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Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy
By Damien Lewis. 2022
The New Yorker, Best Books of 2022 Vanity Fair, Best Books of 2022 Booklist, Best Books of 2022 Singer. Actress.…
Beauty. Spy. During WWII, Josephine Baker, the world's richest and most glamorous entertainer, was an Allied spy in Occupied France. Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music-hall diva renowned for her singing and dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the highest-paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all &“negroes and Jews.&” Yet instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight, she went from performer to Resistance spy. In Agent Josephine, bestselling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little-known history of the famous singer&’s life. During the war years, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers—a cover for her spying work—Baker participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as a formidable spy. In turn, she was a hero of the three countries in whose name she served—the US, France, and Britain. Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, including previously undisclosed letters and journals, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, explaining why she fully deserves her unique place in the French Panthéon.Mythos: The Illustrated Edition (Stephen Fry's Greek Myths #1)
By Stephen Fry. 2019
Here are the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, stylishly retold by Stephen Fry. The legendary writer,…
actor, and comedian breathes life into ancient tales, from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire, and transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder. Classical artwork inspired by the myths and learned notes from the author offer rich cultural context.Ancient Western Asia Beyond the Paradigm of Collapse and Regeneration: Proceedings of the NYU-PSL International Colloquium, Paris Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, April 16–17, 2019 (ISAW Monographs)
By Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault, Ilaria Calini, Robert Hawley, and Lorenzo d’Alfonso. 2024
New results and interpretations challenging the notion of a uniform, macroregional collapse throughout the Late Bronze Age Eastern MediterraneanAncient Western…
Asia Beyond the Paradigm of Collapse and Regeneration (1200–900 BCE) presents select essays originating in a two-year research collaboration between New York University and Paris Sciences et Lettres. The contributions here offer new results and interpretations of the processes and outcomes of the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age in three broad regions: Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia, and the Levant. Together, these challenge the notion of a uniform, macroregional collapse throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, followed by the regeneration of political powers. Current research on newly discovered or reinterpreted textual and material evidence from Western Asia instead suggests that this transition was characterized by a diversity of local responses emerging from diverse environmental settings and culture complexes, as evident in the case studies collected here in history, archaeology, and art history. The editors avoid particularism by adopting a regional organization, with the aim of identifying and tracing similar processes and outcomes emerging locally across the three regions. Ultimately, this volume reimagines the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition as the emergence of a set of recursive processes and outcomes nested firmly in the local cultural interactions of western Asia before the beginning of the new, unifying era of Assyrian imperialism.This volume presents an anthology of 19 seminal studies, some for the first time in English, that explore the history…
and tradition of the ancient relationship between Samaritans and Jews.The book is arranged into three parts: Methods, Traditions, and History; Samaritan and Jewish Pentateuchs; and Studies in Bible and Tradition, each of which is chronologically ordered. It represents a collection of the author’s previous publications on the relationship between Samaritans and Jews, expanding and supplementing the conclusions of her published books. Recent archaeological developments on Mount Gerizim have demonstrated that our paradigms for writing the ancient histories of the kingdoms and provinces of Samaria and Judah in the Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic periods must change. These developments also affect how we evaluate and read ancient literary traditions, and several chapters offer challenging new perspectives on well-known themes, narratives, and compositions in this subject area.Samaritans and Jews in History and Tradition: Changing Perspectives 10 will be of interest to students and scholars of biblical studies, theology, comparative religion, the ancient Near East, and in particular, Samaritan and Jewish studies.Caracalla: A Military Biography
By Ilkka Syvänne. 2017
This biography of the Roman Emperor Caracalla challenges his tyrannical reputation with a revealing narrative of his social reforms and…
