This volume is a collection of contributions about the history and practice of travel and travel writing from a variety of academic disciplines including anthropology, history, linguistics and literary criticism. It brings together scholars from over ten different countries and reflects on what travel is and how travel writings function. It traces the history of travel and travel writing and the notion or idea of a European civilisation that permeates performances and perceptions. The notion of Europe appears as a set of quality standards as well as guidelines for experiences against which civilisations are measured. This set of standards and guidelines, however, is far from stable. It is a floating foundation carrying different versions of Europe throughout time. The authors tackle the problem from different angles: travels from Europe across the seven oceans transported the idea of European civilisation just as travels to Europe or within Europe. The volume explores the different meanings attached to the term 'Europe' and 'civilisation' throughout history and shows how different political or cultural contexts affect the notion of what Europe is or should be.

Today's unprecedented pace of change leaves many people wondering what new technologies are doing to our lives. Has social media robbed us of our privacy and fed us with false information? Are the decisions about our health, security and finances made by computer programs inexplicable and biased? Will these algorithms become so complex that we can no longer control them? Are robots going to take our jobs? Can we provide housing for our ever-growing urban populations? And has our demand for energy driven the Earth's climate to the edge of catastrophe?John Browne argues that we need not and must not put the brakes on technological advance. Civilization is founded on engineering innovation; all progress stems from the human urge to make things and to shape the world around us, resulting in greater freedom, health and wealth for all. Drawing on history, his own experiences and conversations with many of today's great innovators, he uncovers the basis for all progress and its consequences, both good and bad. He argues compellingly that the same spark that triggers each innovation can be used to counter its negative consequences. Make, Think, Imagine provides an eloquent blueprint for how we can keep moving towards a brighter future.

Why do people go to war? Is it rooted in human nature or is it a late cultural invention? And what of war today: is it a declining phenomenon or simply changing its shape? This book sets out to find definitive answers to these questions in an attempt to unravel the riddle of war throughout human history.

The Maastricht Treaty in 1992 was based on neoliberal ideas of a market-driven European economy and democracy, and continues to be seen as a step towards a new stage of unification: towards a more federal Europe based on market integration. The authors demonstrate that European integration as a federal project actually came to an end around 1970. The European Economic Community (EEC) - the precursor of EU - was never thought of as a democracy. The authors locate a shift in thinking about legitimacy and further integration in the 1980s when the idea of a European democracy was connected with a plan for the internal market: the market would pave the way for democracy. Since then, there has been a growing tension between the official line about a democratic EU and the institutional capacity to carry it through. This tension undermined integration. The book suggests that, instead of democracy-through-market, there are signs of increasing social disintegration, political extremism and populism in the wake of economic integration. Providing a more realistic historical understanding of European integration, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, history and European studies.

Translation of award-winning study of the development of German nationalism in a global context.

The book edited by four known specialists of European history presents for the first time a discussion among European historians on the European public sphere since the 1950s. It treats the general perspective and deals also in special articles with the role played by the European Union, by the Council of Europe, and by national media such as television and film. The volume shows that the role of the European public sphere is often underestimated and that it is gradually becoming more influential and forceful not only in politics, but also in culture. Sous la direction de quatre spécialistes renommés de l'histoire européenne, cet ouvrage présente de façon inédite un débat entre historiens de l'Europe sur l'espace public européen et son évolution depuis les années 1950. La question est abordée dans son ensemble, mais certaines contributions traitent aussi plus spécifiquement du rôle joué par l'Union européenne, par le Conseil de l'Europe, et par les médias nationaux, comme la télévision et le cinéma. Ce volume montre que l'on a souvent sous-estimé l'espace public européen, alors que son influence est de plus en plus importante, tant au niveau politique que culturel.

Bernadette Andrea’s groundbreaking study recovers and reinterprets the lives of women from the Islamic world who travelled, with varying degrees of volition, as slaves, captives, or trailing wives to Scotland and England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Andrea’s thorough and insightful analysis of historical documents, visual records, and literary works focuses on five extraordinary women: Elen More and Lucy Negro, both from Islamic West Africa; Ipolita the Tartarian, a girl acquired from Islamic Central Asia; Teresa Sampsonia, a Circassian from the Safavid Empire; and Mariam Khanim, an Armenian from the Mughal Empire. By analysing these women’s lives and their impact on the literary and cultural life of proto-colonial England, Andrea reveals that they are simultaneously significant constituents of the emerging Anglo-centric discourse of empire and cultural agents in their own right. The Lives of Girls and Women from the Islamic World in Early Modern British Literature and Culture advances a methodology based on microhistory, cross-cultural feminist studies, and postcolonial approaches to the early modern period.

In Religion, Technology, and the Great and Little Divergences Karel Davids analyses the influence of religious contexts on technological change in China and Europe between c.700 and 1800.

From the postcolonial perspective of the early twenty-first century, the importance of travel literature, for considerations of national and international cultures and identities, has become increasingly apparent. Travel literature in French has, however, received little critical scrutiny. This book contributes to contemporary reassessments of the form in a number of disciplines, focusing specifically on the discourses and contexts of travel in twentieth-century texts written in French. Its scope is interdisciplinary, involving theoretical and generic considerations as well as a historical overview of colonial and postcolonial texts. The book provides essential reading for all students of travel literature in French - and of travel literature in general.

The Cold War is often viewed in absolutist terminology: the United States and the Soviet Union characterized one another in oppositional rhetoric and pejorative propaganda. State-sanctioned communications stressed the inherent dissimilarity between their own citizens and those of their Cold War foe. Such rhetoric exacerbated geopolitical tensions and heightened Cold War paranoia, most notably during the Red Scare and brinkmanship incidents. Government leaders stressed the reactive defensive foreign policies they implemented to retaliate against their counterparts’ offensive maneuvers. Only brief periods of détente gave glimpses into the possibility of concerted peaceful coexistence. Yet such characterizations neglect the complexities and rhetorical nuances that created fissures throughout the long-standing ideological conflict. Grassroots diplomacy rarely coalesced with official governmental rhetoric and often contradicted the discourse emanating from the White House and the Kremlin. Organizations such as Women Strike for Peace (WSP), the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), and the Moscow Trust Group (MTG) defied policy directives and sought to establish genuine peaceful coexistence. Traveling citizens posited that U.S. and Soviet citizens possessed more underlying commonalities than their governmental leaders cared to admit – phenomena underscored in events such as the San-Francisco-to-Moscow Walk for Peace. Spacebridge programs railed against the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and proclaimed that figurative and literal links between their country and the “Other” proved more conducive to public opinion than “Star Wars.” Iron Curtain Twitchers examines such juxtaposing rhetorics through three lexical themes: contamination, containment, and coexistence. It analyzes the disparate perspectives of public politicians and private citizens throughout the Cold War’s duration and its aftermath to better understand the political, cultural, and geopolitical nuances of U.S.-Russia relations. Vacillating rhetoric among politicians, journalists, and traveling citizens complicated geopolitical relationships, sociopolitical disagreements, and cultural characterizations. These dialogues are contrasted with the cultural mediums of film and political cartoons to underscore fluctuating Cold War identity dynamics. Manifestations of one’s own country contrasted with propagations of the “Other” and indicate that the Cold War lasted much longer and remains more virulent than previously conceived.