Book Description
"[A] fascinating tale of a man forced . . . to live between incompatible worlds. Highly recommended." --Library Journal
Al-Hasan al-Wazzan—born in Granada to a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco—became famous as the great Renaissance writer Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the pope; when he was released and baptized, he lived a European life of scholarship as the Christian writer Giovanni Leone; by 1527, it is likely that he returned to North Africa and to the language, culture, and faith in which he had been raised. Natalie Zemon Davis offers a virtuoso study of the fragmentary, partial, and often contradictory traces that al-Hasan al-Wazzan left behind him, and a superb interpretation of his extraordinary life and work.
Customer Reviews:
ok for what it is.......2007-03-02
This book isn't really history or biography for that matter. Its an in-between kind of book that wants to imagine a past into existance based on speculation rather than evidence or fact. The factual details of the life of Leo Africanus would make a chapter. And even the facts we do have about his life are colored by a particular point of view which has to be questioned.
Natalie Davis does her best based on all sorts of other material to imagine a public and private life for the man. As speculative fiction, it works. The only problem being that ignorant readers will begin to take this book as if were fact rather than a created story. The fault I find is that the book doesn't draw enough distinction about what is being imagined versus the actual facts of his life.
The book is very good, but its not history or biography and should not be read as history or biography.
Fascinating Man, Boring Book.......2007-01-21
To read a really excellent book about Leo The African, I recommend the far superior "Leo Africanus" by Amin Maalouf, a winner of several literary awards and an amazing book.
Did you really buy this book?.......2006-06-26
One star, there being no zero. While the wish to explore the subject is understandable, the outcome is confusing and boring. Read it if you want to find out how an interesting subject can become dull.
The charged politics and turmoil of his life and times brings history to life.......2006-06-23
TRICKSTER TRAVELS: A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MUSLIM BETWEEN WORLDS could also have been featured in our 'travel' section for its fascinating travelogue entries; but is reviewed here for its value to any studying 1500s history. Al-Wazzan trveled widely as an ambassador and merchant throughout Africa in the early 1500s, was captured by Spanish pirates and presented to Pope Leo X, where he converted to Christianity while explaining Islam to his puzzled audience. The charged politics and turmoil of his life and times brings history to life, with history professor Davis using manuscripts of the times - including some previously unknown - to explore fully al-Wazzan's image and importance. Unfamiliar with his name? Try 'Leo Africanus', author of the first geography of Africa.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Fascinating but Frustrating.......2006-05-01
This book does its best to wipe the cobwebs off the figure generally known in the West as Leo Africanus, a man raised in Fez by a family displaced from Muslim Spain during the Christian conquest, who travels widely as a diplomat through Africa, and then is brought to Rome as a captive where he authors a number of fascinating books, including a book on Africa and his African travels. This is a meticulously researched book, replete with voluminous footnotes full of both detail and inciteful asides.
However, the book is doomed to fail in its central project from the outset: even after the author's diligent research and careful writing, Leo Africanus remains hidden behind the folds of cleo's gown. The underlying documentation of his life is simply too sparse. Too much of "Trickster" is too speculative. Too little of the book relies on quotations of the subject's own words. Too many threads are started but then reluctantly abandoned by Zemon-Davis because of unavailable or incomplete sources. Most of what survives today of Leo Africanus is simply his work, his books written in Rome, and getting beyond the work to the man himself may simply be beyond the ability of any historian.
However, Zemon-Davis is crystal clear throughout the book as to where she is speculating or supposing and where she has evidence, and what her evidence is, and she does incorporate a number of useful quotations. Every sentance of this book is the work of a truly diligent professional historian.
While failing in its central project, the book succeeds in helping us to visualize and understand key elements of the age, and Zemon-Davis does a great job (particuarly in those wonderful footnotes) of bringing to life both the life of an Andalusian family in Fez and the life of intellectual circles in 16th century Rome. Reading the book, I was struck on page after page with interesting thoughts and questions; the book truly sparked my curiosity. What of all those differing translations of Leo Africanus' work? What might they say about the societies in which they were written? What of all that poetry referenced by Leo Africanus? How did that Arabic poetic sensibility influence the Christian regions it touched? And What of those African civilizations he visited?
