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Xinjiang and the Chinese State: Violence in the Reform Era

by Debasish Chaudhuri

This book focuses on the nature of ethno-national conflicts and impacts of ideological orientation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) towards the national question in the context of Han nationalism and political, economic and security policies towards Xinjiang. Violence in Xinjiang since the mid-1990s is projected as one of the major national security challenges for China, along with issues pertaining to Tibet and Taiwan. The author argues that the post-Mao reformist model may have been a beneficial economic and political innovation, but failed in dealing with regional conflicts and unrests arising out of the demands for independence, freedom, greater autonomy and assertion of democratic and civic rights. The book discusses Chinese nationalism and the construction of Uyghur national identity, consequences of economic modernisation in the region, ethnic conflicts and coercive measures, the security and social stability situation in Xinjiang, intensification of violence in Xinjiang under the new leadership, vision of the ‘Chinese dream’, key policies and programmes, post-riot fallouts and social contradictions manifest in discourses surrounding development, separatist violence, religious fundamentalism and international terrorism. With its in-depth, accessible and comprehensive analyses, this book will be a valuable addition to scholars and researchers of Chinese studies, politics and international relations, security and strategic studies, sociology, social anthropology and ethnic studies.

Xinjiang and the Expansion of Chinese Communist Power: Kashgar in the Early Twentieth Century (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia)

by Michael Dillon

Xinjiang, China's far northwestern province where the majority of the population are Muslim Uyghurs, was for most of its history contested territory. On the Silk Road, a region of overlapping cultures, the province was virtually independent until the late nineteenth century, nominally part of the Qing Empire, with considerable interest taken in it by the British and the Russians as part of their Great Game rivalry in Asia. Ruled by warlords in the early twentieth century, it was occupied in 1949-50 by the People's Liberation Army, since when attempts have been made to integrate the province more fully into China. This book outlines the history of Xinjiang. It focuses on the key city of Kashgar, the symbolic heart of Uighur society, drawing on a large body of records in which ordinary people provided information on the period around the communist takeover. These records provide an exceptionally rich source, showing how ordinary Uyghurs lived their everyday lives before 1949 and how those lives were affected by the arrival of the Chinese Communist Party and its army. Subjects covered by the book include Eastern Turkestan independence, regional politics, local government, the military, taxation, education and the press.

Xinjiang - China's Northwest Frontier: China's Northwest Frontier (Central Asia Research Forum)

by K. Warikoo

Xinjiang is the ‘pivot of Asia’, where the frontiers of China, Tibet, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia approach each other. The growing Uyghur demand for a separate homeland and continuing violence in Xinjiang have brought this region into the focus of national and international attention. With Xinjiang becoming the hub of trans-Asian trade and traffic , and also due to its rich energy resources, Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang are poised to assert their ethno-political position, thereby posing serious challenge to China’s authority in the region. This book offers a new perspective on the region, with a focus on social, economic and political developments in Xinjiang in modern and contemporary times. Drawing on detailed analyses by experts on Xinjiang from India, Central Asia, Russia, Taiwan and China, this book presents a coherent, concise and rich analysis of ethnic relations, Uyghur resistance, China’s policy in Xinjiang and its economic relations with its Central Asian neighbours. It is of interest to those studying in Chinese and Central Asian politics and society, International Relations and Security Studies.

Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim On The Silk Road

by Sally Wriggins

The saga of the seventh-century Chinese monk Xuanzang, who completed an epic sixteen-year journey to discover the heart of Buddhism at its source in India, is a splendid story of human struggle and triumph. One of China's great heroes, Xuanzang is introduced here for the first time to Western readers in this richly illustrated book. Sally Hovey Wriggins, who journeyed in Xuanzang's footsteps, brings to life a man who transcended common experience. Eight centuries before Columbus, this intrepid pilgrim against the wishes of his emperor travelled on the Silk Road through Central Asia on his way to India. Before his journey ended, he had met most of Asia's important leaders and traversed 10,000 miles in search of Buddhist scriptures. He was both a mountain climber who scaled three of Asia's highest mountain ranges and a desert survivor who nearly died of thirst on the brutal flats; a philosopher and metaphysician; a diplomat who established China's ties to Central Asian and Indian kings; and above all a devout and courageous Buddhist who personally nurtured the growth of Buddhism in China by disseminating the nearly 600 scriptures he carried back from India. Wriggins gives us vivid descriptions of the perils Xuanzang faced, the monasteries he visited (many still standing today), and the eight places of Buddhist pilgrimage in India. Detailed maps and color photographs provide striking evidence of the vast distances involved and the appalling dangers Xuanzang endured; reproductions of Buddhist art from museums around the world capture the glories of this world religion while revealing a cosmopolitan era in which pilgrims were both adventurers and ambassadors of goodwill. An engaging introduction to Buddhism and Buddhist art, this unique book takes the reader on a rousing adventure that also gives a compelling view of Asian history and civilization.

Xunzi: The Complete Text

by Xunzi

This is the first complete, one-volume English translation of the ancient Chinese text Xunzi, one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and elegant works in the tradition of Confucian thought. Through essays, poetry, dialogues, and anecdotes, the Xunzi articulates a Confucian perspective on ethics, politics, warfare, language, psychology, human nature, ritual, and music, among other topics. Aimed at general readers and students of Chinese thought, Eric Hutton’s translation makes the full text of this important work more accessible in English than ever before.Named for its purported author, the Xunzi (literally, “Master Xun”) has long been neglected compared to works such as the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius. Yet interest in the Xunzi has grown in recent decades, and the text presents a much more systematic vision of the Confucian ideal than the fragmented sayings of Confucius and Mencius. In one famous, explicit contrast to them, the Xunzi argues that human nature is bad. However, it also allows that people can become good through rituals and institutions established by earlier sages. Indeed, the main purpose of the Xunzi is to urge people to become as good as possible, both for their own sakes and for the sake of peace and order in the world.In this edition, key terms are consistently translated to aid understanding and line numbers are provided for easy reference. Other features include a concise introduction, a timeline of early Chinese history, a list of important names and terms, cross-references, brief explanatory notes, a bibliography, and an index.

XXL

by Patrick Luciani Neil Seeman

Obese individuals are twice as likely to experience heart failure as non-obese people. More than eighty-five per cent of type 2 diabetes sufferers are overweight. And in the United States, obese and overweight individuals make up more than two-thirds of the adult population. Public health organizations and governments have traditionally tried to combat obesity through shame-inducing policies, which assure people that they can easily lose weight by eating right and exercising. This generic approach has failed, as it does little to address the personal, genetic, and cultural challenges faced by obese individuals.XXL directly confronts the global public health sector by proposing an innovative, alternative policy - the 'healthy living voucher' - for decreasing high calorie consumption and its related health problems. Neil Seeman and Patrick Luciani argue that many public health campaigns have made the problem of obesity worse by minimizing how difficult it is for individuals to lose weight. XXL challenges governments to abandon top-down planning solutions in favour of bottom-up innovations to confront the obesity crisis.

XYZT (Urbanomic / K-Pulp #2)

