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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
China's Great Convulsion 1894 - 1924 . . . A remarkable account of
thirty tumultuous years in world history, beginning in 1894 with
Japan's first aggressions in Asia and a Chinese revolutionary's
call to overthrow the Manchurian Dynasty in Peking. China's years
of convulsion included the Boxer Rebellion against "foreign
devils," the collapse of its last dynasty, and a decade (1912-1922)
of faltering attempts to establish a democratic republic while
coping with provincial warlords and Japanese demands. From the
pages of this well researched history, readers will learn how over
180,000 Chinese workers helped expedite the Allied victory in World
War One. Stationed in France and the Middle East under the guidance
of U.S., British, and French YMCA counselors and interpreters,
members of the Chinese Labor Corps kept France's factories and
farms running, improved port facilities, built military airfields,
and restored war-torn roads and bridges. With China's Great
Convulsion, John Fulton Lewis captures the excitement of China's
stormy entry into a modern age.
This book explains the political origins and evolution of
capitalist institutions in developing countries by looking at
distinct patterns in the electronics industry in three Southeast
Asian countries: Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. An analysis of
the political determinants of these patterns has a number of
theoretical and practical implications. It includes a new
explanation for family business behavior, a unified framework for
explaining capitalist varieties, a guide for institutional reform,
and a comparative examination of three dynamic Asian economies that
provides important insights to students, scholars, and people in
business.
This book offers a radical perspective on what are conventionally
called the Islamic Conquests of the seventh century. Placing these
earthshattering events firmly in the context of Late Antiquity, it
argues that many of the men remembered as the fanatical agents of
Muhammad probably did not know who the prophet was and had, in
fact, previously fought for Rome or Persia. The book applies to the
study of the collapse of the Roman Near East techniques taken from
the historiography of the fall of the Roman West. Through a
comparative analysis of medieval Arabic and European sources
combined with insights from frontier studies, it argues that the
two falls of Rome involved processes far more similar than
traditionally thought. It presents a fresh approach to the century
that witnessed the end of the ancient world, appealing to students
of Roman and medieval history, Islamic Studies, and advanced
scholars alike.
Saladin, the great twelfth century Middle East leader, not only
created an empire, but also reduced the Crusader presence in the
Holy Land. In a comprehensive manner and clear prose, Peter Gubser
describes how Saladin rose to power, conquered lands, governed
peoples, and raised armies. In addition, he clearly addresses
Saladin's imperial motives, a combination of ambition and the
devotion to the ideal of the unity of Islam.
Pan'gye surok (or "Pan'gye's Random Jottings") was written by the
Korean scholar and social critic Yu Hyongwon(1622-1673), who
proposed to reform the Joseon dynasty and realise an ideal
Confucian society. It was recognised as a leading work of political
science by Yu's contemporaries and continues to be a key text in
understanding the intellectual culture of the late Joseon period.
Yu describes the problems of the political and social realities of
17th Century Korea, reporting on his attempts to solve these
problems using a Confucian philosophical approach. In doing so, he
establishes most of the key terminology relating to politics and
society in Korea in the late Joseon. His writings were used as a
model for reforms within Korea over the following centuries,
inspiring social pioneers like Yi Ik and Chong Yakyong. Pan'gye
surok demonstrates how Confucian thought spread outside China and
how it was modified to fit the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Providing both the first English translation of the full
Pan'gyesurok text as well as glossaries, notes and research papers
on the importance of the text, this four volume set is an essential
resource for international scholars of Korean and East Asian
history.
The Aulikaras were the rulers of western Malwa (the northwest of
Central India) in the heyday of the Imperial Guptas in the fifth
century CE, and rose briefly to sovereignty at the beginning of the
sixth century before disappearing from the spotlight of history.
This book gathers all the epigraphic evidence pertaining to this
dynasty, meticulously editing and translating the inscriptions and
analysing their content and its implications.
This edited collection explores how East Asia's painful history
continues to haunt the relationships between its countries and
peoples. Through a largely social-psychological and constructivist
lens, the authors examine the ways in which historical memory and
unmet identity needs generates mutual suspicion, xenophobic
nationalism and tensions in the bilateral and trilateral
relationships within the region. This text not only addresses some
of the domestic drivers of Japanese, Chinese and South Korean
foreign policy - and the implications of increasingly autocratic
rule in all three countries - but also analyses the way in which
new security mechanisms and processes advancing trust, confidence
and reconciliation can replace those generating mistrust,
antagonism and insecurity.
