20th Century History

As the recent presidential campaign revealed, the Vietnam War remains a political lightning rod. In the 1980s, even as a Gallup poll listed Fonda as one of the most admired...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

'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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Murakami tells the true story behind an act of terrorism that turned an average Monday morning into a national disaster Murakami tells the true story behind an act of terrorism...

"Winter Soldiers is an immensely valuable contribution to the history of the Vietnam War. It brings to life, through the words of the veterans themselves, the journey each individual made,...

The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey (1885) examines some of the most controversial events of 18th century English colonial legal history from the point of...

A moving portrait of the lives of six poor city-dwellers, set in early twentieth century colonial Saigon Historian Haydon Cherry offers the first comprehensive social history of the urban poor...

This innovative study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868-1912) explores the intense struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state. In the Social Darwinist atmosphere of the time,...

'Lawrence James is the doyen of Empire historians' The Spectator'James' writing is always full of energy and animation; he has an excellent eye for revealing detail' William Dalrymple'James has a...

In the late eighteenth century two expansive Eurasian empires met formally for the first time-the Manchu or Qing dynasty of China and the maritime empire of Great Britain. The occasion...

In this major reassessment of Japanese imperialism in Asia, Mark Driscoll foregrounds the role of human life and labor. Drawing on subaltern postcolonial studies and Marxism, he directs critical attention...

In March 1906, American soldiers on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines surrounded and killed 1000 local men, women, and children, known as Moros, on top of an...

'Lawrence James is the doyen of Empire historians' The Spectator'James' writing is always full of energy and animation; he has an excellent eye for revealing detail' William Dalrymple'James has a...