military campaigns. Caracallahas one of the worst reputations of any Roman Emperor. Many ancient historians were very hostile, and the 18th century English historian Edward Gibbon even dubbed him the common enemy of mankind. Yet his reign was considered by at least one Roman author to be the apogee of the Roman Empire. He was guilty of many murders and massacres—including that of his own brother, ex-wife and daughter. Yet he instituted the Antonine Constitution, granting citizenship to all free men in the Empire. He was also popular with the army, improving their pay and cultivating the image of sharing their hardships. Historian Ilkka Syvanne explains how the biased ancient sources in combination with the stern looking statues of the emperor have created a distorted image of the man. He then reconstructs a chronology of Caracalla&’s reign, focusing on his military campaigns and reforms, to offer a balanced view of his legacy. Caracalla offers the first complete overview of the policies, events and conflicts he oversaw and explains how and why these contributed to the military crisis of the third century.Dino Dana: Dino Field Guide
By J. J. Johnson, Christin Simms, Colleen Russo Johnson. 2020
A Dino Dana Field Guide of Dinosaurs for Kids (Ages 8-12)“This field guide is great for new and old dinosaur…
lovers. It alphabetically introduces dinosaurs and information about when and where they lived along with other tidbits about them. It is good for fun reading and can be used in homeschooling.” ―JustaBXMomNominated for Four Daytime Emmy® Awards#1 Bestseller in Children's Fossil BooksFun facts about dinosaurs for kids. Did you know that the brachiosaurus was the tallest dinosaur that we know of today? That the kosmoceratops had fifteen horns and hooks on its head? That the spinosaurus is the only known dinosaur to spend most of its time swimming? Discover this and much more in Dino Dana: Dino Field Guide.Dino Dana's field guide for your child. Fans of the Amazon Prime TV show Dino Dana will be so excited to have a Dino Field Guide of their own, put together by the incredible show's creator and executive producer, J. J. Johnson. Full of colorful illustrations and fascinating science facts, this dinosaur book is sure to amaze any young dino enthusiast.A great science book for kids. This book for children is perfect for any kid who likes history and science. In the Dino Dana field guide, your kids learn:Which time period each dinosaur lived inHow big the dinosaurs wereWhat kinds of things dinosaurs ate and did each dayAnd so much moreKids who like cool dinosaur books like Dinosaurs, National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs, The Big Book of Dinosaurs, or The Dinosaur Book will love Dino Dana: Dino Field Guide.Sparta: Rise Of A Warrior Nation
By Philip Matyszak. 2017
The author of Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation continues his revealing history of the Ancient Greek city-state in this…
chronicle of its decline and defeat. Universally admired in 479 BC, the Spartans became masters of the Greek world by 402 BC, only for their state to collapse in the next generation. What went wrong? Was the fall of Sparta inevitable? In Sparta: Fall of a Warrior Nation, Philip Matyszak examines the political blunders and failures of leadership which combined with unresolved social issues to bring down the nation—even as its warriors remained invincible on the battlefield. The Spartans believed their society was above the changes sweeping their world. And by resisting change, they were doomed to be overwhelmed by it. But the Spartans refused to accept total defeat, and for many years their city exercised influence far beyond its size and population. This is a chronicle of political failure—one rich in heroes, villains, epic battles and political skullduggery. But it is also a lesson in how to go down fighting. Even with the Roman legions set to overwhelm their city, the Spartans never gave upClan Fabius, Defenders of Rome: A History of the Republic's Most Illustrious Family
By Jeremiah McCall. 2018
The history of the Fabii Maximii is in many ways that of the Roman Republic. In the legends and historical…
scraps that survived the Republic, the members of the Fabius clan were, more often than not, the hammers that forged the empire. Few families contributed more to the survival and success of the Republic and for so many centuries. Few could boast such great glories; perhaps none could match the record of Fabian offices and honours in the Republic. Though the bloodline sank into obscurity in the early empire, the name still carried memories of great achievements past.A historical detective work, this book explores the facts and fables of the Republics most distinguished family. Chapters investigate not only the lives and careers of the Fabii Maximi, but the critical military and political contexts of their days. As a result, readers get not only the story of the Roman Republics rise and domination of an empire, but a closer look at a family of Romans who made it possible.Caligula: An Unexpected General
By Lee Fratantuono. 2018
A new appraisal of the brief, turbulent reign of Gaius Caligula and his achievements as a military strategist. Gaius…
