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Journey
to the West:
Essays
in History,
Politics
and Culture
This
site provides a range of resources including essays, background briefings,
bibliographies, internet resources, and audio-visual listings for those
interested in history, politics and cultural formations. It now includes
material from the 'Journey to the West' project, designed to popularise
a deeper knowledge of European history to allow a deeper understanding
of our current global cultural resources.
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New Materials: -
Roman Power and the Mediterranean World
[Html version here]The Division and Fall of the Roman Empire
[Html version here]Inheritors and Builders : From the Fall of Rome to Charlemagne (An Overview)
[Html version here]
On the Rulers of Rome is a useful webpage with extensive biographical and primary data on Roman and Byzantine emperors and history located at http://www.roman-emperors.org/
A database of public access photographs, which can be utilized for non-profit purposes, can be found at The Archaeology Image Bankvia http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/learning/image_bank/ (The Image Bank has also asked for image contributions across a range of topics.
Essays and Background Briefings:
Dreams of Europe and Western Civilization: Culture and Frontiers
Kinglists
and Archives, Epics and Propaganda: Near Eastern Historiography
[Html version here]
Scribes and Heroes: Divergent Poles of Early Greek Culture (An Overview)
From
Hecataeus to Herodotus: The Expansion of the Greek World View
[Html version here]
Socrates and Plato: From Dialogue to Dialectic
Aristotle: The Practical Sciences - Politics and Ethics
Background Briefing: The Polis, The City-State and Urban Life
Fall of the Radical Democarcy : Athens 415-404 B.C.
Fourth Century B.C. Greece - Democracy, Confederations and Temporary Peace
Thucydides and Xenophon: Political Historians of Ancient Greece
Cicero: Theory and Practice Revisited
Stoics and Cynics in the Roman World
Caesar and Pompey: The Civil Wars Rejoined
Octavian
and Antony: Images of Rome Verses the ‘East’
[Html version here]
Octavian: Saviour of the Roman Republic?
The Revolution of Augustus: Imperial Government
From the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire: Transition, Slogan and Memory
Roman Amatory and Satirical Literature: From Desire to Decadence
Roman Rhetoric and the Legal System
Saint Augustine and the Christian Dialogue Against the Pagan Tradition and Popular Mentality
Sufism: Islamic Mysticism in its Global Context
Geopolitics
of the Silk Road: Beyond Mahan and MacKinder
Culture
Briefs: Heitor Villa-Lobos - Brazil's Master of Musical Fusion
Culture
Briefs: Manuel de Falla - Spanish Traditionalist and European Impressionist
| Featured Websites and other Resources
A
listing of Classics journals with some on-line presence can be found via
the American Philological Assocation
web-site at http://www.apaclassics.org/Classics/journals.html
Useful
materials, translations and articles on Augustine
of Hippo (St Augustine) will be found at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html
The
Great
Books Index has a wide range of classics, plays, and history sources
that available on the web in translation (and some original languages)
via http://books.mirror.org/gb.home.html
Internet Islamic History Sourcebook will be found at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html
Journal of World History, with a strong focus on comparative, large-scale and global history, is available at http://www.historycooperative.org/jwhindex.html Mongolian History-Online Resources have been collated at http://www.mongolianculture.com/mhistory.html
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Featured Books: Good Reads, Past and
Present
ARNOLD, Guy Africa: A Modern History, London, Atlantic Books, 2005 provides a comprehensive and readable account of the history and politics of Africa since World War II, with an emphasis on the period from 1960 down to the 1990s. BARMÉ, Geremie R. The Forbidden City, London, Profile Books, 2008 provides and excellent and nuanced account of the Forbidden City (and Beijing), making careful use of modern and ancient sources, as well as a sensible analysis of communist and 'western' views of the topic. His 'Day in the Reign' chapter gives insights into the duties and constraints on later Chinese emperors, while his account of the 'Dowager' Empress provides some useful deconstructions of modern myths on the topic. GOLDSWORTHY, Adrian The Punic Wars, London, Cassell and Co, 2001 is a solid account of the wars between Rome and Carthage, written from the viewpoint of military history but with strong insights into Roman and Mediterranean politics. ACKROYD, Peter Albion: The Origins of the The English Imagination, London, Chatto & Windus, 2002 provides a fascinating series of insights into the uniqueness of the English sensibility, starting with Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures. ROUNDING, Virginia Catherine the Great: Love, Sex and Power, London, Hutchinson, 2006 provides a detailed personal biography with some valid historical and political insights into one of the key shapers of modern Russia. SEESKIN, Keneth Dialogue and Discovery: A Study in
Socratic Method, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1987,
provides a deep insight into the life, teaching and social setting of Socrates
and Plato.
MOTE, F.W. Imperial China: 900 - 1800,Cambridge
MA, Harvard University Press, 2003 provides a comprehensive history
of China during this period, with useful analysis of relations with Central
and Inner Asia, and institutional comparisons across the Khitan, Jurchen,
Mongol asnd Manchu dynasties, in contrast to Song and Ming institutions.
Mote provides a facinating account, plus some critical assessment of bias
and gaps in current scholarly analysis.
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Contacts, links, updates, corrections, submissions, comments? Email: rjamesferguson1955@live.com