Part two of the Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies contains 34 papers in English, French and German, arranged thematically in five sections. The first, Linguistic studies, ranges from the New Persian names in the Shahnama to the use of the particle in modern Tajik. Nine papers grouped under the heading Literary studies deal not only with classical Persian poetry, but also with modern prose literature and the oral traditions of the Bakhtiyari and of Baluchistan and Badakhshan. A similar chronological and topical spread is found in the section on Religion and religious literature, with investigations of mediaeval and modern biographical works, a study of documents connected with the Passion of Husayn, and papers on sufi literature. The section on history covers a range of topics from the Mongol period to the 1950s and events in Central Asia and Afghanistan as well as Iran. Finally, four attractively illustrated articles on Ottoman and Persian miniatures, painting in Central Asia, Kubachi-ware and the decorations on the Haydariyya mosque in Qazvin round off a varied and stumulating set of contributions, which highlight the richness and diversity of Persian culture in the mediaeval and modern period. The volume also testifies to the vigour of Persian studies in Europe, which the Societas Iranologica Europaea has assisted to promote through its four-yearly conferences. There is something in this volume to attract all students of Persian civilisation.

Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies" edited by Maria Macuch, Dieter Weber, and Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst is the first part of the "Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies" organized by the Societas Iranologica Europaea held in Vienna on the 18th-22nd of September 2007. It includes twenty-two papers on Ancient and Middle Iranian topics presented at the Conference, covering different linguistic areas such as Avestan, Old and Middle Persian, Sogdian and Bactrian. Within the linguistic context, the articles deal with archeological and historical aspects of south-western and north-eastern Iran, religious and legal topics as well as anthroponymic evidence from various periods.

The 3rd European Conference of Iranian Studies, at which more than 130 papers were presented, was held in Cambridge in 1995. A selection of the best contributions will be published in two volumes, of which the second will be concerned with Iranian culture in the Islamic period. This first volume, which is illustrated with 17 plates, contains 18 important and thought-provoking papers - 15 in English and 3 in French - on Old and Middle Iranian. The papers, grouped thematically under the headings "Religions and Culture of ancient Iran" and "Texts and languages", cover a diversity of themes relating to Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Mithraism; Sasanian history, glyptic and numismatics; and Iranian philology, linguistics, and dialectology.

The Program in Indo-European Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, sponsors an Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. The Conference welcomes participation by linguists, philologists, and others engaged in all aspects of Indo-European studies. These Proceedings include papers presented at the Thirty-Second Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, held in an online format.

Setting out the historical national and religious characteristics of the Italians as they impact on the integration within the European Union, this study makes note of the two characteristics that have an adverse effect on Italian national identity: cleavages between north and south and the dominant role of family. It discusses how for Italians family loyalty is stronger than any other allegiance, including feelings towards their country, their nation, or the EU. Due to such subnational allegiances and values, this book notes that Italian civic society is weaker and engagement at the grass roots is less robust than one finds in other democracies, leaving politics in Italy largely in the hands of political parties. The work concludes by noting that EU membership, however, provides no magic bullet for Italy: it cannot change internal cleavages, the Italian worldview, and family values or the country’s mafia-dominated power matrix, and as a result, the underlying absence of fidelity to a shared polity—Italian or European—leave the country as ungovernable as ever.