editor | Asian History Books

Silent Warriors of World War II: The Alamo Scouts Behind the Japanese Lines

March 22, 2015

The incredible story of the (until recently) secret military unit of World War II, the forerunner of the modern Special Forces. The highly skilled Alamo Scouts, formed by General Walter Krueger in 1943, evolved from a simple reconnaissance unit into a sophisticated intelligence unit supplying and coordinating large-scale guerrilla operations in New Guinea and Phillipines. […]
Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture)

March 22, 2015

From the beginning of the American Occupation in 1945 to the post-bubble period of the early 1990s, popular music provided Japanese listeners with a much-needed release, channeling their desires, fears, and frustrations into a pleasurable and fluid art. Pop music allowed Japanese artists and audiences to assume various identities, reflecting the country’s uncomfortable position under […]
Challenge to China: How Taiwan Abolished Its Version of Re-Education Through Labor

March 22, 2015

Challenge to China: How Taiwan Abolished Its Version of Re-Education Through Labor draws attention to an underappreciated aspect of legal reforms in Taiwan, and asks how Taiwan’s experience might be relevant to its giant neighbor across the Taiwan Strait. This timely book by Jerome A. Cohen, whose groundbreaking work in the 1960s laid a foundation […]
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics)

March 22, 2015

Hannah Arendt’s portrayal of the terrible consequences of blind obedience, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil contains an introduction by Amos Elon in Penguin Classics. Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi SS leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a […]
Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History

March 22, 2015

Charlie Wilson’s War was a publishing sensation and a New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. In the early 1980s, a Houston socialite turned the attention of maverick Texas congressman Charlie Wilson to the ragged band of Afghan “freedom fighters” who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders. Wilson, who […]
China and the Taiwan Issue: Impending War at Taiwan Strait

March 22, 2015

With comprehensive historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural data, this book offers a timely examination of the developments in mainland China, Taiwan, and U.S. involvement in the region as they relate to the ongoing Taiwan Strait dilemma. While many books approach this issue primarily from the viewpoint of Taiwan, this book gives considerable attention to China […]
THE HEART OF ASIA. A History of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the Earliest Times

March 22, 2015

CONTENTSPART 1FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONCHAP. I. EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER II. BACTRIANS AND PARTHIANS III. THE HUNS AND THE YU&-CHI IV. THE SASANIDES, THE EPHTHALITES, AND THE TURKS V. THE RISE OF ISLAM AND INVASIONS OF THE ARABS VI. THE FIRST EASTERN CAMPAIGNS OF KUTAYBA IBN MUSLIM VII. […]
Meatless Days

March 22, 2015

In this finely wrought memoir of life in postcolonial Pakistan, Suleri intertwines the violent history of Pakistan’s independence with her own most intimate memories—of her Welsh mother; of her Pakistani father, prominent political journalist Z.A. Suleri; of her tenacious grandmother Dadi and five siblings; and of her own passage to the West.”Nine autobiographical tales that […]
Thai House: History And Evolution

March 22, 2015

The construction of wooden houses raised on stilts, which help to escape floods and pests, is a phenomenon found across Southeast Asia. Over many centuries each country has developed its own unique tradition. Thailand is no exception and, indeed, each of the country’s four main regions has developed its own distinctive style, making the wooden […]
Hong Kong: The Last Prize of Empire

March 22, 2015

Last Prize documents the values of Hong Kong’s colonial past and reflects them with striking images of Hong Kong today as it shapes its future as part of the China of tomorrow. The colonial island of Hong Kong began its dramatic transformation as one of the spoils of the notorious Opium Wars, but its dubious […]

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