This pioneering monograph examines how culture informs popular understandings and experiences of mental health in East Asia, as well as providing resolutions for the future. Questions about mental health problems have gained new urgency as their consequences are growing more visible in East Asia. Yet, our understanding, funding, and evidence has not kept pace. Anson Au explores the social and psychological concepts, and network structures that make up the blueprint of East Asian cultures and untangles their myriad of influences on how people think, feel, and trust with respect to mental health experiences. Chapters explore themes such as cultural beliefs about mental health, the role of social support and social media, and mental health stigma. Drawing on the latest quantitative evidence, network science, and novel qualitative data, this book paints a portrait of mental health in the region and articulates culturally sensitive policies and practices tailored for East Asian cultures that improve mental health experiences.

Against the powerful image of Japan as a rising economic superpower, or even, in Ezra Vogel's influential formulation a deade ago, "Japan as number 1", this book explores the fragility, hubris and human and environmental costs of Japan's desperate drive for hyperdevelopment. As this economic superpower finds itself drifting, rudderless, through the decade, four seminal events seem to emblemise the enveloping crisis: the Kobe Earthquake, which the author shows to be no mere act of nature, but an event whose consequences are intimately bound up with desperate hypergrowth; The Ayum Rikyo poison gas attack, which struck at Japan's sense of security in its deepest senses (psychological and moral, as well as physical); the collapse of the LDP single-party rule after nearly 40 years, plunging Japan's superstable political system into crises manifested by implausible coalition with little more than a thirst to rule in common; and Japan's inability to come to terms with war respnsibility ever after 50 years, best symbolised by the Comfort Women issue and the government's hapless attempt to come up with an appropriate formula for recognising, apologising and making amends for wartime aggression and crimes. Gavan McCormack addresses these issues - which are political, economic, social cultural and moral in the most profound sense - directly in this book.

Japanese architecture is one of the most inspired manifestations of Japanese civilization. This study argues that architectural forms are more than just symbols of the institutions that created them. William H. Coaldrake explores the symbiotic relationship between architecture and authority throughout Japanese history, exploring key structures and how they have been used as active conveyors of power, relating buildings to the political ambitions and religious beliefs of the major historical eras in Japan.

Series Information:
Nissan Institute/RoutledgeCurzon Japanese Studies

A visual survey of the public myths and collective symbols used in the making of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the subsequent war with Iraq. The book traces a remarkable period of history in which the power of words and images successfully challenged the military might of an established state, setting forth an avalanche of public sentiment that led to revolution.

Many aspects of the Tet offensive of 1968 are brought to light here. The offensive is acknowledged as the turning point of the Vietnam War. Using Communist Vietnamese documents combined with Western sources, the author provides a more accurate version of the events, their significance, and reveals the crucial role played by US intelligence. This book illustrates that in the 1960s the Communist Vietnamese were well aware of the political and diplomatic nature of a People's War.

As the first book to examine the origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Europe and Asia as a whole, this major contribution should be essential reading for archaeologists, anthropologists, biologists and geographers. Adopting a novel approach to the subject, the authors examine it first in terms of seven different disciplinary perspectives: social, ecological, genetic, linguistic, biomolecular, epidemiological and geogrpahical. Then, 20 case studies are presented, which are based primarily on archaeological and biological evidence and which relate to three major regions: Southwest Asia, Europe and Central Asia to the Pacific. The book concludes with an overview of Eurasia as a whole.; The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture had revolutionary consequences for human society. It led to the emergence of urban civilizations and ultimately to humanity's almost complete dependence on relatively few domesticated animals and plants. The subject has been much studied, but the results have tended to be interpreted largely in terms of local cultural sequences, with insufficient comparison made with evidence from other areas. In contrast, this book provides a continental- scale framework, with its scope extended to pastoralism because in Eurasia both the raising of livestock and the cultivation of crops were integral components of the agricultural "revolution" from its inception some 10,000 years ago.; Comprehensive and authoritative, "The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia" should appeal strongly to the wide readership of students and specialists concerned with the prehistoric antecedents of modern civilization.

