Neil Perkins, a Latin student at Haltwhistle Grammar School in England, unearths an ancient Roman manuscript. He dedicates himself to study Latin and so uncovers a story of treachery and betrayal from the third century. Disaffected centurion, Rusticus, serves Rome at Hadrian's Wall, an unruly frontier. A Celt named Calum, who was deeply changed when he saw Christians martyred in the Roman Coliseum, saves Perkins from a massacre. Not only will you learn the differences between ancient paganism and the primal Christian faith practiced in third-century Britain, but you will discover a more thoughtful approach to life as a result.
Maritime piracy's improbable re-emergence following the end of the Cold War was surprising as the image of pirates evokes masted galleons and cutlasses. Yet, the number of incidents and their intensity skyrocketed in the 1990s and 2000s off of the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Somalia. As Ursula Daxecker and Brandon Prins demonstrate in Pirate Lands, Maritime piracy-like civil war, terrorism, and organized crime-is a problem of weak states. Surprisingly, though, pirates do not operate in the least governed areas of weak states. Daxecker and Prins address this puzzle by explaining why some coastal communities experience more pirate attacks in their vicinity than others. They find that pirates do well in places where elites and law enforcement can be bribed, but they also need access to functioning roads, ports, and markets. Using statistical analyses of cross-national and sub-national data on pirate attacks in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Somalia, Daxecker and Prins detail how governance at the state and local level explain the location of maritime piracy. Additionally, they employ geo-spatial tools to rigorously measure how local political capacity and infrastructure affect maritime piracy. Drawing upon interviews with former pirates, community members, and maritime security experts, Pirate Lands offers the first comprehensive, social-scientific account of a phenomenon whose re-appearance after centuries of remission took almost everyone by surprise.
TERRA FIRMA is set in a not-so-distant Beckettian future–years after a conflict known as the Big War, in which a tiny kingdom wrestles with the problems of running a nation–and opposing notions of what makes a citizen, a country, and a civilization.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1959.
On October 23, 2009, Somali pirates kidnapped Paul and Rachel Chandler from their sailing boat, the Lynn Rival, in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. In this remarkable memoir, the Chandlers recount their terrifying ordeal, revealing the inspiring and poignant story behind the dramatic headlines. The book chronicles the aftermath of the attack, and how the Chandlers' captors held them in Somalia for more than a year while trying to extort millions of dollars from their middle-class family. It goes on to describe how despite enduring threats, intimidation, solitary confinement, and even whippings, their unshakable belief in each other and their determination to survive sustained them. With its detailed, day-to-day account of the experience of being held captive by pirates, this unique and inspiring story will resonate with travelers the world over.
This book won the award for the best comic from the National Institute for Translation in 1986. Although more than 20 years have passed since then, there is still a great appreciation for this book. This book is based on the Chronicles of the Historian from the Han dynasty scholar Sima Qian. It includes the legends of the five assassins: Chaomu, Yurang, Juanju, Niezheng and Jingke, during the Spring and Autum Period. The comic is beautifully printed in full color. Chen Uen used traditional Chinese brushes, and he drew each page as one on special hand-made calligraphy paper. It really took a lot of skill to paint one panel after another on this kind of calligraphy paper. Only Chen Uen has the ability to use calligraphy skills to paint comics. There are 500 colorful paintings, from small to large, with exact and difficult-to-achieve details. He has to draw each page quickly, with skill in determination. If he makes a single mistake, the whole page is lost. There are a lot of special details in the facial expressions; his point is to try to express their fleeting emotions through their eyes, their brow and mouth. He gives lively personal characteristics through painting the five assassins in different circumstances, atmospheres, mindsets, emotions, and how they dedicated themselves to lethal missions with their cunning, bravery and nobility. It's quite captivating. Chen Uen is really modest to say that he drew the legends of assassins because he was moved by these stories. We were so touched by his depiction, that we asked his agreement to republish them and share them with everybody.
In this third book of the People of the Longhouse quartet, dangerous sorcerer Atotarho sets into motion a cataclysmic battle that threatens to destroy the Iroquoian world.
Examines the changing situations in which hostages were used in the Europe and the Mediterranean world from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, touching on a wide range of topics in military, diplomatic, political, social, gender, economic, and legal history.
