The book is an anthology of creative and critical responses to the many partitions of India within and across borders. By widening and reframing the question of partition in the subcontinent from one event in 1947 to a larger series of partitions, the book presents a deeper perspective both on the concept of partition in understanding South Asia, and understanding the implications from survivors, victims and others. The imagery of the barbed wire in the title is used precisely to confront the jaggedness of experiencing and surviving partition that still haunts the national, literary, religious and political matrices of India. The volume is a compilation of short stories, poems, articles, news reports and memoirs, with each contributor bringing forth their perception of partition and its effects on their life and identity. The many narratives amplify the human cost of partitions, examining the complexities of a bruised nation at the social, psychological and religious levels of consciousness. The book will appeal to anyone interested in literary studies, history, politics, sociology, cultural studies, and comparative literature.

After his flight to Calgary, Canada, suddenly ends in a fiery crash, fifty-eight-year-old Tony Parker is rescued by a stranger. Shaken, but with few injuries, Tony is shocked when he looks in the mirror and stares into the face of a teenager. But the biggest shock is yet to come when Tony is told he has died and is now living in an alternate world. Introducing himself as Max, the stranger announces that Tony is now residing in a secular afterlife rumoured to be built from memory where all the regulars still have a debt to pay. Populated by characters such as Marlene Dietrich, Mata Hari, Charles Ponzi, and Mozart, who often repeat blunders made during their lifetimes, the world is ruled by an integration council assembled to deal with problem migrants such as Tony. As Tony attempts to acclimate to his new home, he is paired with Sebastian Melmoth, also known as Oscar Wilde, who becomes his mentor assigned to guide him through adventurous mayhem barely held together by con artist Till Eulenspiegel. The Owls Mirror is the compelling tale of one mans whimsical journey through a strange and nonsensical afterlife.

Michael A.J. Sardo approaching his 71st birthday still enjoys writing abstract poetry. Some of his ideas came to him while recovering from surgery. The pain he felt while recuperating was not a deterrent to his use of his creative mind. Little incidental details around him did not go unnoticed. These details were some of his inspiration for this book. Sardo, the poet, continues to attack prejudice, injustice and intolerance in our everyday society, with sarcasm, irony, and mocking.

Changing places doesn't always help you see things differently. Cassie Miller, a 21st century teenager and Lady Cassandra, a young heiress from 1714 mysteriously switch lives. Until they can solve the conundrum surrounding the Miller family, they are stuck in the wrong century. Cassie must navigate a society of etiquette, exclusion and intrigue while Cassandra has to learn to tough it out as an unchaperoned female in the year 2014.

Various papers on the archaeology of conflict, including battlefield archaeology. The main focus of the volume is confinement, as expressed by a wide variety of contexts. Most obviously these include Nazi concentration camps, which are in need of credible archaeological attention (the editorial points out the dangers of the misappropriation of archaeological and scientific techniques by Holocaust deniers). Other forms of confinement are examined in papers focussing on the archaeology of island defences and siege sites, with the sieges of Leith from 1650 and of Fort William from 1646 both recently being subject to archaeological investigation. Other contributions include a study of shell holes and field defences from the battle of the Bulge (1944).

A New York Times Editors' Choice A Military Times Best Book of the Year A powerfully written firsthand account of the human costs of conflict. J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the U.S. State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home, while traveling the country to pay respect to the dead and wounded, he asked himself: When will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them? These are questions with no quick answers, but perhaps ones that might lead to a shared reckoning worthy of the sacrifices of those—troops and civilians alike—whose lives have been changed by more than a decade and a half of war. Weston takes us from Twentynine Palms in California to Fallujah in Iraq, Khost and Helmand in Afghanistan, Maryland, Colorado, Wyoming, and New York City, as well as to out-of-the-way places in Iowa and Texas. We meet generals, corporals and captains, senators and ambassadors, NATO allies, Iraqi truck drivers, city councils, imams and mullahs, Afghan schoolteachers, madrassa and college students, former Taliban fighters and ex-Guantánamo prison detainees, a torture victim, SEAL and Delta Force teams, and many Marines. The overall frame for the book, from which the title is taken, centers on soldiers who have received a grievous wound to the face. There is a moment during their recovery when they must look upon their reconstructed appearance for the first time. This is known as “the mirror test.” From an intricate tapestry of voices and stories—Iraqi, Afghan, and American—Weston delivers a larger mirror test for our nation in its global role. An unflinching and deep examination of the interplay between warfare and diplomacy, this is an essential book—a crucial look at America now, how it is viewed in the world and how the nation views itself.

Takaki traces the economic and political history of Indians, African Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and Jewish people in America, with considerable attention given to instances and consequences of racism. The narrative is laced with short quotations, cameos of personal experiences, and excerpts from folk music and literature. Well-known occurrences, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Trail of Tears, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Japanese internment are included. Students may be surprised by some of the revelations, but will recognize a constant thread of rampant racism. The author concludes with a summary of today's changing economic climate and offers Rodney King's challenge to all of us to try to get along. Readers will find this overview to be an accessible, cogent jumping-off place for American history and political science plus a guide to the myriad other sources identified in the notes.

Having spent his early childhood in Sydney, Kourosh and his family return to Iran at the height of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Their attempt to settle into family life is disrupted as the country changes government, sets in reforms and is plunged into a war with Iraq which eventually drives the family to attempt to return to Australia. Mirror From Stone is the memoir of Kourosh, as he adjusts to post revolution life in Iran before and during the war. It then follows him as he crosses the border into Pakistan, with people smugglers to re-unite with his family. It is the story of a family's struggle to adapt to a different culture, stay together and above all, find peace.

Barbed Wire Diplomacy examines how the United Kingdom government went about protecting the interests, lives and well-being of its prisoners of war (POWs) in Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945. The comparatively good treatment of British prisoners in Germany has largely been explained by historians in terms of rational self-interest, reciprocity, and influence of Nazi racism, which accorded Anglo-Saxon servicemen a higher status than other categories of POWs. By contrast, Neville Wylie offers a more nuanced picture of Anglo-German relations and the politics of prisoners of war. Drawing on British, German, United States and Swiss sources, he argues that German benevolence towards British POWs stemmed from London's success in working through neutral intermediaries, notably its protecting power (the United States and Switzerland) and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to promote German compliance with the 1929 Geneva convention, and building and sustaining a relationship with the German government that was capable of withstanding the corrosive effects of five years of warfare. Expanding our understanding of both the formulation and execution of POW policy in both capitals, the book sheds new light on the dynamics in inter-belligerent relations during the war. It suggests that while the Second World War should be rightly acknowledged as a conflict in which traditional constraints were routinely abandoned in the pursuit of political, strategic and ideological goals, in this important area of Anglo-German relations, customary international norms were both resilient and effective.