Asian history Books

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Book SynopsisThis volume addresses the management of conflicts that involve the siting of unwanted projects in the Asia-Pacific region. Contributors are renowned scholars in environmental policy and write from actual experience with the region, employing theoretical, comparative, and policy-based approaches to an analysis of environmental conflict, risk management, and public participation. The collection therefore will function as an invaluable resource for policymakers, environmentalists, and scholars of the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere.

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Book SynopsisA major observer and writer of Chinese cultural life, Tsien Tsuen-hsin contributed profoundly to the West's understanding of the East, and vice versa, spending sixty years as a professor and curator at The University of Chicago. These articles illuminate such topics as Chinese documents, Chinese paper, ink-making, printing, cultural exchange, libraries, and biographies, which were Tsien Tsuen-hsin's primary interests. Most of these articles were written in English and then later translated into Chinese or other languages, but several were originally written in Chinese and have been translated into English especially for this collection. An appendix includes biographical and critical context for readers unfamiliar with the author's brilliant thought and extensive impact.

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Book SynopsisPart of the Chinese University Press's three volume series on the construction of Chinese disciplines, Transforming History examines the profound transformation of historical thought and the practice of writing history from the late Qing through the mid-twentieth century. The authors devote extensive analysis to the common set of intellectual and political forces that shaped the study of history, from the ideas ofevolution, positivism, nationalism, historicism, and Marxism to political processes such as revolution, imperialism, and modernization. Also discussed are the impact and problems associated with the nation-state as the subject of history, the linear model of historical time, and the spatial system of nation-states. The result is a convincing study that illustrates how history has transformed into a modern academic discipline in China.

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Book SynopsisThe eastern archipelagos of Southeast Asia stretch from Mindanao and Sulu in the north to Bali in the southwest and New Guinea in the southeast. Many of the inhabitants of this area are often described as “people without history,” in part because colonial borders long ago cut across shared underlying patterns of relations. Yet many of these societies were linked to transoceanic trading systems for millennia. Indeed, some of the world’s most prized commodities once came from territories which were either “stateless” or under the tenuous control of loosely structured polities in this region. In this book, trade provides the integrating framework for local and regional histories that cover more than three hundred years, from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, when new technologies and changing markets helped lead to Western dominance. This book presents theories from the social sciences and economics that can help liberate scholars from dependence on states as narrative frameworks. It will also appeal to those working on wider themes such as global history, state formation, the evolution of markets, and anthropology. Trade Review“In this epic work, Heather Sutherland brings decades of scholarship to bear on her examination of three centuries of trade on the periphery of Asia…. This is an attractive and well-laid-out book. Sutherland's scholarship has created a masterful work that will be appreciated by all interested in maritime Southeast Asia's colonial and pre-colonial past.” - Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic SocietyTable of Contents List of Maps List of Images Preface Chapter 1: Introduction PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS Chapter 2: The Cradle of Geography Chapter 3: Encounters Chapter 4: Patchwork Polities PART TWO: GLIMPSED HISTORIES Chapter 5: Commodity Wars before 1684 Chapter 6: Ungovernable Tides, 1684–1784 Chapter 7: Pivotal Decades, 1784–1819 Chapter 8: Equivocal Policies, Converging Trade, 1819–47 Chapter 9: Free Trade and Phantom Fleets, 1847–69 Chapter 10: Steam and Capital, 1869–1906 Chapter 11: In Retrospect Appendix Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is a study of workers activism and labour unions in the eight years between the recognition of Indonesian sovereignty by the Netherlands at the end of December 1949 and the nationalisation of Dutch assets in December 1957. It contributes to a re-evaluation of the era of liberal parliamentary democracy in Indonesia. The focus is on the agency of workers and the structures, strategies and industrial campaigns of unions in the context of intense ideological conflict, competing union federations, the opposition of employers to collective action and the efforts by the Indonesian state to manage industrial conflict. The imposition of martial law in March 1957 was the deathblow to parliamentary democracy and to the freedom of workers and unions to engage in collective action. It was not until Suharto's 'New Order' regime collapsed in 1998 that Indonesian workers regained the freedom of association and the right to engage incollective action.

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Book SynopsisFactories of Death details the activities of the Japanese army scientists that conducted numerous horrifying experiments upon live human beings. It investigates who from the upper echelons of the Japanese military and political establishments knew of the experiments, also the question of whether or not Allied POWs were subjected to such tests, and the nature of the deal that was brokered with US authorities after the war. This new edition has been completely updated, and contains an entirely new chapter detailing the numerous revelations that have surfaced since the book's initial publication in 1994.Trade Review"Factories of Death is about Japan's secret biological and chemical experiments on live human beings and United States complicity in covering up the truth. Sheldon Harris has done us all a service by painstakingly uncovering the facts behind one of mankind's biggest yet least known crimes." -- James Bradley, author, Flags ofOur Fathers"This book brings sound scholarship and strong moral conviction, tempered by carefully nuanced argument, to bear on a subject of continuing international concern. It deserves a readership far beyond the circle of Second World War specialists." -- The International HistoryReview"The book's two parts, "Japanese Factories of Death" and American Cover-Up," are meticulously researched with the results presented in an outraged tone." -- MilitaryReviewTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements The Pacific Theatre, World War II Introduction Part I. Japanese Factories of Death 1. Manchuria 2. Ishii Shiro 3. The Beiyinhe Bacteria Factory 4. Phase 1. Building Ping Fan 5. Phase 2. Hell in Ping Fan 6. The Secret of Secrets: Human Experiments 7. The Death Factory in Changchun 8. The Death Factory in Nanking 9. Experiments on prisoners of War 10. Who Knew? Part II. American Cover-Up The American Biological Warfare Program 12. Discovery of the Secret of Secrets 13. Investigations 14. Scientists and the Cover-Up 15. The Military and the Cover-Up 16. Epilogue Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Fortune Best Book of the Year""The Last Embassy is rare in the field of academic history, in that it works just as well as a story as it does as a work of significant historical investigation. The story of the Dutch embassy to Beijing—the last to the Imperial Chinese court—has everything: competing protagonists, trials and tribulations, and imperial pomp and circumstance. Andrade’s work is a wonderfully written work about a neglected event in diplomatic history."---Nicholas Gordon, Fortune"One of the best academic studies in terms of both scholarship and writing-style I have read in ten years or more. . . . [A]n accessible, exciting, and illuminating book, written with consummate verve and enthusiasm."---John Butler, Asian Review of Books"An animated account."---Peter Neville-Hadley, South China Morning Post Magazine"Its lively writing, quick chapters, and the descriptions of the various parts of the empire that the embassy travels through, give readers a panoramic view of the empire at its height."---Reid Wyatt, World History Connected"An excellent entry point for readers seeking a nuanced under­standing of China’s global presence in the eighteenth century, and a useful cor­rective to those specialists who still tend to regard Qing relations with Britain as the totality of Qing relations with the ‘West.’"---Pamela Kyle Crossley, Journal of Early Modern History

