Books published by Stanford University Press

Since the discovery over one hundred years ago of a body of Mesopotamian poetry preserved on clay tablets, what has come to be known as the Epic of Gilgamesh has been considered a masterpiece of ancient literature. This book presents the Epic to the general reader in a clear narrative.

Gale A. Mattox is Professor of Political Science at the US Naval Academy, Adjunct Professor in the Strategic Studies Program at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Johns Hopkins University.Stephen M. Grenier is a U.S. Army Special Forces officer serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University.

This volume of essays proposes a new, historical approach to the comparative study of revolutions by exploring the ways in which they create, inherit, or extend recognizable scripts for political action and social action.

This book makes available, for the first time in English, essays and poetry published in the seminal postcolonial Moroccan journal of culture and politics, Souffles-Anfas.

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has captivated readers ever since it emerged in Spain over seven hundred years ago. Written in a lyrical Aramaic, the Zohar, a masterpiece of Kabbalah, features mystical interpretation of the Torah, rabbinic tradition, and Jewish practice.Volume 11 comprises a collection of different genres within the Zoharic library. The fragmentary Midrash ha-Ne''lam on Song of Songs opens with its treatment of mystical kissing. Highlights of Midrash ha-Ne''lam on Ruth are the spiritual function of the Kaddish prayer, the story of the ten martyrs, and mystical eating practices. In Midrash ha-Ne''lam on Lamentations, the inhabitants of Babylon and the inhabitants of Jerusalem vie to eulogize a ruined Jerusalem. It reframes the notion of a Holy Family in Jewish terms, in implicit contrast to the Christian triad of Father, Mother, and Son. The Zohar on Song of Songs consists of dueling homilies between Rabbi Shim''on bar Yohai and the prophet Elijah, contrasting spiritual ascent with the presence of the demonic. The climax projects the eros of the Song of Songs onto the celestial letters that constitute the core of existence. Matnitin and Tosefta are dense, compact passages in which heavenly heralds chide humanity for its spiritual slumber, rousing people to learn the mysteries of holiness. Packed with neologisms and hortatory in tone, these passages are spurs to pietistic devotion and mystical insight.

Arguing that Palestine has come to signify the colonial, broadly conceived, in the decolonizing world, this book offers the first thorough analysis of the ways in which Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian writers have engaged with the Palestinian question and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for the past fifty years.

Nathan Wolski is the Liberman Family Lecturer in Jewish Studies with the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University, Australia. He is the author of A Journey into the Zohar: An Introduction to the Book of Radiance (2010), and translator of Melila Hellner-Eshed's seminal work, A River Flows From Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar (Stanford, 2009).

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed readers ever since it emerged in medieval Spain over seven hundred years ago. Written in lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of mystical literature, comprising over twenty sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of mystical interpretation of the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.The ninth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition completes this running commentary on the Torah. Rabbi Shim''on and his Companions explore passages from the middle of the book of Numbers through the end of Deuteronomy. Among the remarkable sections is Rav Metivta, an account of a visionary journey by Rabbi Shim''on and some of the Companions to the Garden of Eden, where they discover secrets of the afterlife. Later in the volume appears the story of the Yanuqa (Child)ΓÇöa wunderkind-and-enfant-terrible who amazes and teases, challenges and stumps the rabbis.Near the very end of the Zohar on the Torah comes the remarkable section known as Idra Zuta (The Small Assembly). This dramatic narrative describes the last gathering of Rabbi Shim''on and the Companions before his death. Here the master reveals profound mysteries of divine being, and then departs from this world to unite ecstatically with the Divine Feminine, Shekhinah. Before departing, Rabbi Shim''on invites all of the Companions to his wedding celebration above.

The danwei (workunit) has been the fundamental social and spatial unit of urban China under socialism. With particular focus on the link between spatial forms and social organization, this book traces the origins and development of this critical institution up to the present day.

This book, a vivid first-hand account of a lost Jewish world, represents the translation of the first Ladino-language memoir known to be written: its author was a leading journalist and publisher in the Ottoman city of Salonica.

The countries of Southeast Asia have had varying degrees of success in achieving political legitimacy. This book studies political legitimacy in aeven South east Asian countries - Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Caught In the Machinery examines the social, legal, cultural and political history of workplace accidents and injured workers in 19th-century Britain and in the broader Anglo-American context.

This is a detailed study of two intriguing figures in early rabbinic literature, shown to be products of the literary creativity of rabbinic storytellers who convey a particular ideology through the image of the rabbinic heroes they portray: Elisha ben Abuya, considered as apostate and sinner, and Eleazar ben Arach, known as the one who forgot his Torah.

This work introduces a comprehensive theory that unifies current ideas about alliances and examines the relationship between threat and alliance politics under conditions of both war and peace.

Stones of Hope shows how African human rights activists have opened new possibilities for justice in the everyday lives of the world's most impoverished peoples.

This is an original book about the connections between historical moment, social structure, technology, communication systems, and what is said and thought using these systems - notably literature.

Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, this book argues that nuclear deterrence will characterize international strategic affairs well into the new century. Case studies assessing the nuclear deterrent policies of China, Britain, and France show why their experience, rather than that of Cold War superpowers, better reflects the future of nuclear deterrence.

This book on culture and consciousness in history concerns the worldwide transformations of Jewish culture and society and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language following the waves of pogroms in Russia in 1881.

The essays assembled in How Law Knows provide a sample of the diversity, responsiveness, and influence that law's knowledge practices have on legal outcomes and the world beyond law.

This is a selection of plays by the Israeli playwright and director Hanoch Levin. Levin's artistic credo was based on a constant urge to criticize Israeli society and its mainstream ideology while simultaneously confronting the basic human and existential issues of life and death.

" I have but one language-yet that language is not mine." This book intertwines theoretical reflection with historical and cultural particularity to enunciate, then analyze this conundrum in terms of the distinguished author's own relationship to the French language. Its argument touches on several issues relevant to the current debates on multiculturalism.

Stories of homosexual love affairs between samurai men and boys and between young kabuki actors and their patrons held broad appeal in pre-modern Japanese culture. An independent popular writer, Saikaku wrote "Nanshoku Okagami" in 1687 with the intention of extending his readership.

This volume collects a number of important and revealing interviews with Richard Rorty, spanning more than two decades of his public intellectual commentary, engagement, and criticism.

Covers the first half of "Exodus". This book discusses the mystical explorations of Pharaoh's enslavement of the Israelites, the birth of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Revelation at Mount Sinai. It probes the biblical text and seeks deeper meaning of the nature of evil and its relation to the divine realm.

Explains the structure of the feudal society, describes the rise of economic life and tells of the impact of Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853. Bibliographical notes.

This anthology brings together in convenient form a rich selection of Japanese poetry in traditional genres dating from the earliest times to the 20th century. With more than 1,100 poems, it is the most varied and comprehensive selection of traditional Japanese poetry now available in English. A romanized Japanese text accompanies each poem, and the book is illustrated with 20 line drawings.

Rhetoric is an area of study without accepted certainties, not yet parcelled into subdivisions and adhering to no fixed protocols. It is a noisy field in the cybernetic sense of the term: a fertile ground for creative innovation. This text embodies the interdisciplinary character of rhetoric.