I.B. Tauris – serie

Despite strict censorship after the 1979 revolution, Persian literature and Iranian cinema, music, art and theatre found new ways to evolve and flourish.Bahram Beyzaie, whose innovative approaches to cultural production had helped revitalize indigenous Iranian artistic forms for modern purposes before the revolution, continued his work as a leading filmmaker and playwright in the decades following the revolution. This book examines Beyzaie’s unique synthesis of world cinema and performing arts and Iranian literature, folktales, myths and ritual traditions across more than 70 screenplays, plays, films and monographs produced between 1979 and 2021, including key films such as Bashu, the Little Stranger and Killing Mad Dogs. It also engages with the various aspects of Iranian culture which Beyzaie’s works deal with and examines the semiotic and thematic structures of his creative works, particularly his films, with the view to revealing their dialogue with Iran’s past, present and future.

In what ways did the European racist and racial thinking affect the development of Zionism? This book critically investigates three important figures in the history of Zionism to trace how the rise of eugenics, racism and European and German colonialism and antisemitism influenced Zionist ideology and its proponents in Europe and Palestine. The book argues that while dismayed by the failure of Jewish assimilation and the persecution of Jews inherent in Europe’s embrace of racial hierarchies in the 19th century, Zionism as a counterforce to such oppression reflected elements of these racial ideas in its project to transform Judaism from a religion into a secular national identity. It first provides background on the contradictions and tensions of this intellectual environment, including division between western and central European Jewish thinkers and Eastern European Jews. The book then provides detailed case studies of philosopher and critic Max Nordau’s embrace of Zionism and the project of ‘muscular Judaism’ in response to antisemitism, Arthur Ruppin’s racial thinking and its relation to his activities organising Jewish immigration to Palestine, and the life of Ephraim Lilien whose artistic representations of the ‘New Jew’ the author argues reflects Nordau and Ruppin’s respective concepts of the ‘regenerated Jewish body’ and ‘return to the land’.

Iran’s nuclear program remains one of the most contentious issues of modern international politics. This book is the first to trace the evolution of Iran’s nuclear strategy (program) in the broader context of its relationship with the United States, from the early days of total US support in the 1950s to the staunch opposition that followed the Iranian revolution, and its reconstitution. The account covers the pivotal moments including initial meetings to pursue uranium enrichment in Iran, key internal debates, the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Donald Trump’s controversial withdrawal and the latest efforts to revive the agreement. The book shows that because the strategic logic of the nuclear program transcends the regimes type, dismantling the Iranian nuclear program is not viable policy option for the United States. Instead, the US must learn to live with a nuclear threshold state and make it a priority to keep Iranian capacity as far away from the bomb as possible.The research is based on American declassified documents and often marginalized Iranian primary sources including political memoirs, diplomatic correspondences, oral histories from Iranian nuclear officials and exclusive one-on-one interviews with Iranian scientists and national security officials. The account and its findings have important implications for both scholars of nuclear non-proliferation and for policymakers.

Its life on the fault line, Istanbul bears its contradictions proudly. Ancient cosmopolitan port anchored to a hard, nationalist hinterland. Secular multiethnic metropolis pinned to a soi-disant monolingual Muslim ethnostate. Binder of continents and pillar of Pangaea, a string of broken pearls strung together by the great human traditions of solidarity and local self-government.This vivid portrait of one of the world’s greatest cities introduces readers to eight emblematic neighborhoods from both sides of the iconic Bosporus strait. From staunchly secular Besiktas to hyper-liberal Kadiköy, the multikulti proletarian melee of Aksaray to resolutely religious Çarsamba, each embodies a critical aspect of modern Turkey’s social, political, economic, and religious history. Woven through are the stories of ordinary Istanbullus of all walks of life whose reflections reveal that, if far from perfect, each neighborhood offers sanctuary of a kind, a partial haven from the many cruelties of history, class, geography, and creed. Little loci of autonomy that refuse to harden into a single form, each offers its residents a fighting chance of dignity and freedom. Not only do they embody the history of Istanbul. They also hold this city of refuge together.

