Asian history Books
University of California Press Infrastructure and Form
Book SynopsisIn the 1990s and 2000s, contemporary art in India changed radically in form, as an art world once dominated by painting began to support installation, new media, and performance. In response to the liberalization of India's economy, art was cultivated by a booming market as well as by new nonprofit institutions that combined strong local roots and transnational connections. The result was an unprecedented efflorescence of contemporary art and growth of a network of institutions radiating out from India. Among the first studies of contemporary South Asian art, Infrastructure and Form engages with sixteen of India's leading contemporary artists and art collectives to examine what made this development possible. Karin Zitzewitz articulates the connections among formal trajectories of medium and material, curatorial frames and networks of circulation, and the changing conditions of everyday life after economic liberalization. By untangling the complex interactions of infrastructure andTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Feminist Networks, New Biennials,and Performance 2. Painting and the Image Condition at the Millennium 3. Materiality, Ephemerality, Haptics 4. Language, the Documentary, and Art in a Discursive Mode 5. Infrastructure, Collaboration, and the Cut Conclusion: Infrastructure Is Not (Only) a Metaphor Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index
£46.75
University of California Press Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan
Book SynopsisArticles crafted from lacquer, silk, cotton, paper, ceramics, and iron were central to daily life in early modern Japan. They were powerful carriers of knowledge, sociality, and identity, and their facture was a matter of serious concern among makers and consumers alike. In this innovative study, Christine M.E. Guth offers a holistic framework for appreciating the crafts produced in the city and countryside, by celebrity and unknown makers, between the late sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. Her study throws into relief the confluence of often overlooked forces that contributed to Japan's diverse, dynamic, and aesthetically sophisticated artifactual culture. By bringing into dialogue key issues such as natural resources and their management, media representations, gender and workshop organization, embodied knowledge, and innovation, she invites readers to think about Japanese crafts as emerging from cooperative yet competitive expressive environments involving both human and nonhuTrade Review"This is a book that brings the past into conversation with the present, inspiring the reader with its insights into possibilities for the future." * Monumenta Nipponica *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue Introduction 1. Natural Resources 2. Picturing the Early Modern Craftscape 3. Craft Organizations and Operations 4. Tacit Knowledge 5. Technology, Innovation, and Craft Mastery Conclusion Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index
£37.80
University of California Press North Koreas Mundane Revolution
Book SynopsisWhen the crucial years after the Korean War are remembered today, histories about North Korea largely recount a grand epic of revolution centering on the ascent of Kim Il Sung to absolute power. Often overshadowed in this storyline, however, are the myriad ways the Korean population participated in party-state projects to rebuild their lives and country after the devastation of the war.North Korea's Mundane Revolutiontraces the origins of the country's long-term durability in the questions that Korean women and men raised about the modern individual, housing, family life, and consumption. Using a wide range of overlooked sources, Andre Schmid examines the formation of a gendered socialist lifestyle in North Korea by focusing on the localized processes of socioeconomic and cultural change. This style of New Living replaced radical definitions of gender and class revolution with the politics of individual self-reform and cultural elevation, leading to a depoliticization of the country's political culture in the very years that Kim Il Sung rose to power.
£27.00
University of California Press Pious Labor
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£27.00
Harvard University Press Power for a Price
Book SynopsisThe Qing dynasty office purchase system (juanna), which allowed individuals to pay for government appointments, was regarded in traditional Chinese historiography as inherently corrupt and anti-meritocratic. Lawrence Zhang's groundbreaking study of a broad selection of new archival and other printed evidence contradicts this widely held assessment.Trade ReviewWith exacting research and sweeping vision, Lawrence Zhang has offered the most sophisticated study yet written of how the Qing state and Chinese society negotiated the path to office. By showing that the examination system can only be understood in relation to office purchase, Power for a Price becomes one of those rare books that genuinely transforms our understanding of late imperial China. -- Matthew W. MoscaLawrence Zhang's book is the most important study of Qing-dynasty official recruitment and elite formation to appear within the last twenty years. Zhang demonstrates that, as part of the strategic portfolio of many of the era's most successful officials and lineages, the purchase of degrees, offices, and shortcuts to appointment complemented Confucian education and examination success. Far from being the stigmatized last resort of exam failures in the desperate last decades of the dynasty, direct purchase of degrees and offices in fact constituted a regular, approved practice right through the Qing, providing a steady source of revenue (not unlike the sale of bonds) that enabled the imperial state to tap private wealth by promising repayment through future appointment. Far from being a betrayal of social mobility, the relatively low price of the lower degrees and offices made purchase a far more realistic route to upward mobility than examination alone, which tended to reinforce and reproduce elite status. This book will be required reading for all historians of China. -- Matthew Sommer
£42.46
Harvard University Press Genealogy and Status
Book SynopsisBy shedding light on a long-forgotten epigraphic genre called genealogical steles that flourished in North China during the Mongol Empire, or Yuan Dynasty (12711368), Genealogy and Status explores the ways the conquered Chinese people understood and represented the alien Mongol ruling principles and kinship through their own cultural tradition.Trade ReviewPerhaps the most striking feature of Genealogy and Status is its extraordinary command of epigraphic materials. …The appendices…represent a wealth of information in themselves and will no doubt become an indispensable epigraphic reference for anyone interested in north China during the Jin and Yuan periods. Of course, Genealogy and Status is not just an epigraphic compendium, but also a fine-grained consideration of elite formation, office-holding, and kinship in northern China. This book is a most welcomed addition to the study of north China under Mongol rule. -- David Robinson * Journal of Chinese History *
£43.31
Harvard University Press Vietnam
Book SynopsisVietnam focuses on how the country's governance shapes its politics, economy, social development, and international relations, as well as on the reforms required if it is to become a sustainable and modern high-income nation in the coming decades. This book features work by scholars from Vietnam, North America, and Europe.Trade ReviewIf you are going to read only one book on Vietnam to get up to speed with the state of scholarship on the country, this should be the one. A stellar cast of scholars looking at Vietnam from the rise of the party-state to its socioeconomic and diplomatic evolution gives readers an admirable compendium. -- Nayan Chanda, Ashoka University, former editor of Far Eastern Economic Review This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in how Vietnam transitioned from a poor, isolated country one generation ago to a rising Asian success story. Contributions cover both the economics and the politics of this ongoing transformation. -- David Dollar, Brookings Institution, former World Bank country economist for Vietnam and China This compilation provides a penetrating ringside glimpse into how Vietnam transitioned from a crippled centrally-planned economy into a global trading powerhouse and from a diplomatic pariah into a close partner of the U.S. and the West. The authors, including Vietnamese practitioners in and foreign advisers to the country's remarkable reform, detail the challenges Vietnam faces along the road to becoming a high-income nation, including a rigid political system, rampant corruption, growing economic inequality, serious environmental degradation, and a weak secondary education system. It is an invaluable read for anyone trying to understand this complex and dynamic country. -- Murray Hiebert, Center for Strategic and International Studies, author of Under Beijing's Shadow: Southeast Asia's China Challenge This is a critically important book that will be embraced by scholars of Vietnam and economic/political development more generally. The editors have assembled an astounding group of experts in a range of specialties from political science to economics to health to diplomatic history. Each chapter provides new insights that will enrich the knowledge of even long-term students of the country. -- Edmund Malesky, Duke University How can a communist party state coexist with a plural society? Read this book to find out! -- Stein Tonnesson, Peace Research Institute Oslo
£32.26
Harvard University Press We Shall Be Masters
Book SynopsisGenerations of Russians have pursued wealth and power in the East, colonizing Pacific regions and spreading political influence into Asia. Why have these efforts largely failed? Chris Miller argues that Russian citizens and leaders, concentrated in the European borderlands, have always struggled to maintain faith and interest in eastward expansion.Trade ReviewAs much of the world now turns more attention and resources to Asia, partly in response to China’s emergence as a global power, Miller’s terrific book reminds that Russia made moves toward the East five hundred years ago, and explains why ignoring the Russian factor in Asian geopolitics today would be a big mistake for strategists in Tokyo, Delhi, Brussels, or Washington. His masterful history shows why Russia has been an Asian power for centuries and will remain a central player in balance-of-power politics in Asia for decades to come. -- Michael McFaul, author of From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s RussiaIn a panoramic account of three hundred years of Russian history, Miller presents a Russia little known in the West: a Eurasian power that treats its eastern calling as seriously as it does its western one. Exceptionally well written and argued, We Shall Be Masters helps us understand Russia on its own terms and offers historical insight into the future of its relations with China, its main rival and occasional ally in the region and the world. -- Serhii Plokhy, author of Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile CrisisA sweeping overview of Russia’s long-running pattern of aspiring to yet often falling short of securing lasting influence over Asian affairs. Engaging and impressively researched, Miller’s book offers an insightful historical perspective on contemporary Russian–Asian relations. -- Willard Sunderland, author of The Baron’s Cloak: A History of the Russian Empire in War and RevolutionFew historians have probed as deeply into the complex history of Russia’s imperial engagements in East Asia as Miller has done here. He weaves a subtle theme through a sweep of events, as Russian tsars, officials, diplomats, and explorers are lured east in various ‘spasms of enthusiasm,’ only for these various pivots to peter out owing to military failure, excessive cost, or simple exhaustion. A supple, well-written, and important work. -- Sean McMeekin, author of Stalin’s War: A New History of World War IIMiller’s broad historical overview of Russian foreign policy in Asia challenges the conventional view that the country has enduring interests in the Far East…For Russia, Miller argues, Asia has been a land of unfulfilled promises. -- Maria Lipman * Foreign Affairs *A rich and well-informed chronicle of Russia’s engagement with Asia over the past three centuries…Captures the immensity, complexity, and importance of Russia’s eastern borderlands through the eyes of its explorers…A comprehensive and fluidly written survey that will be welcomed by students of international history. * Publishers Weekly *A sweeping and fast-paced tour through the last three hundred years of Russian foreign policy…It is, therefore, a welcome addition to the literature on Imperial Russian and Soviet foreign policy toward Asia. -- Paul Behringer * H-Net Reviews *[A] highly readable history…The over-ambitious, over-committed and over-confident policies of modern Russia through the globalization period and the rise of Asia in the 21st century mimics the hubris of Petersburg’s historical Pacific Ocean ambitions. -- Tristan Kenderdine * Global Asia *[A] comprehensive and informative account of Russia’s historical outreach to Asia…Vladimir Putin became the latest Russian leader to pursue a pivot to Asia from 2014. Yet, argues Miller, there are limits to this strategy. -- Angela Stent * Survival *
£16.10
Harvard University Press Dreaming and SelfCultivation in China 300 BCE800
Book SynopsisIn Dreaming and Self-Cultivation in China, 300 BCE–800 CE, Robert Ford Campany examines how dreaming was addressed in texts produced and circulated by practitioners of Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, and other self-cultivational disciplines. He uncovers paradigms by which dreams are viewed and shows how they underlay diverse religious texts.
