Rise of the Cholas: Apocalypse
Rise of the Cholas: Apocalypse

Author: J. V. Jayakumar

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2019-12-12

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9781647606930

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the year 2030 AD, a black hole comes hurtling towards the Earth. Rajaraja Cholan, a former ruler of an ancient, powerful empire in India, learned of a prophecy that foretold the apocalypse. The prophecy declared that a black hole would come hurtling toward Earth at nearly the speed of light and that there was no hope for mankind to survive the event. Springing into action, the king declared that his son Rajendra Cholan would take the throne of the Chola Dynasty. He then enlisted the help of hundreds of the kingdom's most trusted people and undertook a 1000-year exile. During their exile, the king and his trusted subjects worked on building a spaceship beneath the Indian Ocean that could be the answer to the dynasty's survival of the fast-approaching black hole. With one millennium to prepare, the king and his men felt they must have a fighting chance at succeeding in their mission. Its the year 2030. The American president and other world leaders are meeting in the White House to rally their forces and the greatest minds in modern science searching for answers. Rajaraja, along with his most trusted advisor and guru Agasthiyar, makes their appearance in the war room to inform the contemporary world leaders of the provisions that have been created. As humanity prepares to flee Earth, a traitor attempts to kill Rajaraja. Unable to trust his friends, and with humanity's existence hanging in the balance, Rajaraja must stop the traitor before they can kill him and doom humanity to the black hole. Excellent blend of Tamil history and culture, Sci-fi, and end-of-the-world scenarios.

Universal Empire
Universal Empire

Author: Peter Fibiger Bang

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-08-16

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1107022673

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores the aspiration to universal, imperial rule across Eurasian history from antiquity to the eighteenth century.

Art from a Fractured Past
Art from a Fractured Past

Author: Cynthia E. Milton

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2014-02-21

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0822377462

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission not only documented the political violence of the 1980s and 1990s but also gave Peruvians a unique opportunity to examine the causes and nature of that violence. In Art from a Fractured Past, scholars and artists expand on the commission's work, arguing for broadening the definition of the testimonial to include various forms of artistic production as documentary evidence. Their innovative focus on representation offers new and compelling perspectives on how Peruvians experienced those years and how they have attempted to come to terms with the memories and legacies of violence. Their findings about Peru offer insight into questions of art, memory, and truth that resonate throughout Latin America in the wake of "dirty wars" of the last half century. Exploring diverse works of art, including memorials, drawings, theater, film, songs, painted wooden retablos (three-dimensional boxes), and fiction, including an acclaimed graphic novel, the contributors show that art, not constrained by literal truth, can generate new opportunities for empathetic understanding and solidarity. Contributors. Ricardo Caro Cárdenas, Jesús Cossio, Ponciano del Pino, Cynthia M. Garza, Edilberto Jímenez Quispe, Cynthia E. Milton, Jonathan Ritter, Luis Rossell, Steve J. Stern, María Eugenia Ulfe, Víctor Vich, Alfredo Villar

Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia
Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-03-20

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 9004288058

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia: A Longue Durée Perspective, eleven historians bring their knowledge and insights to bear on the long Braudelian sweep of Southeast Asian history. In doing so they seek both to debunk simplistic assumptions about fragile traditions and transformational modernities, and to identify real repeating patterns in Southeast Asia's past: clientelistic political structures, periodic tectonic and climatic disasters, ethnic occupational specializations, long cycles of economic globalization and deglobalization. Their contributions range across many centuries: from the Austronesian expansion to the Aceh tsunami, and from the Sanskrit cosmopolis to the Asian financial crisis. The book is inspired by, and dedicated to, Peter Boomgaard, a scholar whose work has embodied the Braudelian spirit in Southeast Asian historiography. This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access.

