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        Geography & the Environment
        October 2019

        The Himalayan Soap Pod Tree (Gymnocladus assamicus)

        An Ecologically and Economically Important Tree on the Brink of Extinction

        by Baharul I Choudhury, Mohammed Latif Khan

        Extinction of species has alarmingly increased in recent decades due to anthropogenic activities, natural calamities and climate change. The life history, ecology and evolution of such species have often not been well studied. Gymnocladus assamicus is an archaic tree endemic to the Eastern Himalayan region of Northeast India. Locally known as 'Menangmanba-shi' by the Monpa tribe of Arunachal Pradesh (India), mature G. assamicus pods contain high saponin and are used traditionally for cleansing purposes and rituals. We rediscovered the species after more than 70 years from high altitude areas in the Himalayas through extensive field explorations and employing an ecological niche modeling approach. Our study revealed a very few actively reproducing mature G. assamicus trees surviving in unique microclimatic conditions. The species is classified as 'critically endangered' (IUCN red list). The book contains detailed information about G. assamicus and discusses its current distribution, population status, ethnobotanical uses and other ecological parameters. Major intrinsic and extrinsic factors that might be responsible for population decline are described. More importantly, we reported a very rare mating system known as 'androdioecy' in which male and hermaphrodite individuals co-exist in the natural population. Overall, the book highlights the story of a critically endangered tree species with a unique biological and socio-cultural importance and will serve as a case study and referencefor other similar species both locally and globally.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2022

        Jacopo da Varagine's Chronicle of the city of Genoa

        by C. E. Beneš

        This book offers the first English translation of the Chronicle of the city of Genoa by the thirteenth-century Dominican Jacopo da Varagine, an author best known for his monumental book of saints' lives, the Golden legend. Jacopo's Chronicle presents a coherent vision of Genoa's place in history, the cosmos and Creation as written by the city's own archbishop - mixing eyewitness accounts with scholarly research about the city's origins and didactic reflections on the proper conduct of public and private life. Accompanied by an extensive introduction, this complete translation provides a unique perspective on a dynamic medieval city-state from one of its most important officials, broadening the available literature in English on medieval Italian urban life.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2019

        Jacopo da Varagine's Chronicle of the city of Genoa

        by C. E. Beneš, Rosemary Horrox

        This book offers the first English translation of the Chronicle of the city of Genoa by the thirteenth-century Dominican Jacopo da Varagine, an author best known for his monumental book of saints' lives, the Golden legend. Jacopo's Chronicle presents a coherent vision of Genoa's place in history, the cosmos and Creation as written by the city's own archbishop - mixing eyewitness accounts with scholarly research about the city's origins and didactic reflections on the proper conduct of public and private life. Accompanied by an extensive introduction, this complete translation provides a unique perspective on a dynamic medieval city-state from one of its most important officials, broadening the available literature in English on medieval Italian urban life.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2020

        John Muir, Updated Edition

        by Natalie Goldstein

        From his early childhood in Dunbar, Scotland, through his wilderness wanderings in the American West, John Muir was always surrounded by natural beauty. Muir was able to use his love for nature to become a famed naturalist and advocate for wilderness preservation. His work and influence would lead to the establishment of Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Club, which began in 1892, making it the oldest environmental organization in the United States. Using Muir's own words, this eBook looks at the events that shaped his life and examines the development of his worldview, his love of nature, and his passion for preservation.

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2021

        Abschiede

        by Juan Carlos Onetti, Wilhelm Muster

        Ein etwa vierzigjähriger Mann, ehemaliger Basketballspieler, erscheint in einem Ort in der Sierra, in dem sich Tuberkulosekranke niederlassen und der zur Saison von Vergnügungssüchtigen aufgesucht wird. Er hält sich abseits, scheint sein Kranksein störrisch zu negieren. Einzig die Briefe, die regelmäßig kommen, offensichtlich von zwei verschiedenen Frauen, bringen ihn in die kleine Poststelle, dessen Inhaber die Geschichte erzählt. Als erst die eine, später die andere Frau im Ort erscheinen, richtet sich die skandalbereite Neugier des Erzählers und der Öffentlichkeit auf sie.So einfach das Geschehen in Abschiede zunächst erscheint, ist es von Anfang an von einer Ambivalenz grundiert, die der Erzähler der Geschichte gleichzeitig unterdrückt und hervorbringt.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2009

        Mexiko

        Ein Reisebegleiter

        by Andreas Drouve

        Andreas Drouve führt durch eine der abwechslungsreichsten Landschaften Lateinamerikas: vom mexikanischen Hochland mit der Hauptstadt geht es ins mondäne Acapulco, zu legendären Stätten der Azteken und Maya, auf die Halbinsel Yucatán, in die Regionen Chiapas und Baja California sowie in entlegene Regenwälder. Wir folgen dabei den Spuren bekannter Persönlichkeiten: Alexander von Humboldt, Frida Kahlo und Diego Rivera, Anna Seghers, James A. Michener, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Graham Greene. Wir nehmen die Fährte der Entdecker und Eroberer auf, lassen uns erschüttern von den Berichten des Hernán Cortés und Bartolomé de Las Casas, begleiten Egon Erwin Kisch bei seinen "Entdeckungen in Mexiko" und heben B. Travens "Schatz der Sierra Madre".

