Manchuria entered the twentieth century as a neglected backwater of the dying Qing dynasty & within a few short years became the focus of intense international rivalry to control its resources & shape its people This book examines the place of religion in the development of Manchuria from the late nineteenth century to the collapse of the Japanese Empire in 1945 Religion was at the forefront in this period of intense competition not just between armies but also among different models of legal commercial social & spiritual development each of which imagining a very specific role for religion in the new society Debates over religion in Manchuria extended far beyond the region & shaped the personality of religion that we see today This book is an ambitious contribution to the field of Asian history & to the understanding of the global meaning & practice of the role of religion ...

WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2013 Shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Prize Shortlisted for the 2013 RSL Ondaatje Prize Shortlisted for Banff Adventure Travel Prize Shortlisted for Saltire Book of the Year Award Gavin Francis fulfilled a lifetime's ambition when he spent fourteen months as the base-camp doctor at Halley a profoundly isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica So remote it is said to be easier to evacuate a casualty from the International Space Station than it is to bring someone out of Halley in winter Antarctica offered a year of unparalleled silence & solitude with few distractions & very little human history but also a rare oppurtunity to live among emperor penguins the only species truly at home in the Antarctic Following the penguins throughout the year -- from a summer of perpetual sunshine to months of winter darkness -- Gavin Francis explores a world of great beauty conjured from the simplest elements the hardship of living at 50 Degrees C below zero & the unexpected comfort that the penguin community bring ...

Discover a modern North American classic Celebrate one of our most vital & enduring passions railroads Use your initial investment to build track Then pick up commodities where they are grown mined or manufactured & deliver them to a lucrative place of demand Complete a delivery & make the money you need to buy larger faster trains & expand your railroad empire Win the game by building the most effective railroad empire! With over a million variations Empire Builder never grows old Capture the entrepreneurial spirit of North America & learn to build an empire Whether you share Empire Builder as an evening with friends or as a rainy day activity with your family you will always find it captivating! After enjoying this game you can explore one of its many sequels including the award winning Eurorails & Australian Rails Contains 1 markable gameboard (puzzle-cut map) 6 wipe-off crayons 2 decks of colorful cards (168 total) 95 color printed load chips 1 pack of game money Full color rules Full color Game Overview
- an introduction to Empire Builder Empire Builder is geographically accurate The game depicts North Americas rivers mountains & plains as well as its natural resources It is a great way to learn about the geography business shipping & transportation of the US Canada & Mexico while having loads of fun with family & friends Ages 12 & up For 2-6 Players Playing Time more than 90 minutes
...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Making sense of modern Britain is a tough call But the explanation more often than not lies in the British Empire Jeremy Paxman believes that unless we come to terms with our Imperial past we&ll never understand who we are & where we&re going today So in this series he cuts through our national embarrassment turning his forensic & unapologetic gaze on to this most compelling period of our history
- & tracing its far-reaching influence on the present Actors Jeremy Paxman Director Julian Birkett Certificate Exempt from Classification Year 2012 Languages English Region Region 2
- Will only play on European Region 2 or multi-region DVD players

...

In Empire Express designed to be an easy-to-play introduction to the Empire Builder series of games players create competing railroad empires by drawing railroad tracks with crayons upon an erasable board You win if you utilize your network of rail lines to acquire & deliver goods efficiently to accumulate the largest personal fortune! The base game provides pre-programmed routes on a board depicting a north-eastern portion of the US with demand cards providing players with an easy way to learn the system through play Players start with the bare bones of a railroad an empty train & track connecting some cities Each turn you & your fellow players take turns building track operating trains & delivering loads The bank will pay you for each delivered load With the starting route guided by the board only two loads per card & a visual pick-up & delivery guide on every card the learning curve is greatly shortened ...

Empire in Black & Gold is the first novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky's critically acclaimed fantasy series The Shadows of the Apt The days of peace are over The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace & prosperity for decades bastions of civilization & sophistication That peace is about to end In far-off corners an ancient Empire has been conquering city after city with its highly trained armies & sophisticated warmaking & now it's set its sights on a new prize Only the ageing Stenwold Maker spymaster artificer & statesman can see the threat It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people
- as soon a tide will sweep down over the Lowlands & burn away everything in its path But first he must stop himself from becoming the Empire's latest victim Empire in Black & Gold is followed by the second book in the Shadows of the Apt series Dragonfly Falling
...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play The world&s best movie magazine presents Mad about movies? Know your Rat Pack from your Brat Pack? Think you could be a contender? Well the time has come for you to shine & you can do just that by playing The Empire Interactive Movie Quiz Go Han Solo & play on your own or gather together the usual suspects & take each other on in multi-player mode
- the choice is yours but the goal remains the same
- achieve those coveted Empire 5 stars (something even Return of the Jedi never managed!!) From the team behind Empire (the world&s best movie magazine) comes the definitive test of your film knowledge featuring over 1000 questions from such diverse categories as Cartoons Horror Turkeys & Trivia This really is a must for all the family & with a choice of Easy Rider & Hard Boiled questions there&s no need to put baby in the corner! Clips & stills from some of the most memorable moments in film history make this quiz a must-have for Oscar season!! As if all this wasn&t enough each purchase comes with an offer any self-respecting movie fan can&t refuse
- 25 off an Empire magazine subscription


...

In the Monopoly Empire game players can own the world&s top brands After choosing one of the uniquely branded tokens players move around the board & start building their empires The game is a race to the top as players buy their favorite brands one by one & fill their towers Players can own famous brands including Nerf Transformers Levi&s & more Opponents collect rent from their rivals; the higher their tower the more they can charge! For two to four players the first player to fill their tower with billboards wins!
Includes: gameboard 4 towers 6 tokens 30 billboard tiles 6 office tiles 14 Chance cards 14 Empire cards money pack 2 dice & game guide Players own their favorite brands including Puma Levi&s Nerf & more Fast fun gameplay Tokens & game pieces are based on the world&s favorite brands First player to fill their tower wins Ages 8 & up For 2 to 4 players
...

WINNER OF THE 2015 BANCROFT PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2015 PHILIP TAFT PRIZEFINALIST FOR THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORYSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 CUNDHILL PRIZE IN HISTORICAL LITERATUREEconomist BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015' Knowledgeable & stunning' Orhan Pamuk 'A masterpiece of the historian's craft' The Nation For about 900 years from 1000 to 1900 cotton was the world's most important manufacturing industry It remains a vast business
- if all the cotton bales produced in 2013 had been stacked on top of each other they would have made a somewhat unstable tower 40000 miles high Sven Beckert's superb new book is a history of the overwhelming role played by cotton in dictating the shape of our world It is both a gripping narrative & a brilliant case history of how the world works
...

In this tour de force of original cultural history Paul Koudounaris takes the reader on an unprecedented international tour of macabre & devotional architectural masterpieces in nearly 20 countries This is the first book to bring together the world's most important charnel sites ranging from the crypts of the Capuchin monasteries in Italy & the skull-encrusted columns of the ossuary in Evora in Portugal to the strange tomb of a 1960s wealthy Peruvian nobleman decorated with the exhumed skeletons of his Spanish ancestors Illustrated with specially taken photographs of sites rarely open to the public & forgotten archive images of others long destroyed this mesmerising shocking & deeply moving book is an essential memento mori for our modern age ...