Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300–1200
Author: Kate Cooper File Type: pdf Making Early Medieval Societies explores a fundamental question what held the small- and large-scale communities of the late Roman and early medieval West together, at a time when the world seemed to be falling apart? Historians and anthropologists have traditionally asked parallel questions about the rise and fall of empires and how societies create a sense of belonging and social order in the absence of strong governmental institutions. This book draws on classic and more recent anthropologists work to consider dispute settlement and conflict management during and after the end of the Roman Empire. Contributions range across the internecine rivalries of late Roman bishops, the marital disputes of warrior kings, and the tension between religious leaders and the unruly crowds in western Europe after the first millennium - all considering the mechanisms through which conflict could be harnessed as a force for social stability or an engine for social change. **Review In this groundbreaking collection, the social impact of constructive feuding is analysed in terms of how its potential destructive impact in practice was limited by customary rules. Cooper, Leyser and their colleagues have form in challenging accepted understandings of the past through the redrawing of disciplinary boundaries and this exciting volume poses fresh questions with some unexpected answers. Jill Harries, University of St Andrews This valuable collection brings together essays of established and rising scholars who reflect on cohesion and power from late antiquity to the twelfth century. As a whole, these essays accomplish the twin objectives of engaging with recent approaches to the history of power and its representation in the early Middle Ages and at the same time suggesting new ways of understanding power as forms of social and cultural practices rather than in the terms of the long and largely fruitless debate about state vs non-state political orders. Patrick Geary, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton This is a very valuable book, making a significant contribution to the rich literature on social cohesion and conflict in early medieval Europe. Leading historians take a pleasing variety of approaches both to specific texts and to general questions. The essays will be stimulating reading for all interested in the period and in the engagement of history with anthropology. John Hudson, University of St Andrews Innovative and thought-provoking. ... Deftly interweaving disparate methods, time-periods, and regions, the monograph produces a fresh vision of a millennium of Western European history. Michael E. Stewart, Journal of Social History Book Description While traditional histories look at the Dark Ages in light of the decline of the Roman state and the rise of early medieval kingdoms, Making Early Medieval Societies considers the period from an anthropological perspective, asking how small- and large-scale processes of dispute settlement and conflict resolution endured and evolved.
Author: Emanuele Sica
File Type: pdf
span box-sizing inherit orphans 2 widows 2Italy in the Second World War Alternative Perspectivesspanspan orphans 2 widows 2stems from the necessity to write an important page of Second World War history, by focusing on the Italian war experience, which has been overshadowed in international research by the attention given to its senior Axis partner.spanbr box-sizing inherit orphans 2 widows 2span orphans 2 widows 2Drawing extensively on material from Italian and international archives, a team of Italian and international historians, led by Emanuele Sica and Richard Carrier, offers a broad-ranging volume on the war seen through the lens of Italian soldiers and civilians, and populations occupied by the Italian army.spanbr box-sizing inherit orphans 2 widows 2span orphans 2 widows 2Contributors are Luca Baldissara, Cindy Brown, Federico Ciavattone, Nicolo Da Lio, Paolo Fonzi, Francesco Fusi, Eric Gobetti, Federico Goddi, Andrea Martini, Niall MacGalloway, Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi, Paolo Pezzino, Matteo Pretelli, Nicholas Virtue.span
Author: Neil Messer
File Type: pdf
Neil Messer brings together a range of theoretical and practical questions raised by current research on the human brain questions about both the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics. While some of these are familiar to theologians, others have been more or less ignored hitherto, and the field of neuroethics as a whole has received little theological attention. Drawing on both theological ethics and the science-and-theology field, Messer discusses cognitive-scientific and neuroscientific studies of religion, arguing that they do not give grounds to dismiss theological perspectives on the human self. He examines a representative range of topics across the whole field of neuroethics, including consciousness, the self and the value of human life the neuroscience of morality determinism, freewill and moral responsibility and the ethics of cognitive enhancement.
