Middle World

The world has always been fascinated with ancient Egypt. When the Romans conquered Egypt, it was really Egypt that conquered the Romans. Cleopatra captivated both Caesar and Marc Antony and soon Roman ladies were worshipping Isis and wearing vials of Nile water around their necks. What is it about ancient Egypt that breeds such obsession and imitation? Egyptomania explores the burning fascination with all things Egyptian and the events that fanned the flames—from ancient times, to Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, to the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb by Howard Carter in the 1920s.

Steven A. Cook charts the course of the United States' encounter with the Middle East from the mid-twentieth century through the present day. Looking back, Cook makes a bold claim: the US was—despite setbacks and moral costs—successful. That record of achievement began to unravel in the early 1990s when policymakers embarked upon a set of overly ambitious policies to remake the Middle East. Cook highlights that calls to withdraw from the region are rash given the important interests the US maintains in the region.

Palestina, metà degli anni cinquanta. Mentre il conflitto arabo-israeliano infiamma, Ichmad - dodici anni, un talento non comune per la matematica e un'ammirazione sconfinata per Albert Einstein - scopre per la prima volta cosa siano la violenza e la paura. Anno dopo anno, ingiustizia dopo ingiustizia, i suoi fratelli soccombono all'odio verso Israele, invece Ichmad lotta per dare un senso a ciò che lo circonda e, grazie alla sua intelligenza matematica, vince una borsa di studio per l'università.

In The Race for Paradise, Paul M. Cobb offers a new history of the confrontations between Muslims and Franks we now call the "Crusades", one that emphasizes the diversity of Muslim experiences of the European holy war. There is more to the story than Jerusalem, the Templars, Saladin, and the Assassins. Cobb considers the Arab perspective on all shores of the Muslim Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria.

When Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran's presidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola, that he'd be back in just a few days, a week at most. Little did he know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by his smell: Rosewater.

World history began in the Persian Gulf. The ancient port cities that dotted its coastlines created the first global seaboard, a place from where faiths and cultures from around the world set sail and made contact. More than a history, The Center of the World shows us that contradictions that define our modern age have always been present.

A growing number of intrepid Arab and Middle Eastern sahafiyat - female journalists - are working tirelessly to shape nuanced narratives about their changing homelands, often risking their lives on the front lines of war. From sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo to the difficulty of traveling without a male relative in Yemen, their challenges are unique - as are their advantages, such as being able to speak candidly with other women at a Syrian medical clinic or with men on Whatsapp who will go on to become ISIS fighters, rebels, or pro-regime soldiers.

Now with a new chapter! Sweeping from Syria into Iraq, Islamic State (ISIS) fighters have been brutalizing and annihilating Christians. Where did the terrorists come from, and what can be done to stop them? For more than a decade, journalist Mindy Belz has reported on the ground from the Middle East, giving her unparalleled access to the story no one wants to believe. In They Say We Are Infidels, she brings the stark reality of this escalating genocide to light, tracking the stories of real-life Christians who refuse to abandon their faith.

A Medieval Life offers a biography of one woman, a portrait of her world, and an introduction to historical method. Written in a clear and accessible style, it reworks a well-loved book to provide an entirely new resource for students, teachers, and general listeners. Like Cecilia Penifader, most people in the Middle Ages were peasants, humble people living socially below the knights, bishops, and kings who figure so large in history books. Judith M. Bennett shows that peasants, too, made history.

In this New York Times bestseller, with a new afterword by authors former vice president Dick Cheney, a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and his daughter Liz Cheney, former deputy assistant secretary of state, they explain the unique and indispensable nature of American power, reveal the...

A portrait of the current Israeli prime minister, one of Israel's more noticeable leaders in recent decades. Benjamin Netanyahu is currently serving his fourth term in office as prime minister of Israel, the longest serving prime minister in the country's history. Now Israeli journalist Ben Caspit puts Netanyahu's life under a magnifying glass, focusing on his last two terms in office.