As the situation in Israel/Palestine seems to become ever more intractable and protracted, the need for new ways of looking at recent developments and its historical roots is more pressing than ever. Bearing this in mind, Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Abigail Bakan discuss the historic and contemporary developments in Israel/Palestine, and their international reverberations, from the unique vantage point of 'race', racialization, racism and anti-racism. They therefore offer close analysis of the 'idea' of Israel and the 'absence' of Palestine by examining the concepts of race and identity in the region. With fresh coverage of themes relating to gender, indigeneity, the environment , surveillance and the war on terror, Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race will appeal to scholars in political science, sociology and Middle East studies.

From Cairo to Damascus and from Tunisia to Bahrain, Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel have brought together some of the most exciting new writing born out of revolution in the Arab world. This is a remarkable collection of testimony, entirely composed by participants in, and witnesses to, the profound changes shaking their region. Situated between past, present and future - in a space where the personal and the political collide - these voices are part of an ongoing process, one that is at once hopeful and heartbreaking. Unique amongst material emanating from and about the convulsions in the Arab Middle East, these creative and original writers speak of history, determination and struggle, as well as of political and poetic engagement with questions of identity and activism. This book gives a moving and inspiring insight into the Arab revolutions and uprisings: why they are happening and what might come next.

The twelfth-century philosopher Averroes is often identified by modern Arab thinkers as an early advocate of the Enlightenment. Saud M. S. Al-Tamamy demonstrates that an historical as well as comparative approach to Averroes' thought refutes this widely held assumption. The philosophical doctrine of Averroes is compared with that of the key figure of the Enlightenment in Western thought, Immanuel Kant. By comparing Averroes and Kant, Al-Tamamy evaluates the ideologies of each thinker's work and in particular focuses on their respective political implications on two social groups: the Elite, in Averroes' case, and the Public, in the case of Kant. The book's methodology is at once historical, analytical and communicative, and is especially relevant when so many thinkers - both Western and Middle Eastern - are anxious to find common denominators between the formations of Islamic and Western cultures. It responds to a need for comparative analysis in the field of Averroes studies, and takes on the challenge to uncover the philosopher's influence on the Enlightenment.

The prominent Buddhist religious leader and advocate for peace, Daisaku Ikeda, has placed dialogue at the centre of his efforts towards securing global justice and conflict resolution. However, far from constituting abstract plans for the future of the world, Ikeda's dialogues represent very concrete and focused activity. He concentrates on one significant individual (such as Joseph Rotblat, Linus Pauling and Mikhail Gorbachev) at a time, or sometimes small groups, in order to attempt the transformation of thinking and society through intense discussion. This book offers detailed exploration of this crucial aspect of Ikeda's philosophy of peace. Contributors examine topics such as: the background to Ikeda's dialogic thinking as found in the Lotus Sutra; Buddhism as a practical philosophy of dialogue; Ikeda's use of dialogue, specifically in the field of education; and dialogue in relation to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Ikeda's concept of dialogue emerges as a paradoxical movement towards common ground based on respectful difference. This study will appeal to students of peace, politics and modern Buddhism.

This new edition of Donald Sassoon's magisterial history of the Left in the twentieth century includes a substantial new introduction by the author. With unique authority and unparalleled scholarship, Sassoon traces the fortunes of the political parties of the left in Western Europe across 14 countries, covering the fortunes of socialism from the rise of the Bolsheviks through two World Wars to the revival of feminism and the arrival of "green" politics.

