Libros de

Women and the crusades

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration... This book surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help ...

The Caliph and the Imam

the making of Sunnism and Shiism

The authoritative account of the sectarian division that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world. In 632, soon after the prophet Muhammad died, a struggle broke out among his followers as to who would succeed him. The majority argued ...

The pope at war

the secret history of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler

Filled with discoveries, this is the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII's struggle to respond to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Nazi domination of Europe. The Pope at War is the third in a trilogy of books about the papacy's ...

The Maya and climate change

human-environmental relationships in the classic period lowlands

The Classic Maya civilization, which thrived between 200-950 CE in eastern Mesoamerica, faced many environmental challenges, including those wrought by climate change. The ability of Maya communities to adapt their resource conservation practices played a crucial role in allowing them to survive for as long ...

The last kings of Macedonia and the triumph of Rome

In the history of ancient Macedonia, the last three Antigonid kings-Philip V (r. 221-179), his son Perseus (r. 179-168), and the pretender Andriscus or Philip VI (r. 149-148)-are commonly overlooked in favor of their predecessors Philip II (r. 359-336) and his son Alexander the ...

Peerless Among Princes

The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman

A full life and times biography of Süleyman, the longest reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Süleyman, who ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1520 and 1566, was a globally recognized figure during his lifetime. His domain extended from Hungary to Iran, and from the Crimea ...

Aristocratic Power in the Spanish Monarchy

The Borromeo Brothers of Milan, 1620-1680

In Italy, the powerful Borromeo family of Milan have long been held up as a rare example of paternalist aristocrats who withstood the temptations of self-enrichment so many of their peers succumbed to during the period of Spanish rule. Aristocratic Power in the Spanish Monarchy ...

Modern Germany

a global history

Modern Germany: A Global History places Germany in a global and transnational context, while offering a broad scope of chronological and thematic coverage. The authors present German-speaking lands in relation to the rest of the world, rather than as discrete entities, bringing global and transnational ...

Facing the sea of sand

the Sahara and the peoples of Northern Africa

Northern Africa is dominated by the Sahara Desert, stretching across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This book is about the people who lived around the edges of the Desert and the different ways in which they responded to its challenges ...

Crusades and violence

How was violence understood and justified during the time of the crusades? This book argues that although just/holy war theory has long provided the framework for explaining crusading violence, cultural history gives us deeper insights into the meaning and conduct of medieval crusading warfare ...

"Europe" in the Middle Ages

From the nineteenth century onwards, historians described the Middle Ages as the "cradle" of the nation state—then, after World War II, they increasingly identified the period as the "cradle" of Europe. A close look at the sources demonstrates that both interpretations are misleading: while ...

Byzantine Rome

Why does medieval Rome look so, for lack of a better word, Byzantine? Why do its monuments speak an aesthetic of the medieval East? And just how do we quantify that Byzantine aesthetic or even the word “Byzantine”? This book seeks to consider the ways ...

Medieval Sovereignty

Through a focused and systematic examination of medieval theologians, philosophers, and jurists, Andrew Latham explores how ideas about supreme political authority-sovereignty-first emerged during the high medieval period. The author provides a new model for understanding the concept of sovereignty, and traces its roots, not to ...

Christian-Muslim relations during the Crusades

The popular view of the Crusades is that of two zealous armies ranged against each other in a state of practically permanent warfare, lacking mutual respect, understanding, or co-operation. Scholars long ago replaced such ideas with a much more nuanced understanding, in which rulers from ...

China's relations with Africa

a new era of political and security engagement

Since Xi Jinping's accession to power in 2012, nearly every aspect of China's relations with Africa has grown dramatically. Beijing has increased the share of resources it devotes to African countries, expanding military cooperation, technological investment, and educational and cultural programs as well ...

The suspended disaster

governing by crisis in Bouteflika's Algeria

After Algeria's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his intention to run for a fifth term in early 2019, a popular peaceful uprising erupted calling for change. Bouteflika, who had been in office since 1999, was eventually forced to resign, but the Hirak ("movement") continued to ...

Days of opportunity

the United States and Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion

Long before the 1979 Soviet invasion, the United States was closely concerned with Afghanistan. For much of the twentieth century, American diplomats, policy makers, businesspeople, and experts took part in the Afghan struggle to modernize, delivered vital aid, and involved themselves in Kabul's conflicts ...

Disenchanting the caliphate

the secular discipline of power in abbasid political thought

The political thought of Muslim societies is all too often defined in religious terms, in which the writings of clerics are seen as representative and ideas about governance are treated as an extension of commentary on sacred texts. Disenchanting the Caliphate offers a groundbreaking new ...

East Asia at the center

four thousand years of engagement with the world

Long before the arrival of Western emissaries and powers, East Asian peoples and states were deeply involved in world affairs. In this sweeping account, Warren I. Cohen explores four millennia of international relations from the vantage points of China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Writing ...

Syria divided

patterns of violence in a complex civil war

The civil war in Syria-which has claimed more than 600,000 lives and displaced over half of the country's population since 2011-is an enormously complex conflict. The combatants include a wide array of state and nonstate forces, both Syrian and international. Adding to the ...