The Dictator's Seduction
The Dictator's Seduction

Author: Lauren H. Derby

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2009-07-17

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0822390868

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, was one of the longest and bloodiest in Latin American history. The Dictator’s Seduction is a cultural history of the Trujillo regime as it was experienced in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Focusing on everyday forms of state domination, Lauren Derby describes how the regime infiltrated civil society by fashioning a “vernacular politics” based on popular idioms of masculinity and fantasies of race and class mobility. Derby argues that the most pernicious aspect of the dictatorship was how it appropriated quotidian practices such as gossip and gift exchange, leaving almost no place for Dominicans to hide or resist. Drawing on previously untapped documents in the Trujillo National Archives and interviews with Dominicans who recall life under the dictator, Derby emphasizes the role that public ritual played in Trujillo’s exercise of power. His regime included the people in affairs of state on a massive scale as never before. Derby pays particular attention to how events and projects were received by the public as she analyzes parades and rallies, the rebuilding of Santo Domingo following a major hurricane, and the staging of a year-long celebration marking the twenty-fifth year of Trujillo’s regime. She looks at representations of Trujillo, exploring how claims that he embodied the popular barrio antihero the tíguere (tiger) stoked a fantasy of upward mobility and how a rumor that he had a personal guardian angel suggested he was uniquely protected from his enemies. The Dictator’s Seduction sheds new light on the cultural contrivances of autocratic power.

The Extractive Zone
The Extractive Zone

Author: Macarena Gómez-Barris

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2017-10-19

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 0822372568

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In The Extractive Zone Macarena Gómez-Barris traces the political, aesthetic, and performative practices that emerge in opposition to the ruinous effects of extractive capital. The work of Indigenous activists, intellectuals, and artists in spaces Gómez-Barris labels extractive zones—majority indigenous regions in South America noted for their biodiversity and long history of exploitative natural resource extraction—resist and refuse the terms of racial capital and the continued legacies of colonialism. Extending decolonial theory with race, sexuality, and critical Indigenous studies, Gómez-Barris develops new vocabularies for alternative forms of social and political life. She shows how from Colombia to southern Chile artists like filmmaker Huichaqueo Perez and visual artist Carolina Caycedo formulate decolonial aesthetics. She also examines the decolonizing politics of a Bolivian anarcho-feminist collective and a coalition in eastern Ecuador that protects the region from oil drilling. In so doing, Gómez-Barris reveals the continued presence of colonial logics and locates emergent modes of living beyond the boundaries of destructive extractive capital.

The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms
The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms

Author: Taryne Jade Taylor

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-10-30

Total Pages: 1068

ISBN-13: 1000934136

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms delivers a new, inclusive examination of science fiction, from close analyses of single texts to large-scale movements, providing readers with decolonized models of the future, including print, media, race, gender, and social justice. This comprehensive overview of the field explores representations of possible futures arising from non-Western cultures and ethnic histories that disrupt the “imperial gaze”. In four parts, The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms considers the look of futures from the margins, foregrounding the issues of Indigenous groups, racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, and any people whose stakes in the global order of envisioning futures are generally constrained due to the mechanics of our contemporary world. The book extends current discussions in the area, looking at cutting-edge developments in the discipline of science fiction and diverse futurisms as a whole. Offering a dynamic mix of approaches and expansive perspectives, this volume will appeal to academics and researchers seeking to orient their own interventions into broader contexts.

Mirror of the World
Mirror of the World

Author: Julian Bell

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2010-05-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500287546

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Exuberant, astute, and splendidly illustrated history of world art . . . draws fascinating parallels between artistic developments in Western and non-Western art.”—Publishers Weekly In this beautifully written story of art, Julian Bell tells a vivid and compelling history of human artistic achievements, from prehistoric stone carvings to the latest video installations. Bell, himself a painter, uses a variety of objects to reveal how art is a product of our shared experience and how, like a mirror, it can reflect the human condition. With hundreds of illustrations and a uniquely global perspective, Bell juxtaposes examples that challenge and enlighten the reader: dancing bronze figures from southern India, Romanesque sculptures, Baroque ceilings, and jewel-like Persian manuscripts are discussed side by side. With an insider’s knowledge and an unerring touch, Bell weaves these diverse strands into an invaluable introduction to the wider history of world art.