bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Blood count-derived inflammatory markers predict time to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin failure in high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer
Authors: Ślusarczyk Aleksander , Piotr Zapała , Garbas Karolina , Zapała Łukasz , Borkowski Tomasz , Radziszewski Piotr
Published: May 2021

Introduction

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) treatment failure remains a significant clinical problem in patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and Spanish Urological Club for Oncological Treatment (CUETO) risk scores remain the most commonly used models in the prediction of NMIBC recurrence and progression. On the other hand, well-established predictors of BCG failure are still lacking. Our aim was to evaluate the utility of blood count-derived inflammatory markers for BCG failure prediction in patients with high-risk NMIBC.

Material and methods

One hundred and eighty-three consecutive patients with high-risk NMIBC, who underwent transurethral resection of the bladder tumour (TURBT) and were further treated with BCG instillations were included in the study. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin failure was retrospectively determined based on European Association of Urology 2019 guidelines. Differences in BCG failure-free survival were assessed using the log-rank test. Logistic regression was utilized for uni- and multivariate analysis.

Results

Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with a high preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR > 2.3), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR > 147), neutrophil-to-erythrocyte ratio (NER > 0.93), higher systemic inflammatory marker (SIM) score and with a low lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR < 2.55) had shorter time to BCG failure (p < 0.05). In the multivariate model, all markers except for LMR remained a significant adjunct to the CUETO recurrence risk score when predicting BCG failure.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates the utility of blood count-derived inflammatory markers in the prediction of BCG failure in high-risk NMIBC. Implementation of NLR, PLR, NER and SIM score might be of clinical value especially when combined with the CUETO scoring system.
Coloniality and the Rise of Liberation Thinking during the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Ward Thomas
Published: May 2021

This book delves into the inadequately explored, liberative side of Humanism during the late Renaissance. While some long-sixteenth-century thinking anticipates twentieth-century Liberation Theology, a broader description is simply "liberation thinking," which embraces its diverse, timeless, and sometimes nontheological aspects.

Two moments frame the treatment of American colonialism’s physical and mental pathways and the liberative response to them, known as liberation thinking. These are St. Thomas More’s Utopia, published in 1516, and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s thousand-page Nueva crónica y buen gobierno, completed one hundred years later. These works and others by Erasmus and Bartolomé de las Casas trace the development of the idea of human liberation in the face of degrading chattel and encomienda slavery as well as the peonage that gave rise to the hacienda system in the Americas. Catholic humanists such as More, Erasmus, Las Casas, and Guaman Poma developed arguments, theories, and even theology that attempted to deconstruct those subordinating structures.
The Iberian Peninsula between 300 and 850
Authors: Martínez Jiménez  , Sastre de Diego Isaac , Tejerizo Carlos
Published: May 2021

The vast transformation of the Roman world at the end of antiquity has been a subject of broad scholarly interest for decades, but until now no book has focused specifically on the Iberian Peninsula in the period as seen through an archaeological lens. Given the sparse documentary evidence available, archaeology holds the key to a richer understanding of the developments of the period, and this book addresses a number of issues that arise from analysis of the available material culture, including questions of the process of Christianisation and Islamisation, continuity and abandonment of Roman urban patterns and forms, the end of villas and the growth of villages, and the adaptation of the population and the elites to the changing political circumstances.
Movie Circuits
Authors: Menotti Gabriel
Published: May 2021

Movie Circuits: Curatorial Approaches to Cinema Technology attempts to grasp media in the making. It delves into the underbelly of cinema in order to explore how images circulate and apparatus crystallize across different material formations. The indisciplinary experience of curators and projectionists provides a means to suspend traditional film studies and engage with the medium as it happens, as a continuing, self-differing mess. From contemporary art exhibitions to pirate screenings, research and practice come together in a vibrant form of media scholarship, built from the angle of cinema’s functionaries — a call to reinvent the medium from within.
Remediating McLuhan
Authors: Cavell Richard
Published: May 2021

While current scholarly interest has assured Marshall McLuhan's (1911-80) foundational status as a media theorist, much room still exists for further exploration of his writings, which have taken on additional layers of significance in our contemporary digital moment. Holding that media were extensions of the human, McLuhan also posited that the human was a product of technology. Ranging across fields as diverse as art history, biotechnology, and beyond, this collection of essays considers McLuhan's ground-breaking approach within a number of new contexts and explores the distinguishing features of his media theory.
Structure and Features of Anna Komnene’s Alexiad
Authors: Vilimonovic Larisa
Published: May 2021

The Alexiad, written in the twelfth century by a Byzantine princess, Anna Komnene, tells the story of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, offering accounts of its political and military history, including its involvement with the First Crusade. Structure and Features of Anna Komnene’s Alexiad: Emergence of a Personal History introduces new methods of research for studying the Alexiad, aiming primarily at analysing Anna Komnene’s literary expression. The book’s approach focuses mainly on the author, the subject, the structure and the inner stylistic features, as well as the genre itself. The result is a substantially new outlook on the main Byzantine historiographical work of the twelfth century.
The Velislav Bible, Finest Picture-Bible of the Late Middle Ages
Authors: Panusková Lenka
Published: May 2021

