Between 1968 and 1975, there was a subtle thawing of relations between East and West, for which Brezhnev coined the name Detente, and - perhaps - a chance to end the Cold War. The leaders of the Unite
Britain's military involvement in Afghanistan is a contentious subject, yet it is often forgotten that the current conflict is in fact the fourth in a string of such wars dating back more than 170 yea
If the Middle Ages form the present-day backdrop to the continents of Westeros and Essos, then antiquity is their resonant past. The Known World is haunted by the remnants of distant and powerful civi
Eva Peron remains Argentina's best-known and most iconic personality, far outlasting her own husband, President Juan Domingo Peron, himself a remarkable and charismatic political leader without whom s
Robert Grant Watson was a British diplomat attached to the British Legation in Persia. His A History of Persia, published in 1866, is a detailed account of events in the country in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the foundations of the Qajar dynasty were being laid. Watson uses both European and Persian sources to detail the circumstances of the Qajar rise to rule and recount the tumultuous events of Persia affairs – both foreign and domestic – between 1800 and 1860. This was one of the first books to be written on this specific period and details Persia’s entanglements with European powers, including the war between Persia and Russia, her internal ructions, and the complex dealings of the various treaties and their upsets. The hard-to-find volume is now re-published with a new introduction by the leading scholar of Iranian History, Ali Ansari, who is Professor at St Andrews University in the U.K.
This book is available open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The so-called Arab Spring challenged conventional wisdom and certainties about the Arab world where its effects continue to be felt as well as in the diaspora.This book provides an original contribution to current social and cultural theory on Arab social movements by giving a fuller historical and critical treatment of contemporary artistic and cultural production from the region and beyond. Thematically structured and covering culture, media, politics, and literary studies, the book uses a range of theoretical material that engages readers in three key ways. First, it adopts a critical standpoint with respect to the term “Arab Spring,” recognizing the multiple interpretations and varied geographical, historical, and political realities of the term. Second, its focus on carefully selected case studies - namely, Egypt, Tunis, Syria, and Yemen - adds depth
This fully re-edited, modernised play text is accompanied by insightful commentary notes, while its lively introduction provides an essential contextual grounding in the court scandals, anti-Catholic
The civilization of ancient Egypt has been a source of fascination for explorers and scholars for centuries, and has occupied a special place in the imagination of the public ever since early travelle
The tradition of philosophy in the Persian-speaking world is extraordinarily rich, creative and diverse. This anthology, which is divided into three volumes, aims to communicate something of that rich
The drama of history and the confluence of geography and climate have made Egypt one of the most sought-after travel destinations in the world. But what is that elusive something that makes it unlike
Cairo is a city of splendor and spectacle, long celebrated as much for its warmth and bustling street life as for the legacy of its tumultuous past. Yet for the countless visitors who fall under its s
Lothar Orbach, the youngest son of a German Jewish family, was just 14 when the Nazis began rounding up Berlin's Jews. His promising education was aborted; his close-knit family splintered. When the G
With the debut of Deadwood on HBO, a vision of the “Old West” emerged that was unlike anything done before on TV. David Milch, also the creator of NYPD Blue, imbued the series with his signature use o
In the West, the varied body of texts and traditions known as Tantra for more than two centuries has had the capacity to scandalise and shock. For European colonisers, Orientalist scholars and Christi
The Family of Man is the most widely seen exhibition in the history of photography. The book of the exhibition, still in print, is also the most commercially successful photobook ever published. First
Since its emergence in the 1920s, Iraqi-Kurdish theatre was used as a tool of national identity building and modernisation. It promoted literacy, education and women's rights and became one of the mos
Anahita was the most important goddess of pre-Islamic Iran. From her roots as an ancient Indo-European water deity her status was unrivalled by any other Iranian goddess throughout the course of three
Khaled, the spoiled idle son of a pasha, meets Malim, carpenter's apprentice and son of a scoundrel, when he comes to fix a broken window. In the course of his work, Malim stumbles across a stash of m
