A Savage Dreamland

Author: David Eimer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1408883864
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
The first of its kind: an exploration of one of the most mysterious countries in the world, as told by one of the first outsiders to access the country in its entirety For almost fifty years Burma was ruled by a paranoid military dictatorship and isolated from the outside world. A historic 2015 election swept an Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government to power and was supposed to usher in a new golden era of democracy and progress, but Burma remains unstable and undeveloped, a little-understood country. Nothing is straightforward in this captivating land that is home to a combustible mix of races, religions and resources. A Savage Dreamland: Journeys in Burma reveals a country where temples take priority over infrastructure, fortune tellers thrive and golf courses are carved out of war zones. Setting out from Yangon, the old capital, David Eimer travels throughout this enigmatic nation, from the tropical south to the Burmese Himalayas in the far north, via the Buddhist-centric heartland and the jungles and mountains where rebel armies fight for autonomy in the longest-running civil wars in recent history. The story of modern Burma is told through the voices of the people Eimer encounters along the way: former political exiles, the squatters in Yangon's shanty towns, radical monks, Rohingya refugees, princesses and warlords, and the ethnic minorities clustered along the country's frontiers. In his vivid and revelatory account of life, history, culture and politics, David Eimer chronicles the awakening of a country as it returns to the global fold and explores a fractured nation, closed to foreigners for decades. Authoritative and ground-breaking, A Savage Dreamland: Journeys in Burma is set to be a modern classic of travel writing.

The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century

Author: Thant Myint-U
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003308
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
How did one of the world’s "buzzy hotspots" (Fodor’s 2013) become one of the top ten places to avoid (Fodor’s 2018)? Precariously positioned between China and India, Burma’s population has suffered dictatorship, natural disaster, and the dark legacies of colonial rule. But when decades of military dictatorship finally ended and internationally beloved Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from long years of house arrest, hopes soared. World leaders such as Barack Obama ushered in waves of international support. Progress seemed inevitable. As historian, former diplomat, and presidential advisor, Thant Myint-U saw the cracks forming. In this insider’s diagnosis of a country at a breaking point, he dissects how a singularly predatory economic system, fast-rising inequality, disintegrating state institutions, the impact of new social media, the rise of China next door, climate change, and deep-seated feelings around race, religion, and national identity all came together to challenge the incipient democracy. Interracial violence soared and a horrific exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fixed international attention. Myint-U explains how and why this happened, and details an unsettling prognosis for the future. Burma is today a fragile stage for nearly all the world’s problems. Are democracy and an economy that genuinely serves all its people possible in Burma? In clear and urgent prose, Myint-U explores this question—a concern not just for the Burmese but for the rest of the world—warning of the possible collapse of this nation of 55 million while suggesting a fresh agenda for change.

Collateral Damage

Author: Dale Brown
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062198025
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Book Description
When a military drone goes rogue over the skies of Libya, Dreamland’s covert strike force must enter the fray in this international action thriller. The fires still burn in Libya years after the fall of Gaddafi, forcing NATO to intervene in a new war that could have devastating consequences for the volatile region. But something has gone terribly wrong with a foolproof new superweapon, resulting in the shocking deaths of innocents. The latest military miracle to come out of the Whiplash group was designed to eliminate any possibility of human error—yet the computer-controlled UAV drone inexplicably goes rogue while the whole world watches. With the entire Whiplash program under fire, the weapon’s creator heads into the warzone determined to find evidence of sabotage. But in the blistering heat of the conflict, an enemy is waiting for him, determined to unleash more chaos and terror and death. Now pilot Turk Mako must take to the skies once more to prove that a skilled ace can do what no computer can.

The Emperor Far Away

Author: David Eimer
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 140881322X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Far from the glittering cities of Beijing and Shanghai, China's borderlands are populated by around one hundred million people who are not Han Chinese. For many of these restive minorities, the old Chinese adage 'the mountains are high and the Emperor far away', meaning Beijing's grip on power is tenuous and its influence unwelcome, continues to resonate. Travelling through China's most distant and unknown reaches, David Eimer explores the increasingly tense relationship between the Han Chinese and the ethnic minorities. Deconstructing the myths represented by Beijing, Eimer reveals a shocking and fascinating picture of a China that is more of an empire than a country.