Despite its some of its more liberal and democratic characteristics - when compared to many other countries in the Middle East - the more conservative elements within Turkish politics and society have made gains over the past decades. As a result, like many others in the region, Turkish society has multiple standards when naming, evaluating and reacting to men who have sex with men. Cenk Ozbay argues that overall, self-identified gay men (as well as men who practice clandestine same-sex acts) are most of the time marginalised, ostracised and rendered 'immoral' in both everyday practices and social institutions. He offers in this book an analysis of the concept of masculinity as central to redefining boundaries of class, gender and sexuality, particularly looking at the dynamics between self-identified gay men and straight-acting male prostitutes, or 'rent boys'. A result of in-depth interviews with both self-identified gay men and rent boys, Ozbay explores the changing discourses and meaning of class, gender and queer sexualities, and how these three are embedded within urban and familial narratives.

In the early sixties, crowds gathered to watch rites of destruction - from the demolition derby where makeshift cars crashed into each other for sport, to concerts where musicians destroyed their instruments, to performances of self-destructing machines staged by contemporary artists. Destruction, in both its playful and fearsome aspects, was ubiquitous in the new Atomic Age. This complicated subjectivity was not just a way for people to find catharsis amid the fears of annihilation and postwar trauma, but also a complex instantiation of ideological crisis in a time with some seriously conflicted political myths. Destruction Rites explores the ephemeral visual culture of destruction in the postwar era and its links to contemporary art. It examines the demolition derby; games and toys based on warfare; playgrounds situated in bomb sites; and the rise of garage sales, where goods designed for obsolescence and destined for the garbage heap are reclaimed and repurposed by local communities.Mona Hadler looks at artists such as Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Martha Rosler and Vito Acconci to expose how the 1960s saw destruction, construction and the everyday collide as never before. During the Atomic age, whether in the public sphere or art museums, destruction could be transformed into a constructive force and art objects and performances often oscillated between the two.

The organization 'Genocide Watch' estimates that 100 million civilians around the globe have lost their lives as a result of genocide in only the past sixty years. Over the same period, the visual arts in the form of documentary footage has aided international efforts to document genocide and prosecute those responsible, but this book argues that fictional representation occupies an equally important and problematic place in the process of shaping minds on the subject. Edited by two of the leading experts in the field, The History of Genocide in Cinema analyzes fictional and semi-fictional portrayals of genocide, focusing on, amongst others, the repression of indigenous populations in Australia, the genocide of Native Americans in the 19th century, the Herero genocide, Armenia, the Holodomor (Stalin's policy of starvation in Ukraine), the Nazi Holocaust, Nanking and Darfur. Comprehensive and unique in its focus on fiction films, as opposed to documentaries, The History of Genocide in Cinema is an essential resource for students and researchers in the fields of cultural history, holocaust studies and the history of film.

Dominico Caracciolo was an important figure on the 18th-century European stage, holding high office as a diplomat in London, Turin and Paris, and as viceroy and prime minister in the Two Sicilies. He was an inveterate letter-writer and his huge correspondence, with his diplomatic despatches and other official writing, is a unique original source, providing a detailed and vivid picture of the 18th-century European elite with all its extravagance and scandalous behaviour but, even more importantly, it is an account of an Enlightenment struggle against the increasingly outdated clerical and feudal rule in Sicily. Caracciolo was an abrasive and combative official and politician and vigorous scion of the Enlightenment. In this book, Angus Campbell provides a detailed portrait of Caracciolo and of the political, social, economic, legal and cultural context in which he lived and worked. In doing so, he provides a unique vantage point on the European diplomatic culture of the 18th century.

