Macdonald Institute traces the evolution of a small post-secondary institution specializing in the education of rural Ontario women into a world-respected, co-educational college at the University of Guelph. Built in 1903 with funds from Sir William Macdonald of Montreal, Macdonald Institute focused originally on the teaching of Domestic Science to rural women. "Mac" has evolved to meet the changing needs of women, the Canadian family and society in general. The Institute evolved into the ...

In this gripping and concise account, Middle East expert James Snell delves deep into the collapse of the al-Assads' dictatorship, tracing their brutal atrocities from 1970 and what it means for the West. Through detailed narratives and eyewitness testimonies, he chronicles the relentless oppression and war crimes that fuelled the opposition's struggle. The fall of Damascus in December 2024 not only marked the end of over 50 years of Assad-family rule but also provided an unexpected develo...

The web services architecture provides a new way to think about and implement application-to-application integration and interoperability that makes the development platform irrelevant. Two applications, regardless of operating system, programming language, or any other technical implementation detail, communicate using XML messages over open Internet protocols such as HTTP or SMTP. The Simple Open Access Protocol (SOAP) is a specification that details how to encode that information and ha...

The public appetite for spies, both real and fictional, seems inexhaustible. But where and when did spying begin and how has the art and craft of espionage developed over the centuries? Spies in History is a collection of portraits of some of the most famous spies we know, but it also includes some lesser known and more surprising names. A remarkable line-up of distinguished historians, scholars and writers examine the evolution of intelligence and counter-intelligence – from anci...

It took a quarter-century of bad strategy, including more than a dozen years of Western air attacks and invasions in the Middle East, to bring the so-called "Islamic State" into existence. Can we somehow manage to avoid the well-trodden path of overreacting to the provocations of Islamist extremists?With the rise of ISIS, a new style of terrorism that publicly gloats over acts of extreme cruelty has reawakened the fears of the global audience. But in Don't Pani...

“Riveting . . . This thorough work is immensely detailed yet readable and continuously engaging.” —Publishers WeeklyAn immersive, gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran's glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late Shah's widow, Empress Farah, Iranian revolutionaries and US officials from the Carter administration.In this remarkably human portrait of one of the twentieth century's most complicated per...

Malalai Joya has been called "the bravest woman in Afghanistan." At a constitutional assembly in Kabul in 2003, she stood up and denounced her country's powerful NATO-backed warlords. She was twenty-five years old. Two years later, she became the youngest person elected to Afghanistan's new Parliament. In 2007, she was suspended from Parliament for her persistent criticism of the warlords and drug barons and their cronies. She has survived four assassination attempts to da...

Religion, oil, and war bent to the House of Saud’s will to dominate Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle EastIn recent years the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud, has promoted the oil-rich kingdom as an open, liberalizing nation that has invested in culture, tourism, and social innovation to become a beacon for the region. International political manoeuvring, sports sponsorship, and the Vision 2030 programme with its vast architectural planning declare...

**Winner of the 2021 Overseas Press Club of America Cornelius Ryan AwardThe former New York Times Pakistan bureau chief paints an arresting, up-close portrait of a fractured country.**Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times’s most distinguished international correspondents. His electrifying portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade captures the sweep of this strange, wondrous, and benighted country through the dramatic lives of nine fascinating indiv...

"It's all here-Islam, the family tree, a sea of oil and money to match, palace intrigue...This is high drama and an epic tale."-Tom BrokawThough Saudi Arabia sits on one of the richest oil deposits in the world, it also produced fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. In this immensely important book, journalist Robert Lacey draws on years of access to every circle of Saudi society giving readers the fullest portrait yet of a land straddling the worlds of me...

Understand the Middle East (since 1945)is an essential guide to one of the world's most turbulent regions. It examines the origins and development of the events which have dominated the headlines for the last six decades. Covering everything from religion and politics in the aftermath of the Second World War to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, war in Iraq and the terrorism of the present day it will change the way you think about the region.NOT GOT MUCH TIME?One, five and ...

An urgent and compelling study of Gaza from one of the region’s most experienced journalistsREVISED AND UPDATED EDITION‘A brilliant and incisive account of this tiny, vibrant, but embattled enclave… a must-read.’ Jon SnowOctober 7th, 2023. Hamas and other militant groups invaded southern Israel. It was the day that changed the face of the Middle East.Since then, the two million Palestinians living in the Gaz...