Asian history Books

Book SynopsisA Stanford University Press classic.Trade Review'A rich volume high in standards of scholarship ... All the conributions succeed in focusing on questions of importance and deal with them within a broad framework of historical analysis ... Reading this book, which courageously grapples with major historical issues, was truly an eye-opening experience.' Nagahara Keiji, Journal of Japanese StudiesTable of ContentsPreface; Introduction John W. Hall; Part I. Court and Shoen in Heian Japan: 1. Kyoto as historical background John W. Hall; 2. The structure of the Heian court: some thoughts on the nature of 'familial authority' in Heian Japan G. Cameron Hurst III; 3. The development of the Insei: a problem in Japanese history and historiography G. Cameron Hurst III; 4. The early development of the Shoen Elizabeth Sato; 5. Estate and property in the Late Heian period Cornelius J. Kiley; Part II. Bakufu Versus Court: 6. The emergence of the Kamakura Bakufu Jeffrey P. Mass; 7. Jito land possession in the thirteenth-century: the case of Shitaji Chubun Jeffrey P. Mass; 8. The economic and political effects of the Mongol Wars Kyotsu Hori; Part III. The Age of Military Dominance: 9. The early Muromachi Bakufu in Kyoto Prescott B. Wintersteen, Jr.; 10. The Muromachi Shugo and Hanzei Prescott B. Wintersteen, Jr.; 11. Ikki in Late Medieval Japan David L. Davis; Epilogue Jeffrey P. Mass; Glossary; Index.

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Book SynopsisUnlock the secrets of the legendary weapons of the samuraiTrade Review"A unique book, the best English language source on the topic. If you want to learn the small weapons of Japan, you want this book." --Kim Taylor, editor, Journal of Japanese Sword Arts; publisher, Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Science

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Book SynopsisThe terror campaign by pro-Indonesian armed groups before, during, and after East Timor''s independence referendum in 1999 was a blatant challenge to the international community as many of the acts of murder, political intimidation, destruction, and mass deportation took place before the eyes of the world. Yet still the ultimate responsibility has been denied and obscured. Masters of Terror provides an authoritative analysis and documentation of the brutal operations carried out by the Indonesian army and its East Timorese allies. The authors carefully assemble detailed accounts of the actions of the major Indonesian officers and East Timorese militia commanders accused of gross human rights violations. This indispensable work explores a horrific frontal attack on democracy and calls for the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes against humanity in East Timor.Trade ReviewThese useful essays . . . analyze the politics of East Timor's human rights disaster . . . . Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of Contents1 Introduction 2 Masters of Terror: The Indonesian Findings 3 Full Report of the Investigative Commission into Human Rights Violations in East Timor 4 The Key Suspects: An Introduction 5 Crimes against Humanity in East Timor 1999:The Key Suspects 6 Practical Justice in Doe v. Lumintang: The Successful Useof Civil Remedies against "an Enemy of All Mankind" 7 Silent Witness: Australian Intelligence and East Timor

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Book SynopsisHow did early modern scholarsas exemplified by Leibnizsearch for their origins in the study of language?Who are the nations of Europe, and where did they come from? Early modern people were as curious about their origins as we are today. Lacking twenty-first-century DNA research, seventeenth-century scholars turned to languageetymology, vocabulary, and even grammatical structurefor evidence. The hope was that, in puzzling out the relationships between languages, the relationships between nations themselves would emerge, and on that basis one could determine the ancestral homeland of the nations that presently occupied Europe. In Leibniz Discovers Asia, Michael C. Carhart explores this early modern practice by focusing on philosopher, scientist, and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who developed a vast network of scholars and missionaries throughout Europe to acquire the linguistic data he needed. The success of his project was tied to the Jesuit search for an overland route tTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsConventions1. Grimaldi at the Gates of Muscovy (Fall 1689)2. Making the Worst of a Bad Assignment: Origines Guelficae and the Linguistic Project (Autumn 1690-Summer 1692)3. Building the Network (Winter 1691-Summer 1692)4. The Jesuit Search for an Overland Route to China (1685-1689)5. Seeking the Languages of Grand Tartary (August 1693-December 1694)6. Assembling Novissima Sinica (February-September 1695)7. Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld and Gothic Origins (November 1695-December 1697)8. The Grand Embassy of Peter the Great (Summer-Fall 1697)9. The Jesuits of Paris and China (1689, November 1697-March 1698)10. The Foundations of Modern Historical Linguistics (1697-1716)AcknowledgmentsAppendix I. "Desiderata circa linguas quorundam populorum"Appendix II. Plan for a Moscow Academy of Sciences and ArtsNotesBibliographyIndex of LettersGeneral Index

