Chocolate, women and Empire: book review

"In the mythology of chocolate, the power relations of production and consumption are subsumed by a more attractive narrative of exotic peoples and their surroundings… chocolate seems to generate a particular type of history writing … one which delves into the realms of fantasy and romance 

(pp. 85–6)."

Dr. Emma Robertson's "Chocolate, women and Empire: a social and cultural history" is reviewed by  Professor Barbara Bush (History Department, Sheffield Hallam University" in the Institute of Historical Research's "Reviews in History"

Dr Robertson is Senior Lecturer in History, also at Sheffield Hallam

If you want to read more on the imperial history of chocolate, the book is in SOAS Library at A338.17374 / 987393

Book review: Muslim expansion and Byzantine collapse in North Africa

Go to the Bryn Mawr Classical Review to read about Walter Kaegi's recent book "Muslim expansion and Byzantine collapse in North Africa".
The reviewer is Dr David Woods, Head of the Classics Department and a Senior Lecturer at University College Cork (Ireland)

Find the book in SOAS Library at UM949.501 / 738923

Ethnology Museums and the issue of exhibiting human remains

In colonial times, human remains were routinely collected by archaeologists and anthropologists and displayed in ethnology museums - this article from the Deutsche Welle website examines this issue in conjunction with a new exhibition at Vienna's Ethnology Museum which explores the context and legacy of the work of Hans Liechtenecker in Namibia in 1931 and his "Archive of Dying Races" that displayed human remains and featured oral recordings.
The Deutsche Welle article also looks at cases involving Australian Aborigine and Naga remains that have come to be displayed in museums

A new title to look out for !

Oxford University Press has just brought out "A concise companion to history", edited by Ulinka Rublack.
The book contains a selection of essays on the writing and interpretation of history, and on the treatment of cross-cultural thematic issues such as commerce, population and ethnicity, including a chapter on the merging discipline of environmental history.

SOAS Library has a couple of copies on order ...

Click HERE to read the review by Alix Green (University of Herfordshire) in the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History
Alix is Head of Policy at the University and a part-time PhD student researching how "historical thinking can contribute to public policy development"

More on the acquisition of "cultural assets" by museums

Report from Bloomberg news on the ceding of a collection of antiquities to Leipzig University's Egyptian Museum by the Jewish Claims Conference.
The sale of the artifacts by Egyptologist Georg Steindorff to the Museum in 1937 had been ruled earlier this year as being made under duress. Steindorff, who was of Jewish descent, escaped from Germany in 1939.

Cambridge Histories Online: new online resource

SOAS Library now has access to the complete Cambridge Histories Online containing over 270 volumes published since 1960, covering over 15 different academic subjects. Users can search and browse content, personalise the interface including, saved & most recent searches, workspaces and bookmarks and export citations.

Includes: The Cambridge History of Music, The Cambridge History of Islam & The New Cambridge History of Islam, The Cambridge History of Judaism, The Cambridge History of Political Thought, The Cambridge History of Africa, The Cambridge History of Ancient China, The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, The Cambridge History of Egypt, The Cambridge History of Iran, The Cambridge History of Japan, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, The New Cambridge History of India and many more...

http://histories.cambridge.org/ [On-campus]
http://bit.ly/CHOnline [Off-campus]

Orientalia Suecana: new open-access content

Orientalia Suecana

This international journal of Indological, Iranian, Semitic, Sinological and Turkic studies (founded in 1952 and published by Uppsala University in Sweden) is now making recent content available online through open-access.

The open-access content begins with Vol.58 (2009). 

The Library has print copies also from Vol.1 to Vol.59 at Per 5 / 79769

You have to download each volume individually via the links on the journal homepage in order to view the full-text.