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Book SynopsisThe Indian government, touted as the world's largest democracy, often repeats that Jammu and Kashmir—its only Muslim-majority state—is "an integral part of India." The region, which is disputed between India and Pakistan, and is considered the world's most militarized zone, has been occupied by India for over seventy-five years. In this book, Hafsa Kanjwal interrogates how Kashmir was made "integral" to India through a study of the decade long rule (1953-1963) of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the second Prime Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Drawing upon a wide array of bureaucratic documents, propaganda materials, memoirs, literary sources, and oral interviews in English, Urdu, and Kashmiri, Kanjwal examines the intentions, tensions, and unintended consequences of Bakshi's state-building policies in the context of India's colonial occupation. She reveals how the Kashmir government tailored its policies to integrate Kashmir's Muslims while also showing how these policies were marked by inter-religious tension, corruption, and political repression. Challenging the binaries of colonial and postcolonial, Kanjwal historicizes India's occupation of Kashmir through processes of emotional integration, development, normalization, and empowerment to highlight the new hierarchies of power and domination that emerged in the aftermath of decolonization. In doing so, she urges us to question triumphalist narratives of India's state-formation, as well as the sovereignty claims of the modern nation-state.Trade Review"Colonizing Kashmir offers a brilliant rethinking of how sovereignty and secularism work to obscure the colonizing projects of postcolonial states. For India, Kanjwal argues, the colonial occupation of Kashmir is not an aberration nor a residual of the past, rather pivotal to the formation of the newly independent state. Scholars of religion, settler colonialism, secularism, and anyone interested in the varied and unexpected modalities through which territorial control functions will gain tremendously from the sharp conceptual interventions in this meticulously researched book."—Jasbir K Puar, Rutgers University"Hafsa Kanjwal brilliantly illuminates how India consolidated its occupational control over Kashmir through state-level practices across multiple institutional domains – development, tourism, film production, economic policies, culture, and law. Through archival and interpretative analysis of a rich variety of previously unexamined primary source historical materials, Kanjwal demonstrates how India cemented Kashmir's accession over time and, in effect, domesticated the international dispute. Her fine-grained analysis of processes of integration, normalization, and bureaucratization reveals how state-building operates as a mechanism for building, entrenching, and sustaining an architecture of colonial occupation in a 'space of political liminality' such as Kashmir."—Haley Duschinski, Ohio University"Colonizing Kashmir is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the region. Its diligent analysis and exhaustive documentation deftly incorporates the perspectives of Kashmir's political consciousness and memory. In doing so, the book challenges and disrupts existing historiographical frameworks pertaining to Kashmir and its politics. The work holds considerable resonance with the present and future trajectory of Kashmir."—Haris Zargar, Middle East Eye"Historically invasive, theoretically cutting edge, and written in prose at once mellifluous and purposeful, this book is nothing short of a wonderfully mesmerizing intellectual earthquake in the fields of South Asian history and contemporary politics more broadly."—New Books Network"Colonizing Kashmir enables us to understand the repetitious discourse of development and normalcy through a historicization that allows for understanding the present forms of India's colonization of Kashmir as settler-colonial."—Goldie Osuri, The Contrapuntal"Kashmir's people have had a troubled history since 1947. Kanjwal presents a scholarly, impassioned historical analysis of the Indian-occupied Kashmir Valley during the crucial, decade-long regime of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad.... Recommended."—M. H. Fisher, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Genealogies of Colonial Occupation and State-Building: Becoming Khalid-i-Kashmir 2. Narrating Normalization: Media, Propaganda, and Foreign Policy amid Cold War Politics 3. Producing and Promoting Paradise: Tourism, Cinema, and the Desire for Kashmir 4. Developing Dependency: Economic Planning, Financial Integration, and Corruption 5. Shaping Subjectivities: Education, Secularism, and Its Discontents 6. Jashn-e-Kashmir: Patronage and the Institutionalization of Kashmiri Culture 7. The State of Emergency: State Repression, Political Dissent, and the Struggle for Self-Determination Conclusion

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Book SynopsisFrom when the Empress Jingo-kogo led an invasion of Korea while pregnant with the future Emperor Ojin, tales of female Japanese warriors have emerged from Japan's rich history. Using material that has never been translated into English before, this book presents the story of Japan's female warriors for the first time, revealing the role of the women of the samurai class in all their many manifestations, investigating their weapons, equipment, roles, training and belief systems. Crucially, as well as describing the women who were warriors in their own right, like Hauri Tsuruhime and the women of Aizu, this book also looks at occasions when women became the power behind the throne, ruling and warring through the men around them.Table of ContentsIntroduction /Chronology Appearance and dress /The roles of the samurai woman in peacetime /The samurai woman in times of war /The samurai woman on the battlefield /Collecting/Museums/Re-enactment /Bibliography /Glossary /Index

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Book SynopsisWhen the US government resettled thousands of Hmong in 1975, the work was done by Christian organizations deputized by the state. Exploring the resiliency of tradition amid shaky US commitments to pluralism and secularism, Melissa May Borja shows how Hmong Americans developed a new way that blended Christianity with their longstanding practices.Trade ReviewSuperb…Borja’s book is a beautiful study of how people work out the meaning of faith in their homes as much as in their religious communities. -- William J. Schultz * Christian Century *A fascinating, deeply perceptive, and highly readable study of the Hmong experience in America. Borja’s pathbreaking book will appeal to a broad readership in religion and cultural studies, refugee resettlement and humanitarian aid, and church-state relations, as well as to the Hmong community itself. An exemplary model of careful scholarship with far-reaching significance. -- Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a NationBeautifully written and sensitively told, Follow the New Way foregrounds the resilience of Hmong ‘religious migrants’ while highlighting the power of the state. This illuminating book is a must-read for anyone interested in migration, pluralism, and religious freedom. -- Kathryn Gin Lum, author of Heathen: Religion and Race in American HistoryA deeply nuanced story of the politics and practices of religious pluralism. Borja deftly illuminates how American refugee resettlement policies have shaped the spiritual lives of Hmong Americans and raises timely questions about the promise of religious freedom in America. Required reading for anyone interested in American religion. -- Carolyn Chen, author of Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon ValleyA story that changes the way we tell stories. In the histories it recounts, the characters it follows, and ‘the way’ it illuminates, Follow the New Way stretches the bounds of what we mean by religion, culture, immigration, and tradition. With compassion and a deeply held humanity, Borja renews our thinking not just about Hmong Americans, but about America as such. -- Jonathan Tran, author of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial CapitalismA superb book. Tracing the complicated process of religious change among Hmong refugees, Borja persuasively demonstrates how state policies disrupted Hmong traditions. Yet she also shows how refugees creatively and resiliently drew upon a variety of religious resources to gain spiritual strength in their new land. -- Russell Jeung, author of Family Sacrifices: The Worldviews and Ethics of Chinese AmericansFor far too long, writing about Southeast Asian refugees, and specifically Hmong Americans, has ignored the issue of faith. In a refreshing, much-needed analysis, Borja draws out the unexpected connections between US refugee resettlement policy and religious change among Hmong migrants. Readable, engaging, and innovative, Follow the New Way is a tremendously important contribution to Asian American history. -- Sam Vong, Curator of Asian Pacific American History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian InstitutionAn outstanding, profoundly original book. Borja brings together methods from migration history and religious studies to show how the pluralist ambitions of the post-1965 United States shaped both Hmong refugees and the Christian churches that sponsored their resettlement. In the process, she offers a nuanced and compelling way to think about both the power and the limitations of religious pluralism. -- Alison Collis Greene, author of No Depression in Heaven: The Great Depression, the New Deal, and the Transformation of Religion in the Delta

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Book SynopsisDiscover Mughal India's cultural heritage through new perspectives from 13 scholars. Book explores norms, connections, and comparisons with Safavids and Ottomans. Articles challenge ideas, compare art, and discuss themes like royal portraits, temple patronage, and Mughal gardens. Richly illustrated for connoisseurs and scholars.

