Robert Jones, you are placed with the charge of deceitfully misleading and abducting the child prince of Chandan Garh, adopting him using forged documents without the permission of his parents, and changing his religion. Under questioning you have admitted to these charges as well, and for this reason, I, Raghavendra Singh Jadoun, of the Jadoun line, with the authority of the king of Chandan Garh, declare you the perpetrator of treason, and for this crime, for the sake of swiftness of punishment, I sentence you to death. After saying this much I plunged the dagger into his chest. He fell cold after thrashing for some time." "Sir, if the kings of India held a temperament like yours, then Alhamdulillah, perhaps we would never have become slaves in the first place."

As the British watched their empire crumble and the United States became the dominant world power, many British films warned of the dangers posed by American culture. Americans were frequently portrayed as disconcertingly ambitious, reckless and irreverent. Yet the same films that depicted the U.S. as an agent of chaos also suggested Britons might do well to embrace American-style energy and egalitarianism. Movies like Love Actually, The Quatermass Xperiment, 28 Weeks Later, Local Hero and Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent have delved into the storied "special relationship" between the U.S. and U.K. These films and many more examined in this first book-length study of British movies about America, reveal much about British attitudes regarding power, gender, class, sexuality and emotion.

Get a sneak peek into the future of technology, finance, and the metaverse In The Web3 Era: NFTs, the Metaverse, Blockchain and the Future of the Decentralized Internet, renowned finance and technology expert David Shin connects pivotal moments from the history of human progress and global trade with current events that are shaping the world of tomorrow through a fascinating and insightful exploration of the long-term, next-level use cases of non-fungible tokens and digital assets, and their implications for industries that leverage these advancements. In the book, you’ll find discussions of the challenges and opportunities for institutions awaiting the arrival of the Web3 space; how old Western central powers are struggling to keep up with the digital currencies of the East; and why our voices will matter as consensus-driven tribes converge to form DAOs. You’ll also discover the potential of blockchain as a pivotal engine for driving the metaverse economy and transforming contemporary web infrastructure into a decentralized network of free trade and social interaction governed by users themselves. The author covers topics that include: The potential institution of a smart treasury in a digital economy The convergence of metaverse infrastructure with decentralized finance, creating a virtual world of open finance Use cases for government-backed digital tokens in a variety of industries, including education, healthcare, and banking Social interactions and commerce tied to Soulbound-identity, A.I. technology, archeological revelations, de-dollarization, and the rising Global South An essential and one-of-a-kind resource for business leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and finance professionals, The Web3 Era: NFTs, the Metaverse, Blockchain and the Future of the Decentralized Internet will also benefit technology enthusiasts, digital marketers, and digital transformation specialists who seek to gain invaluable insights into the future of technology and finance, as well as anyone who believes that we are in need of a new system of governance for a better tomorrow.

Camillo Ricchiardi can’t help treating foreign wars like swashbuckling adventures. If Winston Churchill wasn’t in chains, the young reporter may have penned a scathing article about his captor’s reckless sojourn with the Boers: underdog farmer-warriors fighting for their independence on African soil. Camillo, an Italian military maverick, seems unfettered in his ego-driven journey to become a household name—wreaking havoc behind enemy lines in what’s fast becoming Britain’s most embarrassing conflict of the nineteenth century. But Camillo’s luck can’t last forever. Britain is rewriting the rules of traditional warfare, and the Boers are becoming desperate to maintain their advantage. When tasked to assemble an elite legion of Italians skilled in bridge bombing and guerrilla tactics, Camillo puts his best hand forward. He only serves his bulletin-perusing audience—those seeking the weekly wish fulfilment they won’t forget in three lifetimes. Camillo must quell mutinies, bounty hunts and romantic desires in his thrilling quest to discover his physical and mental limits—at his persistent and ever-nearing peril.

The history of the struggles for control over Egypt's antiquities, and their repercussions, during a period of intense national ferment The sensational discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun’s tomb, close on the heels of Britain’s declaration of Egyptian independence, accelerated the growth in Egypt of both Egyptology as a formal discipline and of ‘pharaonism'—popular interest in ancient Egypt—as an inspiration in the struggle for full independence. Emphasizing the three decades from 1922 until Nasser’s revolution in 1952, this compelling follow-up to Whose Pharaohs? looks at the ways in which Egypt developed its own archaeologies—Islamic, Coptic, and Greco-Roman, as well as the more dominant ancient Egyptian. Each of these four archaeologies had given birth to, and grown up around, a major antiquities museum in Egypt. Later, Cairo, Alexandria, and Ain Shams universities joined in shaping these fields. Contesting Antiquity in Egypt brings all four disciplines, as well as the closely related history of tourism, together in a single engaging framework. Throughout this semi-colonial era, the British fought a prolonged rearguard action to retain control of the country while the French continued to dominate the Antiquities Service, as they had since 1858. Traditional accounts highlight the role of European and American archaeologists in discovering and interpreting Egypt’s long past. Donald Reid redresses the balance by also paying close attention to the lives and careers of often-neglected Egyptian specialists. He draws attention not only to the contests between westerners and Egyptians over the control of antiquities, but also to passionate debates among Egyptians themselves over pharaonism in relation to Islam and Arabism during a critical period of nascent nationalism. Drawing on rich archival and published sources, extensive interviews, and material objects ranging from statues and murals to photographs and postage stamps, this comprehensive study by one of the leading scholars in the field will make fascinating reading for scholars and students of Middle East history, archaeology, politics, and museum and heritage studies, as well as for the interested lay reader.

