Through biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities, John Wills displays the five-thousand-year sweep of Chinese history from the legendary sage emperors to the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. This unique introduction to Chinese history and culture uses more than twenty exemplary lives, including those of statesmen, philosophers, poets, and rulers, to provide the focus for accounts of key historical trends and periods. What emerges is a provocative rendering of China's moral landscape, featuring characters who have resonated in the historical imagination as examples of villainy, heroism, wisdom, spiritual vision, political guile, and complex combinations of all of these.
We are inescapably confronted by ‘consumer society’ and ‘consumer culture’: the inexhaustible world of goods and the declarations that we are born to consume and are defined by our consumption. But do we know what this really means – and is it so simple? Showing the cultural and institutional processes that have brought the notion of the ‘consumer’ to life, this book guides the reader on a comprehensive journey through the history of how we have come to understand ourselves as consumers in a consumer society and reveals the profound ambiguities and ambivalences inherent within.
A Companion to the History of the Middle East offers a fresh account of the multifaceted and multi-layered history of this region. * A fresh account of the multifaceted and multi-layered history of the Middle East. * Comprises 26 newly-commissioned essays by leading international scholars. * Primarily focused on the modern and contemporary periods. * Covers religious, social, cultural, economic, political and military history. * Treats the region as four differentiated political units - Iran, Turkey, Israel and the Arab world. * Includes a section on current issues, such as oil, urban growth, the role of women, and democratic human rights.
A History of the World: From the 20th to the 21st Century
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Non-Fiction | 18 December 2008
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With the onset of decolonisation, the rise and fall of fascism and communism, the technological revolution and the rapidly increasing power of the United States, the world since 1900 has witnessed global change on an immense scale. Providing a comprehensive survey of the key events and personalities of this period throughout the world, A History of the World includes discussion of topics such as: * the rivalry between European nations from 1900-1914 * the Depression and the rise of fascism during the 1920s and 1930s * the global impact of the Cold War * decolonisation and its effects * the continuing conflict in the Middle East. This new edition has been updated throughout to take account of recent historical research. Bringing the story up to date, J.A.S. Grenville includes a discussion of events such as 9/11, recent economic problems in Latin America and the second Gulf War.
An encyclopedia of American women's history, this comprehensive reference book features in-depth articles on trends (e.g. birthrates, suburban growth), social movements (civil rights, feminism), ideas and concepts (domesticity, consciousness-raising), institutions (Children's Bureau, women in Congress), organizations (Girl Scouts of America, League of Women Voters), events (American Revolution), issues (abortion, Equal Rights Amendment), key legal cases (Roe v Wade, Muller v Oregon), laws and constitutional amendments, documents and publications (Ramona, Declaration of Sentiments), ethnic and social groups (African American women, Latinas), overviews (women's health, women in music and literature), and biographies of notable American women. This Companion is a perfect supplement to The Young Oxford History of Women in the United States.