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Book SynopsisJames Ferguson examines the rise of social welfare programs in southern Africa in which states give cash payments to their low income citizens. These programs, Ferguson argues, offer new opportunities for political mobilization and inspire new ways to think about issues of production, distribution, markets, labor and unemployment.Trade Review“Half comparative ethnography, half political pamphlet, Ferguson’s impressive narrative is a tour de force questioning, deconstructing and reconstructing classic and contemporary notions of poverty, development and the welfare state in the region and beyond. … With his creative and flexible analysis, he provokes thinking for action beyond narrow ideological boundaries. One could imagine enthusiastic endorsements of his work by Marxist campaigners, World Bank technocrats and traditional leaders alike. This highly original book is likely to leave a lasting mark not only on contemporary anthropological debates around poverty and development, but also policy and activist thinking in southern Africa and beyond.” -- Vito Laterza * Anthropology Book Forum *"The book offers an exciting challenge to many of the default ways of thinking in development and social policy. ... Give a Man a Fish is a remarkable combination of scholarly breadth, intellectual challenge and grounded reflection on the realities of people living with hardship. Avoiding the easy characterisations of left or right, it is a thoughtful, stimulating and ultimately hopeful book, which deserves to be widely read, discussed and acted on." -- Sarah C. White * Journal of Development Studies *"Overall, this is an ambitious, imaginative, and hopeful book. Although the notion that distributive processes must be understood and appreciated is already widely accepted in African studies, Ferguson's achievement is in analyzing the dynamism and implications of these claims and relations within his chosen region’s shifting political economy." -- A. Peter Castro * Journal of International and Global Studies *"[T]he book is beautifully written, and a pleasure to read. Ferguson seamlessly weaves together data, a wide range of social science literature, anecdotes, historical details, and a sprinkling of anthropological theory.... Ferguson’s book is an erudite, enjoyable, and important synthesis of facts, stories and ideas, bridging a wide range of topics around the rise of social grants in Southern Africa." -- E. Fouksman * Basic Income Studies *"James Ferguson’s latest book makes an important contribution to the basic income literature. The book draws its empirical ballast from cash transfer programs in southern Africa, but this is not an ethnographic text; rather, Ferguson leverages the idea of cash transfers and basic income to launch a theoretical meditation on the nature of money, value, society, welfare, justice, and the state. The end product is reflective, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. One is left with the distinct impression that Ferguson is feeling his way into a social theory of the future." -- Jason Hickel * Anthropological Forum *"Like the best kind of anthropology, James Ferguson’s latest book, Give a Man a Fish, invites readers to see the world differently, questions taken-for-granted truisms, and reasserts the significance of lives considered peripheral to the concerns of powerful elites.... In a world of radical inequality and chronic unemployment, few development agents are willing to spend time 'translating' anthropology into action. Ferguson has done this work with the sensibility of an anthropologist." -- Ilana van Wyk * American Anthropologist *Table of ContentsForeword / Thomas Gibson vii Preface and Acknowledgments xi Introduction. Cash Transfers and the New Welfare States: From Neoliberalism to the Politics of Distribution 1 1. Give a Man a Fish: From Patriarchal Productionism to the Revalorization of Distribution 35 2. What Comes after the Social? Historicizing the Future of Social Protection in Africa 63 3. Distributed Livelihoods: Dependence and the Labor of Distribution in the Lives of the Southern African Poor (and Not-So-Poor) 89 4. The Social Life of Cash Payments: Money, Markets, and the Mutualities of Poverty 119 5. Declaration of Dependence: Labor, Pesonhood, and Welfare in Southern Africa 141 6. A Rightful Share: Distribution beyond Gift and Market 165 Conclusion. What Next for Distributive Politics? 191 Notes 217 References 237 Index 259

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Book SynopsisThe partitioning of British India into independent Pakistan and India in August 1947 occurred in the midst of communal holocaust, with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other. More than 750,000 people were butchered, and 12 million fled their homes,primarily in caravans of bullock-carts,to seek refuge across the new border: it was the largest exodus in history. Sixty-seven years later, it is as if that August never ended.Renowned historian and journalist Dilip Hiro provides a riveting account of the relationship between India and Pakistan, tracing the landmark events that led to the division of the sub-continent and the evolution of the contentious relationship between Hindus and Muslims. To this day, a reasonable resolution to their dispute has proved elusive, and the Line of Control in Kashmir remains the most heavily fortified frontier in the world, with 400,000 soldiers arrayed on either side.Since partition, there have been several acute crises between the neighbours, including the secession of East Pakistan to form an independent Bangladesh in 1971, and the acquisition of nuclear weapons by both sides resulting in a scarcely avoided confrontation in 1999 and again in 2002. Hiro amply demonstrates the geopolitical importance of the India-Pakistan conflict by chronicling their respective ties not only with America and the Soviet Union, but also with China, Israel, and Afghanistan.Hiro weaves these threads into a lucid narrative, enlivened with colourful biographies of leaders, vivid descriptions of wars, sensational assassinations, gross violations of human rights,and cultural signifiers like cricket matches. The Longest August is incomparable in its scope and presents the first definitive history of one of the world's longest-running and most intractable conflicts.Trade Review"Dilip Hiro's latest book is another proof of the maturity among the historians of the emerging independent countries... The writer tries to unfold the hidden politics of the unflinching rivalry between the twins and comprehensively covers both the pre- and post-partition developments... He has boldly challenged the politics of Mahatma{and] rightly pointed out that the Mahatma believed in religious nationalism, and gives the reference of Mahatma's 1915 address in which he said: 'Politics cannot be divorced from religion.'" --The News (Pakistan) "This book is remarkable in its sweep of history... By sequencing the events in this manner, their flow becomes clearer. The facts presented are well-rounded, backed as they are by considerable background information. The portrayal of the key historical figures has been quite vividly done. It delineates the changing international context of evolving India-Pakistan relations and the drawing in of global powers with each major shift, thereby investing their bilateral developments with profound global balance-of-power ramifications." --Mainstream (India) "[A] deeply researched book about partition and its consequences...The adversarial relationship between the homespun Mahatma [Gandhi] and the Anglicized barrister [Jinnah] is recounted in novelistic detail... This is a reliable, insightful and, for so partisan a subject, admirably evenhanded examination." --Wall Street Journal "A history that spans a century of antagonism, skullduggery and war...It is a tale of broken bloodlines, fatal miscalculations and mutual paranoia that has placed a bitter parting at the center of the destiny of a subcontinent. And it is timely... Hiro also offers fascinating accounts of the espionage wars between the two countries." --The New York Times Book Review "The book supplies enough detail to leave the reader in no doubt about the upshot of India's partition: a nuclear-armed quasi-theocracy imploding under the weight of its own radicalism. This should inspire dread in the most stolid of hearts -- not only in India but across the world." --Washington Post "Brisk and clear history of partition and its effects... Mr. Hiro has written a highly readable account of a complicated history... A dispassionate chronological narrative, it is an excellent introduction to a bitterly contested topic." --The Economist "An exhaustive narrative on Indo-Pak relations coloured by the burden of history...It is a bold, dispassionate attempt to examine the bitterly contested subject...The immensely readable book is peppered with catchy anecdotes linking senior leaders of India and Pakistan." --Deccan Herald (India) "Mr. Hiro does a competent job outlining a complex, often contradictory and seemingly unending Kashmir dispute." --Business Standard "The Longest August needed a mix of skill, patience and courage. Hiro exhibits them all in good measure, and happily takes the book above most Partition sagas." --The Hindu "In Hiro's retelling, Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah are alive with all their egos and foibles resplendent...The Longest August is a brave first attempt to magnify relations between India and Pakistan." --The Independent (UK) "The author provides a riveting account of the relationship between India and Pakistan ...The author weaves these threads into a lucid narrative, enlivened with colourful biographies of leaders, vivid descriptions of wars, sensational assassinations, gross violations of human rights - and cultural signifiers like cricket matches." --Business Standard (India) "Every new Dilip Hiro book brings a tingle of excitement over the chance to chronologically understand events in a particular land, almost always close to ours, by a meticulous storyteller who takes no sides... The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan remains true to Hiro's genre of storytelling, based on an intense examination of the archives and a reliable-enough timeline. This helps him recount the past as it happened, blemishes and all." --Tribune India "Hiro's book is a fluidly written narration tracing the prehistory of the conflict to Hindu assertion and Muslim anxiety as the independence struggle gathered pace. This is an eminently readable history that outlines the evolution of a complicated conflict." --India Today "The Longest August is an ambitious project, particularly in the vastness of its scope... Every major incident is touched upon in the book... Written in the style of the immensely popular Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, The Longest August is an easy read. It is full of anecdotes which have either been forgotten or overlooked." --Indian Express "The book is updated enough to include the Modi government's bizarre attitude to relations with Pakistan -- a mix of hugging and sulking -- and comprehensive enough to act as a single volume reference for India-Pakistan relations." --Asian Age "A definitive history of one of the world's most intractable conflicts. ... It is an absorbing read." --Bangalore Mirror "Hiro amply sketches the geopolitical contours of the India-Pakistan conflict by chronicling their respective ties not only with America and the Soviet Union but also with China, Israel, and Afghanistan." --The Times of India "The book is a must read to understand the predilections of the Hindu leaders in India and their Muslim counterparts in Pakistan which has deepened the trust deficit leading to a dead end. Or has it!" --Free Press Journal (Mumbai)

