The work of Nizami Ganjavi, a classical poet of the twelfth century, is fueling new cultural debate in Iran in recent years. The dominant discourse encourages the reading of the texts in light of biographical or theological conventions and religious motives. These essays explore Nizami s influential role and his portrayal of issues related to love, women, and science, stressing his preoccupation with the art of speech as a major impetus behind his literary activity.

This edition of Shakespeare s The Merchant of Venice reprints the Bevington edition of the play accompanied by four sets of thematically arranged primary documents and illustrations designed to facilitate many different approaches to Shakespeare s play and the early modern culture out of which the play emerges. The texts include maps, woodcuts, sermons, statutes, early modern documents reflecting Christian attitudes toward Jews and Jewish reactions to these attitudes, excerpts from the bible on money lending as well as contemporary discourses on usury and commerce, excerpts from the first account of Jewish life written in the vernacular by a Jew for a Christian audience, anti-Catholic tracts, travel accounts, diplomatic reports, scenes from a morality play about the corrupting effects of money, royal proclamations concerning the treatment of aliens, conduct literature, and contemporary treatises on the role of women.

This definitive, annotated edition of Maggie is based on Crane's original 1893 text and provides instructors with everything they need to teach the work in its historical and cultural context. Over 175 pages of documents are organized into thematic units on late-nineteenth and turn of the century American society to give the reader a context for Maggie. The various chapters in this edition cover topics such as tenement life; shops, saloons, concert-halls; working women from the perspectives of others; working women tell their own stories; prostitution; realism; and slum fiction.

In 1492, previously separate worlds collided and began to merge, often painfully, into the world-system in which we live today. Columbus's four Atlantic voyages (1492-1504) helped link Africa, Europe, and the Americas in a conflicted economic and cultural symbiosis. These carefully selected documents describe the voyages and their immediate impact on Europe and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Symcox and Sullivan's engaging introduction presents Columbus as neither hero nor villain, but as a significant historical actor who improvised responses to a changed world. Document headnotes provide context for understanding Columbus's voyages within the broader context of fifteenth-century Europe and the policies of the Spanish crown. Maps, illustrations, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography invite students to analyze and interpret the documents.

Using excerpts primarily drawn from Bernal Diaz's 1632 account of the Spanish victory and from testimonies - many recently uncovered - of indigenous Nahua survivors gathered by Bernardino de Sahagun, Victors and Vanquished clearly demonstrates how personal interests, class and ethnic biases, and political considerations can influence interpretation of events. A substantial introduction is followed by 9 chronological sections that illuminate the major events and personalities in this powerful historical episode and reveal the changing attitudes toward European expansionism.

More has been written about the Beatles than any other performing artists of the twentieth century. Accounts of their lives and times have been retold, reproduced and reinvented to the extent that their achievements have passed into contemporary folklore and popular mythology. What has been surprisingly absent, however, is any sustained critical investigation of the numerous debates and issues the group provoked. This book provides that long overdue analysis, by seeking to present the academic study of the Beatles in its appropriate contexts - historical, political, musical and sociological. Consisting entirely of newly commissioned articles and written by an international group of scholars, its contents challenge many of the traditional assumptions about the Beatles and offer fresh and provocative insights into the nature of their success and its continuing influence. It is essential reading for those wishing to understand not only the phenomenon of the Beatles but also the cultural environment within which popular music continues to be practised and studied.

Throughout their entire history, the sedentary civilizations of China and Europe had to deal with nomads and barbarians. This unique volume explores their drastically different responses: China 'chose' containment while Europe 'chose' expansion. Migration played a crucial role in this interaction. Issuing from two population centers, the sedentary one in the West and the nomadic one in the East, two powerful population streams confronted each other in the Eurasian Steppe. This confrontation was a crucial factor in determining patterns of Eurasian history - it destroyed existing states, created new ones, and drastically changed the balance of power. Even today, while Russian populations in Asia contract, the population pressures in China and Central Asia continue to build and are likely to spill over across the border. This book shows how we are witnessing the beginning of a new cycle of the age-old contest.

This book is the first comprehensive cultural and historical introduction to modern Georgia. It covers the country region by region, taking the form of a literary journey through the transition from Soviet Georgia to the modern independent nation state. Peter Nasmyth traveled extensively in Georgia over a period of 5 years, and his lively and topical survey charts the nation's remarkable cultural and historical journey to statehood. This authoritative, lively and perceptive book is based on hundreds of interviews with modern Georgians, from country priests to black marketeers. Georgia: Mountains and Honour will be essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating region, as well as those requiring an insight into the life after the collapse of the old Soviet order in the richest and most dramatic of the former republics.

Russia's attempt to replace the failed Soviet system and its command economy with a capitalist, democratic society has produced a health and social welfare crisis, at considerable human cost. Russia s Torn Safety Nets presents a series of essays by distinguished Russian and American scholars which describe and analyze the consequences of the collapsed socialist system, focusing on issues of health and demography, HIV/AIDS, drug addiction and abuse, the disabled, aging and pensions, education, women and sexism, and social issues in the military. The essays conclude with a section on the private and public efforts to ease the impact of the ongoing transition on the Russia people.