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        2019

        Frontier Identity: Odesa in 20th century

        by Yaroslav Polishchuk

        Flipping through the pages of the cultural history of Odesa in the 20th century, the author of the book analyses the frontier identity that developed in this peculiar city. In the first part of the book, the general processes that determined the cultural face of Odesa are analysed, in the second, portraits of prominent artists are presented - Volodymyr Zhabotynskyi, Petro Leshchenko, Mykhailo Zhuk, Boris Necherda, Boris Khersonskyi. Each of them in their own way embodied the image of the beach and sea city in its changing identity and constant charm. And if the above personalities are forgotten today, then we have a good opportunity to get to know and appreciate them more deeply, at the same time rethinking the phenomenon of Odesa in the 20th century.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        November 2021

        Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe

        by Laura Kalas, Laura Varnam, David Matthews, Anke Bernau, James Paz

        This innovative critical volume brings the study of Margery Kempe into the twenty-first century. Structured around four categories of 'encounter' - textual, internal, external and performative - the volume offers a capacious exploration of The Book of Margery Kempe, characterised by multiple complementary and dissonant approaches. It employs a multiplicity of scholarly and critical lenses, including the intertextual history of medieval women's literary culture, medical humanities, history of science, digital humanities, literary criticism, oral history, the global Middle Ages, archival research and creative re-imagining. Revealing several new discoveries about Margery Kempe and her Book in its global contexts, and offering multiple ways of reading the Book in the modern world, it will be an essential companion for years to come.

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        Biography & True Stories
        2017

        Open My Lips, O Lord

        by Yosyf Zisels, Izabella Khruslinska

        In conversations with the famous Polish journalist Iza Khruslinska, Yosyf Zisels talks about his life path, the struggle for human rights in the USSR, the restoration of Jewish communities in independent Ukraine, Ukrainian-Jewish relations, problems of recent history and modern politics.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        February 2024

        Sir Philip Sidney: The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

        The New Arcadia, Second Revised Edition

        by Victor Skretkowicz, Elisabeth Chaghafi, J. B. Lethbridge

        Shipwrecks, gory battle scenes, cross-dressing, toxic relationships, abduction, torture (psychological and physical), comical country bumpkins, and, of course, love and poetry -Sir Philip Sidney's witty pastoral romance The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia is the classic that has it all in terms of entertainment factors. Modern readers mostly know Arcadia in its complete 'old' version, but it is the New Arcadia (published in 1590) that was the most influential and most widely imitated literary text of the sixteenth century. While preserving the basic plot - a ruler attempts to escape an alarming oracle by moving his family to the countryside and engaging in shepherd-cosplay until the arrival of two foreign princes triggers a chain of events leading to the fulfilment of the oracle - this version adds further narrative strands and introduces ambitious revisions that showcase Sidney's stylistic brilliance as a prose writer.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 1998

        Che Guevara

        Biographie

        by Jorge G. Castañeda, Christiane Barckhausen-Canale, Sven Dörper, Ursula Gräfe, Udo Rennert

        Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, genannt „Che"", war bereits vor seinem Tod am 8. Oktober 1967 zur Legende geworden, zum Mythos, der Lebensgefühl und Ideologie einer ganzen Generation weltweit maßgeblich geprägt hat. Sein Porträt, auf Postern und T-Shirts gedruckt, war überall zu finden, ob in Versammlungsräumen von Studenten, auf den Straßen oder in den Zimmern der Jugendlichen. Die Biographie von Jorge G. Castañeda beschreibt umfassend und detailliert Che Guevaras Leben, von den bürgerlichen Anfängen in Argentinien bis zum Tod des Guerrillero in Bolivien. Castañedas Buch ist zugleich eine kenntnisreiche Darstellung der Zeitgeschichte Kubas und Lateinamerikas von Beginn der Aufstände in der Sierra Escambray bis zum bolivianischen Abenteuer. Castañeda untersucht die internationalen, weltpolitischen Verflechtungen der kubanischen Revolution und zeigt, wie die diplomatischen und militärischen Aktionen ihrer Protagonisten unser Jahrhundert veränderten. Das größte Symbol der Rebellion der sechziger Jahre steht noch heute, am Ende des Jahrtausends, auch in den Augen der nachfolgenden Jugend für Erneuerung, für die Möglichkeit eines „neuen Menschen“. Als einer der besten Kenner der Zeitgeschichte hat Jorge G. Castañeda zahlreiche unbekannte Quellen auswerten können, private und öffentliche Dokumente aus Lateinamerika und den USA, insbesondere die lange Zeit geheimgehaltenen Dokumente der CIA und des FBI, er hat aktuelle Berichte verarbeitet, eine Vielzahl von persönlichen Interviews mit noch lebenden Freunden und Mitkämpfern geführt. Drei Jahre hat Castañeda sich den Recherchen und der Niederschrift des Buches gewidmet, ist mehrmals nach Kuba gereist, nach Argentinien, Frankreich, Bolivien, nach Moskau, in die USA.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        2019

        The First Page of Winter

        by Iia Kiva

        "The First Page of Winter" is a collection of poetry by Iia Kiva, which includes poems composed from 2015 till 2019. The main theme is language and the inability to speak, the search for identity and historical memory, the understanding of great history and private stories inscribed in it, the war and traumatic experiences, about rooting and mapping. And in general - about a person in turbulent times and the search for words to understand what is happening, has happened and will happen. The poetry collection "The First Page of Winter", received a special award from the jury of the "ЛітАкцент-2019" (LitAccent-2019) literary award, and was included in the list of the best books of 2019 according to PEN Ukraine.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        2018

        Flowing ideologies. Ideas and politics in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries

        by Volodymyr Yermolenko

        "Flowing Ideologies" is a detailed and unexpected history of ideas in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The book is about how the concepts and metaphors born in the era of the French Revolution continued to live in the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century, how the concepts of going through death, the holy criminal, the victim-messiah, the renewing catastrophe feed the history of the last two centuries, inspiring ideological allies and antipodes. It is also a detailed and ruthless analysis of the main ideological monsters of our time: racism, communism, Nazism, fascism, and their mixtures. The book is written on the crossroad of different disciplines: philosophy, history of ideas, political science and history of literature.

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