{"title":"Robert Templer","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"shadows-and-wind-book-robert-templer-9780140285970","title":"Shadows and Wind","description":"In Shadows and Wind, Robert Templer paints a fascinating and fresh picture of a country usually viewed with hazy nostalgia or deep suspicion. Here is Hanoi, an increasingly tense and troubled city approaching its millennium but uncertain of its direction. Here are people emerging from a long wilderness of malnutrition, discovering a new lifestyle of leisure and luxury. And everywhere are the anomalies that burst the bubble of optimism: a vastly expensive luxury hotel sitting empty in an unknown town six hours from an international airport; museums crammed with fake exhibits. And there remains the one-party Communist state, still wrapped in secrecy and corruption, and making for an uneasy bedfellow with the rapacious capitalism it now encourages.Drawing on hundreds of interviews in Vietnam and years of research, Robert Templer has produced the first in-depth examination of the problems facing modern Vietnam. Shadows and Wind is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Vietnam that now has emerged from a century of conflict with both foreign powers and with itself.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49590968779025,"sku":"GOR002541619","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50228098924817,"sku":"CIN0140285970G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50239496618257,"sku":"CIN0140285970VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50313523724561,"sku":"CIN0140285970A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999413047569,"sku":"NIN9780140285970","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0140285970.jpg?v=1751132837"},{"product_id":"basilisk-glance-book-robert-templer-9781739424343","title":"A Basilisk Glance","description":"Poison - invisible, unknown, hard to detect and deadly - taps into hard-wired anxieties about the risks of the world around us. From ancient times to the modern age, it has always created more fear than any other threats. In A Basilisk Glance: Poisoners from Plato to Putin, author Robert Templer takes us through the dark maze of poison. He traces its path from when Hercules dipped his arrows in the blood from the severed head of the Hydra to the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War in 1980s, from the death of Socrates to the use of toxins as a weapon of assassination, from the mass suicide of Jonestown in 1979 to the sarin attack in the Tokyo metro system. Today, as the war in Ukraine rages, we are reminded of the use of radioactive and nerve weapons by Russian President Vladimir Putin to kill his opponents. His targets - like other victims of poison through the ages - know that they are never safe; a cup of tea, a door handle or even their own underwear might be tainted with a deadly toxin. In this panoramic survey, Templer also shows how history is littered with the bodies of those killed for poisoning or being seen as poisonous. Pogroms against Jews, the burning of witches and the murder of slaves are extreme expressions of the fear that came from the lack of understanding of the risks of poison. A Basilisk Glance brings together scientific, cultural and social history to explore the meaning of poison through the ages. It examines how this fear - real and imagined - took hold, how it has maintained a grip on everyone from the most powerful figures of history to the poorest on the planet, and how it persists today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50224757571857,"sku":"NGR9781739424343","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50319402664209,"sku":"GOR013925412","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51099747909905,"sku":"NIN9781739424343","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52107031773457,"sku":"CIN1739424344VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1739424344.jpg?v=1751247470"},{"product_id":"nusantara-book-robert-templer-9781739424350","title":"Nusantara","description":"Indonesia will soon have a new capital city deep in the lush forests of Borneo. Nusantara will replace Jakarta, a city built by the Dutch in the 17th century that has grown into one of the largest metropolises in the world with a population of over 30 million people. The new capital could not be more different: it is planned as a forest city with 75 per cent of the land set aside to provide access for wildlife; buildings will be connected by walkways to encourage pedestrians; and there is a commitment to green energy and transport from the start. Nusantara's architects and planners, all of them Indonesian, have set out a dream of a global city to be built over the next two decades, growing to house a population of four million. President Joko Widodo has even announced plans to bid for the 2036 Olympics there. The ambition is a city that represents the diversity of Indonesia and balances economic development across the archipelago, which for decades has been concentrated on Java. That island is less than a tenth of the area of Indonesia but is home to 60 per cent of the population and the same share of the economy. This has come at a high cost. Jakarta is sinking more rapidly than any other city on the planet and suffers from regular floods. The city was until recently the largest without a metro system; now it has just one line connecting 13 stations. The vast sprawl of concrete and motorways is covered most days in a thick haze; it is regularly ranked as the world's most polluted city. But Indonesia the country is taking a 40-billion dollar gamble on whether moving the capital will help alleviate the problems of Jakarta and provide other benefits such as balancing economic development. The site chosen for Nusantara is near the coast of Borneo, close to the provincial capital of East Kalimantan and in an area with rapid economic growth due to energy and mineral extraction. Purpose-built capitals have a poor record of achieving their ambitions; they often end up as soulless monuments to oppressive regimes. They are also both a symptom and a driver of bad government by leaders who become isolated from their people. Will the remoteness of Nusantara cut Indonesians off from the leaders at a time when their quality of democracy is in decline? As the world's largest Muslim country and the third largest democracy, it is a question that matters beyond its shores. Nusantara could become a model for Indonesia and the region; a carbon-neutral city built not as a monument to a dictator but as a capital that respects the environment and promotes new ways of urban living for the 21st century. Or if it lacks support from successive government and fails to attract the necessary investment it may become one of the many sad and empty capitals that dot the world, another utopian vision fallen flat.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51186991661329,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51186992283921,"sku":"GOR014194454","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51504212476177,"sku":"NIN9781739424350","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52110983266577,"sku":"NGR9781739424350","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53028117446929,"sku":"CIN1739424352G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1739424352.jpg?v=1750832669"},{"product_id":"shah-s-party-book-robert-templer-9781805265696","title":"The Shah's Party","description":"The Shah's Party colorfully captures Iran's oil-rich boom years. In 1971, eight years before the dynasty fell, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his glamorous wife, Farah Diba, hosted one of the largest gatherings of world leaders ever, celebrating the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy. But this stranger-than-fiction event, staged in a tented city by the ancient ruins of Persepolis, came amidst a rise in leftist agitation and a turn towards political Islam. Ruhollah Khomeini, an exiled mullah, began a relentless campaign against the Shah. A skilled populist, Khomeini tapped into growing inequalities and resentments to push his theocratic vision, particularly among those who had left the countryside in search of work. The Shah's autocratic style played poorly in a world increasingly concerned with human rights. The Persepolis party became a symbol of Iran's regime, allowing the Shah's critics to portray him as repressive and out of touch with the struggles of ordinary people. Khomeini's novel religious populism and his mastery of messaging steamrollered the Shah; he left it too late to move towards democracy, losing the support of his army, his people and his allies. In 1971, trickles of dissent started to build into a revolutionary torrent that, within a decade, would end the dynasty.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52702238015761,"sku":"NGR9781805265696","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53558117925137,"sku":"GOR014959593","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53656861540625,"sku":"NIN9781805265696","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781805265696.jpg?v=1772036396"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-robert-templer.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}