Precious Legacy presents an insight into a rare and extraordinary collection of historic Jewish artefacts and artworks from 1587 to the 1940s. It celebrates the oldest continuous Jewish community in Europe which flourished at the crossroads of East and West in the country we know as the Czech Republic.

"The collection of the Czechoslovak State Jewish Museum in Prague is a unique respository of historic artifacts, artistic rarities, and cultural memories. These objects document the vitality and significance of Czech Jewry, which has flourished for a millennium at the crossroads of East and West and is the oldest continuous Jewish community in Europe. One hundred fifty-three local Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia were devastated during the Holocaust, and thus the Prague Museum bears eloquent testimony to a world virtually snuffed out just one generation ago. This book brings to American audiences their first glimpse of this extraordinary collection of Judaica in conjunction with an exhibition that is touring our nation's major museums under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The unparalleled size and scope of the Prague collection-- some 140,000 treasures in all-- derive from an ironic twist of fate. From 1942 to 1945, the Nazis confiscated Jewish possessions of artistic and historical value throughout Bohemia and Moravia, and while the Jews of these lands were deported to captivity and death, these artifacts were shipped to Prague. There the Nazis intended to establish a "museum to an extinct race," a pathological "research" and propaganda "institute" that would justify to the world the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." While nearly all of European Jewry vanished during the Holocaust, Prague was spared from wartime destruction, as was the collection of Judaica that by war's end filled eight historic Jewish sites and more than fifty warehouses throughout the city. Teams of distinguished scholars from the United States and Czechoslovakia participated in the research and writing of this text, which includes studies of the historic and religious legacy of Czech Jewry as well as a catalogue of the landmark exhibition "The Precious Legacy." The volume is magnificently designed, depicting beautiful textiles, oil paintings, glassware, porcelain, precious metals, printed books and illuminated manuscripts in 75 full-color and 150 black-and-white illustrations. These photographs and essays together bear witness to the continuity and beauty of Jewish culture, a tradition that sanctifies life and transcends tragedy and death" --Back cover.

Drawing on diverse perspectives, this collection of 12 essays and around 150 colour illustrations explores the history and mysteries of the “Coral Road” from the Mediterranean to Japan. From Italy, with its ancient traditions of deep-sea coral fishery, production and trade, the reader is transported to Tibet and India, where coral has long been revered as a Buddhist treasure and amulet. The focus then moves to Japan, with the book highlighting the vivid red coral “tree” of folklore and festivals and the lavish use of the exotic gemstone in the magnificent accessories and craftwork of the Edo Period (1603–1868), before tracing the history of Japanese coral fishery, trade and production in modern times. Inspired by an urgently perceived need to preserve the legacy of precious coral for future generations, this retrospective, yet forward-looking, book will appeal to a wide readership, from marine ecologists to economic, social, cultural and religious historians, as well as scholars of fashion and design.

In the middle of New York City lies a neighborhood where all secrets are valuable, all assets are liquid, and all deals are sealed with a blessing rather than a contract. Welcome to the diamond district. Ninety percent of all diamonds that enter America pass through these few blocks, but the inner workings of this mysterious world are known only to the people who inhabit it. In Precious Objects, twenty-six-year-old journalist Alicia Oltuski, the daughter and granddaughter of diamond dealers, seamlessly blends family narrative with literary reportage to reveal the fascinating secrets of the diamond industry and its madcap characters: an Elvis-impersonating dealer, a duo of diamond-detective brothers, and her own eccentric father. With insight and drama, Oltuski limns her family’s diamond-paved move from communist Siberia to a displaced persons camp in post–World War II Germany to New York’s diamond district, exploring the connections among Jews and the industry, the gem and its lore, and the exotic citizens of this secluded world. Entertaining and illuminating, Precious Objects offers an insider’s look at the history, business, and society behind one of the world’s most coveted natural resources, providing an unforgettable backstage pass to an extraordinary and timeless show.

The biggest question in the world of art and culture concerns the return of property taken without consent. Throughout history, conquerors or colonial masters have taken artefacts from subjugated peoples, who now want them returned from museums and private collections in Europe and the USA. The controversy rages on over the Elgin Marbles, and has been given immediacy by figures such as France's President Macron, who says he will order French museums to return hundreds of artworks acquired by force or fraud in Africa, and by British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has pledged that a Labour government would return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Elsewhere, there is a debate in Belgium about whether the Africa Museum, newly opened with 120,000 items acquired mainly by armed forces in the Congo, should close. Although there is an international convention dated 1970 that deals with the restoration of artefacts stolen since that time, there is no agreement on the rules of law or ethics which should govern the fate of objects forcefully or lawlessly acquired in previous centuries. Who Owns History? delves into the crucial debate over the Elgin Marbles, but also offers a system for the return of cultural property based on human rights law principles that are being developed by the courts. It is not a legal text, but rather an examination of how the past can be experienced by everyone, as well as by the people of the country of origin.

A History of the Literature of the U.S. South provides scholars with a dynamic and heterogeneous examination of southern writing from John Smith to Natasha Trethewey. Eschewing a master narrative limited to predictable authors and titles, the anthology adopts a variegated approach that emphasizes the cultural and political tensions crucial to the making of this regional literature. Certain chapters focus on major white writers (e.g., Thomas Jefferson, William Faulkner, the Agrarians, Cormac McCarthy), but a substantial portion of the work foregrounds the achievements of African American writers like Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, and Sarah Wright to address the multiracial and transnational dimensions of this literary formation. Theoretically informed and historically aware, the volume's contributors collectively demonstrate how southern literature constitutes an aesthetic, cultural and political field that richly repays examination from a variety of critical perspectives.