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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history
Grounds of Judgment reopens the question of consular jurisdiction
and extraterritoriality in China and Japan. The book combines
recent findings in Qing history on the nature of ethnicity and law
with the history of the treaty ports in both China and Japan,
especially Shanghai, Yokohama and Nagasaki. Extraterritoriality was
not implanted into East Asia as a ready-made product, but developed
in a dialogue with local precedents, local understandings of power,
and local institutions, which are best understood within the
complex triangular relationship between China, Japan and the West.
A close reading of treaty texts and other relevant documents
suggests that a Qing institution for the adjudication for
Manchu-Chinese disputes served as the model for both the
International Mixed Court in Shanghai and the extraterritorial
arrangements in Sino-Japanese Treaty of Tianjin in 1871. The
adaptability of Qing legal procedure provided for a relatively
seamless transition into the treaty port era, which would have
momentous consequences for China's national sovereignty in the
twentieth century. There was no parallel to this development in the
Japanese case. Instead, Japanese authorities chose not to integrate
consular courts and mixed courts into the indigenous legal order,
and as a consequence, consular jurisdiction remained an alien body
in the Japanese state, and Japanese policymakers were determined to
keep it that way.
Qiu Guangming, the author of this book, has been a researcher on
the measuring and weighing systems in China for more thirty years.
He has been collecting historical data and examining actual
objects, which has resulted in numerous research papers and books.
This book examines the systems she has researched.
Marco Polo (c.1254-1324) was an Italian merchant traveler from the
Republic of Venice whose travels are recorded in Livres des
merveilles du monde, a book which did much to introduce Europeans
to Central Asia and China. With his father and uncle, Niccolo and
Maffeo, he traveled on an epic journey through Asia and returned
after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa. Imprisoned on his
return, Marco was imprisoned and dictated his stories to a
cellmate.
An introduction to the rich history of Yemen and its strong
relationship with Britain - from the first Yemeni sailors who
immigrated to Britain in the 19th century, to the British Crown
colony in Aden and right up to the integration of Yemeni
communities into British society today. The Yemeni community has
been a part of British society since the late 1890's and was one of
the first Muslim communities to settle here. British Yemenis have
lived here for over 100 years, fighting for Britain in both world
wars and contributing to British society in many other ways. This
book is a celebration of their achievements.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
The end of the Second World War led to the United States' emergence
as a global superpower. For war-ravaged Western Europe it marked
the beginning of decades of unprecedented cooperation and
prosperity that one historian has labeled "the long peace". Yet
half a world away, in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea and
Malaya-the fighting never really stopped, as these regions sought
to completely sever the yoke of imperialism and colonialism with
all-too-violent consequences. East and Southeast Asia quickly
became the most turbulent regions of the globe. Within weeks of the
famous surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri, civil war,
communal clashes and insurgency engulfed the continent, from
Southeast Asia to the Soviet border. By early 1947, full-scale wars
were raging in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, with growing guerrilla
conflicts in Korea and Malaya. Within a decade after the Japanese
surrender, almost all of the countries of South, East and Southeast
Asia that had formerly been conquests of the Japanese or colonies
of the European powers experienced wars and upheavals that resulted
in the deaths of at least 2.5 million combatants and millions of
civilians. With A Continent Erupts, acclaimed military historian
Ronald H. Spector draws on letters, diaries and international
archives to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive military
history and analysis of these little-known but decisive events. Far
from being simply offshoots of the Cold War, as they have often
been portrayed, these shockingly violent conflicts forever changed
the shape of Asia, and the world as we know it today.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
When the radical Islamist group Hamas was elected to lead Palestine
in 2006, the Western world was shocked. How had the majority of
Palestinians come to support an extremist organization and how
would the group's new political power affect the larger
Israel/Palestine conflict?
Italian journalist and historian Paola Caridi offers a clear-eyed
account of how the conditions in this war-torn region led to the
rise of Hamas and an unbiased look at the complex feelings that
Palestinians have toward getting behind a government that supports
violent resistance. By breaking from the sensationalist journalism
surrounding the elections, Caridi is able to tell the story of a
movement caught between the desire to resist its oppressor and the
need to provide support for a refugee people. Caridi, informed by
years of on-the-ground research and interviews with residents of
Gaza and leaders of Hamas, covers the history of Gaza from its
golden age as a port city to the formal birth and slow
militarization of Hamas. This English-language translation brings
the reader to present-day Palestine by offering a never-before-seen
chapter on Operation Cast Lead, the shocking WikiLeaks disclosures,
and the Cairo Revolution.
"Hamas" paints a picture, with intelligence, dexterity, and heart,
of a people trapped in the most historic of political battles and
reveals the strange complexities behind the controversy by
explaining one of the key players in the search for peace and
justice that runs through the central crisis of the Middle East
today.