Monument Wars

Author: Kirk Savage
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520271335
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
Traces the history of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., discussing its plan and structures, and considering how the concept of memorials and memorial space has changed since the nineteenth century.

Dreamland Burning

Author: Jennifer Latham
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316384941
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
A compelling dual-narrated tale from Jennifer Latham that questions how far we've come with race relations. Some bodies won't stay buried. Some stories need to be told. When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family's property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the present and the past. Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what's right the night Tulsa burns. Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham's lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations--both yesterday and today.

From the Land of Green Ghosts

Author: Pascal Khoo Thwe
Publisher: Harper Perennial
ISBN: 9780060505233
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
In 1988, Dr. John Casey, a professor visiting Burma, meets a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce, and the encounter changes both their lives. Pascal, a member of the Kayan Padaung tribe, was the first member of his community to study English at a university. Within months of his meeting with Dr. Casey, Pascal's world lay in ruins. Burma's military dictatorship forces him to sacrifice his studies, and the regime's brutal armed forces murder his lover. Fleeing to the jungle, he becomes a guerrilla fighter in the life-or-death struggle against the government. In desperation, he writes a letter to the Englishman he met in Mandalay. Miraculously reaching its destination, the letter leads to Pascal's rescue and his enrollment in Cambridge University, where he is the first Burmese tribesman ever to attend. From the Land of Green Ghosts unforgettably evokes the realities of life in modern-day Burma and one man's long journey to freedom despite almost unimaginable odds.

The Promise of the Grand Canyon

Author: John F. Ross
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143128957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
“A convincing case for Powell’s legacy as a pioneering conservationist.”--The Wall Street Journal "A bold study of an eco-visionary at a watershed moment in US history."--Nature A timely, thrilling account of the explorer who dared to lead the first successful expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon—and waged a bitterly-contested campaign for sustainability in the West. John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition—starving, battered, and nearly naked—they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before. With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John F. Ross tells how that perilous expedition launched the one-armed Civil War hero on the path to becoming the nation’s foremost proponent of environmental sustainability and a powerful, if controversial, visionary for the development of the American West. So much of what he preached—most broadly about land and water stewardship—remains prophetically to the point today.

Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell: Dreamland

Author: Boris Vallejo
Publisher: Harper Design
ISBN: 9780062242709
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
An all-new collection of lush, four-color artwork from the studio of acclaimed fantasy artists Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. Artist Boris Vallejo is renowned for his paintings of beautiful maidens, heroic men, and fearsome monsters, while his wife and partner, Julie Bell, is revered for her unique sense of color and dramatic composition. As two of the most acclaimed and popular artists working in fantasy today, Boris and Julie have produced artwork for album covers, trading cards, posters, and calendars. Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell: Dreamland features outstanding examples of their most recent work. Highlighting muscle-bound heroes, fierce dragons, and alluringly beautiful women in fantastical, otherworldly landscapes, these gorgeous pieces reflect a new level of maturity, sophistication, and intrigue. Capturing the pursuits that currently inspire the artists, these works resonate with a startling new emotional depth that adds magnitude to their powerful heroes and buxom heroines. This carefully curated selection of images is accompanied by fascinating text that provides unique insight into each artist’s process as well as biographical stories that reveal their personal histories, the influences that have shaped them, the ideas that inspire them, and their future professional aspirations. Also, for the first time ever, this outstanding compendium includes ten stunning limited-edition art prints that can easily be removed and displayed.

Rose Sees Red

Author: Cecil Castellucci
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545283205
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Partly based on the author's own experiences at the famous Manhattan high school for the performing arts, this novel explores friendship, freedom, and the art of challenging convention.Set in New York in the 1980s, this story of two ballet dancers (one American, one Russian) recounts the unforgettable night they spend in the city, and celebrates the friendship they form despite their cultural and political differences.