The Velislav Bible is one of the most beautiful medieval Bohemian manuscripts. It is a heavily illustrated manuscript that contains only short selections of the text, that instruct the reader about the story depicted. The last picture in the manuscript shows a man kneeling before St. Catherine, identified as Velislav, hence the name of the manuscript. The Bible comprises stories from the Books of Genesis and Exodus, visions of Daniel, and the stories of Samson as well as of Judith. The narrative of the Antichrist precedes the Christological part. The New Testament continues with the Book of Revelation, stories following the Ascension of Christ, and key events from the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul. The manuscript closes with the legend of St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia. The essays in The Velislav Bible, Finest Picture-Bible of the Late Middle Ages: Biblia depicta as Devotional, Mnemonic and Study Tool analyze the manuscript from historical, textual, art-historical, and iconographic perspectives. However, a shared concern of all the authors is to think about its functions. An edition of the Latin titulis is being published here for the first time.
Globalizing Asian Religions
Authors: Smith Wendy , Nakamaki Hirochika , Matsunaga Louella , Ramsay Tamasin , Matsunaga Louella , Hirochika Nakamaki Emeritus , Smith Wendy , Ramsay Tamasin , Sakurai Yoshihide , Clarke Peter , Shimazono Susumu , Penny Benjamin , Shamsul A.B. , Andaya Barbara , Nobutaka Inoue Emeritus , Yano Hidetake , Matsuoka Hideaki , Iwai Hiroshi , Moriya Tomoe , Yamada Masanobu , Pereira Ronan
Published: May 2021

This book brings together the insights of theories of management and marketing to give an original view of the organizational dynamics of globalizing Asian New Religious Movements (NRMs) and established religions. Seventeen authors in this collection have recast their data on individual Asian religions and social movements to focus on the way these organizations are managed in an overseas or global context, by examining the structure, organizational culture, management style, leadership principles and marketing strategies of the religious movements they had hitherto studied from the perspective of the sociology of religion, or religious studies. The book examines strategies for global proselytization and outcomes in a variety of local ethnographic contexts, thus contributing to the scholarly work on the ‘glocalization’ of religions.
Held's History of Sumbawa
Authors: Hägerdal Hans
Published: May 2021

Sumbawa is a medium-sized island in eastern Indonesia which has a particularly interesting past. In the premodern era it lay on the trade routes that connected the north coasts of the islands of Melaka and Java with the spice-producing areas in Maluku, while Sumbawa itself exported horses, sappan wood, and rice. Its recorded history covers periods of Hindu-Javanese influence, the Southeast Asian Age of Commerce, early Islamisation, and Dutch colonialism. Dutch Indologist Gerrit Jan Held wrote this book in 1955 but died before it could be published; this volume represents its first translation into English, and includes extensive footnotes that set it in context of current research.
Secular Power and Sacral Authority in Medieval East-Central Europe
Authors: Jovanovic Kosana , Miljan Suzana , Antonić Nikolina , M. János , B. Éva , Bertovic Kristian , Cepetić Maja , Gál Judit , Ivanović Miloš , Isailovic Neven , Veljović Ivan , Kádas István , Matic Tomislav , Szende Katalin , Seznam Silvie , Zovko Valentina
Published: May 2021

This book brings together a team of scholars representing a broad range of interests and new approaches in medieval studies to explore the interactions of secular power and sacral authority in central and southeastern Europe in the period. Contributors present new research on the region's political and legal history, nobility and government institutions, war and diplomacy, literature and literacy, sacred and secular art, archaeological research, heritage studies, and much more.
Art and Politics
Authors: Segal Joes
Published: May 2021

In Art and Politics, Segal explores the collision of politics and art in seven enticing essays. The book explores the position of art and artists under a number of different political regimes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, traveling around the world to consider how art and politics have interacted and influenced each other in different conditions.

Joes Segal takes you on a journey to the Third Reich, where Emil Nolde supported the regime while being called degenerate; shows us Diego Rivera creating Marxist murals in Mexico and the United States for anti-Marxist governments and clients; ties Jackson Pollock's drip paintings in their Cold War context to both the FBI and the CIA; and considers the countless images of Mao Zedong in China as unlikely witnesses of radical political change.
New Media Archaeologies
Authors: Roberts Ben , Goodall Mark , Strauven Wanda , Fickers Andreas , Oever Annie , Elsaesser Thomas , Gazzard Alison , Buse Peter , Piccini Angela , Parikka Jussi
Published: May 2021

