This book deals with the 19th century Anglo-Russian Great Game played out on the territorial chessboard of eastern and north-eastern parts of the waning Persian empire. The Great Game itself has been written about extensively, but never from a Persian angle and from the point of view of the local players in that game. Looking at the territorial consequences of the Great Game for the local players is a unique approach, which deserves a special place in the studies of history, geography, politics and geopolitics of the age of modernity.

The Legends begin before time in an empty universe. Two young spirits, Spirit and Fighter, decide to play a game in which the winner will determine the fate of the universe for good or evil. During the beginning of the game, Spirit drops the special ingredient that is meant to give humans an understanding of right and wrong. This ingredient is secretly made into a small creature called Scraps. Spirit works to improve the fate of humans who are evil because they have no conscience or any understanding of goodness. Fighter gains strength for evil, and violence erupts in the early world, but Legend II shows promise when Spirit realizes that Scraps do have the understanding of right and wrong and could become a conscience for the evil humans. After near-death experiences, Scraps agree to help humans and themselves with this idea. There is hope for human goodness after all.

Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, British India had been taken as the main logistic base for China's war against the Japanese. Chinese soldiers, government officials, professionals, and merchants flocked into India for training, business opportunities, retreat, and rehabilitation. This book is about how the activities of the Chinese sojourners in wartime India caused great concerns to the British colonial regime and the Chinese Nationalist government alike and how these sojourners responded to the surveillance, discipline, and check imposed by the governments. This book provides a subaltern perspective on the history of modern India-China relations that has been dominated by accounts of elite cultural interaction and geopolitical machination.

John W. Heisman (1869-1936) was a man of many faces whose public image has suffered from a diffused, enigmatic, and mostly misunderstood private personality. Since his death the popular reception of the memorial trophy named in his honor has also obscured his identity. In singling out his many innovative contributions to the development of intercollegiate football, this book attempts to present a true picture of Heisman as both man and coach. Because he coached at schools throughout the country during some of the most eventful years in our history, Heisman's life relates to significant political, economic, and social developments that impacted on American society as well as sports. However, this book is much more than the story of John Heisman's 36-year coaching career. It is also the story of how an indigenous American public ritual--the Big Game---came about and how college football evolved into the complex, problematic, and highly structured big business that it is today.

Uses political practices and a socially-oriented approach to explain imperial formation under the Qajars in early nineteenth-century Iran.

For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth - Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia - fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalized in Kipling's Kim. When play firstbegan the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India.This book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it. Disguised as holy men or native horsetraders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence, and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some neverreturned.

Alex Wolff canvasses the globe and travels to 16 different countries (and 10 states in the U.S.) to find out exactly why basketball has become a worldwide phenomenon. Whether it's in a pick-up game on the Royal court in Bhutan, in the heart of a former female college player of the year turned cloistered nun, in the tragedy of the legendary junior national team in war torn Yugoslavia, or in the life's work of one of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA, Alex Wolff discovers that basketball can define an individual, a race, a culture, and in some instances even a country. Fusing John Feinstein's talent for finding the human drama behind sport with Bill Bryson's travelogue style, Wolff shows how the power and love of basketball extends to the four corners of the earth and engages people of all cultures, races, genders, and generations.