Asian history
Showing 1–16 of 21 results
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Chequered Past, Uncertain Future
£30.00Chequered Past, Uncertain Future
A sweeping journey through the ebbs and flows of PakistanÃs history.
£30.00 -
Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith
£12.99 -
Emperor of the Seas
£25.00Emperor of the Seas
A gripping tale of naval warfare, dynastic rivalry, and technical innovation, by the author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
£25.00 -
Fortune’s bazaar
£12.99Fortune’s bazaar
Hong Kong has always been many cities to many people: a seaport, a gateway to an empire, a place where fortunes can be dramatically made or lost, a place to disappear and reinvent oneself, and a mixing pot of diverse populations from literally everywhere around the globe. A British Crown Colony for 155 years, Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communist Party who continues to threaten its democracy and put its rich legacy at risk. Here, renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into Hong Kong’s complex history and its people – diverse, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan – who have made this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today. Rather than a traditional history describing a town led by British Governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese empire, ‘Fortune’s Bazaar’ is a thorough examination of the varied peoples who made Hong Kong.
£12.99 -
Gone away
£12.99Gone away
At the age of 20, Dom Moraes – already a celebrated poet who would go on to be regarded as one of India’s finest writers – returned to his native India after finishing education in England. After spending time in Delhi, meeting Jawaharlal Nehru and the young Dalai Lama, he embarked on a meandering journey through northern India, Nepal and Sikkim at a time of political tension and the threat of invasion by China. Brilliant, curious and precocious, seldom without a drink in his hand, he chanced his way into some extraordinary situations – including staying in a Nepalese palace with a resident bear and being shot at and chased by Chinese soldiers. ‘Gone Away’ details these adventures with a poet’s eye for detail, and the luminosity and humour for which Moraes was known.
£12.99 -
Indian ancient origins
£10.99Indian ancient origins
In the origins of Ancient India lie the seeds of gods and legends that populate the mythologies, philosophies and culture of the continent. From the migrations of the earliest people into the basin of the Indus and the city of Harappan, to the rise of the Ganges civilization, this new book gives an insight into the rich diversity of India today.
£10.99 -
Jerusalem
£14.99Jerusalem
The wider history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, from King David to today. The story of Jerusalem is the story of the world.Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilisations. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.
£14.99 -
Judgement at Tokyo
£30.00Judgement at Tokyo
The definitive account of the Tokyo war crimes trials of 1946-8, WWII and the beginning of the end of the European empires in Asia and the impact the settlement has had on post-war China and Japan, the wider history of East and South Asia – and of the world – to this day.
£30.00 -
Samurai
£8.99Samurai
The idea of the sword-wielding samurai, warriors beholden to a strict ethical code and trained in deadly martial arts, dominates popular conceptions. As early as the late seventeenth century, they were heavily featured in literature, art, theater, and even comedy. This legacy continues in film, and countless renditions of samurai history in anime, manga, and video games. Much as they capture the modern imagination, the samurai commanded influence over the politics, arts, philosophy and religion of their own time, and ultimately controlled Japan from the fourteenth century until their demise in the mid-nineteenth century. On and off the battlefield, whether charging an enemy on horseback or currying favor at the imperial court, their story is one of adventures and intrigues, heroics and misdeeds, unlikely victories and devastating defeats.
£8.99 -
The Chinese Myths
£14.99The Chinese Myths
The essential guide to the complex, fascinating world of Chinese myths: retelling the stories and exploring their significance in Chinese culture.
£14.99 -
The Great Reversal
£25.00The Great Reversal
A vivid history of the relationship between Britain and China, from 1600 to the present
£25.00 -
The great wave
£16.99The great wave
An urgent examination of the great wave of change breaking over today’s world – from the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and New York Times bestselling author of The Death of Truth
‘A profoundly inspiring and prophetic perspective on the contemporary world’ Ai Weiwei
£16.99 -
The Japanese Myths
£14.99The Japanese Myths
This is a succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime.
£14.99 -
The last days of the Ottoman Empire
£12.99The last days of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire had been one of the major facts in European history since the Middle Ages. By 1914 it had been much reduced, but still remained after Russia the largest European state. Stretching from the Adriatic to the Indian Ocean, the Empire was both a great political entity and a religious one, with the Sultan ruling over the Holy Sites and, as Caliph, the successor to Mohammed. Yet the Empire’s fateful decision to support Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914, despite its successfully defending itself for much of the war, doomed it to disaster, breaking it up into a series of European colonies and what emerged as an independent Saudi Arabia. Ryan Gingeras explains how these epochal events came about and shows how much we still live in the shadow of decisions taken so long ago.
£12.99 -
The light of Asia
£30.00The light of Asia
From the time of the ancient Greeks onwards the West’s relationship with Asia consisted for the most part of outrageous tales of strange beasts and monsters, of silk and spices shipped over vast distances and an uneasy sense of unknowable empires fantastically far away. By the 20th century much of Asia might have come under Western rule after centuries of warfare, but its intellectual, artistic and spiritual influence was fighting back. ‘The Light of Asia’ is a wonderfully varied and entertaining history of the many ways in which Asia has shaped European and North American culture over centuries of tangled, dynamic encounters, and the central importance of this vexed, often confused relationship. This is a rich, involving story of misunderstandings and sincere connection, of inspiration and falsehood, of geniuses, adventurers and con-men.
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The red emperor
£25.00The red emperor
Xi Jinping rules over 1.4 billion people and the second biggest economy on earth. He commands huge armed forces and runs a technology programme meant to dominate the globe. His ambition is to take the place of the United States and to change the world order. Xi’s life story is full of drama: plots, purges, murders, a power struggle and a pandemic. This book, based on new sources, leads the reader from the poor, isolated China of the 1950s to the modern economic and military juggernaut of today. It reveals how the Chinese elite groomed Xi as a manager only to get a dictator, a man who has made himself into a new version of Mao and who dares not give up power. The fresh material includes open-source Chinese coverage that the experts have missed, access to the papers of a deceased high official, information from personal friends of the Xi family and briefings from intelligence sources.
£25.00