A collection of essays dealing with British expansion in the 17th and 18th centuries. An introduction surveys British imperial history, providing a context for the focus on specific ethnic groups--Native Americans, African-Americans, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, and Germans--and how these groups effected British expansion in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the West Indies. A conclusion assesses the impact of North American colonies on British society and politics. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This volume explores the ways in which representatives of different monotheistic traditions experienced themselves as “the other” or were perceived and described as such by their contemporaries. This central category – which includes not only those of different religions, but also converts, foreigners, sectarians, and women – is studied from various perspectives in a range of texts composed by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim authors during late antique and mediaeval times. Conceptualizations of such “others” are often intrinsically related to the idea of exile, another important category that is analysed in this work.

Throughout history, many Christians have existed on the margins of society; deviants and strangers in lands they call home. To survive, they have had to construct alternate identities that not only make sense of their religious experiences and beliefs but also equip them to successfully negotiate their social worlds. In Thailand, a nation where social identities are thoroughly intertwined with Buddhist religious adherence, Christians must come to terms with such a marginalized existence. By leaving Buddhism and adopting what is considered a foreign faith, Christian converts become deviants to “normal” Thai identity and belonging. In response, they have discovered creative solutions for traversing this complex terrain of marginalization. This book presents a deep exploration of the phenomenon of marginalization as experienced by Thai Christian converts. In it, readers will follow participants through the heights of transformative religious experience, the lows of severe social displacement, the tensions of managing two disparate lifeworlds and two conflicting selves, and the comfort and joy of finding a new place to call home. In the end, the reader will gain deep insight into what it is like to successfully navigate a minority religious identity on the margins of society.

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity as it emerged during the eighteenth century through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the book argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia and heterotopic spatial practice. The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and in its relationship to civil society and the public sphere and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all seen as heterotopia in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by a social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes and the ambiguous spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies. The book uses these historical examples to analyse contemporary questions about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. It will be important reading for sociologists, geographers and social historians as well as anyone who has an interest in modern societies.

A reinterpretation of the place of colonial Canada within a reconstructed British Empire that focuses on culture and social relations.