. . sums up with economy and power all that the written record so far deciphered has to tell about the ancient and complementary civilizations of Babylon and Assyria."—Edward B. Garside, New York Times Book ReviewAncient Mesopotamia—the area now called Iraq—has received less attention than ancient Egypt and other long-extinct and more spectacular civilizations. But numerous small clay tablets buried in the desert soil for thousands of years make it possible for us to know more about the people of ancient Mesopotamia than any other land in the early Near East.Professor Oppenheim, who studied these tablets for more than thirty years, used his intimate knowledge of long-dead languages to put together a distinctively personal picture of the Mesopotamians of some three thousand years ago. Following Oppenheim's death, Erica Reiner used the author's outline to complete the revisions he had begun."To any serious student of Mesopotamian civilization, this is one of the most valuable books ever written."—Leonard Cottrell, Book Week"Leo Oppenheim has made a bold, brave, pioneering attempt to present a synthesis of the vast mass of philological and archaeological data that have accumulated over the past hundred years in the field of Assyriological research."—Samuel Noah Kramer, ArchaeologyA. Leo Oppenheim, one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of our time, was editor in charge of the Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago.

    In the world of heavy metal, no other band have lived life to the fullest, stared death in the face so many times, battled addiction, warred within themselves and still emerged, unbowed with as much bloody-minded persistence as Black Sabbath.

    The book chronicles the 2008 season, during which the team suffered its second worst record ever and Head Coach Phil Fulmer, the most beloved and recognized man in Tennessee, was fired. Author of Dixieland Delight, Clay Travis offers a fascinating inside look at the inner workings of a major college sports program, and chronicles a season of promise that went terribly wrong, ending a long, fabled era.

    His songwriting with The Byrds and subsequent work as a solo artist and with Dillard & Clark mark him as one of rock's key innovators and a pioneer of folk-rock, psychedelia, and alt-country. Yet Clark's personal demons shadowed him throughout his life, and until now his legacy has been clouded in mystery. Told through the personal recollections of those closest to Clark, Mr. Tambourine Man offers a rare glimpse into his life and work, a revealing portrait of one of rock's greatest bands, and a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of fame. Endorsed by the Gene Clark estate, the book also features rare and previously unseen photos from family and friends.

    Writing in Italy's Il Giorno, Giancarlo Vigorelli has announced, "One must make room for Fallaci next to Hemingway and Malraux. For Whom the Bell Tolls and Man's Hope are to the Spanish Civil War what Inshallah is to the dirty genocide of Lebanon." In France, Le Figaro has praised Inshallah's Goya-like depictions of the disasters of war, and Le Nouvel Observateur has called it "The Iliad in Beirut." At the center of this teeming, extraordinary novel is the divided city of Beirut, besieged and battered by foreign armies, rival Lebanese factions, and fundamentalist terrorists. In the opening pages we witness the devastating suicide bombing of the American and French marine barracks in 1983, and in its aftermath we meet the large and colorful cast of soldiers in the Italian contingent of the trilateral peacekeeping force, as well as the women of Beirut and the residents whose lives are caught up in the conflict. The loves and hates, hopes and anxieties, heroic actions and cowardly betrayals, reflect the horror and madness of this brutal, never-ending nightmare. Inshallah is a war novel about destiny, a study of love in all its aspects. It is engrossing, dramatic, funny, and always intensely readable. Only Oriana Fallaci, with her unique breadth of experience and masterful command of language and image, could have written such a profound novel, one filled with compassion for men and women, a work that will long stand as a monumental testament to the imperishable human spirit.

    Turkey is the link between Islam and Western democracy, between Europe and the Middle East. In this concise introduction, Andrew Finkel, who has spent twenty years in Turkey writing about the country for publications such as The Economist and Time magazine, unravels Turkey's complexities. He sets the complications and transformations of present-day Turkey against the historical background of the Ottoman Empire, the secular nationalist revolution led by Kemal Atat�rk, and repeated political interventions by the military, which sees itself as the guardian of Atat�rk's legacy. Finkel reveals a nation full of surprises. Where else but in Turkey, Finkel writes, would secularist liberals have supported a prime minister who was once jailed for promoting religious extremism? From the Kurdish question to economic policy, from Turkey's role in Iraq to its quest for EU membership, Finkel illuminates the past and present of this unique, and uniquely consequential, country in Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know(R).What Everyone Needs to Know(R) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

    With exclusive access to the RCA vaults, producer Ernst Jorgensen brings to intimate life every moment that Elvis spent in the studio--from the spontaneous joy of his early sessions to the intensely creative periods of his later career. At once the definitive recording session guide and a compellingly readable narrative, this is the ultimate companion to the singer and his songs.

    George H. Stein examines in detail the structure and organization of the Waffen SS and describes the rigid personnel selection and intensive physical, military, and ideological training that helped to create the tough and dedicated cadre around which the larger force of the later war years was built.