The Lebanese have always lacked a common vision of their past. From
the beginning Muslims and Christians have disagreed fundamentally
over their country's historical legitimacy: Christians on the whole
have affirmed it, Muslims have tended to emphasize Lebanon's place
in a broader Arab history. Both groups have used nationalist ideas
in a destructive game, which at a deeper level involves archaic
loyalties and tribal rivalries. But Lebanon cannot afford these
conflicting visions if it is to develop and maintain a sense of
political community. In the course of his lively exposition, Salibi
offers a major reinterpretation of Lebanese history and provides
insights into the dynamic of Lebanon's recent conflict. He also
gives an account of how the images of communities which underlie
modern nationalism are created.
Covering the period from the early 1950s to the end of the 20th
century, this book presents a concise yet thorough historical
analysis of the relationship between the European Union (and its
predecessors) and the Middle East. The authors provide a survey of
the evolution of the foreign policy mechanisms of the EU and an
outline of the relevant aspects of modern Middle East history. They
examine the relationship between the two regions from 1950 to the
end of the Cold War, with special emphasis on the period following
the 1973/4 oil crisis. They go on to look at the post-Cold War era
discussing the conflict with Iraq and examining the EU's continuing
involvement in the Middle East peace process.
Francis I's ties with the Ottoman Empire marked the birth of
court-sponsored Orientalism in France. Under Louis XIV, French
society was transformed by cross-cultural contacts with the
Ottomans, India, Persia, China, Siam and the Americas. The
consumption of silk, cotton cloth, spices, coffee, tea, china,
gems, flowers and other luxury goods transformed daily life and
gave rise to a new discourse about the 'Orient' which in turn
shaped ideas about economy and politics, specifically absolutism
and the monarchy. An original account of the ancient regime,
this book highlights France's use of the exotic and analyzes French
discourse about Islam and the 'Orient'.
A broad introduction to a major turning point in human development,
this book guides the reader through the emergence of civilization
in Mesopotamia, when city life began and writing was invented.
Covering Mesopotamia from around 3000 BCE to the fall of Babylon in
539 BCE, Mesopotamia and the Rise of Civilization: History,
Documents, and Key Questions combines narrative history material
and reference entries that enable students to learn about the rise
of civilization in Mesopotamia and its enormous influence on
western civilization with primary source documents that promote
critical thinking skills. The book provides essential background
via a historical overview of early development of society in
Mesopotamia. This introduction is followed by reference entries on
key topics; 4,000-year-old primary sources that explore
Mesopotamian civilization through voices of the time and bring to
light the events of a schoolboy's day, the boasts of kings, and
personal letters about family concerns, for example; and a section
of argumentative essays that presents thought-provoking
perspectives on key issues. While the intended readership is high
school students, the book's authoritative coverage of intriguing
subject matter will also appeal to the wider public, especially in
these times of heightened focus on the Middle East. Includes
reference entries that explore important aspects of Mesopotamian
civilization, such as key historical developments, technological
and intellectual innovations, and aspects of social, economic,
political, and domestic life Enables readers to gain insight into
the thinking and life experience of ancient Mesopotamians through
primary sources Provokes discussion through the debate of three
major questions about the rise of civilization Combines several
different approaches to the subject to promote critical thinking
skillls and support Common Core State Standards Supports NCHS World
History standards for Era 2, Standards 1A and 1B, and Common Core
critical thinking skills for English Language Arts/World History
and Social Studies
This volume is one of the most important historical sources for
medieval Islamic scholarship - Mirzar Haydar's "Tarikh- i -
Rashidi" (History of Rashid). It offers a history of the Khans of
Moghulistan, the vast stretch of territory between the ancient
cities of Central Asia and Mongolia, and was written in the early
16th century by Mirza Haydar, a Turco-Mongol military general and
ruler of Kashmir. Distinguished linguist and orientalist, Wheeler
Thackston, presents a lucid, annotated translation that makes this
key material accessible to a wide range of scholars.
In the view of Dr. Martin Sicker, it was with the emergence of
Islam that the combination of geopolitics and religion reached its
most volatile form and provided the ideological context for war and
peace in the Middle East for more than a millennium. The conflation
of geopolitics and religion in Islam is predicated on the concept
of "jihad" (struggle), which may be understood as a "crescentade,"
in the same sense as the later Christian "crusade," which seeks to
achieve a religious goal, the conversion of the world to Islam, by
militant means. This equates to a concept of perpetual war with the
non-Muslim world, a concept that underlays Muslim geopolitical
thinking throughout the thousand-year period covered in this book.
However, as Sicker amply demonstrates, the concept often bore
little relation to the political realities of the region that as
often as not saw Muslims and non-Muslims aligned against and at war
with other Muslims.
The story of the emergence and phenomenal ascendancy of the
Islamic world from a relatively small tribe in sparsely populated
Arabia is one that taxes the imagination, but it becomes more
comprehensible when viewed through a geopolitical prism. Religion
was repeatedly and often shamelessly harnessed to geopolitical
purpose by both Muslims and Christians, albeit with arguably
greater Muslim success. Islamic ascendancy began as an Arab
project, initially focused on the Arabian peninsula, but was soon
transformed into an imperialist movement with expansive ambitions.
As it grew, it quickly registered highly impressive gains, but soon
lost much of its Arab content. It ended a millennium later as a
Turkish--more specifically, an Ottoman--project with many
intermediate transformations. The reverberations of the
thousand-year history of that ascendancy are still felt today in
many parts of the greater Middle East. A comprehensive geopolitical
survey for scholars, students, researchers, and all others
interested in the history of the Middle East and Islam.
In Projectland, anthropologist Holly High combines an engaging
first-person narrative of her fieldwork with a political
ethnography of Laos, more than forty years after the establishment
of the Lao PDR and more than seven decades since socialist
ideologues first "liberated" parts of upland country. In a remote
village of Kandon, High finds that although socialism has declined
significantly as an economic model, it is ascendant and thriving in
the culture of politics and the politics of culture. Kandon is
remarkable by any account. The villagers are ethnic Kantu (Katu),
an ethnicity associated by early ethnographers above all with human
sacrifice. They had repelled French control, and as the war went
on, the revolutionary forces of Sekong were headquartered in Kandon
territories. In 1996, Kandon village moved and resettled in a
plateau area. "New Kandon" has become Sekong Province's first
certified "Culture Village," the nation's very first "Open
Defecation Free and Model Health Village," and the president of
Laos personally granted the village a Labor Flag and Medal. High
provides a unique and timely assessment of the Lao Party-state's
resettlement politics, and she recounts with skillful nuance the
stories that are often cast into shadows by the usual focus on New
Kandon as a success. Her book follows the lives of a small group of
villagers who returned to the old village in the mountains,
effectively defying policy but, in their words, obeying the
presence that animates the land there. Revealing her sensibility
with tremendous composure, High tells the experiences of women who,
bound by steep bride-prices to often violent marriages, have tasted
little of the socialist project of equality, unity, and
independence. These women spoke to the author of "necessities" as a
limit to their own lives. In a context where the state has defined
the legitimate forms of success and agency, "necessity" emerged as
a means of framing one's life as nonconforming but also
nonagentive.
examines Thai-Chinese relations, dating back to the first Thai
dynasty (Sukhothai) to the present (Ratanakosin). The study
explores the Thai domestic policies that have affected the Chinese
population since World War II and assimilation policies of the Thai
government towards the Chinese. This book also analyzes both
Skinner's and Chan and Tong's arguments, and their main idea in the
context of the present day environment and situation for the ethnic
Chinese. This research supports the Skinnerian paradigm, which
asserts that "a majority of the descendants of Chinese immigrants
in each generation merge with Thai society and become
indistinguishable from the indigenous population to the extent that
fourth-generation Chinese are practically non-existent." The
validation of the Skinnerian paradigm rejects Chan and Tong's
hypothesis, which claims that Skinner has "overemphasized the
forces of assimilation" and that the Chinese in Thailand have not
assimilated but retained their Chinese identity. To support
Skinner's assertion and reject Chan and Tong's argument, this book
presents rich empirical data collected via surveys conducted with
the ethnic Chinese in Thailand from 2003-2004. This study uncovers
that the forces of assimilation occur at two levels. On the first
level, the Chinese in Thailand possess natural attributes which
facilitate social and cultural integration and assimilation into
Thai society. On the second level, government pro-assimilation
policies, driven by the bilateral relations between Thailand and
China and the political situation in both countries, are also
responsible for the assimilation of the Chinese in Thailand. As the
most current in-depth study on the Chinese in Thailand, The Chinese
Emigres of Thailand in the Twentieth Century is a critical addition
for all collections in Asian Studies as well as Ethnic and
Immigrant Studies.
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