by Kristen Alvanson

Genre-defying fiction that accelerates "cross-cultural dialogue" into a kaleidoscopic rush of sensory estrangements, fairy tales, and alien encounters."There's really no difference between us and them, so we're told…."Based on the author's experiences of living as an American in Iran, Kristen Alvanson's XYZT is a wildly imaginative dramatization of the idea of a "dialogue of civilizations" and its potentially outlandish ramifications.As part of an advanced technological test program, volunteers are shuttled back and forth between the US and Iran, hidden from the watchful eyes of immigration police and state bureaucracies. Each is given a single opportunity to be received by a local host and to have a brief authentic experience of what it means to live as “them” before being transported back home.But far from heralding the bliss of mutual recognition, the experiment unleashes a series of displacements so disorienting that the fabric of reality begins to fray. Ordinary people become entangled in extraordinary situations, and everyday life bleeds into mythological encounters, alternate universes and dark psychedelic journeys in alien lands where the real and the imaginary are indistinguishable.A treasury of tales told from multiple perspectives and in a multiplicity of styles, XYZT is an audacious cross-genre experiment, a firsthand memoir of what it means to see what "they" see, and a science-fictional, nonstandard engagement with anthropology in which cross-cultural encounters take on all the unpredictable features of a contemporary fairy tale.

¿Y ahora qué? México ante el 2018

by NEXOS UNIVERSIDAD DE GUADALAJARA

México enfrenta grandes problemas, y la mayoría de difícil arreglo. ¿Pero cuáles son? ¿Qué riesgos implican? ¿Y qué vías existen para combatirlos? En esta obra, 34 académicos e intelectuales de primer orden realizan un diagnóstico sistemático de las fallas y carencias de este país. Mediante análisis accesibles pero rigurosos, demuestran que hay muchas opciones por explorar, más allá dequejarse y repetir clichés. Las cien formas de la corrupción y la impunidad. Las incompetencias del Estado. Las elecciones amañadas. El narcotráfico y los errores al combatirlo. El abandono de la juventud. Las policías raquíticas. Las cárceles como veneros del crimen. La desigualdad. La desconexión entre el mundo educativo y el productivo. Las fracturas del sistema de salud. El desorden federativo. La debilidad de la política exterior. La ineficiencia administrativa. Ésas son las arrugas sobre el rostro del país. Sin embargo, entre las sombras más oscuras del entramado social y las estructuras que exigen apuntalamiento, aparecen, finalmente, oportunidades que no pueden soslayarse y algunos caminos hacia un México menos roto.

¿Y dónde está la gente?: Campañas y encuestas en la sociedad del presente extremo

by Jaime Durán Barba Santiago Nieto

Jaime Durán Barba y Santiago Nieto tienen una capacidad especial para salirse de los lugares convencionales y comprender este fenómeno de forma rigurosa y desprejuiciada. Con huellas de diversos ámbitos como la psicología o la historia, ¿Y dónde está la gente? es un libro de lectura imprescindible para entender cómo circula hoy la opinión pública en materia política. Vivimos el cambio más descomunal de la historia y, sin embargo, algunos políticos permanecen atados a ideas del pasado. Las conductas de las sociedades hoy son inestables y más libres. Los electores no son de nadie y las opiniones que más pesan son las del entorno físico y virtual. En muchos países hay más celulares que habitantes y esos dispositivos están democratizando el conocimiento, ponen el mundo al alcance de la mano. Entonces, cuando los analistas políticos enfocan su estudio en porcentajes de encuestas y datos duros, olvidan preguntarse: "¿Y dónde está la gente?" "¿De qué conversa?" "¿Qué escucha con sus auriculares caminando por la calle?" "¿Qué elige mirar?". Cualquier youtuber famoso tiene más seguidores que cualquier político latinoamericano y en muy poco tiempo afloran líderes impensados, como Bolsonaro o Trump.

¿Y dónde quedó la bolita?: Cómo el gobierno hace lo que quiere con nuestro dinero

