Among The Kings

Among Kings chronicles the amazing adventures of William Sheppard, the first African-American Presbyterian missionary to the Congo in the late 1800s. Partnered with his white missionary partner, Samuel Norvelle Lapsley, this unlikely pair ventures deep into the Belgian-controlled Congo Free State. Owned by the evil King Leopold II, the Congolese people are ruthlessly enslaved for the ivory and rubber trade.

It was the war to end all wars and became one of the bloodiest and cruellest conflicts in history.Into the hands of author Mark Scott came a poignant survivor of those nightmare years - a notebook carried through the trenches by his great grandfather, Jimmy Scott, nestled in the pocket of his uniform. In it was a list of names, written with the tiny pencil still attached to the fragile cover. With this family heirloom in his hand, the author vowed to discover the stories of these men who gave their all in the Great War. Along the way he unravelled a remarkable connection to the story of the Unknown Warrior, unearthing valuable new documents that detailed for the first time the full untold story of this event - and what happened to the bodies of those not selected for burial in Westminster Abbey in 1920 - those who, like thousands of others, are "Known Unto God."Reading at times like a detective story, this is the moving, often heart-breaking, account of the men whose names Jimmy Scott carefully pencilled into his little notebook.

"In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."--The Boston Globe "Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."--LA Review of Books An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon--billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty--the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite and Charlie Chaplin has entertained his wife-to-be. And a few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist Party have been plotting revolution. By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty--the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and losing nearly everything as the Communists swept into power. In The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families participated in an economic boom that opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil at their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival. The book lays bare the moral compromises of the Kadoories and the Sassoons--and their exceptional foresight, success, and generosity. At the height of World War II, they joined together to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. Though their stay in China started out as a business opportunity, the country became a home they were reluctant to leave, even on the eve of revolution. The lavish buildings they built and the booming businesses they nurtured continue to define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day. As the United States confronts China's rise, and China grapples with the pressures of breakneck modernization and global power, the long-hidden odysseys of the Sassoons and the Kadoories hold a key to understanding the present moment.

"A masterpiece of contemporary Bible translation and commentary."—Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books of 1999 Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

This commentary on 1 and 2 Kings demonstrates the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible for today's church.

The Book of Kings narrates the vivid and turbulent history of Israel and its monarchs. In I Kings: Torn in Two, master educator Alex Israel uncovers the messages hidden between the lines of the biblical text and draws rich and indelible portraits of its great personalities. Revealing a narrative of political upheaval, empire building, religious and cultural struggle, national fracture, war and peace, I Kings: Torn in Two depicts the titanic clashes between king and prophet and the underlying conflicts that can split apart a society. Using traditional commentaries and modern literary techniques, the author offers a dynamic dialogue between the biblical text and its interpretations. The result is a compelling work of contemporary biblical scholarship that addresses the central themes of the Book of Kings in a wider historical, political and religious perspective.

Drawing on the Polanyian categories of reciprocity, redistribution and market trade, this book examines the exchange narratives within 1 and 2 Kings in an effort to clarify the nature of the economic structures behind the biblical text.