5 History / Military eBooks

Road Through Kurdistan: Travels in Northern Iraq by A. M. Hamilton
Christ's Subversive Body: Practices of Religious Rhetoric in Culture and Politics by Olga V. Solovieva
China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century: Antagonism Despite Interdependency By Lam Peng Er
Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany By Jon Hughes
Biography of an Industrial Town: Terni, Italy, 1831–2014 By Alessandro Portelli

Road Through Kurdistan: Travels in Northern Iraq by A. M. Hamilton
English | February 5, 2005 | ISBN: 1850436371, 0404562752 | PDF | 360 pages | 16.9 MB
In 1928, Archibald Hamilton traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan, having been commissioned to build a road that would stretch from Northern Iraq, through the mountains and gorges of Kurdistan and on to the Iranian border. Now called the Hamilton Road, this was, even by today's standards, a considerable feat of engineering and remains one of the most strategically important roads in the region.
In this colorful and engaging account, Hamilton describes the four years he spent overcoming immense obstacles–disease, ferocious brigands, warring tribes and bureaucratic officials–to carve a path through some of the most beautiful but inhospitable landscape in the world. Road Through Kurdistan is a classic of travel writing and an invaluable portrayal of the Iraqi Kurds themselves, and of the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq.

Christ's Subversive Body: Practices of Religious Rhetoric in Culture and Politics by Olga V. Solovieva
English | November 15, 2017 | ISBN: 0810136007, 081013599X | PDF | 328 pages | 9.9 MB
Christ's Subversive Body offers a fascinating exploration of six historical examples of politically or culturally subversive usages of the body of Christ. Shining a light on the enabling potential of religious rhetoric, Solovieva examines how in moments of crisis or transition throughout Western history the body of Christ has been deployed in a variety of discourses, including recent neo- and theoconservative movements in the United States.
Solovieva’s survey includes the iconoclastic polemics of Epiphanius at the moment of struggles for supremacy between the Roman state and the Christian church, the mystical theologico-political alchemy of an anonymous treatise circulated at the Council of Constance, Lavater’s counter-Enlightenment visions of the afterlife expressd through physiognomy, Dostoevsky’s refashioning of ethical communities, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s attempts to provoke the “scandal” of Jesus’s mission once more in the modern world, and the elaboration of a political theology subordinating democratic dissent to the higher unity of a corporately conceived “unitary executive” in early twenty-first-century America.
Solovieva presents her findings not as an entry into theological or Christological debates but rather as a study in comparative discourse analysis. She demonstrates how these uses of Christ’s body are triggered by moments of epistemological, political, and representational crisis in the history of Western civilization.

China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century: Antagonism Despite Interdependency By Lam Peng Er
English | PDF | 2017 | 388 Pages | ISBN : 9811043728 | 3.68 MB
This new collection examines the paradox of Sino-Japanese relations and the rising diplomatic antagonism between both countries despite deepening economic interdependency. Offering a unique perspective on the history of bilateral ties since diplomatic normalization in 1972, it considers the growing interdependency between China and Japan in bilateral trade, investment, tourism and education, as well as the question of nationalism and Sino-Japanese rivalry in multilateral settings such as in ASEAN processes, the Mekong Basin and the South China Sea.
Focusing on the power transition in East Asia, the lack of a common enemy in the post-Cold War era, the clash of Chinese and Japanese nationalism, and a lack of trust, shared values and common identity between China and Japan, this collection addresses the origins of a troubled bilateral relationship which could impact on the stability and prosperity of East Asia.

Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany By Jon Hughes
English | PDF | 2017 (2018 Edition) | 336 Pages | ISBN : 3319511351 | 4.64 MB
This book presents the first in-depth study of the German boxer Max Schmeling (1905-2005) as a national hero and representative figure in Germany between the 1920s and the present day. It explores the complex relationship between sport, culture, politics and national identity and draws on a century of journalism, film, visual art, life writing and fiction.
Detailed chapters analyse Schmeling’s emergence as an icon in the Weimar Republic, his association with America, his celebrity status in the Third Reich, and his rivalry with Joe Louis as a focus for an extraordinary propaganda and ideological contest. The book also examines how Schmeling’s post-war success in business associated him with the culture of the ‘zero hour’ nation in the era of ‘economic miracle’, and how he was later claimed as ‘good German’ and moral example for a post-war generation of Germans determined to ‘come to terms’ with the past. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in the history and representation of sport and boxing, in sports discourse and political culture, and in questions of national identity in modern German history.

Biography of an Industrial Town: Terni, Italy, 1831–2014 By Alessandro Portelli
English | PDF | 2017 | 412 Pages | ISBN : 3319508970 | 3.97 MB
A pioneering work in oral history, this book tells the story of the rise and fall of the industrial revolution and the apogee and crisis of the labor movement through an oral history of Terni, a steel town in Central Italy and the seat of the first large industrial enterprise in Italy. This story is told through a combination of stories, songs, myths and memories from over 200 voices of five generations, woven with a wealth of archival material.