by Leonardo Nuñez

¿Sabes qué hace realmente el gobierno con nuestro dinero? ¿Por qué el gobierno nos dice que gasta de una manera y lo hace de otra? ¿Por qué el gasolinazo es una pésima decisión del gobierno? ¿En qué se gasta realmente el dinero de los mexicanos? Este libro pretende dar respuesta a estas y otras preguntas y, más importante aún, ofrece a los ciudadanos las herramientas necesarias para conocer la situación real del gasto en cualquier tema. Para la mayoría de los ciudadanos esto es un misterio. Cuando alguien quiere conocer cómo se gasta, de manera lógica acude a las cifras del Presupuesto de Egresos de la Federación (PEF), eso que cada año aprueban los diputados y debería indicar cuánto y cómo se gastará. Sin embargo, aquí sólo hay verdades a medias. El 30 de abril de cada año aparece otro documento que revela historias muy diferentes y recibe muy poca atención: la Cuenta Pública. Al revisarla encontraremos, por ejemplo, que en 16 años de vida "democrática" nuestro gobierno ha gastado 4.1 billones de pesos más de lo que nos había dicho (casi 20% del PIB o 100 veces el presupuesto de la UNAM); que en 2016 ¡se usaron 613 mil millones de pesos más de los presupuestados!, que una cuarta parte de todo lo que se gasta termina en lugares diferentes a los que creeríamos, o que debimos saber de los desfalcos de Javier Duarte en Veracruz, al menos, desde 2013. Así las cosas, el uso de nuestros recursos es como el juego popular: en dónde quedó la bolita. ¡Urge detener los casos de corrupción y uso inadecuado del dinero público! ¡Es tiempo de cambiar las cosas!

Y la sangre llegó al Nilo

by Víctor De Currea Lugo

Crónicas y reportajes sobrecogedores y brillantes sobre los conflictos armados en el Medio Oriente, Asia y norte de África.. Este libro reúne las mejores crónicas, reportajes y entrevistas en zonas de conflictos armados y tensiones sociales alrededor del mundo, escritos por el autor entre 2012 y 2016. Desde el dolor de la guerra de Siria y el desengaño de la reconstrucción de Afganistán, pasando por el calor de las protestas árabes en Egipto y la sombra permanente del genocidio de Camboya, hasta el posacuerdo de Nepal, las minorías de Sri Lanka después del final de la contienda y la formación de las guerrillas filipinas. Un viaje intenso al corazón de las guerras actuales de la mano de un especialista que las ha visto con sus propios ojos.

Y mi palabra es la ley: AMLO en Palacio Nacional

by Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra

Una radiografía indispensable para entender lo que ha traído la llamada 4T. En momentos en que el debate político está dominado por la desinformación, la especulación y los insultos que circulan por las redes sociales, Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra nos ofrece un análisis serio, con datos duros, sobre los primeros dos años del gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Una obra necesaria, oportuna, y que nos da la pauta de lo que vendrá.» Andrés Oppenheimer, autor de Basta de historias y ¡Sálvese quien pueda! «Y mi palabra es la ley ofrece un recuento objetivo de la Cuarta Transformación. Con destreza nos presenta una perspectiva de AMLO dentro de la historia de la política, economía y sociedad mexicanas. Elizondo examina cómo el presidente aprovechó su histórica oportunidad de cambio y por qué hasta ahora el cumplimiento de sus promesas ha fracasado. Es un libro que hay que leer, un fiel retrato de México hoy.» Shannon K. O#neil, Senior Fellow for Latin America del Council on Foreign Relations «Las pasiones evocadas por líderes políticos extraordinarios tienden a oscurecer el análisis, tanto de sus motivos e intenciones reales como de sus probables resultados. Andrés Manuel López Obrador es precisamente una de esas figuras. En medio de la turbulencia del momento, Carlos Elizondo ha asumido el reto de ofrecer un retrato franco y vívido, pero también cuidadoso y juicioso, del líder de la #Cuarta Transformación#. Quienes busquen claridad sobre el proyecto y las perspectivas de AMLO pueden beneficiarse de este esfuerzo, sin importar cuáles sean sus preferencias políticas. Ni AMLO ni sus críticos más severos pueden prever el veredicto de su gobierno. Mientras tanto, este libro proporciona una incisiva base para un sobrio juicio provisional.» Laurence Whitehead, Senior Research Fellow de la Universidad de Oxford

