The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity.

This history traces the development of helicopters in the Marine Corps from 1962 to 1973 and is the second in a series of two volumes which between them cover the story of Marines and helicopters from 1946 to the present. In the period covered by this volume, the Marines at last acquired helicopters fully capable of carrying out an amphibious vertical assault, and they further elaborated their helicopter doctrines and tactics. In the Vietnam war, pilots and machines met and surmounted the test of actual combat. The documentary basis for this monograph was primarily the official records of the Marine Corps and Navy Department, but considerable use was made of interviews and correspondence with key individuals involved in all phases of helicopter development. One of the most pervasive characteristics of man is hindsight. It masquerades under many guises: Mon­ day morning quarterbacking, second guessing, and historical writing. When viewed through time, the past becomes distorted. Problems seem simpler, the choices more clear, and the conditions less complex than those of the present. The men who played a part become more heroic or more villainous than they were in life. This volume is an attempt to portray accurately the difficulties faced and the obstacles conquered by the men who developed helicopters in the Marine Corps, so that the Marines of today and the future may meet the challenges of their own times with the same dedication as their predecessors. The men who developed helicopters in the Marine Corps had nothing more to rely on than their knowledge of what had preceded them, intelligence liberally used, and both mental and physical courage. The present-day Marine will be well served if he applies nothing more.

Long notorious as one of the most turbulent areas of the world, Lebanon nevertheless experienced an interlude of peace between its civil war of 1860 and the beginning of the French Mandate in 1920. Engin Akarli examines the sociopolitical changes resulting from the negotiations and shifting alliances characteristic of these crucial years. Using previously unexamined documents in Ottoman archives, Akarli challenges the prevailing view that attributes modernization in government to Western initiative while blaming stagnation on reactionary local forces. Instead, he argues, indigenous Lebanese experience in self-rule as well as reconciliation among different religious groups after 1860 laid the foundation for secular democracy. European intervention in Lebanese politics, however, hampered efforts to develop a correspondingly secular notion of Lebanese nationality. As ethnic and religious strife increases throughout much of eastern Europe and the Middle East, the Lebanese example has obvious relevance for our own time.

Lawyer Robert Beattie assisted the police during the thirty-year search for the BTK Strangler—and was instrumental in the long-awaited arrest of a suspect. Here he shares his inside knowledge of the case, from its terrifying beginnings to its most up-to-date developments. In 1974 a killer embarked on a murder spree in Wichita, Kansas, counting among his victims, men, women, and children. Longing to join the ranks of the Hillside Stranglers and Black Dahlia killer, the elusive sex murderer taunted authorities and the media with clues, puzzles, and obscene letters. Then in 1979, he vanished. The killings appeared to have stopped, and one of the longest and most baffling manhunts in the annals of crime came to a dead end. But in 2004, a letter—and a grisly clue—arrived at a Wichita paper. And with it, a terrifying implication: BTK was back. The biggest shock of all came when they made their arrest. Now, from his unique vantage point, Robert Beattie tells the complete story of one of the most intriguing and horrifying serial murder cases in American history.

"Threshold Concepts in Women's and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing is a textbook designed primarily for introduction to Women's and Gender Studies courses with the intent of providing both a skill- and concept-based foundation in the field. The third edition includes fully revised and expanded case studies and updated statistics; in addition, the content has been updated throughout to reflect significant news stories and cultural developments. The text is driven by a single key question: "What are the ways of thinking, seeing, and knowing that characterize Women's and Gender Studies and are valued by its practitioners?". This book illustrates four of the most critical concepts in Women's and Gender Studies-the social construction of gender, privilege and oppression, intersectionality, and feminist praxis-and grounds these concepts in multiple illustrations. Threshold Concepts develops the key concepts and ways of thinking that students need to develop a deep understanding and to approach material like feminist scholars do, across disciplines"--

This book creates a framework for understanding and using cyberpower in support of national security. Cyberspace and cyberpower are now critical elements of international security. United States needs a national policy which employs cyberpower to support its national security interests.