Michael Willis – författare

Approved by AQA and tailored to the latest specification, Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition 1906-1957 helps students understand a transformative period of British history, during which democratically elected government faced a series of challenges, and British society underwent fundamental change.It explores:• reform• patriotism• pacifismEvents and developments are covered with precision.Focus on skills building and exam practiceKey features are:• Source-Based Learning. Includes a wide range of sources and extracts to develop vital skills in historical interpretation and source analysis• Exam Practice. Features exam-style questions and study tips to help students prepare and performPerfect for any student studying AQA AS or A Level History, this book helps students achieve success in Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition 1906-1957.

This book for A and AS level history looks at the politics and policies of Gladstone and Disraeli through a wide range of primary sources. These include written sources (reports, letters, parliamentary papers, newspapers extracts, etc.) as well as posters, drawings and cartoons.

In this groundbreaking study, Michael Willis examines how the gods of early Hinduism came to be established in temples, how their cults were organized, and how the ruling elite supported their worship. Examining the emergence of these key historical developments in the fourth and fifth centuries, Willis combines Sanskrit textual evidence with archaeological data from inscriptions, sculptures, temples, and sacred sites. The centrepiece of this study is Udayagiri in central India, the only surviving imperial site of the Gupta dynasty. Through a judicious use of landscape archaeology and archaeo-astronomy, Willis reconstructs how Udayagiri was connected to the Festival of the Rainy Season and the Royal Consecration. Through his meticulous study of the site, its sculptures and its inscriptions, Willis shows how the Guptas presented themselves as universal sovereigns and how they advanced new systems of religious patronage that shaped the world of medieval India.

This book charts the progress of the United Kingdom towards a modern democracy and looks at the changing role of the state from 1830 to 1945. It examines the electoral reform acts introduced between 1832 and 1918; the changing balance of power between monarchy, government, the House of Lords and the civil service; the development of the state from a laissez-faire to an interventionist one; the growth of corporatism; and welfare provision. The author considers the key ideas and thinking behind these developments and offers different perspectives on events. He also highlights the main debates between historians about the politics of the period. Democracy and the State contains a selection of primary sources, including a document case study and questions at the end of each chapter.

In recent years, Algeria has been rocked by social upheaval, protest, and spasmodic violence. Like many countries caught between the tides of fundamentalist religion and secular culture, the very fiber of the nation seems to be fraying. Michael Willis here charts the meteoric rise of one of the largest and most powerful Islamist movements in the Muslim world. Tracing its origins to the French colonial domination in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Islamism has always played a defining role in both the national struggle against the French and in the newly independent Algerian state. The primary focus of Willis's book is on Algeria since 1988, when unprecedented social unrest led to political changes that allowed Algeria's Islamists to form political parties and compete in multi- party elections. The largest Islamist party, the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), after rousing victories in local and national elections in 1990 and 1991, was subsequently crushed by the military regime. Since then, despite the Rome Accord of January 1995, over 50,000 lives have been lost in an increasingly bloody conflict that threatens to spiral out of control.Banned by the army, the FIS splintered, with various factions arming themselves, leading to the current, ominous state of disarray.

Among world religions, only Buddhism and Christianity attach a central significance to the role of relics. These two traditions, however, are different in both conceptual and material terms. In Buddhism, the most sacred relics are those considered parts of the cremated remains of the Buddha – a hair, a tooth, a small fragment of bone – or the tiny bead-like relics generated by the Buddha before entering nirvana. In contrast, Christianity venerates objects associated with Christ such as the thorns, the cross or his robe. This first generation of relics were later joined by both the bodily relics and items used by the saints.The papers in this volume, the culmination of a research project focussing on relic worship and Buddhism, cover a rich variety of themes. Subjects include a discussion of what constitutes a relic according to primary and secondary sources, as well as an analysis of the special terminology related to relic worship. Other chapters focus on the placement and treatment of relics in situ, in addition to the wider archaeological contexts for relics, relic chambers and reliquaries. New perspectives are also offered on the relics and reliquaries themselves, for example, the golden Bimaran casket from Afghanistan, an exceptional example of metalwork from the 1st century AD. The final chapter explores the spread of Buddhism to Burma and the evidence of the vibrant relic culture that has been found there, including some of the oldest surviving Pali inscriptions in the world, a text on gold leaves deposited in a relic chamber.

The Mahābodhi temple at Bodhgayā in eastern India has long been recognised as the place where the Buddha sat in meditation and attained enlightenment. The site, soon identified as the ‘Diamond Throne’ or vajrāsana, became a destination for pilgrims and a focus of religious attention for more than two thousand years.This volume presents new research on Bodhgayā and assesses the important archaeological, artistic and literary evidence that bears witness to the Buddha’s enlightenment and to the enduring significance of Bodhgayā in the history of Buddhism. The book brings together a team of international scholars to look at the history and perception of the site across the Buddhist world and its position in the networks of patronage and complex religious landscape of northern India. The volume assesses the site’s decline in the thirteenth century, as well as its subsequent revival as a result of archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century. Using the British Museum’s collections as a base, the authors discuss the rich material culture excavated from the site that highlights Bodhgayā’s importance in the field of Buddhist studies.

In this groundbreaking study, Michael Willis examines how the gods of early Hinduism came to be established in temples, how their cults were organized, and how the ruling elite supported their worship. Examining the emergence of these key historical developments in the fourth and fifth centuries, Willis combines Sanskrit textual evidence with archaeological data from inscriptions, sculptures, temples, and sacred sites. The centrepiece of this study is Udayagiri in central India, the only surviving imperial site of the Gupta dynasty. Through a judicious use of landscape archaeology and archaeo-astronomy, Willis reconstructs how Udayagiri was connected to the Festival of the Rainy Season and the Royal Consecration. Through his meticulous study of the site, its sculptures and its inscriptions, Willis shows how the Guptas presented themselves as universal sovereigns and how they advanced new systems of religious patronage that shaped the world of medieval India.