“I’ll do anything—I’ll even preach!” As a boy, Dave cut a deal with God to save his life. Decades later, Dave and his friends are on his final street-preaching trip. “Jesus came for all, so we should go to all!” With that attitude, Dave fights spiritual resistance as he and his young family endeavor to leave the life they’ve known and join a team of missionaries stationed in an increasingly militant Islamic country. “God’s calling is clear,” Dave’s pastor reassures him. Yet Dave is unaware of how catastrophic his sin will be . . . or the dangers his children will face . . . or how deep the calling will go . . . in the land where shadows hide the sun.
Shadow of the Rising Sun, (book two of The Dragon?s Wake Trilogy) continues the Lee family?s story of struggle, obligation and destiny. The year is 1918, Japan has occupied and then annexed Korea, cruelly reducing it to a virtual slave colony,and has now begun its takeover of Manchuria on its way to conquering China. Michael Y.T. Lee, son of former Minister Lee, leader of Korea?s liberation movement, is seventeen when he is sent to Peking University to prepare himself to join his father in the anti-Japanese resistance. There he meets some of the future leaders of China and falls under the influence of the country?s intellectual giants, some who will found China?s communist party. While he yearns to fight for the freedom of Korea, his ancestral homeland, which he has never seen, he realizes he must first address problems closer to home. Warlords and gangsters have taken over much of China, creating anarchy and corruption throughout the land. China?s well-organized opium cartel controls Shanghai and all central and coastal China. Y.T. joins Sun Yat-sen?s nationalist army to take back the country and unite it under a nationalist government. He becomes a cavalry officer and fights against the warlords. After being wounded in battle he learns that Chiang Kaishek, Sun?s prot?g? and successor, has betrayed the government and sold it out to the opium cartel. Meanwhile, Japan?s invasion of China expands. Even Shanghai, Y.T.?s home, is taken over by them in their bloodthirsty pursuit of empire. Y.T. must make agonizing choices to save his family and his life goals as the communists, nationalists, and Japanese all battle for control of China.
No one had time to think about what it was or how to react to it. With the energy of two million hydrogen bombs, the asteroid blasts through the atmosphere in a second—sweeping half the planet clean of all life. As a few lucky survivors stand in the darkness and look to the skies with gratitude for their lives, black snow starts falling and the great famine begins. It is 2012, and the world has changed forever. Shadow is a plains wolf who has always had food and shelter—all the things he needed to survive—until the great darkness arrived. The wolf is near death when a she-human happens upon him and frees him from his cage at the zoo. She and her dog Champ lead Shadow deep into the forest in a desperate attempt to survive. Eventually tragedy strikes, leaving Champ and Shadow alone. As Shadow and Champ venture high in the mountains, they discover a small wolf pack living on the carcasses buried under the soot-laden snow. As the sun returns and fresh buds form, Shadow must find acceptance within a new family.
In this work, Carl Anthony shares his perspectives as an African-American child in post-World War II Philadelphia; a student and civil rights activist in 1960s Harlem; a traveling student of West African architecture; and an architect, planner, and environmental justice advocate in Berkeley. He contextualizes this within American urbanism and human origins, making profoundly personal both African American and American urban histories as well as planetary origins and environmental issues, to not only bring a new worldview to people of color, but to set forth a truly inclusive vision of our shared planetary future. The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race connects the logics behind slavery, community disinvestment, and environmental exploitation to address the most pressing issues of our time in a cohesive and foundational manner. Most books dealing with these topics and periods silo issues apart from one another, but this book contextualizes the connections between social movements and issues, providing tremendous insight into successful movement building. Anthony's rich narrative describes both being at the mercy of racism, urban disinvestment, and environmental injustice as well as fighting against these forces with a variety of strategies. Because this work is both a personal memoir and an exposition of ideas, it will appeal to those who appreciate thoughtful and unique writing on issues of race, including individuals exploring their own African American identity, as well as progressive audiences of organizations and community leaders and professionals interested in democratizing power and advancing equitable policies for low-income communities and historically disenfranchised communities.