"Will delight the visual learner. ... For the college student, the general reader, and the merely curious". -- American Reference Book Annual

"Schmidt has filled a large gap. ... Superior quality, wide coverage, and considerable excellence". -- Journal of World History

In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration for military and strategic reasons. This book analyses why and how the British took on the Palestine Mandate. It explores how their interests and policies changed during its course and why they evacuated the country in 1948. During the first decade of the Mandate the British enjoyed an influx of Jewish capital mobilized by the Zionists which enabled them not only to fund the administration of Palestine, but also her own regional imperial projects. But in the mid-1930s, as the clouds of World War Two gathered, Britain's commitment to Zionism was superseded by the need to secure her strategic assets in the Middle East. In consequence she switched to a policy of appeasing the Arabs. In 1947, Britain abandoned her attempts to impose a settlement in Palestine that would be acceptable to the Arab States and referred Palestine to the United Nations, without recommendations, leaving the antagonists to settle their conflict on the battlefield. Based on archival sources, and the most up-to-date scholarly research, this comprehensive history offers new insights into Arab, British and Zionist policies. It is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Palestine, Israel, British Colonialism and the Middle East in general.

Bengalis in Burma looks at Bengali migrations and settlements in Burma from 1886 until the end of the British rule in Burma in 1948. As a result of British colonial policies, thousands of Bengalis from various classes and places in Bengal migrated to Burma and established Bengali communities in different parts of the country. The book provides a study of a vast body of Bangla writings on Burma written during this period by the Bengalis, a majority of whom went to Burma in various capacities and with various objectives. It takes note of a complex network of power, subjugation, and resistance which is integrally related to these acts of representation in Bangla textual discourses. Drawing on stories, political discussions in Bangla journals, unknown autobiographies, travelogues, and uncelebrated poems, it explores the ways contemporary Bengalis looked at Burma for various reasons and wondered about their locations within colonial systems. An important contribution to the study of South Asia, the book brings forth issues of representation, colonial knowledge system, and modernity. It will be of interest to students and researchers of history, literature, migration studies, colonialism, and South Asian studies.

Syria's descent into chaos since 2011 has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, while more than nine million people have fled their homes. In this timely account, John McHugo charts the history of Syria from the First World War to the present and considers why Syria's foundations as a nation have proved so fragile. He examines the country's thwarted attempts at independence under French rule before turning to more recent events: two generations of rule by the Assad family, sectarian tensions, the pressures that turned an aborted revolution into a proxy war, and the appearance of ISIS. As the conflict in Syria rages on, McHugo provides a rare and authoritative guide to a complex nation that demands our attention.

The contributors to New World Orderings demonstrate that China's twenty-first-century rise occurs not only through economics and state politics but equally through the mutual entanglements of overlapping social, economic, and cultural worlds in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. They show how the Chinese state has sought to reconfigure the nation's position in the world and the centrality of trade, labor, religion, migration, gender, race, and literature to this reconfiguration. Among other topics, the contributors examine China's post-Bandung cultural diplomacy with African nations, how West African "pastor-entrepreneurs" in China interpreted and preached the prosperity doctrine, the diversity of Chinese-Argentine social relations in the soy supply chain, and the ties between China and India within the complex history of inter-Asian exchange and Chinese migration to Southeast Asia. By examining China's long historical relationship with the Global South, this volume presents a non-state-centric history of China that foregrounds the importance of transnational communicative and imaginative worldmaking processes and interactions. Contributors. Andrea Bachner, Luciano Damian Bolinaga, Nellie Chu, Rachel Cypher, Mingwei Huang, T. Tu Huynh, Yu-lin Lee, Ng Kim Chew, Lisa Rofel, Carlos Rojas, Shuang Shen, Derek Sheridan, Nicolai Volland

During the postwar period of 1948-56, over 400,000 Jews from the Middle East and Asia immigrated to the newly established state of Israel. By the end of the 1950s, Mizrahim, also known as Oriental Jewry, represented the ethnic majority of the Israeli Jewish population. Despite their large numbers, Mizrahim were considered outsiders because of their non-European origins. Viewed as foreigners who came from culturally backward and distant lands, they suffered decades of socioeconomic, political, and educational injustices. In this pioneering work, Roby traces the Mizrahi population's struggle for equality and civil rights in Israel. Although the daily ""bread and work"" demonstrations are considered the first political expression of the Mizrahim, Roby demonstrates the myriad ways in which they agitated for change. Drawing upon a wealth of archival sources, many only recently declassified, Roby details the activities of the highly ideological and politicized young Israel. Police reports, court transcripts, and protester accounts document a diverse range of resistance tactics, including sit-ins, tent protests, and hunger strikes. Roby shows how the Mizrahi intellectuals and activists in the 1960s began to take note of the American civil rights movement, gaining inspiration from its development and drawing parallels between their experience and that of other marginalized ethnic groups. The Mizrahi Era of Rebellion shines a light on a largely forgotten part of Israeli social history, one that profoundly shaped the way Jews from African and Asian countries engaged with the newly founded state of Israel.