Even before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkic communities, living in states newly independent from Ottoman rule, were 'protected' by the Ottomans. With the creation of the new Turkish Republic, the notion of 'Outside Turks' became embedded in a new foreign policy which aimed to unite these communities, with whom Kemalist Turkey claimed to share ethnic origin, to the homeland. After 1980, and particularly during the Justice and Development Party rule, the country's domestic agenda, however, was transformed to imagine Outside Turks along cultural and religious lines, rather than in a purely ethnic sense. Husrev Tabak provides a foreign policy analysis to account for this vital shift, arguing that four post-Kemalist norms are responsible: Ottomania, de-ethnicized nationhood, Turkish Islam and Islamic Internationalism. By focusing on the case of the Kosovar Turks, the book reveals that the post-Kemalist move to re-imagine Outside Turkish communities was largely counterproductive. In losing Turkey as a secure point of reference for their ethnic identity, these communities began to fashion a nationalism which gained a reactionary character.The Kosovar Turks now more vehemently embrace Kemalist attitudes and discourses and their sense of Turkish ethnicity has been sharpened.In tracing the impact of norm changes within Turkey on ethnic Turks beyond Turkey, the book illustrates the way in which domestic norms can be used as a significant foreign policy analysis tool. The Kosovar Turks and Post-Kemalist Turkey will therefore be essential reading for those interested in Turkey's foreign policy and post-Kemalism, as well as those researching the ongoing impact of the Ottoman Empire's multinational, multicultural legacy.

The Greek Civil War (1946-1949) was one of the few instances in the post-World War II era of a clear-cut and permanent victory by right-wing government forces over an insurgent communist movement. Spyridon Plakoudas here explores the factors which ultimately caused the downfall of the communist insurgency in Greece which had, at some points, seemed undefeatable. He questions whether the guerrilla movement fell victim to the feud between Stalin and Tito or whether the significant British and, above all, American aid in fact rescued the Greek monarchist regime from collapse. Plakoudas explores the strategies adopted by government forces in order to counter the communist insurgency, how external and internal actors influenced these policies and when, how and why these policies achieved success. Featuring previously unseen sources and documents, this book reveals the strategy and tactics of the monarchist regime.

The April 6th Youth Movement began as a Facebook page that sought to mobilize young Egyptians' support for striking industrial workers. Established in Egypt in 2008 when over 100,000 Facebook users joined, the movement consisted mainly of young Egyptians who had never been involved in politics before. The group's unprecedented popularity meant that it eventually coalesced into a political movement and played a key role in the revolution against Hosni Mubarak's rule. This book investigates the rise and fall of the April 6th Movement to explain the contentious dynamics of social activism in Egypt. Despite the Movement's initial success, it was banned by an Egyptian court and its main founders arrested after it later turned against the military-installed regime. The formal transition process following Mubarak's fall had posed ideological and organizational challenges to the Movement, leading to internal fragmentations and the gradual loss of its mobilizing capacity.But Ali Sonay argues here that social movements around the world faced very similar opportunities and constraints, and that the political and socio-economic dynamics in Egypt cannot be understood by referring to concepts such as the 'West' and 'Middle East'. Instead, according to Sonay, the Arab uprisings were embedded in the increasingly volatile global political and socio-economic context that reached way beyond the Middle East and was exacerbated by the financial crisis in 2008. Based on first-hand and in-depth empirical findings, Sonay sheds new light on the so-called Arab Spring and presents the April 6th Movement as a manifestation of a global political discourse.

The Hadhramis of Yemen have migrated for centuries in large numbers, establishing a diaspora that extends around the Indian Ocean, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States. This migration has deeply affected the host countries as well as Hadhramaut itself. Yet the region has not been able to use its population size, capabilities or resources to wield significant political influence in successive Yemeni regimes. This book examines the people of the Hadhrami diaspora, who travelled as religious scholars, traders, labourers and soldiers, to understand their enduring influence and identity. In doing so, the book explores key aspects of their history, including the impact of Yemeni nationalist movements, the significance of land reforms, the importance of social and tribal origins and how the Hadhrami resisted European domination as a Muslim community. Although a distinctive part of geographical Yemen, Hadhramaut was not regarded as a Yemeni political entity until the twentieth century.This research asks if the recent turmoil in Yemen following the Arab Spring, the growth of Al-Qa'ida and ISIS, and war involving a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, will produce even greater instability in the region or perhaps lead to a united Yemen, a restored South Yemen or even to Hadhramaut as an independent state.