Il nuovo romanzo di Jonathan Coe: un quadro molto comico, ma ahinoi anche molto serio, della vita pubblica e privata in Gran Bretagna, dal 2010 al 2018. Del pubblico, copre le elezioni del primo governo di coalizione di tutta la storia britannica, le rivolte violente del 2011, i Giochi olimpici del 2012 e, naturalmente, il tellurico referendum per la Brexit del 2016. Del privato, mostra come questi eventi impattino sulle vite dei Trotter, una tipica famiglia delle Midlands inglesi.

On September 12th, 2012, Brandon Webb learned Glen Doherty, one of his closest friends and his former Navy SEAL teammate, was killed alongside Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and two other Americans when the U.S. State Department and CIA headquarters in Benghazi, Libya, were sieged in a shocking terrorist attack.

In this book, Wen-chin Ouyang shows how our experience of adab stories has the power to transform both our personal relationships and society. She draws on classic Arabic stories from the famous Thousand and One Nights and compares them with tales from the canonical Chinese novels Three Kingdoms, The Journey to the West, and Water Margin.

Háfiz (1315-1390) was a lyric poet, a major figure in classical Persian literature. The compendious anthology of his poetry simply titled the Divan contains several hundred odes, from which this small selection was made by the translator. In the introduction Bicknell writes: ...we must look upon Háfiz as one of the few poets in the world who utters an unbroken strain of joy and contentment. His poverty was to him a constant fountain of satisfaction, and he frankly took the natural joys of life as they came....

In the last year, Egypt has undergone a revolution that expelled its authoritarian leader of nearly 30 years, and implemented elections that have pitted the Egyptian military in a power struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood, the long-time Islamic opposition group with ties to Hamas and elements of al-Qaeda. Making everything that much more surreal, the events have played out before well placed television cameras with continuous "real time" coverage of the revolution, and ongoing turmoil, and foreign nations around the world eagerly await or dread the end result.

לדעת אישה, ברובד סמוי יותר, הוא ספר של אדם-מרגל המנסה לפענח את חידת הקיום. זהו רישום מדוקדק של תצפית בלתי נלאית בחשיכה האופפת אותנו. סיפור של "איש-עיניים" לאה אך דבק במשימתו, המייחל — כדברי המספר — "להישנותו של רגע נדיר, לא צפוי, מאותם רגעים אשר בהם מזדהרת להרף -עין האפלולית, ובאה הבלחה, בא הבהוב חטוף שאסור להחמיץ אותו ואסור להיתפס בו בהיסח-הדעת". לדעת אישה הוא ספרו ה-13 של עמוס עוז, רומן חושני ורגיש שהופיע לראשונה בשנת 1989 והיה לרב-מכר. הספר יוצא כעת לאור במהדורה מיוחדת ומעוצבת, במסגרת הסדרה החדשה של כתבי עמוס עוז.

הם היו ארבעה שיצאו לג´ונגל הבוליביאני: קארל, עבריין אוסטרי שהתחזה לגיאולוג, מרקוס השוויצרי, קווין האמריקני ויוסי גינסברג, צעיר ישראלי מרמת גן, שיצא לטיול הגדול לדרום אמריקה. שנה קודם לכן הוא עבד באלסקה כדי לחסוך כסף למסע, עבד בעבודות מזדמנות בניו יורק, התגנב לאוניית שעשועים בפוארטו ריקו והגיע כנוסע סמוי לאיי הבתולה. את ונצואלה וקולומביה חצה בטרמפים ובג´ונגל של אקוודור התארח אצל שבט אינדיאנים. בפרו הוא פגש את מרקוס וביחד נסעו לבוליביה, שם נפגשו עם קווין ועם קארל. הימים שלאחר כניסתם לג´ונגל היו מסמרי שיער, וכשכ גבר הרעב נאלצו לאכול קופים. כעבור זמן מה התפרקה החבורה.

In Intimate Enemies, Khaled Diab explores the human lives at stake in the conflict. From Palestinians evading checkpoints to attend parties to the different approaches Israelis take in defining personal Jewish identities to the experiences of women from across the region, Intimate Enemies looks at what makes people tick. It also becomes clear in this closer understanding of the people how misleading a simple notion of two opposing sides really is.

"Jaw-dropping . . . Inspiring . . . A haunting and beautifully composed book . . . It blew my mind." --Lisa Taddeo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Women A fearless exposé of the secrets and lies of women's intimate lives, by the bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny, Adèle...