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Organisation for Researching and Composing University Textbooks in the Humanities (SAMT)
Over 140 titles of books in cooperation with universities and research centers in countries in Asia and Europe
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January 2013The Madmen of Bethlehem
by Osama Alaysa
Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people. This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations. Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written). The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places. The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form. The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.
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Humanities & Social SciencesAugust 2021Counter-terror by proxy
The Spanish State's illicit war with ETA
by Emmanuel Pierre Guittet
Between 1983 and 1987, mercenaries adopting the pseudonym GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación, Antiterrorist Liberation Group) paid by the Spanish treasury and relying upon national intelligence support were at war with the Basque militant group ETA (Euskadi (e)Ta Askatasuna, Basque Country and Freedom). Over four years, their campaign of extrajudicial assassinations spanned the French-Spanish border. Nearly thirty people were killed in a campaign comprised of torture, kidnapping, bombing and the assassination of suspected ETA activists and Basque refugees. This establishment of unofficial counterterrorist squads by a Spanish Government was a blatant detour from legality. It was also a rare case in Europe where no less than fourteen high-ranking Spanish police officers and senior government officials, including the Minister of Interior himself, were eventually arrested and condemned for counter-terrorism wrongdoings and illiberal practices. Thirty years later, this campaign of intimidation, coercion and targeted killings continues to grip Spain. The GAL affair was not only a serious example of a major departure from accepted liberal democratic constitutional principles of law and order, but also a brutal campaign that postponed by decades the possibility of a political solution for the Basque conflict. Counter-terror by proxy uncovers why and how a democratic government in a liberal society turned to a 'dirty war' and went down the route of illegal and extrajudicial killing actions. It offers a fuller examination of the long-term implications of the use of unorthodox counter-terrorist strategies in a liberal democracy.
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Humanities & Social SciencesJuly 2023The breakup of India and Palestine
by Victor Kattan, Amit Ranjan
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Humanities & Social Sciences2021Cossack State as an Idea in the System of Socio-political Thinking of the XVI-XVIII Centuries. Book 2
by Valeriy Shevchuk
The publication describes the entire era of Ukrainian statehood, namely, the foundation principles, formation and the fall of the Cossack state. The author describes in detail the foundation milestones, the complexities and challenges of the state-building process, attempts to preserve the Ukrainian statehood, the struggle of the last hetmans (presidents) Pylyp Orlyk, Ivan Skoropadskyi, and Pavlo Polubotko to protect of the Cossack state from ruin. The author builds his reflections on the analysis of Cossack laws, hetman documents and literary sources - exquisite examples of poetry and art of writing. The work is supplemented with rare illustrative materials.
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Science & MathematicsNovember 2020Techniques for Work with Plant and Soil Nematodes
by Roland N Perry, David J Hunt, Sergei A Subbotin
Techniques for Work with Plant and Soil Nematodes is an up-to-date, comprehensive book covering the practicalities of working with and studying soil and plant nematodes. Written by an international team of experts, this book is highly illustrated and provides thorough coverage of methods whilst allowing for relevant information to be located quickly. It includes the fundamental traditional techniques and new methodologies, covering: sampling; extraction; estimating numbers; handling, fixing, staining, mounting; culturing techniques; figure preparation, measurement and image processing; electron microscopy techniques; behavioural and physiological assays; and cytogenetic, biochemical and molecular biology techniques. This book is an essential resource for anyone involved in plant nematology needing to refer to a readily available methodology standard, including students of nematology and parasitology, university lecturers and researchers, diagnostic laboratories, and quarantine and advisory service personnel. It provides a much needed compendium of the spectrum of information needed to work with these microscopic organisms.
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Geography & the EnvironmentMarch 2022Plants for Soil Regeneration
An Illustrated Guide
by Sally Pinhey, Margaret Tebbs
This book is a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated colour guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility without the use and expense of agrichemicals. Information based on the latest research is given on how to use soil conditioning plants to avoid soil degradation, restore soil quality and help clean polluted land. There are 11 chapters: 1 to 6 cover soil health, nitrogen fixation, green manures and herbal leys, bacteria and other microorganisms, phytoremediators and soil mycorrhiza (plant-fungal symbiosis). Chapter 7 has plant illustrations, with climate range and soil types, along with their soil conditioning properties and each plant is presented with a comprehensive description opposite a detailed illustration, in full colour. Chapters 8 to 10 examine soil stabilisers, weeds and invasive plants, and hedges and trees and the final chapter, contains 5 case studies with the most recent data, followed by an appendix and glossary. The book allows the reader to identify the plants they need quickly and find the information necessary to begin implementation of soil regeneration.
