Doing History bridges the gap between the way history is studied in school or as represented in the media and the way it is studied at university level. History as an academic discipline has dramatically changed in recent decades and has been enhanced by ideas from other disciplines, the influence of postmodernism and historians' incorporation of their own reflections into their work. Doing History presents the ideas and debates that shape how we 'do' history today, covering arguments about t...

Key Issues in Historical Theory is a fresh, clear and well-grounded introduction to this vibrant field of inquiry, incorporating many examples from novels, paintings, music, and political debates. The book expertly engages the reader in discussions of what history is, how people relate to the past and how they are formed by the past. Over 11 thematically-based chapters, Herman Paul discusses subjects such as:history, memory and traumahistorical experience and narrativemoral and political dime...

The gold standard of texts on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict

Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict provides a comprehensive, balanced, and accessible narrative of a complex historical topic. The narrative is supported by more than 40 primary documents that highlight perspectives from all sides of the struggle. Throughout the book, the author examines how underlying issues, group motives, religious and cross-cultural clashes, diplomacy and imperialism, and the arrival of the modern...

There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those stories end. John Arnold's Very Short Introduction is a stimulating essay about how we study and understand history. The book begins by inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our investigation of history, and explores the ways these questions have been answered in the past.

Concepts such as causation, interpretation, a...

In this newly revised and updated 2nd edition of Voices of Early Modern Japan, Constantine Nomikos Vaporis offers an accessible collection of annotated historical documents of an extraordinary period in Japanese history, ranging from the unification of warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early seventeenth century to the overthrow of the shogunate just after the opening of Japan by the West in the mid- nineteenth century. Through close examination of primary sources from "The Great Pea...

Geographies of Developing Areas is a thought provoking and accessible introductory text, presenting a fresh view of the Global South that challenges students' pre-conceptions and promotes lively debate. Rather than presenting the Global South as a set of problems, from rapid urbanization to poverty, this book focuses on the diversity of life in the South, and looks at the role the South plays in shaping and responding to current global change. The core contents of the book integrate 'traditio...

Exploring the central themes in modern American cultural studies and discussing how these themes can be interpreted, American Cultural Studies offers a wide-ranging overview of different aspects of American cultural life such as religion, gender and sexuality, regionalism, and ethnicity and immigration. The fourth edition has been revised throughout to take into account the developments of the last four years. Updates and revisions include:discussion of Barack Obama's time in the White Housec...

In this fully revised and updated third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to the most urgent questions regarding the newest superpower, and offer a framework for understanding China's meteoric rise from developing country to superpower. Focusing their answers through the historical legacies--Confucian thought, Western and Japanese imperialism, the Mao era, and the massacre near Tiananmen...

What is the significance and relevance of the concept of 'genocide' today? In this wide-ranging collection of essays and interviews, Adam Jones, one of the world's leading genocide scholars, explores the uses and controversies surrounding the term coined by Raphael Lemkin to describe and prohibit mass atrocities against defined human groups.

Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that it never dies peacefully. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.

The "Four Horsemen" of leveling-mass-mobilization warf...