Oxford University Press

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball        of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so        enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor, and from        stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands...

Saving Strangers examines the extent to which humanitarian intervention has become a legitimate practice in international society. It maps the changing legitimacy of humanitarian intervention by comparing the international response to cases of humanitarian intervention in the cold war and post-cold war periods. Crucially, the book examines how far...

The widespread idea that Christian missions went hand in hand with Imperialism and colonial conquest is challenged here by a group of eminent historians. By showing the variety of missions and the vital role played by indigenous men and women, they place missions in a long historical perspective....

In   Death-Devoted Heart Roger Scruton argues that Tristan und Isolde has profound religious meaning. Blending philosophy, criticism and musicology, he shows the work is as relevant today as it was to Wagner's contemporaries. Scruton's analysis touches on the nature of tragedy, the significance of ritual sacrifice, and the meaning of redemption....

Challenging a contemporary tendency to over-emphasise the rational aspects of religion, Riis and Woodhead present a new methodology which shows how religious emotions arise in the varied interactions between human agents and religious communities, human agents and objects of devotion, and communities and sacred symbols....

This collection of essays-- written by pioneering Chinese journalists and Western experts--explores how transformations in China's media--from a propaganda mouthpiece into an entity that practices watchdog journalism--are changing the country. In detailed case studies, the authors describe how politicians are reacting to increased scrutiny from the...