In 1975, Marvel Comics revived the X-Men, a failed title which hadn't used new material for half a decade. It was a marginal project in an industry then in crisis. Five years later, it was the bestseller in a revived comics market. Unusually in the comics world, one man, Chris Claremont wrote the comic over seventeen years, from 1975 to 1991, developing new characters such as Wolverine and Storm, and taking themes from Freudian psychology, Christian temptation narratives, Existentialist philosophy and the language of sub-cultural identity. Marvel's Mutants is the first book to be devoted to the aesthetics of these comics that laid the foundation for the worldwide X-Men franchise we know today. Miles Booy explores Claremont's recurrent themes, the evolution of his reputation as an auteur within a collaborative medium, the superhero genre and the input of the artists with whom Claremont worked. Also covered are the successful spin-off projects, which Claremont wrote: solo Wolverine mini-series and whole new teams of mutant superheroes.

Britain is facing big security challenges in the 2020s. The decade to come will not be as favourable as the two past decades. For a country as ‘globalised’ as Britain, security challenges cover a wide spectrum - from terrorism, international crime and cyber attack through to the prospects of war in its own continent or even, again, for its own survival. Brexit has entered these equations and turned them into a political tipping point, from which there is no hiding and no turning back. Tipping Point looks at the immediate and long-term security challenges Britain faces - from security and foreign policy to the crisis of liberal democracy - as well as Britain's security capabilities.

Sir William Smith's classic work is a treasure trove of information on all aspects of Greek and Roman life: music, customs, law, medicine, food, clothing, politics, religion, trade, etc. The contributors number some of the most distinguished scholars of their day - including Heberden, Jebb, Lindsay, Monro, Mozley and Onians. Unusually for the time, the dictionary drew fully on scholarly work from outside the British Isles. The generous citations and references to Latin and Greek texts have made it a first port of call for both students and scholars wanting to get a basic overview of a particular subject with references. The third edition is a major revision of all previous editions, with nearly 1000 additional pages, 200 new entries, and extensive revisions to virtually all the previous entries. Extensively illustrated and with a wealth of information on a wide variety of topics A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Culture, originally published as A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, represents a major landmark of Victorian scholarship that will be welcomed by all scholars and enthusiasts of the ancient world.This reissue is extremely welcome for making available again an invaluable resource of Victorian scholarship. - Bruce Gibson, Department of Classics, University of Liverpool

'My struggle is not merely political. It is religious and therefore quite pure.' This major new interpretation of the life of Gandhi adds a new dimension to our understanding of this extraordinary figure of twentieth-century history. Drawing on material neglected by earlier biographers, Kathryn Tidrick provides a highly original account of Gandhi's beliefs, their origins, and their expression in his political views and personal behaviour. She revealingly examines Gandhi's ideas about the relationship between sexual temptation and spiritual power, and the bizarre and scandalous behaviour that resulted. The fresh light that Tidrick throws on her subject reveals not the secular saint of popular myth but a difficult and self-obsessed man driven to pursue the world-changing destiny that he believed was marked out for him. Gandhi's conception of his personal destiny grew out of the religious influences to which he was exposed as a student in London and developed in the context of the Indian independence struggle.Throughout a long and turbulent career, he strove to balance the demands of the spiritual discipline he imposed on himself with the necessity (as he saw it) of his personal leadership of the independence movement and the claims of practical politics. Penetrating and provocative, "Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life" shows how he maintained an unswerving belief that his success or failure was of crucial significance not only for India but or the world. It makes a tremendous contribution to our understanding of the man behind the myth.

"The Delirious Museum" is a remarkable, illuminating work, which presents an original view of the idea of the museum in the twenty-first century, re-imagining the possibilities for museums and their displays and re-examining the blurred boundaries between museums and the cities around them. On his quest for the Delirious Museum, Storrie takes a journey that begins in the Louvre and continues through Paris, London, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He encounters on his way the museum architecture of John Soane, Carlo Scarpa and Daniel Libeskind, the exhibitions of El Lissitsky and of Frederick Kiesler, and the work of artists as varied as Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Marcel Broodthaers, Sophie Calle and Mark Dion.