£42.46
Harvard University Press The Painting Masters Shame
Book SynopsisThe Painting Master’s Shame describes the remarkable circumstances of the period around 1120, when the Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings was written. Amy McNair’s translation and analysis offers a definitive argument for Liang Shicheng, not Emperor Huizong, as the catalogue’s compiler.Trade ReviewMcNair presents a convincing new interpretation of a well-known, important text. In the process, she offers an intimate sense of the ambitions and frustrations of powerful eunuch officials at the court of Emperor Huizong…An important contribution to political history and the history of art during the Northern Song. -- Christian de Pee * Journal of Chinese History *
£35.66
Harvard University Press Strange Tales from Edo
Book SynopsisIn Strange Tales from Edo, William Fleming paints a sweeping picture of Japan’s engagement with Chinese fiction in the early modern period, including large-scale analyses of the record of the circulation of Chinese texts in Japan. He also traces the hidden history of Pu Songling’s Liaozhai zhiyi (Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio) in Japan.
£35.66
Harvard University, Asia Center Flourishing Fasts
£51.81
Harvard University, Asia Center Body Society and Nation
Book SynopsisChieko Nakajima tells the story of China’s unfolding modernity, exploring changing ideas, practices, and systems related to health and body in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Shanghai. She explains how local customs fashioned and constrained public health and, in turn, how hygienic modernity helped shape local cultures and behavior.
£999.99
Princeton University Press Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva
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£32.30
University Press of Kansas A Military History of India since 1972 Full
Book SynopsisA definitive work of military history that gives the Indian military its rightful place as a key contributor to Indian democracy. Arjun Subramaniam offers an engaging narrative that combines superb storytelling with the academic rigour of deep research and analysis.
£46.50
University of British Columbia Press Chinas Asymmetric Statecraft
Book SynopsisChina’s Asymmetric Statecraft uncovers the different narratives and paradigms that constitute Chinese foreign policy toward its weaker neighbours, alerting us to a dramatically changing international environment.Trade Review… a significant, important contribution to international relations theory. -- S. C. Hart, CHOICE ConnectHuang is to be congratulated on his extraordinary utilization of archival as well as secondary materials. -- Brantly Womack * International Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Understanding China’s Regional Diplomacy1 A Regional Competition Theory of Asymmetric Statecraft2 East Asia, 1955–653 South Asia, 1955–634 Indochina, 1962–755 Regional Diplomacy in the New EraConclusionNotes; Bibliography; Index
£26.99
Stanford University Press A History of Japan to 1334
Book SynopsisExplains the structure of the feudal society, describes the rise of economic life and tells of the impact of Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853. Bibliographical notes.Trade Review"Superb ... This work will be the standard history of Japan for all serious students." The American Historical Review "A brilliant synthesis ... The culmination of the life work of the most distinguished historian writing on Japan, it is not likely to be equaled in our generation." The Canadian Historical Review "Not likely to be superseded... An impressive achievement." The Times Literary Supplement
£35.10
MP-OKL Uni of Oklahoma The Rise and Fall of an Officer Corps
Book SynopsisFor a brief period in the mid-twentieth century, China had the makings of a professional, apolitical military force. The Rise and Fall of an Officer Corps tells the story of that moment in the military history of modern China - how it came to be, why it ultimately failed, and what it meant for China at home and abroad.
£17.06
MW - Rutgers University Press Looking Back on the Vietnam War
Book SynopsisBrings together scholars from a broad variety of disciplines, who offer fresh insights on the Vietnam War's psychological, economic, artistic, political, and environmental impacts. Each essay examines a different facet of the war, from its representation in Marvel comic books to the experiences of Vietnamese soldiers exposed to Agent Orange.Trade Review"A collection of studies on the way the war is being remembered and commemorated … The diasporic theme is a welcome counterbalance to the US-centered canon that obscures the presence of the Vietnamese people in their own struggle for independence and all but elides them in studies of the postwar years ... Recommended." * Choice *"It is a crucial and timely moment to revisit the meanings of the Vietnam War. This book is a hugely valuable reassessment of the war's legacies and cultural impact." -- Marita Sturken * author of Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering *"We're just now barely getting a grip on the myriad aftermaths of the Vietnam War. I enthusiastically urge anyone interested in wars or 'post-wars' to read this fine book--slowly." -- Cynthia Enloe * author of Globalization and Militarism, updated edition *"This superb volume brings together a remarkable group of scholars whose attention to disaporic sensibilities, war memory, and contrapuntal narratives fundamentally remakes our understanding of the Vietnam War's cultural politics." -- Mark Philip Bradley * The University of Chicago *"Looking Back on the Vietnam War is haunting in its unflinching critique and intervention to denaturalize warfare and disentangle its afterlife. It is most sublime in rupturing once conventional narratives." -- Linda Trinh Vo * University of California, Irvine *Table of ContentsChronologyNote on the TextIntroduction: Looking Back at the Vietnam WarBrenda M. Boyle and Jeehyun LimChapter 1: Vietnamese Refugees and Internet Memorials: When Does War End and Who Gets to Decide?Y?n Lê EspirituChapter 2: Broken, but Not Forsaken: Disabled South Vietnamese Veterans in Vietnam and the Vietnamese DiasporaQuan Tue TranChapter 3: What Is Vietnamese American Literature?Viet Thanh NguyenChapter 4: Vi?t Nam and the Diaspora: Absence, Presence, and the ArchiveLan DuongChapter 5: Liberal Humanitarianism and Post–Cold War Cultural Politics: The Case of Le Ly HayslipJeehyun LimChapter 6: Ann Hui’s Boat People: Documenting Vietnamese Refugees in Hong KongVinh NguyenChapter 7: “The Deep Black Hole”: Vietnam in the Memories of Australian Veterans and RefugeesRobert Mason and Leonie JonesChapter 8: Missing Bodies and Homecoming SpiritsHeonik KwonChapter 9: Agent Orange: Toxic Chemical, Narrative of Suffering, Metaphor for WarDiane Niblack FoxChapter 10: Re-Seeing Cambodia and Recollecting The ’Nam: A Vertiginous Critique of the Military SublimeCathy J. Schlund-VialsChapter 11: Naturalizing War: The Stories We Tell about the Vietnam WarBrenda M. BoyleAppendix A: ArchivesAppendix B: Publications since 2000Notes on ContributorsIndex
£105.40
Facts On File Inc A Brief History of India Brief History Of
Book Synopsis
£17.95
Duke University Press Queer Marxism in Two Chinas
Book SynopsisIn Queer Marxism in Two Chinas Petrus Liu demonstrates how queer Marxist critics in China use queer theory as a non-liberal alternative to Western models of queer emancipation, and in doing so, he revises current understandings of what queer theory is, does, and can be.Trade Review"Liu’s book charts a bold intellectual path for queer studies, Marxist theory, and Chinese studies. . . . The book provides truly transdisciplinary insights on how the normative reproduction of society depends on queer marginalization and social existence. It is in this way that Queer Marxism in Two Chinas demonstrates how queer theory, Marxism, and Chineseness matter to each other." -- Alvin K. Wong * Twentieth-Century China *"Overall, Liu’s new book is beautifully written, theoretically rich, and intellectually rigorous, enabling a critical lens to scrutinize queer cultural productions and reproductions in Taiwan and mainland China." -- John Wei * China Review International *"Queer Marxism in Two Chinas is a theoretically rigorous, intellectually stimulating, and conceptually rich book.... The book is an important contribution to both queer studies and China studies, and it is well-positioned to (re)define the emergent field of queer China studies." -- Jia Tan * Modern Chinese Literature and Culture *"Liu’s approach establishes an innovative set of dialogues between cultural production, social activism, and queer theory that serve as fertile ground for a sustained critique of liberal politics. Given Liu’s eclectic selection of sources and provocative theoretical ambitions, scholarly interest in this work will go far beyond the field of modern Chinese studies; readers drawn to Marxism, queer studies, literature, and cinema will all find much to ponder in these pages." -- Harlan D. Chambers * Journal of Asian Studies *“A powerful and insightful analysis. . . . Petrus Liu’s book is impressive precisely because it helps us reimagine queer theory, Marxism, and the Chinas, as well as their novel potential reconfigurations.” -- Calvin Hui * GLQ *"Liu offers a poignant corrective to the relationship between culture and economy for queer Marxism." -- J. Daniel Luther * Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *"Queer Marxism in Two Chinas is an important work that promises to radically change perspectives and alter proportions, not least because it brings into clear focus three subjects rarely thought about together and somewhat peripheral in Chinese studies: Marxism, queerness, and Taiwan. The effect is like looking at a non-Mercator map: once you have seen it, the world will never look the same again." -- Yün Peng * Cultural Critique *"Queer Marxism in Two Chinas is the most exciting book I have read in a long time in the overlapping but distinct fields of queer theory, China studies, Marxism, and cultural theory. We have all been reading so many insightful but depressing books that offer us a feeling of no way out of systems of domination, especially capitalism. This book instead gives us some hope to think about and act on projects of social justice that are expansive in their reach and imagination." -- Lisa Rofel * Asian Journal of Social Science *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. Marxism, Queer Liberalism, and the Quandary of Two Chinas 1 2. Chinese Queer Theory 34 3.The Rise of the Queer Chinese Novel 85 4. Genealogies of the Self 114 5. Queer Human Rights in and aganist the Two Chinas 138 Notes 171 Bibliography 195 Index 225
£19.94
Duke University Press Tourist Distractions Traveling and Feeling in
Book SynopsisIn Tourist Distractions Youngmin Choe uses Korean hallyu cinema as a lens to examine the importance of tourist films and film tourism in creating transnational bonds throughout East Asia and how they help Korea negotiate its twentieth-century history with the neoliberal present.Trade Review"Choe productively establishes a discussion that is relational rather than focused on bounded national contexts. She does terrific work in tying together solid and eminently useful historical context information and on-site research with close readings and more speculative, very insightful discussion. It is a balance that is difficult to achieve, but one that is especially rare in the study of popular culture from Korea." -- Alexander Zahlten * Journal of Asian Studies *"Choe’s work is highly readable, inspiring, and absorbing. Tourist Distractions also promises to be productive in the classroom. It will attract and distract hallyu fans in Korean studies and researchers with interests in tourism studies, visual and cultural anthropology, cultural studies, and film studies." -- Barbara Wall * Social History *"Although an impressive amount of scholarship on Hallyu cinema has been published in the last decade, the transnational affect of Hallyu cinema through re-contextualizing it as audience emotions, tensions, and transnational self-reflections has not been the focus of critical attention. Tourist Distractions fills this void in Korean film studies with a persuasive voice by establishing the transnational linkages of Hallyu to Japan, China, and North Korea since the early inception of the Hallyu boom." -- Yongwoo Lee * Pacific Affairs *“This is a multilayered and elegant model, albeit one still under construction, that certainly suggests a much more contextually rich way to interpret the significant works of the Korean Wave; for that contribution alone Choe’s book should be considered a must-read.” -- Kyu Hyun Kim * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"Enriching the oeuvre of Korean film scholarship with its theoretical rigor, Tourist Distractions fills a critical gap in Hallyu studies by placing it in productive dialogue with Korean studies, tourism studies, film studies, cultural studies, and visual/cultural anthropology." -- Haerin Shin * Journal of Korean Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Distracted Attractions 1 Part I. Intimacy 1. Feeling Together: Pornography and Travel in Kazoku Cinema and Asako in Ruby Shoes 31 2. Affective Sites: Hur Jin-ho's April Snow and One Fine Spring Day 59 Part II. Amity 3. Provisional Feelings: The Making of Musa 89 4. Affective Palimpsests: Sudden Showers from Hwang Sun-won's "Sonagi" to Kwak Jae-yong and Andrew Lau's Daisy 112 Part III. Remembrance 5. Postmemory DMZ: Joint Security Area, Yesterday, and 2009 Lost Memories 143 6. Transient Monuments: Commemmorating and Memorializing in Taegukgi Korean War Film Tourism 166 Conclusion. K-hallyu: The Commodity Speaks in Kang Chul-woo's Romantic Island, Bae Yong-joon's A Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty, So Ji-sub's Road, and Choi Ji-woo's if 197 Notes 205 Bibliography 229 Index 241