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Book SynopsisAlong the Russian-Qing frontier in the nineteenth century, a new political space emerged, shaped by competing imperial and spiritual loyalties, cross-border economic and social ties, and revolution. David Brophy explores how a community of Central Asian Muslims responded to these historic changes by reinventing themselves as the Uyghur nation.Trade ReviewThis work on the Uyghurs, a 10-million strong Turkic Muslim minority residing mainly in Xinjiang in western China, is a welcome contribution to a recent rise in Uyghur studies…A remarkable account of a people searching for identity at the intersection of empire. -- M. Chakars * Choice *Nothing I have read in the last fifteen years comes close to this work in terms of intellectual breadth, rigorous analysis, and contribution to the field. This book will not only revolutionize thinking about the history of the Uyghur nation and the political history of Xinjiang during this period, it will set a new bar for future scholarship and inspire readers to think again about the processes, challenges, and opportunities within shifting political landscapes that lead to the creation of nations. -- Laura Newby, University of OxfordDrawing on sources in several languages, this book demonstrates how the idea of a Uyghur nation emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Brophy shows how intellectuals in Taranchi and Kashgari communities along the Xinjiang–Russian border, inspired by academic writings on ancient Uyghurs, negotiated a new concept of Uyghur identity. This study is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Uyghur national idea, and to Central Asian and Xinjiang studies. -- Ablet Kamalov, Institute of Oriental Studies, Almaty, KazakhstanUyghur Nation breaks new ground in the study of modern Xinjiang. David Brophy takes a transnational approach to the formation of a ‘Chinese’ ethnic group, offering a convincing account of the impact of tsarist and particularly Soviet institutions, evolutions, and interventions on the Qing and then Republican Chinese frontiers. He also demonstrates that the idea of a Uyghur nation had a conflicted, cross-border, twentieth-century history. Perhaps most important, he unites political, intellectual, social, religious, even economic history to create a story rooted in local conditions, not simple national or ethnic categories. He has written a strikingly original and impressive book. -- Jonathan Lipman, Mount Holyoke CollegeIn Uyghur Nation, Brophy transforms our understanding of the history of the Uyghurs. At the center of Brophy’s attention is the question of how the Muslims of Chinese Turkistan came to imagine themselves as Uyghur. He traces the emergence of Uyghurist discourse by placing Uyghur history firmly where it belongs—in the very center of Eurasia at the crossroads of three empires. Brophy relates the emergence of Uyghurist discourse to developments in Muslim societies of Xinjiang and beyond as they came to terms with pressures and influences from the Qing, the Russian, and the Ottoman empires. Prodigiously researched across many archives and in multiple languages, Uyghur Nation is a major work of transnational history that deserves a wide readership. -- Adeeb Khalid, Carleton CollegeDavid Brophy’s Uyghur Nation offers a fresh perspective on Uyghur history by using Russian, Chinese and Turkic sources to chart the development of the discourses that would ultimately produce the modern Uyghur identity… What is remarkable is that a ‘palimpsest of Islamic, Turkic and Soviet notions of national history and identity’ created by activists outside Xinjiang could have resonated so widely among Xinjiang’s diverse population. In this respect, the Uyghur case is probably unique, and David Brophy’s book thus deserves to be read by anyone with an interest in nation-building. -- Nick Holdstock * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTells the history of how the United States government, along with private philanthropies like the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, aimed to win the hearts and bodies of rural Asia in the post World War II decades by crafting strategies to develop and modernize agriculture and the peasant's way of life.Trade ReviewBrilliant… Admirable… The Hungry World is an immensely important book… [Cullather] has performed a tremendous service, and written a book not just of interest but of lasting value in showing in detail and with great discernment just how new, and also how radical, development was when it first began to transform the ways powerful nations thought about everything from the specifics of warfighting (it is where the ‘hearts and minds’ doctrine was born, after all) to the broadest questions of national interest… If Cullather is right…then his account requires us to rewrite the diplomatic history of the second half of the twentieth century. The Hungry World is the invaluable beginning of that rewriting. -- David Rieff * The Nation *Cullather’s book amounts to a thorough, gracefully written debunking of what might be called the green revolution master narrative… Cullather’s brilliant, concise early chapter on the Green Revolution’s birth in Mexico anchors his broader argument… By the end of the Mexico chapter, Cullather has already shattered the green revolution myth and exposed it as something like a lunge, and a not very well thought-out one, to replace other societies’ farming systems with our own highly problematic one. -- Tom Philpott * Mother Jones *[This] is an utterly fascinating story—partially about the economics of famine, but mostly about the irrepressible postwar generation who genuinely believed American technology could win the battle for Asian hearts and minds, and stop communism in its tracks. -- Paul Grant * Books & Culture *The Hungry World furnishes a striking vantage on development policy, as well as on the decidedly mixed outcomes of American engagement with Asian politics. -- Katherine Maher * Bookforum *Nick Cullather’s exploration of the critical linkages between power politics, scientific and technical assistance, famine alarms and schemes to increase food production is one of the most original and engaging books to date on the impact of the cold war on the emerging states of the developing world. -- Michael Adas, author of Dominance by Design: Technological Imperatives and America’s Civilizing MissionNick Cullather’s pathbreaking book takes readers on a journey of understanding about the failures of the ‘development’ model so beloved by American policymakers from before the Cold War to the present. It may well become famous as a turning point about how to think about world poverty and to stimulate new answers to it. -- Lloyd Gardner, author of Three Kings: The Rise of an American Empire in the Middle East after World War IIA pioneering and transformative work that tracks the politics of hunger from the invention of the calorie to Asia’s Cold War ideological battlegrounds, The Hungry World explores, with a sharp, lively sense of irony, American scientists’ and policy-makers’ relentless and often futile efforts to transmute the conflictual politics of rural deprivation into a technocratic politics of agricultural production. -- Paul A. Kramer, author of The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States and the PhilippinesFacing insurgencies, U.S. officials and expert advisers want to fight famine, alleviate hunger, and ameliorate the conditions on which terrorism thrives. Nick Cullather’s new book—thoughtful, erudite, provocative—is a vivid and timely explication of the hopes and disappointments of past efforts to modernize and develop. -- Melvyn Leffler, author of For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive English-language biography of Emperor Huizong corrects the prevailing view of this ruler as a decadent political failure who lost the throne to invaders. Ebrey recasts the artistically gifted emperor as passionate and paradoxical, yet genuinely ambitiousif too much soin pursuing glory for his flourishing realm.Trade ReviewEbrey, a master historian of this period with an acute sense of the poignant and tragic, shows us, in this first English-language biography of Huizong, one of the most brilliantly cultured monarchs ever to have lived, and recounts his miserable end… Patricia Ebrey’s scholarly powers are amazing. I can think of few historians—Chinese or Western—of traditional China who could exceed or even match her knowledge of the arts so widely patronized and practiced by Huizong, from poetry and brushwork to music and gardening. Her ability to evaluate Song and later sources is a model for all scholars. Such books are an intense pleasure to read. -- Jonathan Mirsky * Literary Review *[An] impressive new biography of Emperor Huizong by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, a respected scholar of Song China. If you feel you know about Henry VIII but know nothing of the history of early China, this book is essential. -- Robin Lane Fox * Financial Times *Constitutes the most comprehensive English-language work on the pivotal figure, whose rule saw a blossoming of art and culture but also the near-total collapse of Song dominance over southern China. But Ebrey also challenges some long-held assessments of Huizong’s rule, including the idea that Huizong was a decadent ruler whose commitment to the arts distracted him from political and military concerns… Besides providing a vivid portrait of a complicated man who, at the height of his reign, was arguably the most powerful person in the world, Ebrey provides thick and fascinating context at every turn, including attention to the important role of women in the Song court. -- Brendan Driscoll * Booklist *Fascinating… In history, Huizong is often maligned as a most self-indulgent sovereign, siring at least 65 children while on the throne with multiple partners and spending a prodigious amount of wealth on his building projects. But he was also a rare talent who excelled in such highly esteemed art forms as poetry, calligraphy, and painting and was credited with inventing the elegant ‘thin-gold’ style of calligraphy. -- V. C. Xiong * Choice *Since he suffered military defeat and spent his final years as a captive of the Jurchens, Emperor Huizong (1082–1135), who ruled from 1100 to 1125, is remembered in Chinese history as a failure. Ebrey offers a more nuanced interpretation of his reign, in this first English-language biography of this Song Dynasty (960–1279) emperor… This is recommended reading for all students of Chinese history. Through the examination of this complicated ruler, Ebrey sheds light on the nature of monarchy in China, thus providing readers not only with a nuanced portrait of this emperor but a better understanding of how the political system of imperial China functioned. -- Joshua Wallace * Library Journal *[Ebrey] showcases the great achievements Huizong made in culture and art: he worked toward administrative and educational reform; he produced poetry, hymns, and paintings that centered on Daoist themes; and he was ‘an avid builder of temples and gardens.’ Ebrey’s depictions of court life are masterfully detailed and she focuses on six grand projects that reflected the Emperor’s range of interests and talents: a new ritual code; a new Daoist canon; visual documentation of auspicious signs; collections of cultural treasures; the Bright Hall; and the Northeast Marchmount. The portrait does not exclude the Emperor’s fall from power, but it depicts Huizong’s acceptance of defeat… Historians will find Ebrey’s text of interest as a revisionist one that appreciates the richness of Chinese traditions. * Publishers Weekly *Emperor Huizong demonstrates both Ebrey’s outstanding skill as a scholar and the amazing depths to which she delved in her study. Given her unparalleled knowledge of Huizong and his court, her book will remain both a unique accomplishment and an enlightening contribution to our understanding of the relationship between a ruler and the culture and politics of his reign. Her work is to be commended. -- Hugh R. Clark, Ursinus CollegeI feel certain that all historians will welcome Emperor Huizong, since it intermeshes the personal with the political, the policies with the man. By trying to understand what motivated Huizong to pursue an ambitious agenda of cultural renaissance and political reform, Ebrey adds a new dimension to our understanding of a ruler who still instills passions, both positive and negative. -- Richard L. Davis, Lingnan UniversityLong depicted as a feckless ruler who brought about the downfall of the Northern Song, Huizong emerges in this magisterial study as an emperor fully in control of the world around him and dedicated to perfecting the art of rule. Historians of China will admire how Ebrey’s forensic approach replaces one-sided myths about Huizong’s rule with a comprehensive picture of emperor-centered court life. Above all, Ebrey tells a riveting story; her portrayal has all the power of a great novel. This book is quite simply superb. -- Paul Jakov Smith, Haverford College

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Book SynopsisIt was common knowledge among American soldiers in Vietnam that women were sometimes brave and even ferocious fighters for the North. This text provides vivid accounts of training, deployment, strategy and tactics, propaganda, support services and torture involving women.Trade ReviewFrom the 'long-haired army' that carried provisions through the jungles at Dien Bien Phu to the female 'tunnel rats' at Cu Chi in the South, women were the unsung heroes of Vietnam's war of national liberation. Here, in this sympathetic and sometimes gripping account, is their untold story. - William J. Duiker, author of Ho Chi Minh: A Life ""It was common knowledge among American soldiers in Vietnam that women were sometimes brave and even ferocious fighters for the North. Now at last this fascinating story has been told in depth."" - Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain ""As Taylor reveals, we don't see ourselves as victims but rather as victors and survivors, following in the footsteps of our ancestors."" - Le Ly Hayslip, author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places ""A very valuable book for courses on the Vietnam War and in women's studies."" - Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam War, 1945-1990 ""Taylor greatly enhances our understanding of the contributions of Vietnam's women, providing vivid accounts of training, deployment, strategy and tactics, propaganda activities, support services, imprisonment and torture, and other aspects of their involvement in the war. Recommended for all levels."" - Choice

