Bøger af S. Frederick Starr

The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment-its rise, fall, and enduring legacyIn this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds-remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia-drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China.Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America-five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia.Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.

A portrait of the Arab enlightenment and its key figures, Ibn Sina and Biruni. In The Genius of Their Age, S. Frederick Starr brings to vibrant life an age when Muslim scientists and philosophers from Central Asia anticipated the Western renaissance of science by half a millennium.

An American Family: Four Centuries. Two ContinentsBy: S. Frederick StarrThis book recounts the history of an American family that was formed in the 1930s by the marriage of seeming opposites from the two sides of the ethnic divide that separated descendants of earlier Anglo-Saxon and German settlers from the millions of newcomers from Central Europe and Italy who arrived after 1900. Its immediate geographical focus is the American Midwest, the areas surrounding Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio. Its deeper geography extends to Maryland's Eastern Shore, Lancastershire and Cumbria in northern England and Southampton on England's south coast, to the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany, to St. Petersburg in Russia, and to Austria, Budapest and the distant eastern lands of Hungary. Religiously, it embraces Catholics, Jews. The Church of England, Quakers, Methodists, and Unitarians. And with respect to professions, it includes farmers, home-makers, preachers, artists, shop-keepers, photographers, lawyers, educators, housemaids, judges, scholars, and businessmen.Finally, this is a book about change. One of the families involved changed its religion three times and the other changed its name three times. Yet there are also continuities aplenty, and most notably in the qualities of seriousness, ambition, tenacity, and commitment to family that prevail throughout.About the AuthorThe author, S. Frederick Starr, is the third of four children of the marriage that brought together partners from very different worlds, thereby forming the family that is this book's subject. A historian and archaeologist by profession, and also an educator and musician, it fell to him to dig up, evaluate, and present information from many quarters. Unfortunately, by the time he set about writing this book, all of those who might have been his best sources had died. However, several family members, including his own siblings, retained what turned out to be invaluable scraps of information. And as the story grew closer to the present, he had access to the growing mass of electronically preserved information on all our lives that is overwhelming biographers everywhere. Readers who wish to explore any avenues further can contact the author at starr@afpc.org.

Uzbekistan is undergoing rapid and fundamental reforms affecting all areas of society, from economics and judicial matters to religious life and foreign affairs. This process is helping kindle a new spirit of regionalism in Central Asia, and provides new opportunities for Western governments and businesses.

In the past 25 years, America and Europe both developed relations with Central Asia and the Caucasus. This book argues that American and European policies suffer from both conceptual and structural impediments. It provides detailed analysis of these policies and proposes constructive recommendations for their improvement.

This concluding volume of the "International Politics of Eurasia" series takes on the challenge of specifying the forces at work in the international environment of Russia and the New Independent States and gauging the impact of external actors on developments in this region.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was part of a process of imperial disintegration, new state-building and potential imperial reconstruction unprecedented in recent decades. This volume assembles an interdisciplinary group of scholars to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct the Soviet empire.

This volume covers the economic progress made by the new states of the former Soviet Union in the transition from command to market economies. Topics discussed include: political and economic adjustments; the domestic dimension; macropolicies; restructuring; and regional and world integration.

International experts from the newly-independent states of the former Soviet Union analyse the nuclear issues complicating the relations between Russia and its new neighbours. This text emphasises global issues of ecological safety and international military security.

In this volume, international experts analyse the politics of conventional military policy and military relations among the Soviet successor states. The work analyses various national perspectives on security and approaches to military affairs.

This is the fourth volume in a series that presents analyses of the evolving world role of the post-Soviet successor states. Each volume considers a different factor influencing the relationship between internal politics and international relations.

This is the third volume in a series that presents analyses of the evolving world role of the post-Soviet successor states. Each volume considers a different factor influencing the relationship between internal politics and international relations.

This is the second volume in a series that presents analyses of the evolving world role of the post-Soviet successor states. Each volume considers a different factor influencing the relationship between internal politics and international relations.

This is the first volume in a series that presents analyses of the evolving world role of the post-Soviet successor states. Each volume considers a different factor influencing the relationship between internal politics and international relations.

Xinjiang or the New Territory, makes up a sixth of China's land mass. This work surveys the region's geography; its history of military and political subjugation to China; economic, social, and commercial conditions; demography, public health, and ecology; and patterns of adaption, resistance, opposition, and evolving identities.

In the summer of 2008, a conflict that appeared to have begun in the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia rapidly escalated to become the most significant crisis in European security in a decade. This book presents facts about the events of August 2008 along with comprehensive coverage of the background to those events.

"...that rare thing, a piece of careful scholarship that is also superby entertaining...Starr, who is president of Oberlin College and has been associated with the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, is also a professional jazz musician, and his knowledgeable affection for the music shines through the text." - Andrea Lee, New York Times Book Review