Clint Eastwood is one of the world's most popular action stars, who has matured into a fine American producer-director. Entertaining, illuminating and packed with information, up to and including "The Changeling", this is the first book to cover his full life in the movies, from his beginnings in 1950s B-movies and in TV's "Rawhide" to "Gran Torino" showing how as both actor and filmmaker Eastwood aims for the heart of the drama, whatever the story. Howard Hughes follows Eastwood's craft through over 50 movies. He looks at his launch into superstardom in Sergio Leone's 1960s spaghetti westerns. Back in America, he built on his success as western hero with such films as "High Plains Drifter" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales", winning an Oscar for "Unforgiven" in 1992. He blasted his way through the seventies and eighties as Inspector Harry Francis Callahan, the last hope for law enforcement in San Francisco. He also monkeyed around in two phenomenally popular films with Clyde the orang-utan, which brought tough-guy Eastwood to a whole new audience and made him the biggest box office star of his generation."Aim for the Heart" also looks at Eastwood's more unusual roles, including "The Beguiled", "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Million Dollar Baby". Since 1970, he has enjoyed parallel success as director-producer of his own Malpaso Productions, with "Bird", "Mystic River" and "Letters from Iwo Jima", demonstrating formidable directing credentials. "Aim for the Heart" covers all Eastwood's movies of many genres in detail, and Eastwood's story is illustrated with film stills, glimpses behind the scenes, and rare poster advertising material. "Aim for the Heart" also includes the most comprehensive credits filmography has ever compiled on Eastwood's work, as star and director.

Lorca, Bunuel and Dali were, in their respective fields of poetry and theatre, cinema, and painting, three of the most imaginative creative artists of the twentieth century; their impact was felt far beyond the boundaries of their native Spain. But if individually they have been examined by many, their connected lives have rarely been considered. It is these, the ties that bind them, that constitute the subject of this illuminating book. They were born within six years of each other and, as Gwynne Edwards reveals, their childhood circumstances were very similar. Each was affected by a narrow-minded society and an intolerant religious background which equated sex with sin and led all three to experience sexual problems of different kinds: Lorca the guilt and anguish associated with his homosexuality; Bunuel feelings of sexual inhibition; and, Dali virtual impotence. Having met during the 1920s at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, they developed intense personal relationships and channelled their respective obsessions into the cultural forms then prevalent in Europe, in particular Surrealism.Rooted in emotional turmoil, their work - from Lorca's dramatic characters in search of sexual fulfilment, to Bunuel's frustrated men and women, and Dali's potent images of shame and guilt - is highly autobiographical. Their left-wing outrage directed at bourgeois values and the Catholic Church was strongly felt, and in the case of Lorca in particular, was sharpened by the catastrophic Civil War of 1936-9, during the first months of which he was murdered by Franco's fascists. The war hastened Bunuel's departure to France and Mexico and Dali's to New York. Edwards describes how, for the rest of his life, Bunuel clung to his left-wing ideals and made outstanding films, while the increasingly eccentric and money-obsessed Dali embraced Fascism and the Catholic Church, and saw his art go into rapid decline.

Ingmar Bergman was the last and arguably the greatest of the old-style European auteurs and his influence across all areas of contemporary cinema has continued to be considerable since his death in July 2007. Drawing on interviews with collaborators and original research, this book puts Bergman's career into the context of his life and offers a new and revealing portrait of this great filmmaker. Geoffrey Macnab explores the often painfully autobiographical nature of his work, while also looking in detail at Bergman as a craftsman. He considers Bergman's working relationship with his actors (especially the actresses he helped make into international stars), his passion for theatre, literature and classical music and his obsession with death and cruelty. The book traces his traumatic childhood, asking how his experiences growing up as the son of a strict Lutheran pastor fed into his later writing and filmmaking. It also looks at his political life, chronicling his teenage flirtation with Nazism, his bitter spat in the mid-70s with the Swedish authorities over his tax affairs and his often vexed relationship with his fellow Swedes.Geoffrey Macnab also considers how Bergman's work was financed and distributed, his relationship with US agents and how close he came to working in Hollywood. 'When I was 10 years old I received my first rattling film projector with its chimney and lamp which went round and round and round. I found it both mystifying and fascinating' - Ingmar Bergman.