Caligula reigned for four short years, from 37 to 41 CE, before his infamous tenure came to a violent end. While much has been written about his notorious excesses and court life, relatively little of his military and foreign policy has been seriously studied. This military history of Rome during Caligula&’s reign sheds light on that subject. After he grew up in a military camp, Caligula&’s years as emperor came in the wake of the great consolidation of Tiberius&’ gains in Germany and Pannonia, and in large part made possible the invasions of Gaul and Britain that were undertaken by his uncle and successor, Claudius. His expeditions in Gaul were part of a program of imitation of his storied predecessor, and crowning completion of what had been left undone in the relatively conservative military policy years of Augustus and Tiberius. Caligula: An Unexpected General offers a new appraisal of Caligula as a surprisingly competent military strategist, arguing that his achievements helped to secure Roman military power in Europe for a generation.A Naval History of the Peloponnesian War: Ships, Men and Money in the War at Sea, 431-404 BC
By Marc G. de Santis. 2017
Naval power played a vital role in the Peloponnesian War. The conflict pitted Athens against a powerful coalition including the…
preeminent land power of the day, Sparta. Only Athens superior fleet, her wooden walls, by protecting her vital supply routes allowed her to survive. It also allowed the strategic freedom of movement to strike back where she chose, most famously at Sphacteria, where a Spartan force was cut off and forced to surrender.Athens initial tactical superiority was demonstrated at the Battle of Chalcis, where her ships literally ran rings round the opposition but this gap closed as her enemies adapted. The great amphibious expedition to Sicily was a watershed, a strategic blunder compounded by tactical errors which brought defeat and irreplaceable losses. Although Athens continued to win victories at sea, at Arginusae for example, her naval strength had been severely weakened while the Spartans built up their fleets with Persian subsidies. It was another naval defeat, at Aegispotomi (405 BC) that finally sealed Athens fate. Marc De Santis narrates these stirring events while analyzing the technical, tactical and strategic aspects of the war at sea.Xenophon's Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War
By Xenophon. 2006
Cyrus, a great Persian leader, was so widely and memorably respected that a hundred years later, Xenophon of Athens wrote…
this admiring book about the greatest leader of his era. Larry Hedrick's Introduction describes Cyrus and his times.Among his many achievements, this great leader of wisdom and virtue founded and extended the Persian Empire; conquered Babylon; freed 40,000 Jews from captivity; wrote mankind's first human rights charter; and ruled over those he had conquered with respect and benevolence.According to historian Will Durant, Cyrus the Great's military enemies knew that he was lenient, and they did not fight him with that desperate courage which men show when their only choice is "to kill or die." As a result the Iranians regarded him as "The Father," the Babylonians as "The Liberator," the Greeks as the "Law-Giver," and the Jews as the "Anointed of the Lord."By freshening the voice, style and diction of Cyrus, Larry Hedrick has created a more contemporary Cyrus. A new generation of readers, including business executives and managers, military officers, and government officials, can now learn about and benefit from Cyrus the Great's extraordinary achievements, which exceeded all other leaders' throughout antiquity.Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate
By Paul H. Smith. 2005
If you thought The Manchurian Candidate was fiction or John Farris's The Fury, which featured a CIA mind-control program run…
amok, was the stuff of an overheated imagination, you were sorely mistaken.From behind the cloak of U.S. military secrecy comes the story of Star Gate, the project that for nearly a quarter of a century trained soldiers and civilian spies in extra-sensory perception (ESP). Their objective: To search out the secrets of America's cold war enemies using a skill called "remote viewing." Paul H. Smith, a U.S. Army Major, was one of these viewers. Assigned to the remote viewing unit in 1983 at a pivotal time in its history, Smith served for the rest of the decade, witnessing and taking part in many of the seminal national-security crises of the twentieth century.With the Star Gate secrets declassified and the program mothballed by the Central Intelligence Agency, the story can now be told of the ordinary soldiers drafted onto the battlefield of human consciousness. Using hundreds of interviews with the key players in the Star Gate program, and gathering thousands of pages of documents, Smith opens the records on this remarkable chapter in American military, scientific, and cultural history. He reveals many secrets about how remote viewing works and how it was used against enemy targets. Among these stories are the search for hostages in Lebanon; spying on Soviet directed energy weapons; investigating the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland; tracking foreign testing of weapons of mass destruction; combating narco-trafficking off America's coasts; aiding in the Iranian hostage situation; finding KGB moles in the CIA; pursuing Middle East terrorists; and more.Between the lines in the official records are revelations about unrelenting attempts from within and without to destroy the remote viewing program, and the efforts that kept Star Gate going for more than two decades in spite of its enemies. This is a story for the believer and the skeptic---a rare look at the innards of a top secret program and an eye-opening treatise on the power of the human mind to transcend the limitations of space and time.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.Foundations for a Humanitarian Economy: Re-thinking Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (ISSN)