£76.50
Fordham University Press Living in Death
Book SynopsisLiving in Death descends into the ordinary life of people who execute hundreds every day, the same way others go to the office. Bringing philosophical sophistication to the ordinary, the book constitutes both an anthropology of mass killers and a challenge to the conditions that make genocide possible.Table of ContentsForeword by Veena Das | vii Introduction | 1 1. Those Who Kill | 13 The Confessions | 14 • The Killers’ Testimonies | 19 2. Monsters: Cruelty and Jouissance | 29 Fictions and Figures of Evil | 32 • The Archaic Remnants of Evil | 39 3. Ordinary Man and His Pathologies | 51 Banality and Mediocrity: The Ordinary According to Arendt | 54 • When Ordinary Men Become Killers | 65 • Blind Obedience and Submission to Authority | 73 • The Pathologies of the Ordinary Man | 81 4. The Administration of Death | 92 To Make Die and Not to Let Live | 97 • The Khmer Rouge Administration of Death, 1975–79 | 102 • From Genocide to Genocidaires | 118 5. The Ordinary Life of Genocidaires | 130 The Executioner | 134 • Forms of Life and Ordinary Lives | 141 • The Neighborhood, or the Elementary Unity of the Genocidal Form of Life | 148 Conclusion | 173 Acknowledgments | 193 Notes | 195
£17.99
University of Hawai'i Press Agents of World Renewal The Rise of Yonaoshi Gods
Book SynopsisUsing a variety of local documents to analyse the veneration of yonaoshi gods, Takashi Miura looks beyond the traditional modality of research focused on religious professionals, their institutions, and their texts to illuminate the complexity of a lived religion as practiced in communities.
£65.25
University of Hawai'i Press Turning toward Edification
Book SynopsisDiscusses foreigners in Korea from before the founding of Chosn in 1392 until the mid-nineteenth century. Although it has been common to describe Chosn Korea as a monocultural and homogeneous state, Adam Bohnet reveals the considerable presence of foreigners and people of foreign ancestry in Chosn Korea.
£26.55
University of Hawai'i Press The Japanese Empire and Latin America
Book SynopsisProvides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between Japanese migration and capital exportation to Latin America and the rise and fall of the empire in the Asia-Pacific region. The book explains how Japan’s presence influenced the cultures of Latin American countries and explores the role of Latin America in Japanese expansion.
£51.00
Yale University Press Art of Japan
Book SynopsisAn exploration of the treasures of Japanese art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art reveals a wealth of fascinating works dating from prehistoric times to today
£38.00
Yale University Press The Shape of Time
Book SynopsisA lavishly illustrated overview of contemporary Korean art that offers new insight into the country’s tumultuous modern history and its multifaceted and vibrant art scene
£38.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan
Book SynopsisThe role of engineering communities in taking Japan from a defeated war machine into a peacetime technology leader.Naval, aeronautic, and mechanical engineers played a powerful part in the military buildup of Japan in the early and mid-twentieth century. They belonged to a militaristic regime and embraced the importance of their role in it. Takashi Nishiyama examines the impact of war and peace on technological transformation during the twentieth century. He is the first to study the paradoxical and transformative power of Japan's defeat in World War II through the lens of engineering.Nishiyama asks: How did authorities select and prepare young men to be engineers? How did Japan develop curricula adequate to the task (and from whom did the country borrow)? Under what conditions? What did the engineers think of the planes they built to support Kamikaze suicide missions? But his study ultimately concerns the remarkable transition these trained engineers made afterTrade ReviewAn extremely well-researched study that is of great value to historians of twentieth-century Japan and historians of aviation. -- D. Colin Jaundrilll Military History Nishiyama is to be praised for the variety of sources he uses to study the role of engineers in the creation of modern Japan, both in times of war and peace. In particular, his work has benefited from personal interviews and correspondence with 18 former military engineers and their relatives, many connected with the Shinkansen project. This, along with reference to biographies and autobiographies, allows the author to construct a more human account of these technical problem solvers and their ability to adapt to the new demands of peacetime. -- M. William Steele American Historical Review Nishiyama's work provides us with an important foundation that challenges historians of technology of modern Japan and beyond to combine top-down and bottom-up methodologies in new and innovative ways. -- Aaron Stephen Moore Technology and Culture How Japan came to develop such a train [the Romance Car SE3000] and its successor, the famous Shinkansen "bullet train," is the subject of [this] fascinating book by Takashi Nishiyama. -- Charles Day Physics Today ... Nishiyama's study represents a substantial contribution to the history of modern Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies ... Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan should be read by anyone interested in a complex aspect of the Pacific War and its consequences. Michigan War Studies Review ... This is a useful study and should be read by those interested in engineering cultures, postwar demilitarization, and the politics of technological innovation. The Historian ... This is a useful study and should be ready by those interested engineering cultures, postwar demilitarization, and the politics of technological innovation. The HistorianTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNotes on TransliterationIntroduction Technology and Culture, War and Peace1. Designing Engineering Education for War, 1868–19422. Navy Engineers and the Air War, 1919–19423. Engineers for the Kamikaze Air War, 1943–19454. Integrating Wartime Experience in Postwar Japan, 1945–19525. Former Military Engineers in the Postwar Japanese National Railways, 1945–19556. Opposition Movements of Former Military Engineers in the Postwar Railway Industry, 1945–19577. Former Military Engineers and the Development of theShinkansen, 1957–1964Conclusion: Legacy of War and DefeatA Note on the Appendix and SourcesAppendix: List of InformantsNotesBibliographyIndex
£45.00
University of Texas Press Serendipitous Translations
£41.80
Duke University Press Building Socialism
Book SynopsisFollowing a decade of U.S. bombing campaigns that obliterated northern Vietnam, East Germany helped Vietnam rebuild in an act of socialist solidarity. In Building Socialism Christina Schwenkel examines the utopian visions of an expert group of Vietnamese and East German urban planners who sought to transform the devastated industrial town of Vinh into a model socialist city. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research in Vietnam and Germany with architects, engineers, construction workers, and tenants in Vinh's mass housing complex, Schwenkel explores the material and affective dimensions of urban possibility and the quick fall of Vinh's new built environment into unplanned obsolescence. She analyzes the tensions between aspirational infrastructure and postwar uncertainty to show how design models and practices that circulated between the socialist North and the decolonizing South underwent significant modification to accommodate alternative cultural logics and ideas about urban futurity. By documenting the building of Vietnam's first planned city and its aftermath of decay and repurposing, Schwenkel argues that underlying the ambivalent and often unpredictable responses to modernist architectural forms were anxieties about modernity and the future of socialism itself.Trade Review“A triumph of interdisciplinary and transnational scholarship! Following a compelling new case of international ‘high-socialist’ architecture, Christina Schwenkel bridges the histories of and scholarship on Eastern European and Asian socialisms. The oft-maligned but poorly understood city of Vinh proves to be an unexpected center of international solidarity and a riveting example of human resilience. Its story offers a significant perspective on Vietnamese history, socialist internationalism, postwar reconstruction, post-socialism, neoliberal redevelopment, and urban history.” -- Erik Harms, author of * Luxury and Rubble: Civility and Dispossession in the New Saigon *“In this extraordinary book, the anthropological and architectural histories of the city of Vinh emerge between the hour zero when B-52s fly over Vinh and the ebbing of obsolescence. Christina Schwenkel addresses urban space and design in an enlightening and unsettling manner, evoking and explaining the ‘building of socialism’ as both a Vietnamese and an East German phenomenon in its postcolonial and postmodern contexts.” -- Rudolf Mrázek, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Michigan“Schwenkel explores the main built legacy of this alliance [between Vietnam and East Germany], the Quang Trung housing estate in Vinh.... The story she has to tell, and the research she has undertaken in several years living on the estate...[is] informative, surprising, and often very moving.” -- Owen Hatherley * Jacobin Magazine *“A model of transnational urban research, Building Socialism uncovers the history of Vinh’s role as a global planning hub, while also attending to the afterlife of socialist modernism for those residing in the city today." -- Katherine Zubovich * The Metropole *"Building Socialism is . . . an indispensable addition to our understanding of urban Asia." -- Abidin Kusno * Journal of Asian Studies *"The book offers a novel and broader understanding of the urban development projects in postwar Vietnam with its social and political trajectories aided by an impressive collection of archival material. . . . Altogether, Christina Schwenkel’s work is a refreshing and groundbreaking addition not only to the study of the global history of the GDR but, first and foremost, to the study of Vietnam’s building of socialism." -- Katrin Bahr * German Studies Review *"Exemplary scholarship. . . . The book's theoretical reflections challenge some calcified notions in current scholarship and intelligentsia, and show the incredibly similar housing experiences and cultural-imperialist tendencies of both capitalism and socialism." -- Esra Ackan * Berlin Journal *"Building Socialism is a remarkably illuminating transnational and interdisciplinary study of socialist nation building, examined through the lenses of internationalism, urban planning and architecture, and an ethnography of a mass housing estate. . . . The author very much succeeds in presenting a cohesive, theoretically rich work of in-depth investigation." -- Hazel Hahn * H-Urban *"Building Socialism is a captivating, imaginative, and significant contribution in anthropology, Vietnamese history, urban history, and history of urban planning. It is suitable for assigning in both graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses." -- Hazel Hahn * H-Urban, H-Net Reviews *"This engaging book ties together the legacies of the Vietnam War, East German urbanism, and contemporary neoliberal development to produce a narrative that is greater than the sum of its parts, shedding much-needed light on the complexity of modernism’s social and material durabilities." -- Samantha Maurer Fox * Anthropological Review *"Though somewhat theoretical, this book is ultimately accessible to a broad readership. It will be of most interest to scholars and students of urban planning, urban anthropology, and urban studies. Highly recommended. Lower division undergraduates through faculty; professionals" -- M. E. Pfeifer * Choice *"The book’s strength is that it expands our understanding of the multiplicity of urbanisms. . . . Building Socialism is an achievement that warrants the attention of every scholar interested in the urbanism of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, well beyond Vietnam." -- Takanari Fujita * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *Table of ContentsList of Figures, Plates, and Tables vii Abbreviations xi A Note on Translation and Transliteration xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Part I. Ruination 1. Annihilation 25 Interlude. Urban Fragments 1 43 2. Evacuation 45 Interlude. Urban Fragments 76 3. Solidarity 78 Part 2. Reconstruction 4. Spirited Internationalism 105 Interlude. Urban Fragments 3 129 5. Rational Planning 131 Interlude. Urban Fragments 4 159 6. Utopian Housing 161 Part 3. Obsolescence 7. Indiscipline 211 8. Decay 232 9. Renovation 260 10. Revaluation 293 Conclusion. On the Future of Utopias Past 316 Notes 323 References 357 Index