    (1983) published as The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records.2nd Ed. (1985) published as The New Trouser Press Record Guide.3rd Ed. (1989) published as The New Trouser Press Record Guide (Revised Edition).4th Ed. (1991) published as The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music.5th Ed. (1997) published as The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock."The Trouser Press Record Guide" has been hailed by music fans and the record industry as "the bible" of nonmainstream rock, stretching across the stylistic boundaries of punk, grunge, indie-pop, techno, noise, avant-garde and ska into hip-hop, new country, metal, roots rocks, folk, modern dance and world music.All new and bigger than ever, "The Trouser Press Record Guide to '90's Rock" definitively covers 2,300 of this decade's most innovative and influential artists, reviewing 8,500 records -- insanely obscure and familiar alike -- from all over the world. Each insightful entry contains pungent critical analysis, biographical information and a complete album disography.Selected praise for "The Trouser Press Record Guide to '90's Rock""My trustworthy fact checker, be-all-and-end-all arguement settler and the last word on modern rock. I don't go on the air without it." -- Gary Cee, WLIR-FM"Still the most comprehensive guide through the labryrinth of indie and alternative rock. WHen you need a refresher course on all of Steve Albini's bands, or if you just want to know what Boy George did after Cultrue Club, this is the book to grab." -- David Browne, "Entertainment Weekly"

    An ancient curse. A real-life archaeological adventure.Since the 1800s rumours have circulated about an ancient pyramid, built on an immense scale, hidden deep in the jungles of Samoa. Evidence perhaps of a great forgotten Pacific Empire. And yet there is no mention of the pyramid in the entire pantheon of Samoan myth. Samoan society is steeped in tradition but the local legends are silent on the subject of the pyramid."A bold and gutsy adventure" -Christopher Dunn - Author of the Giza Power PlantWhen one woman digging into the archives discovers an outlier in the dataset of Pacific history, it is the catalyst for an adventure that takes us on a treasure hunt deep into the jungles of Samoa. The Samoan Pyramid interweaves the spellbinding stories behind archaeology’s centuries-long quest to find the forgotten pyramid with the author's own journey into the jungles of Samoa as she unravels one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of the Pacific.Buy the Samoan Pyramid and uncover the secret today.

    In 1949, a controversial best-seller in Israel, Tom Segev draws on thousands of declassified documents along with personal diaries and correspondence to reconstruct the unvarnished story of Israel's first year.Segev reveals the lofty aspirations that guided the state's leaders as well as the darker side of the Zionist utopia: the friction between the early settlers and the immigrants, the lack of good-faith negotiations with the Arabs; the clash between religious and secular factions; the daily collision of the Zionist myth with the severe realities of life in the new state. Unflinching in its observations, this bold chronicle is indispensible for understanding the dilemmas that continue to confront--and divide--Israeli society.

    Music inspired by that movement is today enjoying considerable attention at home and abroad. Few new listeners, however, make the connection between this music and the circumstances surrounding its creation, the most violent and repressive days of the military regime that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. With key manifestations in theater, cinema, visual arts, literature, and especially popular music, Tropicalia dynamically articulated the conflicts and aspirations of a generation of young, urban Brazilians.Focusing on a group of musicians from Bahia, an impoverished state in northeastern Brazil noted for its vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture, Christopher Dunn reveals how artists including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Ze created this movement together with the musical and poetic vanguards of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most modern and industrialized city. He shows how the tropicalists selectively appropriated and parodied cultural practices from Brazil and abroad in order to expose the fissure between their nation's idealized image as a peaceful tropical "garden" and the daily brutality visited upon its citizens.

    Nevertheless, it has exerted a more powerful hold on international popular music than any nation besides England and America. From Prince Buster to Burning Spear, Lee "Scratch" Perry to Yellowman, Bob Marley to Shabba Ranks, reggae music is one of the most dynamic and powerful musical forms of the twentieth century. And, as Lloyd Bradley shows in his deft, definitive, and always entertaining book, it is and always has been the people's music. Born in the sound systems of the Kingston slums, reggae was the first music poor Jamaicans could call their own, and as it spread throughout the world, it always remained fluid, challenging, and distinctly Jamaican. Based on six years of research -- original interviews with most of reggae's key producers, musicians, and international players -- and a lifelong enthusiasm for one of the most remarkable of the world's musics, This Is Reggae Music is the definitive history of reggae.

    Going Downtown: The War Against Hanoi and Washington

    It offers superior coverage of all key areas, including descriptive chemistry, MO theory, bonding, and physical inorganic chemistry. Chapter topics are presented in logical order and include: basic concepts; nuclear properties; an introduction to molecular symmetry; bonding in polyatomic molecules; structures and energetics of metallic and ionic solids; acids, bases, and ions in aqueous solution; reduction and oxidation; non-aqueous media; and hydrogen. Four special topic chapters, chosen for their currency and interest, conclude the book. For researchers seeking the latest information in the field of inorganic chemistry.