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Humanities & Social SciencesFebruary 2017Country houses and the British Empire, 1700–1930
by Stephanie Barczewski
Country houses and the British empire, 1700-1930 assesses the economic and cultural links between country houses and the Empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Using sources from over fifty British and Irish archives, it enables readers to better understand the impact of the empire upon the British metropolis by showing both the geographical variations and its different cultural manifestations. Barczewski offers a rare scholarly analysis of the history of country houses that goes beyond an architectural or biographical study, and recognises their importance as the physical embodiments of imperial wealth and reflectors of imperial cultural influences. In so doing, she restores them to their true place of centrality in British culture over the last three centuries, and provides fresh insights into the role of the Empire in the British metropolis.
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January 2021Everyone is amazing-Xiaoxiang Family Letters 2020
by Xiaoxiang Family Letters Activity Organization
In the context of the "Xiaoxiang Family Letters" activity carried out across the province, the organizing committee extensively collected family letters and selected 100 family letters to show the spirit of the people in the new era. The main content of the letter includes the gratifying changes in the fight against poverty in Sanxiang, the affectionate concern of the wandering children and the fathers and elders in the hometown, the home and country feelings of heroes and the most beautiful people, and the silent persistence of various industries in specific positions, and so on. The structure of each chapter of the book is divided into two parts: introduction (mainly including the information of the writer and recipient, refer to "Anti-epidemic") and the main text. The structure of the whole book includes the preface, table of contents, main text, and postscript. Further reading or content links. The structure is characterized by conciseness, conciseness and conciseness.
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Picture booksThe Lilac Girl
by Ibtisam Barakat (author), Sinan Hallak (illustrator)
Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat. The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac. As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.
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Geography & the EnvironmentJune 2020New Land, New Life
A success story of new land resettlement in Bangladesh
by Andrew Jenkins, Natasha Haider, Bazlul Karim, Mihir Kumar Chakraborty, Kiran Sankar Sarker, Rezaul Karim, Robiul Islam, Nujulee Begum, Edward Mallorie, Koen de Wilde
The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta has newly emerged 'char' islands, resulting from the deposition of sediment, which are very vulnerable, socially, institutionally and environmentally. This book explains how the governments of Bangladesh and the Netherlands and the International Fund for Agricultural Development cooperated on a land-based rural development project to give settlers security and purpose. It details how they engaged communities and civil societies, and implemented an infrastructure aimed at reducing flooding, improving drainage, and providing adequate drinking water and sanitation. The book describes the project's application to crop and animal agriculture, and the development of value chains and encouragement of female participation. It considers the financial underpinning and infrastructure, as well as how to ensure the impacts of the scheme are enduring. The scheme serves as a model for support projects to vulnerable groups faced with climate change and other environmental challenges. This book is suitable for students, researchers, specialists and practitioners in rural development, water resources, land management and soil science.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2021Ukrainian Worlds of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Stories about History
by Natalya Starchenko
The vision of the Ukrainian history dominant in the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union focused exclusively on the heroic Cossacks and disenfranchised peasants. There was no room in it for the local elites: the Ukrainian aristocracy (szlachta) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As the result of this biased perspective, Ukrainians to this day know very little about the life of those people. This book invites the readers to take a closer look at the Ukrainian aristocracy. This introduction is done in a somewhat unusual form, through true anecdotes from the life of aristocracy gleaned from court records and other sources from the time. We get glimpses of the elites not only in their best garbs but also in their well-worn home clothes. The book brings together 105 brief chapters that describe how these people saw themselves, how they fought and made peace, how they fell in love and got married, how unwavering they were in the defense of their rights in court. Last not least, these essays explore whether the Ukrainian elites were mere extras and viewers in history or its active makers, resolute and strong in their insistence on defending and expanding their rights and freedoms.
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January 2011The Administration of Criminal Justice in Palestine.
Development, Reform and Challenges.
by Abdelbaqi, Mustafa
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September 2021Zhangjiajie·"The Country Is So Beautiful"
by Zhangjiajie·"The Country Is So Beautiful" Editorial Board
Zhangjiajie·"The Country Is So Beautiful" is a work organized and compiled by the Propaganda Department of the Zhangjiajie Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. "Extension" consists of 4 chapters. With a lot of little-known details, interesting stories and grand perspectives, the work restores the filming process and the national hit effect of "The Country Is So Beautiful" for readers. At the same time, through a large number of incisive reviews, multi-dimensional and multi-perspective Presents all aspects of this film and television drama.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2021Cossack State as an Idea in the System of Socio-political Thinking of the XVI-XVIII Centuries. In two books
by Valeriy Shevchuk
The publication describes the entire era of Ukrainian statehood, namely, the foundation principles, formation and the fall of the Cossack state. The author describes in detail the foundation milestones, the complexities and challenges of the state-building process, attempts to preserve the Ukrainian statehood, the struggle of the last hetmans (presidents) Pylyp Orlyk, Ivan Skoropadskyi, and Pavlo Polubotko to protect of the Cossack state from ruin. The author builds his reflections on the analysis of Cossack laws, hetman documents and literary sources - exquisite examples of poetry and art of writing. The work is supplemented with rare illustrative materials.