This wonderfully written book tells of the first Herculean expeditions to Antarctica, from astronomer Edmond Halley's 1699 voyage in the Paramore to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 excursion in the Eliza Scott, all in search of land, glory, fur, science, and profit. Life was harsh: crews had poor provisions and inadequate clothing, and scurvy was a constant threat. With unreliable--often homemade--charts, these intrepid explorers sailed in the stormy waters of the Southern Ocean below the Convergence, that sea frontier marking the boundary between the freezing Antarctic waters and the warmer sub-Antarctic seas. These men were the first to discover and exploit a new continent, which was not the verdant southern island they had imagined but an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack ice and icebergs: Antarctica.

Hilary Rouse-Amadi is a poet, teacher and academic. The format of this collection of poems reflects the interconnections between these aspects of her creativity. It was the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard who recently commented that our troubled times can overwhelm the writer, because there is simply too much to write about and respond to. On offer on these pages is poetry of ideas, narrative poetry, lyrical poetry, where the personal is also political and located in the wider context that is the public domain. Venture on a journey with the poet that references some thirty-five countries, acknowledging cultural differences but emphasising what we have in common. Local and global need not conflict, when we recognise, along with the late Jo Cox MP, that what we have in common is greater than that which divides us.

Begining with the 1921 attempt on the summit of Everest through to the disasters of the 1990s, this work features 30 white-knuckle accounts of climbing endeavour on the world's highest mountain, with all the tragedy and triumph of humankind's striving for the top of the world, by those who know the "Death Zone" best - the climbers of Everest themselves. Yet this is more than a cherry-picking of great true and exhilarating memoirs of Everest. Included are the history of the conquest of Everest, and all the natural and cruel beauty of Chomolungma "The Mother Goddess of the World".

A social anthropologist recounts his time living and working in the Middle East. In Left-Handed in the Islamic World, the author, a social anthropologist, shares stories of Arabs he met and lived with, covering a period from 1968 to 2012. Lawrence of Arabia serves as an inspiration for the journey. Throughout the book the author calls upon a significant amount of history to give a background and to contextualize the stories. The stories describe the social lives of Arabs in a variety of places, those living in an oasis village, others in a mid-sized city, and yet others in a major metropolis. Some of the places are conflict or post-conflict zones. One is in a state of war. The countries include Libya and Egypt for longer periods and many other Arab countries for shorter visits. In most of the stories, the Arabs are Muslims, though in some they are Christians. The book presents Islam in its many shapes and different contexts. At its “best,” Islam will be seen as lived by Libyan Desert oasis villagers in creating a harmonious, well-lived life. In other cases, Islam will be glimpsed in ways not so favorable, especially in the treatment of non-Muslim Arabs living in Islamic societies. The author touches on a few theories as to why conflict is endemic to the Middle East. But none of these theories accounts fully for the recent emergence of the egregious behavior of such self-acclaimed groups as the Islamic State or ISIS, who pervert the religion to achieve their renewed Caliphate prophesies. Being left-handed in a right-handed Islamic World was for the author a metaphor for some of the complexities of living in that World as a development anthropologist, and also when developing programs as an international development consultant for firms tied to USAID and the World Bank. Stories of success and folly of such programs in the Middle East are instructive for development practitioners. The larger context raises questions about the Middle East and its perennial involvement in conflict, including the Arab-Israeli situation and the place of ISIS and al-Quaeda. “Dr. Mason’s book is just plain fun to read. It is interesting, amusing, and informative, without being annoyingly dense, complicated or tedious. It is written in a voice that is human and recognizable, candid and friendly, rather than technical and scientific. It is refreshingly accessible to a broad audience, while being equally interesting for the academic, anthropologist or students of social science, international development, or Middle Eastern studies. The book has just the right mix of personal story, situational context, cultural and historical description to paint a realistic and holistic picture of life in seemingly exotic lands, made more familiar through this narrative. It does a good job of humanizing people who may well be very different from the reader.” —Adam Koons, PhD, Applied Anthropologist, Overseas Humanitarian Assistance