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Book SynopsisAkbar, the third Mughal emperor, ruled India for nearly fifty years, establishing a wealthy and expansive empire. In "Akbar: The Great Mughal," Ira Mukhoty details his military prowess, governance reforms, religious tolerance, and efforts towards women's emancipation, showcasing his statesmanship and humanity.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2012 Cundill Prize in HistoryA gripping account of China’s nineteenth-century Taiping Rebellion, one of the largest civil wars in history. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom brims with unforgettable characters and vivid re-creations of massive and often gruesome battles—a sweeping yet intimate portrait of the conflict that shaped the fate of modern China. The story begins in the early 1850s, the waning years of the Qing dynasty, when word spread of a major revolution brewing in the provinces, led by a failed civil servant who claimed to be the son of God and brother of Jesus. The Taiping rebels drew their power from the poor and the disenfranchised, unleashing the ethnic rage of millions of Chinese against their Manchu rulers. This homegrown movement seemed all but unstoppable until Britain and the United States stepped in and threw their support behind the Manchus: after years of massive carnage, all opposition to Qing rule was effectively snuffed out for generations. Stephen R. Platt recounts these events in spellbinding detail, building his story on two fascinating characters with opposing visions for China’s future: the conservative Confucian scholar Zeng Guofan, an accidental general who emerged as the most influential military strategist in China’s modern history; and Hong Rengan, a brilliant Taiping leader whose grand vision of building a modern, industrial, and pro-Western Chinese state ended in tragic failure.  This is an essential and enthralling history of the rise and fall of the movement that, a century and a half ago, might have launched China on an entirely different path into the modern world.

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Book SynopsisLooks at Japanese culinary history, delving into the writings of medieval and early modern Japanese chefs. This book traces the development of Japanese cuisine from 1400 to 1868. It shows how medieval 'fantasy food' rituals - where food was revered as symbol rather than consumed - were continued by early modern writers.Trade Review"This volume is a cogent reminder that to truly understand the importance of food in our lives, we must examine not merely its material role, but also its symbolic significance." Choice "There is no English-language research on the subject of early modern Japanese cuisine as extensive or imaginative." -- David Eason/University at Albany, SUNY Social Science Japan JrnlTable of ContentsList of Illustrations and Tables Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Japanese Cuisine, a Backward Journey 2. Of Knives and Men: Cutting Ceremonies and Cuisine 3. Ceremonial Banquets 4. The Barbarians' Cookbook 5. Food and Fantasy in Culinary Books 6. Menus for the Imagination 7. Deep Thought Wheat Gluten and Other Fantasy Foods Conclusion: After the Fantasies Appendix: The Southern Barbarians' Cookbook (Nanban ryorisho) Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn 221 BC the First Emperor of Qin unified what would become the heart of a Chinese empire whose major features would endure for two millennia. In the first of a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, Lewis highlights the key challenges facing court officials and scholars who set about governing an empire of such scale and diversity.Trade ReviewMark Lewis’s mind-opening and readable book reminds us of the enduring but changing realities of China. -- Jonathan Mirsky * Times Literary Supplement *The Early Chinese Empires is a brilliant example of nuanced, responsible popularization. As the first in a series of six volumes that will cover all of Imperial China, it sets a very high standard. -- Grant Hardy * The Historian *Inaugurating a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, this volume holds that characteristics of the first Chinese empire broadly endured for the succeeding 2,000 years… [Those] planning to acquire the entire series mustn’t omit Lewis’s solid foundation. -- Gilbert Taylor * Booklist *The standard multivolume history of China has long been the magisterial, exhaustive Cambridge History of China. Now Harvard University Press has announced a six-volume series that will cover the rise, development, and decline of dynastic China from the second century B.C.E. through the early 20th century in an up-to-date, compact, and approachable way. This opening volume by Lewis foretells that the series will become the new gold standard, as the author explains in clear and telling detail how the Qin dynasty ruthlessly defeated a succession of rivals to unify briefly what we now call China in 221 B.C.E. We then see how the succeeding Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) combined social engineering and political savvy to institutionalize control and form a ‘classical’ era parallel to the Greeks and Romans in the West. Han imperial structures, including religion, literature, and law, were quite different from what evolved out of them, but Lewis convincingly argues that later societies cannot be understood without understanding this classical foundation. -- Charles W. Hayford * Library Journal (starred review) *As the first volume in the History of Imperial China, The Early Chinese Empires sets an authoritative, reliable tone that bodes well for this important new series. The book meets a high standard of historical accuracy and covers an impressively broad range of topics. Accessible to a wide audience, it will appeal to anyone interested in the foundations of the Chinese imperial tradition. -- Victor H. Mair, University of PennsylvaniaThis series on China, brilliantly overseen by Timothy Brook, is a credit to Harvard University Press. Above all, it encourages us to think of China in different ways. -- Jonathan Mirsky * Literary Review *Table of Contents* Introduction * The Geography of Empire * A State Organized for War * The Paradoxes of Empire * The Imperial Capital * Rural Society * The Outer World * Kinship and Gender * Religion and Cults * Literature * Law * Conclusion * Dates and Usage * Acknowledgments * Notes * Bibliography * Index