In 1968, at the age of 22, Karl Marlantes abandoned his Oxford
University scholarship to sign up for active service with the US
Marine Corps in Vietnam. Pitched into a war that had no defined
military objective other than kill ratios and body counts, what he
experienced over the next thirteen months in the jungles of South
East Asia shook him to the core. But what happened when he came
home covered with medals was almost worse. It took Karl four
decades to come to terms with what had really happened, during the
course of which he painstakingly constructed a fictionalized
version of his war, MATTERHORN, which has subsequently been hailed
as the definitive Vietnam novel.
WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR takes us back to Vietnam, but this
time there is no fictional veil. Here are the hard-won truths that
underpin MATTERHORN: the author's real-life experiences behind the
book's indelible scenes. But it is much more than this. It is part
exorcism of Karl's own experiences of combat, part confession, part
philosophical primer for the young man about to enter combat. It It
is also a devastatingly frank answer to the questions '"What is it
like to be a soldier?"' "What is it like to face death?"' and
"'What is it like to kill someone?"'
People interested in the history of India's partition invariably
ask the same question: Why did Pakistan happen? Or, what was the
Pakistan idea? Focusing on M. A. Jinnah's political career, this
book addresses the issue of whether he had a secular or religious
vision for Pakistan, or perhaps something in between? Pakistan as a
country has yet to find its proper place in the world. Logically,
it is assumed that if we can reach a consensus on Jinnah's thought,
then we can also resolve the long-standing question of what kind of
state Pakistan was meant to be, and thus how it should develop
today. Pakistanis are tired of self-serving politicians,
landlordism, nepotism, the rise of religious fundamentalism,
corruption, economic instability, and the semi-predictable cycle
between incompetent bureaucratic and military regimes. Hence for
Pakistanis more than anyone else, the debate over Jinnah is a
highly emotive subject, and at its heart is a battle of ideas.
Pakistanis are really trying to work out something much bigger than
Jinnah's place in history. They are trying to find their own
historical identity as well. A well researched and
thoroughly-indexed book that has earned its place amongst the
leading political commentaries on contemporary Pakistan.
This volume explores the life stories of ordinary Burmese by
drawing on the narratives of individual subjects and using an array
of interdisciplinary approaches, covering anthropology, history,
literature, ethnomusicology, economics and political science. Burma
is one of the most diverse societies in Southeast Asia in terms of
its ethnic composition. It has a long history of resistance from
the public realm against colonial rule and post-independence
regimes. However, its isolation for decades before 1988 deprived
scholars of a close look into the many faces of this society.
Looking into the life stories of members of several major ethnic
communities, who hail from different occupations and are of
different ages and genders, this book has a particular significance
that would help reveal the multiplicities of Burma's modern
history. The authors of this volume write about stories of their
long-term informants, close friends, family members, or even
themselves to bring out a wide range of issues relating to
migration, economy, politics, religion and culture. The constituted
stories jointly highlight the protagonists' survival strategies in
everyday life that demonstrate their constant courage, pain and
frustration in dealing with numerous social injustices and
adversities. Through these stories, we see movement of lives as
well as that of Burmese society.
It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle. Now Max Hastings, preeminent military historian takes us back to the bloody bitter struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950. Using personal accounts from interviews with more than 200 vets -- including the Chinese -- Hastings follows real officers and soldiers through the battles. He brilliantly captures the Cold War crisis at home -- the strategies and politics of Truman, Acheson, Marshall, MacArthur, Ridgway, and Bradley -- and shows what we should have learned in the war that was the prelude to Vietnam.
Nic Dunlop spent 20 years photographing Burma under military rule.
His new book, Brave New Burma, is an intimate portrait in words and
pictures of a country finally emerging from decades of
dictatorship, isolation and fear. From the frontlines of the civil
war to deceptively tranquil cities, from the home of democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the lives of ordinary people struggling
to survive, Brave New Burma is both an historic collection of rare
images and a powerful expose of Burma's crisis. Change has come to
Burma for the first time in decades. But change brings dangers,
including the erasing of history and the invention of a new Burma
in appearance alone. Brave New Burma is a haunting record of a
country now struggling to recreate itself.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Shortlisted for the 2020 Cundill
History Prize 'Riveting and original ... a work enriched by solid
scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of
the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this
deeply unequal conflict ' Noam Chomsky The twentieth century for
Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial
of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. The
Hundred Years War on Palestine is Rashid Khalidi's powerful
response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the
fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their
own terms. Beginning in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,
Khalidi reveals nascent Palestinian nationalism and the broad
recognition by the early Zionists of the colonial nature of their
project. These ideas and their echoes defend Nakba - the
Palestinian term for the establishment of the state of Israel - the
cession of the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, the Six Day
War and the occupation. Moving through these critical moments,
Khalidi interweaves the voices of journalists, poets and resistance
leaders with his own accounts as a child of a UN official and a
resident of Beirut during the 1982 seige. The result is a
profoundly moving account of a hundred-year-long war of occupation,
dispossession and colonialisation.
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