Asian history Books
University of British Columbia Press Land Politics and Livelihoods on the Margins of
Book SynopsisAn engaging study of the rapid urbanization of a former village subsumed by the expanding city of Hanoi.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 The Early Urban Transition (1920-40) 2 Uneven Socialist Revolutions (1940-65) 3 Eating by Points and Coupons Is Not Enough(1965-80) 4 The New Urban Territorial Order (1980-2010) 5 Land for Fresh Ghosts, Land for Dry Ghosts Conclusion Notes References Statutes Cited Index
£23.39
University of British Columbia Press Empire and Environment in the Making of Manchuria
Book SynopsisSince the seventeenth century, Chinese, Japanese, Manchu, Russian, and other imperial forces have defied Manchuria's unrelenting summers and unforgiving winters to fight for sovereignty over the natural resources of Northeast Asia. Until now, historians have focused on rivalries between the region's imperial invaders. Empire and Environment in the Making of Manchuria examines the interplay of climate and competing economic and political interests in the region's vibrant and violent cultural narrative. In this unique and compelling analysis of Manchuria's environmental history, contributors demonstrate how geography shaped the region's past. Families that settled this borderland reaped its riches while at the mercy of an unforgiving and hotly contested landscape. As China's strength as a world leader continues to grow, this volume invites exploration of the indelible links between empire and environment and shows how the geopolitical future of this global ecTrade ReviewOverall, Empire and Environment provides a rich array of scholarship that demonstrates the dynamic relationship between Manchuria’s natural environment and a variety of distinctive cultures and political regimes over time. -- Emily Matson * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Norman Smith1 Manchuria: History and Environment / Diana Lary2 Rival Empires on the Hunt for Sable and Tribal in Seventeenth-Century Manchuria / David A. Bello3 Inclement Weather and Human Error: Impediments to the Tribute System in Qing Manchuria / Loretta E. Kim4 Producing Full-Fat Controversy: The Politicization of Dairy Production in Post-Colonial North Manchuria, 1924–30 / Blaine Chiasson5 “Hibernate No More!”: Winter, Health, and the Great Outdoors / Norman Smith6 Constructing a Rural Utopia: Propaganda Images of Japanese Settlers in Northern Manchuria, 1936-43 / Annika A. Culver7 The Garden of Grand Vision: Slums, Deviance, and Control in Manchukuo, 1940-41 / Kathryn Meyer8 Salvaging Memories: Former Japanese Colonists in Manchuria and the Shimoina Project, 2001-12 / Ronald Suleski9 Exile to Manchuria: Stories in the Qing and the PRC / Wang Ning10 “War against the Earth”: Military Farming in Communist Manchuria, 1949-75 / Sun Xiaoping
£73.80
University of British Columbia Press A Frontier Made Lawless
Book SynopsisIn the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the region of Liangshan in southwest China was plagued by violence. Indigenous Nuosu communities clashed with Han migrants, the Qing and Republican states, and local warlords. Large numbers of Nuosu and Han alike were kidnapped and killed in widespread patterns of captive taking. The first English-language history of Liangshan, A Frontier Made Lawless challenges the view that the persistent turmoil was the result of population pressures, opium production, and the growth of local paramilitary groups. Instead, Joseph Lawson argues that the conflict resulted from the lack of a common framework for dealing with property disputes, compounded by the repeated destabilization of the region by turmoil elsewhere in China. Drawing on a range of sources including court records, locals' memoirs, regional government records and surveys, and Nuosu epic poetry, Lawson adds new insights and comparative perspectives to the study of conflict inTable of ContentsIntroduction1 Conflict over Land in the Longue Durée2 Violence and the Structures of Power in the Qing Empire, 1800–19113 Growing Poppies, Firearms, and Populations: Expansion and Consequences of Trade4 Law in a Lawless Land: Liangshan, 1911–375 The Prisoners of Liangshan: Captivity and Alterity6 The Nationalist Party in Liangshan, 1937–49Coda: The Communist Takeover and Liangshan in World HistoryNotes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index
£25.19
University of British Columbia Press Constructing Empire
Book SynopsisWhile other studies focus on the role of diplomats and the military, Constructing Empire demonstrates that building the Japanese empire also required civilian participation.Trade ReviewThe narrative in these chapters is grounded in vibrant historic detail, which results in a readable, empirically rich account. -- Sherzod Muminov * Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review *"The quality and the amount of research [Bill Sewell] has done is very impressive, and the book is sophisticated and informative." -- Yuxin Ma * American Review of China Studies * [Sewell] succeeds in demonstrating the complexity of Japanese society in Changchun/Xinjing. Constructing Empire’s detailed chapters will be indispensable to graduate students and faculty researching or teaching the Japanese Empire and Japanese urban history. -- Alan Thornton * Journal of Asian Studies *This book serves as a study of an important dimension of Japanese imperialism and, at the same time, an exploration of an audacious undertaking in twentieth-century urban high modernism... [Sewell] offers an unexpected finding in the degree of continuity in the life of Japanese Changchun that might encourage us to reconsider, at the "street level", the sharpness of the great divide of imperial history conveniently marked by the Japanese conquest of 1931. -- Yoshihisa Tak Matsusaka, Wellesley College * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction1 City Planning2 Imperialist and Imperial Façades3 Economic Development4 Colonial SocietyConclusionNotes; Bibliography; Index
£52.70
University of British Columbia Press Saving the Nation through Culture The Folklore
Book SynopsisSaving the Nation through Culture tells the little-known story of how a group of Chinese scholars attempted to use “low culture” to promote national unity during a long period of crisis.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Seeking a Solution for the Nation: The Folklore Movement’s Origins at National Peking University2 Carrying on amidst Chaos: Establishment of Folklore Studies in South China3 Developing an Excellent Situation: The Spread of the Folklore Movement in China4 Breaking with the Past: The Folklore Movement in WartimeConclusionAppendices; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index
£48.60
University of British Columbia Press Unmooring the Komagata Maru
Book SynopsisUnmooring the Komagata Maru challenges conventional historical accounts to consider the national and transnational colonial dimensions of the Komagata Maru incident.Trade ReviewUnmooring is an important transnational text that sheds light on the history of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest as well as their present. -- Dharitri Bhattacharjee, Western Washington University * BC Studies, Issue 209 *Overall, this book is a well-written, rich and complex exploration of an event that illuminates Canadian nationalism and racisms and the transnational disciplining of brown bodies across borders, as well as historical anti-imperialist and contemporary anti-racist and anticolonial struggles. As a book that makes a vital contribution to political science and, indeed, the social sciences more broadly, Unmooring the Komagata Maru deserves an important place in university classrooms and research libraries across Canada and beyond. -- Elaine Coburn, Glendon College, York University * Canadian Journal of Political Science *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Itinerant Subjects of Empire: Unmooring the Komagata Maru / Davina Bhandar and Rita Kaur DhamoonPart 1: The Politics of Anti-Colonial Resistance in the Journey of the Komagata Maru 1 Right to the Empire?: British Imperial Citizenship before the First World War / Ian Christopher Fletcher2 The Last Stretch of the Journey: The Komagata Maru, War-Time Political Radicalism, and Migrant Workers from Punjab in Calcutta / Suchetana Chattopadhyay3 Resistance Struggles: Facing Lies, Deception, and Racism / Satwinder Kaur BainsPart 2: Migration Regimes in Colonial Contexts 4 The Komagata Maru as Event: Legal Transformations in Migration Regimes / Radhika Mongia5 Borders, Boats, and Brown Bodies: Reading Tamil “Irregular Arrivals” through the History of the Komagata Maru / Nadia Hasan, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Omme-Salma Rahemtullah, Nayani Thiyagarajah, and Nishant Upadhyay6 Temporary Arrivals: The Komagata Maru Passengers and Migrant Labour / Davina BhandarPart 3: Colonial Temporalities of Memory and Cultural Production7 The Komagata Maru Incident as Described in Two Japanese Works / Kaori Mizukami8 (Mis)Representing the Komagata Maru in Indian Print Cultures / Irina Spector-Marks9 The Time and Sound of the Nautical Border / Ayesha HameedPart 4: Disrupting Colonial Formations of Nation10 When Home and Harem Collide: The "Hindu Women’s Question": A Mass Spectacle of the Canadian Nation, Family, and Modernity / Enakshi Dua11 The Komagata Maru Recontextualized: Memory, History, and Diasporic Sikh Subnationalism in Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? / Rajender Kaur12 Past Wrongs and a New National Imaginary: Remembering the Komagata Maru Incident / Alia Somani13 The Politics of Empire: Minor History on a Global Scale / Renisa Mawani14 Poems: Still Chanting Denied Shores / Tariq MalikAppendix 1: Historical Figures cited in the ChaptersAppendix 2: BC Government Apology, May 23, 2008Appendix 3: Canadian Government Apology, May 18, 2016List of Contributors; Index
£62.90
University of British Columbia Press Unmooring the Komagata Maru
Book SynopsisUnmooring the Komagata Maru challenges conventional historical accounts to consider the national and transnational colonial dimensions of the Komagata Maru incident.Trade ReviewUnmooring is an important transnational text that sheds light on the history of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest as well as their present. -- Dharitri Bhattacharjee, Western Washington University * BC Studies, Issue 209 *Overall, this book is a well-written, rich and complex exploration of an event that illuminates Canadian nationalism and racisms and the transnational disciplining of brown bodies across borders, as well as historical anti-imperialist and contemporary anti-racist and anticolonial struggles. As a book that makes a vital contribution to political science and, indeed, the social sciences more broadly, Unmooring the Komagata Maru deserves an important place in university classrooms and research libraries across Canada and beyond. -- Elaine Coburn, Glendon College, York University * Canadian Journal of Political Science *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Itinerant Subjects of Empire: Unmooring the Komagata Maru / Davina Bhandar and Rita Kaur DhamoonPart 1: The Politics of Anti-Colonial Resistance in the Journey of the Komagata Maru 1 Right to the Empire?: British Imperial Citizenship before the First World War / Ian Christopher Fletcher2 The Last Stretch of the Journey: The Komagata Maru, War-Time Political Radicalism, and Migrant Workers from Punjab in Calcutta / Suchetana Chattopadhyay3 Resistance Struggles: Facing Lies, Deception, and Racism / Satwinder Kaur BainsPart 2: Migration Regimes in Colonial Contexts 4 The Komagata Maru as Event: Legal Transformations in Migration Regimes / Radhika Mongia5 Borders, Boats, and Brown Bodies: Reading Tamil “Irregular Arrivals” through the History of the Komagata Maru / Nadia Hasan, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Omme-Salma Rahemtullah, Nayani Thiyagarajah, and Nishant Upadhyay6 Temporary Arrivals: The Komagata Maru Passengers and Migrant Labour / Davina BhandarPart 3: Colonial Temporalities of Memory and Cultural Production7 The Komagata Maru Incident as Described in Two Japanese Works / Kaori Mizukami8 (Mis)Representing the Komagata Maru in Indian Print Cultures / Irina Spector-Marks9 The Time and Sound of the Nautical Border / Ayesha HameedPart 4: Disrupting Colonial Formations of Nation10 When Home and Harem Collide: The "Hindu Women’s Question": A Mass Spectacle of the Canadian Nation, Family, and Modernity / Enakshi Dua11 The Komagata Maru Recontextualized: Memory, History, and Diasporic Sikh Subnationalism in Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? / Rajender Kaur12 Past Wrongs and a New National Imaginary: Remembering the Komagata Maru Incident / Alia Somani13 The Politics of Empire: Minor History on a Global Scale / Renisa Mawani14 Poems: Still Chanting Denied Shores / Tariq MalikAppendix 1: Historical Figures cited in the ChaptersAppendix 2: BC Government Apology, May 23, 2008Appendix 3: Canadian Government Apology, May 18, 2016List of Contributors; Index
