c hurst co publishers ltd united kingdom london (48 results)

Paperback. Condition: Fair. Aamer Hussein takes love to its logical conclusion, Robert Irwin traces the origins of the ghazal (love lyric ), Christopher Shackle recites epic Panjabi poems of sacred love and lyrical death, Imranali Panjwani mourns the massacre of Karbala, Martin Rose is taken hostage by Saddam Hussain, Jalees Rahman reflects on Nazi doctors who took delight in deathly experiments, Ramin Jehanbegloo is incarcerated in the notorious Evin prison, Hamza Elahi visits England's Muslim graveyards, Shanon Shah receives valuable guidance on love and sex from the 'Obedient Wives Club', Samia Rahman sets out in search of love, Khola Hasan has mixed feelings about her hijab, Sabita Manian promotes love between India and Pakistan, Boyd Tonkin discovers that dead outrank the living in Jerusalem , Alev Adil takes 'a night journey through a veiled self' and Irna Qureshi's mother finally makes a decision on her final resting place. Also in this issue: Parvez Manzoor throws scorn on a nihilistic, revisionist history of Islam, Naomi Foyle reads the first novel of a British Palestinian, Ahmad Khan explores the colonial history of The Aborigines' Protection Society, a short story by the famous Fahmida Riaz, Syrian scenarios by Manhal al-Sarraj, poems by Sabrina Mahfouz and Michael Wolf, Rachel Dwyer's list of Top Ten Muslim Characters in Bollywood and Merryl Wyn Davies's 'last word' on love and death at the movies. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of the Gulf monarchies is going to happen, and always was. The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia and its five smaller neighbours: the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations, and powerful modernising and globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. The obituaries of the traditional monarchies have frequently been penned, but even now, these absolutist, almost medieval, entities still appear to pose the same conundrum as before: in the wake of the 2011 'Arab Spring' and the fall of incumbent presidents in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, the apparently steadfast Gulf monarchies have, at first glance, re-affirmed their status as the Middle East's only real bastions of stability. In this book, noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of these kings, emirs, and sultans is going to happen, and was always going to. While the revolutionary movements in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen will undeniably serve as important, if indirect, catalysts for the coming upheaval, many of the pressures that were building up in the Arab republics are now also present in the Gulf monarchies. It is now no longer a matter of if but when the West's steadfast allies fall. This is a bold claim to make but Davidson, who accurately forecast the economic turmoil that afflicted Dubai in 2009, has an enviable record in diagnosing social and political changes afoot in the region. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This remarkable book, based on Atreyee Sen's immersion into the low-income, working-class slums of Bombay, tells the story of the women and children of the Shiv Sena, one of the most radical and violent of the Hindu nationalist parties that dominated Indian politics throughout the 1990s and into the present. The Sena women's front has been instrumental in creating and sustaining communal violence, directed primarily against their Muslim neighbours. The author presents the Sena women's own rationale for organising themselves along paramilitary lines, as poor women and children have used violence and 'gang-ism' to create a distinctive social identity, networks of material support, and protection from male violence in the explosive environment of the slums. Sen's moving account foregrounds the ethical dilemmas that surrounded her 'covert' research and writing of the book, and she considers wider questions involving women, violence, and religious fundamentalism. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Islamic Republic of Iran's ongoing nuclear programme has provoked a major and menacing crisis in its relations with the US and other Western powers. Ali Ansari, a Briton of Iranian origin, argues that the crisis is a symptom of broader, long-term fissures in US-Iranian relations, and in Confronting Iran he seeks to disentangle the myths that are at the bottom of this gulf in understanding which is compounded by the nature of the two states, their foreign policy establishments and the fraught history of their relations since the 1979 revolution. Ansari reviews the historical antecedents of the crisis, in particular US-Iranian relations since 9/11 and attempts by the EU to broker a settlement acceptable to all parties. He argues that the European position has been dictated as much by its relations with the US in the wake of the invasion of Iraq as by domestic politics in Iran, and he concludes by assessing the election of Mahmud Ahmadinejad as President and its likely impact on the view from Tehran and Washington. This account of a potential flashpoint in relations between the Muslim world and the West could not be more timely. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. As a British infantry officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles Emile Simpson completed three tours of Southern Afghanistan. Drawing on that experience, and on a range of little-known case studies ranging from Nepal to Borneo, War From The Ground Up offers a distinctive perspective on contemporary armed conflict: while most accounts of war look down at the battlefield from an academic perspective, or across it as a personal narrative, the author looks up from the battlefield to consider the concepts that put him there, and how they played out on the ground. Simpson argues that in the Afghan conflict, and in contemporary conflicts more generally, liberal powers and their armed forces have blurred the line between military and political activity. More broadly, they have challenged the distinction between war and peace. He contends that this loss of clarity is more a response to the conditions of combat in the early twenty-first century, particularly that of globalisation, than a deliberate choice. The issue is thus not whether the West should engage in such practices, but how to manage, gain advantage from, and mitigate the risks of this evolution in warfare. War From The Ground Up draws heavily on personal anecdotes from the frontline, related to historical context and strategic thought, to offer a re-evaluation of the concept of war in modern conflict. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Like all great men in history, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) can be viewed in a number of ways: as the founder of a state, a nation-builder, creator of political institutions, a moderniser of his society, an extraordinarily capable political leader, a successful military commander, an educator of his nation, one of the first successful anti-imperialist leaders of the developing world, and a statesman who deeply believed in and contributed to world peace. In this volume Ataturk's role as the founder of a modern state, secular and republican, is emphasised: the creation of a modern state was a pre-requisite for the modernisation o society and economy, and Ataturk's policy of friendship with all nations enabled him to concentrate on his great task of building and consolidating the new Turkish state. Also, it was the intention of the editors to bring out the universal significance of the Kemalist experience and to examine the enduring lessons which other modernising societies can learn from it. Close attention is given to the historical setting from which the Kemalist republic emerged - and the elements of continuity and change between the late Ottoman Empire, particularly in the Young Turk era (1908-18), and the Kemalist republic. Such a historical perspective is specially useful since in works on great historical figures the unique personality traits often overshadow the societal factors. One of the distinguishing features of the Kemalist revolution in the Islamic world is the emphasis on secularism: Turkey remains today the only Islamic country where it is one of the basic constitutional principles, and the legal system is completely secularised. Ataturk died in the prime of life, but he remains one of the towering figures of the twentieth century and exceptionally among the political leaders of the interwar years, his reputation has not suffered with the passing of time. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Every year on 11 September, Catalonia celebrates its Diada, its National Day. But the Diada of 2012 was like none other, as an enormous crowd calling for Catalan independence took over the heart of Barcelona. Despite the carnival-like atmosphere that day, the people were very serious about their demands. On the back of this show of force, Catalonia's governing politicians turned secessionist claims into a new headache for a government in Madrid that had only just survived a near-meltdown of Spain's financial system. Four years later, the separatist challenge has neither come to fruition, nor faded away. This book looks at how and why Catalan separatism reached the top of Spain's political agenda, as well as its connection to the broader European malaise generated by flawed political responses to financial and other crises. Through extensive travel and reporting, as well as over fifty interviews with leading Catalan personalities, Raphael Minder explains how Catalans feel about their economy, history and culture, and how secessionist forces have tried to reshape Catalan identity. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The role of women in the Italian mafias has long been overlooked. Reduced to victim status and relegated to domestic life in a male-dominated society, women serve as the mafia's respectable facade: virtuous and docile. It is hard to picture these immaculate figures married to and raising brutal killers. But, as Milka Kahn and Anne Veron reveal in this absorbing book, women have always been at the heart of Italy's criminal organisations, as the guarantors of mafia culture. While the men are behind bars or on the run, it is left to their wives and mothers to uphold and pass on the 'family values'. Once widowed, they push their sons to vendetta; they are increasingly becoming mafia chiefs in their own right. Yet many also decide to risk their lives and break with 'the Family', collaborating with the authorities and renouncing mafia society in search of a normal life. So who are these women? Are they pure Madonnas, or dangerous Godmothers? Women of Honour paints a complex and fascinating portrait through extremely rare interviews with the women themselves, who have overcome a culture of silence to share their extraordinary lives. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Chinas Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most ambitious geopolitical initiative of the age. Covering almost seventy countries by land and sea, it will affect every element of global society, from shipping to agriculture, digital economy to tourism, politics to culture. Most importantly, it symbolises a new phase in Chinas ambitions as a superpower: to remake the world economy and crown Beijing as the new centre of capitalism and globalisation. Bruno Macaes traces this extraordinary initiatives history, highlighting its achievements to date, and its staggering complexity. He asks whether Belt and Road is about more than power projection and profit. Might it herald a new set of universal political values, to rival those of the West? Is it, in fact, the story of the century? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In 1988, the World Health Organization launched a twelve-year campaign to wipe out polio. Thirty years and several billion dollars over budget later, the campaign grinds on, vaccinating millions of children and hoping that each new year might see an end to the disease. But success remains elusive, against a surprisingly resilient virus, an unexpectedly weak vaccine and the vagaries of global politics, meeting with indifference from governments and populations alike. How did an innocuous campaign to rid the world of a crippling disease become a hostage of geopolitics? Why do parents refuse to vaccinate their children against polio? And why have poorly paid door-to-door healthworkers been assassinated? Thomas Abraham reports on the ground in search of answers. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. From November 2002 to May 2003, Steve Tatham worked alongside American military planners in the Gulf, coordinating the huge media campaign that foreshadowed and accompanied the eventual invasion of Iraq. From first hand experience he witnessed how, in advance of the outbreak of hostilities, the US planned to win over sceptical Arab hearts and minds. Yet as the campaign unfolded, Tatham, the Royal Navy's public spokesman in Iraq, saw how differently the British and Americans regarded the media and how badly journalists from the Arab world, in particular from Al-Jazeera satellite television, were treated in comparison to those from coalition nations. His book is highly critical of how the United States handled its information war. Notwithstanding the best efforts of well meaning senior US officials, the mounting death toll, both military and civilian, saw the Americans all but ignore the Arab media , focusing instead on a largely acquiescent domestic press, one still obsessed with Al Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on the homeland and only too happy to fly the Stars and Stripes. Images of dead and captured coalition servicemen led to Arab channels being accused of bias against western forces, and such was the demonisation of some channels that many observers began to wonder if President Bush's declaration that 'you are either with us or against us' applied not just to nation states but also to the world's media. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. "Dubai" is a remarkable success story. From its origins as a small fishing and pearling community, the emirate has gone from strength to strength, having established itself as the premier trading entrepot of the Arabian Gulf and, in more recent years, having boomed into a massive metropolis of some two or more million people, most of whom are expatriates engaged in an increasingly diversified economy that has become synonymous with startling and innovative architecture. Following a detailed historical background, Davidson's in-depth study demonstrates how Dubai's pioneering post-oil development strategies were implemented against a carefully managed backdrop of near complete political stability, despite the lack of democratisation and genuine civil society.He then addresses the problems that may surface as the need for sustained foreign direct investment encourages far-reaching socio-economic reforms, many of which may affect the ideological, religious, and cultural legitimacy of the traditional monarchy. He also analyses Dubai's awkward relationship with its federal partners in the United Arab Emirates, before highlighting some of the hidden costs of being the region's most successful free port - namely its attractiveness to international criminal fraternities, the global black money economy and terrorist networks. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Something has gone badly wrong: people loathe politicians,distrust the press and increasingly fear each other. It's easy to blame Russian trolls,Facebook news feeds,or the sinister manipulation of 'big data'--but these are all symptoms of an abusive thirty-year relationship between politics, the media, and a new information age. Interviewing everyone from Tony Blair to Michael Gove, top journalists to Russian bloggers, and tech giant execs to online activists, Tom Baldwin describes a vicious battle forcontrolof the news agenda, at the expense of public trust and the value of truth. He shows how technological change has hollowed out space for virulent newpopulist alternatives, including the so-called 'alt-right' and 'alt-left'. And he warns that not only extremists, but also the progressive centre, may now decide to press 'delete'on liberal democracy altogether. Ctrl Alt Deleteis a brutally honest and sometimes funny account of how our democracy was crashed -- and whether we can still re-boot it. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In 2013, three friends set off on a journey that they had been told was impossible: the north-south crossing of the Congo River Basin, from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Juba, in South Sudan.Traversing two and a half thousand miles of the toughest terrain on the planet in a twenty-five year old Land Rover, they faced repeated challenges, from kleptocracy and fire ants to non-existent roads and intense suspicion from local people. Through imagination and teamwork - including building rafts and bridges to cross rivers, conducting makeshift surgery in the jungle and playing tribal politics - they got through. But the Congo is raw, and the journey took an unexpected psychological toll on them all.Crossing the Congo is a story of friendship, what it takes to complete a great journey against tremendous odds, and an intimate look into one of the world's least-developed and most fragile states. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This work details the discrimination faced by disabled people in Britain in terms of the social system. Previous reports have dwelt on the individual's problems, eg access to public buildings, whereas this study outlines, often using official statistics, the denial to disabled people of full and equal access to the institutions of society. The author argues that disablity is a civil rights issue, not one of service provision and community care, and that only disabled people themselves can bring about the changes enabling them to become fully participating citizens. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Popular consensus says that the US rose over two centuries to Cold War victory and world domination, and is now in slow decline. But is this right? Historys great civilisations have always lasted much longer, and for all its colossal power, the US was overshadowed by Europe until recently. What if this isnt the end? Bruno Macaes offers a compelling vision of Americas future, both fascinating and unnerving. From the early American Republic, Macaes takes us to the turbulent present, when, he argues, America is finally forging its own path. We can see the birth pangs of this new civilisation in todays debates on guns, religion, foreign policy and the significance of Trump. What will its values be, and what will this new America look like? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. When Aisha Sarwari moved to America as a young woman, she set out to create her own identity and story. Born in Uganda, she had never lived in South Asia, yet struggled to reconcile the cultural expectation to be a good Muslim girl with her desire for equality and acceptance. After she met Yasser, a Pakistani law student, they returned to their ancestral country and married. Little did they know that a brain tumour would become a near-lethal third wheel in their relationship. The cancer gnawed at Yassers personality, provoking aggressive outbursts. Was the illness still the explanation for his violence, or had it become an excuse? Aisha began to see their marriage within a bigger pictureof an oppressive society, and of the tug between feminist principles and personal happiness. Between Africa, America and Pakistan, Heart Tantrums and Brain Tumours is a unique story of identity and belonging, misogyny and motherhood, patriarchy and partnership. Its searing honesty and political passion reveal one womans battle to redefine the rulesby fighting for, and sometimes with, the man she loves. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Britain's political and military elite has for decades nurtured the idea that enduring ties bind the interests of London and Washington, in good times and bad. Irrespective of the end of the Cold War, the 9/11 attacks and the economic rise of the East, these links are allegedly impregnable. But how accurate a picture is this? Are the British engaged in a monumental act of self-delusion? Guy Arnold investigates the 'American disease' at the heart of Whitehall, which, he argues, has tied British policies too closely to those of Washington. The 'special relationship' became a Foreign Office priority and gave Britain the illusion of power it no longer enjoyed. As Churchill put it acidly, 'the British and the Americans were stuck with each other - a junior partner and a senior partner respectively'. For the Americans it provided a way of keeping Britain 'on side' but in return Washington accelerated Britain's imperial decline. The Americans always saw Britain in Europe as a Trojan Horse to safeguard their interests and as a military outpost for their global ambitions. They derided or ignored the 'special relationship', even in their dealings with Thatcher and Blair, and latterly the Foreign Office has failed to convince President Obama of its unique importance. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. After the Second World War, Germany was an international pariah. Today, it has become a beacon of the Western world. But what makes this extraordinary nation tick? On Germany tells the story of a country reborn, from defeat in 1945 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the painstaking reunification of 'the two Germanies', and the Republic's return to the world stage as an economic colossus and European leader. Giles MacDonogh restores these momentous events of world history to their German context, from the food and drink that accompanied them to the deep-rooted provincialism behind the national story. Full of vivid and often whimsical vignettes of German life, this is a Germanophile's homage to the culture and people of a country he has known for decades. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Marie Lall's book seeks to uncover and explain the recent political and economic reforms implemented in post-military Myanmar, focussing on key turning-points that ushered in the current transformation programme, particularly those affecting education, NGOs and social justice.She maps the main reform priorities, explaining how they are interconnected, and what has been achieved, which amount to the first tentative steps towards 'democratisation', albeit under the umbrella of President Thein Sein's controlled and more inclusive governance. Beyond the building site that is now Yangon, burgeoning urban car ownership and ubiquitous mobile phone use, there remains a widening gap, sharpened by inflation, between rural and urban Myanmar, at social, economic and political levels. Peasants are losing their livelihoods to development schemes that are being created to bring in foreign investment, and social justice is largely absent from the country's reform agenda.While the country has changed significantly, has the West been gulled into mistaking 'discipline-flourishing democracy' for true participatory democracy?Will the hopes of Aung San Suu Kyi coming to power in Yangon at the head of the NLD through an open and fair ballot ever be realised? These and other questions are scrutinised in this shrewd analysis of post-military Myanmar. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Two decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement came into force, Bosnia is not at war. However, the absence of war is not peace. Bosnia has failed to move on from conflict. Political processes are deadlocked. The country is in a state of political, social and economic paralysis. As the international community has downgraded its presence, conditions have deteriorated, irredentist agendas have resurfaced and the outlook is increasingly negative. War remains a risk because of myriad unresolved issues, zero-sum politics and incompatible positions among rival ethno-national elites.In the face of paralysis, international officials repeat the mantra that there is no alternative to Bosnia's European path and urge the country's leaders to see reason, to temper their rhetoric and to carry out internationally approved reforms -- to no avail. Despite international reluctance to recognise failure, the day will come when it is impossible to ignore the gravity of the situation. When that day arrives, the international community will have to address the shortcomings of the peace process. This, in turn, will involve opening up the Dayton settlement. Christopher Bennett presents a cautionary political history of Bosnia's disintegration, war and peace process. And he concludes by proposing a paradigm shift aimed at building ethno-national security and making the peace settlement self-sustaining. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This work aims to explore the history of the Yugoslav idea, or "Yugoslavism", between the state's existence creation in 1918 and its dissolution in the early 1990s. The key theme that emerges is that Yugoslavism was a fluid concept, understood differently at different times by different Yugoslav nations, leaders and social groups. There was no single definition of who and what was (or was not) "Yugoslav" and this perhaps indirectly contributed to the ultimate failure of the Yugoslav idea and with it the Yugoslav state. The volume presents a specially-commissioned collection of essays which is divided into five sections: "Context"; "Nations"; "Leaders and Institutions"; "Intellectuals"; and "Alternatives". The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. First. 8vo. clean uninscribed copy, pages yellowing with age, some scuffing to outside page edges. Surface wear to cover, rubbing to extremities, creases down length of spine. Light soiling to back cover, top left corner of back cover creased (but flat). old price sticker in bottom right corner. Book.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Northumbrians have been overlooked by British and global history, but theyve made astonishing contributions to both. Dan Jackson sets out to recover this lost history, exploring the deep roots of Northumbrian culturehard work and heavy drinking, sociability and sentimentality, militarism and masculinitythrough centuries of border warfare and dangerous industry. He explains what we can learn about Northumbrias people from its landscape and architecture, and revisits the Northumbrian Enlightenment that gave the world the locomotive and the lightbulb. This story reaches right to the present day, as this extraordinary region finds itself caught between an indifferent south and an increasingly confident Scotland. From the Venerable Bede and the prince-bishops of Durham to Viz and Geordie Shore, this vital new history reveals a part of England with an uncertain future, but whose people remain as remarkable as ever. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Pakistan's transformation from a country once projected as a model of Muslim enlightenment to a state now threatened by an Islamist take over dominates the headlines. Many account for the change by pointing to Pakistan's controversial partnership with the United States since 9/11; others see it as a consequence of Pakistan's long history of authoritarian rule, which has marginalized liberal opinion and left the field open for inroads by the religious right. Farzana Shaikh argues that while external influences and domestic politics have unquestionably shaped the direction of change, the country's social and political decline is rooted primarily in uncertainty about the meaning of Pakistan and the significance of 'being Pakistani'. She shows how this has pre-empted a consensus on the role of Islam in the public sphere, which has encouraged the spread of political Islam. It has also widened the gap between personal piety and public morality, corrupting the country's economic foundations and tearing apart its social fabric. More ominously still, it has given rise to a new and dangerous symbiosis between the country's powerful armed forces and Muslim extremists. They have been rival contenders in the struggle to redefine the meaning of Pakistan but their convergence, enhanced by internal and foreign conflicts, has led to the militarization of society and the Islamization of the military. Drawing on her earlier work on the origins of Pakistan, Shaikh demonstrates how the culture and ideology that constrained Indo-Muslim politics in the years leading to Partition in 1947 have left their mark on the country. In this broad yet discriminating study, these insights from history are skilfully deployed to better understand Pakistan's troubled present. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This is a dark, raw and uncompromising tale of the human condition in extremis, drawing on the many lives of Ben Timberlake: as an archaeologist, Special Forces soldier, combat medic and drug addict. Starting with Ben's first near-death experience--in a Nazi-themed bar in wartime Yugoslavia--High Risk is a whirlwind tour of everything from service in the SAS, combat in Iraq, and encounters with a gambling-obsessed 9/11 hijacker, to veterans blissed out on MDMA, hook-ups in the world of extreme sex, and battling a heroin habit on a remote Scottish island. Ben pursued the rush, and the chase often took him over the edge. Instead of asking why, he asked, why not? Blending confessional narrative, classic reportage and acerbic humour, this memoir takes a gonzo look at terrorists, junkies, soldiers and strippers, through the tale of one extraordinary life. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Carne Ross was a diplomat on the front line of today's most pressing issues, from Israel/Palestine to Afghanistan and Iraq , over which he resigned from the British Foreign Office. He was trained to see the world through a prism of states and interests, but the reality of his negotiations revealed very different -- more complex, and more human -- forces at play. 'Independent Diplomat' exposes this fundamental weakness of institutional diplomacy: exclusion of those most affected by its outcomes, whether at the UN, the EU or within national foreign ministries. Illustrated with vivid episodes from his career -- from New York to Kabul -- Ross offers a refreshing critique of contemporary diplomacy and of how to put it right. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book offers a novel, incisive and wide- ranging account of Libya's '17 February Revolution' by tracing how critical towns, communities and political groups helped to shape its course. Each community, whether geographical (e.g. Misrata, Zintan), tribal/communal (e.g. Beni Walid) or political (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood) took its own path into the uprisings and subsequent conflict of 2011, according to their own histories and relationship to Muammar Qadhafi's regime. The story of each group is told by the authors, based on reportage and expert analysis, from the outbreak of protests in Benghazi in February 2011 through to the transitional period following the end of fighting in October 2011. They describe the emergence of Libya's new politics through the unique stories of those who made it happen, or those who fought against it. The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath brings together leading journalists, academics, and specialists, each with extensive field experience amidst the constituencies they depict, drawing on interviews with fighters, politicians and civil society leaders who have contributed their own account of events to this volume. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. How did a venerable Indian spiritual discipline turn into a GBP20 billion-a-year mainstay of the wellness industry? What happened along yoga's winding path from the caves and forests of the sages to the gyms, hospitals and village halls of the modern West? This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time, leading us on a journey from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through Christianity and the British Empire, to Indian nationalists and the twentieth-century West. Yoga has now become embedded in powerful social currents including feminism, digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for authentic identity. Shearer's revealing history boasts a colourful cast of characters past and present, in an engaging tale of scholars and scandal, science and spirit, wisdom and waywardness. This is the untold story of yoga, warts and all. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.