This is the story of a power-hungry woman who almost brought down a country destined to become a superpower. Tzu-hsithe empress dowager of the Manchu dynastymanipulated her way into the heart of the palace almost a century and a half ago, using her charm, looks, and intellect to get what she wanted. It wasnt long before she was hiding in the Summer Palace in Peking, running the government behind the curtain and scheming to grow her power at the emperors expense. But when foreign intervention and internal strife combined to threaten her empire, she enlisted the help of a devious eunuch and resorted to extreme tactics to deal with the crisis. The emperor sought help from the intelligentsia in a bid to stay in charge and reform the government, but he made a critical mistake by placing his trust in an ambitious general who had the power to ruin everything. Filled with colorful imagery, forbidden liaisons, sneaky maneuverings, heroes, and villains, this novel tells how one woman sought to rise to the pinnacle of power in a male-dominated societyand how a dedicated emperor tried to stop her.
In ancient Greece, there was a woman, Helen of Troy, whose face was so beautiful it caused the Trojan War and helped launch a thousand ships to bring down a kingdom. In the seventeenth-century, China also had a woman with a beautiful face who helped launch one hundred thousand soldiers to bring down two dynasties. In the process, she destroyed many men, both powerful and ordinary. Song of Yuan-Yuan tells the love story of Yuan-yuan, an exceptionally beautiful woman who lived during a tumultuous period in China, the early part of the seventeenth century. Endowed with a stunning face, a shapely body, and a free spirit, she was born and raised in Sochow, an idyllic town located in the Yangtze River delta area. She, along with many powerful men of the time, was swept into the center of a storm known as the Drama of 1644, a drama that had ended a once-mighty Chinese empire: the Ming Dynasty. The story of Yuan-yuans life and a chronology of Chinas history are told in alternating chapters with a host of characters including emperors, princes, eunuchs, and gangsters and plot lines involving corruption, suicide, betrayals, palace intrigue, concubines, political upheaval, and warring ethnic groups. Although resourceful, Yuan-yuan is fatefully caught in the middle of these conflicts.
This book presents theory, fundamentals and applications of ferroelectricy. 24 chapters gather reviews and research reports covering the spectrum of ferroelectricity. It describes the current levels of understanding of various aspects of ferroelectricity as presented by authorities in the field. Topics include relaxors, piezoelectrics, microscale and nanoscale studies, polymers and composites, unusual properties, and techniques and devices. The book is intended for physicists, engineers and materials scientists working with ferroelectric materials.
Wang Foo, "Prince of Chinese Detectives," is an educated, well-traveled Confucian scholar who has dedicated himself to unraveling mysteries on behalf of the Chinese people and their Western allies for justice and peace. Particularly adept at ferreting out cultural misunderstandings, Wang Foo goes undercover in search of the truth and will use both Eastern and Western methods to capture the criminals, if crime there be. He is always willing to lend a hand to the police, diplomats, and government officials. Sidney C. Partridge, a former missionary to China and Japan, wrote five series of the Wang Foo stories for newspapers in the early 1900s. They were very popular for the appreciative insights they gave into Chinese culture (unlike the many "Yellow Peril" stories circulating at the time). This volume collects the first half of the Mysterious Ways of Wang Foo.
Once again, author Tilly Bagshawe takes up the mantle of the late, great Sidney Sheldon—and again, she succeeds magnificently. Written in the inimitable Sheldon style and based on extensive, never before published material from his private archives, Sidney Sheldon’s Angel of the Dark is a thrilling tale of murder, lies, and lust that the master storyteller—the bestselling author of Master of the Game, The Other Side of Midnight, and so many other beloved classics—would have been proud to have called his own. With Sidney Sheldon’s Angel of the Dark, a gripping, stylish, sexy and surprising story of a son’s globe-hopping hunt for answers about his wealthy father’s brutal death, confirmed Sheldon fans have good reason to rejoice. The legacy truly lives on.
For a limited time, and at a special price, discover Sidney Sheldon’s Angel of the Dark with Bonus Material. Plus, receive an excerpt from Sheldon’s new book Sidney Sheldon’s The Tides of Memory, available April 9th. In Sidney Sheldon’s Angel of the Dark, LAPD Detective Danny McGuire could never forget the face of Angela Jakes and the nightmare she endured—raped, beaten, and tied to the murdered body of her elderly husband, multimillionaire art dealer Andrew. His obsession nearly cost McGuire his sanity, even after the stunning young widow disappeared without a trace. Ten years later, living in France and working for Interpol, he's put the past behind him . . . until Matt Daley, Andrew Jakes's estranged son, walks into his life. Digging into his father's still-unsolved murder, Matt has uncovered three identical slayings, and soon he is joining forces with Danny to pursue a brilliant, elusive killer across the globe. But in Hong Kong everything starts to crumble as Matt is irresistibly drawn to the most recent widow, beautiful Lisa Baring, whom Danny suspects may be someone far more sinister than just another victim.
This book provides an up-to-date survey of durability issues, with a particular focus on specification and design, and how to achieve durability in actual concrete construction. It is aimed at the practising engineer, but is also a valuable resource for graduate-level programs in universities. Along with background to current philosophies it gathers together in one useful reference a summary of current knowledge on concrete durability, includes information on modern concrete materials, and shows how these materials can be combined to produce durable concrete. The approach is consistent with the increasing focus on sustainability that is being addressed by the concrete industry, with the current emphasis on ‘design for durability’.
How do social movements intersect with the agendas of mainstream political parties? When they are integrated with parties, are they coopted? Or are they more radically transformative? Examining major episodes of contention in American politics – from the Civil War era to the women's rights and civil rights movements to the Tea Party and Trumpism today – Sidney Tarrow tackles these questions and provides a new account of how the interactions between movements and parties have been transformed over the course of American history. He shows that the relationships between movements and parties have been central to American democratization – at times expanding it and at times threatening its future. Today, movement politics have become more widespread as the parties have become weaker. The future of American democracy hangs in the balance.
Social movements have an elusive power but one that is altogether real. From the French and American revolutions to the Arab Spring, and to ethnic and terrorist movements of today, contentious politics exercises a fleeting but powerful influence on politics, society and international relations. Covering key episodes up to the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021, leading scholar of politics and government Sidney Tarrow uses a number of recent, historical and comparative case studies to introduce his theory of social movements and political parties. The fourth edition of this classic study emphasizes the symbiotic relations between social movements and parties by focusing attention on the growing role of populism in Europe, Latin America, and the US; analyzes the role of social media as a mobilizing and aggregating force for social movements; highlights the relations between structural changes in the economy and new forms of contention; draws on new material on movements in the Global South and the relations between movements and democracy.
This book examines Hong Kong foodways in different periods of social development and hopes to advance anthropological inquiries by addressing issues concerning identity, migration, consumerism, globalization, and the invention of local cuisines in the context of Hong Kong as a fast-changing society in East Asia. ‘This book relates food production and consumption to ecology, migration, and globalization and contributes to the study of food heritage. It is an essential reference on the study of foodways in Hong Kong.’ —Tan Chee-Beng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong ‘Thanks to Sidney Cheung, the local anthropologist of food, this new book of rich literatures and intimate ethnographies tells amazing political stories of gourmet eating and ethnic and foreign cuisines in Hong Kong.’ —David Y. H. Wu, East-West Center
Production of Portland cement is responsible for about seven percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The pressure to make the production of concrete more sustainable, or "greener", is considerable and increasing. This requires a wholesale shift in processes, materials and methods in the concrete industry. Pure Portland cement will nee
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