"An excellent tool in Middle Eastern politics classes [and] an intellectual resource for experts who want to learn more about the complexities of Israel."— Reading ReligionAmericans debate constantly about Israel, its place in the Middle East, and its relations with the United States. Essential Israel examines a wide variety of complex issues and current concerns in historical and contemporary contexts to provide readers with an intimate sense of t...

Modern Israel's founding fathers provided some of the boldest and most principled leadership of any nation--now Israel needs their example more than ever.Modern Israel's founding fathers provided some of the boldest and most principled leadership of any nation. Now Israel needs their example more than ever.At a time when the political destiny of Israel is more uncertain than at any moment since its modern founding, Be Strong and of Good Courage celebrates ...

This book explores the personal, domestic, regional, and international factors that led Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and other top aides to negotiate the peace accords. It describes in fascinating detail the intricacies of the Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) bargaining.

"A trenchant and often pugnacious demolition of the numerous misconceptions about strategic thinking on the Middle East"-The New York TimesNow updated with a new chapter on the current climate, Myths, Illusions, and Peace addresses why the United States has consistently failed to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East. According to Dennis Ross-special advisor to President Obama and senior director at the National Security Council fo...

Modern Israel's founding fathers provided some of the boldest and most principled leadership of any nation--now Israel needs their example more than ever.Modern Israel's founding fathers provided some of the boldest and most principled leadership of any nation. Now Israel needs their example more than ever.At a time when the political destiny of Israel is more uncertain than at any moment since its modern founding, Be Strong and of Good Courage celebrates ...

"Shines a floodlight on a topic that has been cloaked in obscurity . . . a landmark work in both intellectual history and political theory" ( The Wall Street Journal).Philosophical esotericism—the practice of communicating one's unorthodox thoughts "between the lines"—was a common practice until the end of the eighteenth century. Despite its long and well-documented history, however, esotericism is often dismissed today as a rare occurrence. But by ignorin...

A New York Times Notable Book. A literary exploration that is "surely destined to become the quintessential companion to Camus's most enduring novel" ( PopMatters).The Stranger is a rite of passage for readers around the world. Since its publication in France in 1942, Camus's novel has been translated into sixty languages and sold more than six million copies. It's the rare novel that's as likely to be found in a teen's backpack as in a g...

A visual history of the many peoples who've inhabited and shaped Britain, from hunter-gatherers to Celts, Vikings, Normans, and modern immigrants.This atlas covers the history of the British Isles from earliest times to the present day. The first hunter-gatherers, who crossed into what would become the United Kingdom by the land-bridge, and later followed by more familiar peoples the Celts, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans, who together would create Britain's u...

"A fascinating account of the gathering and dissemination of news from the end of the Middle Ages to the French Revolution" and the rise of the newspaper (Glenn Altschuler, The Huffington Post).Long before the invention of printing, let alone the daily newspaper, people wanted to stay informed. In the pre-industrial era, news was mostly shared through gossip, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, ballads, and the first news-sheets...

An in-depth study of the relationship between the Russian government and its first Muslim subjects who served in the vanguard of the empire's colonialism.In the 1700s, Kazan Tatar (Muslim scholars of Kazan) and scholarly networks stood at the forefront of Russia's expansion into the South Urals, western Siberia, and the Kazakh steppe. It was there that the Tatars worked with Russian agents, established settlements, and spread their own religious and intellectual cul...

A journalist explores how our world's borders came to be and how self-proclaimed countries across the globe could change the map.What is a country? While certain basic criteria—borders, a government, and recognition from other countries—seem obvious, journalist Joshua Keating investigates what happens in areas of the world that exist as exceptions to these rules. Invisible Countries looks at semiautonomous countries such as Abkhazia, Kurdistan, and Somalil...

An innovative take on Magna Carta history that examines the impact and influence of women.39. No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.This clause in Magna Carta was in response to the appalling imprisonment and starvation of Matilda de Braose, the wife of one of King John's barons. Matilda was not...