I am left wondering if this very good book Zemon-Davis has written might have been a truly great book if its focus shifted just slightly from this fascinating but inscrutable man, perhaps acknowledging and acceding to the limitations of the existing research material. Her title refers to "a sixteenth-century muslim between worlds", but it is the two worlds more than the subject himself that she best elucidates.
And so, despite its flaws, reading this book has been a pleasure, and I can recommend the book to others very highly, though I still suspect that had the author conceived the work as more of a history and less of biography, it just might have been a classic on the same scale as her "Return of Martin Guerre." And so I withhold the fifth star, and give this one a very solid four stars.
Book Description
This book allows readers unfamiliar with the international political economy to go from 0 to 60 mph: it is a comprehensive yet reader-friendly exploration of the theoretical perspectives of IPE, an investigation of security, trade, finance, and knowledge, and a discussion of current global issues. Sound organization and a wealth of current and historical examples and case studies allow readers to develop an understanding and an appreciation of the relevance of IPE in their daily lives.
With much broader coverage than any other book of its kind on the market, Introduction to International Political Economy discusses the historical aspects of the subject; international finance; the global security structure; knowledge and technology; state-market tensions; North and South; the human connection; transnational corporations; and global problems.
An excellent read and reference resource for anyone interested or involved in politics, international relations, and economics.
Customer Reviews:
Understanding the way things work........2002-06-18
I read this book during my course of IPE while studying an MBA. These book will really help students, financial advisors, CEO's, politicians and everyone involved in International Management to make better analysis and take better decisions. Some time people believes in a conspiracy and take events like a isolated things, the fact is that everything is related and the three major perspectives of the world are in constant conflict everyday. ¿The three major perspectives? Yes: The liberals and the free trade perspective, the nationalists and the structuralism or modern socialist. It also covers the green perspective (oriented to take care of the environment) . Balaam makes a very clear analysis and he doesn't take sides so you will understand the way thinks happen and the media and politicians will not cheat on you to push you to "take sides on poll's". Enjoy.
Dr. Wayne K. Maynard, LaGrange College.......2000-07-27
Unfortunately for those of us who teach International Political Economy to undergraduates on a regular basis, most text books on the subject are either better suited to a graduate-level course, or are still mired in the past. I am grateful to David Balaam and Michael Veseth for providing a fresh, up to date, approach. I particularly like the fact that they cover basic theory as well as the modern structures of the international system. Perhaps most important to me (because I expect my students to acutally read their text) is that their book can not only be understood by undergrads, it is far less likely to be used as a sleep aid that any of its competitors.
Book Description
This succinct overview of the political factors that condition social and economic development in Latin America is the perfect core text in courses on politics, government, social change, and transitions to democracy throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Customer Reviews:
Capitalism doesn't work!.......2003-02-11
This collection of 19 articles is divided into three parts, on Capital, exploitation and conflict, Global capitalism, and Crisis and the supercession of capitalism. The contributors, from across the world, reflect the increasingly widespread understanding that capitalism doesn't work. They analyse the exploitation intrinsic to capitalism and recognise that in countries like Britain there are just the two classes, a tiny minority of exploiters and the vast majority who depend on selling their labour power to make a living.
The struggle against capitalism is rooted in the workplace, where we must fight for democracy, as Saad-Filho says in his Introduction. We need to be in work, in our union, and fighting the employer. Adding together any number of pressure groups, even infusing those groups with anti-capitalist ideology will not do what is needed to end capitalism - transform the ideology of the working class.
Ben Fine accuses our trade unions of pursuing sectional interests both nationally and sectorally, when the problem is that our unions are hardly fighting for our industries and services at all. He also sees defence workers as depending on war, and energy and car workers as depending on pollution: so to end war and pollution, all we have to do is destroy what remains of our manufacturing industry!
Targeting the IMF or McDonald's is to attack symptoms, not the root of the problem, as Ellen Meiksins Wood shows. It is not a matter of building a bigger demo next time. It would really terrify the ruling classes of the world if all the anti-globalisation protestors turned to focus on working in their workplaces and trade unions to weaken and destroy capitalism.
We need workers' nationalism, that is, workers deciding their own future, in their own lands and for their own interests. As Marx wrote in the Manifesto, each working class must first of all settle accounts with its own bourgeoisie. We also need workers' internationalism, to save the future of the world and defeat the vested interest of the multinationals and the proponents of reaction and fundamentalism.
