A biography of the Irish missionary and saint, Columbanus: Light on the Middle Ages also serves as a guide for understanding the pivotal sixth and... seventh centuries, when Roman and barbarian cultures merged in Europe. Through the life of Columbanus, a highly influential participant in the development of the medieval church and the invigorating transmission of Irish culture to the emerging civilization on the continent, readers gain an understanding of the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. As a citizen of multiple cultures, Columbanus provides an excellent introduction to an entire era.   Each interpretive biography in the Library of World Biography Series focuses on a person whose actions and ideas either significantly influenced world events or whose life reflects important themes and developments in global history.  

Containing more information on Asian culture than any other English-language reference work, Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture is the... first of its kind: a set of more than thirty chronologies for all the countries of Asia -- East, South, Southeast, and Central -- from the Paleolithic era through 1998. Each entry is clearly dated and, unlike most chronologies found in standard history texts, the entries are complete and detailed enough to provide virtually a sequential history of the vast and rich span of Asian cultures. The contributing writers and editors have ensured the book's usefulness to general readers by identifying individuals and groups, locating places and regions, explaining events and movements, and defining unfamiliar words and concepts.The thirty-two chronologies on individual countries, in conjunction with a detailed index, allow readers to find specific information quickly and efficiently, whether they seek the date for the invention of the iron plow or gunpowder, the fall of the Han Dynasty in China, or Ho Chi Minh's declarations of Vietnamese independence. This invaluable reference culminates with three appendices: "National/Independence Days," "Scientific-Technological Achievements in Asia," and "Asia: A Chronological Overview," which provides an accessible summary of key events and developments in various fields of activity throughout the continent.The Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture features:• three discrete chronologies on (1) Politics/History, (2) Art/Culture/Religion, and (3) Science/Economics/Everyday Life for each of Asia's three major cultures -- China, India, and Japan -- as well as a combined chronology for each of the other nations;• detailed entries of thousands of historical events as well as important milestones in religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts;• entries on technological developments and natural events (famines, floods, etc.) affecting the lives of ordinary people; and• authoritative and accessibly written entries by a team of Asian scholars from Columbia, Harvard, and other major research universities.Beyond its detailed accounting of Asia's political history, Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture also gives full recognition to religious, intellectual, artistic, and general cultural achievements, as well as to scientific, technological, industrial, agricultural, and economic developments. Concise yet complete, it will stand as an indispensable reference work in the field of Asian studies.

In Columbia Rising, Bancroft Prize-winning historian John L. Brooke explores the struggle within the young American nation over the extension of social... and political rights after the Revolution. By closely examining the formation and interplay of political structures and civil institutions in the upper Hudson Valley, Brooke traces the debates over who should fall within and outside of the legally protected category of citizen.The story of Martin Van Buren--kingpin of New York's Jacksonian "Regency," president of the United States, and first theoretician of American party politics--threads the narrative, since his views profoundly influenced American understandings of consent and civil society and led to the birth of the American party system. Brooke masterfully imbues local history with national significance, and his analysis of the revolutionary settlement as a dynamic and unstable compromise over the balance of power offers an ideal window on a local struggle that mirrored the nationwide effort to define American citizenship.