£26.99
University of British Columbia Press Chinas Asymmetric Statecraft
Book SynopsisChina’s Asymmetric Statecraft uncovers the different narratives and paradigms that constitute Chinese foreign policy toward its weaker neighbours, alerting us to a dramatically changing international environment.Trade Review… a significant, important contribution to international relations theory. -- S. C. Hart, CHOICE ConnectHuang is to be congratulated on his extraordinary utilization of archival as well as secondary materials. -- Brantly Womack * International Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Understanding China’s Regional Diplomacy1 A Regional Competition Theory of Asymmetric Statecraft2 East Asia, 1955–653 South Asia, 1955–634 Indochina, 1962–755 Regional Diplomacy in the New EraConclusionNotes; Bibliography; Index
£52.70
University of British Columbia Press The YWCA in China
Book SynopsisThe YWCA arrived in China as a cultural interloper in 1899. How did activist Christian Chinese women maintain their identity and social relevance through the tumultuous first half of the twentieth century? The YWCA in China explores how the Young Women's Christian Association responded to the needs of Chinese women and society both before and after the 1949 revolution ushered in a communist state. Western secretaries originally defined the Chinese YWCA movement, but successive generations of Chinese leadership localized its Western-defined organizational ethos. Over time, the Y became class conscious and progressive as Chinese women transformed it from a vehicle for moral and material uplift to an instrument for social action and an organizational citizen of China. And after 1949, national YWCA leaders supported the Maoist regime because they believed the social goals of the YWCA aligned with Mao's revolutionary aims. The YWCA in China is a fascinating investigatioTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Creating a YWCA Movement in China, 1899–19252 Making a Chinese Leadership, 1925–363 Seeking a Place in a Social Revolution, 1926–364 Claiming National Citizenship, 1937–485 Embracing the Maoist State, 1949–506 Cultivating a Socialist Mindset, 1951–57ConclusionGlossary; Notes; Bibliography; Index
£73.80
University of British Columbia Press Maos Final Legacies and the SinoVietnamese War 197179
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£54.00
Cornell University Press Colonialism and Cold War
Book SynopsisMcMahon looks closely at one area where American diplomacy played an important role in the end of the European imperial order—Indonesia—placing America's later policy in Indochina, in historical context.Trade ReviewColonialism and Cold War is based on a wide range of American archival sources, most particularly the State Department and modern military records in the National Archives, on British cabinet and Foreign Office materials in the Public Record Office, and on United Nations records in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. Robert J. McMahon is master of materials and has produced a neatly written, nicely judged, and well-argued work. * American Historical Review *Robert J. McMahon has produced a superb scholarly reconstruction of the American role in the decolonization of Southeast Asia's most important nation. He has also illuminated Washington’s persistent challenge to reconcile often-conflicting United States interests in colonialism, nationalism, and cold war. Policymakers and foreign policy theorists, as well as diplomatic historians, will find instruction in this lucidly written, tightly focused, nonpolemical, and richly documented account of the role of the United States in the Indonesian struggle for independence. * Journal of Asian Studies *Table of ContentsPreface1. The Growth of Indonesian Nationalism 2. The United States, the East Indies, and the Colonial Question 3. Reoccupation: August–December 1945 4. Toward the Linggadjati Agreement: January–November 1946 5. From Negotiations to War: November 1946–July 1947 6. Intervention by the United Nations: July 1947–January 1948 7. From Negotiations to War: January–December 1948 8. The Road to Independence: December 1948–December 1949 9. The United States and Indonesian IndependenceEpilogue: The United States and Indonesia, 1949–65 Bibliography of Archive Collections Index
£42.30
Cornell University Press Chinese WorkingClass Lives Getting By in Taiwan
Book SynopsisTaiwan’s working class has been shaped by Chinese tradition, by colonialism, and by rapid industrialization. This book defines that class, explores that history, and presents with sensitive honesty the life experiences of some of its women and men. Hill Gates first provides a solid and informative introduction to Taiwan’s history, showing how...Trade ReviewWords and phrases that best describe this book are ‘absorbing,’ ‘insightful,’ ‘straightforward,’ and ‘it makes you wish you had done it yourself.’ Through effectively telling nine life histories of mostly middle-aged people, Hill Gates gives the reader a comprehensive picture of working-class life on Taiwan in the 1980s. Gates has sought to present a range of types in some depth—thus portraying very clearly the life and cultures of this class on this island. -- Mark C. Thelin * Contemporary Sociology *Gates’s life-history method gains strength as it places the individual in concentric circles, overlapping groups, networks, and fragments of relationship to society. The reader learns about the structure of society from the bottom up, as it is seen and experienced by its participants. This is rich material drawn from the experiences of ordinary people, and its strength is to be found in both its rarity and its reality. -- Janet W. Salaff * Journal of Asian Studies *
£45.00
Cornell University Press Gifts Favors and Banquets
Book SynopsisAn elaborate and pervasive set of practices, called guanxi, underlies everyday social relationships in contemporary China. Obtaining and changing job assignments, buying certain foods and consumer items, getting into good hospitals, buying train...Trade ReviewI heartily recommend this book. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the meaning of social relationships in Chinese society. -- Gary G. Hamilton * American Journal of Sociology *To what extent did traditional customs and practices persist under the surface during the decades of Mao's rule, or are present forms a genuine revival? To what extent do these revivals testify to the enduring strength of the Chinese cultural tradition or are they to be explained much more as reflections of popular experiences during the socialist and reform eras' Mayfair Yang's book represents one of the most ambitious and systematic attempts to deal with a whole range of such questions. -- Martin King Whyte * The Journal of Asian Studies *
£97.20
Cornell University Press Rich Nation Strong Army
Book SynopsisSince World War II, Japan has become not only a model producer of high-tech consumer goods, but also-despite minimal spending on defense-a leader in innovative technology with both military and civilian uses.Trade ReviewA masterful study of the Japanese arms and aircraft industries, analyzing the interrelationship between military and civilian technology since the mid-nineteenth century. * Foreign Affairs *This book is a pleasure to read. It is a well-argued, lucid account and explanation of Japanese economic success since the Second World War; it is an excellent example of how, historically, to tackle questions of technology and technological innovation and their relation to economic change; and it provides fascinating insight into the debate about the role of national defense in either stimulating or suffocating economic activity. * Business History *
£42.30
Cornell University Press Collective Action in East Asia
Book SynopsisAs one Asian economic crisis follows another, sending shock waves through the global market, questions about the making and conduct of industrial policy in the East take on a special urgency. Observers are sharply divided as to whether the ubiquitous...Trade ReviewGregory Noble has written an important and painstakingly researched book that adds much to our understanding of the way industry policies develop and collective action problems are resolved in East Asia. -- Mark Beeson * Pacific Affairs *This systematically comparative study takes a close look at the impact of industrial policies on collective action in East Asia—Japan and Taiwan and, more briefly, in South Korea.... Brought to light are the unexpected inconsistencies in the effectiveness of Japanese policy which frequently succeeds with research and development consortia but struggles with cartels.... The author throws light on these countries' approach to today's global economy. * International Review of Administrative Sciences *
£66.60
MB - Cornell University Press Network Power Japan and Asia
Book SynopsisThis book examines regional dynamics in contemporary east and southeast Asia, scrutinizing the effects of Japanese dominance on the politics, economics, and cultures of the area. The contributors ask whether Japan has now attained, through sheer...Trade ReviewRemarkably coherent and thoughtful.... Intellectually solid and lively essays.... Begins and ends with a bang.... Network Power contributes enormously to the field of Japanese studies.... It is must-reading for those interested not only in area studies of Japan and Asia, but also in the diverse, complex processes of regionalization and regionalism. * Journal of Japanese Studies *A crucial issue in the nature of regional integration is the terms under which the integration process takes place. This edited volume explores this issue by focusing on the character of Asian regionalism and the economic, security, political and cultural aspects of Japanese power and leadership roles in Asian regionalism... The result is an excellent book that extends our empirical knowledge of network-style integration and power, and provides an exceptionally valuable springboard for further debate on this important topic. * Asian Studies Review *
£97.20
Cornell University Press Creating a Chinese Harbin Nationalism in an
Book SynopsisJames H. Carter outlines the birth of Chinese nationalism in an unlikely setting: the international city of Harbin. Planned and built by Russian railway engineers, the city rose quickly from the Manchurian plain, changing from a small fishing village...Trade ReviewJames H. Carter deserves much praise for this eloquent and penetrating case stud of Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth century.... The book is a valuable contribution to the rapidly expanding body of literature on twentieth-century modernity and nationalism in individual Chinese cities. -- Joseph W. Esherick, UC San Diego * The China Journal *Carter's story charts the rise of various competing versions of Chinese nationalism. These included an aggressive, violent, radical student version as well as a more peaceful, middle-class, merchant-oriented version.... Carter's conclusion is a disturbing one for those who hope that China will produce a civil society capable of supporting democratic practices. As he sees it, the efforts to 'Chineseify' Harbin illuminate the larger Chinese problem: that the state dominates society so much that the end result is a state without a nation. * Foreign Affairs *Graceful writing, interesting biographical sketches, and good illustrations make this urban portrait a pleasure to read, and the discussion of the development of Chinese nationalism is stimulating.... Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/collections. * Choice *The book builds on a truly impressive range of archival materials and publications in English, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and even Danish. One of the problems involved in working on this particular city is that its multiethnic history makes research so linguistically demanding, but although Carter's focus is clearly on the Chinese community, he does not lose sight of the larger picture. Throughout the book, he shows a fine eye for the significance of events which at first sight might not appear to be important: a brawl between Russian and Chinese students after a basketball match; the Chinese takeover of a Danish Lutheran church; the fundraising activities of a Buddhist monk; the route of a student demonstration. Close analysis of such local events and individuals makes this very special city come alive on the page. * International History Review *The book contributes significantly to Republican Chinese history. First, it is a much-needed study of a city whose Chinese, as opposed to Russian, history has not been much explored in English before.... This elegantly written and meticulously researched book will repay attention from all those who are interested in urban history, imperialism, and nationalism in modern China. -- Rana Mitter * China Quarterly *What should a modern Chinese city be like? Such a simple question, unfortunately, defies a simple answer. Focusing on Harbin in the Northeast, the author traces how generations of nationalistic Chinese who lived in the city through the tumultuous late nineteenth and early twentieth century wrestled with an answer, or answers. Condemned to modernize by Tsarist Russia and other imperialist powers, how did they negotiate the tensions of westernization and yet realize their nationalistic quest by fashioning a Chinese identity? * The China Review *
