Suchergebnisse

Focusing on the ancient, medieval, and early-modern eras, this collection considers the beginnings of Sino-Japanese Relations in the Ancient East Asian World, focusing on changes of the East Asian international system. It examines the establishment of the East Asian International Order in the 7th Century and the advance of Sino- Japanese relations in medieval times. It also considers the impact of initial contact with modern Western powers on modernization, and examines the points of rupture which deeply affected both cultures, for China the Opium War, and for Japan it the Black Ships of Commodore Matthew Perry and the Meiji Restoration. Based on research conducted jointly by Chinese and Japanese scholars, this collection provides a unique insight into the development of Chinese and Japanese culture from comparative perspectives, offering an in-depth study of the countries' political, religious and societal structures to deepen objective perception toward history and promote mutual understanding in East Asia.

The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry - and a term of derision - in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking readers from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism," revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights. She shows that it was the French Revolution that gave birth to liberalism and Germans who transformed it. Only in the mid-twentieth century did the concept become widely known in the United States - and then, as now, its meaning was hotly debated. Liberals were originally moralists at heart. They believed in the power of religion to reform society, emphasized the sanctity of the family, and never spoke of rights without speaking of duties. It was only during the Cold War and America's growing world hegemony that liberalism was refashioned into an American ideology focused so strongly on individual freedoms. Today, we still can't seem to agree on liberalism's meaning. In the United States, a "liberal" is someone who advocates big government, while in France, big government is contrary to "liberalism." Political debates become befuddled because of semantic and conceptual confusion. The Lost History of Liberalism sets the record straight on a core tenet of today's political conversation and lays the foundations for a more constructive discussion about the future of liberal democracy.

"Crises resulting from war or other upheavals turn the lives of individuals upside down, and they can leave marks on a community for many years after the event. This volume aims to explore how such crises were remembered in the ancient world, and how communities reconstituted themselves after a crisis. Can crises serve as catalysts for innovation or change, and how does this work? What do crises reveal about the 'normality' against which they are defined and framed? People living in post-crisis societies have no choice but to adapt to the changes caused by crisis. Such adaptation entails the question of how the relationship between the pre-crisis situation and the new status quo is constructed, and by whom. Due to the reduced possibility of using the immediate past, which is tainted by conflict and bad memories, it may involve revisions of historical narratives about communal pasts and identities, through the selection of new 'anchors', and sometimes even a discarding of the old ones. Crises affect all areas of life, and crisis recovery likewise spans different spheres. This volume finds traces of such recovery strategies in texts as well as visual representations; in literary as well as in documentary texts; in official ideology as much as in subaltern responses. The contributors bring together the diverse testimonies for such ways of coping that have survived from antiquity."--

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Prologue -- 1. The Ancient World -- 2. The Roman Empire and the Dark Ages -- 3. The Age of Chivalry -- 4. The Wars of Religion -- 5. The Age of Revolution -- 6. The Modern Age: World Wars and Terrorism -- 7. The Ones That Got Away -- Select Bibliography -- Photo Acknowledgements -- Index.

"This book provides a comparative and critical study of the issues involving military veterans and land expropriation, focusing on the two cases of the client-army era of the first-century BC Roman Republic and contemporary Africa. Obert Bernard Mlambo centralizes culture and the body of the soldier, while examining the cultural production of images and representations of masculinity, to advance theoretical thoughts on war, masculinity and violence. His analysis of these historical and contemporary cases serves to identify the cultural logic that connects masculinity, violence and expropriation. Mlambo employs a transcultural comparative approach which is based on one constant found in both societies, namely land expropriation. Such appropriation takes place in the context of war-ingrained masculinities, often articulated within the overarching framework of patriarchy. In discussing the issue of claims for rewards or compensation for veterans in the context of war, and their consequences -- expropriation, confiscations, violence, etc. -- this book fosters a deeper understanding of these social processes, adding an important facet to the study of masculinities and military violence. What is revealed is that a non-Western cultural perspective can broaden the understanding of classics and can illuminate the discussion of veterans, war, masculinity, violence, land and gender in a classical culture."--

In Judeans in Babylonia, Tero Alstola presents a comprehensive investigation of deportees in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. By using cuneiform documents as his sources, he offers the first book-length social historical study of the Babylonian Exile. Readership: All interested in the history of Judaism, social history of the ancient Near East, and migration studies, including scholars in Biblical studies and Assyriology.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. The modernist paradigm: strengths and weaknesses; 3. Foundations of a new nationalism theory; 4. Killing and dying for love: the common fatherland; 5. Competing for honour: the making of nations in late medieval Europe; 6. The nationalist transformation of borders and languages; 7. Humanist nationalism; 8. A German Emperor for the German people; 9. Nation and denomination; 10. Conclusion