Abstract This paper discusses how, by ultimately giving the character Caliban, in "The Tempest", repentant language and showing he is an intelligent creature, Shakespeare has given Caliban his approval and recognised that despite the fact he cannot be civilised, he is a creature of sensitivity deserving sympathy. The paper also argues that, by writing "The Tempest", Shakespeare wanted to make a philosophical and moral point about the taming of people who were considered to be savage and in need of civilisation. It also contends that Shakespeare had a humanitarian view towards undeveloped people and therefore created Caliban to represent an uncivilised creature being controlled and oppressed by people from society, represented by Prospero, who consider themselves to be superior.
From the Paper "However, it is not only Caliban who has an uncontrollable and bestial side. Sebastian and Antonio, educated and civilised members of the Kings court, plot to kill the king while he is sleeping in order to take the throne. This raises Shakespeare's argument of nature versus nurture, which influences the play significantly. For example, the reader might take Shakespeare's descriptions of Caliban's instinctive behaviour and interpret him as an evil creature, but he is not as insensitive as characters such as Sebastian and Antonio. Both men are from an educated and civilised society but they still produce corruption and evil even though they know better, whereas Caliban does not have a clear concept of right and wrong and does not realise his actions are inappropriate. Fundamentally, Caliban's behaviour is horrifying in the eyes of civilized people; nevertheless, his background and the environment in which he grew up in justify his acts."
Abstract This essay examines the economic causes of the Great Depression and evaluates why it was such a significant event in world history. The Great Depression was one of the darkest periods of the 20th Century, the entire capitalist world economy came precariously close to collapse. It affected virtually every civilian of Western civilisation ? from the wealthy bourgeoisie to the poor proletariat. The paper focuses on the Wall Street crash and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff and the role that each played in precipitating the Great Depression and puts forward extensive evidence that suggests that the Wall Street crash actually played a bigger role than the Smoot-Hawley Tariff.
From the Paper "As a fundamental principle of economics is that voluntary trade makes everyone involved better-off, economists were almost uniformly critical of the Smoot-Hawley tariff, and Hoover received a petition signed by more than 1,000 economists urging him to veto the bill. Ultimately, he signed the Smoot-Hawley bill into law on June 17, 1930. Once enacted, it established the highest average tariff level in American history. As Kenneth Davidson said: ?The Smoot-Hawley tariff was part of the general "beggar thy neighbour" polices adopted worldwide during the early 1930s.? While the Wall Street crash had a clear and direct impact on the American economy, the effect of the Smoot-Hawley tariff on precipitating the Great Depression is plagued with ambiguity as it had more of a vague indirect global impact."
Abstract In "The Social History of the Machine Gun", John Ellis shows the awesome impact that machine guns have had on civilisation and society. The creators and initial users, of the machine gun believed that their creation would end all wars, since it instituted a form of mutually assured destruction. They also believed it would bring about a certain amount of order to society, since unruly people would be put under control by elites that had exclusionary access to machine guns. But this reality did not materialise. Greater weapons were ultimately made, and these also failed to end war, just as they came up short in bringing about social control.
Abstract This paper emphasizes how the ancient Egyptian civilization reached its peak in the 16th century BC. The civilization was famous for its great power and wealth, the result of the highly fertile lands of the Nile delta, which were rich sources of grain for the whole Mediterranean region. Religious beliefs were the epicentre of the civilisation.
Abstract This review looks at Gardiner's greatest strength as showing that Egyptian thought, while very different from that of the modern West, was not really irretrievably alien, but a comprehensible attempt to make sense of human existence -- which obviously has recognisable parallels in many other civilisations. Indeed, no matter how foreign it may appear, Ancient Egypt embodied the same aspect of all peoples in the human condition: making sense of the chaos in life through the use of myths.
Abstract This paper examines how the three great civilizations of Persia, Greece and Rome relied heavily on the strength and success of their armies. It looks at how each nation, during its time of reign, trained and equipped their armies to better their chances on the battlefield. It discusses how the Persians with their vast numbers of troops armed with bows and sword and how he Greeks and Romans with their superior weapons and war strategies, earned the reputation of the most feared and respected armies in the known world.
From the Paper "A large portion of the foundations of any successful army relied upon the type of weapons each soldier was armed with and how effective the arms were against the enemy. It did not take long for an army equipped with the best weaponry and siege weapons to completely slay an entire opposition that was armed with mere sticks and clubs. During their reign of power, the Romans had over time devised new weaponry technology, which continued to make their weapons ever increasingly more effective killing machines in battles. Each legionary was equipped with a spear amongst their other surplies and tools."
Tags: advantages, battles, civilisations, history, others, over, stratergies, time, weapons
Abstract This paper considers the thesis put forward by Samuel Huntington that the world can now best be described as divided into separate cultures and that future conflicts will occur between these different cultures. It examines what he considers the major civilisations of the world and gives six reasons why he believes that the most important conflicts of the future will occur along the cultural fault lines separating these civilizations from one another.
