The already shaky relationship between the Qatar state and Iranian society was further undermined by the Western exploitation of Iranian resources during the second half of the nineteenth century. From 1918 until 1921 "British subsidies kept the government afloat, and British military and administrative advisers attempted to reorganize Iran's army and to manipulate the various political factions within the country to British advantage" (Cleveland, 185)*. When Britain added insult to

Homeric Similes In "Book Three," lines 2-7 describe the way in which the Trojans attack the Achaian men. Homer compares the Trojan Army's attack to the impassioned flight of wild birds, particularly cranes, as they flee the winter. Homer evokes the image of the cranes' beating wings as they wing their way farther upwards into the sky. The cranes' frenzied flight is explicitly compared to the destructive force of the

My New Church ExperienceI recently visited a Christian church located in downtown Los Angeles, California, named Saint Sophia Cathedral. It is a Greek Orthodox Church. The architecture of the building was grand and imposing, with a vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows depicting biblical scenes. As I approached the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, located at 1324 South Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles, I was immediately struck by its impressive size

The National MallThe National Mall is a setting that truly captures the soul and grandeur of American exceptionalism. Aesthetically speaking, it boasts cherry blossoms in the spring that add a splash of color. Summer brings green lawns filled with visitors; autumn has its own reflective beauty with that gives the scene a refined and noble character; and winter, too, covers the mall in a quiet chill, with frost and snow.

As he himself admits, "I have a very grim perspective. I do feel that it's a grim, painful, nightmarish meaningless existence, and the only way to be happy is if you tell yourself some lies. One must have some delusions to live" ("Cannes 2010: Woody Allen on Death -- 'I'm Strongly Against It'"). What Midnight in Paris is for him (and us), therefore, is a kind of distraction from

Although Root was already a well-established Chicago architect, the north side of the Monadnock "emerges as a definite departure from the mainstream of Root's practice and the rest of the contemporary Chicago school at the time, with only its "carefully conceived proportions" and sculptural form harkening back to earlier Root works ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.5). Root created the illusion that the structure 'grew'