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Book SynopsisIn the third century BCE Ashoka ruled in South Asia and Afghanistan, and came to be seen as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of an emperor whose legacy extends far beyond the bounds of his lifetime and dominion.Trade ReviewFascinating. -- Chandrahas Choudhury * Wall Street Journal *Where Lahiri really scores is in the field of Ashokan archaeology, where she brings together all the work that has been undertaken in the years since 1997…These advances have all been woven seamlessly into Lahiri’s narrative, so as to give the clearest chronology yet assembled of the life of Ashoka and what Lahiri calls ‘his trajectory as a communicator’ and his ‘intellectual evolution,’ most notably the quite extraordinary change of heart that followed Ashoka’s conquest of Kalinga and how this transformed his concept of kingship. -- Charles Allen * Literary Review *[Lahiri’s] idiosyncratic book combines legends, archaeology, and even personal information shrewdly teased out of the edicts to craft an arresting profile. -- Brian Bethune * Maclean’s *Richly thoughtful… The result of all this careful, well-presented thought and research is what is certainly the best biography of Ashoka the Great ever written in English. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *Many biographies have been published on Ashoka, the greatest king of India, but this biography is different, and perhaps the best written on the extraordinary king. -- R. N. Sharma * Choice *Lahiri has firmly grounded the Ashoka of legend and inscriptions with a novel kind of detail and deliberation, spelling out the connections and implications, combining solid historical analysis with fresh interpretation. -- Upinder Singh, University of DelhiMany biographies of Emperor Aśoka (third c. B.C.E.) have been written over the past century or so, but Lahiri’s is perhaps the most gripping…Lahiri’s is, indeed, a very engaging biography, probably the best I have read. -- Patrick Olivelle * Journal of the American Oriental Society *Lahiri [presents] an accessible and engaging biography of the emperor in his time that navigates the complex terrain of available evidence…Lahiri has produced what is probably the best biography of Aśoka to date…Lahiri has produced a uniquely accessible volume that draws readers into the landscapes of Mauryan India and guides them through a rich encounter with the Aśoka of edict and legend. -- Mark McClish * Indian Economic and Social History Review *

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Book SynopsisFrom the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the imagination came to be recognized in South Indian culture as the defining feature of human beings. Shulman elucidates the distinctiveness of South Indian theories of the imagination and shows how they differ radically from Western notions of reality and models of the mind.Trade ReviewThe patient unraveling of the complex articulations of select Indian poets and commentators is the job that David Shulman has undertaken in this pioneering effort towards the production of a history of the imagination in South India... Apart from advancing a thesis about early modern south India and the attainment there of a transfiguration comparable to the Italian Renaissance (which is in keeping with much of his earlier work), Shulman interprets for us some of the major works of the pre-modern period in relation to both other works of world literature, such as those by Montaigne or Vico, and to modern critical attitudes. We are once again joined then to the 'simple trembling life' of the image on the page, marveling at the modernity of the ancient and early modern imagination, as it leaps out of its contexts and finds its place in Shulman's argument with a luminous and, crucially, a present-day life of its own. -- Rosinka Chaudhuri * Times Literary Supplement *More than Real provides a thorough, coherent, and extremely perceptive historical analysis of the nature and inner workings of imagination in India. It is hard to compare Shulman's work with any other book because nobody has ever tried to accomplish anything remotely similar. I doubt very much that a comparable history of imagination in the West or the Muslim civilization exists, although More than Real lays the foundations for such work. The book is exhilarating, and readers will learn something new from it not only about South Asian civilization but also about themselves. -- Yigal Bronner, University of ChicagoWith extraordinary range across languages, texts, and thought worlds, but with a special attention to south India in the early modern period, David Shulman shows us how the imagination works and how it has changed across space and time: in one place as pathological, for example, in another as therapeutic; at one time fictive and hence false, in another, fictive and hence real. This is mind-opening--and astonishingly imaginative--scholarship. -- Sheldon Pollock, Columbia UniversityA work of great learning, insight, and maturity. Shulman displays the pleasures that come with the reading of Indian literature as he works from the inside out to teach us what imagination is and what it entails. More Than Real is a tour de force that moves confidently through literary and religious texts and through South Indian languages, listening carefully to learn about something that we already care about, what imagination teaches us about ourselves and the world we live in. -- Charles Hallisey, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisDavid M. Robinson explores how grand displays like the royal hunt, archery contests, and the imperial menagerie were presented in literature and art in the early Ming dynasty. He argues these spectacles were highly contested sites where emperors and court ministers staked competing claims about rulership and the role of the military in the polity.Trade ReviewMartial Spectacles of the Ming Court contributes greatly to our knowledge of Ming rulership, the relations of Ming emperors and their ministers, and the place of the Ming in Eurasian patterns of rulership. In examining this neglected but major aspect of Ming governance, David Robinson has gathered an impressive array of sources, including Korean records of the Ming court, and placed them in their proper contexts. This work continues Robinson’s project of breaking down the scholarly Great Wall mentality by incorporating the Ming into Eurasian historiography in a way that facilitates comparisons between the Ming and other early modern empires. -- Sarah Schneewind, University of California, San DiegoMartial Spectacles of the Ming Court properly situates the Ming within the broader scope of Eurasian history and highlights the important roles played by martial culture in sustaining the Ming imperium. David Robinson illuminates how martial culture has been obscured in the historical record by disapproving civil officials who, after all, wrote most of the surviving accounts. Such an exercise requires a careful reading of sources and a deep understanding of the political context in each case, and Robinson is to be commended for his erudition and breadth of knowledge in this regard. This book fills a very important void in the existing scholarship and substantially advances our knowledge of martial displays and their importance for the manifestation of Ming power both within and without the empire. -- Kenneth Swope, University of Southern Mississippi

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Book SynopsisSets out to answer two empirical questions. Is there a substantively consistent and temporally persistent Chinese strategic culture? If so, to what extent has it influenced China's approaches to security? This work focuses on the Ming dynasty's grand strategy against the Mongols (1368-1644).Trade Review"If Johnston's analysis of China's strategic culture is correct--and I believe that it is--generational change will not guarantee a kinder, gentler China."--Warren I. Cohen, The Atlantic Monthly "[Cultural Realism] contends that the Chinese are no less concerned with the use of military power than any other civilization--a point that scholars have traditionally disputed because, as Johnston demonstrates, they misread the Chinese classics."--Roderick MacFarquhar, Lingua Franca "Johnston is correct that many actual Chinese uses of force look far more like 'realism' than many Sinologists have realized. His stress on the 'realist' thread in the classics is likewise very illuminating."--Arthur Waldron, The New Republic "The beauty of this book is the clarity and precision of the argument... We need the intellectual challenge of such social science research on ancient and imperial China."--Joseph W. Eshrick, Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsList of Figures and TablesPrefaceCh. 1Strategic Culture: A Critique1Ch. 2Some Questions of Methodology32Ch. 3Chinese Strategic Culture and the Parabellum Paradigm61Ch. 4Chinese Strategic Culture and Grand Strategic Preferences109Ch. 5A Return to Theory155Ch. 6The Parabellum Paradigm and the Ming Security Problematique175Ch. 7Chinese Strategic Culture and Ming Grand Strategic Choice216Ch. 8Conclusion248Appendix A: Coding Procedures267Appendix B: Terms Used to Describe Legitimate Actions Directed at an Adversary270Appendix B: Terms Used to Describe Outcomes of Actions against an Adversary273Appendix C: Map of Northern Border Areas in the Ming Period274References275Index293