£45.60
Cornell University Press Internationalizing China
Book SynopsisChina began opening to the outside world in 1978. This process was designed to remain under the state's control. But the relative value of goods and services inside and outside China drove cities, enterprises, local governments, and individuals with...Trade ReviewIn... his helpfully organized, largely plain-speaking and enlightening book, Mr. Zweig calls for far-sighted leaders and public-spirited citizens to struggle against the 'crony capitalism' that can undermine China's growth. -- Jonathan Mirsky * Bookshelf *Zweig has brought intellectual order to the chaotic process of China's opening to the world. * Foreign Affairs *Internationalizing China will appeal heavily to scholars and social scientists bent on dissecting the complex phenomena that swept over the Chinese economy in the 1980s and 1990s. And for businesspeople who lived and worked their way through these transformations.... Zweig's book will offer valuable insights and perspectives. -- Robert A. Kapp * The China Business Review *Zweig shows how China avoided the disruptive Big Bang reforms that have proved so damaging in Russia and Eastern Europe. Zweig's study is also a warning to those in the West who naively imagine that China's market opening is going to lead inevitably to political reform. -- Mark L. Clifford * BusinessWeek *Zweig's goal is 'to explain the how and why of China's internationalization over the last two decades of the twentieth century' (p. 22). His efforts result in both a wealth of factual data and a model of internationalization that is suitable for use by other China scholars as well as by those studying other liberalizing societies. -- Norton Wheeler * H-Net Reviews *Zweig's study provides a helpful analysis and documentation of China's gaige kaifeng policies of the last quarter century, offering useful insights into the pull-push dynamics of local and external forces in the fields of local economic development, education, and development aid. -- Peter Harris * The China Journal *
£97.20
Cornell University Press The North Korean Revolution 19451950
Book SynopsisArmstorng examines the genesis of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) both as an important yet rarely studied example of a communist state and as part of modern Korean history.Trade ReviewArmstrong has carefully gone over all of the newly available documents on the founding of the North Korean regime to ask why Pyongyang, in spite of the appalling suffering of its people, remains one of the last holdouts of 'unreformed' Marxism-Leninism. * Foreign Affairs *Charles K. Armstrong takes advantage of new archival materials to rethink the history and character of North Korea. In considering the critical years of North Korea's development prior to the outbreak of the Korean War, Armstrong's The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950, delivers some surprising, heterodox conclusions. -- John Feffer * Korean Quarterly *Charles K. Armstrong's The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 is a pioneering work.... This eye-catching book offers a wealth of factual information on the genesis of the North Korean state. It introduces a unique comprehensive perspective for the analysis of postcolonial Korean modernization, communist state formation, and creation of new imagined national and social identities and communities in the North. It is a new classic in Korean studies and a must-read for all aspiring students of Korean history and Korean affairs. -- Alexandre Y. Mansourov * Journal of Asian Studies *In a world where the kind of Marxist-inspired, state-directed development embodied by Soviet Russia has long since been discredited as ineffective, the North Korean economy and state management continue to resist the forces of the North Korean people. Armstrong wants to explain this rather counterintuitive longevity of a state whose like can be found nowhere else in the world except in Cuba.... This work will be indispensable for anyone hoping to understand the postwar history of Korea and East Asia. * Choice *This book provides a wealth of factual information and historical background that increases the reader's understanding of North Korea's communist history and present idiosyncrasies. -- Jeffrey J. Kuebler * Military Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of AbbreviationsIntroduction 1.Revolution on the Margins 2. Liberation, Occupation, and the Emerging New Order 3. Remaking the People 4. Coalition Politics and the United Front 5. Planning the Economy 6. Constructing Culture 7. A Regime of Surveillance 8. The People's State ConclusionAppendix A: A Note on Sources Appendix B: Statements of General Chistiakov on the Soviet Occupation of North Korea, Fall 1945 Selected Bibliography Index
£42.30
MB - Cornell University Press The Power of Institutions Political Architecture and Governance
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£97.20
MB - Cornell University Press The End of Diversity Prospects for German and Japanese Capitalism
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£97.20
Cornell University Press Making Enemies War and State Building in Burma
Book SynopsisThe Burmese army took political power in Burma in 1962 and has ruled the country ever since. The persistence of this government—even in the face of long-term nonviolent opposition led by activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize...Table of ContentsCoercion and the colonial state, 1826-1941; The Japanese occupation, 1941-43; Resistance and the United Front, 1943-45; Making peace and making armies, 1945-48; Insurgency and state disintegration, 1948-50; Warfare and army building, 1950-53; Warriors as state builders, 1953-62.
£45.00
Cornell University Press A NotSoDistant Horror
Book SynopsisOn August 30, 1999, in a United Nations-sponsored ballot, East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia and for an end to a brutal military occupation. Upon the announcement of the result, Indonesian troops and their paramilitary proxies launched a wave of terror that, over three weeks, resulted in the murder of more than 1,000 people, the rape of untold numbers of women and girls, the razing of 70 percent of the country''s buildings and infrastructure, and the forcible deportation of 250,000 people. In recounting these horrible acts and the preceding events, Joseph Nevins shows that what took place was only the final scene in more than two decades of atrocities. More than 200,000 people, about a third of the population, lost their lives due to Indonesia''s 1975 invasion and subsequent occupation, making the East Timorese case proportionately one of the worst episodes of genocide since World War II. In A Not-So-Distant Horror, Nevins reveals the international compliTrade ReviewA Not-So-Distant Horror is essential for understanding the broader context of Washington's latest support for Jakarta's military. The book provides a thorough overview of 'international community' backing for the twenty-four-year Indonesian military occupation of East Timor, and shows the blatant power calculations that went into the sell-out of the East Timorese. As Nevins quotes then-U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Stapleton Roy saying in 1999, 'Indonesia matters and East Timor doesn't.'. -- Ben Terrall * Counterpunch.org *In an account described by Noam Chomsky as 'searingly honest,' Joe Nevins analyzes how Western nations conspired to back Indonesia and keep the East Timor issue out of the spotlight. The price paid by the East Timorese was a loss of life estimated at close to two hundred thousand, or a third of its population, proportionally one of the worst cases of genocide since World War II. -- Maire Leadbeater * The New Zealand Herald *Nevins's account of the period from Indonesia's unlawful invasion of East Timor on 7 December 1975 to the withdrawal of its forces in September 2001 is factual, accurate, and spare.... There is much to reflect on in Nevins's book, not least the mute acceptance in Australia of many U.S. policies as our own. -- Richard Broinowski * Australian Book Review *This book identifies many villains and even more numerous accomplices, not only in East Timor but in 'painful events' around the world. It will raise the reader's righteous indignation as well as awareness. Implicit is the hope that awareness and indignation will stimulate deeper, more truthful accounts of 'painful events', leading to justice, restitution and moral closure. -- Stephen Hoadley * New Zealand International Review *Rarely do contemporary histories address foreign policy making from the perspective of human rights and justice. Even rarer is a book like Joseph Nevins's A Not-So-Distant Horror, which compellingly makes the case that failure to give such concerns adequate weight in policy formulation has produced ruinous results.... This book should be read by all those concerned that Washington's eager embrace and empowerment of rogue militaries in the so-called 'war on terror'—as we did during the Cold War—will again strengthen regimes characterized by their corruption and hostility to democracy and human rights. -- Edmund McWilliams * Foreign Service Journal *This is a gripping and powerful saga rooted in the horrible atrocities and deprivation endured by the East Timorese following Indonesia's invasion in 1975. Indonesian security forces ruled ruthlessly until 1999, causing nearly 200,000 conflict-related deaths, imprisoning and torturing thousands more, while raping and plundering with abandon. A generation of East Timorese grew up where the rule of law was a distant rumor and human rights were routinely violated. Joseph Nevins briefly recapitulates this history, focusing on international complicity in these crimes against humanity, but mostly dwells on the troubling failure to secure justice. -- Jeff Kingston * The Japan Times *
£81.00
MB - Cornell University Press Think Global Fear Local
Book SynopsisLeheny uses Japan's crackdown on child prostitution and its counterterrorist policy to argue that international norms can serve as political tools, allowing states to enhance their coercive authority.Trade Review"David Leheny's book vividly illustrates how vague and not-so-vague fear is pervasive in post-Cold War and post-9/11 Japanese society." -- Takashi Inoguchi, Chuo University"David Leheny's brilliant book shows how global norms are transformed in Japan by officials in the law enforcement and security fields who seek expanded state powers to target national problems and offer credible solutions. This analysis reveals the cultural politics through which solutions resonate with and amplify local constructions of threats, anxieties, villains, and scapegoats. Leheny's fascinating analysis at the interface of political science and anthropology makes a compelling case for constructionist approaches to transnationalism." -- Kay Warren, Brown University"Insightful social science is rarely such fun. Think Global, Fear Local reveals how broadly accepted global norms against child prostitution and terrorism get transformed by anxiety-ridden Japanese policy makers into powerful weapons used to attack peripheral, though admittedly vexing, domestic demons. Leheny's wry wit and Runyonesque characterizations make this a delicious romp through the back alleys of contemporary Japan in the quest to learn how 'good norms go bad.' Read this book; you won't be disappointed." -- T. J. Pempel, Director, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
£50.15
Cornell University Press Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty Oil Politics in
Book SynopsisSmith deciphers the paradox of the resource curse and questions its inevitability through an innovative comparison of the experiences of Iran and Indonesia.Trade Review"Benjamin Smith has raised the costs for anyone hoping to tell us something new and significant about the role of oil in political development. With Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty he has all but cornered the market."-Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania, author of America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier "Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty is thoughtful, provocative, and innovative. It is a richly textured exploration of political development in oil-exporting Iran and Indonesia. Employing a methodology that is both multilayered and eclectic, Ben Smith challenges the commonplace notion-and implicit suggestion of the 'rentier state' literature-that oil states are intrinsically unstable and prone to breakdown. He demonstrates that political outcomes are determined 'not by oil, but when oil' and highlights the challenges presented by different institutional landscapes at the inception of oil-based development."-Miriam R. Lowi, The College of New Jersey "The fascinating Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty is characterized by bold ambition and real insight; Benjamin Smith admirably weaves together a variety of methods to produce a book that is truly comparative in scope. Smith highlights a key insight for those interested in the politics of oil, namely that timing matters."-Eva Bellin, Hunter College
