by Aruṇa Sādhū (2014)
On the life and times of Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil, 1897-1984, founder of the co-operative movement in Indian sugar industry.
H.E.J. Cowdrey
Presenting Pope Gregory VII's life and work in their entirety, this text traces his career from early days as a clerk of the Roman Church, through his political negotiations, ecclesiastical governance and final exile at Salerno.
Andrea D. Pinkney
Describes the life and accomplishments of the son of a former slave whose unusual bulldogging style made him a rodeo star.
Peggy K. Liss
Isabel of Castile was one of the most influential monarchs ever known, the central figure in some of the most potent and far-reaching events in world history. She supported the Spanish Inquisition (which tortured and punished or had executed thousands of baptized Christians accused of practicing Judaism). She waged a successful war against Muslim Granada. And bent upon overseas expansion (she was after all the grand-niece of Prince Henry the Navigator), Isabel sponsored Christopher Columbus. Yet questions remain as to her actual role in these and other events. Why did she introduce the Inquisition? Why did she expel the Jews from Spain and the Muslims from Castile? Was it bigotry or piety or something else? And how aware was she of the injustices committed against New World peoples? For such a notable and controversial figure, much about Isabel has remained a mystery. Now, in Isabel the Queen, Peggy K.^ Liss proposes answers and provides both a sweeping biography of a Queen who had a profound impact on history, and a vivid portrait of a vanished, turbulent world. We see young Isabel as a poor relation at the corrupt court of her half-brother, Enrique IV (known as The Impotent), where she became a pawn in a civil war between the king and the great nobles. We learn how Isabel survived plots to disinherit her, how she won her way to succession, and why she secretly married Fernando, Prince of Aragon. And we witness the unprecedented ceremony in which Isabel assumed the crown alone, without Fernando, thereby paving the way for her daughter and other women to rule in their own right. Peggy Liss works through the fact and fiction, legend and opinion that have swirled around Isabel to reveal for the first time how her goals for Spain, her piety, and swelling power culminated in the remarkable year of 1492.^ (A variety of sources - documents, chronicles, literature, art, and architecture - reveal Isabel's attitudes towards religion, politics, and royal policy.) And finally, she shows us the older Isabel, who having won the respect of Europe, suffered a series of family tragedies ruining her plans and her health and bringing her unprecedented reign to an end in 1504 with her death at the age of fifty-three. Based on years of research, travel, and reflection, Isabel the Queen brings to life the people, places, and events that surrounded one of history's most dynamic monarchs. In these pages we meet the mind of the ruler who left her country with an imperial legacy of power and glory, and a vision of conquest, that would endure over the centuries.
Sara Berkeljon, Hans Wansink
Ayaan Hirsi Ali ontpopte zich van een Afrikaanse asielzoekster tot een politiek fenomeen van internationale allure. Ze was een compromisloze strijdster tegen onderdrukking van moslimvrouwen. Zo oogstte ze net zoveel afgunst als bewondering, net zoveel haat als instemming. Maar wat heeft haar strijd voor de verlichting van de islam nu eigenlijk opgeleverd? Die vraag hebben de auteurs voorgelegd aan mede- en tegenstanders, onder wie Jozias van Aartsen, Naima Azough, Frits Bolkestein, Aleid van den Brink, Job Cohen, Cisca Dresselhuys, Afshin Ellian, Femke Halsema, Theodor Holman, Nazmiye Oral, Naema Tahir, Ebru Umar en Gijs van de Westelaken. De auteurs voerden lange gesprekken met Hirsi Ali en hadden inzage in haar persoonlijke archief. Deze positie in het oog van de storm stelde hen in staat een unieke reconstructie te maken van de paspoortcrisis en het daaropvolgende einde van het tweede kabinet Balkenende. Journalistieke reconstructie van de politieke loopbaan van politica Ayaan Hirsi Ali, die na kamerlidmaatschappen voor de PvdA en later de VVD en na verschillende controverses rond haar persoon en optreden in 2006 vertrok naar de Verenigde Staten.