Benvenisti's youthful experiences are central to this book, and his story helps explain how an Arab landscape, both physical and human, was transformed into an Israeli, Jewish state.PBenvenisti discusses the process by which new Hebrew nomenclature replaced the Arabic names of more than 9,000 natural features, villages, and ruins in Eretz Israel/Palestine (his name for the Holy Land, thereby defining it as a land of Jews and Arabs). He then explains how the Arab landscape has been transformed through war, destruction, and expulsion into a flourishing Jewish homeland accommodating millions of immigrants. The resulting encounters between two peoples who claim the same land have raised great moral and political dilemmas, which Benvenisti presents with candor and impartiality.PBenvenisti points out that five hundred years after the Moors left Spain, sufficient landmarks remain to preserve the outlines of Muslim Spain. Even with sustained modern development, the ancient scale is still visible. Yet a Palestinian returning to his ancestral landscape after only fifty years would have difficulty identifying his home. Furthermore, Benvenisti says, the transformation of Arab cultural assets into Jewish holy sites has engendered a struggle over the signposts of memory essential to both peoples.PSacred Landscape raises some troublesome questions that most writers on the Middle East avoid. The now-buried Palestinian landscaperemains a symbol and a battle standard for Palestinians and Israelis. But it is Benvenisti's belief that Eretz Israel/Palestine has enough historical and physical space for the people of both nations and that it can one day be a shared homeland.  (less)

Greece to the present day. Pullman grounds his coverage of scientific theory always in the religious and philosophical context of the times, covering the whole period of Western civilization, including in passing the major scientific philosophies of the Muslim world and India. The transition of atomism from a philosophical position to an experimental science, in the mid-19th century, is well handled, and the coverage is nicely rounded out by a treatment of the first visual proof of atoms' material existence by direct microscopic imaging of individual atoms, about ten years ago.brPrefacebrPart I. The Birth of Atomic Theorybr1. The Backdrop: The Greek Miraclesbr2. The Foreground: Arche, the Primordial Substancebr3. The Atomists' Entry onto the Stagebr4. A Very Particular Atomist: Platobr5. The Antiatomistsbr6. Principles and Primordial Substancesbr7. Hindu AtomismbrPart II. A Few Scattered Revivals during a Prolonged Suspension (first to fifteenth century)br8. Early Medieval Christianity vis-a-vis the Atomsbr9. The Medieval Christian Atomistsbr10. Medieval Jewish Thought vis-a-vis the Atomsbr11. Arab AtomismbrPart III. From the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenmentbr12. The Resurgence of the Atomic Theory: Christian Atomismbr13. The Christian Antiatomistsbr14. Boscovitch, or Punctual Atomismbr15. Berkeley, or Atoms Dismissedbr16. Kant, an Atomist Turned Antiatomistbr17. The Rank and File of AtomistsbrPart IV. The Advent of Scientific Atomism: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuriesbr18. A Brief Overviewbr19. The Nineteenth Century: In Search of the Invisible and Indivisible Atombr20. The Twentieth Century: From an Invisible and Indivisible Atom to one that is Divisible and Visible@MÙ™™™™šÿ¾Û€  (less)

Finer, one of the leading political scientists of the twentieth century. Ranging over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state, five themes emerge: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types. Ancient Monarchies and Empires opens with Finer's masterly Conceptual Prologue, setting out the entire scope and structure of The History. Books One and Two then consider early examples of the predominantly `palace' type of polity, notably in respect of the Kingdoms of Egypt and the Empires of Assyria, Persia, Han China, and Rome; interspersed with consideration of the `exceptional' Jewish Kingdoms and the Greek and Roman Republics. Professor Finer's cogent descriptive analysis offers both an invaluable reference resource and an exhilarating journey across time and space.  (less)

of ancient Jewish inscriptions are highlighted in the papers, like the connection between documentary and literary texts. Several papers focus on aspects of the history of Jewish communities in the diaspora.Specialists in Jewish epigraphy will find surveys of parts of the corpus of Jewish inscriptions (curse inscriptions, metrical epitaphs, alphabet-inscriptions) and discussions of some fixed opinions, and Jewish inscriptions are discussed in a wider literary and historical contexts as well.CONTENTS: William Horbury, 'Jewish Inscriptions and Jewish Literature in Egypt, with Special Reference to Ecclesiasticus'.Jan Willem van Henten, 'A Jewish Epitaph in a Literary Text: 4 Macc 17:8-10'.Johan H.M. Strubbe, 'Curses Against Violation of the Grave in Jewish Epitaphs from Asia Minor'.Pieter W. van der Horst, 'Jewish Poetical Tomb Inscriptions'.Alice J. Bij de Vaate, 'Alphabet-Inscriptions from Jewish Graves'.David Noy, 'The Jewish Communities of Leontopolis and Venosa'.Gert L]deritz, 'What is the Politeuma?'Tessa Rajak, 'Inscription and Context: Reading the Jewish Catacombs of Rome'.Gerard Mussies, 'Jewish Personal Names in Some Non-Literary Sources'.Hanswulf Bloedhorn, 'Zur Architektur der Synagogen in der Diaspora'.  (less)

recent developments would appear to make a history of the Jewish people more difficult, the authors of The Jews: A History believe it has deepened and broadened our understanding.  Though the reader will find in The Jews many familiar names, in its pages will also be found a broader spectrum of people: mothers, children, workers, students, artists, and radicals whose perspectives greatly expands the story of Jewish life from ancient times to the present.  (less)