For Britain, the Suez crisis of 1956 was - along with the 1938 Munich crisis - the most divisive and controversial episode of the twentieth century. Centred on a narrow man-made canal linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, the Suez crisis caused fighting on London's streets, split families and friendships and destroyed a prime minister. It tested the government's propaganda skills to the full and pushed the mass media's independence to breaking point. For many, 'Suez' symbolises the end of the British Empire and its spectre has haunted British governments for two generations. "Eden, Suez and the Mass Media" examines the battle for hearts and minds waged through the mass media during the Suez crisis. It explains why the British government assigned such a critical role to propaganda and charts how Prime Minister Anthony Eden sought to use the press and broadcasting as instruments to destroy Egypt's leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The book dispels the myth that Fleet Street and the BBC were mere ciphers for public opinion and reveals how Eden's strategy disastrously backfired, trapping him into the notorious pact of collusion with the French and Israelis.This new edition of the definitive history of the media's role in the Suez crisis also draws interesting parallels with the contemporary Iraq War, which Shaw argues bears an uncanny resemblance to the earlier conflict.

The Bakhtiyari are one of the most important nomadic societies in the Middle East but although this tribe has many powerful romantic associations it has also been the subject of much misunderstanding, even today. This penetrating examination of the Bakhtiyari in Iran explores their powerful political and economic role in Iranian society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and provides a key to understanding how political power is created, maintained and lost in a tribal society. Based on an extraordinary archive of documents now lost as a result of the upheavals of the Iranian Revolution, "Khans and Shahs" offers a complete picture of the tribe, placing it in the context of its full history from the 14th century to the present day. Among much else Gene Garthwaite examines the role of the Bakhtiyari in the exploration and development of Iranian oil, which was first discovered on their tribal lands by the British entrepreneur William Knox D'Arcy.This ground-breaking study explores the Bakhtiyari's interaction with the State and the effects of the wider world on their social and political structure and offers unique insights into a complex but important aspect of Iran's history.

The latest volume in Wm. Roger Louis' acclaimed "Adventures with Britannia" series takes the reader on a highly engaging excursion through British life and intellectual biography. Collecting the interpretations of outstanding writers on the literature and history of modern Britain, "Ultimate Adventures with Britannia" deals with a rich variety of themes - some familiar, many unexpected. The scope of this wide-ranging volume includes not only the personalities, politics and culture of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but also the interaction between British and other societies throughout the world. The chapters embracing historical themes include Brian Harrison and Dominic Sandbrook on the 1960s and Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Churchill and the Jews. In Britannia's literary domain, Dan Jacobson assesses Thomas Hardy and T.S. Eliot while Margaret Macmillan asks how well Paul Scott's Raj Quartet bears up after some four decades. And in a combination of cultural, architectural and intellectual history, Bernard Wasserstein traces the decline and possible revival of the 'second city in the Empire', Glasgow."Ultimate Adventures with Britannia" retains all the intellectual originality and accessibility that characterise the earlier volumes in this series and continues a stimulating and highly appealing tradition.

Nigeria is a country where petroleum prices and polio are both booming, where small villages challenge giant oil companies, and scooter drivers run their own mini-state. The oil-rich Delta region at the heart of it all is, as Peel shows us, a troublespot as hot as the local pepper soup. Through a host of characters, from the prostitutes of Port Harcourt to the Area Boys of Lagos, from the militants in their swamp forest hideouts to the oil company executives in London, Peel tells the story of this extraordinary country, which grows ever more wild and lawless by the day as its crude oil pumps through our cities.