This volume presents the reader with thirty-one short chapters that capture an exciting new moment in the study of the Meiji Restoration. The chapters offer a kaleidoscope of approaches and interpretations of the Restoration that showcase the strengths of the most recent interpretative trends in history writing on Japan while simultaneously offering new research pathways. On a scale probably never before seen in the study of the Restoration outside Japan, the short chapters in this volume reveal unique aspects of the transformative event and process not previously explored in previous research. They do this in three core ways: through selecting and deploying different time frames in their historical analysis; by creative experimentation with different spatial units through which to ascertain historical experience; and by innovative selection of unique and highly original topics for analysis. The volume offers students and teachers of Japanese history, modern history, and East Asian studies an important resource for coming to grips with the multifaceted nature of Japan's nineteenth-century transformation. The volume will also have broader appeal to scholars working in fields such as early modern/modern world history, global history, Asian modernities, gender studies, economic history, and postcolonial studies.

The first study of its kind in English, "Cleopatras" examines the lives and careers of Cleopatra's illustrious namesakes. Beginning with the Cleopatras of early Greek mythology, John Whitehorne next considers Macedonian queens and princesses of the same name including the last wife of Philip II of Macedon and the sister of Alexander the Great. He traces the careers of Cleopatras from the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and explores the political importance of their marriages to the Seleucid kings of Syria. After a reappraisal of current views about Cleopatra VII's suicide, the author concludes with accounts of such fascinating and important historical figures as Cleopatra Selene of Mauretania and Cleopatra's daughter by Mark Antony, who was the last in the Ptolemaic line.
Through these numerous biographical studies, Whitehorne is able to shed light on the nature of royal power in this period, the place of dynastic marriage in the Macedonian and Hellenistic monarchies, and the growing political importance of royal women in the Hellenistic age. Trained as a papyrologist, Whitehorne brings years of experience in editing and interpreting texts from this period and has published widely on the history and society of Greco-Roman Egypt.

A timely and compelling examination of the Palestinian dilemma, named one of the 100 best books of the year by Publishers Weekly
In Resurrecting Empire, Rashid Khalidi dissected the failures of colonial policy over the entire span of the modern history of the Middle East, predicted the meltdown in Iraq that we are now witnessing with increasing horror, and offered viable alternatives for achieving peace in the region. His newest book, The Iron Cage, hones in on Palestinian politics and history. Once again Khalidi draws on a wealth of experience and scholarship to elucidate the current conflict, using history to provide a clear-eyed view of the situation today.
The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state begins in the era of British control over Palestine and stretches between the two world wars, when colonial control of the region became increasingly unpopular and power began to shift toward the United States. In this crucial period, and in the years immediately following World War II, Palestinian leaders were unable to achieve the long-cherished goal of establishing an independent state--a critical failure that throws a bright light on the efforts of the Palestinians to create a state in the many decades since 1948. By frankly discussing the reasons behind this failure, Khalidi offers a much-needed perspective for anyone concerned about peace in the Middle East.
"Rashid Khalidi is a historian's historian. The Iron Cage is his most accomplished effort to date . . . Magisterial in scope, meticulous in its attention to detail, and decidedly dispassionate in its analysis, The Iron Cage is destined to be a benchmark of its genre." --Joel Schalit, Tikkun
"At heart a historical essay, an effort to decide why the Palestinians . . . have failed to achieve an independent state." --Steven Erlanger, New York Times
"Khalidi, tackling 'historical amnesia, ' brilliantly analyses the structural handicap which hobbled the Palestinians throughout 30 years of British rule . . . Khalidi restores the Palestinians to something more than victims, acknowledging that for all their disadvantages, they have played their role and can (and must) still do so to determine their own fate." --Ian Black, Guardian
"Khalidi uses history to provide a clear-eyed view of the region and assess the prospects for peace. He strives successfully for even-handedness." --Anthony Lewis, author of Gideon's Trumpet and Make No Law
." . . we have to open a dialogue with Hamas--not to embrace it, but to lay out a gradual pathway that will bring it into relations with Israel. As Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University's Palestinian expert and author of The Iron Cage points out: 'If we let the Palestinian Authority be destroyed, and then we keep Hamas isolated'--even though it won a democratic election that we sponsored--'we will end up with the hard boys, the gangs you see today on the streets of Gaza, who respond to no authority at all.'" --New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman

A study of Britain's imperial policy in the Middle East over oil, finance and defence. This book brings together different accounts of British policy in the early 20th century, particularly in the Ottoman Empire, to reflect a consistent pattern of preoccupation, policy-making and diplomacy.

