Biografías, página 170 de 934

Nikolai Bukharin was a pioneer and founder member of Soviet Communism. An Old Bolshevik and a close comrade of Lenin, he was shot by Stalin, but eventually reinstated, posthumously, under Gorbachev. This collection of essays by an international range of scholars is the first systematic study of his ideas.The book analyses three major areas of his thought: economics and the peasantry, politics and international relations, and culture and science, and examines his influence both on his contemporaries and on subsequent thinkers. Anthony Kemp-Welchs extensive introduction establishes the context for this discussion, and also provides a historical evaluation of Bukharins role in relation to the emergence of Stalinism, the phenomenon that finally removed him from the political stage.Bukharins intellectual legacy is only now beginning to be appreciated fully and this book will be an important resource for anyone wanting a more thorough analysis of his intellectual contribution.Contributors: Anna di Biagio, John Biggart, V. P. Danilov, Peter Ferdinand, Neil Harding, A. Kemp-Welch, Robert Lewis, and Alec Nove.

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This is the story of one of the most powerful and influential women in Indian history, Nur Jahan. Born on a caravan traveling from Teheran to India, she went on to rule the Mughal empire - in fact if not in name - when she became the eighteenth and last wife of Emperor Jahangir. Nur Jahan grew up among noble families of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Given in marriage to a Turkish soldier of fortune known as Sher Afgan, she bore one daughter before Afgan was killed in a political quarrel in Bengal. Nur Jahan returned to court as a widowed handmaiden and was noticed four years later by the emperor at a bazaar. She and Jahangir were married in 1611 and, due to his increasing addiction to alcohol and opium, she immediately ascended into the vacuum of power. Quickly forming a ruling clique of her brother, father, and stepson (Shah Jahan), Nur Jahan influenced everything she touched with tremendous creativity and charisma. In addition to her management of affairs at court and the intrigues of financial, martial, and marital alliances, Nur Jahan had decisive influence on religious policy, artistic and architectural development, foreign trade, gardening, and the opening up of Kashmir. Barred from long-term power at Jahangirs death by her brother and stepson, Nur Jahan spent the last two decades of her life in exile with her daughter in Lahore. An intriguing, elegantly written account of Nur Jahans life and times, this book not only revises the legends that portray her as a power-hungry and malicious woman, but also investigates the paths to power available to women in Islam and Hinduism.

Marcus Porcius Cato (the Younger) is most famous for being Julius Caesars nemesis. His sustained antagonism was in large part responsible for pushing the Romans towards civil war. Yet Cato never wanted war even though he used the threat of violence against Caesar. This strategic gamble misfired as Caesar, instead of yielding, marched on Rome, hurling the Republic into a bloody civil war. Refusing to inhabit a world ruled by Caesar, Cato took his own life. Although the Roman historian Sallust identified Cato and Caesar as the two most outstanding men of their age, modern scholars have tended to dismiss Cato as a cantankerous conservative who, while colorful, was not a critical player in the events that overtook the Republic. This book, in providing a much-needed reliable biography of Cato, contradicts that assessment. In addition to being Caesars adversary, Cato is an important and fascinating historical figure in his own right, and his career-in particular, his idiosyncrasies-shed light on the changing political culture of the late Republic. Cato famously reached into Romes hallowed past and found mannerisms and habits to adopt that transformed him into the foremost champion of ancestral custom. Thus Cato did things that seemed strange and even bizarre such as wearing an old-fashioned tint of purple on his senatorial toga, refusing to ride a horse when on public business, and going about barefoot and without the usual tunic as an undergarment. His extreme conservatism-which became celebrated in later ages, especially in Enlightenment Europe and revolutionary America--was actually designed to give him a unique advantage in Roman politics. This is not to claim that he was insincere in his combative promotion of the mos maiorum (the way of the ancestors), but his political manipulation of the Romans reverence for their traditions was masterful. By providing a new, detailed portrait of Cato, the book also presents a unique narrative of the age he helped shape and inadvertently destroy.

The story of Sosipatra of Pergamum (4th century C.E.) as told by her biographer, Eunapius of Sardis in his Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists, is a remarkable tale. It is the story of an elite young girl from the area of Ephesus, who was educated by traveling oracles (daemons), and whogrew up to lead her own philosophy school on the west coast of Asia Minor. She was also a prophet of sorts, channeling divine messages to her students, family, and friends, and foretelling the future. Sosipatra of Pergamum is the first sustained, book length attempt to tell the story of this mysterious woman. It presents a rich contextualization of the brief and highly fictionalized portrait provided by Eunapius. In doing so, the book explores the cultural and political landscape of late ancientAsia Minor, especially the areas around Ephesus, Pergamum, Sardis, and Smyrna. It also discusses moments in Sosipatras life for what they reveal more generally about womens lives in Late Antiquity in the areas of childhood, education, family, household, motherhood, widowhood, and professionallife. Her career sheds light on late Roman Platonism, its engagement with religion, ritual, and magic, and the role of women in this movement. By thoroughly examining the ancient evidence, Heidi Marx recovers a hidden yet important figure from the rich intellectual traditions of the Roman NearEast.

