Böcker av Peter Robb

Peter Robb's journey into the dark heart of Sicily uses history, painting, literature and food to shed light on southern Italy's legacy of political corruption and violent crime.

A vivid memoir which brings Naples and its extraordinary history to life

First published in 1983, Rural India intends to provide pictures of Indian rural society in the past, from the standpoint of relationships and exchanges between the countryside and the more general physical and cultural context of which it is a part. A predominant theme is control over land and people. Others are the impact of British rule, the political role of local networks and ties, and the response to and internalising of external stimuli. Attempts are made to examine the concepts employed by scholars in relation to the perceptions of the villagers and similarly to interpret economic and social data in radical ways. This book will be of interest to student of South Asian studies, history, economics and agriculture.

This volume argues that concepts and ideologies shaped the practice of British rule in India; impacted policies and laws, and were embodied in institutions and practices, affecting both governance and Indian experience. Engaging with questions of historiography, it calls for a balanced assessment of India's growth or decline under British rule. Ideas Matter examines revenue policies and their consequences, generally but particularly in Bihar, stressing continuities from pre-colonial times but also discussing major changes deriving from British laws. Two chapters analyse the rationale and impact of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885. Others discuss communal identities and the effects of colonial categorization, probing the significance of interpretations of the 1857 revolt and the Amritsar massacre of 1919, and considering the overtly non-communalist Abdul Latif (1828-93) and educational reforms intended to benefit Bengali Muslims.

The controversial, ground-breaking biography of Caravaggio

Focusing on the underlying ideas and the practical repurcussions of agrarian policy, this text analyzes the character of British rule in 19th-century India. In particular, the book considers the importance of notions of historical rights and economic progress.

Examining agrarian societies in colonial India, these papers include analyses of late 18th-century records on South India and North Bengal, and a look at the late colonial period. Mobility and land transfer, technology and labour absorption, and famines and epidemics are also studied.

Using the art, food and the books of Brazils nineteenth-century writer, Machado de Assis, this work is about its history of slavery and the multicultural but disturbed society that was left in its wake when the practice was abolished in the late nineteenth century.