From the Paper "His third argument is that as globalization to some extent separates peoples from their local identities, and weakens the nation state a source of identity, this gap is filled by religion, often quite extreme or fundamentalist in nature. George Weigel has noted that the "Unsecularisation of the world is one of the dominant social facts of life in the late twentieth century." The revival of religion, then, unites civilizations by providing a basis for identity that transcends state boundaries as the movements within western Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and most documented, Islam, attest to."
Tags: samuel, huntington, islam, war, globalization
A comparative analysis of the power struggles that are depicted in William Shakespeare's play "Antony and Cleopatra", William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies" and the movie "Dr Strangelove".
Abstract This paper examines how William Shakespeare creates the tension between the ideal and the pragmatic in his play "Antony and Cleopatra", but ultimately approves of Antony and Cleopatra's imaginative power over Caesar's practical but corrupted political power. In comparison, it looks at how "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding questions the power of civilisation and altruism in the face of barbarity while the movie "Dr Strangelove", directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a product of its context and depicts the horror of the destructive nature of man, as a result of the power plays that are happening between the most "powerful" men in the world.
From the Paper "The Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding is an allegory on true human nature. The text questions the power of civilisation and altruism in the face of barbarity. Golding transforms the novel The Coral Island (1857) by R.M. Ballantyne, changing the optimism in civilized values of English society displayed in the novel, to questioning the ability of civilizations to cope with barbaric impulses, emphasizing this transformation in theme by direct reference to the novel: "Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island", stated by the officer at the end. To create this powerplay between civility and barbarism, Golding symbolizes the respective traits in Ralph and Jack, both characters take from The Coral Island with the same names. Ralph symbolizes the power of civility, democracy and order while Jack symbolizes the power of anarchy, savagery and innate evil."
Abstract Moving from close analysis of the style and flow of the text to new and original interpretations of the main characters and subplots, this paper explores how language is used and abused in "Bleak House". It looks at how it can obscure as well as clarify and how it can express little or nothing even in, or especially in, enormous quantities. It explains that, ultimately, the novel redefines 'language', from its ideological throne as the cornerstone of civilisation, to a hindrance to expression and to society as a whole.
From the Paper "Another problem with language in Bleak House is its abundance. The novel is filled with references to writing and paperwork. The significance of Nemo's handwriting, the paperwork of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and Mrs Jellyby's endless correspondence are just a few examples of this. Dickens even takes the quantities of writing to ridiculous levels, with the claim that 'I believe now, Mrs Jellyby, that you have received as many as from one hundred and fifty to two hundred letters respecting Africa in a single day, have you not?' (p. 51). Although writing is an important theme, the contents of the documents are very rarely considered. Lady Dedlock is more interested in the handwriting on a document than what it contains (p. 168), and we constantly encounter enormous piles of forgotten paperwork."
Abstract In this article, the writer looks at the area known today as Iraq, which was called the ancient Near East. The writer points out that this area was also called the cradle of civilisation. The writer notes that there was good reason for providing such a name to this area, due to the fact that people in the area practiced irrigation and developed agriculture, built cities and waged wars, developed hereditary king-ships, developed writing for possibly the first time, wrote poetry and developed complex mythologies. The writer discusses that in so doing they laid the foundations for the development of Roman civilization which was to come later.
From the Paper "The area in the Near East which lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris River, once known as Mesopotamia, and now known as Iraq, is frequently referred to as the Cradle of Civilisation. The Ancient near East, showing the area of Mesopotamia."
Abstract In this article, the writer examines the complex relationship between the Islamic and Western worlds. The primary focus looks at the extent to which Islam and the West pose a threat to one another in terms of geo-political conflict. The overall assumption is that the threat posed by Islam to the West, and vice versa is grossly exaggerated. In order to accurately account for this exaggeration the complicated nature of the relationship is examined in detail. In addition, the role of extremist actions on both sides is revealed to show the manner in which threat perception is exaggerated by those with a vested political interest in the perpetuation of such sentiment. The writer notes that it is impossible to view the Islamic and Western worlds as homogeneous political entities. The writer maintains that attempting to offer an assessment based on a "clash of civilisations" is equally misguided.
From the Paper "In analytical terms this presents a distinct problem. Nonetheless, for the purposes of consistency and clarity the writer continues to refer to the two specific areas of the globe being discussed here as the Muslim and Western worlds. It is vitally important however to remember that these labels are extremely generalised and cannot be used or considered to represent two mass geometrically opposing blocs. To suggest they do is a flagrant exaggeration. Given therefore the fragmented political and social natures of the two global areas in question, it is incorrect to envisage that they represent an amalgamated threat to one another.
"The perception of a unified threat from Islam to the West is nonetheless an extremely potent one. Often it has led to the belief in some quarters, that being Islamic in an obscure general sense can immediately be correlated with a wish to impose a political system based on a fundamentalist Islamic doctrine, something that transcends national boundaries."
