Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Premodern India

Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Premodern India

Author:

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-12-30

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 9394701346

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Leisure is a corollary to pleasure. Essays in this historical exploration trace how leisure and recreation were often imagined and celebrated during premodern times, from the ancient to the precolonial period. This book takes into account the differential access to leisure and pleasure based on class and gender where masculinity is projected through manly sports and femininity though beauty and indulgence in the projection of recreation, entertainment and luxury. The counter-discourse representing labour for those who cater for this leisure is invisibilized as is their transactional nature. The volume dwells on the attitudes, prescribed and proscribed, and brings to the fore the differences across religious ideologies such as Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jaina and Muslim in various periods. Further it looks at leisure in the various classes and cultural spaces such as the elite, women, the king in the bed chamber, the court with dancing girls, public areas such as orchards and gardens and performance spaces.


All Things Julius Caesar [2 volumes]

All Things Julius Caesar [2 volumes]

Author: Michael Lovano

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-12-02

Total Pages: 943

ISBN-13:

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Julius Caesar's life and example have fascinated and motivated generations of people for nearly 2,000 years. This book explores the people, places, events, and institutions that helped define arguably the most famous individual in the history of Rome. Far from being "ancient history," Roman history and culture from the time of Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire have surprising parallels with the political strife and societal issues in 21st-century life. Interest and awareness have also been bolstered by recent successful Hollywood films as well as television series that depict Roman history. All Things Julius Caesar: An Encyclopedia of Caesar's World and Legacy provides a unique reference on topics and themes related to the life and times of Julius Caesar. It offers historically accurate information about what he did—and did not—do, and examines his impact on later eras via images and idealized depictions of him popularized in literature and other media up to the present. The approximately 200 entries in this two-volume set are organized alphabetically according to topic or theme—for example, individuals such as Marc Antony, places such as the province of Gaul, events such as Roman elections or battles in the Civil War, and institutions such as Roman classes, slavery, patrons, and clients. The entries cover all the territories of the Roman Empire during Caesar's time, from Britain to Egypt. The set includes primary documents such as excerpts from ancient letters, essays, and biographies and supplements the text with images and maps. The bibliography provides print and electronic resources suitable for high school and college student research as well as further reading for general audiences.


Everyday Life in Medieval England

Everyday Life in Medieval England

Author: Christopher Dyer

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0826419828

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Everyday Life in Medieval England captures the day-to-day experience of people in the middle ages - the houses and settlements in which they lived, the food they ate, their getting and spending - and their social relationships. The picture that emerges is of great variety, of constant change, of movement and of enterprise. Many people were downtrodden and miserably poor, but they struggled against their circumstances, resisting oppressive authorities, to build their own way of life and to improve their material conditions. The ordinary men and women of the middle ages appear throughout. Everyday life in Medieval England is an outstanding contribution to both national and local history.


The Trojan War

The Trojan War

Author: Carol G. Thomas

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9780806138749

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Surveys the historical underpinnngs of the Heroic Age in ancient Greek tradition.


Ming Dynasty Tales

Ming Dynasty Tales

Author: Victor H. Mair

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-05-05

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 135026329X

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With commentary and annotations throughout, Ming Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader presents for the first time in English 10 key stories from China's Ming Dynasty era. Casting new light on this significant period in Chinese literary history, these tales bring Ming era China vividly to life, from its chaotic beginnings to its imperial heyday. As well as bearing witness to social change across the 100-year life of the Yuan Dynasty from 1260 to 1368, these tales tackle key themes of war and peace and Confucian values of loyalty, filiality, chastity, and righteousness.


A Cultural History of Marriage in Antiquity

A Cultural History of Marriage in Antiquity

Author: Karen Klaiber Hersch

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-11-18

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1350179647

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Marriage, across cultures, is often defined as a union between consenting adults that lasts for the life of the partners. But is marriage a blessing, or curse? Does marriage represent the union of two hearts, or was it a necessary evil? Did matrimony bring a person a helpmeet for life, or was it a societally approved state entered into to improve one's social standing and produce legitimate heirs? The authors of this volume show that the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean were divided on all of these questions, and reveal ancient Greek and Roman opinions on marriage that were as varied and complex as they are today. Readers will discover in this book that ancients juggled multiple ideas that to the modern eye may appear to be contradictory. Thus, for example, Greek and Roman wives were expected to come to their grooms spotless virgins, while Greek and Roman husbands could enjoy multiple partnerships outside the marital union. Guided by our experts, we take an extensive journey through time and space, encountering evidence from such sources as diverse as Hammurabic law codes, Egyptian papyri, Greek epic and tragedy, Roman inscriptions and writings on the lives of early Christians. Applying innovative approaches and diverse methodologies, the authors of this volume reveal the tension and reconciliation between representations of marriage in antiquity and its lived reality. A Cultural History of Marriage in Antiquity presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage.


Doctors

Doctors

Author: Sherwin B. Nuland

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 1995-01-15

Total Pages: 547

ISBN-13: 0679760091

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From the author of How We Die, the extraordinary story of the development of modern medicine, told through the lives of the physician-scientists who paved the way. How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have us believe that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhuman talents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. But as renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nuland shows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, the theory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women who have shaped the world of medicine have been not only very human, but also very much the products of their own times and places. Presenting compelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers, Doctors gives us a fascinating history of modern medicine. Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, to Andreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offered invaluable new insight into the human body, to Helen Taussig, founder of pediatric cardiology and co-inventor of the original "blue baby" operation, here is a volume filled with the spirit of ideas and the thrill of discovery.


Constantinople

Constantinople

Author: Jonathan Harris

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-02-09

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1474254675

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Jonathan Harris' new edition of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, Constantinople, provides an updated and extended introduction to the history of Byzantium and its capital city. Accessible and engaging, the book breaks new ground by exploring Constantinople's mystical dimensions and examining the relationship between the spiritual and political in the city. This second edition includes a range of new material, such as: * Historiographical updates reflecting recently published work in the field * Detailed coverage of archaeological developments relating to Byzantine Constantinople * Extra chapters on the 14th century and social 'outsiders' in the city * More on the city as a centre of learning; the development of Galata/Pera; charitable hospitals; religious processions and festivals; the lives of ordinary people; and the Crusades * Source translation textboxes, new maps and images, a timeline and a list of emperors It is an important volume for anyone wanting to know more about the history of the Byzantine Empire.