Historia & samhälle

Assessing the relationship between reform and the papacy in eleventh-century Europe from the perspectives of social and religious change, this book fills a gap in current literature and offers new insights into an important topic in medieval history -- .

In this work philosopher Wolfgang Iser offers a fresh perspective on questions such as why do human beings need fictions? And why do human beings need to interpret, despite the fact that complete interpretation is unattainable?

Rafah, a town at the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip, is a squalid place. Situated on the border with Egypt, swaths of Rafah have been reduced to rubble. Buried deep in the archives is one bloody incident, in 1956, that left 111 Palestinian refugees dead, shot by Israeli soldiers. This title captures the essence of the tragedy.

In 1600, renagade philosopher and theologian Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake in Rome. His crime was to preach a doctrine of brotherhood, peace and free love. Four centuries later he is known as the Prophet of the New Age.

A kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth from bestselling storytelling legend Neil Gaiman.

Aexamination of the `nuts and bolts' of war, the vast problems of movement and supply, transportation and administration, from the seventeenth century to the Second World War, offering, in effect, a reinterpretation of modern military history.

She knew he'd really done it this time when he revealed to her that he'd always had a secret passion for poetry and that his next project was a book about how to write poetry. According to Stephen it will make writing poetry fun, easy, satisfying, fulfilling and delightful.

A clear and inspiring explanation of key Buddhist principles.

This critique of contemporary capitalism established Fromm as one of the most controversial political thinkers of his generation, and was originally published to wide acclaim and even wider disapproval.

The literature on Kierkegaard is often content to paraphrase. By contrast, this book articulates one of Kierkegaard's central ideas, his theory of despair, in a comprehensible manner and confronts it with alternatives. In addition to articulating and evaluating his concept of despair, it relates his ideas to those of Heidegger, Sartre, and others.

Tracing the rich story of Bulgaria from pre-history to the political upheavals of the twentieth century. This edition includes the years from 1995 to 2004, a vital period in which Bulgaria elected its former King as prime minister and secured admission to the European Union.

Anna Politkovskaya, a correspondent for Novaya gazeta, has gathered together a collection of articles and columns which offer a rare insider's view of life in Chechnya. The book recounts the horrors of living in the midst of war, and how conflict has affected Russian society.

Addressing the issue of NATO's role in the 1990s, this text explores how changes in international political structures have influenced NATO's position and policies. It pays particular attention to debates over seeing NATO as a modern structure or an obsolete organisation.

Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, this was the only philosophical work Wittgenstein published during his lifetime.

Combining critical thinking about education with autobiographical narratives, bell hooks invites readers to extend the discourse of race, gender, class and nationality beyond the classroom into everyday situations of learning.

'Scouting for Boys' (1908) is both a handbook and a philosophy for a way of living that replaces self with service, puts country before individual, and duty above all. It also details how to light fires, stalk men and animals. This edition reveals its maverick complexity, exploring its contradictions about sexuality, the environment and the empire.

Using step-by-step sketches and instructions, this book guides the reader through the techniques used to produce illustrations for children's books. Tackling various styles, such as fantasy, fairy tales, realism and nature, the author explains how to create effective illustrations to match any children's story.

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays, largely because of what is seen as its inherent anti-semitism. At the centre of the play is one of the most famous anti-heroes in Shakespeare: Shylock 'the Jew'. How to interpret Shylock baffles critics as they divide on whether Shakespeare is prejudiced or sympathetic.

Offers a look at the delectable secrets of Mesopotamia. The author's broad perspective takes us inside the religious rites, everyday rituals, attitudes and taboos, and even the detailed preparation techniques involving food and drink in Mesopotamian high culture during the second and third millenniums BCE, as the Mesopotamians recorded them.

This new collection of Aristotle's political writings provides the student with the necessary materials for a full understanding of his work as a political theorist. In addition to an extended introduction to The Politics, this revised Cambridge Texts Edition provides detailed biographical notes and an extensive guide to further reading.

Winner of the Whitbread Biography Award 1997

Ancient Egyptians held a rich and complex vision of the afterlife and codified their beliefs in books that were to be discovered more than two millennia later in royal tombs. Erik Hornung, the world's leading authority on these religious texts...

Between 1929 and 1932 the Soviet Communist Party struck a double blow at the peasantry of the USSR: dekulakisation, the dispossession and deportation of millions of peasant families;

1. This is an important new book by Pierre Bourdieu -- one of the leading social thinkers in the world today 2. It is the first book in which he has addressed questions of gender explicitly -- hence it will be of great interest 3.

Slavoj Zizek, dubbed by the Village Voice "the giant of Ljubljana", is back with a new edition of his seriously entertaining book on film, psychoanalysis (and life).

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), a man of extreme passions and a playwright of immense talent, is the most important of Shakespeare's contemporaries. This edition offers his five major plays, which show the radicalism and vitality of his writing in the few years before his violent death.

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature. W.

Complexity and Postmodernism is an exciting and an original book that should be read by anyone interested in gaining a fresh understanding of complexity, postmodernism and connectionism.

Includes the full French text, accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.