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Book SynopsisFrom his birth into the lowest stratum of the samurai class to his assassination by right-wing militarists, Takahashi Korekiyo (1854–1936) lived through tumultuous times that shaped the course of modern Japan. This biography underscores the profound influence of the charismatic finance minister on the political and economic development of Japan.Trade ReviewJapan emerged from worldwide economic depression in the 1930s more successfully and quickly than the other modern world economies. Without denying the role of rapid militarization in prompting economic growth, this new biography of Japan's seven-time finance minister shows how Takahashi's countercyclical fiscal and monetary policies overcame a steep deflationary spiral and in the process engineered a remarkable record of growth built on a novel deficit spending approach...In telling Takahashi's story, Smethurst uncovers some of the pushes and pulls shaping Japan's modem economic growth, and it is a story he tells well. -- W. D. Kinzley * Choice *Smethurst's biography is a major achievement reflecting some 20 years of work. Not to exclude the general reader--the book is a very good read--Takahashi's biography should interest not only Japanologists, but also students of economic history everywhere. Smethurst admits that it was difficult to balance the anecdotes of Takahashi's adventures with the necessary analysis of his historic accomplishments. He has succeeded, giving us a wise and immensely competent biography of a great Japanese and a vibrant human being. -- Rod Armstrong * Asahi Shimbun *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. A Remarkable Beginning, 1854-67 2. Takahashi in San Francisco, 1867-68 3. Many Mentors, Few Teachers: Takahashi's Career in and out of Government, 1869-81 4. Japan's First Trademark and Patent Laws, 1881-89 5. Maeda Masana and the Debate over Industrial Policy, 1882-85 6. Managing a Silver Mine in Peru, 1889-90 7. Entering the Bank of Japan, 1892-1904 8. Fundraising During the Russo-Japanese War: 1904 9. Fundraising During the Russo-Japanese War: 1905 10. The Lessons of Wars, 1906-18 11. Taisho Democracy, 1918-27 12. "Japan's Keynes": Japan and the World Depression, 1929-34 13. Takahasi's Fiscal Policies and the Rise of Militarism, 1932-36 Conclusion: Takahashi's Economic Philosophy and Its Roots Appendix: Takahashi's Memoirs Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThis book presents two histories of the early Korean kingdom of Paekche (trad. 18 BCE–660 CE). The first, written by Best, is based largely on primary sources. This initial history serves, in part, to introduce the second, an extensively annotated translation of the oldest history of the kingdom, The Paekche Annals (Paekche pon’gi).Trade ReviewBest’s book is a watershed in the study of Paekche outside of Korea and perhaps will give further impetus to the growth of studies on traditional Korea in the West… Whether this is on the horizon or not, Best’s work will stand alone as both a scrupulously written history of a little understood kingdom, and a scholarly and informed partial translation of one of the most important works in the study of Korea. -- Daniel Corey Kane * Korean Quarterly *Rarely has the East Asian scholarly world seen the publication of a work on its early history as important as Jonathan Best’s History of the Early Korean Kingdom of Paekche. This history promises to be a definitive text of early Korean history and an important piece of the puzzle for scholars who are seeking to understand East Asia at the start of the first millennium. -- Edward J. Schultz * Journal of Asiatic Studies *

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Book SynopsisBangladesh, a Muslim majority nation with a population of some 154 million people, receives little notice in the West, other than when political upheaval or natural disasters bring it to our attention. In "Understanding Bangladesh", an account of the political and economic experiences of the Bangladeshi state and its people, S. Mahmud Ali seeks to redress that imbalance. His book identifies the key players among Bangladesh's tiny military, political and business elite, explores the attempts to establish their authority in a crowded field, and considers the relative merits of their attempts at nation-building. Ali concludes by outlining both the remarkable achievements recorded by this land of unusual narratives, and the elemental challenges its burgeoning populace faces in the years ahead, among which is a resurgent and highly politicized form of militant Islamism.Trade Review'A compelling account of Bangladesh's history, politics and culture. Understanding Bangladesh is a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on this South Asian state. It will be a great resource for students of South Asian history and politics.' * Contemporary South Asia *'This richly detailed book traces the evolution of Bangladesh as an independent state since 1971. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources in English and Bengali, as well as insights based on the author's personal experience of some of the events discussed, it covers in chronological order key developments vital to any understanding of the country's politics, economic policies and external relations. At the same time, the book also addresses historical factors that have shaped groups and ideas in Bangladesh which notwithstanding their place at the margins of power, have come to define the country's political landscape. Nor does it ignore emerging environmental and demographic pressures, which the author suggests will represent new challenges that could alter Bangladesh's landscape yet again. Together they help deliver a narrative that is meticulously researched, soberly argued and set to emerge as one of the most authoritative and complete accounts of a still poorly understood country.' * Dr Farzana Shaikh, Chatham House, and author of Making Sense of Pakistan *'This latest book will further enhance the author's reputation, drawing as it does on personal experience and considerable depth of research and dealing with a country of rising importance ... a scholarly and detailed chronological account of Bangladesh's origins and complex development as a new independent country. ... I warmly recommend it to anyone seeking insight into this rapidly changing country.' * Asian Affairs *

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Book SynopsisThe Way of Archery provides a detailed introduction to practicing archery in the traditional Chinese military style.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Whereas many history textbooks tend to treat culture, gender and aesthetics as an afterthought, the author of Japan: History and Culture asserts their integral importance to Japanese history . . . an entertaining and concise textbook for university undergraduate and postgraduate history teachers or senior high school students." * New Voices in Japanese Studies *"A welcome companion for anyone wanting to start learning about Japanese cultural tradition and practices throughout the centuries." * H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Early Japan 2. Forging a Centralized State (550–794) 3. The Rule of Taste: Lives of Heian Aristocrats (794–1185) 4. The Rise and Rule of the Warrior Class (12th–15th centuries) 5. Disintegration and Reunification (1460s–early 1600s) 6. Maintaining Control: Tokugawa Official Culture (1603–1850s) 7. Edo Popular Culture: The Floating World and Beyond (late 17th to mid-19th centuries) 8. Facing and Embracing the West (1850s–1900s) 9. Modernity and its Discontents (1900s–1930s) 10. Cultures of Empire and War (1900s–1940s) 11. Defeat and Reconstruction (1945–1970s) 12. “Cool” Japan as Cultural Superpower (1980s–2010s) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisElidor Mëhilli has produced a groundbreaking history of communist Albania that illuminates one of Europe's longest but least understood dictatorships. From Stalin to Mao, which is informed throughout by Mëhilli's unprecedented access to previously restricted archives, captures the powerful globalism of post-1945 socialism, as well as the unintended consequences of cross-border exchanges from the Mediterranean to East Asia. After a decade of vigorous borrowing from the Soviet Unionadvisers, factories, school textbooks, urban plansAlbania's party clique switched allegiance to China during the 1960s Sino-Soviet conflict, seeing in Mao's patronage an opportunity to keep Stalinism alive. Mëhilli shows how socialism created a shared transnational material and mental culturestill evident today around Eurasiabut it failed to generate political unity. Combining an analysis of ideology with a sharp sense of geopolitics, he brings into view Fascist Italy's involvement in Albania,Trade ReviewAn important contribution to our understaning of socialist Albania, especially in a transnational context.... An engaging, thought-provoking work that will be of use to historians of the Cold War, communism, Eastern Europe, and Albania for years to come. * H-Net *Mëhilli's case study of Albania under communist rule presents several interesting points.... Albanian communist leaders turned to Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and China over the decades for patronage and financial support to build up its industries, housing, and infrastructure. Mëhilli effectively uses the evidence of this Soviet material culture and points to the Albanian architects and construction workers who built much of modern Albania. * Choice *Transcending national history, offering glimpses into the lives of party leaders, expatriate experts and peasants and bringing forward many stimulating thoughts, From Stalin to Mao is a significant contribution to the emerging body of scholarship on transnational history of communism. * HSozKult *Mëhilli's book is a crisply written, well organized, and well supported account of a Soviet connection with a greater attraction and then a greater rejection than in the rest of Eastern Europe. * Journal of Modern History *Mëhilli's book is a must read for students of Communism and the Cold War, both between West and East and inside the Eastern bloc. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *Mëhilli has proven himself to be not only a first-rate scholar, but an excellent writer, too. For years to come, From Stalin to Mao will be the definitive work on Albanian economics from 1945 to the end of Marxism in the early 90's. * Slavic and East European Journal *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[An] important book… Ayesha Jalal has been one of the first and most reliable [Pakistani] political historians [on Pakistan]… The Struggle for Pakistan [is] her most accessible work to date… She is especially telling when she points to the lack of serious academic or political debate in Pakistan about the role of the military. -- Ahmed Rashid * New York Review of Books *Perceptive and learned… [Jalal] shows that Pakistan never went off the rails; it was, moreover, never a democracy in any meaningful sense. For its entire history, a military caste and its supporters in the ruling class have formed an ‘establishment’ that defined their narrow interests as the nation’s… While it is tempting to blame the generals for everything that has gone wrong in Pakistan, Jalal makes it clear that the civilian leadership has been corrupt, petty and small-minded, putting politics above the principle of civilian supremacy, especially when opponents are in power… The Struggle for Pakistan traces Pakistan’s decline all the way up to the present. -- Isaac Chotiner * Wall Street Journal *Jalal offers a clear, chronological account of how the army, in competition with civilians, has misruled Pakistan. * The Economist *Ayesha Jalal’s many-years-in-gestation magnum opus… She is more surgical than most Pakistanis in her diagnostic observations. -- Khaled Ahmed * Newsweek *The book deserves to be translated into many languages… This a heartfelt account, as well as an erudite one. -- Nadya Chishty-Mujahid * Dawn *There are few books that trace Pakistan’s contemporary history in a readable fashion. Jalal, therefore, has presented all the arguments and key developments from the imposition of martial law by President Iskander Mirza in 1958, the rise of Ayub Khan, the 1971 civil war and creation of Bangladesh, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s populism and the damaging decades of 1980s and 1990s that shape today’s Pakistan and its woes… Provide[s] a useful background to the global audience to Pakistan’s complex history… In a country where the discipline of history has vanished and replaced by state propaganda, Jalal’s book is a layered account that aims to undertake a much-needed correction of ‘national’ histories. -- Raza Rumi * Express Tribune *How to restore that collective sense of identity, and its commitment to Pakistan is a challenge, which needs further analysis. Additionally, how to create a similar South Asian identity, and a commitment towards that is another key challenge. This book, particularly its attempt to reflect on the interface of politics and history, provides some clue about striving towards such a goal. Scholars of South Asia will profit from reading The Struggle for Pakistan, which excels in the art of writing simultaneously about the politics and history of a country whose normal life is vital for global peace. -- Shaikh Mujibur Rehman * Hindustan Times *The Struggle for Pakistan will be the definitive history of Pakistan for decades to come. The author’s prose is clean, the book is thoughtfully structured, and the research is as close to exhaustive as one could imagine… Anyone attempting to see into Pakistan’s future or better understand its complex past should read The Struggle for Pakistan… Jalal has accomplished something remarkable in presenting the history of Pakistan in such an engaging, comprehensive, and readable manner. -- Zachary Stockill * PopMatters *Jalal offers a comprehensive history of Pakistan since its inception in 1947, with an eye toward its defining post-colonial element: military rule… Jinnah’s early death in 1948 left an unfortunate leadership vacuum and a perpetual internal debate over Pakistan’s national identity. Jalal delineates painstakingly how, in the decades that followed, Pakistan, unlike India, was unable to build institutions of participatory democracy and instead moved toward a centralization of power ‘under the auspices’ of military and bureaucracy… Tracing key events—the initial imposition of martial law by President Iskander Mirza in 1958, the 1971 civil war that created Bangladesh, the rise and fall of populist leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and one assassination after the other—Jalal brings us to the present day, where Pakistan, despite being called a failing or failed state, continues to hope for change. * Kirkus Reviews *For many in the West, Pakistan is an enigma, a Muslim homeland that seems to have lost its way into a wilderness of perpetual crisis, extremism, and nuclear standoff with India. The Struggle for Pakistan is a perceptive look at the idea and reality of Pakistan, its history and future in the context of the global order, by one of the most preeminent scholars of South Asia. Well written and brimming with fact and insight. -- Vali Nasr, author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in RetreatWritten by the world’s most respected, prolific, and authoritative historian of Pakistan, The Struggle for Pakistan provides a thorough analysis of the country’s politics from its creation to the present. It is the most useful point of departure for anyone who seeks to better understand Pakistan’s military, religious, regional, and international politics today. -- David Ludden, author of India and South Asia: A Short History

