Identity History

Our names are so mundane that we barely notice them. Yet each contains countless stories of tradition and belonging - be that a legacy of colonialism or persecution, the desire to fit in, or the complex cultural inheritance from one's parents. In What's in a Name?, Sheela Banerjee unravels the personal histories of friends and family through their names. And while tracing their heritage across centuries and continents - from west London to British India, and from 1960s Jamaica to pre-Revolutionary Russia - Sheela also tells the story of twentieth-century immigration to the UK.

She lept into my life, knife in hand. Our blades clashed igniting a fire of passion neither of us was prepared for. I came to keep a promise and protect the boy mage. She came to capture and kill. The lines between duty and desire have blurred, and an intoxicating mix of hunter and jaguar leaves us wondering who is predator and who is prey. Why is every wolf shifter, human slave trader, and merciless bounty hunter relentlessly chasing us through the wilderness; caring little whether they go through us to get to the boy? We are pawns in a dangerous game set in motion by an innocent boy whose...

Long-term social and demographic changes - and the conflicts they create - continue to transform British politics. In this accessible and authoritative book, Sobolewska and Ford show how deep the roots of this polarization and volatility run, drawing out decades of educational expansion and rising ethnic diversity as key drivers in the emergence of new divides within the British electorate over immigration, identity, and diversity.

When we talk about Jesus, we are always unanimous in answering that Jesus Christ is the Savior, is the son of God or God with us. A habit inherited from the Christian culture of repeating concepts that are transmitted to us about Jesus. Generally, the definition of Jesus Christ is made in a laconic and habitual way of seeing this character that runs through our history. This entity has settled in our history, and that his image does not wear out over time. That is, it doesn’t lose value.

After victory in World War II, Britain was a relieved but also a profoundly traumatized country. Simon Winder, born into this nation of uncertain identity, fell in love (as many before and since) with the man created as the antidote, a quintessentially British figure of great cultural significance: James Bond. Written with passion, wit and a great deal of personal insight and affection, this book is his wildly amusing attempt to get to grips with Bond’s legacy and the difficult decades in which it really mattered.

Cookbooks are not political in conventional ways. Yet, as repositories of human taste, cookbooks transmit specific blends of flavor, texture, and nutrition across space and time. Cookbooks both form and reflect who we are. Cookbook Politics argues that cookbooks highlight aspects of our lives we rarely recognize as political - taste, production, domesticity, collectivity, and imagination - and considers the ways in which cookbooks have or do politics, from the most overt to the most subtle.

The slippery online ecosystem is the perfect breeding ground for identities: true, false, and in between. The Internet shorthand IRL - "in real life" - now seems naïve. We no longer question the reality of online experiences but the reality of selfhood in the digital age. In The Secret Life, the essayist and novelist Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and IRL.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Martin Luther King Jr. stands as one of the most compelling and transformative figures in modern history. As a minister, activist, and the leader of the American civil rights movement, King’s unwavering commitment to justice and equality reshaped the social and political landscape of the United States. His visionary leadership and philosophy of nonviolent resistance became the cornerstone of a movement that challenged entrenched systems of oppression, inspiring millions to confront injustice with courage and conviction. This biography takes readers on a journey through the life of Martin ...

A secret wedding, a disaster at sea, a woman locked away with only her memories…. Ginny Cawley fell in love with Spencer Hayes beneath the light of the silver moon. When he travels to the Caribbean one last time before taking over his father’s successful shipping company, his ship disappears, leaving Ginny alone and carrying his child. Believing Spencer to be dead, Ginny’s parents insist she wed again for the sake of her child. There is no proof of Ginny’s secret marriage, no way to show the legitimacy of her child. Ginny is left with little choice but to do as her parents wish, ...

Will her true love ever return? He loves her more than life itself, but he's forced to say goodbye.... Spencer Hayes has been in love with Ginny Cawley since he first laid eyes on her years ago. Now, he must leave her to make one last trip to the Caribbean before taking over his father's shipping company. However, an unexpected storm at sea leaves him not only reflecting on his time with Ginny but makes him realize he may never see her again. This novelette is inspired by Beneath the Inconstant Moon by ID Johnson and provides further insight into Spencer and Ginny's relationship.