£35.10
Duke University Press Coed Revolution
Book SynopsisIn the 1960s, a new generation of university-educated youth in Japan challenged forms of capitalism and the state. In Coed Revolution Chelsea Szendi Schieder recounts the crucial stories of Japanese women''s participation in these protest movements led by the New Left through the early 1970s. Women were involved in contentious politics to an unprecedented degree, but they and their concerns were frequently marginalized by men in the movement and the mass media, and the movement at large is often memorialized as male and masculine. Drawing on stories of individual women, Schieder outlines how the media and other activists portrayed these women as icons of vulnerability and victims of violence, making women central to discourses about legitimate forms of postwar political expression. Schieder disentangles the gendered patterns that obscured radical women''s voices to construct a feminist genealogy of the Japanese New Left, demonstrating that student activism in 1960s Japan cannot Trade Review“Coed Revolution is a fascinating study of the role and representation of female student activists in the Japanese New Left. Chelsea Szendi Schieder examines the lives and writings of women who were forgotten and misrepresented, both by media sources of that time and by contemporary scholars. This is an important contribution to the study of gender and revolutionary activism during the global 1960s.” -- Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, author of * Radicals on the Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism during the Vietnam Era *“Coed Revolution offers new insights into a crucial dimension of 1960s contentions in Japan through a nuanced examination of both the experience and representation of women in activism during this period. Chelsea Szendi Schieder brings out the stakes in reconceiving this history within a global frame in terms that will make her detailed analysis resonate for a wide range of readers. An important work.” -- William Marotti, author of * Money, Trains, and Guillotines: Art and Revolution in 1960s Japan *"An approachable, fascinating study, Coed Revolution provides important scholarship on gender and politics in post-war Japan and the role media plays in spinning narratives that shape public opinion.… One hopes Coed Revolution may inspire an English-language anthology of the women's writing for further study." -- Jan Bardsley * Journal of Contemporary Asia *"Coed Revolution demonstrates how the practice of citation is political and meaningful beyond its scholarly significance. . . . Such a vital re-framing could alter the ways existing citational practices replicate liberal interpretations of anti-state violence as illegitimate and support counterinsurgency and policing in conjunction with academic discourse." -- Setsu Shigematsu * The Sixties *"Coed Revolution is a must-read for students and scholars of women’s activism; local, national, and global New Left movements in the 1960s and early 1970s. . . . We should shift our historiographical view lest we erase the role of women in the New Left. Women were oppressed by the glorification of masculinity but were not exclusively victims. Schieder’s book reclaims their voices and their role in a critical era of Japanese history." -- Barbara Molony * Journal of Contemporary History *"By focusing on female students in New Left protest during the 'long decade' of the 1960s, Schieder has made a strong case for the particular impact of mass media coverage in marginalizing the important role that coeds played in the protests. Her book is a significant addition to studies both of protest in this period and of the connection between the New Left and second-wave feminism in Japan." -- Patricia Steinhoff * Monumenta Nipponica *"A fascinating deep dive into the gendered structures of student activism in 1960s Japan. . . . A unique examination of the intersection of middle class subjectivity and radical politics." -- Christopher Gerteis * Journal of Japanese Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Gendering the New Japanese Left 1 1. Naive Politics: A Maiden Sacrifice for Postwar Democracy 21 2. "My Love and Rebellion": The Politics of Nurturing, the Logic of Capital, and the Rationalization of Coeducation 49 3. Is the Personal Political? Everyday Life as a Site of Struggle in the Campus New Left 78 4. "When You Fuck a Vanguard Girl . . .": The Spectacle of New Left Masculinity 104 5. "Gewalt Rosas": The Creation of the Terrifying, Titillating Female Student Activist 132 Conclusion: Revolutionary Desire 158 Notes 169 Bibliography 191 Index 205
£18.89
Duke University Press Semiotics of Rape
Book SynopsisRupal Oza follows the social life of rape in rural northwest India to reveal how rape is a language through which issues ranging from caste to justice to land are contested.Trade Review"This poignant, timely, and urgent discussion of rape and sexual politics in rural India, Oza underscores that Dalit women’s bodies, often marked by the problematic images of vigilante justice, are defined by their sexual subjectivity and are not victims. Instead, they are complex sexual subjects which assert their choices in rape cases. . . . Oza’s monograph, therefore, makes an important contribution to the fields of gender, women’s and sexuality studies, transnational studies, anthropology, and South Asian studies. It will also be helpful for introductory feminist theory graduate courses." -- Nidhi Shrivastava * South Asian Review *"An interesting read for scholars pursuing research on gender/women’s studies, sexuality, and related topics. Policymakers should find this book interesting to sensitise authorities dealing with cases of violence against women." -- Rituparna Bhattacharyya * Asian Studies Review *Table of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Consent 36 2. Compromise 65 3. Land 104 4. Death 130 Conclusion 161 Notes 173 Sources 185 Index
£70.55
Duke University Press Terror Capitalism
Book SynopsisIn Terror Capitalism anthropologist Darren Byler theorizes the contemporary Chinese colonization of the Uyghur Muslim minority group in the northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang. He shows that the mass detention of over one million Uyghurs in “reeducation camps” is part of processes of resource extraction in Uyghur lands that have led to what he calls terror capitalism—a configuration of ethnoracialization, surveillance, and mass detention that in this case promotes settler colonialism. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the regional capital Ürümchi, Byler shows how media infrastructures, the state’s enforcement of “Chinese” cultural values, and the influx of Han Chinese settlers contribute to Uyghur dispossession and their expulsion from the city. He particularly attends to the experiences of young Uyghur men—who are the primary target of state violence—and how they develop masculinities and homosocial friendships toTrade Review“Darren Byler’s Terror Capitalism provides critical insights into one of the most important and contested topics in international human rights. Drawing on an extensive archive of firsthand research, Byler gives a rich and detailed look at the persecution and cultural genocide of the Uyghur. An indispensable resource for studies in human rights, surveillance, China, Muslims, Islamophobia, capitalism, and more.” -- David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford University“Spelling out the full spectrum of what dispossession means for Uyghurs, Darren Byler offers a fine balance between political passion and scholarship as well as an important self-reflexivity about the role of an ethnographer in a context full of violence and terror. There is so little on what Uyghurs are going through, and it is vital that this information be made public. Terror Capitalism is one of the few works that bring such complex understanding to the situation in Xinjiang.” -- Lisa Rofel, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz"Remarkable ... compelling ... offers an important contribution for specialists and graduate students." -- Aidan Forth * Los Angeles Review of Books *"There are many reasons to recommend Terror Capitalism, and not least for the way it gives voice to so many different Uyghurs, a people often reduced either to an abstract entity or a lone voice of victimhood." -- Nick Holdstock * Times Literary Supplement *"Byler’s pioneering work vividly conveys the suffering that individuals experience under the regime’s policies in Xinjiang" -- Roger Garside * Literary Review of Canada *"Some of the stories Byler’s book recalls read like a scene straight out of Kafka’s The Trial. . . . The author’s attention to detail and commitment to thorough research is excellent." -- JP O'Malley * Globe and Mail *"Byler has written the definitive ethnography of the Uyghurs in the 2010s, a decade of increasing desperation." -- Chris Hann * Eurasian Geography and Economics *"Darren Byler’s ethnography is an invaluable contribution, as he provides a rare micro, ground-level view of events and Uyghur social life in the past decade. His storytelling brilliantly plugs the reader into his characters’ internal life and offers a remarkable insight into the Uyghur experience. He is also successful in his attempt to provide a refined, balanced and thorough scholarly analysis of the current crisis—with carefully chosen words and ethnographic vignettes. Byler’s book is therefore a powerful tribute to his informants, Han or Uyghur, and to all those who suffer from Beijing’s oppressive policies in the region." -- Vanessa Frangville * China Quarterly *“What Byler has so forensically and movingly described in Terror Capitalism is a techno-capitalist model of settler colonialism. If the hallmarks of settler colonialism are the expropriation of the lands/property of indigenous Others and their physical removal and replacement by a new settler society, then contemporary Xinjiang is perhaps distressingly at the leading edge of settler colonialism in the twenty first century.” -- Michael Clarke * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“Byler has in recent years emerged as one the most insightful and prolific chroniclers of the ongoing dispossession of the Uyghur community. . . . His richly theorized study provides readers access to a way of life largely invisible in Chinese state sources and infrequently represented in Uyghur official culture.” -- Joshua L. Freeman * Journal of Asian Studies *“While much of the heretofore published academic discussion of [Uyghur dispossession] revolves around its systemic elements, Byler calls on us to examine its devastating impact on a granular, personal level. Thus, the strength both of Byler’s theoretical and methodological frameworks is made clear: his dissection of the dehumanization caused by terror capitalism, enacted through detailed ethnography, implores readers to remember that resistance begins by reasserting the humanity of the oppressed.” -- David R. Stroup * PoLAR *"Terror Capitalism offers vivid personal tales as well as a fine-grained analysis of China’s intensified oppression in the region. . . . As the earlier chapters of Terror Capitalism masterfully elucidate, racial subjugation and colonization are not exclusive to China but rather are embedded in a global system; the West is complicit in and has benefited from Uyghur dispossession." -- Yangyang Cheng * The Nation *"Byler's authority is grounded in years of on-site work, and he reveals a deep knowledge of his subjects. This highly accessible narrative will interest many readers. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." * Choice *Table of ContentsNote on Language vii Note on Pseudonyms ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xix Introduction. What is Terror Capitalism? 1 1. Enclosure 31 2. Devaluation 61 3. Dispossession 95 4. Friendship 133 5. Minor Politics 163 6. Subtraction 189 Conclusion 221 Notes 231 References 243 Index 261
