An Intimate War tells the story of the last thirty-four years of conflict in Helmand Province, Afghanistan as seen through the eyes of the Helmandis. In the West, this period is often defined through different lenses
- the Soviet intervention, the civil war, the Taliban, & the post-2001 nation-building era. Yet, as experienced by local inhabitants, the Helmand conflict is a perennial one, involving the same individuals, families & groups, & driven by the same arguments over l&, water & power. This book
- based on both military & research experience in Helmand & 150 interviews in Pashto
- offers a very different view of Helmand from those in the media. It demonstrates how outsiders have most often misunderstood the ongoing struggle in Helmand & how, in doing so, they have exacerbated the conflict, perpetuated it & made it more violent
- precisely the opposite of what was intended when their interventions were launched. Mike Martin`s oral history of Helmand underscores the absolute imperative of understanding the highly local, personal, & non-ideological nature of internal conflict in much of the `third` world.



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This introductory textbook has been designed by a team of experts for elementary university courses in astronomy & astrophysics. It starts with a detailed discussion of the structure & history of our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, & goes on to give a general introduction to normal & active galaxies including models for their formation & evolution. The second part of the book provides an overview of the wide range of cosmological models & discusses the Big Bang & the expansion of the Universe. Written in an accessible style that avoids complex mathematics, & illustrated in colour throughout, this book is suitable for self-study & will appeal to amateur astronomers as well as undergraduate students. It contains numerous helpful learning features such as boxed summaries, student exercises with full solutions, & a glossary of terms. The book is also supported by a website hosting further teaching materials. ...

RYA Introduction to Radar follows the syllabus of the RYA One Day Radar Course & is also a very handy reference for all who use marine radar sets. The RYA is the governing body representing sailing, windsurfing, motor boating, power boat racing & personal watercraft, at sea & on inland waters. It works for the good of all who enjoy these activities, campaigning for their interests at local, regional, national, European & world level. ...

Combining thematic with country-by-country analysis, this new book gives an overview of Middle Eastern history, religion, political economy & politics. Providing an accessible introduction to the politics of the Middle East, including the countries of the Persian Gulf, the eastern Mediterranean & North Africa, this text combines essential themes in the discipline of comparative politics with a country-by-country analysis of the Modern Middle East. While emphasizing politics, separate chapters also specifically address the history, religions & political economy of the region. Those introductory chapters together constitute a thematic overview essential to orienting students as they read each of the book's individual country chapters (including a chapter devoted to Palestine). In each country chapter, a brief political history is followed by discussions of democratization, religious politics, women's issues, civil society, economic development, privatization & foreign relations. Throughout the book, short vignettes based on the author's personal observations during his extensive travels in the Middle East offer students a chance for personal reflection on the topics discussed in each chapter. Each chapter concludes with a set of Suggested Readings, & terms are defined in a glossary. ...

Compiled by a team of experts, this textbook has been designed for introductory university courses in planetary science. It starts with a tour of the Solar System & an overview of its formation. The composition, internal structure, surface morphology & atmospheres of the terrestrial planets are then described. This leads naturally to a discussion of the giant planets & why they are compositionally different. Minor bodies are reviewed & the book concludes with a discussion of the origin of the Solar System & the evidence from meteorites. Written in an accessible style that avoids complex mathematics, & illustrated in colour throughout, this book is suitable for self-study & will appeal to amateur enthusiasts as well as undergraduate students. It contains numerous helpful learning features such as boxed summaries, student exercises with full solutions, & a glossary of terms. The book is also supported by a website hosting further teaching materials. ...

A young Iraqi writer sets out to become a Hollywood film-maker, only to end up as a refugee on the streets of Paris, where he beds down in a metro station. Although his dream of making a film about his deaf mute father is never realised, the extraordinary encounters he has with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Beckett & a ghost from Pere Lachaise Cemetery transform his own story into a captivating drama more compelling than anything on the big screen. ...

World War II reached into the homes & lives of ordinary people in an unprecedented way. Civilian men, women, & children made up the vast majority of those killed by the war, & the conflict displaced millions more. On Europe`s home fronts, the war brought the German blitzkrieg, followed by long occupations & the racial genocide of the Holocaust. In An Iron Wind, historian Peter Fritzsche draws on diaries, letters, & other first-person accounts to show how civilians in occupied Europe struggled to understand this terrifying chaos. As the Third Reich targeted Europe`s Jews for deportation & death, confusion & mistrust reigned. What were Hitler`s aims? Did Germany`s rapid early victories mark the start of an enduring new era? Was collaboration or resistance the wisest response to occupation? How far should solidarity & empathy extend? & where was God? People tried desperately to answer such questions & make sense of the horrors around them, but the stories they told themselves often justified a selfish indifference to their neighbors` fates. Piecing together the broken words of World War II`s witnesses & victims--probing what they saw & what they failed to see--Fritzsche offers a haunting picture of the most violent conflict in modern history. ...

Scattered in a crescent in the sparkling waters of the Aegean, the islands of the Sporades are known to Greek fishermen as `the gates of the wind`. It was to this unspoilt archipelago that Michael Carroll sailed Astarte, a boat of sleek mahogany with wine-red sails, named after the Phoenician goddess of the moon & the sea. But his dream of travelling where the wind took him, rootless & free, changed when he landed on Skopelos. There, a chance meeting with the charismatic Vangeli led to him buying a piece of land on a remote cove, once the site of an ancient city & the perfect harbour for Astarte. So unfolds the story of Carroll`s growing attachment to Skopelos as he sets down roots & makes it his home. Engaging & vividly-described, ” An Island in Greece” is a sun-drenched tale of a life full of simple pleasures, governed by the seasons, the tides & the wind; the story of a traveller who finally arrived & a unique homage to the island that harboured him. ...

In this book Geert Mak returns to the small Frisian village of his childhood, Jorwert (pop. 330 & falling). It`s a typical European village where the shops are closing down, the few children left will escape to a less arduous life in the city & it`s becoming increasingly isolated. Jowert has more in common with an English village than with Amsterdam, & it`s moving story of neighbours & their efforts to preserve their long established way of life is relevant to the changing face of the countryside everywhere in Europe. ...

In An Island Odyssey, Hamish Haswell-Smith casts off in his forty-one-foot sloop Jandara, armed with his sketch pad & a route map of a journey first taken by Martin Martin in 1703. Haswell-Smith sets sail on a voyage that will take him to fifty-two different islands around the Scottish Coast, from Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde to St. Kilda, Fair Isle & Bass Rock. Filled with natural history, local legend & landscapes & accompanied by the author`s own distinctive sketches & watercolours An Island Odyssey is a delightful way to discover or rediscover the romance, beauty & inescapable magnetism of the Scottish Islands. ...