Forests Are Gold examines the management of Vietnam's forests in the tumultuous twentieth centuryfrom French colonialism to the recent transition to market-oriented economicsas the country united, prospered, and transformed people and landscapes.
An authoritative study of food politics in the socialist regimes of China and the Soviet Union During the twentieth century, 80 percent of all famine victims worldwide died in China and the Soviet Union.
From the fluttering fabric of a tent, to the blurred motion of the potters wheel, to the rhythm of a horse puppets wooden hoovesthese scenes make up a set of mid-1980s art exhibitions as part of the U.
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a compelling and lucid account of the life and teachings of a founder of rabbinic Judaism and one of the most beloved heroes of Jewish history Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.
The tales included here represent all of Yunnan Provinces officially designated ethnic minorities, and include creation myths, romances, historical legends, tales explaining natural phenomena, ghost stories, and festival tales.
Forming the Early Chinese Court builds on new directions in comparative studies of royal courts in the ancient world to present a pioneering study of early Chinese court culture.
The heart of Urbanization in Early and Medieval China consists of translations of three gazetteers written during the Han (206 BCE220 CE), Tang (618907), and Northern Song (9601126) dynasties describing the city of Suzhou.
This multilayered historical ethnography of Bodh Gaya the place of Buddhas enlightenment in the north Indian state of Bihar explores the spatial politics surrounding the transformation of the Mahabodhi Temple Complex into a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2002.
A masterfully researched and compelling history of Iran from 1501 to 2009 This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation.
Broadening an overly narrow definition of Islamic journalism, Janet Steele examines day-to-day reporting practices of Muslim professionals, from conservative scripturalists to pluralist cosmopolitans, at five exemplary news organizations in Malaysia and Indonesia.
This reexamination of the controversial role Emperor Hirohito played during the Pacific War gives particular attention to the question: If the emperor could not stop Japan from going to war with the Allied Powers in 1941, why was he able to play a crucial role in ending the war in 1945?
Postcolonial literature about the South Seas, or Nanyang, examines the history of Chinese migration, localization, and interethnic exchange in Southeast Asia, where Sinophone settler cultures evolved independently by adapting to their "e;New World"e; and mingling with native cultures.
In the rapidly changing world of the early Middle Ages, depictions of the cosmos represented a consistent point of reference across the three dominant states—the Frankish, Byzantine, and Islamic Empires.
This trailblazing study examines the history of narcotics in Japan to explain the development of global criteria for political legitimacy in nations and empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Sociologist Ashley Mears takes us behind the brightly lit runways and glossy advertisements of the fashion industry in this insider's study of the world of modeling.
Beginning in 1947, when "e;India and Pakistan were born to conflict,"e; renowned India scholar Stanley Wolpert provides an authoritative, accessible primer on what is potentially the world's most dangerous crisis.
The ancient story of King Goujian, a psychologically complex fifth-century BCE monarch, spoke powerfully to the Chinese during China's turbulent twentieth century.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, global labor migration, trade, and overseas study brought China and the United States into close contact, leading to new cross-cultural encounters that brought mixed-race families into being.
Ancestral Leaves follows one family through six hundred years of Chinese history and brings to life the epic narrative of the nation, from the fourteenth century through the Cultural Revolution.
In this path-breaking book, Tong Lam examines the emergence of the "e;culture of fact"e; in modern China, showing how elites and intellectuals sought to transform the dynastic empire into a nation-state, thereby ensuring its survival.
Offering a new approach to the study of religion and empire, this innovative book challenges a widespread myth of modernity-that Western rule has had a secularizing effect on the non-West-by looking closely at missionary schools in Bengal.
This is the first English translation of one of Korea's most celebrated historical works, a pre-modern classic so well known to Koreans that it has inspired contemporary literature and television.
Every year over 200 million peasants flock to China's urban centers, providing a profusion of cheap labor that helps fuel the country's staggering economic growth.
In this cogent and insightful reading of China's twentieth-century political culture, David Strand argues that the Chinese Revolution of 1911 engendered a new political life-one that began to free men and women from the inequality and hierarchy that formed the spine of China's social and cultural order.
This history of Japanese mass culture during the decades preceding Pearl Harbor argues that the new gestures, relationship, and humor of ero-guro-nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) expressed a self-consciously modern ethos that challenged state ideology and expansionism.
The truth of Chan Buddhismbetter known as ';Zen'is regularly said to be beyond language, and yet Chan authorsmedieval and modernproduced an enormous quantity of literature over the centuries.
