The tragic news of the ISIS-inspired massacres in Europe and countless other locations throughout the Middle East, in conjunction with the failed political coup against Erdogan in Turkey, have raised the spectre of an ideological struggle that is more than a century old. As the West struggles with the consequences and implications of its ‘War on Terror’, parallels with this earlier jihad become manifest. The sprawling Ottoman Empire was at the point of dissolution by November 1914 when she...

Witnessing the events unfolding within the EU in recent years, one could be excused for thinking that these dramas are unique in European history. But, by setting them in the context of the continent’s much longer story, it is possible to see that this is far from the case. The present-day struggle between those seeking ever closer cooperation across Europe, and those pursuing the cause of national sovereignty, has parallels lasting centuries. In fact, there has always been a tension betwe...

Demolishing the myth that British rule was on the whole advantageous to India, Andrew Hyde shows how Britain’s pursuit of profit brought about the deindustrialisation and impoverishment of the country over centuries and how its celebrated feats of engineering incurred tremendous financial, social and ecological cost. India’s industries were suppressed and manufacturers subjected to unfair competition and tariffs. Wealth was drained first by the East India Company, and then the Crown. India...

From 1839 to 1949, Imperial and Republican China was ruthlessly subjected to territorial, economic and political exploitation by Europe, Japan and the United States. This unrelenting series of shattering blows was to become known as the ‘Century of Humiliation’. These indignities were achieved through a combination of threats, intimidation and wars that yielded a series of ‘Unequal Treaties’. They granted territorial concessions, extraterritorial rights and other privileges which left Chin...

My Daily Discoverment is a resource for young adults in the Christian tradition who want to explore vocational discernment. Utilizing forty daily reflections from the author, reflection prompts with space to journal, and additional commentary from diverse contributors, this resource equips readers to engage questions of calling, purpose, and decision-making. My Daily Discoverment is structured to ask important questions, such as: Who is God? Who am I? What does God do? What am I called to ...

Does your faith inform your daily choices? Lesser Evils reflects on the decisions we make every day, from “Do I take this parking space?” to “Do I wear this mask?” to “Do I choose to forgive you?” Daily scripture, reflections, personal questions, and prayers for individual devotions or group study explore how to attempt to seek wisdom and do good as followers of Jesus. A study guide for groups is included.

Francesco Helios, a groundskeeper in New Shining Capital, runs a “mower,” a seventy-ton leveling machine that keeps the Lawn free of the bloom of mushrooming monuments. Because in this country, the past doesn’t stay buried. Structures shove their way up through the turf: the obelisk of the Washerman Monument, the temple of “Old Frog Face,” and a thousand other stubborn relics from a half-recollected past. Then a ghostly woman who recognizes Francesco appears on the Lawn. She calls him the ...

John Galt, a fictional character from the hugely bestselling novel, Atlas Shrugged, has come to embody the individualist capitalist who acts in his own self interest and in doing so lifts other ships around him. "Who is John Galt?" may well be the single best known line from all of Ayn Rand's works. So who is John Galt? He is found today, over 50 years after his iconic appearance (and famous speech) in Atlas Shrugged, in CEOs, journalists, sports figures, and actors who have led their live...

For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth, Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia, fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalized by Kipling.When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India. This classic book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of th...

Under the banner of a Holy War, masterminded in Berlin and unleashed from Constantinople, the Germans and the Turks set out in 1914 to foment violent revolutionary uprisings against the British in India and the Russians in Central Asia. It was a new and more sinister version of the old Great Game, with world domination as its ultimate aim.Here, told in epic detail and for the first time, is the true story behind John Buchan's classic wartime thriller Greenmantle, recounted through ...

The definitive biography of the father of modern Turkey, a powerful figure in the still-unfolding drama of the Middle East.With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War came the emergence of new nations, chief among them Turkey itself. It was the creation of one man, the soldier-statesman Mustafa Kemal, who dragged his country from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, and in defeating Western imperialists inspired 'the cause of the East'. L...

A "well-researched" account of the nineteenth-century Sudanese cleric who led a bloody holy war, from a New York Times-bestselling author ( Publishers Weekly).Before bin Laden, al-Zarqawi, or Ayatollah Khomeini, there was the Mahdi—the "Expected One"—who raised the Arabs in pan-tribal revolt against infidels and apostates in Sudan.Born on the Nile in 1844, Muhammed Ahmed grew into a devout, charismatic young man, whose visage was said to h...