Author: Clifford L. Staten File Type: pdf Notwithstanding Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegas disdain for the United States, our nation has played a significant role in shaping Nicaraguan nationalism, as well as the countrys political, economic, and social systems. The History of Nicaragua was written, in part, to help students and other interested readers understand that relationship, providing them with an up-to-date, concise, and analytical history of the Central American nation. The book begins by describing the people, geography, culture, and current political, economic, and social systems of Nicaragua. The remainder of the volume is devoted to a chronological history, emphasizing recurring themes or factors that have shaped the modern state. These include the importance of elite families such as the Somoza dynasty that ruled for more than 40 years. Other topics include the agro-export model of economic development, modern Nicaraguan nationalism, the Sandinista revolution and its legacy, and the democratic transition that began in 1990.**

Author: Nadine Moeller File Type: pdf In this book, Nadine Moeller challenges prevailing views on Egypts non-urban past and argues for Egypt as an early urban society. She traces the emergence of urban features during the Predynastic Period up to the disintegration of the powerful Middle Kingdom state (c.35001650 BC). This book offers a synthesis of the archaeological data that sheds light on the different facets of urbanism in ancient Egypt. Drawing on evidence from recent excavations as well as a vast body of archaeological data, this book explores the changing settlement patterns by contrasting periods of strong political control against those of decentralization. It also discusses households and the layout of domestic architecture, which are key elements for understanding how society functioned and evolved over time. Moeller reveals what settlement patterns can tell us about the formation of complex society and the role of the state in urban development in ancient Egypt. **Review [A] must-have study of the urban character of Egypt ... Incorporating many of Egypts most recent discoveries and research, this is an essential work on urbanization in early complex societies. Kimberly Watt, World Archaeology Magazine Book Description This book presents the latest archaeological evidence that makes a case for Egypt as an early urban society. It traces the emergence of urban features during the Predynastic Period up to the disintegration of the powerful Middle Kingdom state (ca. 3500-1650 BC).

Author: Stephen Baskerville File Type: epub Not Peace But a Sword provides a case study in religious radicalism, as exemplified by the Puritanism of the English Revolution. Based on sermons preached to the Long Parliament and other political bodies, Stephen Baskerville demonstrates how Puritan religious and political ideas transformed the English Civil War into the worlds first great modern revolution. To understand why, Baskerville analyzes the underlying social changes that gave rise to Puritan radicalism. The Puritan intellectuals developed the sermon into a medium that conveyed not only popular political understanding but also a sophisticated political sociology that articulated a new social and political consciousness. In the process, they challenged the traditional political order and created a new order by appealing to the needs and concerns of a people caught up in the problems of rapid social and economic change. The book explores the social psychology behind the rise of Puritanism, as the Puritan ministers themselves presented it, through textual criticism of their own words, placing them in the mental context of their time, and offers a new understanding of the link between religious ideas and revolutionary politics. Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, VA. **From the Author From the late Middle Ages to the present day Western society has been disturbed by periodic waves of religious fervor. Many of these have confined themselves to spiritual and social life, avoiding or rejecting any overt involvement in political affairs. A smaller number have become directly political in their aspirations and have convulsed the world through their desire to change it by political means. They have created alternative systems of organization and alternative polities, either within the secular state--and therefore in direct challenge to it--or outside its bounds as exiles and colonists. The importance of radical religious movements in modern politics has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Not long ago it seemed possible to speak confidently about our increasingly secular world and to assume that the process of secularization would continue inexorably and indefinitely until religion had disappeared entirely, if not from the human soul, at least from the political state. This is no longer as obvious as it once seemed. Religious politics in the modern world are very different from what they were in the medieval one, but there is no reason to assume they are any less pervasive. Why such movements develop has never, in my view, been adequately explained. This book is an attempt at a case study based on the first, most massive, and best documented instance of religious revolution in modern Western history the Puritan Revolution of the seventeenth century. Puritanism was one of the most influential movements in Anglophone history, and while its importance extends far beyond the events of the 1640s and 1650s, it was during that time that the Puritans political agenda was most clearly articulated and realized. In the years leading up to the Revolution the English Puritans created forms of quasi-political organization previously unknown, even in the Reformation. Moreover, it was in the Puritan seedbeds of England and later America that religious radicalism led directly to political radicalism, and the spiritual militancy of the Reformation culminated in the first of the modern political revolutions. The radicalism of the Puritans provided the popular foundation for not only the English Revolution of the 1640s but such later events as the American Revolution of 1776, and it left a style and method of popular agitation that was passed down to movements for the abolition of slavery, the struggles of the working class, and many others. preface to the expanded edition ~ ~ ~ The present volume presents this argument in more complete form than the earlier one. The first edition of this book was a reduced version of my University of London doctoral thesis, roughly the first half of the present volume or the chapters of Part One dealing with soteriology, or the (political) theology of salvation. This edition restores the chapters of Part Two on ecclesiology, the (again, political) theology of the church. This dimension is critical in understanding Puritan political ideas, because church government and worship (which occasioned most of the bitter controversies with their opponents and among themselves, not accidentally) constituted the link between theology and secular political thought. It might be said that what distinguished Puritanism from previous radical religious movements, even those of the Reformation--and what also gave it the uniquely political quality that continues to this day--was not simply its ideas, essential as they were, but also the system of organization by which those ideas were put into practice within this world. I have also added an epilogue on the execution of Charles I that essentially presents the Royalists political theology in answer to the Puritans. This was written shortly after my thesis. That a work written in my twenties should now be published in my sixties requires a brief comment. The secondary references will be dated, and I have made no attempt to update them. The historiographical controversies have hardly changed. In any case, it will make no difference to the argument or value of the book, which is based on the words of the Puritan preachers themselves, which require no updating. The purpose of this edition is not to engage in scholarly polemic but to make the words of the Puritans--words widely proclaimed and published in their own time--accessible to the modern reader. My colleagues and students at Patrick Henry College have convinced me of the value of making these ideas better known. I have somewhat modified my views on the question of how far Puritanism can be considered a political ideology in the modern sense, yet I have not attempted to revise the argument or text, though I will say here that I have become even more convinced of the importance of theological ideas. In the years since this was written, radical religion has only become a more conspicuous feature of modern politics, though likewise I have not attempted any comparisons between Puritanism and more recent forms of religious radicalism. I will only state here that I do not accept the simplistic equation of Puritanism with modern Islamism, Hindutva or other recent manifestations of radical religion and terror and that any student who intends to pursue a serious comparison between these phenomena (an exercise that I do believe would have considerable value) would be wise to be sensitive to the differences as much as the similarities. But on these matters and others, readers here are free to form their own conclusions from the Puritans own words. About the Author Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, VA.