£19.79
Cornell University Press How China Escaped the Poverty Trap
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZEBEST OF BOOKS IN 2017 BY FOREIGN AFFAIRSWINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGYHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences.? Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize CommitteeAcclaimed as game changing and field shifting, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap advances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China''s rise.How can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: stimulate growth first, build good institutions first, or some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth.Yuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assTrade ReviewChina's transformation cannot be attributed to a single cause; rather, it arose from a contingent, interactive process—Ang calls it 'directed improvisation.' She formalizes this insight which has the potential to influence future studies of institutional and economic change beyond China. * Foreign Affairs *While adaptive approaches to development have become new buzzwords, Yuen Yuen's work brings rigor to this conversation.... This analytical lens has enormous potential for thinking through the adaptive challenge, whether at the national level, subnational level or sectoral level. * The World Bank *The book combines methodological rigour, employing a complexity perspective hitherto unknown in standard political economy analyses... with rich original empirical data drawn from more than 400 interviews.... This is an important book with a bold thesis that, at its most ambitious, demands a rethinking of the history and evolution of capitalism.... In terms of policy implications, Ang's thesis has the potential to upend much that the global development establishment holds dear. * The Straits Times *How China Escaped the Poverty Trap... is an original and insightful take on what is perhaps the biggest development puzzle of my lifetime. * Building State Capability Blog *This book is a triumph, opening a window onto the political economy of China’s astonishing rise that takes as its starting point systems and complexity. Its lessons apply far beyond China’s borders. * Oxfam Blog *Ang provides specialists and nonspecialists alike with a fresh inside-the-black-box account of how the Chinese state... has actually practiced (not merely preached) innovation, problem solving, and effective implementation.... Future studies of bureaucratic life in China and elsewhere must reckon seriously with Ang's account. * Governance *As if explaining modern Chinese economic development was not enough of a challenge, Ang has two even loftier goals. The first is methodological. She expresses a frustration with political science's causality obsession and modeling approaches that deliver isolated snapshots of complex processes.... Ang's second ambition is to apply this coevolutionary schema to how we understand economic development generally. * Perspectives on Politics *This book is an invaluable addition to the scholarship on the political economy of development. * Pacific Affairs *How China Escaped the Poverty Trap is an innovative account to explain why China has economically developed in spite – or because – of its low-quality institutions. It is both a theoretically original and empirically rich study of Chinese economic development and required reading for those who want to understand China's and our own future. * VoegelinView *The author has certainly filled the gaps in the literature on the political-economic analysis of China's historic transformation from a low-income to a middle-income country through adoption of a co-evolutionary approach to development. Overall, this interesting book goes deeper beneath the broad political-economic surface of Chinese society. It should appeal not only to researchers on Chinese society, but also to practising political economists. * Ecoomic Record *Table of ContentsIntroduction: How Did Development Actually Happen? Part 1 FRAMEWORK AND BUILDING BLOCKS 1. Mapping Coevolution 2. Directed Improvisation Part 2 DIRECTION 3. Balancing Variety and Uniformity 4. Franchising the Bureaucracy Part 3 IMPROVISATION 5. From Building to Preserving Markets 6. Connecting First Movers and Laggards Conclusion: How Development Actually Happened Beyond China Appendix A: Steps for Mapping Coevolution Appendix B: Interviews
£97.20
Cornell University Press Fear and Fortune
Book SynopsisMongolia over the last decade has seen a substantial and ongoing gold rush. The widespread mining of gold looks at first glance to be a blessing for a desperately poor and largely pastoralist country where people''s lives were disrupted by the end of the USSR and tens of millions of livestock were killed in devastating droughts in the early 2000s. Volatility and uncertainty as well as political and economic turmoil led many people to join the hopeful search for gold. This activity, born out of uncertain times, poses an intense moral problem; in the land of dust, disturbing the ground and extracting the precious metal is widely believed to have calamitous consequences. With gold retaining strong ties to the landscape and its many spirit beings, the fortune of the precious metal is inseparable from the fears that surround mining. Tracing the continuities and discontinuities between human and nonhuman worlds, Mette M. High follows the paths of gold as it is excavated and converted intoTrade Review"Fear and Fortune is an important and timely ethnographic account of the Mongolian gold rush. Not only does it make a useful contribution to the burning issue of the environmental, social, and cultural consequences of mining economies, but it does so in an accessible and engaging style, rendering people's daily lives with an intimate yet tactful touch." -- Grégory Delaplace, coeditor of Frontier Encounters"Fear and Fortune is a well-crafted, highly accessible, and very attractive read on the Mongolian gold rush and the spirit forces that underpin it. Mette M. High fully succeeds in drawing in and keeping the reader's attention while presenting her findings at a brisk pace. She offers up some highly original discussions of what 'money’ constitutes in a part of the world where the same value is neither consistently nor automatically attributed to the national currency. Mongolians conceptualize, handle, and transact money in ways that fall outside of the usual expectations surrounding it. High enables us to have a uniquely up close and personal view onto gold mining and its international circuitry, based on a sensitive study of Mongolian sociality, miners, religious knowledge and practice, and ways of envisioning and experiencing what counts as `value’ in the Mongolian gold rush today." -- Katherine Swancutt, author of Fortune and the CursedTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgmentsxi Note on Transliteration and Translationxv Introduction: Land of Fortune1 1 Burden of Patriarchy25 2 Power of Gold43 3 Angered Spirits59 4 PollutedMoney77 5 Wealth and Devotion93 6 Trading Gold111 Notes131 Glossary139 References141 Index157
£19.19
Cornell University Press The Geopolitics of Spectacle
Book SynopsisWhy do autocrats build spectacular new capital cities? In The Geopolitics of Spectacle, Natalie Koch considers how autocratic rulers use spectacular projects to shape state-society relations, but rather than focus on the standard approachon the project itselfshe considers the unspectacular others. The contrasting views of those from the poorest regions toward these new national capitals help her develop a geographic approach to spectacle.Koch uses Astana in Kazakhstan to exemplify her argument, comparing that spectacular city with others from resource-rich, nondemocratic nations in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia. The Geopolitics of Spectacle draws new political-geographic lessons and shows that these spectacles can be understood only from multiple viewpoints, sites, and temporalities. Koch explicitly theorizes spectacle geographically and in so doing extends the analysis of governmentality into new empirical and theoretical terrain.<Trade ReviewWith its accessible writing style and lively anecdotal interludes, The Geopolitics of Spectacle invites critical thinking about the often alluded to, yet seldom critically assessed, discourse of the 'theatrical' or 'false modernity' of Asian cities in popular Western media. Reading Koch's book will therefore not only teach us much about political geography, but will also train us to overcome 'intellectual laziness' and become critically informed spectators of some of the world's fastest emerging cities. * LSE Review of Books *A thoughtful study in political geography. * Journal of Peace Research *Provides [a] compelling vision of what urban practices can do politically. [Koch] brings years of fieldwork experience and regional expertise that make the book [a] strong contribution to... political geography as well as urban studies more broadly. [Her] theoretical findings are deployable in contexts beyond Asia and MENA and [is] a welcome addition to the growing political geographic literature on urbanization. * Geopolitics *While theoretically rich, Geopolitics of Spectacle is at the same time written in a skilful and accessible way. It is an important contribution to the fields of human geography, political studies and anthropology. Koch's monograph is an inspiring work, worth recommending to scholars interested in a wide range of topics: from urban studies, broadly defined post-Soviet studies or area studies to governmentality and citizenship. * Inner Asia *The Geopolitics of Spectacle is an interesting piece or writing, in itself a detournement through difficult to access spaces and places, as well as its more shiny and dramatic foci. Well structured and with a strong narrative drive, the reader will certainly consider boarding train 84 for that long ride from Kazanski station to Astana Nurly Jol... This reviewer will certainly pay this book a second visit. * Eurasian Geography and Economics *The Geopolitics of Spectacle is an essential contribution to multidisciplinary fields that deal with global dynamics of urbanization, authoritarianism in urban politics, nation-building and identity politics, and the geographies of megaprojects. A work that is essential for the researcher, it is also highly readable, concise, and timely; an ideal text for graduate and undergraduate courses. * Journal of Urban Affairs *Koch's book provides a refreshingly concrete theoretical framework for understanding spectacle in a non-Western, non-democratic context... The book is further innovative in its methodological approach, which directly tackles the shortcomings of conventional area-based analyses fixated on commonalities across case studies, rather than their divergences. By making a case for divergent-case comparisons, Koch is able to break away from the all-too-often default comparison of Central Asia with its former Soviet counterparts, a comparison that may not always be the most relevant. By widening our understanding of suitable cases for comparison, the book opens new channels for framing Central Asian research in other disciplines. * Central Asian Affairs *In essence, the work scores on account of being novel both in theme and approach. Its objectives are clearly defined and the author has been successful in meeting these. The treatise is thoughtfully conceived, soundly researched, well-argued and lucidly expressed. More important, it looks beyond established stereotypes and includes voices from the margins, not just in the choice of case studies but within the case studies as well. The work locates itself at a research frontier and deserves to be commended equally for its perspective, approach, and methodology. * Social & Cultural Geography *[The Geopolitics of Spectacle] provide[s] critical accounts of Astana as a symbol of Kazakhstan's modernity and use[s] the experience of people who work in and outside Astana to substantiate that critique. * Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Spectacular Urbanism and the New Capitals of Asia 1. Approaching Spectacle Geographically 2. From Almaty to Astana: Capitalizing the Territory in Kazakhstan 3. From Astana to Aral: Making Inequality Enchant in Kazakhstan's Hinterlands 4. From Astana to Asia: Spectacular Cities and the New Capitals of Asia Compared Conclusion: Synecdoche and the Geopolitics of Spectacular Urbanism in Asia
£38.70
Cornell University Press Collaborative Damage