This collection of essays highlights innovative work in the developing field of media archaeology. It explores the relationship between theory and practice and the relationship between media archaeology and other disciplines. There are three sections to the collection proposing new possible fields of research for media studies: Media Archaeological Theory; Experimental Media Archaeology; Media Archaeology at the Interface. The book includes essays from acknowledged experts in this expanding field, such as Thomas Elsaesser, Wanda Strauven and Jussi Parikka.
Visual Arts, Representations and Interventions in Contemporary China
Authors: Valjakka Minna , Wang Meiqin , Zhang Zhen , Marinelli Maurizio , Jiehong Jiang , Wang Meiqin , Landsberger Stefan , Lin Nancy P. , Berry Chris , Pernin Judith , Parke Elizabeth , Valjakka Minna
Published: May 2021

This edited volume provides a multifaceted investigation of the dynamic interrelations between visual arts and urbanization in contemporary Mainland China with a focus on unseen representations and urban interventions brought about by the transformations of the urban space and the various problems associated with it. Through a wide range of illuminating case studies, the authors demonstrate how innovative artistic and creative practices initiated by various stakeholders not only raise critical awareness on socio-political issues of Chinese urbanization but also actively reshape the urban living spaces. The formation of new collaborations, agencies, aesthetics and cultural production sites facilitate diverse forms of cultural activism as they challenge the dominant ways of interpreting social changes and encourage civic participation in the production of alternative meanings in and of the city. Their significance lies in their potential to question current values and power structures as well as to foster new subjectivities for disparate individuals and social groups.
Contacts and Networks in the Baltic Sea Region
Authors: Bertell Maths , Frog  , Willson Kendra , Kouvola Karolina , Harvilahti Lauri , Slupecki Leszek , Kitzler Laila , Podosinov Alexander , Aalto Sirpa , Jackson Tatjana , Korpela Jukka , Bentlin Mikko
Published: May 2021

Since prehistoric times, the Baltic Sea has functioned as a northern mare nostrum — a crucial nexus that has shaped the languages, folklore, religions, literature, technology, and identities of the Germanic, Finnic, Sámi, Baltic, and Slavic peoples. This anthology explores the networks among those peoples. The contributions to Contacts and Networks in the Baltic Sea Region: Austmarr as a Northern mare nostrum, ca. 500-1500 ad address different aspects of cultural contacts around and across the Baltic from the perspectives of history, archaeology, linguistics, literary studies, religious studies, and folklore. The introduction offers a general overview of crosscultural contacts in the Baltic Sea region as a framework for contextualizing the volume’s twelve chapters, organized in four sections. The first section concerns geographical conceptions as revealed in Old Norse and in classical texts through place names, terms of direction, and geographical descriptions. The second section discusses the movement of cultural goods and persons in connection with elite mobility, the slave trade, and rune-carving practice. The third section turns to the history of language contacts and influences, using examples of Finnic names in runic inscriptions and Low German loanwords in Finnish. The final section analyzes intercultural connections related to mythology and religion spanning Baltic, Finnic, Germanic, and Sámi cultures. Together these diverse articles present a dynamic picture of this distinctive part of the world.
Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire
Authors: Kramer Rutger
Published: May 2021

By the early ninth century, the responsibility for a series of social, religious and political transformations had become an integral part of running the Carolingian empire. This became especially clear when, in 813/4, Louis the Pious and his court seized the momentum generated by their predecessors and broadened the scope of these reforms ever further. These reformers knew they represented a movement greater than the sum of its parts; the interdependence between those wielding imperial authority and those bearing responsibility for ecclesiastical reforms was driven by comprehensive, yet still surprisingly diverse expectations. Taking this diversity as a starting point, this book takes a fresh look at the optimistic first decades of the ninth century. Extrapolating from a series of detailed case studies rather than presenting a new grand narrative, it offers new interpretations of contemporary theories of personal improvement and institutional correctio, and shows the self-awareness of its main instigators as they pondered what it meant to be a good Christian in a good Christian empire.
Images of Dutchness
Authors: Dellmann Sarah
Published: May 2021

Why do early films present the Netherlands as a country full of canals and windmills, where people wear traditional costumes and wooden shoes, while industries and modern urban life are all but absent? Images of Dutchness investigates the roots of this visual repertoire from diverse sources, ranging from magazines to tourist brochures, from anthropological treatises to advertising trade cards, stereoscopic photographs, picture postcards, magic lantern slide sets and films of early cinema. This richly illustrated book provides an in-depth study of the fascinating corpus of popular visual media and their written comments that are studied for the first time. Through the combined analysis of words and images, the author identifies not only what has been considered Ÿtypically DutchŒ in the long nineteenth century, but also provides new insights into the logic and emergence of national clichés in the Western world.
Fish Trade in Medieval North Atlantic Societies
Authors: Dufeu Val
Published: May 2021

Val Dufeu here reconstructs settlement patterns of fishing communities in Viking Age Iceland and proposes socio-economic and environmental models relevant to any study of the Vikings or the North Atlantic. She integrates written sources, geoarchaeological data, and zooarchaeological data to examine how fishing propelled political change in the North Atlantic. The evolution of survival fishing to internal fish markets to overseas fish trade mirrors wider social changes in the Vikings’ world.
Social Dynamics in the Northwest Frontiers of the Late Roman Empire
Authors: Roymans Nico , Heeren Stijn , Clercq Wim , Heather Peter , Brulet Raymond , Hunter Fraser , Painter Kenneth , Thienen Vince , Vanderhoeven Alain , Esmonde Cleary Simon , Collins Rob
Published: May 2021

