20th Century History

The diaries of the last British Governor, published on the 25th anniversary of the handover In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to...

Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the major role played by the early Muslim world in influencing modern society, Lost History fills an important void. Written by an award-winning...

'The next Bill Bryson' (New York Times) explores international relations past and present between three East Asian countries - Japan, South Korea and China - in this lively, absorbing travelogue...

Tientsin in north-eastern China was known as 'The Ford of Heaven' as it gave travellers access to the Celestial City of Peking and the Emperor of Heaven eighty miles to...

The Korean War opened with the invasion of South Korea by the North Koreans in June 1950. This superbly illustrated book traces the fluctuating fortunes of war from both sides....

In humiliating circumstances, Indonesia's first democratically elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid, was forced from office in July 2001 after less that two years in the job. Wahid, almost blind and still...

This volume addresses these issues through the description of a series of interventions of territorial planning, environmental protection, recovery of historic buildings and traditional villages and the provement of living...

British soldiers never fought against the Soviet army, right? Wrong! In 1980, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had taken over the leadership of the West and the Soviets has invaded...

Recent U.S. military interventions in Kosovo and Iraq have stirred public memories of the long and costly Vietnam conflict. Scholars and strategists, military leaders and media continue to raise questions...

Based on multiarchival research conducted over almost three decades, this landmark account tells how a few men set off a war that would lead to tragedy for millions. Stein Tonnesson...

The 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 Asia...

Afghanistan is the forgotten theatre of operations in the 'War on Terrorism'. Rapidly eclipsed by the war in Iraq, it nonetheless remains a key element in the struggle over the...

Now a major motion picture from Jerry Bruckheimer starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon! "A thrilling action ride of a book" ( The New York Times Book Review )--the New...

Describes the role of the Navy in the Vietnam War, shares interviews with sailors who patroled the rivers and coastal waters of Vietnam, and looks at their vessels and strategies.

In late 1999 the world watched as a small country became the world's newest nation amid a frenzy of destruction and killing. Now, Deliverance tells the inside story of East...

Waziristan is a remote district of Pakistan populated by fiercely independent tribes who owe allegiance to no one and unite only to repel invaders or wage jihad. Its mountainous landscape...

In War at the Top of the World, veteran foreign correspondent Eric Margolis presents a revelatory history of the complicated and volatile conflicts that entangle one of the most beautiful...

And then there were the children educated in India. Brendon reveals appalling stories of abuse at the hands of servants. What frequently unites Brendon's wildly different subjects is their loneliness--drawing...

In this compelling new study, Louise Edwards explores the lives of some of China's most famous women warriors and wartime spies through history. Focusing on key figures including Hua Mulan,...

How did upstart outsiders forge vast new empires in early modern Asia, laying the foundations for today's modern mega-states of India and China? In How the East Was Won, Andrew...

Since it was first published in 2005, A History of Thailand has been hailed as an authoritative, lively and readable account of Thailand's political, economic, social and cultural history. From...

Volume 3 charts the establishment of the colonial regimes during the period c. 1800 to 1930 and defines this period as one of intensified European penetration, political consolidation by the...

As his father nears death in his retirement home in Mexico, John H. Richardson begins to unravel a life filled with drama and secrecy. John Sr. was a CIA "chief...

By the world-famous novelist, this fascinating blend of personal memoir, historical anecdote and wry observation offers the indispensable guide and key to contemporary India in the fiftieth year of its...

This unique and important anthology of Gandhi's writings offers a judicious, manageable and appealing selection from around 50,000 pages of work published originally in approximately 100 books. Alan Jacobs' choice...

Napoleon warned 'Let China sleep; when she wakes, she will shake the world'. Lawrence James's magisterial history analyses the relationship between Britain and China between the beginning of the Opium...

'Michael Sheridan is one of the best informed and wisest writers on China' - Chris Patten, last governor of Hong Kong The Red Emperor presents an eye-opening portrait of Xi...

A definitive and ambitious new history of the Indian subcontinent - this is Tony Judt's Postwar for South Asia Shadows at Noon is an ambitious synthesis of decades of research...

'An important contribution ... Delving lucidly into the most significant ideological battles of the era, this book deftly outlines the thinking and dialogue that laid the foundations of the Republic...

The diaries of the last British Governor, published on the 25th anniversary of the handover In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to...

Mesmerizing, haunting stories from the Soviet-Afghan War collected by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature From 1979 to 1989 Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan...

A compelling history of Chinese resistance to state oppression, told through the stories of three remarkable individuals In Wild Grass, Pulitzer Prize-winning Ian Johnson describes a China caught between the...

The remarkable true story of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, his sacrifice in Auschwitz, and the two men in war-torn Japan whose lives he changed forever The remarkable true story of Saint...

A panoramic social history chronicling the lives of hundreds of British people of all classes in the most important territory of the British Empire The British in this book lived...

The crucial book for understanding modern China, now updated to include the rule of Xi Jinping In 1850, China was the 'sick man of Asia'. Now it is set to...

The most authoritative life of Mao ever written, by the bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang and her husband, Jon Halliday. The most authoritative life of Mao ever written,...

An inspiring testament to China's dissident historians and activists, from the 1940s to the present A documentary filmmaker who uncovered a Mao-era death camp; an independent journalist who gave voice...

The legendary ex-US Secretary of State on the world's foremost emerging superpower In 1971 Henry Kissinger took the historic step of reopening relations between China and the West, and since...

Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. Pankaj Mishra's provocative account of how China, India and the...

A magical cultural history of modern Japan Japan Story is a fascinating, surprising account of Japan's culture, from the 'opening up' of the country in the mid 19th century to...

Gandhi's non-violent struggles against racism, violence, and colonialism in South Africa and India had brought him to such a level of notoriety, adulation that when asked to write an autobiography...

The first major history of the Himalaya - an epic story of peoples, cultures and the world's highest mountains 'Magnificent ... this book is unlikely to be surpassed' Telegraph This...

A major new biography from the internationally bestselling author of Wild Swans, Mao and Empress Dowager Cixi- a gripping story of sisterhood, revolution and betrayal, and three women who helped...

From the bestselling author of Wild Swans and Mao- The Unknown Story, the extraordinary story of the woman who single-handedly dragged China into the modern age Discover the extraordinary story...