By William D. Bishop. 2022
The modern global economy and discipline of economics place mathematical calculation above human concern. However, a re-reading of Boethius’ The…
Consolation of Philosophy can positively highlight the contrast in values and spirit of the early medieval European world with our own scientific age.This book discusses the historical and cultural contexts that influenced Boethius’ writing and explores how Consolation offers a radically different understanding of economic concepts: wealth from inner happiness and virtues, poverty from hoarding outer possessions, self-sufficiency in the greater whole, enlightenment through misfortune, and development as fruition from the Good. These economic considerations resonate with a range of heterodox economic perspectives, such as Ecological and Buddhist Economics. The fundamental revaluations gained through Boethius pose a critique of mainstream neoclassical and neoliberal economics: to consumerism, avarice, growth and technology fetishism, and market rationality. These economic foundations resonate into a time when global crises raise the question of fundamental human priorities, offering alternatives to an ever-expanding industrial market economy designed for profit, and helping to avoid irrevocable socio-ecological disasters. The issues raised and questioned in this book will be of significant interest to readers with concern for pluralist approaches to economics, philosophy, classics, ancient history and theology.Expedition to Disaster: The Athenian Mission to Sicily 415 BC
By Philip Matyszak. 2012
This thrillingly vivid history recounts a pivotal battle of the Peloponnesian War, bringing the drama and personalities of the Sicilian…
Expedition to life. The Athenian expedition to conquer Sicily was one of the most significant military events of the classical period. At the time, Athens was locked in a decades-long struggle with Sparta for mastery of the Greek world. The expedition to Sicily was intended to win Athens the extra money and resources needed to crush the Spartans. With the aid of new archaeological discoveries, Expedition to Disaster reconstructs the mission, and the ensuing siege, in greater detail than ever before. The cast of characters includes Alcibiades, the flamboyant, charismatic young aristocrat; Nicias, the ageing, reluctant commander of the ill-fated expedition, and Gylippus, the grim Spartan general sent to command the defense of Syracuse. It was he who turned the tables on the Athenian invaders. They were surrounded, besieged, and forced to ask for mercy from a man who had none. Philip Matyszak's combination of thorough research and gripping narrative presents an episode of ancient history packed with colorful characters and dramatic tension.A Life of Lies and Spies: Tales of a CIA Covert Ops Polygraph Interrogator
By Alan B. Trabue. 2015
Alan Trabue chose a bizarre, dangerous way to make a living. In A Life of Lies and Spies, Trabue exposes…
the often perilous world of polygraphing foreign spies in support of CIA espionage programs. He recounts his incredible, true-life globe-trotting adventures, from his induction in the CIA in 1971 to directing the CIA's world-wide covert ops polygraph program.A Life of Lies and Spies brings readers into the high-stakes world of covert operations and the quest to uncover deceit, featuring a high-speed car chase, blown clandestine meetings, surreptitious room searches, tear-gassing by riot police, and confrontations with machine gun-armed soldiers. Liberally sprinkled with side anecdotes—such as debriefing an agent though a torturous swarm of mosquitoes in a jungle shack—Trabue's story highlights both the humor and the intrinsic danger of conducting CIA covert activities.Writing from a unique perspective framed by his uncommon longevity and broad experience, for which he was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal, Trabue's memoir unveils the CIA's use of polygraph and interrogation to validate recruited spies' bona fides and information obtained through their acts of espionage.The Central Intelligence Agency has not approved, endorsed or authorized this book or the use of the CIA seal, name or initials.Lived Spaces in Late Antiquity
By Carlos Machado, Rowan Munnery, Rebecca Sweetman. 2024
This volume considers “lived space” as a scholarly approach to the past, showing how spatial approaches can present innovative views…
of the world of Late Antiquity, integrating social, economic and cultural developments and putting centre stage this fundamental dimension of social life.Bringing together an international group of scholars working on areas as diverse as Britain, the Iberian Peninsula, Jordan and the Horn of Africa, this book includes burgeoning fields of study such as lived spaces in the context of ships and seafaring during this period. Chapters investigate the history, function and use of different spaces in their own right and identify the social and historical logic presiding over continuity and/or change. They also explore the fluidity of lived space in both its physical and conceptual dimensions, analysing issues like agency and intentionality as well as meaning and social relations. Space is the fundamental dimension of social life, the arena where it unfolds and the stage where social values and hierarchies are represented; analysis of space allows us to understand history through different means of shaping, occupying and controlling space. Considering Late Antiquity through a spatial perspective offers a complex and stimulating picture of this pivotal period, and this volume provides avenues for the development of further research and discussion in this area.Lived Spaces in Late Antiquity is a fascinating resource for students and scholars interested in space and spatiality in the late antique world, as well as archaeology, classical studies and late antique studies more generally.Classical Philology, volume 119 number 2 (April 2024)
