Author: Chris Bickerton File Type: epub The essential Pelican introduction to the European Union - its history, its politics, and its role today hr****For most of us today, Europe refers to the European Union. At the centre of a seemingly never-ending crisis, the EU remains a black box, closed to public understanding. Is it a state? An empire? Is Europe ruled by Germany or by European bureaucrats? Does a single European economy exist after all these years of economic integration? And should the EU have been awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2012? Critics tell us the EU undermines democracy. Are they right?In this provocative volume, political scientist Chris Bickerton provides an answer to all these key questions and more at a time when understanding what the EU is and what it does is more important than ever before.**ReviewThe European Union A Citizens Guide by Chris Bickerton is a good place to find out how Europe works the European council, the council of Europe and the Byzantine committee structure that operates in virtual secrecy... My advice is this. Use Bickerton... to learn how the EU works... And then, whatever Cameron says, you can make up your own mind about the future -- Roland White Sunday Times An unlikely bestseller Daily Telegraph A lucid, helpful guide to the EUs structures and operating methods -- Tony Barber Financial Times An indispensable book for these times Big Issue Provocative Economist A timely account of the EUs byzantine bureaucratic procedures and political rules The Times Literary Supplement About the Author Chris Bickerton is a University Lecturer in politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow in politics at Queens College, Cambridge. He has previously taught at Oxford, University of Amsterdam, and Sciences Po in Paris. His books include European Integration, and he writes frequently for the international media. He has been writing regularly for Le Monde Diplomatique since 2006.

Author: Diliana N. Angelova File Type: pdf Diliana Angelova argues that from the time of Augustus through early Byzantium, a discourse of sacred foundersarticulated in artwork, literature, imperial honors, and the built environmenthelped legitimize the authority of the emperor and his family. The discourse coalesced around the central idea, bound to a myth of origins, that imperial men and women were sacred founders of the land, mirror images of the empires divine founders. When Constantine and his formidable mother Helena established a new capital for the Roman Empire, they initiated the Christian transformation of this discourse by brilliantly reformulating the founding myth. Over time, this transformation empowered imperial women, strengthened the cult of the Virgin Mary, fueled contests between church and state, and provoked an arresting synthesis of imperial and Christian art. Sacred Founders presents a bold interpretive framework that unearths deep continuities between the ancient and medieval worlds, recovers a forgotten transformation in female imperial power, and offers a striking reinterpretation of early Christian art. **From the Inside Flap Diliana Angelova offers fresh and highly original approaches to a set of topics of great interest Constantinople, imperial representation, late Roman empresses, and the cult of the Virgin Mary. Truly a great, groundbreaking book!Susanna Elm, Professor of History at University of California, Berkeley and author of Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome Angelova produces a skillfully contextualized study that embraces both Roman and early Byzantine norms, mutually illuminating both eras through her balanced analysis. This book will be of great interest to both art historians and historians, and its historical range encompassing Roman and Byzantine imperial culture makes it necessary reading for scholars and students of both eras.Anne McClanan, Professor of Medieval Art and Digital Humanities at Portland Sate University and author of Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses Image and Empire About the Author Diliana N. Angelova is Assistant Professor of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley.