Pakistan

Pakistan PDF Author: Pippa Virdee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198847076
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The history of Pakistan, created as a new nation state in 1947, placing it in the context of the region's four-thousand-year-old pre-colonial heritage. Also focus on Pakistan's religion and society, the state and the military, popular culture, language and literature, as well as its relationship with the rest of the world

Pakistan

Pakistan PDF Author: Pippa Virdee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198847076
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Get Book

Book Description
The history of Pakistan, created as a new nation state in 1947, placing it in the context of the region's four-thousand-year-old pre-colonial heritage. Also focus on Pakistan's religion and society, the state and the military, popular culture, language and literature, as well as its relationship with the rest of the world

Pakistan: A Very Short Introduction

Pakistan: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Pippa Virdee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192586394
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
What is Pakistan? The name refers to a seventy-year-old post-colonial product of the bloodiest partition of territory and population that accompanied the end of British empire in South Asia. But the region of the Indus Valley has a four-thousand-year-old history, and was the site of one of the earliest and greatest riverine civilisations in the world. Although the modern nation of Pakistan as we know it was created as a homeland for the Muslims of British India, it is impossible to understand the complex tapestry of linguistic, ethnic, and cultural identities and tensions of the region without tracing its deep past. This Very Short Introduction looks at Pakistan as one of the two nation-states of the Indian sub-continent that emerged in 1947. Pippa Virdee reaches into the ancient past to demonstrate the influence of trajectories of human settlement and civilisation on Pakistan's contemporary political arena, and shows how the longer continuities between the land and its peoples are as important as the short-term changes in the political landscape. She considers Pakistan's religion and society, the state and the military, everyday life, popular culture, languages and literature, as well as Pakistan's relationship with the rest of the world. Virdee also looks to the challenges of the 21st century and the future of Pakistan. Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan

The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan PDF Author: Atul Mishra
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190993073
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan explores what it has meant for the two countries to act as sovereign states entangled at birth by an unsatisfactory partition. Sovereignty is conventionally understood as a means to achieve the goals that states set for themselves. This book argues that for India and Pakistan, sovereignty has become an end in itself, and that its pursuit has aided majoritarianism, insecurity, and mutual estrangement. It examines the trajectory of three problems that the partition of 1947 bequeathed to the two states. It investigates the state–minority relations, national identity debates, and contestation over Kashmir to outline the parallel processes of minoritization, homogenization, and territorialization. It shows how these processes signify the two states' quest for sovereignty. The scholarship on India and Pakistan often privileges their bilateral relations. In contrast, the author carries out the deeper task of a single-frame analysis and critique of their intertwined statehoods. Ultimately, the book shows the inadequacy of the nation-state form as the basis for political community in the subcontinent. It concludes by pointing to the contemporary relevance of alternative ideas of sovereignty and political community in South Asia that were articulated during the first half of the 20th century.

Islam: A Very Short Introduction

Islam: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Malise Ruthven
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199642877
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Islam features widely in the news, often in its most militant forms, but few people in the non-Muslim world really understand its nature. Malise Ruthven's Very Short Introduction, offers essential insights into the big issues, provides fresh perspectives on contemporary questions, and guides us through the complex debates.

Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction

Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: David Cottington
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191577820
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
As public interest in modern art continues to grow, as witnessed by the spectacular success of Tate Modern and the Bilbao Guggenheim, there is a real need for a book that will engage general readers, offering them not only information and ideas about modern art, but also explaining its contemporary relevance and history. This book achieves all this and focuses on interrogating the idea of 'modern' art by asking such questions as: What has made a work of art qualify as modern (or fail to)? How has this selection been made? What is the relationship between modern and contemporary art? Is 'postmodernist' art no longer modern, or just no longer modernist - in either case, why, and what does this claim mean, both for art and the idea of 'the modern'? Cottington examines many key aspects of this subject, including the issue of controversy in modern art, from Manet's Dejeuner sur L'Herbe (1863) to Picasso's Les Demoiselles, and Tracey Emin's Bed, (1999); and the role of the dealer from the main Cubist art dealer Kahnweiler to Charles Saatchi. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction

The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: James A. Millward
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199782865
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction is a new look at an ancient subject: the silk road that linked China, India, Persia and the Mediterranean across the expanses of Central Asia. James A. Millward highlights unusual but important biological, technological and cultural exchanges over the silk roads that stimulated development across Eurasia and underpin civilization in our modern, globalized world.

Fighting to the End

Fighting to the End PDF Author: C. Christine Fair
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199892709
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
The Pakistan Army is poised for perpetual conflict with India which it cannot win militarily or politically. What explains Pakistan's persistent revisionism despite increasing costs and decreasing likelihood of success? This book argues that an understanding of the army's strategic culture explains its willingness to fight to the end

Foucault: A Very Short Introduction

Foucault: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Gary Gutting
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191578045
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
Foucault is one of those rare philosophers who has become a cult figure. Born in 1926 in France, over the course of his life he dabbled in drugs, politics, and the Paris SM scene, all whilst striving to understand the deep concepts of identity, knowledge, and power. From aesthetics to the penal system; from madness and civilisation to avant-garde literature, Foucault was happy to reject old models of thinking and replace them with versions that are still widely debated today. A major influence on Queer Theory and gender studies (he was openly gay and died of an AIDS-related illness in 1984), he also wrote on architecture, history, law, medicine, literature, politics and of course philosophy, and even managed a best-seller in France on a book dedicated to the history of systems of thought. Because of the complexity of his arguments, people trying to come to terms with his work have desperately sought introductory material that makes his theories clear and accessible for the beginner. Ideally suited for the Very Short Introductions series, Gary Gutting presents a comprehensive but non-systematic treatment of some highlights of Foucault's life and thought. Beginning with a brief biography to set the social and political stage, he then tackles Foucault's thoughts on literature, in particular the avant-garde scene; his philosophical and historical work; his treatment of knowledge and power in modern society; and his thoughts on sexuality. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Borders

Borders PDF Author: Alexander C. Diener
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197549608
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
This second edition of Borders: A Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives.

Education: A Very Short Introduction

Education: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Gary Thomas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199643261
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
From the schools of ancient times to the present day, Gary Thomas looks at how and why education evolved as it has. By exploring some of the big questions, he examines the ways in which schools work, considers the differences around the world, and concludes by considering the future of education worldwide.