Author: Michael J. Perry File Type: pdf Neither the morality of human rights nor its relation to the law of human rights is well understood. In this book, Michael Perry addresses three large issues o There is undeniably a religious ground - indeed, more than one religious ground - for the morality of human rights. But is there a nonreligious (secular) ground for the morality of human rights? o What is the relation between the morality of human rights and the law of human rights? Perry here addresses the controversial issues of capital punishment, abortion, and same-sex unions. o What is the proper role of courts, in a liberal democracy, in protecting-and therefore in interpreting-constitutionally entrenched human rights? In considering this question, special attention is paid to the Supreme Court and how it should rule on hot button issues such as capital punishment and abortion. Toward a Theory of Human Rights makes a significant contribution both to human rights studies and to constitutional theory.ReviewMichael Perrys superb new book is an eloquent and compelling contribution to the development of a comprehensive theory of human rights. It not only substantially advances the conversation but will guide it as an illuminating and challenging point of departure. A model of clarity and precision, Toward a Theory of Human Rights identifies all the critical issues and serious questions across its impressively broad scope -- from what grounds the morality of human rights, to their appropriate legal content and degree of judicial protection -- and addresses them with Perrys characteristic and rare combination of passionate humanity and exemplary scholarly rigor. Stephen Gardbaum, Professor of Law, UCLAMichael Perrys book is provocative in the strict and best sense it will provoke critical pushback and in so doing initiate a much-needed conversation about human rights, religion and liberalism. His religious affirmation of the claim that every human being has inherent dignity is both distinctive and powerful his skepticism with respect to comparable secular arguments is incisive. He places firmly on the contemporary agenda a disquieting and important question does the morality of human rights make sense absent the kind of religious grounding that has, as a matter of historical fact, pervasively shaped our moral understanding? A timely intervention by one of our most illustrious commentators on religion in politics whose creativity and erudition is on full display throughout the text. Christopher Eberle, Professor of Philosophy, United States Naval AcademyDoes religious belief undermine or support commitment to a moral and legal regime of human rights? No question is more urgent in our world today. Michael Perry tackles it head on, with his customary insight and broad erudition. His thesis--that the regime of human rights--ultimately needs a religious groundis indisputably controversial. But his argument cannot be ignored by any scholar working at the intersection of faith, law and morality. Quite simply, Perry has changed the terms of the discussion. M. Cathleen Kaveny, John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law & Professor of Theology, University of Notre DamePerry succeeds admirably . . . by presenting a model of stimulating intellectual conversation. He engages both philosophers suspicious of a religious foundation for the idea of human rights (which Perry affirms) and religious authorities who publicly teach on contested moral issues. He presents his conversation partners arguments with nuanced fairness, while subjecting those arguments to the rigorous critical analysis that intellectual respect demands. --Gregory Kalscheur, Theological StudiesPerry, who writes with an effective combination of passion and directness, succeeds in clearly framing the issues, giving tentative yet thoughtful answers, and inviting the reader to continue the conversation. - Kevin R. den Dulk, Grand Valley State University, The Law and Politics Book Review Book DescriptionThe morality of human rights--which holds that each and every human being has inherent dignity and is inviolable--has become the dominant morality of our time. Yet neither the morality of human rights nor its relation to the law of human rights is well understood. Toward a Theory of Human Rights makes a significant contribution both to human rights studies and to constitutional theory.