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What do we talk about when we talk about antiquity? For the majority of the population, the term immediately transports us to the notion of an ancient age or ancient world (the Parthenon, Athens, and the Coliseum of Rome), which condenses in itself the Greco-Roman world. This reduces antiquity to antiquity that was structurally essential for the construction and emergence of the civilization called occidental.For others, because of their religious backgrounds, antiquity goes back in time and enlarges, in part, its space of action, allowing the emergence of Palestine as a primordial territory.But these two visions (old and supported by a scientific ignorance of the ancient geographies and chronologies) enclose the history in a limited time and space. As if there would never have been a world before that time. As if the civilization that we comfortably call ourselves as inheritors, the so-called "Occidental Civilization" was the first step in the history of man on earth.
In Disruption, Michael De Groot argues that the global economic upheaval of the 1970s was decisive in ending the Cold War. Both the West and the Soviet bloc struggled with the slowdown of economic growth; chaos in the international monetary system; inflation; shocks in the commodities markets; and the emergence of offshore financial markets. The superpowers had previously disseminated resources to their allies to enhance their own national security, but the disappearance of postwar conditions during the 1970s forced Washington and Moscow to choose between promoting their own economic interests and supporting their partners in Europe and Asia. De Groot shows that new unexpected macroeconomic ...
The U.S. government, military, and industry once saw ocean incineration as the safest and most efficient way to dispose of hazardous chemical waste. Beginning in the late 1960s, toxic chemicals such as PCBs and other harmful industrial byproducts were taken out to sea to be destroyed in specially designed ships equipped with high-temperature combustion chambers and smokestacks. But public outcry arose after the environmental and health risks of ocean incineration were exposed, and the practice was banned in the early 1990s. Smoke on the Water traces the rise and fall of ocean incineration, showing how a transnational environmental movement tested the limits of U.S. political and economic pow...
"30 years after the Soviet collapse this book aims to tackle the interplay between international and domestic dynamics in the Soviet disintegration process. Based on extensive archival research, it investigates the triangular relations between the US government, Baltic independence movements and Moscow during the Perestroika years. Occupied and illegally annexed by the USSR in 1940 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were the first Soviet republics to push the limits of Perestroika and demand independence from the Soviet Union. The Baltic problem, minor at first glance, started to gain more and more international visibility and by 1990 risked derailing issues that mattered in the eyes of both Sovi...
A study of a religious organization for youths (aged 13-14) founded in Florence in 1411 that is firmly grounded on archival and contemporary documents, and covers a variety of fields of interest.
This volume celebrates John M. Najemy and his contributions to the study of Florentine and Italian Renaissance history. Over the last three decades, his books and articles on Florentine politics and political thought have substantially revised the narratives and contours of these fields. They have also provided a framework into which he has woven innovative new threads that have emerged in Renaissance social and cultural history. Presented by his many students and friends, the essays aim to highlight his varied interests and to suggest where they may point for future studies of Florence and, indeed, beyond. -- Amazon.com.
“A valuable addition to the new wave of critical studies on the history of oil and energy policy”—and a bracing corrective to longstanding myths (James M. Gustafson, Diplomatic History). Conventional wisdom tells us that the US military presence in the Persian Gulf is what guarantees American access to oil; that the “special” relationship with Saudi Arabia is necessary to stabilize an otherwise volatile market; and that these assumptions in turn provide Washington enormous leverage over Europe and Asia. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. Robert Vitalis debunks the myths of “oilcraft”, a line of magical thinking closer to witchcraft than statecraft. Oil is a commodity like any other: bought, sold, and subject to market forces. Vitalis exposes the suspect fears of oil scarcity and investigates the geopolitical impact of these false beliefs. In particular, Vitalis shows how we can reconsider the question of the US-Saudi special relationship, which confuses and traps many into unnecessarily accepting what they imagine is a devil’s bargain. Freeing ourselves from the spell of oilcraft won’t be easy, but the benefits make it essential.
The most comprehensive history of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and of its members, this study takes the reader from the formation of the first petrostate in the world, Venezuela, in the late 1920s, to the global ascent of petrostates and OPEC during the 1970s, to their crisis in the late-1980s and early- 1990s.
Despite efforts to normalize its post-colonial relationship and the downsizing of its permanent military presence, France remains a sought-after security provider in Africa. This book uncovers individual and collective motivations that drive French foreign and security policy in Africa. It explains French interventionism by drawing on actors’ subjective perceptions of reality and seeks to answer why French decision-makers are ready to accept the considerable risks and costs involved in guaranteeing the security of African countries. Adopting an actor-centric constructivist ontology, the author traces the emergence and subsequent development of ideas throughout the decision-making processes that led to Operation Serval in Mali and Operation Sangaris in the Central African Republic.
Grace is a central concept of theology, while the term also has a wide range of meanings in many fields. For the first time in book format, the sociology of grace (or enchantment) is comprehensively explained in detail, with fascinating results. The author’s writings on this topic take the reader on an intriguing journey which traverses subjects ranging from theology, through the history of art, archaeology and mythology to anthropology. As such, this volume will interest academics across a wide range of disciplines apart from sociology.