¿Ya es mañana?: Cómo la pandemia cambiará el mundo

by Ivan Krastev

Una lectura indispensable para empezar a entender las consecuencias de la pandemia que marcará el rumbo del mundo en los próximos años. Como describe José Saramago en su Ensayo sobre la ceguera, la pérdida de visión es característica de toda pandemia: no vemos la enfermedad hasta que llega, y cuando lo hace, tampoco entendemos lo que ocurre alrededor nuestro. Saramago no cree que las enfermedades nos transformen; en su opinión, nos ayudan a captar el verdadero rostro de nuestras sociedades. Si es así, es fundamental que comprendamos lo que ocurrió mientras estábamos encerrados en nuestra casa. En este lúcido texto, Ivan Krastev expone las cinco paradojas que la COVID-19 ha sacado a la luz respecto a la globalización, la cooperación internacional, el autoritarismo, la cohesión social y el proyecto europeo. Ganador en 2020 del Premio Lionel Gelber y del Premio Jean Améry, la mirada de uno de los mejores analistas políticos del momento es fundamental para empezar a entender las consecuencias de la pandemia que marcará el rumbo del mundo en los próximos años. Reseñas:«Ivan Krastev es uno de los pensadores más fascinantes de nuestro tiempo. Un malabarista de paradojas, atacante de creencias generalizadas. Puedes no estar de acuerdo siempre, pero aburrirte, jamás.»Robert Kagan, Washington Post «Krastev es uno de los intelectuales más interesantes del panorama actual en todo Europa.»Financial Times «Ivan Krastev es uno de los escritores políticos más agudos y elegantes que han emergido de Europa del Este en los últimos años.»Sunday Times

Ya nadie llora por mí

by Sergio Ramírez

Premio Cervantes 2017. «Sergio Ramírez conjuga una literatura comprometida con una alta calidad literaria.» Jurado del premio Carlos Fuentes El inspector Dolores Morales está dado de baja en la Policía Nacional desde hace años y ahora trabaja como detective privado investigando adulterios para una clientela de pocos recursos desde su agencia establecida en un shopping center venido a menos en Managua. Pero un acontecimiento imprevisto va a sacarle de la rutina: ha desaparecido la hijastra de uno de los hombres más poderosos del país y Morales recibe el encargo de encontrarla. Pronto la desaparición de la joven se revela como la punta de un iceberg que oculta las cloacas del sistema político y social del país. Es ese el momento en que Morales comprende que lo que debe descubrirno es sólo el paradero de la muchacha, sino las verdaderas razones por las que ha desaparecido. Con un extraordinario manejo del humor y la ironía, y la maestría narrativa que caracterizan toda su obra, Sergio Ramírez regresa al género negro con uno de sus personajes más memorables, que ya protagonizó El cielo llora por mí (2008). Sexo, dinero, corrupción y tramas de poder son las claves de este caso policial en el que nadie resulta del todo inocente. La crítica ha dicho... «El relato policial es la forma que asume una pregunta por la veracidad. Discurso híbrido, está hecho del lado de la lectura en un español que confronta la corrupción, la mentira y la violencia. En El cielo llora por mí, la novela policial logra imaginar, a pesar de todas las razones en contra, una certeza compartible.» Julio Ortega, El País «Margarita, está linda la mar es la síntesis que un gran escritor logra entre la tragedia y la grandeza de un país al que ama hasta el punto de convertirlo en pura literatura.» Carlos Fuentes «Un relato pícaro y socarrón, exento de dogmatismo, que asume la tarea de relatar un argumento que no se propone como novedad; lo sorprendente está en el enfoque cercano de los sucesos, en su humor irreverente.» Arturo García Ramos, ABC (sobre Sara) «El primer cuentista vivo en el continente latinoamericano, y uno de los mejores en español, heredero de las armas de Cortázar y Monterroso [...]. Por cada cuento un mundo.» Javier Sancho Más, Babelia «Sergio Ramírez se mueve como pez en el agua en el dominio del relato, escribiendo cuentos que no se cansan de sacarle punta al lápiz de la vida, adoptando enfoques insólitos #que acaban convirtiendo en sorprendente un suceso banal# y aclimatando con suma habilidad el humor a las catástrofes cotidianas.» Javier Aparicio, El País

