Paul K. Davis - Böcker

From ancient times to the present, great sieges have had an enormous impact on the shaping of world history. Now, in this spectacular, fully-illustrated volume, one hundred of the world's most monumental and mind-boggling sieges are laid out in detail. Besieged covers the most important sieges from around the world throughout history--from Joshua's assault on Jericho in the fifteenth century B.C. to the Russian attack on the Chechen capital of Grozny at the end of the twentieth. Each entry provides the name and date of the siege, its exact location in terms of today's world, the number of forces engaged, when known, the names of the commanders on each side, and the overall importance of the siege in its historical context. Thoroughly examining the actions of both the attackers and the defenders, the book explores the motivations of both, and strategically surveys the technical and tactical innovations and conditions both inside besieged positions and in the besiegers' ranks. The entries detail the historical setting, the particular circumstances of the event itself, and the long-term results of the siege. These riveting accounts are enhanced by illustrations, over seventy maps, and references for further reading. A glossary and a comprehensive index complete the book. Global in scope, and with stirring accounts of familiar sieges as well as many lesser known conflicts, Besieged is essential reading for military buffs and everyone interested in how the modern world came to be. Includes the sieges of: * Jericho (1405 B.C.)* Troy (1250 B.C.)* Acre (1189--1191)* Constantinople (1453)* Tenochtitlan (1521* La Rochelle (1627--1628)* Leningrad (1941--1944)* Malta (1940--1942)* Dien Bien Phu (1954)* Khe Sanh (1968)* Beirut (1982)* Sarajevo (1991--1995)

The Civil Rights Movement is a collection of the best new scholarship on what is arguably the most important American social movement of the twentieth century. Designed for students, the volume contains twelve essays and supporting primary documents arranged chronologically and by topic with a detailed timeline and further reading lists. Emphasizing the wide chronological and geographic scope of the movement, this collection provides a perfect source for teaching the movement with a fresh perspective and new ideas.

Eight prominent philosophers and theologians confront the problems posed by natural and human evil for theistic belief. Each thinker sets out his or her theodicy and its connections to current social and philosophical debates. The other contributors then offer critiques of each theodicy, to which its author subsequently responds. The result is a valuable introduction to philosophical and theological perspectives on contemporary evil and to the nature of discourse in the philosophy of religion.

This volume describes frontiers in social-behavioral modeling for contexts as diverse as national security, health, and on-line social gaming. Recent scientific and technological advances have created exciting opportunities for such improvements. However, the book also identifies crucial scientific, ethical, and cultural challenges to be met if social-behavioral modeling is to achieve its potential. Doing so will require new methods, data sources, and technology. The volume discusses these, including those needed to achieve and maintain high standards of ethics and privacy. The result should be a new generation of modeling that will advance science and, separately, aid decision-making on major social and security-related subjects despite the myriad uncertainties and complexities of social phenomena. Intended to be relatively comprehensive in scope, the volume balances theory-driven, data-driven, and hybrid approaches. The latter may be rapidly iterative, as when artificial-intelligence methods are coupled with theory-driven insights to build models that are sound, comprehensible and usable in new situations.With the intent of being a milestone document that sketches a research agenda for the next decade, the volume draws on the wisdom, ideas and suggestions of many noted researchers who draw in turn from anthropology, communications, complexity science, computer science, defense planning, economics, engineering, health systems, medicine, neuroscience, physics, political science, psychology, public policy and sociology. In brief, the volume discusses: Cutting-edge challenges and opportunities in modeling for social and behavioral scienceSpecial requirements for achieving high standards of privacy and ethics New approaches for developing theory while exploiting both empirical and computational dataIssues of reproducibility, communication, explanation, and validationSpecial requirements for models intended to inform decision making about complex social systems

Key battles have shaped history since time immemorial. This handy reference work spotlights 100 of the world's most important military confrontations, from 1469 B.C.–A.D. 1991.What if the Saxons had triumphed over the Normans in the Battle of Hastings? If Washington had lost the Battle of Trenton? If Lee had won at Gettysburg? If the Germans had held the Allies at bay in Normandy? The world would be a much different place today.