Homo sapiens rank among the most parasitic of all animals. In part this is because we know so much about all aspects of the biology of our species, but in addition our varied habitat and diet, and our global distribution exposes us to more infections than any other species. Whereas some familiar parasitic infections are responsible for much human disease and suffering, the great majority are rare or obscure forms ignored by all but the most comprehensive texts. The Parasites of Homo Sapiens is the first book to present a comprehensive listing of them all. Closely following the pattern of the first edition, this new edition incorporates a wealth of further information and data from the most recently published research findings. An indispensable guide for all parasitologists, it presents a comprehensive checklist of all animals naturally parasitic in or on the human body. Each parasite listed includes a complete summary of its characteristics.

By:   R.W. Ashford, W.H. Crewe
Imprint:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   2nd Revised edition
Dimensions:   Height: 9mm,  Width: 254mm,  Spine: 178mm
Weight:   272g
ISBN:  

9780415276887

ISBN 10:   0415276888
Pages:   152
Publication Date:   January 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  A / AS level ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available  
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Protozoa Trematoda Cestoda Nematoda Acanthocepala Arthropoda Exclusions Summary References

This has now just slipped off the Top Ten of the SUNDAY TIMES bestseller list which it has been on for a number of weeks. It was also featured in THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S Books of the Moment on 26 April. Reviews not surprisingly havebeen excellent and they're still coming in: 'Lewis is brief and authoritative.'Michael Binyon, THE TIMES 'Readers who have been saturated with televisioncoverage and newspaper articles since 9/11 will find much to enlighten them in this book. Lewis writes clearly and elegantly, and his style is refreshingly free from academic jargon'Malise Ruthen, THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Bernard Lewis is not only the most eminent of living Arabists; he is also by far the most interesting.His latest book began life as a long essay for the New Yorker in November 2001, soon after the Twin Towers were struck; the rest of the text is new. The author's characteristic virtues are all very much in evidence: concision, readability, dry wit and devastating logic. This is vintage Bernard Lewis: he improves with age.'Daniel Johnson,THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Bernard Lewis has an authority all his own. In his eighties now, he has devoted a lifetime to the study of all aspects of Islam.He is the best available guide to the fraught and mostly unequal relationships which have developed over such a long time between Muslims and non-Muslims, and which so bedevil the present. Humanist in outlook and an exceptional linguist, Lewis is, on top of everything else, a graceful writer. David Pryce-Jones, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Lucid and stylish'THE ECONOMIST 'Bernard Lewis shows himself again to be a master of his material, a graceful essayist and a shrewd analyst of the complexities of Middle Eastern politics and religion.'Bill McSweeney, THE IRISH TIMES 'He delivershis argument in clear prose which will entertain and fascinate the non-expert.'THE IRISH EXAMINER We have reviews still to come in THE FINANCIAL TIMES, THE OBSERVER and THE SPECTATOR.

The dean of Islamic studies in America ponders the current state of what is both a religion and a political system, and finds it wanting. Mainstream Islam, at least in its ideal form, is at a far remove from the headline-conquering visions of the Islamicists, whether they be the ayatollahs of Iran or the terrorists of al-Qaeda. But, suggests Lewis (Near Eastern Studies Emeritus/Princeton Univ.; The Multiple Identities of the Middle East, 1999, etc.), the fundamentalists may be well along in shifting the center toward the extreme: The medieval assassins were an extremist sect, very far from mainstream Islam, he writes. That is not true of their present-day imitators. Witness, Lewis writes, the ever-growing power of Wahhabism, the conservative strain of Islam that now dominates Saudi Arabia, which Lewis persuasively likens to the Ku Klux Klan. The custodianship of holy places [in Saudi Arabia] and the revenues of oil have given worldwide impact to what would otherwise have been an extremist fringe in a marginal country, writes Lewis-an extremist fringe among whose notable products is Usama bin Ladin, as Lewis spells it, whose declaration of war against the United States marks the resumption of the struggle for religious dominance of the world that began in the seventh century. The Islamicists have been able to turn the disaffection of the young and impoverished against not merely America, writes Lewis, but against their home governments, which, after all, have done little to produce healthy societies. (For in every measurable respect of social and material well-being, Lewis writes, the Islamic world lags ever farther behind the West. Even worse, the Arab nations also lag behind the more recent recruits to Western-style modernity, such as Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. ) Small wonder that so many young Muslims are so eager to fulfill the Quranic obligation of jihad, or holy war, by striking out against the West-though, Lewis is quick to add, at no point do the basic texts of Islam enjoin terrorism and murder. Expanded from Lewis's prizewinning New Yorker commentary following 9/11: an illuminating brief overview of Islam today. (Kirkus Reviews)

At a time when many in the world are anxious to learn more about Islam, to understand what it is that drives the likes of Osama bin Laden and his followers to commit their terrible atrocities in the name of jihad, this slim volume by one of the West's foremost historians of Islam is a welcome, indeed necessary, addition to the wealth of books on this and related issues which have been spawned by the events of September 11 2001. Islam in both its senses - religion and civilization - dates back over 14 centuries to the advent of the Prophet Muhammad. Today more than ever, though, religion remains, in most Islamic countries, a major political force; Lewis argues that it is not only a matter of faith and practice, but also 'an identity and a loyalty'. This perhaps goes some way to explain why a small minority of Muslims will go to such extreme lengths to rid the world of the forces of evil embodied by the United States of America and Zionism. Having considered the ideological background, Lewis goes on to consider the way forward - how so-called Islamic fundamentalists are likely to prosecute their cause in the future and how the West can best deal with a terrorist threat which can only be fuelled by the poverty and tyranny which affects most of the Muslim world and an exploding population of 'unemployed, uneducated and frustrated young men'. Lewis states that 'in devising means to fight the terrorists, it would surely be useful to understand the forces that drive them'; this book is a useful aid to that understanding. (Kirkus UK)