£97.20
Cornell University Press Mummies and Death in Egypt
Book SynopsisToday, a good century after the first X-rays of mummies, Egyptology has the benefit of all the methods and means at the disposal of forensic medicine. The ''mummy stories'' we tell have changed their tone, but they have enjoyed much success, with fantastic scientific and technological results resolving the mysteries of the ancient land of the pharaohs.from the ForewordMummies are the things that fascinate us most about ancient Egypt. But what are mummies? How did the Egyptians create them? And why? What became of the people they once were? We are learning more all the time about the cultural processes surrounding mummification and the medical characteristics of ancient Egyptian mummies. In the first part of Mummies and Death in Egypt Françoise Dunand gives an overview of the history of mummification in Egypt from the prehistoric to the Roman period. She thoroughly describes the preparations of the dead (tombs and their furnishings, funerary offerings, ornamentation of the corTrade Review"The authors have divided this book into two parts. In the first section, Dunand looks at why and how mummies were made . . . . The second part of the book, written by Lichtenberg, looks in some detail at modern, scientific research on mummies. He draws together research and studies undertaken around the world, but also much of his own, which has involved the use of portable X-ray equipment, which enables on-site investigations of mummies to be made. The results are fascinating and reveal diseases and accidents from which the ancient Egyptians suffered."—Ancient Egypt
£33.25
Cornell University Press The Making of Minjung
Book Synopsis"This book is the best, and virtually the only, political ethnography of South Korean antigovernment political activism by students and intellectuals during the 1980s."—Korean StudiesTrade ReviewLee's books is one of few studies that attempts to analyze the Korean democratic movement from its origins in the early 1970s to its denouement in the 1990s. While most studies focus on the May 1980 Gwangju uprising or the post 1987 democratic transition and consolidation, Lee's book covers the entire period of the movement, Thus, in Lee's book we get the full story: how the movement emerged in the 1970s, the catalytic effects of the Gwangju uprising in the 1980, and how the movement became increasingly radicalized in the 1980s. -- Paul Y. Chang * Mobilization *This book is the best, and virtually the only, political ethnography of South Korean antigovernment political activism by students and intellectuals during the 1980s' turbulent democratization periods. While a few works have been published regarding the political democratization processes in South Korea recently, they fail to achieve the accuracy and in-depth description that Namhee Lee has provided through this meticulous survey of real life experiences of South Korean activists in the 1980s. -- Jungmin Seo * Korean Studies *
£42.30
Cornell University Press Privatizing China Socialism from Afar
Book SynopsisPrivatizing China gives readers a grounded, fine-grained intimacy with the variety and complexity of everyday conduct in China's turbulent transformation.Trade Review"Privatizing China is an outstanding contribution to the literature on the extraordinary changes taking place in China today. Its authors analyze fresh evidence through new and compelling frameworks that capture the often contradictory but always fascinating 'assemblages' that constitute Chinese social, economic, cultural, and political life. All of the essays adopt a mode of presentation and argumentation that moves back and forth between theoretical commentary and ethnographic description; all are clearly written, highly accessible, moving, and evocative in their storytelling."-Susan Greenhalgh, University of California, Irvine "Privatizing China is an important book that deserves a close reading by all scholars interested in postsocialist societies and/or twenty-first-century socialisms. Contributors explore China's headlong plunge into the privatization of housing, urban land, labor, consumption practices, health care, and new media. This is anthropology at its very best."-James L. Watson, Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society and Professor of Anthropology, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Privatizing China: Powers of the Self, Socialism from Afar by Aihwa Ong and Li Zhang PART I. POWERS OF PROPERTY Emerging Class Practices 1. Private Homes, Distinct Lifestyles: Performing a New Middle Class by Li Zhang 2. Property Rights and Homeowner Activism in New Neighborhoods by Benjamin L. Read Accumulating Land and Money 3. Socialist Land Masters: The Territorial Politics of Accumulation by You-tien Hsing 4. Tax Tensions: Struggles over Income and Revenue by Bei Li and Steven M. Sheffrin Negotiating Neoliberal Values 5. "Reorganized Moralism": The Politics of Transnational Labor Codes by Pun Ngai 6. Neoliberalism and Hmong/Miao Transnational Media Ventures by Louisa Schein PART II.POWERS OF THE SELF Taking Care of One's Health 7. Consuming Medicine and Biotechnology in China by Nancy N. Chen 8. Should I Quit?: Tobacco, Fraught Identity, and the Risks of Governmentality by Matthew Kohrman 9.Wild Consumption: Relocating Responsibilities in the Time of SARS by Mei Zhan Managing the Professional Self 10. Post-Mao Professionalism: Self-enterprise and Patriotism by Lisa M. Hoffman 11. Self-fashioning Shanghainese: Dancing across Spheres of Value by Aihwa Ong Search for the Self in New Publics 12. Living Buddhas, Netizens, and the Price of Religious Freedom by Dan Smyer Yu 13. Privatizing Control: Internet Cafes in China by Zhou Yongming Afterword: Thinking Outside the Leninist Corporate Box by Ralph A. Litzinger Notes Contributors Index
£97.20
Cornell University Press Screening Enlightenment
Book SynopsisDuring the six-and-a-half-year occupation of Japan (19451952), U.S. film studiosin close coordination with Douglas MacArthur''s Supreme Command for the Allied Powerslaunched an ambitious campaign to extend their power and influence in a historically rich but challenging film market. In this far-reaching enlightenment campaign, Hollywood studios disseminated more than six hundred films to theaters, earned significant profits, and showcased the American way of life as a political, social, and cultural model for the war-shattered Japanese population. In Screening Enlightenment, Hiroshi Kitamura shows how this expansive attempt at cultural globalization helped transform Japan into one of Hollywood''s key markets. He also demonstrates the prominent role American cinema played in the reeducation and reorientation of the Japanese on behalf of the U.S. government.According to Kitamura, Hollywood achieved widespread results by turning to the support of U.S. government and militTrade ReviewAmerican moviemakers had to tread carefully with the American military and governmental occupation authorities if they were to expect to be able to penetrate the newly opened market for their films in postwar Japan. In sum, filmmakers were secondary players in a game of very serious hardball. Kitamura provides vivid glimpses into what qualities in specific American movies appealed to Japanese critics and audiences. He describes how, as the Japanese spirit revived, lively movie discussion groups sprang up in Japan. Recommended. * Choice *Hiroshi Kitamura has written an excellent overview of the role played by Hollywood films in shaping the cultural reconstruction of Japan during the American occupation. His book reflects wide reading in Japanese sources, the research of film scholars, and current scholarship of American occupation policy.... This fine book will be of value not only to diplomatic and military historians but also to persons interested in the American occupation of Germany, as so many parallels are implicit in it. -- David Culbert * Journal of American History *In addition to his significant contribution to diplomatic history and U.S. relations with Japan, Kitamura adds to our understanding of Japanese history in the critical period after the war.... What he details so carefully through his examination of the Central Motion Picture Exchange (CMPE) and the Eiga no tomo, among other organizations and entities, is how Japanese came to embrace the carefully scripted and edited manner in which American films were reintroduced to Japan during the occupation. -- T. Christopher Jespersen * H-Diplo Roundtable Review *Kitamura shows that Hollywood and SCAP [the occupying authorities led by General Douglas MacArthur] were at loggerheads almost as often as they were in harmony.... SCAP censorship caused problems for American films as various as Frank Capra's political fable, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, unseen in Japan during the Occupation due to its portrayal of corruption in US politics, to the Tyrone Power swashbuckler, The Mark of Zorro, which in an era when samurai films were practically banned, was criticized for its portrayal of swordplay as a 'fine and fashionable art of killing.'... His book sheds new light on a neglected aspect of Occupation history. -- Alexander Jacoby * Times Literary Supplement *Kitamura's book is a new contribution to the field of cinema in occupied Japan in covering such diverse groups as the American film distributor, the Central Motion Picture Exchange (CMPE); Japanese exhibitors and movie theaters; 'cultural elites’ including critics, journalists, and scholars; and moviegoers. Attention to all these groups allows readers to see the complicated dynamics in which Hollywood films become the icon of democracy and modernity in occupied Japan.... It can be highly recommended to all scholars and students of the US occupation of Japan, film history, and Japanese cultural and intellectual history. -- Yuka Tsuchiya * Social Science Japan Journal *Kitamura's thoroughly researched and immensely readable book mainly combines approaches of historical research and film studies. It is based on an admirable range of both US and Japanese source materials and consists of a concise methodological preface and eight thematically arranged chapters.... The fact that Screening Enlightenment undoubtedly will inspire such future studies that further examine the fascinating issues it raises, may very well be one of its most important merits. -- Harald Salomon * Pacific Affairs *Table of Contents1. Thwarted Ambitions: Hollywood and Japan before the Second World War 2. Renewed Intimacies: Hollywood, War, and Occupation 3. Contested Terrains: Occupation Censorship and Japanese Cinema 4. Corporatist Tensions: Hollywood versus the Occupation 5. Fountains of Culture: Hollywood's Marketing in Defeated Japan 6. Presenting Culture: The Exhibition of American Movies 7. Seeking Enlightenment: The Culture Elites and American Movies 8. Choosing America: Eiga no tomo and the Making of a New Fan Culture ConclusionAppendix: First Forty-Five Films Selected for Distribution in Japan after the War Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index Index of Films
£97.20
MB - Cornell University Press Sorry States
Book SynopsisGovernments increasingly offer or demand apologies for past human rights abuses, and it is widely believed that such expressions of contrition are necessary to promote reconciliation between former adversaries. The post-World War II experiences of Japan and Germany suggest that international apologies have powerful healing effects when they are offered, and poisonous effects when withheld. West Germany made extensive efforts to atone for wartime crimes-formal apologies, monuments to victims of the Nazis, and candid history textbooks; Bonn successfully reconciled with its wartime enemies. By contrast, Tokyo has made few and unsatisfying apologies and approves school textbooks that whitewash wartime atrocities. Japanese leaders worship at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war criminals among Japan''s war dead. Relations between Japan and its neighbors remain tense.Examining the cases of South Korean relations with Japan and of French relations with Germany, Jennifer Lind demonsTrade ReviewAt a time when nations and societies around the world are engaging in remarkable new means to restore comity in the aftermath of violence and brutality, detailed and comparative studies of national successes and failures in reconciliation are sorely needed. Jennifer Lind's work will stand as a valued contribution in this humane project. * Journal of Japanese Studies *States victimized by aggression often harbor resentment against the perpetrator, but can apologies by the latter lead to reconciliation and harmonious relations' Jennifer Lind focuses on political rather than cultural factors in her cogent analysis of remembrance and remorse. She finds that the issue is whether apologies by the aggressor can reduce the perception of threat by former victims. She concludes that this is possible, but recognizes that bilateral ties may also be improved in the absence of apologies, and that apologies can produce jingoistic backlashes in their own countries. * Choice *