Y'all Fired: A Southern Belle's Guide to Restoring Federalism and Draining the Swamp

by Mandy M. Gunasekara

From a State Department-arranged German sex hotel to costly, unsubstantiated investigations brought on by anonymous sources, Y'all Fired shows readers the unfortunate reality of a young woman&’s fight to institute America First reforms and what the permanent government of DC will do to resist it. Buckle up, because this gets personal.Y'all Fired: A Southern Belle&’s Guide to Restoring Federalism and Draining the Swamp provides an insider account of an outsider&’s service in the Trump Administration. It brings to life first-hand experiences of deep state bullying and the frustrating reality of having few tools to effectively push back. Having grown up in small-town Mississippi where people treat people with courtesy and believe in America&’s constitutional tradition, life within the modern Deep State was a wakeup call for Mandy Gunasekara. Where some political appointees cut and run, and others find ways to simply blend in by &“going native,&” this small-town girl is determined to fix it. Y'all Fired cuts through the politics and provides a substantive assessment of how we got here by explaining the enduring institutional challenges to reform, including passage of the Sixteenth Amendment that forever changed the relationship between the federal government and the states, and the broken promises of FDR&’s New Deal. This blend of personal anecdotes alongside policy solutions is not about revenge for the unfortunate souls that never learned their manners; it&’s a reckoning for the American people to finally institute overdue reforms.

Y’all Have Sinned: How Blaming Others Is Not A Winning Strategy

by Eddie Huff

Recently, Black America has been portrayed as the most maligned and persecuted people group in history, and the perpetrators have been identified as Europeans and their descendants. While the treatment of black people, worldwide and in America, by Europeans was terrible to say the least, it is the lack of forgiveness for those past sins which holds the descendants of African slaves in bondage today. Facing the truth about our own sins and forgiveness is the key to true freedom and prosperity for all of mankind, and especially those in America, black, white, brown and anyone else.

Yalo

by Elias Khoury

Yalo was a soldier on one of the many sides in Lebanon's sectarian civil war, before becoming a deserter and a thief, a nightwatchman in Paris, an arms smuggler, and then a rapist. And then he falls in love with his victim - who turns him in to the police. This novel is a modern Thousand and One Nights, a series of confessions extracted under torture, a recitation of all of his memories, all his sorrows, all his guilt - and of the other crimes his interrogators have him confess to. Beirut and the legacy of the wars of the Middle East are the texture of Elias Khoury's extraordinary literary achievement.

Yalta

by Pierre de Senarclens

Yalta still excites scholars and general public alike. In shaping post-war geographical alignments, Yalta has become drenched in ideological disputes. It has assumed a symbolic quality for liberal, left, and conservative interpretations of modern European history. In his book, Pierre de Senarclens offers the reader a clear and precise account of the matter in which negotiations at Yalta were actually conducted by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Senarclens not only follows closely the negotiations themselves, but draws upon the political and strategic events preceding the negotiations, and the stated aims of the Allied Forces before the conference.In the light of all the different expectations of the respective leaders, the key question for Senarclens is, what was the real outcome of Yalta? Senarclens avoids overdramatization and does not elevate Yalta to a turning point in world history. He avoid ideological interpretations, from the conservative analysis of Yalta as appeasement and the selling out of Eastern Europe and China, to the liberal-left analysis of three old men ruthlessly dividing the world between themselves. But he does not spare us Roosevelt's idealized picture of Stalin, nor does he avoid revealing the ambiguities of Churchill's conduct, or the ruthlessness of Stalin's approach.Senarclens refutes the thesis that Yalta amounted to an occidental capitulation to the Soviets. As the author convincingly argues, the world has not come about us as a result of Yalta, but in spite of it.