Book SynopsisCollaborative Damage is an experimental ethnography of Chinese globalization that compares data from two frontlines of China''s global interventionsub-Saharan Africa and Inner/Central Asia. Based on their fieldwork on Chinese infrastructure and resource-extraction projects in Mozambique and Mongolia, Mikkel Bunkenborg, Morten Nielsen, and Morten Axel Pedersen provide new empirical insights into neocolonialism and Sinophobia in the Global South.The core argument in Collaborative Damage is that the different participants studied in the globalization processeslocal workers and cadres; Chinese managers and entrepreneurs; and the authors themselves, three Danish anthropologistsare intimately linked in paradoxical partnerships of mutual incomprehension. The authors call this collaborative damage, which crucially refers not only to the misunderstandings and conflicts they observed in the field, but also to their own failure to agree about how to interpretTrade ReviewEngaging, candid, and at times amusing, Collaborative Damage makes an insightful as well as a delightful read. -- Miriam Driessen * CHINA QUARTERLY *The book aptly captures the social dynamics characteristic of Chinese investment and the inherent contradictions of transnational capitalism.In short, this book contributes a reflexive, insightful and gripping account of the practices and effects of Chinese extraversion. * Inner Asia *Collaborative Damage provides a distinctive approach both to the study of a controversial global phenome- non and to the practice of ethnographic writing. * The Developing Economies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Friendship Empire: How a Chinese Entrepreneur Failed to Make Friends in Mongolia 2. Whose Walls? A Chinese Mining Enclave in the Gobi Desert 3. Roads That Separate: How a Chinese Oil Company Failed to Detach Itself from Its Mongolian Surroundings 4. Strategies of Unseeing: The Possible Superimposition of a "Chinatown" on the Catembe Peninsula 5. Enclaves and Envelopes: Cutting and Connecting Relations in Sino-Mozambican Workplaces 6. Alterity in the Interior: Tree Scouts, Spirits, and Chinese Loggers in the Forests of Northern Mozambique Conclusion
£30.60
Cornell University Press Between War and the State
Book SynopsisIn Between War and the State, Van Nguyen-Marshall examines an array of voluntary activities, including mutual-help, professional, charitable, community development, student, women's, and rights organizations active in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. By bringing focus to the public lives of South Vietnamese people, Between War and the State challenges persistent stereotypes of South Vietnam as a place without society or agency. Such robust associational life underscores how an active civil society survived despite difficulties imposed by the war, government restrictions, economic hardship, and external political forces. These competing political forces, which included the United States, Western aid agencies, and Vietnamese communist agents, created a highly competitive arena wherein the South Vietnamese state did not have a monopoly on persuasive or coercive power. To maintain its influence, the state sometimes needed to accommodate groups and limit its use of violence. Civil society participants in South Vietnam leveraged their social connections, made alliances, appealed to the domestic and international public, and used street protests to voice their concerns, secure their interests, and carry out their activities.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Theory and Scope 1. The Historical and Political Landscape 2. Sociability and Associational Life in South Vietnam 3. Performing Social Service in South Vietnam 4. Voluntary Efforts in Social and Community Development 5. Social and Political Activism of Students in South Vietnam 6. S.ng Thn Newspaper and the "Highway of Horror" Project 7. The Fight for Rights and Freedoms in the 1970s Conclusion: Challenges and Possibilities in Comparative Context
£26.99
Cornell University Press InterAsian Intimacies across Race Religion and
Book SynopsisIn InterAsian Intimacies across Race, Religion, and Colonialism, Chie Ikeya asks how interAsian marriage, conversion, and collaboration in Burma under British colonial rule became the subject of political agitation, legislative activism, and collective violence. Over the course of the twentieth century relations between Burmese Muslims, Sino-Burmese, Indo-Burmese, and other mixed families and communities became flashpoints for far-reaching legal reforms and Buddhist revivalist, feminist, and nationalist campaigns aimed at consigning minority Asians to subordinate status and regulating women's conjugal and reproductive choices. Out of these efforts emerged understandings of religion, race, and nation that continue to vex Burma and its neighbors today. Combining multilingual archival research with family history and intergenerational storytelling, Ikeya highlights how the people targeted by such movements made and remade their lives under the shifting circumstances of colonialism, capitalism, and nationalism. The book illuminates a history of belonging across boundaries, a history that has been overshadowed by Eurocentric narratives about the mixing of white colonial masters and native mistresses. InterAsian intimacy wasand remainsfoundational to modern regimes of knowledge, power, and desire throughout Asia.
£22.49
Stanford University Press Pious Peripheries: Runaway Women in Post-Taliban
Book SynopsisThe Taliban made piety a business of the state, and thereby intervened in the daily lives and social interactions of Afghan women. Pious Peripheries examines women's resistance through groundbreaking fieldwork at a women's shelter in Kabul, home to runaway wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters of the Taliban. Whether running to seek marriage or divorce, enduring or escaping abuse, or even accused of singing sexually explicit songs in public, "promiscuous" women challenge the status quo—and once marked as promiscuous, women have few resources. This book provides a window into the everyday struggles of Afghan women as they develop new ways to challenge historical patriarchal practices. Sonia Ahsan-Tirmizi explores how women negotiate gendered power mechanisms, notably those of Islam and Pashtunwali. Sometimes defined as an honor code, Pashtunwali is a discursive and material practice that women embody through praying, fasting, oral and written poetry, and participation in rituals of hospitality and refuge. In taking ownership of Pashtunwali and Islamic knowledge, in both textual and oral forms, women create a new supportive community, finding friendship and solidarity in the margins of Afghan society. So doing, these women redefine the meanings of equality, honor, piety, and promiscuity in Afghanistan.Trade Review"Pious Peripheries brings the reader into a diverse and opinionated world of Afghan women thrown together only because they all refused to abide by gendered social norms. Sonia Ahsan's willingness to step aside and allow these remarkable women to speak for themselves is a tremendous strength." -- Thomas Barfield * Boston University *"The extraordinary achievement of Pious Peripheries lies in Sonia Ahsan-Tirmizi's astute explanation of how Afghan women exercise agency despite their subjugation to often brutal male authority. In this stunning ethnography, she skillfully shows how courageous women navigate the dynamics of piety and promiscuity to achieve seemingly inaccessible freedoms." -- Michael Herzfeld * Harvard University *"Pious Peripheries offers a compelling challenge to the idea that Afghan women need 'saving.' Via a highly original and intrepid ethnography, Sonia Ahsan-Tirmizi reveals how, from the margins of Afghan society, a community of formidable women is fashioning their own distinctive claims about Islam, Pashtun identity, sexuality, and the state." -- Robert D. Crews * Stanford University *"Sonia Ahsan-Tirmizi's Pious Peripheries disrupts conventional categories of piety and secularism to bring to light the immense resourcefulness of Afghan women living at society's margins. Erudite and deeply empathic, with lucid vignettes that will stick in your memory, this is a must-read for anyone interested in feminism, Islam, and the tormented history of Afghanistan." -- Julie Billaud * Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies *"Boldly and poetically defying patriarchy, the runaway women of Pious Peripheries become the surprising harbingers of an emancipatory politics in war-torn Afghanistan. Immortalized by Sonia Ahsan-Tirmizi's brave and soulfully crafted ethnography, these women's nomadic existence shatters myopic notions of religious identity and expands our sense of where reworlding comes from." -- João Biehl * Princeton University *"For practicing traditionally male-ascribed roles of hospitality, refuge, guest hosting, justice, friendship, love, and courage, Ahsan describes the women (through the Pashto poetic tradition of landay) as using their agentive action to reimagine what is legitimate and authorized and what could be. Most important, these women demonstrate that promiscuity is not the opposite of piety or morality but the potential basis for constructing new and different worlds for women. Recommended." -- B. Tavakolian * CHOICE *"Pious Peripheries is the model of engaged scholarship based on ethnographic research among marginalized groups... The diverse experiences of these runaway women reveal the confluence of concerns about subtle feminist and religious expressions and their yearning to reinvent a new sense of belonging inside the shelter system." -- Joseph Tse-Hei Lee * Acta Via Serica *
£21.59
Stanford University Press 1368: China and the Making of the Modern World
Book SynopsisA new picture of China's rise since the Age of Exploration and its historical impact on the modern world. The establishment of the Great Ming dynasty in 1368 was a monumental event in world history. A century before Columbus, Beijing sent a series of diplomatic missions across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean that paved the way for China's first modern global era. 1368 maps China's ascendance from the embassies of Admiral Zheng He to the arrival of European mariners and the shock of the Opium Wars. In Ali Humayun Akhtar's new picture of world history, China's current rise evokes an earlier epoch, one that sheds light on where Beijing is heading today. Spectacular accounts in Persian and Ottoman Turkish describe palaces of silk and jade in Beijing's Forbidden City. Malay legends recount stories of Chinese princesses arriving in Melaka with gifts of porcelain and gold. During Europe's Age of Exploration, Iberian mariners charted new passages to China, which the Dutch and British East India Companies transformed into lucrative tea routes. But during the British Industrial Revolution, the rise of steam engines and factories allowed the export of the very commodities once imported from China. By the end of the Opium Wars and the arrival of Commodore Perry in Japan, Chinese and Japanese reformers called for their own industrial revolutions to propel them into the twentieth century. What has the world learned from China since the Ming, and how did China reemerge in the 1970s as a manufacturing superpower? Akhtar's book provides much-needed context for understanding China's rise today and the future of its connections with both the West and a resurgent Asia.Trade Review"An original global history that tells a compelling story of the interconnectedness of the world in premodern times."—Fabio Rambelli, UC Santa Barbara"This book provides us with a valuable historical understanding of one of the big questions of our time: how and why has China become a 21st -century global superpower?"—Roger Crowley, author of Conquerors"1368 is an exciting and important book that broadens our understanding of the Ming and Qing centuries, two momentous eras in Chinese and world history."—Hyunhee Park, author of Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds"A brilliant reorientation of 600 years of history. Its global perspective explores afresh a number of multifaceted encounters with high points in China's civilization and successfully avoids both Sinocentric and Eurocentric narratives. A remarkable story succinctly told."—Wang Gungwu, author of The Eurasian Core and its Edges"Akhtar's smooth and rich narrative, grounded in extant scholarship, archival sources, literary texts and material culture, makes 1368 accessible and thought-provoking for readers of different backgrounds."—Chiara Formichi, author of Islam and Asia"Ali Akhtar writes a longue durée history from an Asian perspective. His masterly exploration of global-Asian interaction leaves readers mulling over an important question: How are we to understand Asia's and specifically also China's role in the evolving global order? The light of history offers some answers."—Peter Borschberg, author of The Singapore and Melaka Straits"A wide-ranging and very thought-provoking book. 1368 presents a vision of how the world became knitted together by the seams."