The Encyclopedia of Asia extends the global coverage offered in Berkshire Publishing Group's many publications on world cultures, ethnic relations, and the environment and was edited by Berkshire's David Levinson and Karen Christensen with a board of leading scholars from around the world. This massive project - 3,000 articles, 2.2 million words of text, hundreds of photographs, 700 authors in 65 countries - is the definitive resource on the entire sweep of Asia, from the Muslim countries of Southeast Asia, across China, India, and the Central Asian republics to the Turkic nations of western Asia.
The Encyclopedia of Modern Asia provides students, scholars, professionals, and general readers access to information and knowledge about key people, places, events, issues, and process across Asia. Comprehensive, authoritative, and fully cross-disciplinary, the Encyclopedia's focus is Asia since 1850, but ample historical information makes clear how the past influences the present as well as the future...
In his illuminating introduction, Robert Graves discusses the function of myth. He claims that in the first place, it serves to answer the type of awkward questions that children ask, like Who made the world or Who were the first people? The second function of myth is to justify an existing social system and to account for traditional customs and rites. Graves points out how myths of origin and eventual extinction vary according to the climate and that one finds a warm celestial afterworld in the north or a fresh flowered Elysian Field in Greece. He also deals with the Akan of Ghana and with Egypt and India. His conclusion is that myth is a dramatic shorthand record of stuff like invasions, migrations, dynastic changes, admission of foreign cults and social reforms. For example, when bread was first introduced in Greece, the myth of Demeter and Triptolemus sanctified its use.
The Encyclopedia investigates prehistoric mythology and that of Egypt, Assyro-Babylonia, Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Persia, India, China, Japan, Oceania and that of the Celts, the Teutons, the Amerindians and Africans. It contains 34 colour plates and hundred of black and white illustrations and it concludes with a further reading list divided under different headings reflecting its chapter contents, plus a thorough index.
Dictionary of Classical and Theoretical Mathematics
The Dictionary of Classical and Theoretical Mathematics, includes more than 1,000 entries from the fields of geometry, logic, number theory, set theory, and topology.
The authors who contributed their work to this volume are professional mathematicians, active in both teaching and research.
The goal in writing this dictionary has been to define each term rigorously, not to author a large and comprehensive survey text in mathematics.
The A to Z of Mathematics
This book is written in an appropriate language for explaining basic mathematics to the general reader, and uses examples drawn from everyday life.
There are many worked examples with detailed steps of working. Each step of working is accompanied by an explanation. It is this process of showing HOW and explaining WHY that gives this book its unique style.
Those mathematical abbreviations that often frustrate readers are written in full and the text is “user-friendly.”
For quick reference the format of the book is alphabetical, and it covers topics in basic mathematics. They are linked together with cross-references so that a theme can be followed through.
This book is a great deal more than a dictionary. Under each entry there is a straightforward explanation of the term, followed in many cases by carefully worked examples, showing the relevance of mathematics in the world around us.
This second edition of the popular Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, a comprehensive guide to over 150 invasions, conquests, battles and occupations from ancient times to the present, takes readers on a journey that includes the Roman conquest of Britain, the Portuguese colonization of Brazil, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, to name a few. New articles will explore the late 20th and 21st centuries, with a specific focus on recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Grenada and Chechnya.
Categories of entries include countries, invasions and conquests, and individuals. In addition to covering the military aspects of invasions and conquests, entries cover some of the political, economic, and cultural aspects, for example, the effects of a conquest on the invade country’s political and monetary system and in its language and religion. The entries on leaders - among them Sargon, Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror, and Adolf Hitler - deal with the people who sought to gain control, expand power, or exert religious or political influence over others through military means.
This authoritative, well-organized, lucidly written volume will prove invaluable for a variety of readers, including high school students, military historians, members of the armed forces, history buffs and hobbyists.
