| Description |
xiii, 575 pages : maps ; 24 cm |
| Note |
Includes index. |
| Contents |
Preface -- A Note of Thanks -- Prologue -- The Sea and Its People -- Map -- the Mediterranean: The Western Basin -- The Northern Shores. I. Spain. i. Andalusia: Mediterranean Overture. ii. Toledo: The Old Mediterranean Renaissance. iii. Barcelona: Heart of a Nation. iv. The Moon Travellers of Majorca. 2. France. i. Languedoc: Cathars and Cultivators. ii. Marseille. iii. Corsica: Granite Exile. 3. Italy. i. Order in Disorder. ii. Cities of the North: Milan, Genoa, Venice. iii. Roman Politics. iv. A Civilisation Apart: Naples. v. The Mezzogiorno -- the South. vi. South of the South: Calabria. vii. Sicily: A Family Matter. viii. Cicero's Bitter Honey: Sardinia -- Map: The Eastern Basin. 4. The Arm of the Adriatic. i. The Balkan Hinge: The Veneto and Trieste. ii. The Southern Slavs Divide: The Break-up of Yugoslavia. iii. Albania: A Law Unto Itself. 5. Greece. i. Who Are the Greeks? ii. Athens. iii. Mountains and the North: Metsovo, Salonika, Athos. iv. Islands: Cephalonia and Crete. |
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6. Turkey: Crossroads to Asia. i. Istanbul and the New Turkey. ii. Ataturk's Citadel, and the March to the Sea: Ankara, Izmir and the Coast. 7. Cyprus. i. Turkish Cypriots. ii. Greek Cypriots -- Map: The Mediterranean -- The Southern Shores. 8. A Month in the Maghreb. i. Morocco. ii. Agony and Introversion: Algeria. iii. In the Shadow of Hannibal: Tunisia. 9. Libya: Qaddafi's Mixed Metaphor. 10. Maltese Crossroads -- Map: The East, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt -- The Levant. II. Egyptian Complex. i. Scratching the Hieroglyph. ii. Losing Alexandria. iii. Ismailia and the Canal. iv. Fellahin: Farming and Fertility. v. Cairo. 12. The Crescent and the Mountain: Syria and Lebanon. i. Syria. ii. Unhistoric Journey. iii. Human Mosaic: Lebanon. 13. Promise and Predicament: Israel and Palestine. i. The Grapes of Hebron. ii. The Land of Israel. iii. Intifada. iv. Jerusalem. 14. The Mediterranean Challenge: An Open Conclusion. |
| Summary |
Known to the early cartographers as the Inner Sea, the Mediterranean is emerging anew today, its tastes and styles now almost universal. But even as its influence - in the form of everything from politics to cookery, art, design and organized crime - continues to grow throughout the rest of the world, the sea and its people are now witnessing the most dramatic changes in their history. Who are the new Mediterraneans? How do they see themselves and their future, and how will their world change ours? |
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Robert Fox explores these questions in a journey to every country bordering the Inner Sea and the great islands scattered across its waters. In the past five years, he has seen the mountains of Morocco, the deserts of Syria, the sylvan wasteland of Albania, the monasteries of Athos, the slums of Naples, Gaza in riot, Beirut in civil war, Cairo in celebration. He presents each people and country - from France to Libya, from Greece to Malta, from Italy to Israel, and everyone along the way - as they see themselves, and he shares the lives and thoughts of poets and politicians, popes and peasants, bishops, brigands and barons. |
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In Fox's animated and perceptive chronicles, we discover a world in fermentation, stirred by irresistible forces of change: the growth of populations in the south (owing to overwhelming waves of migration from North Africa), the ever-mounting pressures on a perilously fragile ecosystem, the revival of ancient religions in more fanatical form. Perhaps most alarming are the political changes. The Mediterranean has always been a varied human mosaic in which ties of tribe and custom have been more meaningful than national boundaries. But as Fox persuasively shows, the new order now emerging after the end of the Cold War calls into question the very survival of the traditional nation-state - most notably in Yugoslavia, where long-suppressed ethnic rivalries have been unleashed, leading to full-blown war, and in Italy, where regional differences and the ever more powerful grip of organized crime threaten the dissolution of that nation. |
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As the promise and menace of this fascinating world increasingly capture our attention, Robert Fox's lively and probing book will prove an indispensable guide. |
| Subject |
Fox, Robert, 1945- -- Travel -- Mediterranean Region.
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Fox, Robert, 1945- (OCoLC)fst00115705
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Fox, Robert, 1945- -- Journeys -- Mediterranean Region.
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Mediterranean Region -- Description and travel.
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Travel. (OCoLC)fst01155558
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Mediterranean Region. (OCoLC)fst01239752
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HISTORY.
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TRAVEL.
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MEDITERRANEAN REGION.
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Mediterranean Region -- Description and travel.
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Fox, Robert, 1945- Inner sea. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1993 (OCoLC)647418252 |
| ISBN |
0394574524 |
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9780394574523 |
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0039457452 |
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