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Book SynopsisSaadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was an established Urdu short story writer and a rising screenwriter in Bombay at the time of India's partition in 1947, and he is perhaps best known for the short stories he wrote following his migration to Lahore in newly formed Pakistan. Today Manto is an acknowledged master of twentieth-century Urdu literature, anTrade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013 "Tufts University historian Jalal (Partisans of Allah), a great-niece of Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955), gives readers an intimate, passionate, and insightful portrait of this brilliant but tragic man as he navigated and interpreted the repression, chaos, and violence of the final years of British colonialism and the upheaval of India's 1947 partition. The book follows Manto's life from his rebellious youth and early adulthood translating Victor Hugo and Oscar Wilde in Amritsar, Punjab, to his years as a struggling journalist and film writer in Bombay, where his provocative stories elicited numerous obscenity charges while building his reputation as 'the father of the Urdu short story' and a "'unique literary miracle" destined for immortality,' and his prolific but troubled later years in postpartition Lahore, premature death at 42, and his boisterous funeral, where 'several of Manto's fictional characters were spotted in the crowd.'"--Publishers Weekly "[A] fine introduction to Manto and his work, and his depiction of partition."--M. A. Orthofer, Complete Review "Eminent historian Jalal has written a rich, engaging, at times moving account of the life of Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-55), interweaving biography with the tumultuous events of Indian nationalism, the Partition, and early Pakistan... A much-needed study of a pioneering public figure."--Choice "[S]ome of the finest pictures of Manto, his wife and of his friends embellish this book. Yet, the highlight of Jalal's work is that she has not let her proximity to Manto and his family affect in any way the objectivity that such a study would demand. Her unbiased approach to presenting Manto with his failings and foibles helps a more considered understanding of the writer."--Business Standard "Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-55) was a leading Urdu writer who attracted controversy in prepartition India and early postpartition Pakistan for his short stories and film scripts that dealt with sex and politics in a daring manner. Jalal, his grandniece, uses his published writings and family letters and her interviews with relatives to portray his complex relationship. Interweaving stories from his fiction and events from his life, she produces a rich ... tapestry of a complex society and the tensions that built up to the explosive violence of partition in 1947."--Foreign Affairs "Jalal has performed a great service for scholars and the reading public by opening the Manto archive to their gaze. I for one will read Manto's stories, from now on, with added pleasure and comprehension."--Ian Copland, American Historical Review "Basing her work on Manto's life, his quintessential cosmopolitanism, the many journeys in which he traversed Amritsar, Delhi, Bombay and Lahore, and later, the borders of India and Pakistan, the friendships with other writers and film personalities, and the exploration of different forms of writing--all of this becomes a way of reading the history of Partition, and indeed questioning and resisting the colonial project of separation on the basis of religious identity... This book, especially in the section on his school years, provides detail of the kind that often encourages readers to return to the work to see how life resonates with fiction."--Urvashi Butalia, Livemint "Ayesha Jalal has succeeded wonderfully in weaving together the three elements she has chosen--Manto's life, his works and the momentous times he lived through. Hers is an honest portrayal of a brilliant man whose own honesty, independent-mindedness and insight were outstanding, and whose stories are still unparalleled."--Gillian Wright, India Today "Resplendent with anecdotal chapters about Saadat Hasan Manto's growing up years in Amritsar, his adulthood tales in Bombay, and his understanding of partition... Illuminating."--Arunima Mazumdar, Times of India "This is one book that every Manto lover would love to devour."--Yatin Gupta, IBN Live "This is a highly readable book... The result is an amazingly informative, even-handed, and lifelike portrait of the great writer."--Ishtiaq Ahmed, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsPreface ix Prelude: Manto and Partition 1 I Stories 17*1 "Knives, Daggers, and Bullets Cannot Destroy Religion" 19 *2 Amritsar Dreams of Revolution 29 *3 Bombay: Challenges and Opportunities 55 II Memories 83*1 Remembering Partition 85 *2 From Cinema City to Conquering Air Waves 91 *3 Living and Walking Bombay 111 III Histories 139*1 Partition: Neither End nor Beginning 141 *2 On the Postcolonial Moment 151 *3 Pakistan and Uncle Sam's Cold War 187 Epilogue: "A Nail's Debt": Manto Lives On 211 Notes 229 Select Bibliography 245 Index 249

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Book SynopsisHow can religious liberty be guaranteed in societies where religion pervades everyday life? This work addresses this dilemma by examining the constitutional development of secularism in India within an unprecedented cross-national framework that includes Israel and the United States.Trade Review"An important effort to understand Indian secular constitutionalism in a comparative perspective. Scholars of comparative constitutional law, religion and law, multiculturalism, and Indian law and statecraft will benefit from critically engaging with its contributions."--Narendra Subramanian, Law and Politics Book Review "The Wheel of Law is a most impressive achievement, thorough in research, astute in insights, and almost dazzling in execution and authorial resourcefulness. Deftly weaving together constitutional history, judicial logic, political development, and philosophical deliberation, this book is not merely a contribution to the discourse; it illuminates, and, in many ways, changes it."--Ahrar Ahmad, Perspectives on PoliticsTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. vii*Preface, pg. xi*Acknowledgments, pg. xvii*Chapter One. Introduction, pg. 1*Chapter Two. Nations and Constitutions, pg. 21*Chapter Three. Secularism in Context, pg. 54*Chapter Four. India: The Ameliorative Aspiration, pg. 91*Chapter Five. Religion, Politics, and the Failure of Constitutional Machinery, pg. 125*Chapter Six. Corrupt Practices, pg. 161*Chapter Seven. Adjudicating Secularism: Political Liberalism or Religious Revivalism?, pg. 189*Chapter Eight. So You Want a (Constitutional) Revolution? Lessons from Abroad, pg. 227*Chapter Nine. Conclusion, pg. 265*Bibliography, pg. 291*Index, pg. 311

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Book SynopsisThe major works by Josephus are History of the Jewish War, from 170 BC to his own time, and Jewish Antiquities, from creation to AD 66. Also by him are an autobiographical Life and a treatise Against Apion.

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Book SynopsisJapan's merchant capital in the late sixteenth century, Osaka remained an industrial center into the 1930s, developing a distinct urban culture to rival Tokyo's. Osaka Modern maps the city as imagined in Japanese popular literature and cinemaas well as contemporary radio, television, music, and comedyfrom the 1920s to the 1950s.

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Book SynopsisThe origins and evolution of technocratic fascism in wartime Japan.Trade ReviewDrawing on a wealth of largely untapped primary materials and journals, the work focuses specifically on a group of elite bureaucrats, predominantly graduates of Tokyo Imperial University, and army staff officers who were the driving force behind the reorganization of the Japanese economy in the late 1930s and 1940s... Mimura's is the first English-language synthesis that traces the history of central planning in Japan from its inception in the corridors of power in Tokyo, through the experimentation period in Manchuria, to its final implementation in Japan. Mimura’s contribution is particularly valuable precisely because it deals with men who were in a position to put their ideas into practice. -- Christopher W.A. Szpilman * Monumenta Nipponica *Mimura writes, moreover, with great economy, pinpoint clarity, and without embellishment or hint of hyperbole. If Planning for Empire does not, thus, aspire to 'best in show' honors for recent analyses of the Japanese empire, it deserves accolades as likely the most influential of the lot for its measured yet powerful confirmation of several critical trends in the study of early twentieth-century Japanese empire and war... it is a must read for all serious students of modern Japanese history. -- Frederick Dickinson * Journal of Japanese Studies *Mimura's detailed examination of the administration of Manchuria/Manchukuo offers a useful counterweight to Driscoll's portrayal of Kishi and Ayukawa as little more than misogynisticexploitative brutes... Mimura’s dissection of Japanese techno-fascism—of its appeal across traditional political dividesof its incremental ideological genesis and of its ultimate failure—makes Planning for Empire a welcome addition to a new body of scholarship that has sought to resurrect fascism as an analytical tool for our understanding of mid-twentieth-century Japan. -- Martin Dusinberre * Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History *Roles played by the Japanese civilian bureaucracy in the course of Japan's militarization before WW II have attracted little attention in academia, in contrast with scholars' heavy focus on the Japanese military. Mimura fills this void with this first in-depth English-language analysis of the Japanese "reform bureaucrats" who, as prominent advocates of "techno-fascism," endeavored to realize their vision of a "managerial state" and "controlled economy" in prewar Japan.... Highly recommended. * CHOICE *'Fascism' is a term of abuse today, but once it was an idea with a future, as Mimura shows in Planning for Empire. * The Japan Times *Anyone interested in the role of reform bureaucrats in Japan and the perpetual debate over fascism will want to read this well-researched, informative, and stimulating monograph. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Japan's Wartime Technocrats 2. Military Fascism and Manchukuo, 1930–36 3. Bureaucratic Visions of Manchukuo, 1933–39 4. Ideologues of Fascism: Okumura Kiwao and Mori Hideoto 5. The New Order and the Politics of Reform, 1940–41 6. Japan's Opportunity: Technocratic Strategies for War and Empire, 1941–45Epilogue: From Wartime Techno-Fascism to Postwar ManagerialismBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSpawning an empire ranging from Persia to China, Genghis Khan united a nomadic warrior culture that had lived with their agrarian neighbors through controlled and limited extortion. This book provides an introduction to the history and culture of the Steppe people from which Genghis Khan emerged.Trade Review[With] implications for such current themes as globalization, global villages, and global conditions for peace . . . this book tells a grand story in the brief compass of seven chapters, with a well-written historical introduction, a helpful chronology, sixteen biographies portraying the international cast of personages who traversed empires, and a glossary indispensable to a work of this nature. Twenty-one primary documents give historical credence to the Mongol story itself, a story that is told only in the oral tradition of The Secret History of the Mongols. Maps and illustrations round out the material in support of the text. --The History Teacher