This volume explores the final phase of the West Roman Empire, particularly the changing interactions between the imperial authority and external 'barbarian' groups in the northwest frontiers of the empire during the fourth and fifth centuries. The contributions present valuable overviews of recent archaeological research combined with innovative theoretical discussions. Key topics include the movement of precious metals, trajectories of imperial power, the archaeology of migration, and material culture in relation to debates about ethnicity.
May '68
Authors: Pagis Julie ,   Presses de la Fondation Nationale de Sciences Politiques, Whittaker Vicki
Published: May 2021

Much as in other locations around the world, civil uprising, particularly rooted in the activism of young people and students, plagued France during May of 1968. Massive strikes and occupations succeeded in paralysing France’s economy and bringing the country to the verge of a leftist revolution. This book studies the life trajectories of many ordinary protesters during the period, using statistics and personal narratives to analyse how this activism arose, its impact on people’s personal and professional lives, and its transmission through familial generations.
Imams in Western Europe
Authors: Hashas Mohammed , Ruiter Jan Jaap , Valdemar Vinding Niels , Auda Jasser , Alicino Francesco , Borrillo Sara , Boender Welmoet , Laurence Jonathan , Baylocq Cédric , Carvalho Claudia , Pallavicini Yahya , Ferreiro Galguera Juan , Ebbiary Alyaa , Asri Farid , Sunier Thijl , Seze Romain , Mansour Ali , Larsson Göran , Jouanneau Solenne , Rhazzali Khalid , Martikainen Tuomas , Latvio Riitta , Hajji Khalid
Published: May 2021

As European Muslims and Muslims in the Middle East diverge, imams in Europe have emerged as major agents of religious authority who shape Islam’s presence in Western societies. This volume examines the theoretical and practical questions concerning the evolving role of imams in Europe. To what extent do imams act as intermediaries between European states and Muslim communities? Do states subsidise imam training? How does institutionalisation of Islam differ between European states?
Darling Queen - Dear old Bones
Authors: Collingwood Vivien , Heuven-van Nes Emerentia
Published: May 2021

This book presents a remarkable collection of letters from Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962) and her governess, Elizabeth Saxton Winter (1855-1936), an Englishwoman. The earliest letters are those of a child, sent to Miss Winter when she was on holiday in England, but after Wilhelmina's education was finished in 1896 and she had no more need of a governess, she continued to write to Winter weekly. Her long letters cover a wide range of subjects: including her perspective on people and events, encounters with famous individuals, kings and emperors, but also sad times and loneliness, her belief in the Almighty, and above all, her development to her role as queen - her inauguration was in 1898 - and the high seriousness with which she regarded her duties. The resulting volume offers unprecedented insight into her life as child of her mother queen-regent Emma, as queen, as wife of prince Hendrik and as mother of princess Juliana.
Shapeshifters in Medieval North Atlantic Literature
Authors: Barreiro Santiago Francisco , Cordo Russo Luciana Mabel , Borysławski Rafał , Jakobsson Ármann , Merkelbach Rebecca , Pedersen Camilla With , Disalvo Santiago
Published: May 2021

Representations of shapeshifters are prominent in medieval culture and they are particularly abundant in the vernacular literatures of the societies around the North Sea. Some of the figures in these stories remain well known in later folklore and often even in modern media, such as werewolves, dragons, berserkir and bird-maidens. Incorporating studies about Old English, Norse, Latin, Irish, and Welsh literature, this collection of essays marks an important new contribution to the study of medieval shapeshifters. Each essay highlights how shapeshifting cannot be studied in isolation, but intersects with many other topics, such as the supernatural, monstrosity, animality, gender and identity. Contributors to Shapeshifters in Medieval North Atlantic Literature come from different intellectual traditions, embracing a multidisciplinary approach combining influences from literary criticism, history, philology, and anthropology.
The Fonte Gaia from Renaissance to Modern Times
Authors: Scappini Chiara E. , Boffa David
Published: May 2021

The Fonte Gaia from Renaissance to Modern Times examines the history of Siena's famous public fountain, from its fifteenth-century origins to its eventual replacement by a copy in the nineteenth century (and the modern fate of both). The book explores how both the Risorgimento and the Symbolist movements have shaped our perceptions of the Italian Renaissance, as the Quattrocento was filtered through the lens of contemporary art and politics.
The Webcam as an Emerging Cinematic Medium
Authors: Albuquerque Paula
Published: May 2021