£55.25
Cornell University Press Changing Politics in Japan
Book SynopsisChanging Politics in Japan is a fresh and insightful account of the profound changes that have shaken up the Japanese political system and transformed it almost beyond recognition in the last couple of decades. Ikuo Kabashima—a former professor who is...Trade ReviewThe study is concise and well documented with many statistics and other sources. The authors 'set out to demolish further the once prevalent myth that Japanese politics are a stagnant set of entrenched systems and interests that are fundamentally undemocratic' (p. 1)... this book provides very balanced and concise overviews of Japanese politics. -- Koji Murata * Journal of Japanese Studies *This book is rich in detail and provides a valuable summary of all of the tumultuous events that have occurred in Japanese politics since the early 1990s. A major strength of the book lies precisely in its broad sweep.... The authors provide a refreshingly balanced account that points not only to institutional but also to longer term socio-economic factors as drivers of change in Japanese politics. -- Reiko Kage * Social Science Japan Journal *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Citizens and Elites in the Construction of the LDP System 3. Party and Voter Dealignment: The LDP System Disintegrates 4. Changing Media, Changing Politics 5. Citizens and the Prime Minister 6. Representation and Policymaking under LDP Administrations iin the Post-1955 System 7. Voters and the Democratic Party of Japan 8. Afterword: Where to Now?Appendix A. The National Diet Appendix B. ASSK Survey Questions and Coding Appendix C. The Japan Election Study II References Index
£81.00
Cornell University Press No Mans Land
Book SynopsisExamines the complex relationship that illicit groups have with modern technology—and how and when geography still matters, tracing the networks, command structures, and training programs of Southeast Asian terrorist, insurgent, and criminal groups.Trade Review"No Man's Land is a useful and original contribution to the literature on terrorism from the perspective of political geography. It provides a different perspective from mainstream terrorism and strategic studies and gives a useful counter to the sometimes bloated claims of the advocates of globalization. Just as realists in International Relations argue that globalization has not meant the end of the state, Justin V. Hastings makes a compelling argument that territory matters and that it is not passé, despite the emergence of the global interlinked economy." -- Andrew T. H. Tan, Convenor for International Studies, University of New South Wales"Engaging and accessible, No Man's Land is a fascinating book on extremely timely and important topics—terrorism, insurgency, and cross-border crime." -- Peter Andreas, Brown University, author of Blue Helmets and Black MarketsTable of ContentsIntroductionPart I: Grappling with Territory in a Globalizing World1. Territory and the Ideas of Clandestine Transnational Organization2. Territory, Politics, and the Technologies of GlobalizationPart II: Territory and Transnational Terrorism3. The Rise of Jemaah Islamiyah, 1985–1994. The Decline of Jemaah Islamiyah, 1999–20095. The Plots of Jemaah IslamiyahPart III: Extensions: Southeast Asia and Beyond6. Gerakan Aceh Merdeka7. Transnational Criminal Organizations in Southeast Asia8. Fluidity and Rigidity in Clandestine Transnational OrganizationsConclusionNotes BibliographyIndex
£81.00
Cornell University Press Black Yanks in the Pacific
Book SynopsisBy the end of World War II, many black citizens viewed service in the segregated American armed forces with distaste if not disgust. Meanwhile, domestic racism and Jim Crow, ongoing Asian struggles against European colonialism, and prewar calls for Afro-Asian solidarity had generated considerable black ambivalence toward American military expansion in the Pacific, in particular the impending occupation of Japan. However, over the following decade black military service enabled tens of thousands of African Americans to interact daily with Asian peoplesencounters on a scale impossible prior to 1945. It also encouraged African Americans to share many of the same racialized attitudes toward Asian peoples held by their white counterparts and to identify with their government''s foreign policy objectives in Asia.In Black Yanks in the Pacific, Michael Cullen Green tells the story of African American engagement with military service in occupied Japan, war-torn South Korea, andTrade ReviewDuring the decade following WWII, the US embarked upon two great historical journeys—the civil rights movement and the Cold War. In this brief but thought-provoking study, Green examines the interaction of these two forces through the eyes of African American soldiers stationed in postwar Asia.... A fascinating sidelight is Green's examination of the sad fate of African-Asian offspring left behind. A thoughtful, provocative study that skillfully integrates the interplay of domestic and foreign policy. Summing up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Everyday Racial Politics in a Military Empire Chapter 1: Reconversion Blues and the Appeal of (Re)Enlistment Chapter 2: The American Dream in a Prostrate Japan Chapter 3: The Public Politics of Intimate Affairs Chapter 4: A Brown Baby Crisis Chapter 5: The Race of Combat in Korea Epilogue: Military Desegregation in a Militarized World Notes Selected Bibliography Index
£36.10
Cornell University Press The Rise and Fall of Japans LDP
Book SynopsisExplains how the persistence of party institutions (factions, PARC, koenkai) and the transformed role of party leadership in Japan contributed both to the LDP's success at remaining in power for 15 years and its downfall.Trade ReviewI am on record—on the back of their book cover—as saying that Ellis Krauss and Robert Pekkanen's The Rise and Fall of Japan’s LDP is 'the best book ever written on Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party.' Despite the passage of a full year since I wrote the blurb, my enthusiasm for the book has not dulled. -- Ethan Scheiner * Social Science Japan Journal *In this excellent book the authors examine the inner workings of the LDP since it was established in 1955, a critically important topic given its dominant role in Japanese politics until 2009. It is a fascinating analysis of the institutions within the LDP and how they evolved over time. -- Jeff Kingston * The Japan Times *Krauss and Pekkanen's study is not about defeat, but survival... taking issue with more conventional and—their term—deductive interpretations of the LDP, and... with those who loaded most of the explanation of the LDP’s character and development on the nature of the SNTV MMD electoral system.... In short, Krauss and Pekkanen take aim at most of the conventional literature on the LDP and score a palpable hit. This is a convincing and persuasive analysis.... It goes without question that any scholar interested in the workings of Japanese party politics will also clearly benefit from this book. It is a major achievement. -- Peter Mair * Japanese Journal of Political Science *The greatest merit of this book is its comprehensive empirical underpinning, enabling the authors to overturn celebrated misapprehensions about Japanese politics. It is indeed a truly magisterial piece of work. -- Arthur Stockwin * Journal of Japanese Studies *This book demonstrates the limits of comparative statics approaches. Even long-time students of Japanese party politics will profit from this book. -- Mike Thies * Party Politics *When I first looked at this book, I was put off by the effusive praise of the reviews posted prominently on the back book cover. 'Best book ever written,' 'magnificent work will certainly become a classic,' 'likely to become the reference,' and 'this book will, I think, become a classic' all struck me as perhaps a bit strong in praise of this book. Thus I was surprised at my reaction after having read the book; I agreed with their hearty praise. -- Ray Christensen * Pacific Affairs *With their colorful detail and examples in this book... Krauss and Pekkanen have given us the definitive examination of the ways in which politics has changed since the seminal electoral reforms of the 1990s. -- Leonard Schoppa * Perspectives on Politics *Table of Contents1. The Liberal Democratic Party in Time 2. The Koenkai: Origin and Development of a Vote-Mobilization Machine 3. The Koenkai Today: Institutional Change 4. Factions under the Single Nontransferable Vote Mixed-Member District System 5. Factions Today 6. The Policy Affairs Research Council and Policymaking under the '55 System 7. The Policy Affairs Research Council after Reform 8. Party Leadership in the ’55 System 9. The Changing Role of Party Leadership 10. The Liberal Democratic Party out of Time?Coded Interviews References Index
£97.20
Cornell University Press Maos New World
Book SynopsisIn this sweeping portrait of the political culture of the early People''s Republic of China (PRC), Chang-tai Hung mines newly available sources to vividly reconstruct how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tightened its rule after taking power in 1949. With political-cultural projects such as reconstructing Tiananmen Square to celebrate the Communist Revolution; staging national parades; rewriting official histories; mounting a visual propaganda campaign, including oil paintings, cartoons, and New Year prints; and establishing a national cemetery for heroes of the Revolution, the CCP built up nationalistic fervor in the people and affirmed its legitimacy. These projects came under strong Soviet influence, but the nationalistic Chinese Communists sought an independent road of nation building; for example, they decided that the reconstructed Tiananmen Square should surpass Red Square in size and significance, against the advice of Soviet experts sent from Moscow.Combining historTrade ReviewMao's New World is a series of illuminating essays on the culture of the early People’s Republic. * New York Review of Books *Chang-tai Hung's study of political culture in China in the 1950s is rich in detailed insights that complement his earlier treatment of the entwined subjects of politics and culture in War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937–1945. * China Journal *Hung's meticulous research reveals the struggles over values and power behind the granite surface of revolutionary China’s new look. * Foreign Affairs *The book contains much comparison of Mao's China with Joseph Stalin’s Russia, Adolf Hitler’s Germany, and the early years of the French Revolution. This authoritative survey of an important subject will be welcome to students of the period. * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *The book makes a definite contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of cultural politics and political culture during the PRC's formative era. * American Historical Review *This study of the newly established regime in China in the early 1950s will appeal to a wide range of readers. Hung is particularly good at delineating the contested areas of modernity and tradition that were crucial in creating a new national identity. * China Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroductionI. Space1. Tiananmen Square: Space and Politics2. Ten Monumental Buildings: Architecture of PowerII. Celebrations3. Yangge: The Dance of Revolution4. ParadesIII. History5. The Red Line: The Museum of the Chinese Revolution6. Oil Paintings and HistoryIV. Visual Images7. Devils in the Drawings8. New Year Prints and Peasant ResistanceV. Commemoration9. The Cult of the Red Martyr10. The Monument to the People's HeroesConclusionNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex
£97.20
Cornell University Press Lovesick Japan
