This book will sketch an outline of Southeast Asian history from earliest times to the present, showing how the diverse political, economic, social, and cultural patterns developed over several thousand years and the role played by the region in the larger world. Approximately one third will be devoted to the centuries before 1500 CE, when civilizations and kingdoms emerged and some Southeast Asians became active in Asian and Pacific maritime trade networks...

Even in Chicago, a city steeped in mob history and legend, the Family Secrets case was a true spectacle when it made it to court in 2007. A top mob boss, a reputed consigliere, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were accused in a total of eighteen gangland killings, revealing organized crime’s ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Painting a vivid picture of murder, courtroom drama, family loyalties and disloyalties, journalist Jeff Coen accurately portrays the Chicago Outfit’s cold-blooded--and sometimes incompetent--killers and their crimes in the case that brought them down...

When Laura Ingalls Wilder decided to write about her childhood on the American frontier, she had no idea that her books would become staples of children's literature. Wilder published her first book, "Little House in the Big Woods", at age 65. She went on to write seven more "Little House" books, finishing the last one when she was 76 years old. Born in 1867, Wilder realized that with the "Little House" books, she could capture a rich part of American history for posterity while sharing her personal memories with others. "Laura Ingalls Wilder" is a full-color biography that shows how these books continue to be treasured classics around the world. Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder will gain tremendous insight into the life and works of one of the most widely read authors of children's literature.

You know the stories, you love the characters, but do you know the story behind the writer? When Ann M. Martin was asked to write the first four Baby-sitters Club books in 1985, she had no way of knowing she was about to change the face of children’s publishing. Martin’s writing is influenced by a combination of her “pretty wonderful childhood”, her experience as a teacher, and her work in children’s publishing. Now, 20 years after the first Baby-sitters Club book was written, with over 300 books and a Newbery Honor book to her credit, Martin continues to write novels that not only find a place on best-sellers lists, but also in the hearts of readers. It is clear that Ann M. Martin is one of the most widely read and beloved children’s authors of all time. In a one-volume reference, Ann M. Martin details the life and real-life influences of this famous author, revealing the person behind the words, and the author behind the literature we love.

What if Merneptah's scribes were telling the truth when they claimed "Israel has been laid waste?" What if the exodus and conquest had really happened? What if we had no Assyrian account of Sennacherib's third campaign of the palace reliefs depicting his capture of Lachish? What if the Chronicler did use the Deuteronomistic History? What if Luke had never met Theophilus? What if Paul had travelled east rather than west? This is not fantasy of fiction. The 16 essays in this volume engage in serious scholarly enquiry into alternative historical scenarios and their potential consequences. The result is a trenchant demonstration of the ways historians set about working with the evidence in order to reconstruct the past.

This is the first up-to-date, and complete grammar of Egyptian Aramaic as presented in texts of Egyptian provenance dating from the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. and as edited by B. Porten and A. Yardeni in their Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt (Jerusalem, 1986). The grammar covers not only the phonology and morphology, but contains a substantial section on morphosyntax and syntax. It is a descriptive grammar enriched with the expert knowledge and familiary of one of the co-authors with the contents and background of the texts in question...

James Joyce: A Critical Guide presents a full and comprehensive account of the major writing of the great modernist novelist James Joyce. Ranging right across Joyce's literary corpus from his earliest artistic beginnings to his mature prose masterpieces Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, the book provides detailed textual analysis of each of his major works. It also provides an extended discussion of the biographical, historical, political and social contexts that inform Joyce's writing and a wide-ranging discussion of the multiple strands of Joyce criticism that have established themselves over the last eighty years...

Suitable for both on-level and reluctant readers. This book explores some of the world's most creative minds. Written in story format, it gives accounts of historical figures. Each true story is accompanied by b/w illustrations and an afterword.

Pascual de Gayangos (1809-1897), a celebrated Spanish Orientalist and polymath, is known for being the father of modern Spanish Arabic studies. Allowing Islamic Spain to speak with its own voice, Gayangos identified for the first time Spain's internal (as opposed to external) processes of establishing an "other." This collection, the first major study of Gayangos, marks the two hundredth anniversary of his birth and covers a wide range of subjects, including scholarship on the culture of Islamic and Christian Spain; history, literature, and art; conservation and preservation of a national heritage; formation of archives and collections; education; tourism...

Before you begin this book, I hope you will ask yourself what the word excellence means to you. I think it’s a question we should all ask, and keep asking as we grow older and change. Because the truest answer to it should never change. When you think of excellence, perhaps you think of success at work; or of becoming wealthy; or meeting the right person, getting married, and having a good family life.

This book describes and illustrates the arms and uniforms which were a familiar part of the Irish scene during the 1798 rebellion and its aftermath. Insurgents, the French, Regulars, Yeomanry, Militia, Fencibles, Artillery, etc - officers and men - are depicted in meticulously detailed full colour illustrations. Focusing on the turbulent period between 1796 and 1803, this book details the uniforms of soldiers and regiments fighting in Ireland. It includes twenty-six colour plates, each of which is accompanied by a detailed commentary.

In recent years, the rapidly growing field of community participation has promised to give people formerly excluded from decision making an influential voice about issues that affect their lives. Inclusive processes implemented in the United States and internationally have certainly given community members new opportunities to participate and be involved, but how effective are these processes in promoting the voice and influence of the people who have historically been excluded the most--the poorest, least educated, and most marginalized residents in communities? Of the various participants who have "a seat at the table," whose voices are influential, whose aren't, and why? This book summarizes how five community partnerships, working with a team of researchers, attempted to answer these critical questions...

Paul Bern, known throughout the movie business as "Hollywood's Father Confessor," earned a reputation for being a loyal and supportive friend and for becoming one of MGM's most respected and creative directors. After his death, though, he was said to have grown so depressed and despondent over his own apparent sexual inadequacies that he committed suicide, and he would be denounced for attempting to rape his new bride Jean Harlow...

Born a slave in Maryland, Frederick Douglass became one of the best orators and statesmen in America. He worked as a houseboy and a field hand, experiencing some of the harshest conditions of any slave. Although it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Douglass learned from neighborhood boys and paid them with food. Seven years after he escaped slavery and moved North, Douglass published the first of his three autobiographies, "Narrative of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave". Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and a representative and spokesperson for the rights of African Americans. He believed in equal rights for all people, whether black, white, woman, man, Native American, or recent immigrant. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation.

Martha Stewart's advocacy of homemaking has made her a household name synonymous with meticulous decorating and hostessing. A business owner, author, editor, and former stockbroker and fashion model, Stewart established a brand that has spawned numerous books, a national magazine, two popular daytime television programs, and lines of merchandise for national department stores. Though she served five months in prison in 2004 after being convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale, she bounced back to make an even bigger name for herself upon release. "Martha Stewart" illuminates the life of one of the most successful businesswomen of our time.