Originally published: Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2005. With new preface.

At the heart of American studies is the idea of America itself. Here, Buck looks at the religious significance of America by examining those religions that have attached some kind of spiritual meaning to America. The author explores how American Protestantism-and nine minority faiths-have projected America into the mainstream of world history by defining-and by redefining-America's world role. Surveying the religious myths and visions of America of ten religions, Buck shows how minority faiths have redefined America's sense of national purpose. This book invites serious reflection on what it means to be an American, particularly from a religious perspective. Religious myths of America are thought-orienting narratives that serve as vehicles of spiritual and social truths about the United States itself. Religious visions of America are action-oriented agendas that articulate the goals to which America should aspire and the role it should play in the community of nations. Buck examines the distinctive perspectives held by ten religious traditions that inform and expand on the notion of America, and its place in the world. He covers Native American, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Christian Identity, Black Muslim, Islamic, Buddhist, and Baha'i beliefs and invites serious reflection on what it means to be an American, particularly from a religious perspective.

Conspiracism, while not unique to the Middle East, is a salient feature of the political discourses of the region. This book discounts the common pathological explanation for conspiricism and instead investigates the political structures and dynamics that have created and shaped the phenomenon of conspiricism in the contemporary Middle East.

These essays examine Iran’s place in the world--its relations and cultural interactions with its immediate neighbors and with empires and superpowers from the beginning of the Safavid period in 1501 to the present day. The book provides important historical background on recent political and social developments in Iran and on its contemporary foreign relations. The topics explored include Iranian influence abroad on political organization, religion, literature, art, and diplomacy, as well as Iran's absorption of foreign influences in these areas. A special focus is the prevailing political culture of Iran throughout its early modern and contemporary periods. The authors combine approaches from history, political science, anthropology, international relations, and culturalstudies. Some essays address Iran’s interactions with various Arab and Turkic ethnicities in the region stretching from India to Egypt. Others examine its relations with the West during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, women's issues, culture inside Iran during the Islamic Republic, and the Shi`ite theocracy of Iran as compared with other Muslim states.

Reviews are an important aspect of scholarly discussion because they help filter out which works are relevant in the yearly flood of publications and are thus influential in determining how a work is received. The IBR, published again since 1971 as an interdisciplinary, international bibliography of reviews, it is a unique source of bibliographical information. The database contains entries on over 1.2 million book reviews of literature dealing primarily with the humanities and social sciences published in 6,820, mainly European scholarly journals. Reviews of more than 560,000 scholarly works are listed. The database increases every year by 60,000 entries. Every entry contains the following information: On the work reviewed: author, title On the review: reviewer, periodical (year, edition, page, ISSN), language, subject area (in German, English, Italian) Publisher, address of journal

Since the late 1980s, the rogue state concept has emerged as a central motive underlying US security policy and has been under intense debate by policy-makers and academics. This well-written dissertation breaks new ground in this discussion by approaching the rogue state concept from a moderate constructivist perspective. In addition to analyzing how US decision-makers have come to see a group of states as aggressive, risk-prone, or even irrational outsiders to the contemporary international system, Wolves in the Woods also devotes considerable attention to the threat perceptions of states that have been stigmatized with the rogue state label. Dissertation.

This textbook develops a new approach to religion and international relations that challenges realist, liberal and constructivist assumptions that religion has been excluded from politics in the West.

"... excellent example... significant contribution... an important interdisciplinary work... " -- Middle East Journal "... an important contribution to aspects of Iranian social communication and interpersonal verbal behavior." -- Language By showing the reader the intricacies of face-to-face sociolinguistic interaction, William Beeman provides a key to understanding Iranian social and political life. Beeman's study in cross-cultural linguistics will clearly be a model for the study of different languages and cultures.