Book SynopsisExploring the legal perspective on love, sex, and marriage—and their complications—in contemporary Japan.Trade ReviewNobody else explores the law in Japan quite like Mark West, bringing it to life and close to home. Lovesick Japan is an entertaining and insightful examination of the courts, pulling eye-popping gems from judges' opinions that speak volumes about their proclivity for peeping, prodding, moralizing and otherwise creeping into the bedroom in adjudicating marriage, divorce, rape, stalking and pornography.... But there is much more to Lovesick Japan than a series of absurd rulings; here we are shown how sermonizing judges try to shape society in their own image.... Often they go well beyond the law to decide cases based on nonfactual, subjective elements, sometimes with unfortunate consequences. -- Jeff Kingston * Japan Times *Tranquil, according to Mark D. West, Japanese love is not. Happy it is not. And comforting it is not.... A prolific and brilliant legal scholar, West draws these conclusions from Japanese court opinions. Some of them concern criminal prosecutions for rape or murder. Others involve civil suits for divorce or damages. West carefully and thoughtfully combs these opinions for discussions of love, sex, marriage, and romance, teasing out what judges think about it all.... West reads these court opinions with care and intelligence (with, frankly, extraordinary care and intelligence). -- J. Mark Ramseyer * Monumenta Nipponica *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Judging 2. Love 3. Coupling 4. Private Sex 5. Commodified Sex 6. Divorce ConclusionNotes Index
£33.25
Cornell University Press Small Works
Book SynopsisIn Small Works, John A. Donaldson draws on his extensive fieldwork in two Chinese provinces—Yunnan and Guizhou—that are exceptions to the purported relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction.Trade ReviewDonaldson's analysis goes beyond the frequently-assumed dichotomy between state and market to scrutinize the various relationships between the two, as well as the different impacts they have on economic growth and poverty reduction. The research design of the book is rigorous and the overall analysis rich in data, vivid, and well-structured. Scholars and graduate students interested in contemporary China or development studies will find this book useful. -- Sabrina Habich * Journal of Chinese Political Science *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Guizhou and Yunnan in Comparison 2. Why Do Similar Areas Adopt Different Developmental Strategies? 3. Roads: Building Connections to Markets 4. Migration: Go East, Young Man (and Woman) 5. Tourism: Joyous Village Life 6. Coal Mining: Black Gold Conclusion: The Micro-Oriented State, Development, and PovertyAppendix: Methodology and Case Selection References Index
£40.50
Cornell University Press Border Work
Book SynopsisThrough an ethnography of social and spatial practice at the limits of the state, this book explores the contested work of producing and policing "territorial integrity" when significant stretches of new international borders remain to be conclusively demarcated or effectively policed.Trade ReviewIn Border Work, Madeleine Reeves brings a granular ethnographic analysis to the daily practices that surround the border between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikstan as it snakes its way up and down through the remote Ferghana Valley.... She interprets the habitual transgressive acts of border-dwellers who negotiate, appeal to, assert, or bribe their way through the border not as acts of resistance towards a coherent sovereign state, but rather as participating in a particular kind of border work, in which the territorial state is both invoked and undermined.... An important contribution to the anthropology of borders. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *Madeleine Reeves does an excellent job of contextualizing the meaning of border and statehood. Perhaps most crucially, her work encourages reflections on how we might push further the collaboration between political anthropology and political science. * The Russian Review *Madeline Reeves' Border Work: Spatial Lives of the State in Rural Central Asia is an important contribution to the literature on borders and borderland cultures. It also makes an important methodological contribution and presents to the reader what Clifford Geertz refers to as 'thick description’ of what goes into the making of a border. The most striking aspect of the book is the vivid descriptions of the complex geography in Central Asia, which is brought forth through a careful choice of words and articulated with the help of lucid semantics. * Border Criminologies: Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford *Madeline Reeves's Border Work: Spatial Lives of the State in Rural Central Asia details the intersections of interests, state authority, and boundaries between Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan in the southern Ferghana region. Highlighting the urge to have determinant borders while remaining conflicted over "anxieties about what a demarcated and barbed wire–bounded state might mean in practice" (249), this work provides compelling insights into how residents of a border region reconstruct spatial realities while negotiating shifting economic, social, and political terrains. Through a wide variety of ethnographic portraits, detailed observations of changing market patterns, and the careful examination of residents’ constructing and adjusting perceptions of legality and illegality, Reeves’s account of this highly contentious region is able to delve deeply into a specific border region while maintaining theoretical linkages to the studies of boundaries, the limitations of state administrative control, identity, and mobility across the globe. * Slavic Review *Reeves embraces complexity, illustrating widely varied experiences of the border through captivating accounts of Tajiks and Kyrgyz who live in this zone of boundaries.... Reeves's engaging storytelIing and thoughtful analysis are compelling reasons for a wide audience of those interested in post-Soviet Central Asian states and peoples, as well as ethnographers, human geographers, and scholars of borders and frontiers. * International Journal of Turkish Studies *Reeves puts this very rich ethnographic material into critical conversation with a broad range of theory, working across numerous boundaries of a different kind: those between academic disciplines. What emerges is an original argument about the productivity of borders: a rethinking, through the prism of these particular 'margins' of the state, of how space is turned into territory, how sovereignty is produced through daily impersonations and improvisations at the border, and how state-formation is forever a work-in-progress. Border Work is essential for anyone interested in theorising and critiquing the state and sovereignty, as well as for all students of the politics of space. It offers a set of novel, incisive arguments grounded in first-class ethnography. Finally, thanks to Reeves's light and elegant prose, the book is a page-turner. A must-read. * Allegra: A Virtual Lab of Legal Anthropology *Reeves's book will be read with much interest not only by scholars of post-Soviet Central Asia, but also by those interested in borderland and borderscape, critical cartography, postcolonial geographies and anthropologies, gender studies (there is a good, short discussion on women, reproductive rights, and borders), and ethnographic modelling.... This book is a clarion call 'border work’ that stretches our disciplinary, gender, historical, and political worlds and imaginations. These are challenges for those in the social sciences and humanities, but also those who study ‘border’ healthcare, policy, security, development and environmental awareness. * Central Asian Survey *Reeves's fascinating insights on the Ferghana Valley borderlands bespeak of the systematic, long-term, on-site fieldwork that she has carried out, but also of her genuine personal interest and commitment to listen to and to understand the lives of her interlocutors. In the course of the book, we meet border guards, traders, farmers, taxi drivers, teachers, NGO workers, demobilized soldiers.... Her theoretically informed analysis draws on case studies from very different geographical and historical settings. This approach encourages comparison and makes the book relevant far beyond the field of Central Asian Studies.... Border Work is a brilliant ethnography which has much to offer to those interested in the state and its borders. * Society and Space *Reeves's thorough analysis of the processes and practices of the socio-politics that comprise the continual creation and recreation of borders makes a significant contribution to the anthropological investigation of the state. Her close attention to the temporal trajectory leading to the current political complexities in the southern Ferghana Valley... make this book specifically valuable to specialists of Central Asia. In general, however, this clearly written book is of great interest to any lecturers and students interested in political anthropology, borderland studies, and globalization. * Social Anthropology *Other anthropologists have already done important work in de-essentializing the state. Reeves builds on their insights, confidently inserting her own analytical voice in the ongoing conversations. The book's main strength... lies in the author's exceptional weaving of theory with meticulous ethnographic detail. * Polar: Political & Legal Anthropology Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: On Border Work 1. Locations: Place and Displacement in Southern Ferghana 2. Delimitations: Ethno-Spatial Fixing in the Twentieth Century 3. Trajectories: Mobility and the Afterlives of Internationalism 4. Gaps: Working a "Chessboard" Border 5. Impersonations: Manning the Border, Enacting the State 6. Separations: Conflict and the Escalation of Force Conclusion
£81.00
Cornell University Press From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization
Book SynopsisIn From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization, an interdisciplinary group of authors examines the nature, causes, and consequences of informal employment in China at a time of major changes in Chinese society.Trade ReviewKuruvilla et al. chart the journey from employment security—known as the 'iron rice bowl' in colloquial Chinese—to informalization in 10 chapters. This sad tale is standard fare in the global labour studies literature, but the underlying arguments in this book are more nuanced and at times controversial.... This book... [is a] valuable addition to the Chinese labour relations canon. Kuruvilla et. al. point the way to further research opportunities.... -- Tim Pringle * British Journal of Industrial Relations *Table of Contents1. Introduction and Argument Mary E. Gallagher, Ching Kwan Lee, and Sarosh KuruvillaPart I: Informalization and the State2. The Informalization of the Chinese Labor Market Albert Park and Fang Cai3. Legislating Harmony: Labor Law Reform in Contemporary China Mary E. Gallagher and Baohua Dong4. Social Policy and Public Opinion in an Age of Insecurity Mark W. FrazierPart II: Transformation of Employment Relations in Industries5. Enterprise Reform and Wage Movements in Chinese Oil Fields and Refineries Kun-Chin Lin6. The Paradox of Labor Force Dualism and State-Labor-Capital Relations in the Chinese Automobile Industry Lu Zhang7. Permanent Temporariness in the Chinese Construction Industry Sarah SwiderPart III: Unions, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Workers8. "Where There Are Workers, There Should Be Trade Unions": Union Organizing in the Era of Growing Informal Employment Mingwei Liu9. The Anti-Solidarity Machine?: Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China Ching Kwan Lee and Yuan Shen10. Conclusion Mary E. Gallagher, Sarosh Kuruvilla, and Ching Kwan LeeNotes References Notes on Contributors Index
£36.10
Cornell University Press Cauldron of Resistance
Book SynopsisIn 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem organized an election to depose chief-of-state Bao Dai, after which he proclaimed himself the first president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam. The United States sanctioned the results of this election, which was widely condemned as fraudulent, and provided substantial economic aid and advice to the RVN. Because of this, Diem is often viewed as a mere puppet of the United States, in service of its Cold War geopolitical strategy. That narrative, Jessica M. Chapman contends in Cauldron of Resistance, grossly oversimplifies the complexity of South Vietnam''s domestic politics and, indeed, Diem''s own political savvy. Based on extensive work in Vietnamese, French, and American archives, Chapman offers a detailed account of three crucial years, 19531956, during which a new Vietnamese political order was established in the south. It is, in large part, a history of Diem''s political ascent as he managed to subdue the former Emperor Bao Dai,Trade ReviewChapman delivers a nuanced yet accessible analysis of the political scene in 1950s-era southern Vietnam. This book will be of interest to those who wish to learn more about the origins of US involvement in Vietnam prior to the war. Readers will gain an understanding not only of Ngo Dinh Diem, but also of the other major noncommunist politico-religious groups struggling for power.... Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Skillfully argued, Cauldron of Resistance marks an impressive advancement in the study of Ngo Dinh Diem and the Republic of Vietnam. All readers will find Chapman's work informative. Historians in particular will appreciate the author's recreation of the political landscape of southern Vietnam during the formative years of Diem's rise to power. All libraries are incomplete without this book. * H-War *While many aspects of the Vietnam War remain controversial, there is consensus that the United States intervened in Vietnam without much understanding of its enemy or ally. This gap in knowledge of Vietnam and its players, particularly of the noncommunist side, also exists in the historiograhy. Fortunately, scholars are beginning to address this gap. Jessica M. Chapman's solidly researched monograph makes a valuable contribution to this endeavor. Drawing from archives in the United States, France, and Vietnam, the book provides a detailed narrative of the complex and tumultuous political situation in southern Vietnam (1953–1956), a decade before American intervention.... This is an excellent book that provides insight into the history of Vietnam and its war. I highly recommend its use in upper-level and graduate classes on the war. * Journal of American History *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Anticolonialism in Vietnam's Wild South2. The Crucible of Southern Vietnamese Nationalism and America's Cold War3. "Sink or Swim with Ngo Dinh Diem"4. The "Sect" Crisis of 1955 and America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam5. Destroying the Sources of Demoralization: Ngo Dinh Diem’s National Revolution6. A Different Democracy: South Vietnam’s Referendum to Depose Bao Dai7. The Making of a Revolution in South VietnamConclusionAppendix: Select Vietnamese Names with Diacritics Notes Bibliography Index