All the world’s a stage - literally so, given the ubiquitous presence of webcams recording daily life in cities. This footage, allegedly documentary, recreates cities as cinematic environments as people interact with the multitudes of cameras and screens around them. Paula Albuquerque’s original research and experimental films, presented in this groundbreaking book, expose fictionalising elements in archival webcams and explore video surveillance as an urban condition that influences both perceptions of the past and visions of the future.
Ideas of the City in Asian Settings
Authors: Bekkering Henco , Esposito Adèle , Goldblum Charles , Chowdhury Sayandeb , Seekins Donald M. , Morley Ian , Zandonai Sheila S. , Gosh Anindita , Ng Kenny K.K. , Hahn Johanna , Tjoa Pawda , Weng Hew Wai , Yang Chamee , Schenk Hans
Published: May 2021

At a time when intense dynamics of urban development of Asian cities puzzle and disorient, Ideas of the City in Asian Settings offers knowledge about the concepts, representations, and ideas that lie beneath the historical and contemporary production of cities in Asia, in order to deepen our understanding of the processes and meanings of urban development in the continent. The book sheds more light on the vast array of rules and innovations and aspirations that make cities into complex objects that are continuously ‘in the making’. Because Asian cities have experienced unprecedented dynamics of urban development during the last fifty years, they are considered as crucial places to question the perspectives that multiple actors project onto changing urban environments, as well as the evolution of the role of cities in globalisation.
The Cistercian Reform and the Art of the Book in Twelfth-Century France
Authors: Reilly Diane
Published: May 2021

This book is a study of the programmatic oral performance of the written word and its impact on art and text. Communal singing and reading of the Latin texts that formed the core of Christian ritual and belief consumed many hours of the Benedictine monk's day. These texts-read and sung out loud, memorized, and copied into manuscripts-were often illustrated by the very same monks who participated in the choir liturgy. The meaning of these illustrations sometimes only becomes clear when they are read in the context of the texts these monks heard read. The earliest manuscripts of Cîteaux, copied and illuminated at the same time that the new monastery's liturgy was being reformed, demonstrate the transformation of aural experience to visual and textual legacy.
Kurt Baschwitz
Authors: Ginneken Jaap
Published: May 2021

In this accessible, unique study of a forgotten but noteworthy figure, the author tells the story of the life of Kurt Baschwitz (1886—1968), a scholar who fled from the Nazis. He wrote six books, never translated into English, on four related themes: the press, propaganda, politics, and persecution. Baschwitz independently developed concepts that are now seen as key to communication science and social psychology, and the author places Baschwitz’s ideas in the wider context of his dramatic life and times.
Papacy, Crusade, and Christian-Muslim Relations
Authors: Bird Jessalynn , Lower Michael , Halliburton Ben , Parker Matthew , Peters Edward , Skinner Mary , Vandeburie Jan , Rubenstein Jay , Fonnesberg-Schmidt Iben , Cassidy-Welch Megan , W. Smith Thomas
Published: May 2021

This book examines the role of the papacy and the crusade in the religious life of the late twelfth through late thirteenth centuries and beyond. Throughout the book, the contributors ask several important questions. Was Innocent III more theologian than lawyer-pope and how did his personal experience of earlier crusade campaigns inform his own vigorous promotion of the crusades? How did the outlook and policy of Honorius III differ from that of Innocent III in crucial areas including the promotion of multiple crusades (including the Fifth Crusade and the crusade of William of Montferrat) and how were both pope’s mindsets manifested in writings associated with them? What kind of men did Honorius III and Innocent III select to promote their plans for reform and crusade? How did the laity make their own mark on the crusade through participation in the peace movements which were so crucial to the stability in Europe essential for enabling crusaders to fulfill their vows abroad and through joining in the liturgical processions and prayers deemed essential for divine favor at home and abroad? Further essays explore the commemoration of crusade campaigns through the deliberate construction of physical and literary paths of remembrance. Yet while the enemy was often constructed in a deliberately polarizing fashion, did confessional differences really determine the way in which Latin crusaders and their descendants interacted with the Muslim world or did a more pragmatic position of ‘rough tolerance’ shape mundane activities including trade agreements and treaties?
Religion, Class, and the Postwar Development of the Dutch Welfare State
Authors: Oude Nijhuis Dennie
Published: May 2021

This book examines how the Netherlands managed to create and maintain one of the world’s most generous and inclusive welfare systems despite having been dominated by Christian-democratic or ŸconservativeŒ, rather than socialist dominated governments, for most of the post-war period. It emphasizes that such systems have strong consequences for the distribution of income and risk among different segments of society and argues that they could consequently only emerge in countries where middle class groups were unable to utilize their key electoral and strong labor market position to mobilize against the adverse consequences of redistribution for them. By illustrating their key role in the coming about of solidaristic welfare reform in the Netherlands, the book also offers a novel view of the roles of Christian-democracy and the labor union movement in the development of modern welfare states. By highlighting how welfare reform contributed to the employment miracle of the 1990s, the book sheds new light on how countries are able to combine high levels of welfare generosity and solidarity with successful macro-economic performance.
State and Crafts in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Authors: Moll-Murata Christine
Published: May 2021

