20th Century History

Silk Silver Opium not only tells the fascinating stories of silk and tea, porcelain, silver and opium, missionaries, mercenaries and trade, but also what became inevitable - war and humiliation....

An ambitious and engagingly history of how encounters with Christianity have shaped Hindu identity and nationalism in colonial and contemporary India When European missionaries arrived in India in the sixteenth...

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...

From the acclaimed author of The Gunpowder Age, a book that casts new light on the history of China and the West at the turn of the nineteenth century. George...

When Sydney Wignall set off on a climbing expedition to the Himalayas in the 1950s, little did he realise that he was embarking on an extraordinary and life-threatening adventure which...

Ray Parkin's classic POW trilogy, originally published in the 1960s, has been out of print for many years. Now eagerly sought after, it will be available for the first time...

The Eichmann in Jerusalem for the Khmer Rouge, The Master of Confessions is a harrowing yet humane account of the trial of Duch, a Khmer Rouge operative and the director...

On the world maps common in America, the Western Hemisphere lies front and center, while the Indian Ocean region all but disappears. This convention reveals the geopolitical focus of the...

In a sensitive and compelling account of the lives of those at the very bottom of Indian society, Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany explore the construction of the Untouchables as...

This is a study of India's independence movement, from an abortive revolt against the British in 1857 through the times which eventually lead to Indian Independence in 1947 seen from...

Between 1948 and 1971 ships and men of the Royal Australian Navy served with almost unnoticed distinction in defending the newly emerging nations of Malaya, Malaysia and Singapore. In this...

Irris Makler set out alone to cover a war in Afghanistan and found a much bigger story about the women behind enemy lines. This is as much their story as...

Over the past hundred years, India has held an enormous fascination for western intellectuals and artists. Father India explores the life-changing influence of the subcontinent on western ideas of modernity...

Inspiration for the major film starring Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Manish Dayal and Huma Qureshi and directed by Gurinder Chadha. Seventy years ago, at midnight on 14 August 1947, the...

*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize* A true masterpiece of narrative history showing Indonesia's epic revolution to be the great turning point of the 20th century A story of staggering...

A fresh, illuminating narrative exploration of one of the most contradictory and dynamic countries on earth One of this century's greatest surprises has been the economic and social revolution in...

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...

One woman's harrowing story about life under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan Shirin-Gol was just a young girl when her village was levelled by the Russians' bombs in 1979. After...

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...

'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...

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...

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...

NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand...

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...

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...

In this urgent book, we learn why a small island in the East China Sea will be central to the world's future An urgent, indispensable guide to why Taiwan matters...

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...

Great Game On is the story of the remaking of the world order. Historically, China has sought its security by building dominant relationships with pliant states that accept its pre-eminence....

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...

The untold story of one of WW2's most extraordinary and significant battles which marked the turning of the tide of the war in the jungles of Burma 'A thrilling blow-by-blow...

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...