£37.05
Cornell University Press Prosper or Perish
Book SynopsisProsper or Perish describes a massive ongoing problem for China's economic dvelopment: the difficulty of administering loans to Rural Credit Cooperatives in a way that assists rural households.Trade Review"The book provides a compelling argument for the dangers of soft budget constraints created by the intimate linkage between the Rural Credit Cooperatives RCCs and the local government bureaucracy. Apart from providing an analysis of the rural banking sector, this interesting volume offers valuable insights into the political economy of rural China." —Ane Bislev,China Review InternationalVolume 19, No. 4, 2012The institutional explanation of the bias builds upon a rich body of literature on cadre management and the fiscal system, and will be good reading for graduate and advanced students. All in all, the book is a welcome contribution to the literature of rural credits, and testifies to how much work is still needed on this important subject. * The China Journal *This book would be ideal for students of political economy, rural development, local government, and public finance in China, among others. The clear writing style and the richly informative local case studies also make the book all the more enjoyable. -- Gang Guo * Journal of Chinese Political Science *Table of ContentsPart I. Overview and Research QuestionsChapter 1. Local Governments, Rural Credit, and Regional Development in ChinaAppendix: Case Study Indicators, Household Survey, and SourcesChapter 2. The Rural Financial System and Rural Development in ChinaPart II. The Design of China's Economic and Political InstitutionsChapter 3. The Design of China's Rural Credit InstitutionsChapter 4. The Implications of Cadre Evaluation and Fiscal System for Local-Government BehaviorAppendix: Township Cadre Evaluation Criteria in Wenling County, Zhejiang ProvincePart III. Case Studies: Blind Men and the ElephantChapter 5. Diverging Pathways to Prosperity: Privately Led vs. Local Government-Led IndustrializationChapter 6. The Local Government-Led Path to Rural DecayAppendix: Revenue and Expenditures of the Perished TownshipsConclusionAppendix: List of Non-Survey Field Interviews, 2003–6Notes Glossary of Chinese Terms Index
£37.80
Cornell University Press Welfare through Work
Book SynopsisThis book argues that the Japanese social protection system should be understood as a system of "welfare through work," where employment protection has functionally substituted for income maintenance.Trade ReviewMari Miura's book presents an in-depth and detailed approach to the politics of social protection in times of political and economic challenges. This book turns our attention to controversial but important social and political tasks not only in Japan but also in many advanced industrialized countries, most of which have confronted rising inequalities over the past few decades. It will be required reading for years as a valuable addition to the study of Japanese politics, of social protection in advanced industrialized countries, and of the role of ideas in explaining policy changes. -- Jiyeoun Song * Pacific Affairs *The subject of this book is the Japanese government's practice of promoting and protecting employment in lieu of offering generous programs of unemployment insurance and social assistance for the poor.. Mari Miura uses the apt phrase 'welfare through work' to characterize this system..Welfare through Workmakes a valuable contribution to the understanding of Japan's labor market and social protection politics. -- Gregory J. Kasza * Journal of Japanese Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Welfare through Work and the Gendered Dual System2. Situating Japan's Social Protection System in Comparative Perspective3. The Conservative Vision and the Politics of Work and Welfare4. Reforming the Labor Markets5. Who Wants What Reform?6. The Neoliberal Agenda and the Diet Veto7. The Double Movement in Japanese PoliticsConclusionNotes References Index
£38.70
Cornell University Press Taming Tibet
Book SynopsisThe violent protests in Lhasa in 2008 against Chinese rule were met by disbelief and anger on the part of Chinese citizens and state authorities, perplexed by Tibetans'' apparent ingratitude for the generous provision of development. In Taming Tibet, Emily T. Yeh examines how Chinese development projects in Tibet served to consolidate state space and power. Drawing on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork between 2000 and 2009, Yeh traces how the transformation of the material landscape of Tibet between the 1950s and the first decade of the twenty-first century has often been enacted through the labor of Tibetans themselves. Focusing on Lhasa, Yeh shows how attempts to foster and improve Tibetan livelihoods through the expansion of markets and the subsidized building of new houses, the control over movement and space, and the education of Tibetan desires for development have worked together at different times and how they are experienced in everyday life. The masterTrade ReviewIn Taming Tibet, Emily Yeh offers a new twist to current paradigms of Chinese development, presenting a trove of new evidence from China's politically unstable western periphery. Drawing on 16 months of intensive fieldwork undertaken between 2000 and 2009, Yeh traces the devastating effects of China's recent state-subsidized and state-led land development campaign in Lhasa and its peri-urban regions.... Yeh's fieldwork, coming during a period of rapid transformation in China's land regime, provides a valuable counterpoint to a development literature that has focused for decades on China's coastal regions to the neglect of its hinterland. -- Julia Chuang * The Journal of Peasant Studies *In her masterful new book, Taming Tibet, Emily Yeh discusses the gift of development in modern Lhasa in a critical fashion, providing an excellent and informative examination of Chinese development projects over the last sixty plus years.... It will be of use to scholars from a variety of fields including ethnicity in China, development studies, and geography, and is also a welcome addition to the Tibetological field. -- Timothy Thurston * Asian Ethnology *This is an important and authoritative analysis of contemporary socio-economics and politics in Tibet and does require some understanding of the academic discipline involved. However, the technical jargon is offset to a great extent by the numerous first-hand accounts of the author's time in and around Lhasa, which are invariably insightful, often entertaining, and help to bring a touch of light relief to what is essentially a dark and sombre subject. -- Wendy Palace * Asian Affairs *Table of ContentsPreface Note on Transliterations and Place Names Abbreviations and Terms Introduction A Celebration 1. State Space: Power, Fear, and the State of Exception Hearing and Forgetting Part I. Soil The Aftermath of 2008 (I) 2. Cultivating Control: Nature, Gender, and Memories of Labor in State Incorporation Part II. Plastic Lhasa Humor 3. Vectors of Development: Migrants and the Making of "Little Sichuan" Signs of Lhasa 4. The Micropolitics of Marginalization Science and Technology Transfer Day 5. Indolence and the Cultural Politics of Development Part III. Concrete Michael Jackson as Lhasa 6. "Build a Civilized City": Making Lhasa Urban The Aftermath of 2008 (II) 7. Engineering Indebtedness and Image: Comfortable Housing and the New Socialist Countryside Conclusion Afterword: Fire References Notes Index
£97.20
Cornell University Press 3.11
Book SynopsisOn March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by the shockwaves of a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake originating less than 50 miles off its eastern coastline. The most powerful earthquake to have hit Japan in recorded history, it produced a devastating tsunami with waves reaching heights of over 130 feet that in turn caused an unprecedented multireactor meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This triple catastrophe claimed almost 20,000 lives, destroyed whole towns, and will ultimately cost hundreds of billions of dollars for reconstruction. In 3.11, Richard Samuels offers the first broad scholarly assessment of the disaster''s impact on Japan''s government and society. The events of March 2011 occurred after two decades of social and economic malaiseas well as considerable political and administrative dysfunction at both the national and local levelsand resulted in national soul-searching. Political reformers saw in the tragedy cause for hope: an opportunity for JTrade Review[3.11] is clearly the product of a deep sympathy for the disaster's immediate victims and Japan as a whole. -- Andrew E. Barshay * Political Science Quarterly *Samuels draws on a lifetime of experience researching Japan's politics and local government, military and energy policy, and political leadership and economy to craft a definitive political account of the country's response to the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accidents of March 11, 2011. In a narrative organized around the themes of vulnerability, leadership, community, and change, Samuels emphasizes how institutions of Japanese government and society shaped the disaster response. * Library Journal *Samuels goes beyond the human tragedy of the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, to examine the disaster's impact on the subsequent political discourse in Japan.... Highly recommended. * Choice *So why hasn't March 11, 2011, been the game-changer that many anticipated? Richard Samuels’ masterful account of Japan’s policy responses to its greatest crisis since World War II explains why continuity has trumped change. But maybe, just maybe, it hasn’t, as he also reminds us that the consequences are still unfolding. * The Japan Times *This is a carefully argued book, based on immense research and deep understanding of underlying causes. -- J. A. A. Stockwin * Journal of Japanese Studies *Table of ContentsPreface1. The Status Quo Ante and 3.112. Never Waste a Good Crisis3. Historical and Comparative Guidance4. Dueling Security Narratives5. Debating Energy Policy6. Repurposing Local GovernmentConclusionNotes References Index
£22.79
Cornell University Press Insurgency Trap
Book SynopsisEli Friedman argues that the Chinese state has become hemmed in by an "insurgency trap" of its own devising and is thus unable to tame expansive worker unrest.Trade Review[Insurgency Trap] represents a central and innovative contribution to labor studies, linking as it does history, ethnography, biography, and theory into a revised Polanyian framework that scholars from a wide range of fields will certainly find useful. It is thoroughly researched and deftly theorized, advancing our understanding of labor, institutions, social movements, politics, and power in China. This book is vital reading for anyone interested in labor, globalization, transitional societies, and inequality more broadly. -- Eileen M. Otis * American Journal of Sociology *By identifying the insurgency trap and emphasizing the critical role of organizational and economic factors in shaping union activities, Friedman makes a valuable contribution to the literature. As the dynamics of worker-state interactions and the politics of labor representation are key for the future of the Chinese labor movement, Friedman's book is a must-read for anyone with interest in China's labor. -- Mingwei Liu * ILR Review *Table of Contents1. Labor Politics and Capitalist Industrialization 2. The History and Structure of the ACFTU 3. Guangzhou: At the Forefront of Union Reform? 4. Oligarchic Decommodification? Sectoral Unions and Crises of Representation 5. Worker Insurgency and the Evolving Political Economy of the Pearl River Delta 6. Chinese Labor Politics and the Global Economy