This book, full of quantitative evidence and limited-circulation archives, details manufacturing and the beginnings of industrialisation in China from 1644 to 1911. It thoroughly examines the interior organisation of public craft production and the complementary activities of the private sector. It offers detailed knowledge of shipbuilding and printing. Moreover, it contributes to the research of labour history and the rise of capitalism in China through its examination of living conditions, working conditions, and wages.
The Construction of Ottonian Kingship
Authors: Grabowski Antoni
Published: May 2021

German historians long assumed that the German Kingdom was created with Henry the Fowler's coronation in 919. The reigns of both Henry the Fowler, and his son Otto the Great, were studied and researched mainly through Widukind of Corvey's chronicle Res Gestae Saxonicae. There was one source on Ottonian times that was curiously absent from most of the serious research: Liudprand of Cremona's Antapodosis. The study of this chronicle leads to a reappraisal of the tenth century in Western Europe showing how mythology of the dynasty was constructed. By looking at the later reception (through later Middle Ages and then on 19th and 20th century historiography) the author showcases the longevity of Ottonian myths and the ideological expressions of the tenth century storytellers.
The Universe, Life and Everything
Authors: Durston Sarah , Baggerman Ton
Published: May 2021

Our current understanding of our world is nearly 350 years old. It stems from the ideas of Descartes and Newton and has brought us many great things, including modern science and increases in wealth, health and everyday living standards. Furthermore, it is so ingrained in our daily lives that we have forgotten it is a paradigm, not a fact. There are, however, some problems with it. First, there is no satisfactory explanation for why we have consciousness and experience meaning in our lives. Second, modern-day physics tells us that observations depend on characteristics of the observer at the large, cosmic, and small, subatomic scales. Third, ongoing humanitarian and environmental crises show us that our world is vastly interconnected. Our understanding of reality is expanding to incorporate these issues. In The Universe, Life and Everything . . . Dialogues on our Changing Understanding of Reality, some of the scholars at the forefront of this change, from the fields of physics, psychology, and social sciences, discuss the direction it is taking and its urgency.
The Enlightenment's Animals
Authors: Wolloch Nathaniel
Published: May 2021

In The Enlightenment’s Animals Nathaniel Wolloch takes a broad view of changing conceptions of animals in European culture during the long eighteenth century. Combining discussions of intellectual history, the history of science, the history of historiography, the history of economic thought, and, not least, art history, this book describes how animals were discussed and conceived in different intellectual and artistic contexts underwent a dramatic shift during this period. While in the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century the main focus was on the sensory and cognitive characteristics of animals, during the late Enlightenment a new outlook emerged, emphasizing their conception as economic resources. Focusing particularly on seventeenth-century Dutch culture, and on the Scottish Enlightenment, Wolloch discusses developments in other countries as well, presenting a new look at a topic of increasing importance in modern scholarship.
The Mass Market for History Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam
Authors: Jager Angela
Published: May 2021

Millions of paintings were produced in the Dutch Republic. The works that we know and see in museums today constitute only the tip of the iceberg — the top-quality part. But what else was painted? This book explores the low-quality end of the seventeenth-century art market and outlines the significance of that production in the genre of history paintings, which in traditional art historical studies, is usually linked to high prices, famous painters, and elite buyers. Angela Jager analyses the producers, suppliers, and consumers active in this segment to gain insight into this enormous market for cheap history paintings. What did the supply consist of in terms of quantity, quality, price, and subject? Who produced all these works and which production methods did these painters employ? Who distributed these paintings, to whom, and which strategies were used to market them? Who bought these paintings, and why?
Art, Honor and Success in The Dutch Republic
Authors: Noorman Judith
Published: May 2021

Focusing on the interrelationship between Jacob van Loo's art, honor, and career, this book argues that Van Loo's lifelong success and unblemished reputation were by no means incompatible, as art historians have long assumed, with his specialization in painting nudes and his conviction for manslaughter. Van Loo's iconographic specialty - the nude - allowed his clientele to present themselves as judges of beauty and display their mastery of decorum, while his portraiture perfectly expressed his clients' social and political ambitions. Van Loo's honor explains why his success lasted a lifetime, whereas that of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Vermeer did not. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book reinterprets the manslaughter case as a sign that Van Loo's elite patrons recognized him as a gentleman and highly-esteemed artist.
Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World
Authors: Rantala Jussi , Harlow Mary , Hänninen Marja-Leena , Larsson Lovén Lena , Melotti Marxiano , Karivieri Arja , Laes Christian , Joska Sanna , Berg Ria , Peltonen Jaakkojuhani , Laurence Ray , Rantala Jussi , Vuolanto Ville
Published: May 2021

This volume approaches three key concepts in Roman history — gender, memory and identity — and demonstrates the significance of their interaction in all social levels and during all periods of Imperial Rome. When societies, as well as individuals, form their identities, remembrance and references to the past play a significant role. The aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World is to cast light on the constructing and the maintaining of both public and private identities in the Roman Empire through memory, and to highlight, in particular, the role of gender in that process. While approaching this subject, the contributors to this volume scrutinise both the literature and material sources, pointing out how widespread the close relationship between gender, memory and identity was. A major aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World as a whole is to point out the significance of the interaction between these three concepts in both the upper and lower levels of Roman society, and how it remained an important question through the period from Augustus right into Late Antiquity.
The Unfinished History of European Integration
Authors: Meurs Wim , Bruin Robin , Grift Liesbeth , Hoetink Carla , Leeuwen Karin , Reijnen
Published: May 2021