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This book provides a comprehensive overview of the most controversial and influential artistic movement in contemporary Korean art. With detailed formal analysis on the important artworks and locating them within the broader historical and intellectual framework, Joan Kee vividly portrays how Korean artists responded to the international art world and positioned Tansaekhwa as an alternative to Euro-American art. Contemporary Korean Art makes essential reading for anyone interested in the non-Western artists’ negotiations to global art in the twentieth century." —Insoo Cho, Korea National University of Arts"Rich in analysis and description, Kee’s book traces the development of Korean painting and issues of national artistic identity as a reflection of the country’s economic growth and political turmoil over the past five decades. This pioneering, generously illustrated tome deserves a place in every serious collection of books about modern art in Asia."—ArtAsiaPacific"Kee does an excellent job of placing Tansaekhwa artists in context, giving the reader a greater understanding of how the artists fit into contemporary Korean art and the international art world. Readers who are not familiar with Korean history will be well-served by the historical context that the author provides."—Art Libraries Society"A gorgeous and thoughtful introduction to the history of contemporary art in Korea. It’s a beautiful and fascinating book."—New Books Network"Kee displays throughout the book a rare sensitivity to formal qualities of the visual materials before her and exhaustive knowledge of theoretical discussions that surrounded and gave rise to the movement, all while writing a refined but accessible prose without a shred of excess."—Journal of Asian Studies"Kee successfully carves out a definable and cultivated place for the Tansaekhwa artist in the global history of modernist abstraction and contemporary art."—Orientations"This book is required reading for anyone with even a passing interest in Korean art of the 20th century."—Korean Quarterly"The horizontally evanescing yet rhythmically resurging dots of the frontispiece by Lee Ufan invites us into the exciting journey offered by this by this elaborately strucutured narrative of tansaekhwa."—Korean Studies"This book delivers a solid argument, displays meticulous research, and offers an in-depth reading of artworks. The questions Kee’s intervention raises will make this book an important point of reference and engagement for any future studies of contemporary Korean and non-Western art."—Art Journal"Kee’s attention to forms and method is brilliant, and her theoretical knowledge of contemporary Korean art provides pleasurable reading for even non-art historians."—Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsContentsNote to ReadersIntroduction: The Urgency of Method1. Kwon Young-woo and Yun Hyoungkeun Rethink Painting2. Rates of Exchange in Ha Chongyun’s Conjunction3. Encountering Lee Ufan in Korea and Japan4. Reading Park Seobo’s Écriture in Authoritarian Korea5. Tansaekhwa and the Idealization of Asian ArtEpilogue: The Contextualist PredicamentAcknowledgmentsAppendix: Korean Names and Terms NotesIndex

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Book SynopsisRebecca E. Karl interrogates the concept and practice of "the economic" as it was understood in China in the 1930s and the 1980s and 90s, showing how the use of Eurocentric philosophies, narratives, and conceptions of the economic that exist outside lived experiences fail to capture modern China's complex history.Trade Review"A challenging and often compelling perspective on modern Chinese history." -- Terry Peach * European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *"An intelligent analysis of important historiographical issues in modern Chinese history." -- Margherita Zanasi * American Historical Review *“Since The Magic of Concepts came out, I have found myself constantly recommending it to friends and colleagues, and in particular to friends and colleagues who are not scholars of modern China. And not just because I assume all modern China specialists already pay attention to Rebecca Karl’s work; rather, it is because she achieves in this book what historians often strive and fail to do, or at least fail to do well—to truly engage the global and the present from the specific geographical and chronological perspective of our chosen historical subjects.” -- Fabio Lanza * Journal of Asian Studies *"Karl’s book . . . is an important contribution to the fields of Chinese, global, and economic history. . . . Her argument challenges us to ever more carefully observe our perspective and level of analysis, deconstruct our models and tools of research, and realize the 'magic' of the concepts we utilize and repeat." -- Thorben Pelzer * Connections *"The Magic of Concepts makes a powerful case that the limitations of empiricism and reified consciousness have foreclosed realms of inquiry that possess considerable potential to complicate and deepen our understanding of social history. . . . This book is eloquent testimony to the need for historians to pursue a serious engagement with such theory in our training and in our research, not just to open new possibilities in our scholarship but to make sense of our own increasingly unstable historical moment." -- Jake Werner * Journal of Social History *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments ix Introduction. Repetition and Magic 1 1. The Economic, China, World History: A Critique of Pure Ideology 19 2. The Economic and the State: The Asiatic Mode of Production 40 3. The Economic as Transhistory: Temporality, the Market, and the Austrian School 73 4. The Economic as Lived Experience: Semicolonialism and China 113 5. The Economic as Culture and the Culture of the Economic: Filming Shanghai 141 Afterword 160 Notes 167 Bibliography 199 Index 213

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Book SynopsisInternationalist Aesthetics offers a groundbreaking account of the crucial role that China played in the early Soviet cultural imagination. Reading across genres and media from reportage and biography to ballet and documentary film, Edward Tyerman shows how Soviet culture sought an aesthetics that could foster a sense of internationalist community.Trade ReviewIn this book, Tyerman achieves nothing less than a full historical reconstruction of how “China” became mediated as an essential component of Soviet political and cultural imagining after the failure of hoped for revolutions in Western Europe. This is a landmark work of Sino-Soviet transnational cultural history. -- Roy Chan, author of The Edge of Knowing: Dreams, History, and Realism in Modern Chinese LiteratureEdward Tyerman has produced the most sophisticated and rigorous study to date of Soviet-Chinese cultural interactions in the 1920s and beyond. Internationalist Aesthetics is a feat of both scholarship and conceptualization and is a must-read for all those seriously interested in leftist internationalism or transnational cultural encounters. -- Katerina Clark, author of Eurasia Without Borders: The Dream of a Leftist Literary Commons, 1919–1943A tour de force of scholarship that examines the possibilities and contradictions of the radical early Soviet project of transforming subjectivity from a completely new perspective: the Soviet engagement with China. Relying on his broad and deep knowledge of two different cultural contexts, Tyerman reveals the Soviet aspiration to create an “internationalist, anti-imperialist community” through the transformation of sensory experience across cultures. -- Elizabeth Papazian, author of Manufacturing Truth: The Documentary Moment in Early Soviet CultureThis scintillating study explores the efforts of Soviet cultural producers in the 1920s to construct ‘China’ as a site for imagining a socialist 'international aesthetics.' With insight and sympathy, Tyerman conveys the idealism involved in this project while showing that it was undercut by assumptions about the universality of the Soviet experience. -- S.A. Smith, author of Revolution and the People in Russia and China: A Comparative HistoryThis is a pathbreaking work. With great nuance and superbly insightful close readings, Internationalist Aesthetics shows the rise of this aesthetic, as well as its decline, and ponders its legacies for both Soviet culture and global cultural production. -- Nicolai Volland, author of Socialist Cosmopolitanism: The Chinese Literary Universe, 1945-1965Tyerman carve[s] out huge new areas of inquiry . . . The scholarship is fine-grained. -- Caryl Emerson * Times Literary Supplement *Ambitious, complex, and skilfully executed, Tyerman’s study is a true journey of discovery. -- Iva Glisic * Australian Book Review *A phenomenal intellectual achievement . . . Internationalist Aesthetics is a staggeringly erudite, formidably argued and fundamentally important book. -- Julian Graffy * Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema *A timely interdisciplinary study . . . abounds in rich factual and theoretical interpretations. -- Victor Zatsepine * Journal of Asian Studies *Ground-breaking, erudite and sophisticated . . . an impressive example of scholarship that cuts across, and brings into conversation, multiple fields, disciplines, and intellectual and aesthetic debates to shed light on the significance and use of China in the formation of early Soviet revolutionary culture of the 1920s. -- Susanna Lim * China Quarterly *This masterfully curated tour of the many Chinas documented, imagined, and crafted by some of the most creative minds in the Soviet cultural milieu of the 1920s is a definitive treatment of a topic that so far has evaded systematic elucidation. -- Elizabeth McGuire * The Russian Review *Internationalist Aestheticsis a well-crafted and insightful study that will inspire future scholarship. -- Emily Wilcox * Twentieth-Century China *Original and highly revealing . . . [this book] represents a welcome addition to the study of Chinese-Russian cultural relations. -- Qiang Zhai * The Chinese Historical Review *Ambitious, sophisticated, and wide-ranging. * Modern Language Review *This is a very close textual analysis of important sources, some of which are not easily accessible, andthus this study will be useful for those interested in these sources. * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: China and Early Soviet Culture 1. Sight, Sound, and Similarity: Soviet Writers Travel to China2. Translating China Onstage: Roar, China! and The Red Poppy3. Through an Internationalist Lens: China in Early Soviet Cinema4. Confessions and Collaborations: Authority, Agency and Factographic Internationalism in Den Shi-khuaEpilogue: International Literature, National Form, and Missed ConnectionsNotesBibliography and SourcesIndex

