Product Description: This volume presents the impressive corpus of studies by Robert I. Burns, S.J., on the topic that he has spent a half-century exploring in meticulous detail: the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia. These studies focus on one of Europe's greatest medieval monarchs, James the Conqueror of Aragon-Catalonia, who made an enduring contribution to Western civilization...read more

In 1502, a decade of increasing tension between Muslims and Christians in Spain culminated in a royal decree that Muslims in Castile wanting to remain had to convert to Christianity. Mary Elizabeth Perry uses this event as the starting point for a remarkable exploration of how Moriscos, converted Muslims and their descendants, responded to their increasing disempowerment in sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Spain. Stepping beyond traditional histories that have emphasized armed conflict from the view of victors, The Handless Maiden focuses on Morisco women. Perry argues that these women's lives offer vital new insights on the experiences of Moriscos in general, and on how the politics of religion both empowers and oppresses. Drawing on archival documents, legends, and literature, Perry shows that the Moriscas carried out active resistance to cultural oppression through everyday rituals and acts. For example, they taught their children Arabic language and Islamic prayers, dietary practices, and the observation of Islamic holy days. Thus the home, not the battlefield, became the major forum for Morisco-Christian interaction. Moriscas' experiences further reveal how the Morisco presence provided a vital counter-identity for a centralizing state in early modern Spain. For readers of the twenty-first century, The Handless Maiden raises urgent questions of how we choose to use difference and historical memory.

Product Description: More than just an expression of religious authority or an instrument of social control, the Inquisition was an arena where cultures met and clashed on both shores of the Atlantic. This pioneering volume examines how cultural identities were maintained despite oppression...read more

Product Description: Good science is dispassionate, impartial. Sexology, the scientific study of sex, has difficulty in being dispassionate and impartial in our times. Sex is simultaneously the driver of so many of our thoughts, emotions and actions, and the generator of so much fear, hysteria and anxiety...read more