When the Treaty of Lisbon went into effect in December 2009, the event seemed to mark the beginning of a longer phase of institutional consolidation for the EU. Since 2010, however, the EU has faced multiple crises, which have rocked its foundations and deeply challenged the narrative of 'the end of the history of integration'. The military crisis in eastern Ukraine and the refugee crisis call for a joint approach, but in practice reveal the difficulty of maintaining even the appearance of European solidarity and political unanimity. The financial and socio-economic crisis in southern Europe and Brexit present the EU with the latest set of challenges. If seventy years of European integration have taught us anything, it is that fundamental crises as well as moments of rapid institutional change form integral parts of its history. 'The Unfinished History of European Integration' presents the reader with historical and theoretical knowledge on which well-founded judgements can be based.
The Dutch Polder Model in science and research
Authors: Saarloos Wim , Dijck José
Published: May 2021

Scientific research in the Netherlands is doing remarkably well. Dutch researchers, universities and institutes reside at or near the top of international rankings.

In this essay, José van Dijck and Wim van Saarloos, the president and vice-president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), explore how such a small country could become a global player in science and research. They highlight interconnectedness, collaboration, trust, and interwoven research and education among the quintessentially Dutch factors that paved the way to the success.

They also show, however, that the country's efforts to reach the top sometimes chip away at these trusted foundations. Investments in its research base are lagging, and some typically Dutch strengths have recently come under pressure.

They close off with some suggestions on how the country may turn the tide, prolong its great achievements, and ensure a leading role for Dutch research in the nation's future.
Managing Authentic Relationships
Authors: Wijers Jean Paul ,   Institute of Strategic Relationship Management
Published: May 2021

In an increasingly connected world, Strategic Relationship Management is a vital capability for successful organizations. The book Managing Authentic Relationships; Facing New Challenges in a Changing Context focuses on building and managing a strong network and reciprocal relationships for the entire organization by implementing a professional relationship management approach at strategic, tactical and operational level.

Professional relationship management makes valuable and measurable contributions to the strategic goals of an organization by: Expanding the organization's strategy to a Relationship Management Strategy; Efficiently managing relationships and correctly mapping stakeholders; Embedding clear responsibility for relationship management throughout the organization; Measuring results and calculating the Return-on-Relationship; Developing strong networking skills and networkers who are able to act as eyes and ears for the organization; Organizing effective networking activities with measurable results.

This book also offers a holistic view. Managing authentic relationships requires a shared understanding of what relationships are. It is impossible to develop successful relationship management without authentic relationships based on trust and reciprocity.
Christian Divination in Late Antiquity
Authors: Wisniewski Robert
Published: May 2021

In Late Antiquity, people commonly sought to acquire hidden knowledge about the past, the present, and the future, using a variety of methods. While Christians acknowledged that these methods could work effectively, in theory they were not allowed to make use of them. In practice, they behaved in diverse ways. Some probably renounced any hope of learning about the future. Others resorted to old practices regardless of the consequences. A third option was to construct divinatory methods that were effective yet religiously tolerable. This book is devoted to the study of such practices and their practitioners, and provides answers to essential questions concerning Christian divination. How did it develop? How closely were Christian methods related to older, traditional practices? Who used them and in which situations? Who offered oracular services? And how were they perceived by clerics, intellectuals, and common people?
The Pictorial Art of El Greco
Authors: Stoenescu Livia
Published: May 2021

The Pictorial Art of El Greco: Transmaterialities, Temporalities, and Media investigates El Greco’s pictorial art as foundational to the globalising trends manifested in the visual culture of early modernity. It also exposes the figurative, semantic, and allegorical senses that El Greco created to challenge an Italian Renaissance-centered discourse. Even though he was guided by the unprecedented burgeoning of devotional art in the post-Tridentine decades and by the expressive possibilities of earlier religious artifacts, especially those inherited from the apostolic past, the author demonstrates that El Greco forged his own independent trajectory. While his paintings have been studied in relation to the Italian and Spanish school traditions, his pictorial art in a global Mediterranean context continues to receive scant attention. Taking a global perspective as its focus, the book sheds new light on El Greco’s highly original contribution to early Mediterranean and multi-institutional configurations of the Christian faith in Byzantium, Venice, Rome, Toledo, and Madrid.
Violence and Trolling on Social Media
Authors: Polak Sara , Trottier Daniel , Huang Qian , Gabdulhakov Rashid , Clucas Tom , Korsten Frans-Willem , Pepiak Ewelina , Van Engelenhoven Gerlov , Olson Greta , Riesner Ann-Marie , Lanzing Marjolein , Gabriels Katleen , Lotzow Stephanie , Kemekenidou Penelope
Published: May 2021

