Al Manakh 2

When it was first published at the height of the boom in 2007, Al-Manakh arrived with little fanfare. But the title an innovative mix of history, photography, statistics and design quickly became invaluable to historians and other observers of the Arab Gulf. Now the compendium is back in a second edition that, over 500 pages, seeks to chronicle the Gulf states urban experience amid the global financial crisis. In a world buzzing with satellite aerials, news flashes and status updates, this second Al Manakh a special issue of Volume Magazine provides an essential and comprehensive guide to the Gulf region during turbulent times: the worldwide financial crisis. The credit crunch is a stress test for the different development models in the region as nations prepare for a post-oil economy. This transition provides several challenges: economic re-profiling, food security, environmental exposure, multiculturalism and demographic growth. Al Manakh delves into these challenges by profiling six cities in five countries bordering the Gulf (UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). From this common ground, Al Manakh builds an inside-out perspective with local authors reflecting on their own situation and expectations. Guiding voices include editors Rem Koolhaas and Todd Reisz (OMA), Lilet Breddels and Arjen Oosterman (Archis/Volume), Daniel Camara and Mitra Khoubrou (Pink Tank), Ole Bouman (NAi). Al Manakh is for those seeking an alternating viewpoint on the growth of the Gulf not one just from the air, but one also on the ground. Al Manakh Gulf Continued will offer the public once again its overview of the Gulf cities, this time focusing on how, amid a quickly changing economic landscape, these cities are reexamining their methods and their relationships with the rest of the world. Tempered by economic slow-down but equipped with financial and development know-how, these cities are reaching out beyond their borders to export development and urbanization to parts of the world not yet participating in global urban investment. Al Manakh Gulf Continued will cover the geopolitical, technological, environmental and financial aspects of this ongoing transformation. Cities of Saudi Arabia and Iran are also added to the scope.

This book is a vital exploration of the harrowing stories of mass displacement that took place in the first half of the 20th century from the perspective of forced migrants themselves. The volume brings together 15 interrelated case studies which show how the deportation, evacuation and flight of millions of people as a result of the First World War intensified rather than alleviated ethnic conflicts which culminated in population transfers on an even larger scale during and immediately after the Second World War. While each chapter focuses on a different group of refugees and displaced persons, the text as a whole looks at the experience of forced migration as a complex set of evolving relationships with the receiving society, the homeland, the broader diaspora and other migrant communities living within the same host country. This innovative, four-dimensional model provides an overarching conceptual framework that binds the chapters together within the longer arc of European history. By going beyond the conventional narratives of national victimhood and (un)successful assimilation of refugees, A Transnational History of Forced Migrants in Europe reveals that identities of forced migrants in the first half of the 20th century were individualised, hybrid and constantly reconstructed in response to socioeconomic forces and political pressures. The case studies collected in this volume further suggest that age, gender, social class, educational level and the personal experiences of 'unwilling nomads' are more important to the understanding of forced migration history than ethnoreligious identities of victims and perpetrators.

Abu Dhabi’s urban development path contrasts sharply with its exuberant neighbour, Dubai. As Alamira Reem puts it, Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates since 1971, ‘has been quietly devising its own plans ... to manifest its role and stature as a capital city’. Alamira Reem, a native Abu Dhabian and urban planner and researcher who has studied the emirate’s development for more than a decade, is uniquely placed to write its urban history. Following the introduction and description of Abu Dhabi’s early modern history, she focuses on three distinct periods dating from the discovery of oil in 1960, and coinciding with periods in power of the three rulers since then: Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1960–1966), Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1966–2004), and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2004–). Based on archival research, key interviews and spatial mapping, she analyses the different approaches of each ruler to development; investigates the role of planning consultants, architects, developers, construction companies and government agencies; examines the emergence of comprehensive development plans and the policies underlying them; and assesses the effects of these many and varied influences on Abu Dhabi’s development. She concludes that, while much still needs to be done, Abu Dhabi’s progress towards becoming a global, sustainable city provides lessons for cities elsewhere.

1960, following as it did the last CIAM meeting, signalled a turning point for the Modern Movement. From then on, architecture was influenced by seminal texts by Aldo Rossi and Robert Venturi, and gave rise to the first revisionary movement following Modernism. Bringing together leading experts in the field, this book provides a comprehensive, critical overview of the developments in architecture from 1960 to 2010. It consists of two parts: the first section providing a presentation of major movements in architecture after 1960, and the second, a geographic survey that covers a wide range of territories around the world. This book not only reflects the different perspectives of its various authors, but also charts a middle course between the 'aesthetic' histories that examine architecture solely in terms of its formal aspects, and the more 'ideological' histories that subject it to a critique that often skirts the discussion of its formal aspects.

Although the Russian novelist and playwright Leonid Leonov had published extensively before 1917 he considered that his literary career began only in 1922 with the short story Buryga. His talent developed rapidly in the comparatively free cultural climate of the first decade of the Revolution and by 1927 his characteristic style and themes were already formed. It was in this year, however, that the Communist Party began to impose its demands on the artists and intellectuals. Leonov's beliefs and values were incompatible with the Soviet version of Marxism but he tried to affirm them indirectly in his work through structure, imagery and allusion, while outwardly conforming to official demands. This manoeuvring inevitably led him into some questionable compromises which in turn damaged his reputation, both at home and abroad. Leonov himself was painfully conscious of the moral dilemmas involved and his later works return again and again to the question: is it possible to compromise without being compromised? There are fourteen chapters in the volume, each devoted to one or more of Leonov's works, setting the successive stages of his evolution against a background of changing cultural and political policies.

Anna Geifman examines the explosion of terrorist activity that took place in the Russian empire from the years just prior to the turn of the century through 1917, a period when over 17,000 people were killed or wounded by revolutionary extremists. On the basis of new research, she argues that a multitude of assassination attempts, bombings, ideologically motivated robberies, and incidents of armed assault, kidnapping, extortion, and blackmail for party purposes played a primary role in the revolution of 1905 and early twentieth-century Russian political history in general.

This study provides a comprehensive intellectual biography of Filaret Drozdov, the prominent religious and political figure in nineteenth-century Russia. The author argues that rather than a traditional theologian, Filaret Drozdov was simultaneously a valued monarchical apologist and a guardian of the privileges of the Russian Orthodox Church.