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Book SynopsisMore than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton's Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China's revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, "Fanshan" is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. "Fanshen" continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China's complex social processes. This classic volume includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.Trade Review"One of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution.... For anyone who wants to understand anything important about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity." JOSEPH NEEDHAM, London Tribune "A vivid and compelling 'grassroots' account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself....[A] unique contribution to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover." BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ, New York Times Book Review "Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will dispose of many myths, both those of the Left and of the Right." C. P. FITZGERALD, The Nation "Fanshen is an important book.... It is an arresting narrative [on] the agonizing story of rural China in turmoil...told with a remarkable evenness of temper and a rare understanding of human weaknesses and strengths. The lessons of Long Bow village, so movingly and compassionately recorded...should be studied and restudied by all." C. T. HSU, Saturday Review"

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Book SynopsisA real-life detective story, tracking down the man responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the killing fieldsTrade Review'Nic Dunlop's remarkable journey into the dark, suffering heart of Cambodia is a revelation' John Pilger 'Nic Dunlop's search for the holy grail - the understanding of how (rather than why) good men become evil - makes this into a harrowing book' Gitta Sereny 'Nic Dunlop's book, a vivid, highly personalised account of his quest for comrade Duch, the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer, interrogator and butcher, leads us deep into this ideological heart of darkness' Sunday Telegraph 'His book vividly depicts the war, the meticulous records kept by the KR of their victims, their horrible tortures and the effect of the tragedy on Cambodians today. It is a tough and brilliant read' Irish Times

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction PART ONE: MEDIUM 1. Painting and Its Medium 2. The Art of the Book in Medieval South Asia PART TWO: VISION 3. Visions on the Move 4. A Garland of Visions PART THREE: COLOR 5. Color as an Encoding Tool 6. Color to Matter: A Material History of Indian Painting Epilogue Notes Selected Bibliography Illustrations Index

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Book SynopsisWeaving together vivid history and economic analysis, this book makes for a gripping narrative.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Chen makes the case for a thriving culture of fashion in seventh- to early-tenth-century China. . . . Empire of Style is thorough and convincing. Chen not only details the styles of garments and ornamentation during the period but also the social and economic structures that supported opportunities for ‘aesthetic play.’" * Choice *"Depicts a fascinating world of clothing and fashion in Tang China and makes contributions to the studies of clothing history, art history, and cultural history in general. . . . [A] fine example of scholarship on the cultural history of traditional China." * Journal of Chinese History *"Empire of Style is a book that every scholar interested in gender, identity, art, material culture, and literature in premodern China should read. . . . BuYun Chen has advanced the state of scholarship on medieval Chinese fashion by leaps and bounds both conceptually and methodologically." -- Shao-yun Yang * China Review International: A Journal of Reviews of Scholarly Literature in Chinese Studies *"[A]n important book that is a pathbreaking examination of premodern Chinese fashion and a model of interdisciplinary research." * Journal of Chinese Studies *"The book is exemplary in its interdisciplinary focus, weaving together urban studies, legal history, archaeology, textile studies, and literature to produce a texture of the fashion system in the Tang dynasty...As the first of its kind, the book is a must-read for those interested in fashion history in China, and provides a new perspective on textile studies and Tang institutional history." * Studies in Late Antiquity *"[P]aints a lively picture of the sumptuous and cosmopolitan world of seventh, eight, and ninth-century China...A major strength of this book is the diversity of sources Chen brings together and her talent for shifting between historical and art historical modes of analysis. This range means that there is something for practically everyone in the book, from economic historians to textile specialists." * NAN NÜ *"[R]evelatory...The multiple threads that Chen draws together in Empire of Style result in an unprecedented view of Tang fashion and what it reveals about Tang society and culture, and the interdisciplinary nature of her inquiry—not to mention the richness of the visual and material culture represented in these pages—should make it an especially provocative and useful source for art historians." * The Art Bulletin *"In this concise book, BuYun Chen has elegantly formulated the multi-faceted interconnections of fashions: between users and producers of silks, and between textual, material and visual iterations of identities hitherto seemingly invisible and disconnected." * Textile History *"[F]luently written and exquisitely pictured volume. Interpreting silk as both textile production and esthetic play, BuYun Chen has offered richly and nuanced perspective of this material world, one that broadens our understanding of Chinese civilization and art." * Textile *"[A]nalyzes the multifac-eted Tang fashion system, powered by weavers, artisans, traders, and consumers. Focusing in particular on the significance of silk textiles, Chen utilizes archaeological and textual sources, first, to reconstruct the changing modes of production that drove the creation of these fabrics and, second, to demonstrate the existence of a dynamic fash-ion culture and consciousness during the Tang." * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"Chen’s book is a rich and important rethinking of the relevance of dress and fashion to the social and intellectual environments of the Tang dynasty." * CAA Reviews *"[A]adds to a much-needed body of literature on non-Western fashion systems." * Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews *

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Book SynopsisFocusing on the cultural and philosophic conflation between the oriental and the ornamental, Ornamentalism offers an original and sustained theory about Asiatic femininity in western culture. This study pushes our vocabulary about the woman of color past the usual platitudes about objectification and past the critique of Orientalism in order to formulate a fresher and sharper understanding of the representation, circulation, and ontology of Asiatic femininity. This book alters the foundational terms of racialized femininity by allowing us to conceptualize race and gender without being solely beholden to flesh or skin. Tracing a direct link between the making of Asiatic femininity and a technological history of synthetic personhood in the West from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, Ornamentalism demonstrates how the construction of modern personhood in the multiple realms of law, culture, and art has been surprisingly indebted to this very marginal figure and places Asian femininity at the center of an entire epistemology of race. Drawing from and speaking to the multiple fields of feminism, critical race theory, visual culture, performance studies, legal studies, Modernism, Orientalism, Object Studies and New Materialism, Ornamentalism will leave reader with a greater understanding of what it is to exist as a person-thing within the contradictions of American culture.Trade ReviewCheng's scholarship affectivizes theoretical approaches to subjectivity, to objectivity, and to their relation, by showing how...the ornaments ...of modernity are not additions to (adornment on) pre-existing subjects and objects, but instead bring these elements into ontological and phenomenological tangibility. * M. Gail Hamner, Syracuse University *Cheng offers no less than a thorough reworking of the dichotomies that have thus far structured racial thinking--self/other, subject/object, surface, depth, agency/injury. * Los Angeles Review of Books *What Anne Cheng looks to offer in her new monograph Ornamentalism is a heretofore-missing theory of Asiatic femininity ... Ornamentalism offers an alternative vision of agency as not resistance but resilience, of forms of living produced under impossible conditions -- providing, too, a much-needed concretization of post-humanism's rhetorical gestures. * Chalay Chalermkraivuth, Brink *Through a constellation of mesmerizing scenes- from the courtroom to the museum to the sushi bar, from early photographs to cyberfiction film- Anne Anlin Cheng reveals the drama of ornamentalism in Anglo-American culture: the ontological force with which Asiatic femininity resides in an aesthetics of ornamental personhood. Within the dynamics of this drama- conflating the abstract and the corporeal, the figural and the real- personhood and objecthood ineluctably converge. Above all Ornamentalism tracks new and essential questions for the study of racialized gender. * Bill Brown, University of Chicago *A worthy successor to Edward W. Said's Orientalism, Cheng's Ornamentalism contours the breadth of ornamentation's enmeshment with orientalist logics and poses socially pertinent questions regarding the distinctive ways in which Blackness and Asianness are visualized and adorned. * Rachel Lee, University of California, Los Angeles *This bold and astonishingly original book is many things at once. Attending to the ways in which race and beauty troublingly but also pleasurably intertwine, it begins as a study of comparative racialization that shows how the dehumanization of persons transpires differently: some by being reduced to flesh and biology, others, by being turned into artificial shells. A much needed theorization of Asiatic femininity in the Western imagination that thinks without moralizations, Ornamentalism is a brilliant, groundbreaking book that shows how the ideology of race renders subjects excessively visible but also simultaneously hard to see. * Sianne Ngai, University of Chicago *This is a stunning critical-historical unpacking of the figure of the 'Asiatic yellow woman' as a peripheral person/object, exotic/erotic, she/it. This haunted 'theory of being' nudges and advocates a fuller critique adding to #MeToo universalism and the shorthand of 'black and brown' women and fem bodies- opening a more decolonizing internationalist theory of raced, gendered, and sexualized intimacies, differentiation, and power. * John Kuo Wei Tchen, Rutgers University-Newark *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Borders and Embroidery Chapter 2: Gleaming Things Chapter 3: Blue Willow Chapter 4: Edible Pets Chapter 5: Dolls Coda: Chokecherry Credits Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThy Phu explores photographs produced by dispersed communities throughout Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora, both during and after the Vietnam War, to complicate prominent narratives of conflict and memory and to expand understandings of how war is waged, experienced, and resolved.Trade Review“Thy Phu presents a searing and moving lesson in unlearning US imperialism and its entanglement with photography. Through diverse visual archives, she brilliantly shakes core assumptions about photography and war, including the ‘Vietnam War’—actually an ‘American war’ in Vietnam—and what came to be its iconic photographs and overlooked images. Phu's careful work of upsetting imperial geographies and imaginaries of the Cold War (such as North/South) brings that war back home to the South Vietnamese diaspora in a way that presciently speaks to the current moment.” -- Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, author of * Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism *"In this elegant and insightful study, Thy Phu turns to Vietnamese photographers, considering journalistic work, personal and family photos, reenactments, and artistic uses, all with the intent of exploring how Vietnamese people saw themselves and each other through the lens. From the homeland to the diaspora and back, she shows the power of photography to mobilize nations and communities, commemorate loss and absence, and provoke solidarity. What Phu finally shows, so powerfully and persuasively, is that Vietnamese people have always seen and been seen by themselves if not by others.” -- Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of * The Sympathizer *"Intriguing. . . . [Phu] is an elegant, accomplished writer. . . ." -- Thomas A. Bass * Mekong Review *"Warring Visions ... provokes a reevaluation of war photography, of socialist visuality, of memory, loss and diaspora. Reading it has not displaced the lasting power of the image of Kim Phuc from my visual memory, but it has made me think anew about what the stubborn persistence of this image has rendered invisible." -- Hirsch, Marianne * Canadian Literature *"Warring Visions is an effective examination of the multifarious ways that the tool of photography signifies. . . . Valuable for anyone interested in visual culture, archival studies, and diasporic identity against the grain of Western visions of imperialism." -- Collin Hawley * Lateral *"Phu’s book . . . has tremendous importance as a pioneering study of the visual archive produced through national struggle in North and South Vietnam. In fact, I contend that Warring Visions is essential reading for anyone interested in the war and its influence on visual culture." -- Meghan Tibbits-Lamirande * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Note on Language ix Warring Visions: Introduction 1 Part I. Socialist Ways of Seeing Vietnam 1. Aesthetic Form, Political Content 31 2. Revolutionary Vietnamese Women, Symbols of Solidarity 83 Part II. Refractions 3. Reenactment and Remembrance 121 4. Unhomed: Domestic Images and the Diasporic Art of Recollection 147 Epilogue: Visual Reunion 187 Notes 195 Bibliography 213 Index 227