£97.20
Cornell University Press The Government Next Door Neighborhood Politics
Book SynopsisLuigi Tomba investigates how the goals of a government consolidated in a distant authority materialize in Chinese urban communities and citizens' everyday lives.Trade ReviewThe Government Next Door is a great title for a book on [neighborhood] politics in China. For some, the title might invoke associations of kind, unassuming politicians who are part of the community themselves. Others might feel trepidation: after all, resident committees, though legally social organizations, are extensions of an authoritarian regime. Judging by the subtlety of argument that permeates Tomba's book, this ambiguity is intentional. Indeed, one of the book’s many qualities is the clarity with which it illustrates the 'liquidity' of governance in urban China. Having been a resident in several urban [neighborhoods] enables Luigi Tomba to illustrate his penetrating analysis with lucid case studies and examples.... Even readers who are familiar with China’s urban community will be guaranteed to find a great many gems – be it stories, observations or interpretations. The book is as suitable for experts as it is for beginners, and Tomba’s often bold, often subtle and acute arguments will no doubt stimulate intensive discussions inside and outside the classroom. It provides food for thought for those who are attracted to Foucauldian notions of power, and is a must-read for anyone interested in China’s urban governance, and state–society relations more generally. -- Christian Göbel * The China Quarterly *Tomba adopts a synthetic approach which views neighbourhoods not only as administrative institutions, but also as places created by an assortment of actors.... This book provides valuable insights on the political, social, and spatial relations in Chinese neighbourhoods. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *Any visitor who stays in mainland China for a while might wonder about the country's seeming stability. Ordinary Chinese rarely conceal their grievances about increasing inequality, corruption, and the near death of society as we imagine it. Media reports about peasants’ struggles against land expropriation as well as workers’ protests against labour exploitation have dramaticallyincreased over recent decades. Nevertheless, these class-specific incidents are isolated while everyday conflicts remain contained, relatively peacefully, in local neighbourhoods. The Government Next Door is a significant contribution to interrogating this puzzle. With a sophisticated eye to neighbourhood politics, the book shows how political legitimacy is cultivated and grounded among local residents with various interests and status.... I am certain that this book will be discussed enthusiastically by scholars who engage in urban space, class politics, and governmentality in contemporary China. -- Mun Young Cho * Pacific Affairs *Tomba's research went far beyond the somewhat soulless quantitative data of much current social science. Hundreds of interviews in which the author talked with local cadres, ordinary citizens, and others in three Chinese cities are at the heart of the fruitful ethnographic narratives in this volume. Tomba encountered varying local-center relationships, all falling on a spectrum ranging from past Leninist centralism to the neighborhood autonomy readers might expect in a developed civil society. -- J.D. Gillespie * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Neighborhood Consensus1. Social Clustering: Neighborhoods and the Governing of Social Distinction2. Micro-Governing the Urban Crisis3. Housing and Social Engineering4. Contained Contention: Interests, Places, Community, and the State5. A Contagious Civilization: Community, Exemplarism, and SuzhiConclusion: Arenas of Contention and AccommodationNotes Bibliography Index
£97.20
Cornell University Press The Great Wall of Money
Book SynopsisAs an economic superpower, China has become an increasingly important player in the international monetary system. Its foreign exchange reserves are the largest in the world and its exchange rate policy has become a major subject of international economic diplomacy. The internationalization of the renminbi (RMB) raises critical questions in international policy circles: What kinds of power is China acquiring in international monetary relations? What are the priorities of the Chinese government? What explains its preferences? In The Great Wall of Money, a distinguished group of contributors addresses these questions from distinct perspectives, revealing the extent to which China's choices, and global monetary affairs, will be shaped by internal political factors and affect world politics. The RMB is a likely competitor for the dollar in the next couple of decades; its emergence as an important international currency would have substantial effects on the balance of powerTrade ReviewAs Helleiner (Univ. of Waterloo, Canada) and Kirshner (Cornell Univ.) affirm, discussions of China's contemporary and potential future roles in global monetary relations have usually been framedthrough the narrow lens of economic analysis. By stressing power and politics as essential determinants of Chinese monetary policies, the contributors to this timely volume's eight chapters seek to redress this deficiency, approaching the subject from a wide range of perspectives. The essayists include both China scholars and international monetary specialists, and they focus widely on the various types of international monetary power the People's Republic of China (PRC) party-state is acquiring. These include financing payment imbalances; steadily gaining greater influence in key institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund; and fostering the global status of China's currency (renminbi). At issue is whether China will basically accept the existing rules of the international monetary game, demand significant changes in those rules, or breakcompletely with the current system. The divergent explanations in these essays of the PRC's priorities and preferencesmirror Beijing's own policy ambivalence. They suggest that although China has cautiously accepted but frequently critiqued the status quo, it has thus far conspicuously failed to offer any grand scheme to replace it. -- R.P. Gardella * Choice *Eric Helleiner and Jonathan Kirshner's edited volume, which examines the role, rationale, and impact of decisionmaking in China’s monetary and financial sectors, represents an important contribution to the literature on Chinese political economy. Offering readers an accessible examination of the nexus of political economy and power politics in China, this is a valuable addition to a rather under-researched field (though published material on business and management is quite extensive). While industry stakeholders and commentators have written extensively on China’s currency reform, exchange rate policy, and IMF’s Special Drawing Rights Basket, they offer little insight into the why—the motivations, players, andpriorities—behind China’s approach to monetary policy and relations. In this volume, each chapter blends an impressive combination of research methods, expertise, and critical insights, filling this gap effectively. -- Winnie King * H-Diplo *This excellent collection of essays, derived from a conference held in 2012, centres on the question posed by its editors, Eric Helleiner and Jonathan Kirshner, in the introduction: broadly speaking, will the world's second largest economy prove to be a 'taker', ‘maker’ or ‘breaker’? -- Kerry Brown * International Affairs *The Great Wall of Money is a timely and rigorous study on the role that power and politics play in forging China's international monetary relations.... [It] is highly recommended for scholars of international political economy of money and China specialists. As the book examines both international and domestic sources of China's international monetary policy, it will leave the reader with a deep sense of carefulness when it comes to the temptation to make sweeping judgements about China's rising monetary power. -- Zhaohui Wang * China Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Politics of China's International Monetary Relations by Eric Helleiner and Jonathan Kirshner1. The China Question: Can Its Rise Be Accommodated? by Benjamin J. Cohen2. The Hidden History of China and the IMF by Eric Helleiner and Bessma Momani3. Why Has China Accumulated Such Large Foreign Reserves? by David A. Steinberg4. Global Imbalances and the Limits of the Exchange Rate Weapon by Hongying Wang5. China's Engagement with International Macroeconomic Policy Surveillance by Andrew Walter6. The Limits of China’s Monetary Diplomacy by Yang Jiang7. China’s Rising Monetary Power by Gregory Chin8. Regional Hegemony and an Emerging RMB Zone by Jonathan KirshnerReferences Index
£81.00
Cornell University Press Beyond Borders
Book SynopsisThrough a personal narrative approach,this book focuses on the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants who reside in Burma and those who have moved from Burma and resettled in Thailand, Taiwan, and China.Trade ReviewBeyond Borders is a tremendous work which details—with considerable intimacy and reflection—the lives of both Yunnanese Chinese in Burma as well as those who later migrated from Burma to Thailand, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Its nuanced attention to the historical relationship between the Kuomintang, civilian traders, the Shan insurgencies, and the Burmese government is compelling, especially since the information deals with firsthand accounts. Although the author could very easily bog the reader down with acronyms, dates, and events in military or political history, the priority placed on the subjects' lives allows the reader to assimilate the context inductively rather than with a preemptive road map of sorts. -- Jane M. Ferguson * Pacific Affairs Journal *If you enjoy a good gossip, nicely told and full of human interest, Beyond Borders will be of interest. For those with an interest in migration and human mobility, the volume provides a number of personal insights. -- Robert H. Taylor * Asian Affairs *Rather than focusing on social structures and globalization processes, Chang explicitly concentrates on individuals and biographies.... [W]e can certainly claim that a person-centered approach shakes up anthropological categories just as the lives of these individuals shake up political categories. -- Jack David Eller * Anthropology Review Database *The strength of this book is the space the author gives to personal narratives. In this refreshing ethnography, Chang demonstrates how the vivid descriptions of life trajectories and intimate relationships of ordinary people, supported by clear explanations on the chaotic historical political circumstances in which they are grounded, can be more revealing than reconstituted realities inspired by scarce documentation available to foreign observers.... Besides the fascinating stories that nourish this account of a largely ignored Chinese diaspora, and the rigorous historical approach to their contemporary situation, this book is also a real pleasure to read. -- Caroline Grillot * Southeast Asian Studies *Undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from this text. Chang shows how ethnographers build rapport with informants, let them speak for themselves, and preserve the 'thicknesses' of their stories using first-person narratives.... this book is an eye-opening addition to the literature on borderland diasporas in Southeast Asia. -- Hiu Ling Chan * International Migration Review *Wen-Chin Chang's Beyond Borders: Stories of Yunnanese Chinese Migrants of Burma provides a rich personal history of Yunnanese Chinese migrants in South-East and East Asia.... The significance of the book is in having recorded the voices of the voiceless. It successfully avoids analysing case studies through the lens of ethnicity theories.... All in all, this individual-centred ethnography, backed by its narrative power, provides a rich comprehension of people’s lives across borders. -- Tadayuki Kubo * International Journal of Asian Studies *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I. Migration History1. The Days in Burma: Zhang Dage 2. Entangled Love: Ae Maew 3. Pursuit of Ambition: Father and Son 4. Islamic Transnationalism: Yunnanese MuslimsPart II. (Transnational) Trade5. Venturing into "Barbarous" Regions: Yunnanese Caravan Traders 6. Transcending Gendered Geographies: Yunnanese Women Traders 7. Circulations of the Jade Trade: The Duans and the PengsEpilogue: From Mules to VehiclesGlossary References Index
£97.20