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Book SynopsisA sweeping biography of the Himalayas by the acclaimed author of RED NILE and ANGRY WHITE PYJAMAS

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of what happened in Cambodia from 1930 to 1975, this title traces the origins and trajectory of the Cambodian Communist movement and sets the ascension of Pol Pot's genocidal regime in the context of the conflict between colonialism and nationalism.Trade ReviewHow did Pol Pot, a tyrant comparable to Hitler and Stalin in his brutality and contempt for human life, rise to power? This authoritative book explores what happened in Cambodia from 1930 to 1975, tracing the origins and trajectory of the Cambodian Communist movement and setting the ascension of Pol Pot’s genocidal regime in the context of the conflict between colonialism and nationalism. A new preface brings this edition up to date.Praise for the first edition:

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Book SynopsisThis magnificent collection of eleven early [1250–1450] Chinese plays will give readers a vivid sense of life and a clear understanding of dramatic literature during an extraordinarily eventful period in Chinese history. Not only are the eleven plays in this volume expertly translated into lively, idiomatic English; they are each provided with illuminating, scholarly introductions that are yet fully intelligible to the educated lay reader. A marvelous volume.--Victor Mair, University of PennsylvaniaTrade Review"An exciting new resource for undergraduate teaching. The translated plays were clearly chosen for their literary value as well as their significance to the history of Chinese drama, and each is preceded by an introduction providing its historical context In their lucid introduction, West and Idema describe the historical background of early drama, discussing its urban setting, the theater, the actors, and the sources to trace the transformation of Yuan drama from urban popular performance into an elite reading form by the end of the Ming dynasty". --Kimberly Besio, Colby College, in The Journal of Asian StudiesWest and Idema's Monks, Bandits, Lovers, and Immortals represents a milestone in the reception of early Chinese drama in the West. Not only do the translations of eleven plays take precision, readability, and range to new heights, but the substantial yet accessible Introduction, together with a number of useful appendices, illustrations, and tables, make it the anthology of choice for courses in Chinese literature, world literature, and theater.--Patricia Sieber, Ohio State UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Mending a Broken Lineage: Women, Writing, Theology; Fear & Women's Writing: Choosing the Better Part; 'A Wretched Choice?': Evangelical Women & the Word; 'My God Became Flesh': Angela of Foligno Writing the Incarnation; Speaking Funk: Womanist Insights into the Lives of Syncletica & Macrina; 'A Moor of One's Own': Writing & Silence in Sara Maitland's "A Book of Silence"; With Prayer & Pen: Reading Mother E J Dabney's "What It Means to Pray Through"; Writing a Life, Writing Theology: Edith Stein in the Company of the Saints; Writing Hunger on the Body: Simone Weil's Ethic of Hunger & Eucharistic Practice; The Body, to be Eaten, to be Written: A Theological Reflection on the Act of Writing in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "Dictee"; Not with One Voice: The Counterpoint of Life, Diaspora, Women, Theology, & Writing; Embodying Theology: Motherhood as Metaphor/Method; Postscript: Wounded Writing / Healing Writing.

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Book Synopsis"P. J. Ivanhoe is one of the English-speaking world’s foremost translators and interpreters of classical Chinese philosophical texts. His translation of the Sunzi Bingfa reads beautifully, adorned only by sobering photographic plates of the famed terracotta army of the first Qin emperor that turn one back to the text in a properly reflective mood. The Introduction and endnotes are blessedly spare, providing just the right amount of interpretive scholarship to assist comprehension of the text, while not interfering with its intrinsic simplicity, clarity, and profundity." —Sumner B. Twiss, Distinguished Professor of Human Rights, Ethics, and Religion, Florida State UniversityTrade Review"Philip J. Ivanhoe’s translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War will be warmly embraced by students. His discussion in the Introduction about the text’s dating and authorship, as well as Chinese attitudes towards things military, is concise, informative, and up-to-date. The translation itself is a marvel—its language is simple and direct, making it immensely readable and clear." —Keith Knapp, is Westvaco Professor of National Security Studies, Department of History, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina

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Book SynopsisInvestigating the growth of Indology (the study of East Indian texts, literature, and culture) and the diffusion of this knowledge about ancient India within nineteenth-century Germany, this work contextualizes approaches to contact by historically grounding them in a contemporary history of German culture, education, and science. It answers the historical anomaly of why Germany had more nineteenth-century experts in the academic discipline of Indology than all other European powers combined. German interest in ancient India developed because it was useful for widely varying German projects, including Romanticism and nationalism. German Indologists made successful arguments about the cultural and intellectual relevance of ancient India for modern Germany, leaving an ambiguous legacy including a deeper appreciation of South Asian culture as well as scholarly justifications for the warlike image of a Swastika-bearing Aryan master race.

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Book SynopsisThe definitive and first non-partisan biography of one of the most formidable political figures of the 20th-century (voted Woman of the Millennium in a BBC poll, 2000)Trade Review‘A stunning biography. Indira Gandhi was voted Woman of the Millennium, and yet her story is of a woman pushed into the public eye by men, corrupted by power and assassinated by those she should have trusted best – her own bodyguards.’ Jenni Murray, Sunday Times ‘Well researched, convincing and impressively fair to its subject.’ Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph ‘A fascinating account of how an unpromising, if privileged, girl came to lead the world's largest democracy. Anyone who wants to get to the heart of this extraordinary woman (and the extraordinary country which she mothered, cajoled and eventually came to embody), could not do better than read this accomplished book.’ Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday ‘Moving and revealing.’ Victoria Schofield, Financial Times ‘An important study…compelling and humanly sympathetic.’ Sunil Khilnani, Sunday Telegraph ‘An excellent biography.’ Geoffrey Moorhouse, Guardian ‘A fascinating, rigorous highly readable study.’ Caroline Macdonald, Scotsman