—Eric Tagliacozzo, author of The Longest Journey"A remarkably concise and well-illustrated volume that commands attention for its Asia-centered approach to global history as well as its erudite and original coverage of a broad range of subjects, from the history of the Silk Road, the Spice Trade, the European overseas empires, to modern Japan and global China in the 21st century, and more."—André Wink, author of The Making of the Indo-Islamic world c.700–1800 CE"This exciting study reveals the place of global China in the modern world's economic system and its layered history. From the book's long-duration understanding of history, we can learn many perspectives on our relationship with China as a new global power."—Eiji Nagasawa, The University of Tokyo"Ali Akhtar's 1368 reveals the Indian Ocean, the Silk Road, and China's relations with the Persianate World to be significant strands in the weaving of global modernity."—Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, author of The Dao Of Muhammad"Ali Humayun Akhtar's book offers an important intervention in scholarly considerations of the transitions to the global modern age. Akhtar builds upon the recent turn to the study of social networks while at the same time challenging us to think more creatively about the dynamic nature of such networks. The work highlights elements such as the prominent role of Muslims in the renewed promotions of network ties based on premodern relations between China, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Chinese governments and related networks, including Japanese governments, were international and, arguably, globalizing influences, long before their appearance as global players in the 20th century."—Brian Ruppert, Kanagawa University, author of Jewel in the Ashes"With deep research and engaging prose, 1368 upends orthodox trajectories of research that have long inquired about the impact of 'the west' upon 'the rest' through a vivid exploration of how travelers and wanderers became conduits of Chinese culture to the rest of the world. 1368 is a timely book and positively engrossing read."—William Noseworthy, Cornell University"[1368] is an enlightening look into a vital historical era that has been understudied in the West"—Publisher's Weekly"Today's China is a manufacturing powerhouse producing much of the world's trade goods. Akhtar makes the case that this phenomenon is a reoccurrence of China's manufacturing dominance in international trade before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, which tipped the balance to Western Europe and the United States."—Joshua Wallace, Library Journal"Akhtar synthesizes more than 500 years of global history with style and economy. He fluidly construes Zen Buddhism, Timurid travel accounts, Islam in Korea, so-called "peace marriages" with Malay vassals, Vermeer's "The Milkmaid" (ca. 1660), Thomas Paine and Voltaire on Confucius, and the rise and fall of the Tokugawa shogunate—and contrasts the divergent strategies and legacies of the Europeans on one hand, and those of the Chinese and Japanese on the other."—Maxwell Carter, The Wall Street JournalTable of Contents2. Global Beijing under the Great Ming 3. Picturing China in Persian along the Silk Routes 4. Trading with China in Malay along the Spice Routes 5. Europe's Search for the Spice Islands 6. A Sino-Jesuit Tradition of Science and Mapmaking 7. Porcelain across the Dutch Empire 8. Tea across the British Empire 9. China's Eclipse and Japan's Modernization
£21.59
Stanford University Press India Is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence
Book SynopsisA provocative new account of how India moved relentlessly from its hope-filled founding in 1947 to the dramatic economic and democratic breakdowns of today. When Indian leaders first took control of their government in 1947, they proclaimed the ideals of national unity and secular democracy. Through the first half century of nation-building, leaders could point to uneven but measurable progress on key goals, and after the mid-1980s, dire poverty declined for a few decades, inspiring declarations of victory. But today, a vast majority of Indians live in a state of underemployment and are one crisis away from despair. Public goods—health, education, cities, air and water, and the judiciary—are in woeful condition. And good jobs will remain scarce as long as that is the case. The lack of jobs will further undermine democracy, which will further undermine job creation. India is Broken provides the most persuasive account available of this economic catch-22. Challenging prevailing narratives, Mody contends that successive post-independence leaders, starting with its first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, failed to confront India's true economic problems, seeking easy solutions instead. As a popular frustration grew, and corruption in politics became pervasive, India's economic growth relied increasingly on unregulated finance and environmentally destructive construction. The rise of a violent Hindutva has buried all prior norms in civic life and public accountability. Combining statistical data with creative media, such as literature and cinema, to create strong, accessible, people-driven narratives, this book is a meditation on the interplay between democracy and economic progress, with lessons extending far beyond India. Mody proposes a path forward that is fraught with its own peril, but which nevertheless offers something resembling hope.Trade Review"This book is the most sustained, accessible, and trenchantly argued alternative account of India's political economy and democratic crisis that I have seen in many years. Engaging and well written, it tells a striking and disturbing story. A major achievement."—Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University"A compellingly readable history of Indian politics and economics since independence: Nehru's early mistakes—especially his tragic lack of attention to health, education, and jobs—multiplied into performative and destructive politics in the hands of his heirs. This is a profound account of how any democracy, even the world's largest, can be destroyed from within. Great storytelling. Hard to put down!"—Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economics"Combining statistical data with creative media, such as literature and cinema, to create strong, accessible, people-driven narrative, this book is a meditation on the interplay between democracy and economic progress, with lessons extending far beyond India. Mody proposes a path forward that is fraught with its own peril, but which nevertheless offers something resembling hope."—Discovery: Research at Princeton"India is Broken is a masterful, wonderfully readable but searing indictment of the failures of Indian economic policy since Independence. Brilliantly weaving into his account a history of the key political events of the era, Mody chronicles how a dismal catalogue of flawed economic strategies and a dysfunctional political system have led to a country that is unable to produce enough jobs, where religious divisions keep growing, and inequality is relentlessly rising. An indispensable book for anyone trying to understand this complicated country."—Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Lords of Finance"A magisterial political and economic history of post-colonial India, written with extraordinary eloquence and passion. Mody argues that successive leaders have failed the country's hundreds of millions of poor and borderline poor on its path from nascent democracy to mature authoritarian state. All too often the IMF, the World Bank, and other donors were willing to sign off on economic policies that had little chance of success. India is Broken will be a touchstone in policy debates for years to come."—Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University, and coauthor of This Time is Different"A detailed and richly researched study of India's economy from independence to the present day, India Is Broken delves into many of the critical yet overlooked aspects of India's political and economic history. While I cannot endorse everything he writes, Mody's highly-readable account lays bare the deception and failure of the last several years, while maintaining a focus on the important details of economic policy."—Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and author of The Struggle for India's Soul"This is a well-documented readable history of the major economic and social policy strategies of Indian governments, from Nehru to Modi.... [Mody] makes a powerful case to the effect that education outcomes cannot be separated from politics."—John Richards, International Journal of Educational Development"Fundamentally, Mody's claim is right. India is broken. It offers a poor deal to its working-age population, few good jobs and little welfare. A humanitarian crisis for migrant workers shortly after COVID-19 broke out was a brutal reminder of the condition. The book's message is stark and demands attention. That it is a highly readable account of India's development enhances the appeal."—Tirthankar Roy, The Developing Economies"This book asks a straightforward question: has Indian democracy, as practiced since independence in 1947, improved the lives of people in general? The answer, contends Mody, is no. To substantiate this distressing yet sobering response, Mody conducts an expansive analysis of leaders and policy making in modern India.... Recommended."—A. A. Batabyal, CHOICE"India is Broken is a highly readable book. Mody is deeply knowledgable, and can write as fluently and thoughtfully about the 1950's as he can about the last decade. I found his discussion of the Nehru period especially fascinating."—Anand Swamy, Journal of Economic LiteratureTable of Contents1. Then and Now, an Introduction 2. An Uncertain Beginning 3. The Path Not Taken 4. Nehru's Dangerous Gamble 5. Nehru Doubles His Bet 6: Tagore's Unheard Song 7. Mr. Nehru's Tragedy, Democracy's First Betrayal 8. Shastri Makes a Brave Transition 9. A Savior for India's Ferment 10. India Has an Empress 11. Anger Meets Repression 12. An Autocratic Gamble Fails 13. Democracy Betrays Again, Deindustrialization Begins 14. When the Violence Came Home 15. A Pilot Flies into Political Headwinds 16. Rajiv Unleashes the Gale Force of Hindu Nationalism 17. An All-Too-Brief Moment of Sanity 18. The Promise Has a Dark Underbelly 19. No, India Does Not Shine 20. As the Two Indias Drift Apart, Democracy Creaks 21. Modi Pushes the Economy off the Edge 22. Modi Breaks India's Fractured Democracy 23. COVID-19 Bares the Moral Decay Epilogue: A Feasible Idealism
£26.99
Stanford University Press One and All
Book SynopsisThe concept of sovereignty is a crucial foundation of the current world order. Regardless of their political ideologies no states can operate without claiming and justifying their sovereign power. The People''s Republic of China (PRC)one of the most powerful states in contemporary global politicshas been resorting to the logic of sovereignty to respond to many external and internal challenges, from territorial rights disputes to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this book, Pang Laikwan analyzes the historical roots of Chinese sovereignty. Surveying the four different political structures of modern Chinaimperial, republican, socialist, and post-socialistand the dramatic ruptures between them, Pang argues that the ruling regime''s sovereign anxiety cuts across the long twentieth century in China, providing a strong throughline for the statesociety relations during moments of intense political instability.Focusing on political theory and cultural history, the book demonstrates how conce
£19.79
Fordham University Press Shadows of Nagasaki: Trauma, Religion, and Memory
