Product Description: A decade after the 9/11 attacks, this groundbreaking and brilliantly received book takes readers deep into rebellions against both autocrats and extremists that are redefining politics, culture, and security across the Islamic world and beyond...read more

Product Description: Robin Wright first landed in the Middle East on October 6, 1973, the day the fourth Middle East war erupted. She has covered every country and most major crises in the region since then, through to the rise of al Qaeda and the U.S...read more

Product Description: Robin Wright first landed in the Middle East on October 6, 1973, the day the fourth Middle East war erupted. She has covered every country and most major crises in the region since then, through to the rise of al Qaeda and the U.S...read more

In Darkness and Secrecy brings together ethnographic examinations of Amazonian assault sorcery, witchcraft, and injurious magic, or “dark shamanism.” Anthropological reflections on South American shamanism have tended to emphasize shamans’ healing powers and positive influence. This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are, in many Amazonian cultures, quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery, in particular, involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices, In Darkness and Secrecy reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity.These essays, by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism, consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology, mythology, ritual, and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied. They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. In Darkness and Secrecy includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices.Contributors. Dominique Buchillet, Carlos Fausto, Michael Heckenberger, Elsje Lagrou, E. Jean Langdon, George Mentore, Donald Pollock, Fernando Santos-Granero, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Márnio Teixeira-Pinto, Silvia Vidal, Neil L. Whitehead, Johannes Wilbert, Robin Wright

Examines the roots, motives, and goals of Muslim extremist movements, discussing the escalation of terrororism leading up to the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. (view table of contents)

Product Description: This work offers specific guidance for difficult patient questions, such as: do you guarantee your work? Do you treat AIDS patients? Why does my insurance company say you're too expensive? This work shows how to provide trust-building responses...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Two leading authorities on international affairs project the political, economic, and technological landscape of the 1990s, envisioning a postmodern era in which four or five powers will hold sway

Product Description: From two of America's most accomplished journalists comes a bold, provocative vision of a new world of violent upheavals and great opportunity. Drawing on their reporting experience from more than 70 countries and 14 wars, Wright and McManus investigate the radical changes engulfing the globe--and what they mean for the future...read more

Describes the dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles, and explains how paleontologists made the fossil discoveries leading to our current knowledge

The author chronicles the first ten years of the Iranian Revolution, employing an unprecedented access to Iran's major figures to outline the nation's importance to the rest of the world

Examines the new fundamentalist Moslem revolution, looks at the car bombings of U.S. facilities in the Middle East, and clears up misconceptions about Islam, Iran, and modern terrorism