The Yankee International

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

Examining the social and intellectual collision of the Americanreform tradition with immigrant Marxism during the Reconstructionera, Timothy Messer-Kruse charts the rise and fall of theInternational Workingman's Association (IWA), the firstinternational socialist organization. He analyzes what attractedAmerican reformers--many of them veterans of antebellum crusades for abolition, women's rights, and other radical causes--to the IWA, how their presence affected the course of the American Left, and why they were ultimately purged from the IWA by their orthodox Marxist comrades. Messer-Kruse explores the ideology and activities of theYankee Internationalists, tracing the evolution of antebellumAmerican reformers' thinking on the question of wage labor andilluminating the beginnings of a broad labor reform coalition inthe early years of Reconstruction. He shows how Americanreformers' priority of racial and sexual equality clashed withtheir Marxist partners' strategy of infiltrating trade unions.Ultimately, he argues, Marxist demands for party discipline andideological unity proved incompatible with the Yankees' nativerepublicanism. With the expulsion of Yankee reformers from theIWA in 1871, American Marxism was divorced from the Americanreform tradition.

Yankee Leviathan

by Richard Franklin Bensel

This book describes the impact of the American Civil War on the development of central state authority in the late nineteenth century. The author contends that intense competition for control of the national political economy between the free North and slave South produced secession, which in turn spawned the formation of two new states, a market-oriented northern Union and a southern Confederacy in which government controls on the economy were much more important. During the Civil War, the American state both expanded and became the agent of northern economic development. After the war ended, however, tension within the Republican coalition led to the abandonment of Reconstruction and to the return of former Confederates to political power throughout the South. As a result, American state expansion ground to a halt during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book makes a major contribution to the understanding of the causes and consequences of the Civil War and the legacy of the war in the twentieth century.

The Yanti (Alosha Trilogy #3)

by Christopher Pike

InAlosha andThe Shaktra, thirteen-year-old Ali Warner discovered that she was not an ordinary teenager, but was actually Queen of the Fairies. Through seven painful trials, Ali reclaimed many of her magical powers and defeated an elemental army that was preparing to attack the Earth. In the elemental world, Ali learned the true nature of her greatest enemy -- the Shaktra -- and discovered why it covets the Yanti, a mystical talisman of immense power that Ali now possesses. Now, inThe Yanti, Ali discovers that a mysterious Entity is masterminding the Shaktra's attack on Earth, an attack that will kill billions and leave both Earth and the elemental world shattered. Still reeling from the death of one of her closest friends, Ali finds herself accused of murder on Earth and besieged by enemies in the elemental world. The Shaktra has had years to develop her magical abilities and her evil plots, guided by the otherworldly Entity. Ali has only known about her fairy powers for a month. There are holes in her fairy memories and her powers are still incomplete, while the Shaktra commands vast armies of hideous monsters and rules over hosts of dragons. Ali's allies are few: one dragon, one leprechaun, a single troll, a handful of fairies and an African boy, Ra, who has sworn to serve Ali even beyond death. Plus the mysterious disembodied Nemi -- whose love sustains Ali through her darkest moments of despair. Only the Yanti can stop what is to come. Unfortunately, Ali has barely had a chance to study it. The first time she tries to use it as a weapon, it nearly kills her. Unless Ali Warner can solve the riddle of the Yanti - and the mystery behind the Shaktra's insane bitterness -- then the Earth and the elemental world will be doomed.

