{"title":"Books","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"travels-in-arabia-deserta-by-charles-m-doughty","title":"Travels in Arabia Deserta by Charles M. Doughty","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis is a first hand account of an intricate social order that exists without a modern state. Doughty lived among Bedouin nomadic societies, where he observes a system governed by ‘urf’ (customary law), honour (sharaf), and reputation. These societies maintained intricate networks of kinship and tribal affiliation. A person’s word and their tribe’s perceived strength are their primary guarantees. Survival in the harsh desert environment is predicated on a strict code of hospitality (diyafa) and mutual aid, where even strangers must be sheltered and protected.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eDoughty also reveals the fragility of this system. The internal balance is perpetually threatened by inter-tribal raids (ghazzu) and blood feuds. The book shows how these societies become vulnerable to external political manipulation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eDoughty writes about a society at a geopolitical tipping point, where Ottoman and Saudi-Rashidi interventions destabilised traditional tribal self-regulation foreshadowing the modern Middle East's enduring volatility.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMECAFE.BLOG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56557876052312,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0964\/4077\/9096\/files\/14_7d644427-5779-4904-a283-6ae2408192f3.jpg?v=1768753688"},{"product_id":"travels-in-arabia-deserta-by-charles-m-doughty-copy","title":"Russia: Its People and Its Literature by Emilia Pardo Bazán","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmilia Pardo Bazán was a spanish intellictual, in this book she explores 19th-century Russia through its creativity. She argues that in a society where free speech is banned and the government has total control, art becomes the only place where the truth can survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy analyzing the \"mutual dysfunction\" of Russian social classes, she shows that when a political system shuts down feedback and criticism, that energy moves into pop culture and literature. The lesson here is that art is often the most accurate diagnostic tool for a failing society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a modern context, we can see Pardo Bazán's framework applied elsewhere like the surge of dystopian fiction in times of political anxiety. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eReprint. This book  is a useful primary source that is rarely available in print.  Matte cover in A4. Ships every Monday.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMECAFE.BLOG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56557948338520,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0964\/4077\/9096\/files\/15_549b7c14-982d-44b3-97e4-d3017c33b582.jpg?v=1768760081"},{"product_id":"russia-its-people-and-its-literature-by-emilia-pardo-bazan-copy","title":"The Awakening of China by W. A. P. Martin","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book is an important primary source from China’s “century of humiliation.” It shows how the psychological trauma of China’s encounter with the West. This experience was foundational in forming the narrative in the Chinese Communist Party’s framing and in the development of modern Chinese nationalism. This book documents the roots that formed the “never again” sentiment that China still has today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMartin’s perspective is informed by his direct involvement in critical events. He witnessed or participated in the negotiation of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858), observed the inner workings of the Zongli Yamen (China’s first foreign affairs office), contributed to the establishment of modern education in China, and was trapped in the foreign legations during the siege of the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMartin challenges the simple villain\/victim dynamic of this period. He criticises xenophobia and Western greed shown by the Opium Wars and the imposition of unequal treaties. Martin provides a more nuanced and complex portrait of the historical actors involved.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMECAFE.BLOG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56557979238744,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0964\/4077\/9096\/files\/15.jpg?v=1768756862"},{"product_id":"the-awakening-of-china-by-w-a-p-martin-copy","title":"Africana; or, the Heart of Heathen Africa by Duff MacDonald","description":"\u003cp\u003eDuff MacDonald - a Scottish missionary, provides a firsthand look at Central African societies during the early days of European contact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePLEASE NOTE: His narratives are often coloured by moral judgment and a belief in cultural superiority. However, because MacDonald was a detailed observer embedded in the region for decades, his writings transcend their ideological frame and gives us valuable high-resolution ethnography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe documented languages, kinship structures, political organisations, agricultural practices, spiritual beliefs, and material culture. This rich recording offers a crucial snapshot of precolonial life at the very moment they were beginning to be transformed by colonial pressures, missionary activity, and global trade networks, making his work a controversial but essential primary source.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMECAFE.BLOG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56557989626200,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0964\/4077\/9096\/files\/19.jpg?v=1768760048"},{"product_id":"the-awakening-of-china-by-w-a-p-martin-copy-1","title":"Monopolies and the People by D.C. Cloud","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book talks about how very large companies especially railroad companies became extremely powerful in the United States after the Civil War. Cloud believed these companies were given too much help by the government, such as free land and money, and that this made them richer and stronger than ordinary people. He thought this went against the idea of democracy, where power should belong to the people, not just a few wealthy groups.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA big part of the book focuses on railroads because they controlled travel, trade, and shipping across the country. Cloud explains how some politicians worked closely with these companies and passed laws that helped them make huge profits. Cloud believed this kind of behaviour was unfair and harmful because it let rich companies control laws instead of serving the public.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCloud wrote the book as a warning and a call to action. He wanted regular people\/workers to stand up for their rights and demand fair treatment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMECAFE.BLOG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56557993197912,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0964\/4077\/9096\/files\/21.jpg?v=1768757297"},{"product_id":"the-awakening-of-china-by-w-a-p-martin-copy-2","title":"Woman, Church and State by Matilda Joslyn Gage","description":"\u003cp\u003eMatilda’s radical feminism was shaped by her exposure to the indegenous Haudenosaunee whose matrilineal society granted women political power, property rights, and autonomy. This contrast with Victorian norms convinced her that gender equality was historically real and socially viable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe was a leader in the National Woman Suffrage but she later broke with the movement over its alignment with conservative Christianity and political exclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this book, Gage argued that organized Christianity, not biology, was the primary engine of women’s subjugation, tracing how patriarchal theology erased earlier female-centered cultures and culminated in the witch trials.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe founded the Women’s National Liberal Union to combat what she called \"the tyranny of the Church,\" arguing that as long as religious dogma sanctified female inferiority, legal victories could be rolled back.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMECAFE.BLOG","offers":[{"title":"Illustrated","offer_id":56601424527704,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Original Text","offer_id":56601424560472,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0964\/4077\/9096\/files\/16.jpg?v=1768757442"}],"url":"https:\/\/timecafe.online\/collections\/books.oembed","provider":"TIMECAFE.ONLINE","version":"1.0","type":"link"}