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Book SynopsisA History of Zhang Zhung and Tibet, Volume One explores ancient Tibet''s Zhang Zhung kingdom and Bon religion that preceded the advent of Buddhism in the seventh century. Countering the long-held idea that Tibet''s pre-Buddhist indigenous culture was primitive and undeveloped, this book shares the rich cultural origins of the kingdom of Zhang Zhung--the "cradle of Tibetan culture," which encompassed a vast area of Western and Northern Tibet in an area that includes sacred Mount Kailash. Presenting the meticulous research of internationally known Dzogchen Buddhist teacher and scholar Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, the book investigates the mysteries of Zhang Zhung''s Bon religion, a set of shamanistic and animistic beliefs and practices only recently studied by a handful of academic scholars. Offering a critical analysis of a vast array of literary and primary sources, Norbu discusses the role of the Bon traditions within Zhang Zhung''s lineages, dynasties, and culture. Examining Zhang Zhung''s written language, sacred ornaments, rock carvings, healing practices, music, and magical divination techniques, Norbu contributes to an understanding of the roots of Tibetan Buddhist culture and modern-day Bon religion--a practice followed by an estimated ten percent of Tibetans.Table of Contents:Translator''s Foreword; A Technical Note about the Translation; I. The Human Generations of Ancient Zhang Zhung; II. The Bon Lineages of Ancient Zhang Zhung; III. The Royal Lineages of Ancient Zhang Zhung; IV. The Written Language of Ancient Zhang Zhung; V. The Civilization of Ancient Zhang Zhung; Indexes--Tibetan and Zhang Zhung Names and Terms, Textual Sources, Sanskrit Names and Terms, Chinese Names and Terms

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRonojoy Sen has produced a fascinating, rich, and thoroughly engaging history of sport in India. He manages to paint at once with powerful, evocative, and very convincing broad strokes and with the finely gauged brush of an ethno-historian concerned as much with the intricacies and nuances of embodied experience as with quirky personalities and the odd politics of everyday life. All of this adds up to a book that fully captures the imagination to generate deep and often unexpected insight on the serious business of play in modern India. -- Joseph S. Alter, Yale-NUS College, author of The Wrestler's Body: Identity and Ideology in North India His ambitious book examines Indian sports in a largely chronological manner and does not duck the more awkward questions, such as the perceived athletic limitations of Indians. The narrative has an attractive sweep to it, starting with the place of sports and martial competition in Hindu epics such as the "Mahabharata" and the "Ramayana." Wall Street Journal Rich in detail and nuanced in terms of analysis... [Ronojoy Sen] is to be praised for adding to the understanding of sport in India by looking at how it intersects with culture and politics, and for using sport to provide insights about Indian history and society. Choice Sen is to be applauded for writing such an ambitious book, enriching our understanding of the history of sport in India. Journal of Sport HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Down the Ages: Sport in Ancient and Medieval India 2. Empire of Sport: The Early British Impact on Recreation 3. White Man's Burden: Teachers, Missionaries, and Administrators 4. Players and Patrons: Indian Princes and Sports 5. The Empire Strikes Back: The 1911 IFA Shield and Football in Calcutta 6. Politics on the Maidan: Sport, Communalism, and Nationalism 7. The Early Olympics: India's Hockey Triumphs 8. Lords of the Ring: Tales of Wrestlers and Boxers 9. Freedom Games: The First Two Decades of Independence 10. Domestic Sports: State, Club, Office, and Regiment (1947-1970) 11. 1971 and After: The Religion Called Cricket 12. Life Beyond Cricket Notes Index

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Book SynopsisPolicing is not a popular topic of serious scholarly research. Although a vast literature on policing exists, it is mostly technical in nature and only rarely analytical. Even the police forces of Western Europe and North America have rarely been investigated in depth as far as their history and functioning goes. In particular, the politics of policing, its political economy, have been largely neglected. This book is a rare in-depth study of a police force in a developing country which is also undergoing a bitter internal conflict, further to the post-2001 external intervention in Afghanistan. Policing Afghanistan discusses the evolution of the country's police through its various stages but focuses in particular on the last decade. The authors review the ongoing debates over the future shape of Afghanistan's police, but seek primarily to analyse the way Afghanistan is policed relative to its existing social, political and international constraints. Giustozzi and Isaqzadeh have observed the development of the police force from its early stages, starting from what was a rudimentary, militia-based, police force prior to 2001. This is a book about how the police really work in such a difficult environment, the nuts and bolts approach, based on first hand research, as opposed to a description of how the Afghan police are institutionally organised and regulated.Trade Review'This is the first serious, comprehensive and convincing account of how policing in Afghanistan really works. Giustozzi and Isaqzadeh's impressive study of the political dynamics of Afghan policing extends the police-studies agenda and is essential reading for anyone interested in the political economy - or reform - of policing.' * Alice Hills, Chair of Conflict and Security, University of Leeds, and author of Policing Post-Conflict Cities *'Policing Afghanistan is the most comprehensive account to date of the history of policing in Afghanistan, especially of the critically important and yet highly problematic post-2001 efforts to rebuild an effective police force in Afghanistan. The book contains a wealth of details about the structure and organization of the police, recruitment and retention issues, and the various reform efforts of the past decade. The most useful contribution of the book, however, is that it looks at policing not simply from a technocratic perspective, which other studies of police reform efforts in Afghanistan have tended to do, but as an inherently political task. By placing police reform efforts in their political context, and examining the political economy of policing, this study provides a much clearer and compelling explanation for the successes and many more failures of internationally-driven police reform efforts in Afghanistan.' * Andrew WIlder, Director of Afghanistan and Pakistan Programs, United States Institute of Peace, and author of Cops or Robbers? The Struggle to Reform the Afghan National Police *

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Book SynopsisThe Indus Waters Treaty is considered a key example of India-Pakistan cooperation, but less has been said about its critical influence on state-making in both countries. Rivers Divided reveals the importance of the Indus Basin river system, and thus control over it, for Indian and Pakistani claims to sovereignty after South Asia's Partition in 1947. Securing water flows was a key aim for both governments. In 1960 the Indus Waters Treaty ostensibly settled the dispute, but in fact failed to address critical sources of tension. Examples include the role of water in the Kashmir conflict and the riverine geography of Punjab's militarized border zone. Despite the recent resurgence of disputes over water-sharing in South Asia, the historical causes and consequences of the region's flagship natural resources treaty remain little understood. Based on new research in South Asia, the United States and United Kingdom, this book places the Indus dispute, for the first time, in the context of decolonisation and Cold War-era development politics. It examines the discord at local, national and international levels, arguing that we can only explain its importance and longevity in light of India and Pakistan's state-building initiatives after independence.Trade Review'Competition for water in the Indus Valley has been a major example of competition for this key resource in the modern world. In this outstanding book, Haines demonstrates the local, national and international forces at work in producing the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. It is a major contribution both to the history of decolonisation and of the environment.' * Francis Robinson, Professor of the History of South Asia, Royal Holloway, University of London *'Through the Subcontinent's long-running disputes and water-sharing agreements, Haines offers a distinctive, fresh account of how new states emerged in South Asia. Rather than viewing state-building as purely ideological or constitutional, Haines shows how everything, from peasants concerns to Cold War development projects, shaped ideas and realities of Indo-Pakistani sovereignty.' * Faisal Devji, Reader in Indian History, St Antony's College Oxford and author of Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea *'Rivers Divided deftly takes a history of rivers into the realms of state-building, sovereignty negotiation and national identity. Sensitive to the distinctive post-colonial and Cold War contexts, Haines' unique contribution lies in addressing longer-term processes, not iconic events, intensively exploiting newly available archives in India, Pakistan, the U.K. and U.S.' * Philip Brown, Professor of History, Ohio State University *'Excellent and highly readable . . . gripping . . . an excellent contribution to historicizing notions of territory.'

