Palmyra in 1926 (from the Guardian Archive, originally published 12th June 1926)

By Mary Fisk|June 16, 2015|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica, History|0 comments

Palmyra panorama view shortly after sunrise (2005) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PalmyraPanoramaZoom.jpg In April 1926, the Manchester Guardian’s correspondent was in Beirut for a congress. After the exacting business of formal dinners and fetes,  the party set out to explore the historic sites of the region, including Byblos, Tripoli and Krak des Chevaliers – and finally to Palmyra. This account (whilst coloured with some of the stereotypes of the day) gives a vivid depiction

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History – May 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|June 15, 2015|History|0 comments

Comparative & thematic Sapiens: a brief history of humankind / Yuval Noah Harari. The transformation of the world: a global history of the nineteenth century / Jurgen Osterhammel. [also available as an e-book] Africa North Africa Dividing the Nile: Egypt’s ‘economic’ nationalists in the Sudan, 1918-1956 / David E. Mills China & Tibet Fateful ties: a history of America’s preoccupation with China / Gordon H. Chang. Writing, publishing, and reading

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History – April 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|May 14, 2015|History|0 comments

Comparative and thematic histories Mapping the end of empire: American and British strategic visions in the postwar world / Aiyaz Husain. History and popular memory: the power of story in moments of crisis / Paul A. Cohen. The lifeblood of war: logistics in armed conflict / Julian Thompson. Empires of vision: a reader / Martin Jay and Sumathi Ramaswamy, eds. The Princeton companion to Atlantic history / editor, Joseph C.

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Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica – April 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|May 13, 2015|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica|0 comments

Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations Canaanite religion according to the liturgical text of Ugarit [2nd edn ] / Gregorio del Olmo Lete. Transl. by W. G. E. Watson. Knowledge and wisdom: archaeological and historical essays in honour of Leah Di Segni / edited by Giovanni C. Bottini, L. Daniel Chrupcala, Joseph Patrich Memory and the city in ancient Israel / edited by Diana V. Edelman and Ehud Ben Zvi. Prophétisme et

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History – March 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|May 11, 2015|History|0 comments

General and thematic The true history of tea / Victor H. Mair & Erling Hoh Trophies, relics and curios? : Missionary heritage from Africa and the Pacific / edited by Karen Jacobs, Chantal Knowles, Chris Wingfield Guantánamo diary / Mohamedou Ould Slahi ; introduction by Larry Siems ; edited by Larry Siems Case studies in transmission / Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, Ilkka Lindstedt, Robert Rollinger und Raija Mattila (Hgg.) The British industrial

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Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica – March 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|April 10, 2015|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica|0 comments

Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations A city from the dawn of history: Erbil in the cuneiform sources / by John MacGinnis. Présence et pouvoir hittites à Ougarit : le cas des DUMU.LUGAL / Charlotte Lebrun. Documents of Judean exiles and West Semites in Babylonia in the collection of David Sofer / by Laurie E. Pearce and Cornelia Wunsch. Life, death, and coming of age in Antiquity: individual rites of passage in

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History – February 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|March 31, 2015|History|0 comments

General and thematic Echoes of empire: memory, identity and the legacy of imperialism / Kalypso S. Nicolaidis, Berny Sebe & Gabrielle Maas The rise of the West: a history of the human community: with a retrospective essay / by William H. McNeill; drawings by Béla Petheö. Europe and the Islamic world: a history / John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and Henry Laurens   translated by Jane Marie Todd with a foreword by

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Religions – February 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|March 31, 2015|Religions|0 comments

Comparative and thematic studies Death and the Afterlife / edited by Jacob Neusner.  – Cannibal metaphysics: for a post-structural anthropology / Eduardo Viveiros de Castro   translated and edited by Peter Skafish – The postsocialist religious question: faith and power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe / Chris Hann and the Civil Religion Group – The hip hop and religion reader / edited by Monica R. Miller and Anthony B. Pinn

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Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica – February 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|March 27, 2015|Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica|0 comments

Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations Engraved on stone: Mesopotamian cylinder seals and seal inscriptions in the old Babylonian period / by Rony Feingold. – Nineveh and its remains: the gripping journals of the man who discovered the buried Assyrian cities / Austen Henry Layard. [reprint of work originally published in 1849] Remembering the dead in the ancient Near East: recent contributions from bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology / [edited by] Benjamin W.

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History – December 2014 and January 2015

By Emma Wilson-Shaw|February 23, 2015|History|0 comments

General & thematic Into new territory: American historians and the concept of US imperialism / James G. Morgan Travel narratives from the age of discovery: an anthology / edited by Peter C. Mancall   Thinking history globally / Diego Olstein Hinterlands and commodities: place, space, time and the political economic development of Asia over the long eighteenth century / edited by Tsukasa Mizushima, George Bryan Souza and Dennis O’Flynn Chinese and

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