By Classical Philology. 2024
This is volume 119 issue 2 of Classical Philology. Classical Philology (CP) has been an internationally respected journal for the…
study of the life, languages, and thought of the ancient Greek and Roman world since 1906. CP covers a broad range of topics, including studies that illuminate aspects of the languages, literatures, history, art, philosophy, social life, material culture, religion, and reception of ancient Greece and Rome.A Fortified Far Right?: Scrutinizing the Threat
By Katalin Petho-Kiss, Rohan Gunaratna. 2024
Petho-Kiss and Gunaratna understand the nature of the threat posed by the far right because of their findings and they…
propose effective provisions and mechanisms for detecting and countering it.The book undertakes a consistent procession and empirical examination of available information to arrive at the recognition that in order to dissolve the complexity of the associated threat, we need to scrutinize the functioning of far-right threat groups. In-depth and consistent analysis on their mode of operation and mindset enables us to identify ways to detect and counter their malicious efforts and activities. The theoretical framework for the analysis lies upon the concept of wave theory. The main question that this book examines is whether far-right terrorism constitutes a new wave of global terrorism. One question emerges from this statement that requires further elaboration. Is far-right terrorism a novel wave of terrorism? If yes, how is it novel and what are the novelties or developments in it?This book is for scholars as well as practitioners in the counter-terrorism (CT) and the prevention/countering violent extremism (PCVE) field. Through specific case studies students studying CT and/or PCVE could gain insight into the operational functionalities of far-right threat groups. This may help them to get a more accurate understanding of the threat posed by these entities. Examining the recruitment, funding, communication practices, and modus operandi of worrisome threat actors equips us to design the most effective countermeasures and identify the hiatuses in applicable legislative regimes.Ancient Worlds (DK Panorama)
By Dk. 2024
Ancient Worlds is a tour through history's most influential civilizations between 3000 BCE and 600 CE, capturing in vivid detail…
moments that convey the cultural, technological, and organizational characteristics central to their success.From Sumer, the world's earliest civilization, to the heyday of the Mayan Empire, the tour crosses every continent, taking in developments in urban planning, art and architecture, religion, warfare, trade, and cultural exchange. Discover how deep knowledge of the Sun, sea, and stars enabled ancient seafarers to navigate the Pacific Ocean; witness the highs and lows of a thrilling chariot race in the Roman Empire's greatest hippodrome; and marvel at the military might of the Mauryan Empire and its 9,000 war elephants. Full of fascinating detail, each scene is a window on the lives of the most powerful and innovative peoples in times past. Ideal for children and parents to pore over together and explore similarities and differences with cultures around the world today.The Gods of Battle: The Thracians at War, 1500 BC - 150 AD
By Chris Webber. 2008
Herodotus described the Thracians (who inhabited what is now roughly modern Bulgaria, Romania, the European part of Turkey and northern…
Greece) as the most numerous nation of all - apart from the Indians - and said that they would be the most powerful of all nations if they didnt enjoy fighting each other so much. There may have been a million Thracians, divided among as many as 40 tribes.Ancient writers were hard put to decide which of the Thracian tribes was the most valiant; they were employed as mercenaries by all the great Mediterranean civilizations. Thrace had the potential to field huge numbers of troops, and the Greeks and Romans lived in fear of a dark Thracian cloud descending from the north, devastating civilization in the Balkans. The Thracian way of warfare had a huge influence on Classical Greek and Hellenistic warfare. After Thrace was conquered by the Romans, the Thracians provided a ready source of tough auxiliaries to the Roman army. Chris Webber gives an overview of Thracian history and culture, but focuses predominantly on their warfare and weapons. The latest archaeological finds are used to give the most detailed and accurate picture yet of their arms, armor and costume. He identifies and differentiates the many different tribes, showing that their weapons and tactics varied. The resulting study should be welcomed by anyone interested in the archaeology and history of the region or in classical warfare as a whole.