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Book SynopsisReveals, from a non-Eurocentric perspective, how Indian states developed and implemented maritime strategies which posed a serious threat to British naval power in the region. Most books on the colonisation of India view the subject in Eurocentric imperial terms, focusing on the ways in which European powers competed with each other on land and at sea and defeated Indian states on land, and viewing Indian states as having little interest in naval matters. This book, in contrast, reveals that there was substantial naval activity on the part of some Indian states and that this activity represented a serious threat to Britain's naval power. Considering the subject from an Indian point of view, the book discusses the naval activities of the Mahratta Confederacy and later those of Mysore under its energetic rulers Haidar Ali and his successor Tipu Sultan. Itshows how these states chose deliberately to develop a naval strategy, seeing this as the most effective way of expelling the British from India; how their strategies learned from European maritime technology, successfully blending this with Indian technology; how their opposition to British naval power was at its most effective when they allied themselves with the other European naval powers in the region - France, Portugal and the Netherlands, whose maritime activities in the region are fully outlined and assessed; and how ultimately the Indian states' naval strategies failed. Philip MacDougall, a former lecturer in economic history at the University of Kent, is a founder member of the Navy Dockyards Society, editor of the Society's Transactions, and the author or editor of seven books in maritime history, including The Naval Mutinies of 1797 (The Boydell Press, 2011).Trade ReviewA broad history of IndoEuropean maritime conflicts that is accessibly written and enjoyable. Additionally, he uses his background in maritime history to make valuable observations on the ships, strategies, and naval facilities of various Indian powers. * INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARITIME HISTORY *This is an excellent study of a neglected but important aspect of Anglo-Indian history, and comes highly recommended. * WWW.HISTORYOFWAR.ORG *Historians outside MacDougall's geographic specialization would do well to take notice of this recent historiographical contribution. Maritime, military, and global historians as well as historians of technology and indigenous peoples will all find valuable examples to enrich their own comparative analyses. * H-NET Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction Calicut: The City of Spice Surat: Home of the Gujarat Sea Trade Bombay: a poor little island Alibag: fleet base of the Maratha northern command London: from where India came to be governed Vijaydurg: the strongest place in all India Jamalabad: main fleet base of the Mysore navy Port Louis, Ile de France: the grand arsenal Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIncludes tales that represent the Yunnan Province's officially designated ethnic minorities. This title also includes introductions and an appendix which describe the places and people of Yunnan, analyze the literary and psychological characteristics of their stories, and explain the methodology of collecting folk literature in China.Trade Review"A wonderfully entertaining book...The exotic loveliness of the Yunnan landscape comes through very clearly in the details of clear waters sunlit hillsides, bamboos and banyans and eucalyptus. Universal folklore motifs abound, but are given new twists of imagination and wit. There are moments of great beauty, others of earthy comedy, others of considerable pathos." Cyril Birch, editor of Anthology of Chinese Literature "The translation is outstanding. I know of no translation of Chinese folk literature that can rival it." David Knechtges, editor and translator of Wen Xuan, or Selections from Refined Literature

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A gripping classic. Exhaustively researched, The Hunter Killers puts you directly into a Wild Weasel fighter cockpit during the Vietnam War. Dam Hampton lets you feel it for yourself as no one else could." -- Colonel LEO THORSNESS, Wild Weasel pilot and Medal of Honor recipient "Exciting. ... Hampton's command of the nuances of technology, in addition to his knowledge of the Vietnam War on the ground and in the air, renders this book both informative and moving. A fast-paced Vietnam War story." -- Kirkus "An in-the-cockpit air combat chronicle. ... Hampton uses the words of surviving Wild Weasel aviators to imaginatively recreate dramatic and dangerous missions over enemy territory. ... Gripping." -- Publishers Weekly "Intense. ... [Hampton's] overall writing style is excellent; in particular, his vivid, fast-paced combat narratives. ... Will appeal to military history fans or anyone looking for an absorbing read." -- Library Journal

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis magnificent book has been many years in gestation, but it has been worth the wait. . . . No prior knowledge is required to enjoy it. And enjoy is the word. The chapters are short, vivid, and packed with human interest. * BBC Music Magazine *The Music of Central Asia is an incredible accomplishment. It provides a wealth of perspectives and is remarkably comprehensive in its coverage of the region. * Asian Music *"I foresee a next generation of enthusiastic young scholars encouraged to pursue research in part due to an initial encounter with Central Asian music through this volume." * Notes *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAccessing Music Examples OnlineA Note on Music TerminologyGuide to TransliterationTimeline of Central Asian HistoryPart I: Music and Culture in Central Asia1. Music in Central Asia: An Overview / Theodore Levin2. Musical Instruments in Central Asia / Theodore LevinPart II: The Nomadic WorldPrologue: Who Are the Nomads of Central Asia? / Theodore Levin3. Introduction to Oral Epic / Elmira Köchümkulova4. The Epic Manas / Elmira Köchümkulova5. Oral Epic in Kazakhstan: Körughly and a Dynasty of Great Jyraus / Uljan Baibosynova6. Music of the Karakalpaks Part I: The Epic World of the Karakalpaks: Jyrau and Baqsy / Frédéric Léotar Part II: Qyssakhan: Performer of Written and Oral Literature / Kalmurza Kurbanov and Saida Daukeyeva7. The Art of the Turkmen Bagshy / Jamilya Gurbanova8. The Turkmen Dutar / David Fossum9. Kyrgyz Wisdom Songs: Terme Yrlary / Elmira Köchümkulova10. Aqyns and Improvised-Poetry Competitions among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz / Elmira Köchümkulova and Jangül Qojakhmetova11. Singing Traditions of the Kazakhs / Alma Kunanbeava12. Kyrgyz Funeral Laments / Elmira Köchümkulova13. Kyrgyz Wedding Songs / Elmira Köchümkulova14. Narrative Instrumental Music: Kazakh Küi and Kyrgyz Küü / Sayra Raymbergenova and Nurlanbek Nyshanov Profile: Abdulhait Raiymbergenov / Theodore Levin Profile: Nurak Abdyrakhmanov / Elmira Köchümkulova15. Kyrgyz Jaw Harps / Nurlanbek Nyshanov16. The Kazakh Qobyz: Between Tradition and Modernity / Saida Daukeyeva17. Dombyra Performance, Migration, and Memory among Mongolian Kazakhs / Saida DaukeyevaPart III: The World of Sedentary-DwellersPrologue: Patterns of Culture: Sedentary-Dwellers / Theodore Levin18. Maqom Traditions of the Tajiks and Uzbeks / William Sumits and Theodore Levin Profile: The Academy of Maqom / Abduvali Abdurashidov Profile: Turgun Alimatov / Theodore Levin19. The Uyghur MuqaZ / Rachel Harris20. New Images of Azerbaijani Mugham in the Twentieth Century / Aida Huseynova Profile: Alim and Fargana Qasimov / Theodore Levin21. Popular Classics: Traditional Singer-Songwriters in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan / Theodore Levin22. Religious Music and Chant in the Culture of Sedentary-Dwellers / Aleksandr Djumaev23. Sufism and the Ceremony of Zikr in Ghulja / Mukaddas Mijit24. Dastan Performance among the Uyghurs / Rahile Dawut and Elise Anderson25. Female Musicians in Uzbekistan: Otin-oy, Dutarchi, and Maqomchi / Razia Sultanova26. Music in the City of Bukhara / Theodore Levin and Aleksandr Djumaev Profile: Ari Babakhanov / Aleksandr Djumaev27. Music and Culture in Badakhshan / Theodore Levin28. The Maddoh Tradition of Badakhshan / Benjamin Koen Music Example: Maddoh / Theodore Levin29. Qasoid-khonī in the Wakhan Valley of Badakhshan / Chorshanbe Goibnazarov30. Falak: Spiritual Songs of the Mountains Tajiks / Faroghat AziziPart IV: Central Asian Music in the Age of Globalization31. Revitalizing Musical Traditions: The Aga Khan Music Initiative / Theodore Levin Nurturing Local Talent, Creating Global Connections / Fairouz Nishanova The Genesis of Rainbow / Theodore Levin32. Cultural Renewal in Kyrgyzstan: Neotraditionalism and the New Era in Kyrgyz Music / Raziya SyrdybaevaMusical Instrument GlossaryGlossary of TermsInventory of Audio and Video ExamplesList of ContributorsIndex33. Popular Music in Uzbekistan / Kerstin Klenke34. Innovation in Tradition: Some Examples from Music and Theater in Uzbekistan / Aleksandr Djumaev35. Tradition-Based Popular Music in Contemporary Tajikistan / Federico SpinettiMusical Instrument GlossaryGlossary of TermsAudio and Video ExamplesIndex

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Book SynopsisThis vivid diary of life in a Japanese internment camp during World War II examines the moral challenges encountered in conditions of confinement and deprivation.

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