Beginning with the wars of ancient Persia and Greece, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam searches for the theoretical underpinnings of the "clash of civilizations" that has determined so much of our political and cultural discourse. He revisits the Crusades, colonialism, the Enlightenment, and our contemporary war on terror, and he engages with both eastern and western thinkers, such as Adorno, Derrida, Farabi, Foucault, Hegel, Khayyam, Marcuse, Marx, Said, Ibn Sina, and Weber. Adib-Moghaddam's investigation explains the conceptual genesis of the clash of civilizations and the influence of western and Islamic representations of the other. He highlights the discontinuities between Islamism and the canon of Islamic philosophy, which distinguishes between Avicennian and Qutbian discourses of Islam, and he reveals how violence became inscribed in western ideas, especially during the Enlightenment. Expanding critical theory to include Islamic philosophy and poetry, this metahistory refuses to treat Muslims and Europeans, Americans and Arabs, and the Orient and the Occident as separate entities.

These 400 alphabetically arranged articles provide detailed accounts of how Western maritime empires and their customs and values spread to all corners of the globe, ultimately shaping the development of non-European societies. Each one presents not only facts, but also interpretations of the impact of European colonialism and is well supported by charts, tables, maps, and black-and-white illustrations. The entries make extensive use of primary-source material and contain both see-also references and bibliographies. A glossary of key terms is appended, as is a collection of historical documents that are directly linked to Western colonial expansion and policies. The text flows easily and information retrieval is facilitated by the effective use of subtitles in many of the entries and the variety of access points in the index. A wide range of topics, such as the Boxer Uprising, censorship, diamonds, and Vasco da Gama, provides a comprehensive treatment of the subject. Falling neatly between general and scholarly reference, this set would be a fine addition.

From 1741 until Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, the Russian empire claimed territory and peoples in North America. In this book, Ilya Vinkovetsky examines how Russia governed its only overseas colony, illustrating how the colony fit into and diverged from the structures developed in the otherwise contiguous Russian empire. Russian America was effectively transformed from a remote extension of Russia's Siberian frontier penetrated mainly by Siberianized Russians into an ostensibly modern overseas colony operated by Europeanized Russians. Under the rule of the Russian-American Company, the colony was governed on different terms than the rest of the empire, a hybrid of elements carried over from Siberia and imported from rival colonial systems. Its economic, labor, and social organization reflected Russian hopes for Alaska, as well as the numerous limitations, such as its vast territory and pressures from its multiethnic residents, it imposed. This approach was particularly evident in Russian strategies to convert the indigenous peoples of Russian America into loyal subjects of the Russian Empire. Vinkovetsky looks closely at Russian efforts to acculturate the native peoples, including attempts to predispose them to be more open to the Russian political and cultural influence through trade and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Bringing together the history of Russia, the history of colonialism, and the history of contact between native peoples and Europeans on the American frontier, this work highlights how the overseas colony revealed the Russian Empire's adaptability to models of colonialism.

At the intersection of indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, indigenous peoples rather than nation-states. In extractive biocolonialism, the valued genetic resources, and associated agricultural and medicinal knowledge, of indigenous peoples are sought, legally converted into private intellectual property, transformed into commodities, and then placed for sale in genetic marketplaces. Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples critically examines these developments, demonstrating how contemporary relations between indigenous and Western knowledge systems continue to be shaped by the dynamics of power, the politics of property, and the apologetics of law.

The Spanish-American War, fought from April to August 1898, was a short but brutal war between Spain and its colony of Cuba, which was supported by the United States. It was a continuation of Cuba’s Second War for Independence, which had begun in 1895. Cubans sought freedom from Spain and the right to govern themselves to improve their lives economically and socially. Initially the United States stayed out of the conflict in Cuba, but upon hearing of Spain’s harsh treatment of Cuban civilians, a majority of the American public came to favor war with Spain. The explosion of an American battleship, the U.S.S. Maine, in a Cuban harbor on February 15, 1898, killing more than 250 of the soldiers aboard, also fueled the call to war. After entering the conflict on Cuba’s side onApril 21, 1898, the United States fought against Spain in land and sea battles in the Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines until the two countries called a truce in August 1898. Having defeated Spain at almost every turn, the United States dominated the peace negotiations that resulted in the Treaty of Paris in December 1898. Under the terms of the Reader’s Guide treaty, the United States assumed control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and established influence over newly independent Cuba.

On a sweltering day in July, 1878 the men of the 42nd Royal Highlanders -- the Black Watch -- waded ashore at Larnaca Bay to begin the British occupation of Cyprus. Today, Britons on sunbeds colonize the same stretch of sand, the latest visitors to an island which has long held a special place in the English imagination -- and a controversial role in British imperial ambitions. Drawing on largely unpublished material, Tabitha Morgan reflects on why successive administrations failed, so catastrophically, to engage with their Cypriot subjects, and how social segregation, confusion about Cypriot identity and the poor caliber of so many administrators all contributed to the bloody conflict that led, finally, to Cypriot independence in 1960. Sweet and Bitter Island explores for the first time the unique bond between Britain and Cyprus and the complex, sometimes tense, relationship between the two nations which endures to the present day. Extensively researched and lyrically written, this is the definitive portrait of British colonial life on the Mediterranean island.

Т. 1. - 2012. - 360 с.

В наши дни государства этой части американского континента вступили в решающий этап своего исторического развития, ознаменованный все нарастающим антиимпериалистическим движением их народов. В этом проявляется одна из характерных черт нашей эпохи – эпохи перехода от капитализма к социализму, крепнущего влияния мировой системы социализма.

Книга рассказывает о военных операциях в Северной Африке в 1940-1943 гг. В отличие от многих исследований зарубежных авторов военная кампания в этом регионе рассматривается с учетом хода боевых действий на Восточном фронте. Автор увязывает между собой события, происходивши за многие тысячи километров одно от другого, и на конкретных цифрах и фактах показывает их значение во Второй мировой войне. Книга будет интересна для специалистов и любителей военной истории.