The King and the Land offers an innovative history of space and power in the biblical world. Stephen C. Russell shows how the monarchies in ancient Israel and Judah asserted their power over strategically important spaces such as privately-held lands, religious buildings, collectively-governed towns, and urban water systems. Among the case studies examined are Solomon's use of foreign architecture, David's dedication of land to Yahweh, Jehu's decommissioning of Baal's temple, Absalom's navigation of the collective politics of Levantine towns, and Hezekiah's reshaping of the tunnels that supplied Jerusalem with water. By treating the full range of archaeological and textual evidence available for the Iron Age Levant, this book sets Israelite and Judahite royal and tribal politics within broader patterns of ancient Near Eastern spatial power. The book's historical investigation also enables fresh literary readings of the individual texts that anchor its thesis.

As a new generation of activists demands an end to racism, A Place to Land reflects on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and the movement that it galvanized. Winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Selected for the Texas Bluebonnet Master List Much has been written about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 1963 March on Washington. But there's little on his legendary speech and how he came to write it. Martin Luther King, Jr. was once asked if the hardest part of preaching was knowing where to begin. No, he said. The hardest part is knowing where to end. "It's terrible to be circling up there without a place to land." Finding this place to land was what Martin Luther King, Jr. struggled with, alongside advisors and fellow speech writers, in the Willard Hotel the night before the March on Washington, where he gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. But those famous words were never intended to be heard on that day, not even written down for that day, not even once. Barry Wittenstein teams up with legendary illustrator Jerry Pinkney to tell the story of how, against all odds, Martin found his place to land. An ALA Notable Children's Book A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Title Nominated for an NAACP Image Award A Bank Street Best Book of the Year A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People A Booklist Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal Selected for the CBC Champions of Change Showcase

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year The Seleucid Empire (311–64 BCE) was unlike anything the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds had seen. Stretching from present-day Bulgaria to Tajikistan—the bulk of Alexander the Great’s Asian conquests—the kingdom encompassed a territory of remarkable ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity; yet it did not include Macedonia, the ancestral homeland of the dynasty. The Land of the Elephant Kings investigates how the Seleucid kings, ruling over lands to which they had no historic claim, attempted to transform this territory into a coherent and meaningful space. “This engaging book appeals to the specialist and non-specialist alike. Kosmin has successfully brought together a number of disparate fields in a new and creative way that will cause a reevaluation of how the Seleucids have traditionally been studied.” —Jeffrey D. Lerner, American Historical Review “It is a useful and bright introduction to Seleucid ideology, history, and position in the ancient world.” —Jan P. Stronk, American Journal of Archaeology

The King of No-Land by B. L. Farjeon is about a young man who, instead of becoming king, abdicates to a democratic society and lives out the rest of his days in an idyllic life. When his people reach out to him for help, he returns to rule as a benevolent leader rather than a ruthless king.

This is a story that was discovered of a community that was never having the habit of warring. However, it got to a time that the wealth of the land attracted other neighbouring communities who felt this land must be taken away from these people who originally settled here by the means of continued wars since the people were found to be very feeble to wars. This however, didnt go down well with one of the young men who from so many stories he heard of his grandfather while the grandfather was still alive as regarding who were the real owners of this land that is now becoming a troubled land, decided to take some serious risk and measures. This he did by travelling out of his home-town in search for power acquisition from various goddesses in other regions. Again, as times and days grew older then, the young man after creating fame for himself, decided to be rebellious against those who ennobled him and thereby causing the people more troubles. His attitude became so unbearable few years after his coronation as the King. He was regarded as the peoples death trap. The Kings uncompromising attitude brought fears into the land and its people. This led to those who couldnt stand these troubles to run for their dear lives. And as a result of these troubles in the land and the Kings aggressive drives, many settlements, which later in the years grew into villages and towns were founded. This thereby led to this community expanding into many parts of the district and beyond. Though some of these settlements were founded in virgin land, that were never occupied by people which the people still lived in them till date. As times kept on drifting, the people became restive of the King and this led the warriors and the elders of the community to plan the death of the King. However, while the people were making every frantic effort to have the King dead, the King was facing more troubles with his wives and children.

Joan Mark offers an interpretive biography of Patrick Tracy Lowell Putnam (1904–53), who spent twenty-five years living among the Bambuti pygmies of the Ituri Forest in what is now Zaire. On the Epulu River he constructed Camp Putnam as a harmonious multiracial community. He modeled his camp on the “dude ranches” of the American West, taking in paying guests while running a medical clinic and occasionally offering legal aid to the local people, and assumed the role of intermediary between locals and visitors, including Colin M. Turnbull, author of the classic Forest People. Mark describes Putnam’s mercurial relations with family and with his African and American wives—and follows him to his sad and violent end. She places Patrick Putnam within the context of three different anthropological traditions and examines his contribution as an expert on pygmies.

Blood and Land is a dazzling, panoramic account of the history and achievements of Native North Americans, and why they matter today. It is about why no understanding of the wider world is possible without comprehending the original inhabitants of the United States and Canada: Native Americans, First Nations and Arctic peoples. This highly personal book, based on years of travel and first-hand research in North America, introduces a deeply complex story, of myriad identities and determined ethnicities - from the desert Southwest to the high Arctic, from first contact between Europeans and Native Americans to the challenges of Native leadership today. Instead of writing a chronological history, King confronts the reader with the paradoxes, diversity and successes of Native North Americans. Their astonishing ingenuity and supple intelligence enabled, after centuries of suffering both violence and dispossession, a striking level of recovery, optimism and autonomy in the twenty-first century. Beautifully illustrated and filled with arresting and surprising stories, Blood and Land looks well beyond the 'feathers-and-failure' narratives beloved by historians to show us Native North America as it was and is.