With an emph
Poole (media studies, Staffordshire U., UK) explores the way Muslims are represented in the British national press. She presents the results of a content analysis study of two broadsheet newspapers ov
Waziristan, a region on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, has in recent years become a flash point in the so-called 'War on Terror'. Hugh Beattie looks at the history of this region, examin
The exotic and dangerous stereotype of the Gypsy woman formed in nineteenth-century literature and visual culture remains alive today. These contemporary clichs about Gypsy culture - both negative and
Ethiopia, legendary home of the Queen of Sheba who travelled to Jerusalem to meet Solomon, resting-place of the Ark of the Covenant and battleground of the great emperors from Ezana in the 4th century
Exploring an Islamic Empire is a detailed survey of different genres of source materials, including historiographical, epigraphic, and numismatic, on Fatimid history, and as such, it represents a firs
Though officially neutral until March 1945, Buenos Aires played a key role during World War II as a base for the South American intelligence operations of the major powers. The Hidden War in Argentina
As Cold War battle lines are seemingly re-drawn, Russia's various 'frozen' war zones (ongoing separatist conflicts) are often cited as particularly volatile and assumed by some Western commentators an
From 1924 to 1946 the Republic of Turkey was in effect ruled as an authoritarian single-party regime. During these years the state embarked upon an extensive reform programme of modernisation and nati
