Kategoria BISAC: History >> Civilization

The Acropolis in Athens has captured the imaginations of readers, writers and travellers for centuries and every year draws crowds from all over the world. One of the world's most famous heritage sites, it has long been a national monument of Greece and a potent symbol of western civilization. But the Acropolis is typically viewed in the context of 5th-century-BC Athenian society, while the multiple local and international meanings and identities that the site shapes today are overlooked.

This book looks at the meaning of the Acropolis in contemporary Greece. How are global ideas...

Since the 1960s, policies to 'revive' minority cultures and languages have flourished. But what does it mean to have a 'cultural identity'? And are minorities as deeply attached to their languages and traditions as revival policies suppose? This book is a sophisticated analysis of responses to the 'Gaelic renaissance' in a Scottish Hebridean community. Its description of everyday conceptions of belonging and interpretations of cultural policy takes us into the world of Gaelic playgroups, crofting, local history, religion and community development. Historically and theoretically informed,...

Do depictions of violence mirror perceptions of violence? Focussing on the countless depictions of violence on the painted pots of Archaic and Classical Athens, Susanne Muth tackles this question in a fascinating groundbreaking study. Introducing a model for a new historical understanding of representations of violence Susanne Muth investigates how the Athenians shaped and handled these images.

After the Second World War, the question of the religious character of Germanic kingship was no longer prominent - not least because previously excessively hybrid views had been developed on the existence of a Germanic religious kingship. Now that in the meantime important insights have been gained into the practical exercise of power in the early kingdoms, it is time to enquire again into their ideological and religious foundations. The multiple perspectives developed in these papers lead to new insights which differ distinctly from earlier understandings of the early kingdoms. Above all,...