‘Trolls for Trump’, virtual rape, fake news — social media discourse, including forms of virtual and real violence, has become a formidable, yet elusive, political force. What characterizes online vitriol? How do we understand the narratives generated, and also address their real-world — even life-and-death— impact? How can hatred, bullying, and dehumanization on social media platforms be addressed and countered in a post-truth world? Violence and Trolling on Social Media: History, Affect, and Effects of Online Vitriol unpacks discourses, metaphors, dynamics, and framing on social media, in order to begin to answer these questions. Written for and by cultural and media studies scholars, journalists, political philosophers, digital communication professionals, activists and advocates, this book connects theoretical approaches from cultural and media studies with practical challenges and experiences ‘from the field’, providing insight into a rough media landscape.
Abstraction in Medieval Art
Authors: Gertsman Elina , Safran Linda , Tilghman Benjamin , Smith Danny , Debiais Vincent , Harris Julie , Joyner Danielle , Kumler Aden , Mills Robert , McNamee Megan , Kessler Herbert , Toussaint Gia , Denoël Charlotte , McCall Taylor , Thebaut Nancy
Published: May 2021

Abstraction haunts medieval art, both withdrawing figuration and suggesting elusive presence. How does it make or destroy meaning in the process? Does it suggest the failure of figuration, the faltering of iconography? Does medieval abstraction function because it is imperfect, incomplete, and uncorrected-and therefore cognitively, visually demanding? Is it, conversely, precisely about perfection? To what extent is the abstract predicated on theorization of the unrepresentable and imperceptible? Does medieval abstraction pit aesthetics against metaphysics, or does it enrich it, or frame it, or both? Essays in this collection explore these and other questions that coalesce around three broad themes: medieval abstraction as the untethering of the image from what it purports to represent; abstraction as a vehicle for signification; and abstraction as a form of figuration. Contributors approach the concept of medieval abstraction from a multitude of perspectives-formal, semiotic, iconographic, material, phenomenological, epistemological.
Political Communication in Chinese and European History, 800-1600
Authors: Weerdt Hilde , Morche Franz-Julius , Blockmans Wim , Bossler Beverly , Chen Song , Chu Mingkin , Ebrey Patricia , Genet Jean-Philippe , Gowers Bernard , Grévin Benoît , Haseldine Julian , Hymes Robert , Lamouroux Christian , Levine Ari Daniel , Meserve Margaret , Ronconi Filippo , Tsui Lik Hang , Watts John
Published: May 2021

Based on a collaboration between historians of Chinese and European politics, Political Communication in Chinese and European History, 800-1600 offers a first comprehensive overview of current research on political communication in middle-period European and Chinese history. The chapters present new work on the sources and processes of political communication in European and Chinese history partly through juxtaposing and combining formerly separate historiographies and partly through direct comparison. Contrary to earlier comparative work on empires and state formation, which aimed to explain similarities and differences with encompassing models and new theories of divergence, the goal is to further conversations between historians by engaging regional historiographies from the bottom up.
Making the Palace Machine Work
Authors: Siebert Martina , Chen Kai Jun , Ko Dorothy , Akcetin Elif , Kyoungjin Bae , Guan Xueling , Hui-Min Lai , Moll-Murata Christine , Siebert Martina , Te-Cheng SU , Wang Guangyao , Wang Yijun , Wu Yulian , Yu Hui-chun , Zhang Shuxian , Zhang Qiong
Published: May 2021

Making the Palace Machine Work: Mobilizing People, Objects, and Nature in the Qing Empire brings the studies of institutions, labour, and material cultures to bear on the history of science and technology by tracing the workings of the Imperial Household Department (Neiwufu) in the Qing court and empire. An enormous apparatus that employed 22,000 men and women at its heyday, the Department operated a "machine" with myriad moving parts. The first part of the book portrays the people who kept it running, from technical experts to menial servants, and scrutinises the paper trails they left behind. Part II uncovers the working principles of the machine by following the production chains of some of its most splendid products: gilded statues, jade, porcelain, and textiles. Part III examines the complex task of managing living organisms and natural environments, including lotus plants grown in imperial ponds in Beijing, fresh medicines sourced from disparate regions, and tribute elephants from Southeast Asia.
Precedents of the Battle
Authors: Irujo Xabier
Published: May 2021

This chapter examines the creation of the Emirate of Cordoba under Abd
al-Rahman I and King Charles’ call for the Paderborn Diet in 777. The
purpose of the 778 campaign launched by the Frankish king was not to
fire up a crusade against Islam but to create a march in the Pyrenees, a
vassal domain of the Frankish Kingdom bounded by the 600-kilometer
(373-mile) old Roman road connecting Pamplona and Girona. Indeed,
sources indicate that King Charles negotiated terms with the Muslim
rulers of the Ebro valley and there was no offer on the part of the Muslim
emissaries to embrace the Christian faith. However, the religious aspect
provided a suitable and effective casus belli and the literary tradition
presented this military adventure as the first European crusade.