Average customer rating:
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The Political Economy of Southeast-Asia: An Introduction
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Policy & Current Events
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General
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Development & Growth
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Economic Conditions
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ASIN: 019553736X |
Book Description
This book examines the political economy of contemporary development in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia has undergone a remarkable industrial and economic transformation in the last two decades. The Political Economy of Southeast Asia not only explains these changes, but examines the political foundations and implications of the transformation. It discusses the changing political alignments and struggles taking place and the changing patterns of social organisation involved. Readable and provocative, this book is both technical and analytical in style. It identifies the central theoretical issues at stake in the debate over economic development in the region. The issues, concepts and debates that separate the contending political economy approaches are considered in the context of six country studies - Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam - and three thematic chapters which deal separately with labour in Southeast Asia, regional economic institution-building and the emergence of sub-regional economic growth zones. This dynamic book will be invaluable to all students, bureaucrats, policy-makers and analysts, and business people interested in the region.
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The Political Economy Of Global Communication: An Introduction (Human Security in the Global Economy)
Peter Wilkin
Manufacturer: Pluto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economics
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ASIN: 0745314015 |
Book Description
As media corporations continue to merge, we are moving towards an ever more commercially driven system of global information. How does this impact on the security of ordinary citizens?
Peter Wilkin addresses this question and highlights the limitations of conventional views on communication and security. Wilkin argues that the continuing shift in control of communication provides an increasingly powerful obstacle to human autonomy. He reviews the changes in global communication and details the alternative responses to them.
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Benefits and Beneficiaries: An Introduction to Estimating Distributional Effects in Cost-Benefit Analysis (Inter-American Development Bank)
Elio Londero
Manufacturer: Inter-American Development Bank
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Policy & Current Events
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ASIN: 0940602237 |
Book Description
Professionals in the field of applied economic analysis and students interested in a more detailed approach to cost-benefit analysis than that offered in the most widely used textbooks will find Benefits and Beneficiaries a valuable tool. This volume explores the distributional implications inherent in cost-benefit analysis, shows how distributional value judgments underlie traditional efficiency analysis and the treatment of accounting prices, and provides guidelines for estimating the distributional effects of investment projects.
Applications are illustrated by three examples involving industry, electricity generation and irrigation. In each case, the author leads the reader through the analysis, comparing situations with and without an investment project, in order to identify and quantify the costs an benefits involved, and estimate the distribution of these real income changes. The book is directed towards professionals in the field of applied economic analysis and students interested in a more detailed approach to such topics than that offered in the more general textbooks, which it may serve to supplement.
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Bureaucracy in the Modern State: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration
Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1852787252 |
Book Description
The third edition of this popular text has been completely revised to reflect the enormous changes in business-government relations that have taken place in advanced industrialized societies in recent years. Globalization, violent protests against international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, and the surge in international trade have affected the way business interacts with government in the twenty-first century. As in previous editions, Graham K. Wilson focuses on individual countries to illustrate different models of business-government relations--including the U.S., Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, France, and Japan. New to this edition are Wilson's exploration of how government-business relations have been challenged by globalization and his evaluation of its consequences for different countries.
Book Description
The need for better understanding of the role location plays in economic life was first and most famously made explicit by Bertil Ohlin in 1933. However it is only recently, with the development of computer packages able to handle complex systems, as well as advances in economic theory, that Ohlin's vision has been met and a framework developed which explains the distribution of economic activity across space. This book is an integrated, non-mathematical, first-principles textbook presenting Geographical Economics to advanced students. Its emphasis is on examples, diagrams, and empirical evidence, making it the ideal starting point prior to monographic and journal material.
Download Description
The need for better understanding of the role location plays in economic life was first and most famously made explicit by Bertil Ohlin in 1933. However it is only recently, with the development of computer packages able to handle complex systems, as well as advances in economic theory, that Ohlin's vision has been met and a framework developed which explains the distribution of economic activity across space. This book is an integrated, non-mathematical, first-principles textbook presenting Geographical Economics to advanced students. Its emphasis is on examples, diagrams, and empirical evidence, making it the ideal starting point prior to monographic and journal material.
Customer Reviews:
A++. Will definitely do business with again. .......2007-02-12
A++. Will definitely do business with again.
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Leo Africanus
Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850
Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives
Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830
A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean (Princeton Modern Greek Studies)
