A pesar de las apasionantes 600 páginas que dedica Tom Reiss en El orientalista a M. Essad Bey (Kiev, 1905-Positano, 1942), y haber sido un espléndido escritor de enorme éxito entre 1929 y la Segunda Guerra Mundial, éste es el primero de sus libros que, firmado con ese nombre, se reedita en España en los últimos 70 años. Este judío ruso que escribía en alemán, cuyo verdadero nombre era Lev Nussimbaum, se convirtió a la religión musulmana y en monárquico partidario de los Hohenzollern en plena república de Weimar. Con el pseudónimo de Kurban Said, publicó Alí y Nino, su obra más conocida. Petroleo y sangre en Oriente (Öl und Blut im Orient, 1929), novela de trasfondo autobiográfico, nos ofrece una visión caleidoscópica, vertiginosa y sorprendente del Cáucaso y de Bakú, la capital del petróleo, entre 1900 y 1920. Las peripecias del protagonista durante la revolución rusa les recordarán poderosamente a las de El maestro Juan Martínez que estaba allí de Manuel Chaves Nogales. Essad Bey ha resucitado como escritor en los últimos años y sus obras están empezando a reeditarse de nuevo en toda Europa.

The Struggle for Natural Resources traces the troubled history of Bolivia's land and commodity disputes across five centuries, combining local, regional, national, and transnational scales. Enriched by the extractivism and commodity frontiers approaches to world history, the book treats Bolivia's political struggles over natural resources as long-term processes that outlast immediate political events. Exploration of the Bolivian case invites dialogue and comparison with other parts of the world, particularly regions and countries of the so-called Global South. The book begins by examining three Bolivian resources at the center of political dispute since the early colonial period, namely land, water, and minerals. Carmen Soliz, Rossana Barragán, and Sarah Hines show that, as in the colonial and early republican past, these resources have remained the focus of political contention to the present day. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Bolivia's battle over natural resources was primarily concentrated in the highlands and inter-Andean valleys. Beginning in the 1860s, the bicycle and soon the automobile industries triggered demand for natural rubber found in the heart of the Amazon. José Orsag analyzes the impact of this extractive economy at the turn of the twentieth century. The book concludes by examining two resources that are central to understanding the last century of Bolivia's history. Kevin Young examines the fraught business of hydrocarbons, and Thomas Grisaffi analyzes the coca/cocaine circuit. Each chapter studies the social dynamics and political conflicts that shaped the processes of extraction, exchange, and ownership of each of these resources

The indigenous people of the Amazon Basin known as the Huaorani are one of the world’s most intriguing peoples. The community of just under four thousand in Ecuador has been known to the public primarily for their historical identity as a violent society. But Laura Rival reveals the Huaorani in all their humanity and creativity through a longitudinal ethnography, bringing a deeper perspective beyond the stereotype. Rival’s intimate knowledge of Huaorani culture spans twenty-five years. Here in a collection of broad-ranging essays, she offers a fascinating and provocative study. The first section, “Among Forest Beings,” shows that the Huaorani have long adapted to life in the tropical rain forest with minimal reliance on horticulture, yet have developed a complex relationship with plants. In “In the Longhouse,” the second section, Rival focuses on the intimate relations that create human persons and enact kinship relations. She also discusses women’s lives and perspectives. The third section, “In the Midst of Enemies,” considers how Huaorani society fits in larger political and economic contexts, illustrating how native values shape their encounters with oil companies, the state, and other external forces. Rival carefully analyzes insider/outsider dialectics wherein Huaorani people re-create meaningful and valued worlds in the face of alien projects, such as petroleum development, carbon trading, or intercultural education. Capitalizing on the author’s decades-long study and interactions in the community, Huaorani Transformations in Twenty-First-Century Ecuador brings new insights to the Huaorani’s unique way of relating to humans, to other-than-humans, and to the forest landscape they have inhabited for centuries.