Yaroslaw's Treasure: A Novel

by Myroslav Petriw

Winner of the 2002 Anna Pidruchney Award For New Writers On a visit to Ukraine to retrieve a family heirloom secretly buried by his grandfather during the Second World War, Yaroslaw, a Ukrainian-Canadian university student, stumbles into a world full of spies and secret organizations, peril and political intrigue. His discovery of the hidden cache yields clues to the location of a fabled lost treasure-the greatest in all Europe. Working against time, Yaroslaw and a small band of accomplices struggle to uncover and save a nation’s heritage, operating in secret to prevent the corrupt leaders of the government and the Russians-from stealing it. Yaroslaw’s Treasure is a thrilling suspense story set against the gripping drama of the Orange Revolution, the 2004 popular uprising that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in Ukraine to overthrow a corrupt government and reinforce democracy in a land long occupied by repressive and foreign regimes. Rich with history, romance, politics, and danger, Yaroslaw’s Treasure superbly captures the wonders and horrors of Ukraine’s past, swirls through the treacherous currents of its present politics, all the while providing entertainment as a first-rate thriller.

Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography

by Barry Rubin Judith Colp Rubin

Yasir Arafat stands as one of the most resilient, recognizable and controversial political figures of modern times. The object of unrelenting suspicion, steady admiration and endless speculation, Arafat has occupied the center stage of Middle East politics for almost four decades. Yasir Arafat is the most comprehensive political biography of this remarkable man. Forged in a tumultuous era of competing traditionalism, radicalism, Arab nationalism, and Islamist forces, the Palestinian movement was almost entirely Arafat's creation, and he became its leader at an early age. Arafat took it through a dizzying series of crises and defeats, often of his own making, yet also ensured that it survived, grew, and gained influence. Disavowing terrorism repeatedly, he also practiced it constantly. Arafat's elusive behavior ensured that radical regimes saw in him a comrade in arms, while moderates backed him as a potential partner in peace. After years of devotion to armed struggle, Arafat made a dramatic agreement with Israel that let him return to his claimed homeland and transformed him into a legitimized ruler. Yet at the moment of decision at the Camp David summit and afterward, when he could have achieved peace and a Palestinian state, he sacrificed the prize he had supposedly sought for the struggle he could not live without. Richly populated with the main events and dominant leaders of the Middle East, this detailed and analytical account by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin follows Arafat as he moves to Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, and finally to Palestinian-ruled soil. It shows him as he rewrites his origins, experiments with guerrilla war, develops a doctrine of terrorism, fights endless diplomatic battles, and builds a movement, constantly juggling states, factions, and world leaders. Whole generations and a half-dozen U.S. presidents have come and gone over the long course of Arafat's career. But Arafat has outlasted them all, spanning entire eras, with three constants always present: he has always survived, he has constantly seemed imperiled, and he has never achieved his goals. While there has been no substitute for Arafat, the authors conclude, Arafat has been no substitute for a leader who could make peace.

“Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits”: A Mixed Methods Study on Corruption, Competitiveness, and Christianity in Europe and the Americas (Contributions to Economics)

by Jason García Portilla

Why are historically Catholic countries and regions generally more corrupt and less competitive than historically Protestant ones? How has institutionalization of religion influenced the prosperity of countries in Europe and the Americas?This open access book addresses these critical questions by elucidating the hegemonic and emancipatory religious factors leading to these dissimilarities between countries. The book features up-to-date mixed methods from interdisciplinary research contributing to existing studies in the sociology of religion field by demonstrating—for the first time—the effect of the mutually reinforcing configuration of multiple prosperity triggers (religion–politics–environment). It demonstrates the differences in the institutionalization of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism by applying quantitative and qualitative methods and by performing a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 65 countries. The author also provides a comprehensive survey and results of empirical research on different theories of development, focusing on the influence of religion.

Year 501: The Conquest Continues (Chomsky Perspectives Ser. #Vol. 63)

by Noam Chomsky

"The great work of subjugation and conquest" has changed little over the years. Analyzing Haiti, Latin America, Cuba, Indonesia, and even packets of the Third World developing in the United States. Noam Chomsky draws parallels between the genocide of colonial times and the murder and exploitation associated with modern-day imperialism.

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