EM Castellan's In the Shadow of the Sun is a sumptuous YA romantasy set in 17th century Versailles. It’s 1661 in Paris, and magicians thrill nobles with enchanting illusions. Exiled in France, 17-year-old Henriette of England wishes she could use her magic to gain entry at court. Instead, her plan is to hide her magical talents, and accept an arranged marriage to the French king’s younger brother. Henriette soon realizes her fiancé prefers the company of young men to hers, and court magicians turn up killed by a mysterious sorcerer who uses forbidden magic. When an accident forces Henriette to reveal her uniquely powerful gift for enchantments to Louis, he asks for her help: she alone can defeat the dark magician threatening his authority and aid his own plans to build the new, enchanted seat of his power--the Palace of Versailles.
The book is the volume of “The History of Science and Technology in Qin and Han Dynasty ” among a series of books of “Deep into China Histories”. The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) and the Bamboo Annals (296 BC) describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC) before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the Shang. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.The Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) supplanted the Shang and introduced the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify their rule. The central Zhou government began to weaken due to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the country eventually splintered into smaller states during the Spring and Autumn period. These states became independent and warred with one another in the following Warring States period. Much of traditional Chinese culture, literature and philosophy first developed during those troubled times.In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang conquered the various warring states and created for himself the title of Huangdi or "emperor" of the Qin, marking the beginning of imperial China. However, the oppressive government fell soon after his death, and was supplanted by the longer-lived Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly. In the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD 1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite of scholar-officials. Young men, well-versed in calligraphy, history, literature, and philosophy, were carefully selected through difficult government examinations. China's last dynasty was the Qing (1644–1912), which was replaced by the Republic of China in 1912, and in the mainland by the People's Republic of China in 1949.Chinese history has alternated between periods of political unity and peace, and periods of war and failed statehood – the most recent being the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949). China was occasionally dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were eventually assimilated into the Han Chinese culture and population. Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China; in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. Traditional culture, and influences from other parts of Asia and the Western world (carried by waves of immigration, cultural assimilation, expansion, and foreign contact), form the basis of the modern culture of China.
'Cult Wars' in Historical Perspective provides a broad characterization of the shifting religious contours over the past several decades. Offering an assessment of several important topics in the study of new religions, this book explores developments in well-known groups such as the Unification movement, The Family International (Children of God), the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and the Church of Scientology. Bringing together both insiders and outsiders from various academic disciplines and personal perspectives, this book takes account of the ways in which the cult question is defined and addressed in different countries. It offers a vivid depiction of how the cult wars or cult controversies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries first took shape; the transformation of deeply entrenched positions on cults and sects as at least some members of new groups, cult watchers, and academics entered into serious and sustained conversations about topics of mutual concern; the shifting foci and concerns of the general public, law enforcement and the courts, and academics in various countries; and the complex histories of individual groups in which many dramatic transformations have occurred despite their comparatively short life spans.
Hatchet in North Korea: A sister and brother go on the run with explosive forbidden photographs in this gripping and timely survival adventure. North Korea is known as the most repressive country on Earth, with a dictatorial leader, a starving population, and harsh punishment for rebellion.Not the best place for a family vacation.Yet that's exactly where Mia Andrews finds herself, on a tour with her aid-worker father and fractious older brother, Simon. Mia was adopted from South Korea as a baby, and the trip raises tough questions about where she really belongs. Then her dad is arrested for spying, just as forbidden photographs of North Korean slave-labor camps fall into Mia's hands. The only way to save Dad: get the pictures out of the country. Thus Mia and Simon set off on a harrowing journey to the border, without food, money, or shelter, in a land where anyone who sees them might turn them in, and getting caught could mean prison -- or worse.An exciting adventure that offers a rare glimpse into a compelling, complicated nation, In the Shadow of the Sun is an unforgettable novel of courage and survival.