Baptists in America began the eighteenth century a small, scattered, often harassed sect in a vast sea of religious options. By the early nineteenth century, they were a unified, powerful, and rapidly-growing denomination, poised to send missionaries to the other side of the world. One of the most influential yet neglected leaders in that transformation was Oliver Hart, longtime pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church. Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America is the first modern biography of Hart, arguably the most important evangelical leader in the pre-Revolutionary South. During his thirty years in Charleston, Hart emerged as the regions most important Baptist denominational architect. His outspoken patriotism forced him to flee Charleston when the British army invaded Charleston in 1780, but he left behind a southern Baptist people forever changed by his energetic ministry. Harts accommodating stance toward slavery enabled him and the white Baptists who followed him to reach the center of southern society, but also eventually doomed the national Baptist denomination of Harts dreams. More than a biography, Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America seamlessly intertwines Harts story with that of eighteenth-century American Baptists, providing one of the most thorough accounts to date of this important and understudied religious groups development. This book makes a significant contribution to the study of Baptist life and evangelicalism in the pre-Revolutionary South and beyond.

This is the second of two books about African-American female chemists. The first book (African-American Women Chemists, 2011) focused on the early pioneers--women chemists from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Act. African American Women Chemists in the Modern Era focuses on contemporary women who have benefited from the Civil Rights Act and are now working as chemists or chemical engineers. This book was produced by taking the oral history of women who are leaders in their field and who wanted to tell the world how they suceeded. It features eighteen amazing women in this book and each of them has a claim to fame, despite hiding in plain sight. These women reveal the history of their lives from youth to adult. Overall, Jeannette Brown aims to inspire women and minorities to pursue careers in the sciences, as evidenced by the successful career paths of the women that came before them.

A feminist, an outspoken activist, a woman without a college education, Midge Costanza was one of the unlikeliest of White House insiders. Yet in 1977 she became the first female Assistant to the President for Public Liaison under Jimmy Carter, emerging as a prominent focal point of the American culture wars. Tasked with bringing the views of special interest groups to the president, Costanza championed progressive causes even as Americans grew increasingly divided on the very issues for which she fought. In A Feminist in the White House, Doreen J. Mattingly draws on Costanzas personal papers to shed light on the life of this fascinating and controversial woman. Mattingly chronicles Costanzas dramatic rise and fall as a public figure, from her initial popularity to her ultimate clashes with Carter and his aides. While Costanza challenged Carter to support abortion rights, gay and lesbian rights, and feminist policies, Carter faced increased pressure to appease the interests of emerging Religious Right, which directly opposed Costanzas ideals. Ultimately, marginalized both within the White House and by her fellow feminists, Costanza was pressured to resign in 1978. Through the lens of Constanzas story, readers catch a unique perspective of the rise of debates which have defined the feminist movement and sexual politics to this very day. Mattingly also reveals a wider, but heretofore neglected, narrative of the complex era of gender politics in the late 1970s Washington - a history which continues to resonate in politics today. A Feminist in the White House is a must-read for anyone with an interest in sexual politics, female politicians, and presidential history.

When Rome defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra and annexed Egypt, the rule of the longest-lived of the Hellenistic dynasties and one of the most illustrious in Egyptian history came to an end. For nearly three hundred years, the Macedonian dynasty known as the Ptolemaic had controlled Egypt and its mixed population of Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians, and Jews. The founder of this dynasty, Ptolemy I (367-283/2 BC), was a boyhood friend and eventually personal bodyguard of Alexander the Great, who fought alongside Alexander in the epic battles that toppled the Persian Empire, and brought about a Macedonian Empire stretching from Greece to India. After Alexanders death, his senior staff carved up his vast empire, with Ptolemy gaining control of Egypt. There he built up his power base in Egypt, introduced administrative and economic reforms that made his family fabulously wealthy, and by extending Egypts possessions overseas founded an Egyptian Empire. In addition to his political and military prowess, Ptolemy was an intellectual, who patronized the mathematician Euclid, wrote an important account of Alexanders campaign in Asia, and established the famous Library and Museum at Alexandria, which were the cultural heart of the entire Hellenistic Age. Ptolemy ruled Egypt until he died of natural causes in his early eighties. Ian Worthingtons Ptolemy I--the first full-length biography of its kind in English--traces the life of Ptolemy from his boyhood to his reign as king and pharaoh of Egypt. Throughout, he highlights the achievements that profoundly shaped both Egypts history and that of the early Hellenistic world. He argues that Ptolemy was by far the greatest of Alexanders Successors, and that he was a conscious imperialist who even boldly attempted to seize Greece and Macedonia, and be a second Alexander.

This is the story of one of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in modern French history. Drawing upon a wealth of archival and private documentation, Gwynne Lewis uncovers the history of Pierre-Francois Tubeuf and assesses his conntribution to the development of industry in France. Professor Lewis explores the relationship between seigneurial, proto-industrial, and modern forms of capitalism in the Cevennes region of south-eastern France in the eighteenth century, and demonstrates the international scope of proto-industrialization. This subtle and scholarly study seeks to unravel the complex problems associated with the impact of the French Revolution on the processes of modern French capitalism. Professor Lewis traces the responses of a wide variety of individuals, including Tubeuf and his greatest rival, the marechal de Castries. He examines the epic struggle of these two powerful men for control of the rich coal-mines of the region, and their legacy to succeeding generations.