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Book SynopsisIn October 1963, President Kennedy proposed withdrawing from Vietnam, gaining him a durable reputation as a skeptic on the war. However, drawing on secret White House tapes, Marc Selverstone reveals that JFK never had a firm intention to withdraw. The real value of the proposal lay in obtaining political cover for his open-ended Vietnam policy.Trade ReviewIn this worthy book, Selverstone…takes a deep dive into whether or not Kennedy would have greatly escalated the war as Johnson did within two years after assuming the presidency…Revealing. -- Marc Leepson * Vietnam Veterans of America *Offers an intriguing deep dive into a topic long debated among scholars of the Vietnam War: had President Kennedy not been assassinated, would he have followed through on his plans to withdraw U.S. troops, or drastically escalated the conflict, as his successor Lyndon Johnson did?…Scrupulous and revealing, this is a persuasive answer to one of the Vietnam War’s biggest what-ifs. * Publishers Weekly *Selverstone dissects one of the last enduring shibboleths of the Cold War: the Camelot myth that President John F. Kennedy would have avoided the quagmire of Vietnam had he lived. -- Michael Hirsh * Foreign Policy *A splendid work. I doubt there is any scholar anywhere who knows the archival material better than Selverstone does, and he is surely unsurpassed in his familiarity with the Kennedy tapes. His prose is consistently smooth, clear, and engaging. This book will be the go-to account on Kennedy and the Vietnam War for a long time to come. -- Fredrik Logevall, author of JFK and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Embers of WarHad JFK lived, would he have withdrawn from Vietnam or sent in American regular troops, as Johnson did? This question has been a matter of intense debate since the war ended in 1975. Selverstone provides a fascinating look at what the president and his advisors said about the war in private, and what that can tell us about Kennedy’s views on withdrawal. -- Frances FitzGerald, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in VietnamWith the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, the courage of a mountaineer, and the storytelling instincts of a mystery writer, Selverstone tackles head-on one of the most tantalizing what-ifs in modern history. The Kennedy Withdrawal weighs all the evidence, from every angle, to render a verdict that is at once surprising, convincing, and authoritative. This will surely be the definitive account of JFK’s intentions in Vietnam. -- Andrew Preston, author of American Foreign Relations: A Very Short IntroductionThis pathbreaking book redefines the terms of the long-running debate over John Kennedy’s Vietnam withdrawal plan. Weaving analysis and narrative together in compelling fashion, Selverstone cuts through the Camelot mythology to reveal the bureaucratic and political origins of the plan, as well as the reasons for its subsequent abandonment. A major contribution from a preeminent historian of JFK’s foreign policies. -- Edward Miller, author of Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam

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Book SynopsisA haunting ode to those who paid the ultimate price-through the prism of the Maoist insurgency, Ashutosh Bhardwaj meditates on larger questions of violence and betrayal, love and obsession, and what it means to live with and write about death. From 2011 to 2015, Ashutosh lived in the Red Corridor in India wherein the Ultra-Left Naxalites, taking inspiration from the Russian revolution and Mao's tactics, work to overthrow the Indian government by the barrel of the gun. He made several trips thereafter reporting on the insurgents, on police and governmental atrocities, and on the lives caught in the crossfire. Ashutosh chronicles his experiences and bears witness to the lives and deaths of the unforgettable men and women he meets from both sides of the struggle, bringing home the human cost of conflict with astonishing power. Narrated in multiple voices, the book is a creative biography of the region, Dandakaranya, that combines the rigour of journalism, the intimacy of a diary, the musings of a travelogue, and the craft of a novel. The Death Script is one of the most significant works of non-fiction to be published in recent times, bringing often overlooked perspectives and events to light with empathy. Praised by India's topmost scholars and critics, the book has already won various awards.

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Book SynopsisFrom its rise in the 1830s to its pinnacle in the 1930s, the opium trade was a guiding force in the Chinese political economy. Opium money was inextricably bound up in local, national, and imperial finances, and the people who piloted the trade were integral to the fabric of Chinese society. In this book, Peter Thilly narrates the dangerous lives and shrewd business operations of opium traffickers in southeast China, situating them within a global history of capitalism. By tracing the evolution of the opium trade from clandestine offshore agreements in the 1830s, to multi-million dollar prohibition bureau contracts in the 1930s, Thilly demonstrates how the modernizing Chinese state was infiltrated, manipulated, and profoundly transformed by opium profiteers. Opium merchants carried the drug by sea, over mountains, and up rivers, with leading traders establishing monopolies over trade routes and territories and assembling "opium armies" to protect their businesses. Over time, and as their ranks grew, these organizations became more bureaucratized and militarized, mimicking—and then eventually influencing, infiltrating, or supplanting—the state. Through the chaos of revolution, warlordism, and foreign invasion, opium traders diligently expanded their power through corruption, bribery, and direct collaboration with the state. Drug traders mattered—not only in the seedy ways in which they have been caricatured but also crucially as shadowy architects of statecraft and China's evolution on the world stage.Trade Review"Despite a vast literature on its eponymous wars, the social history of opium remains largely untold. Thilly's book shows us opium as crop, as commodity, as object of regulation, and as the source of great fortunes. We see the drug touching the lives of a huge range of people: farmers, smugglers, bureaucrats and 'opium kings.' It's a fascinating story, well-told, and rich in contemporary overtones."—Michael Szonyi, Harvard University"Peter Thilly's meticulous study of opium smuggling networks in coastal China is an invaluable addition to the rapidly growing literature on the nineteenth century opium trade, and it throws much-needed light on some under-researched aspects of the connections between drugs and capitalism."—Amitav Ghosh, author of Sea of Poppies"Using an expansive array of evidence drawn together from collections on three continents, including rare materials from Chinese-language archives, Thilly offers insights into the everyday mechanics of what was largely an illegal and morally reprehensible business. His emphasis on how this trade worked sets the book apart from the many previous political and military histories of opium in China. It is a refreshing and valuable contribution to this literature, as well as a landmark history of illicit enterprise in Asia."—Peter Gibson, Asian Studies Review"Thilly takes a deep dive into the drug history of southern Fujian Province from the early 19th century up to the moment all drug commerce was wiped out in China with the Communist victory of 1949, weaving together a saga of narcotics, politics and commerce that involved colonial traders, warlords, gangsters, politicians and the vast network of Fujianese merchants, who operated the mightiest trade networks in East and South China Seas."—David Frazier, Taipei TimesTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Opium Business in Chinese and World History 1. Local Foundations, 1832–1839 2. Negotiated Illegality, 1843–1860 3. Drug Money and the Fiscal-Military State, 1857–1906 4. "Opium Kings" and Tax Farmers in the Age of Prohibition, 1906–1938 5. New Spatialities in the Global Drug Trade, 1890s–1940s 6. Opium and the Frontier of Japanese Power in South China, 1895–1945 Conclusion: Following the Money, Today and in the Past

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe title says it all, really, Robots Won't Save Japan, but do read the book if you want to be convinced, because you will be. The author, anthropologist and science and technology studies (STS) scholar James Wright, has adopted this title in reaction to a Japanese book from a generation ago, Robots Will Save Japan (Nakayama 2006). * Anthropology & Aging *Robots Won't Save Japan is a vivid example for how ethnographic research can enrich and deepen our understanding of complex social and political problems * Contemporary Japan *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Crisis and Care Robots 2. Developing Robots and Designing Algorithmic Care 3. Portrait of a Care Home 4. Hug: Reconfiguring Lifting 5. Paro: Reconfiguring Communication 6. Pepper: Reconfiguring Recreation 7. Beyond Care Robots

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Book SynopsisCombining factual information with a critical approach which probes the nature of culture and identity, this concise yet authoritative account paints a graphic picture of an area stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Himalayan mountains. This new edition surveys nearly 5000 years, from the early settlers of prehistory to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and the Tamil Tiger conflicts. Particular emphasis is placed on the last 200 years, while the key theme of shifting regional identities underpins its insights in to the social, economic and spiritual past of the region.

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