“What is so striking about Morris’s work as a historian is that it does not flatter anyone’s prejudices, least of all his own,” David Remnick remarked in a New Yorker article that coincided with the publication of Benny Morris’s 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War.
For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare.
Benny Morris demolishes misconceptions and provides a comprehensive history of the Israeli-Arab war of 1948 This history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict is groundbreaking, objective, and deeply revisionist.
Drawing on more than a quarter century of field and documentary research in rural North China, this book explores the contested relationship between village and state from the 1960s to the start of the twenty-first century.
A comprehensive panorama of the religious and secular forces that shaped Ottoman and Turkish history over two centuriesTurkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity reveals the historical dynamics propelling two centuries of Ottoman and Turkish history.
A comprehensive account of the occupation of Iraq and the crises that have followed in its wake, told for the first time by an Iraqi insider Involved for over thirty years in the politics of Iraq, Ali A.
This timely book tells the fascinating story of how Zionists colonizers planned and established nearly 700 agricultural settlements, towns, and cities from the 1880s to the present.
The story of Mulian rescuing his mothers soul from hell has evolved as a narrative over several centuries in China, especially in the baojuan (precious scrolls) genre.
Slapping the Table in Amazement is the unabridged English translation of the famous story collection Paian jingqi by Ling Mengchu (15801644), originally published in 1628.
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an insider’s perspective on the life and influence of Israel’s first native-born prime minister, his bold peace initiatives, and his tragic assassination More than two decades have passed since prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, yet he remains an unusually intriguing and admired modern leader.
A comprehensive account of the occupation of Iraq and the crises that have followed in its wake, told for the first time by an Iraqi insider Involved for over thirty years in the politics of Iraq, Ali A.
Personal, provocative and powerfully persuasive - an essential guide to what white feminism is, why it matters, and how we can put an end to it'Thoughtful and provocative.
Discover one family's fascinating story in this beautiful, sweeping, multigenerational memoir, spanning 19th century south China to modern day Singapore'A captivating, compelling story of history, family loyalty, and personal sacrifice.
Returning to 1960s' India after decades beyond its borders, Ved Mehta explores his native country with two sets of eyes: those of the man educated in the West, and those of the child raised under the Raj.
The astonishing story of the Sassoons, one of the nineteenth century's preeminent commercial families and 'the Rothschilds of the East'The Sassoons were one of the great business dynasties of the nineteenth century, as eminent as traders as the Rothschilds were bankers.
The Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller on India's experience of British colonialism, by the internationally-acclaimed author and diplomat Shashi Tharoor'Tharoor's impassioned polemic slices straight to the heart of the darkness that drives all empires .
'Masterfully opens up a little explored realm: how the quest for religion and spirituality drives hundreds of millions of Chinese' Pankaj Mishra'A fascinating odyssey .
A PULITZER PRIZE FINALISTA riveting, masterfully researched account of the bold innovators who adapted the Chinese language to the modern world, transforming China into a superpower in the processWhat does it take to reinvent the world's oldest living language?
An astonishingly wide-ranging history of Russian nationalism chronicling Russia's yearning for Empire and how it has affected its politics for centuriesIn 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine.
'Stunningly good' Michael Burleigh, Evening Standard, Books of the Year 2017The dramatic story of the relationship between the world's three largest economies, one that is shaping the future of us all, by one of the foremost experts on east AsiaFor more than half a century, American power in the Pacific has successfully kept the peace.
Personal reflections by one of the makers of modern JapanOzaki Yukio, who was returned to his seat in the Japanese Diet twenty-five times, served in that body from its inception in 1890 to 1953.
The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, published on the 25th anniversary of the handoverIn June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not (as other British colonies over the decades) for independence, but for handing back in 1997 to the Chinese, from whom most of its territory had been leased 99 years previously.
This great Central Asian epic, passed down through generations and now brought to life in a new translation, carries the reader into a world of nomads, warriors and horselords'I am a steel-fanged lion, a dragon ready to pounce, a mighty poplar with golden branches rising up to the sky'The bard Sagh mbay Orozbaq uulu composed his oral telling of the great Central Asian Manas epic in the early twentieth century, although it draws on far older sources.
In this gorgeously illustrated collection of airline route maps, Mark Ovenden and Maxwell Roberts look to the skies and transport readers to another time.
From the author of Another Kyoto and Lost Japan, a rich, personal exploration of the culture and history of Bangkok, and an essential guide for anyone visiting the cityAlex Kerr has spent over thirty years of his life living in Bangkok.
In the early nineteenth century China remained almost untouched by British and European powers - but as new technology started to change this balance, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire.
For more than twenty years after the Communist Revolution in 1949, China and most of the western world had no diplomats in each others' capitals and no direct way to communicate.
DAILY TELEGRAPH and INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEARLONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 20122011 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALISTIn the wake of Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons, unpoliceable border areas, shelter of the Afghan Taliban and Bin Laden, and the spread of terrorist attacks by groups based in Pakistan to London, Bombay and New York, there is a clear need to look further than the simple image of a failed state so often portrayed in the media, and to see instead a country of immense complexity and importance.