Author: Tom Turner
File Type: pdf
An updated version of this book is now available as European Gardens (2011), also by Tom Turner. Expanding into other regions are Asian Gardens (2010) and the forthcoming British Gardens, both also by Turner and published by Routledge. Tom Turner, well-known teacher and writer in landscape architecture, garden design and garden history here explores more than 150 gardens over four millennia of Western garden design. He considers the why, the what, the how and the where of garden design by tracing the development of gardens through history and across social, political and philosophical boundaries. Fully illustrated throughout, each chapter critically examines a particular type of garden both as part of a wider socio-political context and as an aesthetic entity, asking how the design of each garden reflects the philosophical approach of its creator. Inspirational, reflective and informative, this book brings together knowledge and understanding from a diverse range of related interests to add depth and breadth to a fascinating subject. **
Author: Nina L. Khrushcheva
File Type: pdf
Vladimir Nabokovs Western choicehis exile to the West after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolutionallowed him to take a crucial literary journey, leaving the closed nineteenth-century Russian culture behind and arriving in the extreme openness of twentieth-century America. In Imagining Nabokov Russia Between Art and Politics, Nina L. Khrushcheva offers the novel hypothesis that because of this journey, the works of Russian-turned-American Vladimir Nabokov (18991977) are highly relevant to the political transformation under way in Russia today. Khrushcheva, a Russian living in America, finds in Nabokovs novels a useful guide for Russias integration into the globalized world. Now one of Nabokovs Western characters herself, she discusses the cultural and social realities of contemporary Russia that he foresaw a half-century earlier. In Pale Fire Ada, or Ardor Pnin and other works, Nabokov reinterpreted the traditions of Russian fiction, shifting emphasis from personal misery and communal life to the notion of forging ones own happy destiny. In the twenty-first century Russia faces a similar challenge, Khrushcheva contends, and Nabokovs work reveals how skills may be acquired to cope with the advent of democracy, capitalism, and open borders. **** **
Author: Sandy Montañola
File Type: pdf
After the young South African athlete Caster Semenya won the 800m title at the 2009 World Championships she was obliged to undergo gender testing and was withdrawn, for a time, from international competition. The way that the different stakeholders embraced this controversy represents a rich, multi-layered example of the construction of gender in wider society and the interrelationships between sport, culture and the media. This is the first book to explore the case in depth, from socio-cultural, ethical and legal perspectives.Analysing what came to be called the Caster Semenya Case in a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary fashion, and covering issues from media discourses and the rhetoric and regulations of the sports governing bodies to the reaction of the athlete herself to this harsh experience, the book explores in depth, beyond her own circumstances, the ethics of how gender norms in sport, and in society more generally, are constructed through appearance, behaviour and sporting per- formance. This 2009 controversy can be taken as an indicator of the tensions of her time, and served as a link beetween medical sciences, society and gender.Including discussion of key concepts such as intersex, body norms and fairness, Gender Testing in Sport is fascinating and important reading for anybody with an interest in sport studies, gender studies or biomedical ethics.
Author: John Locke
File Type: epub
What if the best morning of your life suddenly turned into your worst nightmare? Sam Case is about to find out. Saving Rachel is the story of what happens when killers force a man to choose between his wife and his mistress...and the one he rejects must die. But wait--all is not as it appears to be. In fact, nothing is what it appears to be!Saving Rachel is a scary, funny, roller coaster ride through hell, with twists, and turns that will slap your face and suck you in! About the AuthorDuring John Lockes career journey from rock and roll singer-to door-to-door salesman-to the creation of several multi-million dollar companies, he has encountered a wellspring of bizarre people from which to craft his unique characters. He is the author of three novels and two nonfiction books. He lives in Kentucky.
Author: Ernest Renan
File Type: pdf
Since the dawn of Christianity, artists have been fascinated and stirred by the figure of Christ. His likeness appears in frescoes on the walls of catacombs that date from Roman times he is featured in the stained glass windows of Gothic churches and he can be found in various forms in todays pop culture. The Biblical Saviour is not a static, immaterial deity Christs mortal birth, unusual life and dramatic death make him an accessible subject for religious and secular artists alike.Whether they show the spirituality of God Incarnate or the earthly characteristics of a flesh-and-blood man, artistic depictions of Christ are the most controversial, moving or inspirational examples of religious art. This richly illustrated book explores the various ways that Christ is rendered in art, from Cimabues Nativity scenes and Fra Angelicos paintings of the Crucifixion to the provocative portraits of Salvador Dali and Andres Serrano. Author Joseph Lewis French guides the reader through the most iconic representations of Christ in art - tender or graphic, classical or bizarre, these images of the Messiah reveal the diverse roles of the Son of God in the social milieus and personal lives of the artists.
Author: Henry Somers-Hall
File Type: pdf
The essential toolkit for anyone approaching Deleuze for the first time When students read Difference and Repetition for the first time, they face two main hurdles the wide range of sources that Deleuze draws upon and his dense writing style. This Edinburgh Philosophical Guide helps students to negotiate these hurdles, taking them through the text paragraphy by paragraph. It situates Deleuze within Continental philosophy more broadly and explains why he develops his philosophy in his unique way. If youre a seasoned Deleuzian, theres something here for you too you wont want to miss Henry Somers-Halls new, positive interpretation of Difference and Repetition.**
Author: W. O. Maloba
File Type: pdf
The successor to Kenyatta and Britain An Account of Political Transformation, 1929-1963, this book completes the first systematic political history of Jomo Kenyatta by examining the mechanisms of installing a neo-colonial regime in Kenya, and how such regimes were duplicated elsewhere in Africa. It analyzes the nature and extent of the collaboration between Kenyatta, Britain and Western intelligence services to install and protect his government in Kenyaa collaboration which is linked to some of Kenyas most intractable political, social and economic problems. Drawing heavily on primary sources, it examines the legacy of Kenyattas regime, and how this legacy is felt in Kenya today. **