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Ancient prophecy was not confined to Israel, yet the phenomenon of prophetic poetry as it developed there was unique. The impact of this poetry on civilization is incalculable, though its origins and motives largely remain mysterious. This book shows that this poetry is inseparable from the empires which determined the history of the ancient Near East and the fate of Israel and Judah from the late-8th century to the end of the 6th century BC - first Assyria, then Babylonia, and finally Persia. Each empire had its own characters and motives, and stimulated a distinct wave of prophecy, led in turn by Isaiah Ben Amos, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the second Isaiah. The book is an historical interpretation and an anthology of prophetic poetry which uses recent research on imperialism and creativity to produce a radically new interpretation of the biblical prophets. More than three dozen outstanding poems and fragments in new translation from the Hebrew Bible are arranged in a running narrative, from the late-8th century BC until the late-6th century BC.

Oil wealth facilitated Saudi Arabia's rapid modernization. Yet the resulting social changes produced tension in the kingdom between religious and state leaders, as well as between these two groups and the new elites. The Kuwait-Iraq crisis demonstrated both Saudi regional weakness and its importance to the U.S.-led West. It also increased the religious and socio-political tensions in the kingdom which threaten its stability. This work examines the contemporary tensions which form today's Saudi society and directs its path to the future.

In this volume, eminent scholars from the Arab world, Asia, India, Pakistan, Western Europe, the USA and Canada present a fascinating and detailed picture of the archaeology of Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf, a position historically of immense significance and importance. Bahrain contains some of the most significant sites in the entire Gulf region, and the government of Bahrain has been particularly active in excavation and conservation. Bahrain's fertility was based on an abundant supply of good water. References to it appear in Mespotamian and Greek sources, but its legendary desirability is now shown to be only the faintest echo of reality. In the course of this work, experts in many disciplines piece together the fabric of this civilization, only recently re-discovered. Its traces today remain most dramatically in the literally hundreds of thousands of burial mounds, in the three successive temples at Barbar and in the city of Dilmun itself.

A study of the Manchurian and Shanghai crises, the first serious confrontation between Japan and the world community. The book focuses on how the League of Nations attempted to cope with the emergency; and on the clash of attitudes in Japanese politics.

In this remarkably human portrait of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Emperor of Iran, Andrew Scott Cooper examines the life of an infamously complex personality in a bold new light. The recent wave of instability in the Middle East has led Iranians and scholars to reassess the legacy of the Shah-widely denounced as a brutal, corrupt dictator-who championed Western-style reforms and launched Iran onto the world stage as a modern and powerful state. The Fall of Heaven was written with exclusive access to royalists and revolutionaries-most notably the Shah's widow Empress Farah, other members of the Pahlavi family, and the men who deposed them: Iran's first elected president Abolhassan Banisadr, along with other religious and political figures active in the revolutionary underground. These testimonials are set alongside first-person remembrances of White House officials, along with American diplomats and civilians in Tehran. Cooper takes readers from the Shah's lavish palace in Tehran to the dusty streets of Najaf, where Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile, and from the Imperial Family's summer retreat on the Caspian Sea to the back alleys of Beirut, where Islamist revolutionaries plotted the regime's overthrow. Both epic and intimate, The Fall of Heaven re-creates the dramatic final days of a legendary ruling family, the deposition of which started the militant unrest that still affects the Middle East today.

Winston Churchill described the loss of Singapore as the greatest disaster ever to befall British arms. Louis Allen analyzes the remote political causes of the Japanese campaign, gives an account of the events of the campaign, and then attempts to apportion responsibility for the defeat.

For centuries, China was confident in its role as the 'Middle Kingdom', the undisputed cultural, economic and political powerhouse of Asia. Today, with China once again a leading player on the world stage, countries across the continent are facing an uncertain future. Does China's rise threaten its neighbours? And what, ultimately, is its end goal? Nowhere are these questions more pressing than in the Pacific, where China's maritime neighbours find themselves directly in the path of the country's expanding territorial claims. In this rich historical exploration, Michael Tai finds answers to these and other questions through an in-depth exploration of China's past. Spanning thousands of years of Chinese and Asian history, China and Her Neighbours looks at China's evolving relations with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. While the disputes in the Pacific have attracted widespread attention, very few investigations have considered the wider historical context of these tensions.