Book SynopsisA critical introduction to how the Nagasaki atomic bombing has been remembered, especially in contrast to that of Hiroshima. In the decades following the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the city’s residents processed their trauma and formed narratives of the destruction and reconstruction in ways that reflected their regional history and social makeup. In doing so, they created a multi-layered urban identity as an atomic-bombed city that differed markedly from Hiroshima’s image. Shadows of Nagasaki traces how Nagasaki’s trauma, history, and memory of the bombing manifested through some of the city’s many post-atomic memoryscapes, such as literature, religious discourse, art, historical landmarks, commemorative spaces, and architecture. In addition, the book pays particular attention to how the city’s history of international culture, exemplified best perhaps by the region’s Christian (especially Catholic) past, informed its response to the atomic trauma and shaped its postwar urban identity. Key historical actors in the volume’s chapters include writers, Japanese- Catholic leaders, atomic-bombing survivors (known as hibakusha), municipal officials, American occupation personnel, peace activists, artists, and architects. The story of how these diverse groups of people processed and participated in the discourse surrounding the legacies of Nagasaki’s bombing shows how regional history, culture, and politics—rather than national ones—become the most influential factors shaping narratives of destruction and reconstruction after mass trauma. In turn, and especially in the case of urban destruction, new identities emerge and old ones are rekindled, not to serve national politics or social interests but to bolster narratives that reflect local circumstances.Table of ContentsNote on Japanese Names | xi Introduction: Imagining Nagasaki: Religion and History in Postatomic Memoryscapes Chad R. Diehl | 1 Part I: Catholic Responses The "Saint" of Urakami: Nagai Takashi and Early Representations of the Atomic Experience Chad R. Diehl | 33 Loving Your Neighbor across the Sea: The Reception of the Work of Nagai Takashi in the Republic of Korea Haeseong Park and Franklin Rausch | 70 Faith, Family, Earth, and the Atomic Bomb in the Art of Nagai Takashi Anthony Richard Haynes | 93 "Love Saves from Isolation": Ozaki ToÅmei and His Journey from Nagasaki to Auschwitz and Back Gwyn McClelland | 112 Part II: Literature and Testimony "Nagasaki" in Akutagawa Ryu±nosuke's Taisho-Era Literary Imagination Anri Yasuda | 131 Lambs of God, Ravens of Death, Rafts of Corpses: Three Visions of Trauma in Nagasaki Survivor Poetry Chad R. Diehl | 151 Listening to the Dead and Filling the Void: The Prayer and Activism of Akizuki Tatsuichiro Maika Nakao | 179 Breaking New Ground in Nagasaki: Seirai Yuichi's Ground Zero Literature Michele M. Mason | 191 Part III: Sites of Memory Fragmented Memory: The Scattering of the Urakami Cathedral Ruins among Nagasaki's Memorial Landscape Anna Gasha | 215 One Fine Day: The Allied Occupation of Nagasaki and "Madame Butterfly House" Brian Burke-Gaffney | 243 The Titan and the Arch:Regulating Public Memory through the Peace Statue Nanase Shirokawa | 264 Part IV: Reflections How I Came to Criticize Nagai Takashi's Urakami Holocaust Theory Shinji Takahashi | 295 On Rereleasing The Bells of Nagasaki to the World Tokusaburo Nagai | 312 Acknowledgments | 319 List of Contributors | 323 Index | 327
£26.99
Getty Trust Publications Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan - The
Book Synopsis"Originally published in Japanese, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan looks at the approach toward object-based research across the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods, which were typically kept separate, and elucidates the intellectual continuities between these eras. Focusing on the top-down effects of the professionalizing of academia in the political landscape of Meiji Japan, which had advanced by attacking earlier modes of scholarship by antiquarians, Suzuki shows how those outside the government responded, retracted, or challenged new public rules and values. He explores the changing process of evaluating objects from the past in tandem with the attitudes and practices of antiquarians during the period of Japan's rapid modernization. He shows their roots in the intellectual sphere of the late Tokugawa period while also detailing how they adapted to the new era. Suzuki also demonstrates that Japan's antiquarians had much in common with those from Europe and the United States. Art historian Maki Fukuoka provides an introduction to the English translation that highlights the significance of Suzuki's methodological and intellectual analyses and shows how his ideas will appeal to specialists and nonspecialists alike. "Trade Review"What a boon to now have available in English, in an expert translation, this study by Suzuki Hiroyuki, one of the most insightful art historians anywhere in the world. The ostensible subject is antiquarianism, but Suzuki makes clear that during the fast-paced metabolism of Japan in the 1870s, the terms "art" and "antique" are multiple and under constant revision. Situating them at the conjunction of East Asian modes of knowing, traditional modes of assembly, changing display practices, new reprographic technologies, and the professionalization of knowledge, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan peers just under the surface of a more common narrative about the rise of art history in Japan. In doing so, it offers a thoughtful, richly detailed perspective on what art was before Art, on the eve of Nation."-Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University ; "At once descriptive and self-reflective, the book offers a compelling revisionist account of art history in modern Japan via the lives of objects, their collectors, and the bureaucracy of beauty."--Parul Dave-Mukherji, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; “Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan provides precisely the piece of modern Japanese art and cultural history that had been missing from the English-language corpus. Applying a Foucauldian framework to the generation of Japanese scholars who had been active prior to the Meiji Restoration, Suzuki reveals their profound contributions to, as well as their thought-provoking differences from, the modern, professionalized fields of art history and archaeology. The lucid translation by Maki Fukuoka will ensure that this book reaches a broad audience of scholars and students from art history, anthropology, the history of science, comparative global studies of knowledge formation, and beyond. In the company of Stephen Bann's The Clothing of Clio and Dipesh Chakrabarty's The Calling of History, Suzuki's work adds an important voice to the conversation on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century modes of knowing and writing about things past.” —Chelsea Foxwell, Associate Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
£45.00
Wits University Press In India and East Africa E-Indiya nase East
Book SynopsisIn November 1949, Davidson Don Tengo (D.D.T.) Jabavu, the South African politician, Methodist lay preacher and retired professor of African languages and Latin at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape, set out on a four-month trip to attend the World Pacifist Meeting in India. The conference brought together delegates from over thirty countries to reflect on how Mahatma Gandhi's life and teachings could inform pacifist work in the post-World War II era. Jabavu wrote an isiXhosa account of his journey up the east coast of Africa and to different parts of India which was first published in 1951 by Lovedale Press. His narrative contains wide-ranging reflections on the fauna and flora of the changing landscape, on intriguing social interactions during his travels, and on the conference itself, where he considered what lessons Gandhian principles might yield for oppressed South Africans engaged in struggles for freedom and dignity. He incorporates accounts of chance meetings with important figures of post-independence India and of the anti-colonial struggle in East Africa, as well as with members of the American civil rights movement. His commentary on non-violent resistance, and on the dangers of nationalism when coupled with militarism and racism, enriches the existing archive of intellectual and political exchange between Africa and India from a black South African perspective. This new edition includes Jabavu's travelogue in the original isiXhosa, with an English translation by the late anthropologist Cecil Wele Manona. Tina Steiner's introductory chapter examines the networks of international solidarity and friendship that Jabavu helped to strengthen in the course of his travels. A chapter by Mhlobo W. Jadezweni, whose updating of the original isiXhosa orthography has made Jabavu's text accessible to new generations of readers, considers the richness of Jabavu's isiXhosa style as a contribution to the archive of great African-language literature. Catherine Higgs provides biographical sketches of D.D.T. Jabavu and Cecil Wele Manona which situate this travelogue within the broader context of their lives. Evan M. Mwangi's Afterword is a reflection on the historical and political significance of making African-language texts available to readers across Africa.Trade ReviewA remarkable travelogue by one of South Africa’s greatest intellectuals, DDT Jabavu, this book opens new vistas on Indian Ocean histories. Available for the first time in isiXhosa and English, this historical gem enriches our sense of the scope and scale of South African letters. —Isabel Hofmeyr, Global Distinguished Professor, New York University and Professor of African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg A significant figure in Cape African politics at that time, and a renowned academic from Fort Hare University, Jabavu’s expressive account of this trip weaves together a myriad of encounters with people he already knew, and those he would meet on his journey from the Eastern Cape to India, via the East African coast. One can only marvel at how the editors have re-enlivened Jabavu’s account of his epic 1949 journey – a rousing read! — Luvuyo Wotshela, Professor and Head of the National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre, University of Fort HareTable of Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Networks of Solidarity: D.D.T. Jabavu’s Voyage to India – Tina Steiner Revisiting D.D.T. Jabavu, 1885–1959 – Catherine Higgs Notes on the Original and the Translation – Mhlobo W. JadezweniIn Praise of Cecil Wele Manona, 1937–2013 – Catherine Higgs E-Indiya nase East Africa – D.D.T. Jabavu In India and East Africa – D.D.T. Jabavu, translated by Cecil Wele Manona, edited by Tina Steiner and Mhlobo W. Jadezweni Afterword: Jabavu and African Translations for the Future – Evan M. Mwangi References Editors’ biographies Index
£24.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Great Uprising in India, 1857-58: Untold
Book SynopsisThe events of the 1857-8 uprising in India as seen through the eyes of British and Indian eye-witnesses, giving a vivid picture of life in the midst of what one called 'the wind of madness.' A volume in the Worlds of the East India Company series, edited by Huw Bowen The events of 1857-58 in India are seen here through a series of untold stories which show that they were much more complex than hitherto thought.Drawing on sources in Britain and India, including contemporary East India Company records, together with oral memories from India illustrated with a number of nineteenth century photographs, the author tells of the murder of the British Resident in the princely state of Kotah; of Indians who opposed the Mutiny, and suffered at the hands of the "mutineers"; of a small, but significant, number of Europeans who fought with the Indians against the British;and of the infamous "prize agents" of the East India Company - licensed looters whose rapacity seemed limitless. The book conveys vividly what it was like for different kinds of participants to live through these traumatic events, bringing to life their anxiety and desperation, the grisly bloodshed, and the vast devastation - illustrating overall, as one Indian soldier who served in the East India Company's army put it, "the wind of madness". Dr ROSIE LLEWELLYN-JONES is author and editor of numerous books on India, including The Nawabs, the British and the City of Lucknow (1985) and Portraits of the Indian Princes (forthcoming).Trade ReviewFull of fascinating information and engagingly written. HUGH PURCELL, * HISTORY TODAY *[An] original and less Anglo-centric view of history. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *[An] eminently readable book. [.] Even those familiar with the well worn stories of the 1857-58 period will, I think, find much of interest here that will be new to them. Highly recommended. * DURBAR *A good read, and even those already steeped in the subject will find a lot to interest them. * CHOWKIDAR *Rosie Llewellyn-Jones has spent years in the archives digging up forgotten corners of the history of relations between the British and the Indians, and she is the leading and much revered authority on Nawabi Lucknow. The Great Uprising, like all her works, is full of new and original material, engagingly presented and amusingly written. Her fascinating work deserves to be much better known and more widely read than it currently is. * WILLIAM DALRYMPLE *An unconventional look at the Red Year of 1857 by someone who knows her stuff -- and who is not afraid to take her own line on a bloody episode of British and Indian history that still raises hackles. -- Charles Allen, author of Plain Tales from the RajA worthy companion to any good collection of scholarly works on this subject. ...Many readers who deem themselves sufficiently familiar with the great uprising in India will discover in this book how wrong they are. * H-NET REVIEWS *Table of ContentsIntroduction - India in 1857 Rebels and Renegades The Kotah Residency Murder The Great Wall of Lucknow The Prize Agents `Hung in Perpetual Chains' Mutiny Memorials
£80.07