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Children's & young adult: general non-fiction2021A Cool History of UkraineFrom Dinosaurs Till Now
by Inna Kovalyshena
Do you really think that history is boring and hard to under- stand? The heroes of this book thought so, too, at first. But just one interesting discovery pushed them to get to know history better — and to see that it can be fascinating, vibrant and so close to each of them. Four friends decide to explore the Ukrainian history and learn the truth: what kind of dino- saurs lived on our lands, who fought for Ukraine’s independ- ence, and why Ukrainians are the way they are. It turns out that history can be exciting and very important, even if it was back in the days of the dinosaurs. The subject of the book is the history of Ukraine from dinosaurs to today, which is interestingly and directly revealed. The main characters are children, in whom readers can recognize themselves. The text is written with humor and simple words, which makes the perception of information interactive. The book touches on important points of Ukraine's struggle for independence over many years.
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December 2015Gift of the Dark Mother Earth
by Can Xue
Gift of the Dark Mother Earth, the latest novel by Can Xue, is a profound metaphor of her hometown. It follows her usual magical style in the sense that it vividly unfolds the complex and delicate inner world of the characters. The story takes place in the remote Wuliqu School, with such distinctive characters as Teacher Meiyong, Zhang Danzhi, Yutian, Xiao Man, Uncle Yun and Sha Men presented one after another. The personality and human nature exposed through unique dialogues enable the readers to feel a return to simplicity so that they want to explore human soul and nature and start in-depth reading and thinking. The book depicts petty matters in a great age. The author’s ambition is to create a feeling for the pattern of the whole universe through the structure of an ordinary tree leaf, and to unify the arbitrarily split world through the narration of various folk sundries so that different characters can all become the center of this unity and their performance can have a universality. As the only Chinese writer who has won the Best Translated Book Award in the United States, Can Xue was nominated for the foreign novel prize of The Independent of the UK and shortlisted in the Neustadt International Prize for Literature of the US. As the Chinese woman writer, whose works have been translated and published the most abroad, Can Xue has been called the most creative Chinese writer by overseas critics.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2014History of Ukraine from KGB Secret Files
by Volodymyr Viatrovych
The unknown and classified KGB history of the largest country in Europe - Ukraine is the history of people, events, documents and files. The files have answers to many questions. The most important of which - why did a war begin again in Europe? Why is it so important for Russia to conquer Ukraine? Why are Ukrainians putting up such a powerful resistance? Historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, who declassified the secret archives of the Soviet special services from the Cheka to the KGB, talks about the history of Ukraine, the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1918 to 1991. The reader, is offered, along with various heroes and traitors, those who thought they were in control of events, and those who thought they had no power over them, to recreate the nearly century-old chess game between the Ukrainian liberation movement and the creators of the "prison of nations." Described in reports and recreated by a historian, this work looks at the cunning “special operations”, deadly moves, information wars and complex games among several players that are all an attempt to find an answer to the question: what creates our destiny - human will or circumstances?
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The environmentMay 1997Phosphorus Loss from Soil to Water
by Edited by H Tunney, P C Brookes, A E Johnston
Phosphorus is an essential element for plant growth and its input has long been recognised as necessary to maintain profitable crop production. However, phosphorus inputs can also increase the biological activity of surface waters and this can lead to the destruction of such aquatic ecosystems. Advanced eutrophication of surface water leads to problems with its use for fisheries, recreation, industry and drinking, due to the increased growth of undesirable algae and aquatic weeds, and oxygen shortages caused by their death and decomposition. It is therefore important to have a good understanding of the causes and mode of phosphorus loss from soil to water, to enable the problems to be controlled and managed. This book has been developed from an international workshop held in Ireland in late 1995. It is the first comprehensive consideration of the topic, and many leading researchers in the area have contributed to it. It is essential reading for all soil scientists and freshwater biologists, as well as for environmentalists, ecologists and agriculturalists concerned with sustainable land management and pollution. The book is also recommended to fisheries managers, fertilizer manufacturers and biologists working for water utilities.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2021Skoropadsky and Crimea. From confrontation to connection
by Serhii Hromenko
This book tells how the Ukrainian state and the international community at the end of the First World War were responding to Crimea issue.
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