Nicholas J. Saunders

Trench art is the evocative name given to a dazzling array of objects made from the waste of industrialized war. Each object, whether an engraved shell case, cigarette lighter or a pen made from shrapnel, tells a unique and moving story about its maker. For the first time, this book explores in-depth the history and cultural importance behind these ambiguous art forms. Not only do they symbolize human responses to the atrocities of war, but they also act as mediators between soldiers and civilians, individuals and industrial society, and, most importantly, between the living and the dead. Trench art resonates most obviously with the terror of endless bombardment, night raids, gas attacks and the bestial nature of trench life. It grew in popularity between 1919 and 1939 when the bereaved embarked on battlefield pilgrimages and returned with objects intended to keep alive the memory of loved ones. The term trench art is, however, misleading, as it does not simply refer to materials found in the trenches. It describes a diverse range of objects that have in some way emerged from the experience of war all over the world. Many distinctive objects, for example, were made during conflicts in Bosnia, Vietnam, Northern Ireland and Korea. Surprisingly, trench art predates World War I and it can be made in a number of earlier wars such as the Crimean War, the American Civil War, and the Boer War. Saunders looks at the broader issues of what is meant by trench art, what it was before the trenches and how it fits in with other art movements, as well as the specific materials used in making it. He suggests that it can be seen as a bridge between the nineteenth century certainties and the fragmented industrialized values and ideals of the modern world. This long overdue study offers an original and informative look at one of the most arresting forms of art. Spanning from 1800 to the present day, its analysis of art, human experience, and warfare will pave the way for new research and will be of great interest to cultural and military historians, anthropologists, art historians and collectors.

In the aftermath of the horrific trench warfare of the First World War, the poppy sprouting across the killing fields of France and Belgium, then immortalised in John McCraes moving poem became a worldwide icon. Yet the poppy has a longer history, as the tell-tale sign of human cultivation of the land, of the ravages of war and of the desire to escape the earthly realm through inspired Romantic opium dreams or the grim reality of morphine drips. This is a story spanning three thousand years, from the ancient Egyptian fights over prized medicinal potions to the addicted veterans returning home from the American Civil War, from the British political machinations during the Opium Wars with China to the struggle to end Afghanistans tribal narcotics trade. Through it all, there stands the transformative poppy.Nicholas J. Saunders brings us the definitive history of this ever-enduring but humble flower of the fields, a story that is at turns tragic, eye-opening and, most essentially, life-affirming a gift to us all.

2000 años tras la tumba del conquistadorAlejandro Magno es una figura sobresaliente de la historia universal, cuyo ingenio y extravagante personalidad nunca se han olvidado. Sin embargo, y a pesar de la eterna fascinacion que ha suscitado, se desconoce donde esta enterrado. La busqueda de la tumba de Alejandro comenzo poco despues de su muerte no documentada en el año 353 a. C. y prosigue hoy en dia.Esta obra no es solo la historia de una breve y espectacular vida, tambien es la historia de una muerte crucial e inexplicable, de multiples entierros y de una busqueda que parece interminable del destino final de un hombre que llego a considerarse un dios.

Pese a que la bibliografía sobre traducción y adaptación de canciones es bastante escasa, desde hace unos quince años vienen perfilándose algunas líneas de investigación dedicadas casi en exclusiva a este ambito traductologico, englobadas, no obstante, dentro de la traduccion audiovisual y las mas de las veces plasmadas en forma de articulos. El presente libro pretende sentar, de alguna manera, las bases teoricas para aproximarse al estudio de las adaptaciones musicales atendiendo a distintos ejes: el fonetico-musical, el lexico-semantico y el sintactico, y establecer unos parametros de referencia para acometer y valorar con suficientes garantias la labor del adaptador de canciones. Para tal fin, este analisis se nutre de una profusa seleccion de ejemplos que consideramos que cumplen los parametros requeridos.