I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd. – förlag

The infamous Ottoman devsirme-the levy and enslavement of young male subjects from the Christian regions of the empire for palace and military service by the Turks-has been traditionally understood as a mechanism of both elite recruitment and Muslim conversion. Here Charles Argo investigates the political and cultural resonance of the act itself; an act that reproduced in spectacle form Ottoman ideologies of dynastic legitimacy and political hegemony amongst its Christian subjects. Viewed thus, the levy transcends its utility as a recruitment mechanism, and becomes an important-even iconic-display of political will that significantly shaped the cultural reality for Balkan peoples under Ottoman rule. A fresh and original look at Ottoman history, this book changes the way we look at the exercise of power in pre-modern empires, and will be essential for all those interested in Ottoman and Middle East studies as well as Christian-Muslim relations, ritual, slavery and conversion.

In the twenty years since teen television began it has seen an exponential increase in popularity and experienced significant changes in both its format and audiences. Many fans are now adults and have expanded the boundaries of the genre beyond its early demographic limitations, whilst teen television has become a space governed not by the particulars of setting or plot but by an all-encompassing idea of retelling the narrative of growing up. Up the Creek explores these fascinating developments whilst considering how a genre that is defined as much by scheduling practices as it is by textual content can be understood within today's television landscape. Examining series such as Beverly Hills 90210 and The Gilmore Girls, Dr Hannah Ellison considers the ways in which teen television has contended with recurrent themes and modes of production, illuminating the continued use and reworking of familiar tropes such as adulthood and personal agency. Multidisciplinary in its approach, this book asks new questions about national identity, audience entitlement and the embracing of ever-changing new media landscapes.

In "The Life of Wisdom", Alan Brown offers a clear and boldly revisionist exposition of the relationship between Christianity and the classical philosophy of antiquity, with a view to making some important points about the nature of the philosophical task today. Taking issue with the understanding both of philosophy and of Christianity by certain secular humanists, Brown shows - in a similar vein to Alain de Botton in his book "The Consolations of Philosophy" - that in antiquity philosophy was never an abstracted activity but was actually about determining the good and valuable in life, and was therefore at bottom pragmatic. For Brown, Christianity (which is also, and above all, concerned with value and the good life) did not graft its philosophy on to its religious beliefs as some sort of adjunct, from elsewhere, but is intrinsically philosophical in a unique sense. Contra secular philosophers like A C Grayling and Simon Blackburn, who view Christianity as philosophically impoverished, there is no meaningful distinction, then, between 'religious belief' and 'philosophical reason', since, like its classical counterparts, early Christianity was a distinct philosophy in its own right. And since Christian philosophy was apocalyptic in character, and looked to the future, it resisted the notion of absolute certainty in the present. For Brown, therefore, a true understanding of the nature of Christian philosophy has much to tell us about the fundamentally liberal and anti-authoritarian character of Christianity (an insight that has considerable present-day resonance in the light of recent fundamentalist attempts to re-position the churches according to a more conservative agenda). In arguing this fascinating case, the author provides a very clear survey of the main schools of classical philosophy and their influence on early Christianity (free from the sorts of conceptual overlays into which both are usually forced), which will be of great value to students of the philosophy of antiquity - whether from the standpoint of classics or religious studies - who want to gain an accurate and well-informed sense of the main strands of philosophical thinking in the classical and Hellenistic worlds. "The Life of Wisdom" is thus both readable introductory textbook and stimulating philosophical essay, which puts a remarkable new perspective on the origins and contemporary meanings of Christian philosophy.

When Edwin Cameron announced to a stunned local and international media that he - one of South Africa's most prominent citizens - was himself living with the HIV/AIDS virus cutting swathes through the population of the continent, the impact was immediate. In Witness to AIDS, Edwin Cameron's compelling memoir, he grapples with the meaning of HIV/AIDS: for him as he confronts the possibility of his own lingering death, and for all of us in facing up to one of the most desperate challenges of our time. In his intensely personal account of survival, Cameron blends elements of his destitute childhood with his daily duties as a senior judge and international human rights lawyer, while focusing always on the epidemic's central issues : stigma, unjust discrimination, and, most vitally, the life-and-death question of access to treatment. Cameron's remarkable story of his own survival in an epidemic that has cost millions of lives is at once moving and uplifting, sobering and ultimately hopeful. 'This book will be a major contribution by a courageous South African towards that quest for a better life for all.'- Nelson Mandela 'If truth is beauty, this relentlessly brilliant and hopeful book is beautiful. It is a text to live by, if we aspire to the possibility of a better life for all...in a world widely threatened by HIV/Aids.' - Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1991

Did America have to lose Vietnam? The popular wisdom about the Vietnam War remains that it was a 'guerrilla' conflict, in which the United States arrogantly failed to appreciate its enemy, and gradually succumbed to the pinprick attacks of the 'war of the flea'. The result of the conflict is therefore often understood to be almost pre-ordained. This new military history of the Vietnam War finds that the result of the conflict was not a foregone conclusion and that there were a number of critical junctures at which the decision was in doubt. It deals with the war aims of the participants, their military strategies and the resulting operations on the ground. In doing so, it provides original answers to some of the key questions about the war that still preoccupy commentators on the conflict. It will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in the Vietnam War and military history.