asia history

Hardcover. San Francisco, Ten Speed Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 128 pages. A GRAND TOUR OF ASIA recreates a time and a place that no longer exists except in the lyrical images so lovingly preserved by the lens of a wandering American, and so wryly captured in the prose of his mysterious companions nearly a century ago. Christian Rub, a character actor in Hollywood films, presented the intriguing album to its current owner, Hania Tallmadge, in 1949, when she was a child.A historically unique collection of photographs taken in the spring of 1910 on a four-month tour of the Far East, presented in an exquisite facsimile edition of the album in which they were originally discovered.Includes more than 150 images reproduced in their actual size, their hand-tinted colors authentic and un-retouched. Even the handwritten script has been carefully replicated.

Hardcover. Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 2nd pr., 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 335 pages. The emphasis throughout the book is on the history of the Indonesian peoples themselves. An essential narrative of Political history is provided as well as discussions of social, cultural affairs. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Potomac Books, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 166 pages. The attack on Pearl Harbor is one of the most perplexing cases in living memory of a weaker power seeming to believe that it could vanquish a clearly superior force. On closer inspection, however, Record finds that Japan did not believe it could win; yet, the Japanese imperial command decided to attack the United States anyway. Conventional explanations that Japan's leaders were criminally stupid, wildly deluded, or just plumb crazy don't fully answer all our questions, Record finds. Instead, he argues, the Japanese were driven by an insatiable appetite for national glory and economic security via the conquest of East Asia. The scope of their ambitions and their fear of economic destruction overwhelmed their knowledge that the likelihood of winning was slim and propelled them into a war they were always going to lose. Clean copy.

NY, Atheneum, 1st pbk, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 375 pages. Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.

Hardcover. London, Octagon Press, reprint, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in dust jacket with fading to spine, 203 pages. Subtitled: "An Account of Travels in Asia and Africa, and Four Years Studying the Dervishes, Sufis and Fakirs, by Living Among Them." The author documents the largely ignored and forgotten ancient mystic organizations and their practices. Pages tanning otherwise a clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Ridge Press/Macmillan, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 251 pages. Illustrated with full color photographs. price clipped dust jacket shows standard wear. Clean, tight copy. Bil Baird, a master puppeteer of our time, recounts the history of his art, from its remotest yesterday to its bright and promising tomorrow. Along the way, he examines the famous and outrageous Mr. Punch, the raucous Karaghioz, the noble knights of the Orlando legend, the lovely shadow plays of Asia, the unique Bunraku puppets of Japan, and the exciting developments in today's puppetry around the world. To which we would like to add: There has never been any book to compare with this one. It remains the classic text on the history of puppetry around the world. It has dozens of amazing photographs, and a very lucid text written by one of the great master puppeteers of our time.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 478 pages. Name on half-title page, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 292 pages, color and b&w photos. The famous, the infamous, and the never-before-seen are here in a remarkable 'democracy of images' Amelia Earhart, Abraham Lincoln, P.T. Barnum and Tom Thumb, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Lucille Ball, Greta Garbo, Babe Ruth; the earliest views of the moon and the earliest panoramic view of Damascus; rare Native American photography; views of Asia, Africa, and the American West; photographs of early flight, and much, much more. In a bright dust jacket.

Hardcover. Washington, Smithsonian Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 292 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Color and black and whote photos throughout. Clean, tight copy. The Smithsonian holds more than 13 million images spanning over 150 years of taking and collecting photographs. This largely unknown body of photography (most never before published) represents nothing less than the Smithsonian's effort, in the name of all Americans, to describe and comprehend the world. Open anywhere in these pages to be plunged into the history of our modernity, and see what the Smithsonian deemed important to document and preserve. The famous, the infamous, and the never-before-seen are here in a remarkable "democracy of images": Amelia Earhart, Abraham Lincoln, P.T. Barnum and Tom Thumb, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Lucille Ball, Greta Garbo, Babe Ruth; the earliest views of the moon and the earliest panoramic view of Damascus; rare Native American photography; views of Asia, Africa, and the American West; photographs of early flight, and much, much more. By recording the act of seeing, and of what was seen, both photography and the Smithsonian have shaped our sense of ourselves, as individuals, as a people, and as a country.

Hardcover. Annapolis MD, Naval Institute Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 226 pages. Fenn's skill as a spy is matched by his talent as a storyteller, and this witty, elegantly written account of his OSS days not only adds to the historical record, it makes for a compelling read. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, reprint, 1851, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, maroon boards with brown calf spine, title label on front cover. 21 double-page maps detailing the geography of ancient nations, featuring color country borders, extensive index. Maps include: Orbis Veteribus Notus; Britannia; Hispania; Gallia; Germania; Vindelicia; Italia, Pars I; Italia, Pars II; Macedonia; Graecia extra Pelo; Peloponnesus; Insulae Maris Aegaei; Asia Minor; Oriens; Syria; Palaestina; Armenia; Africa; Mauritania, Numidia and Africa Propria; and Aegyptus. Spine neatly re-inforced with clear tape, clean, bright copy.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 319 pages, Introduction by Brian Shaw. The story of the British invasion of Tibet at the turn of the Nineteenth Century. Robert Peter Fleming (31 May 1907 - 18 August 1971) was a British adventurer, journalist, soldier and travel writer. He was the elder brother of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 559 pages. "Behind the Bamboo Curtain is an important collection of essays on Sino-Vietnamese relations during the Cold War An excellent contribution from a Vietnamese historian and well-documented chapters on Soviet and French policy further augment the importance of the volume. The contributors make extensive use of primary documents from the United States, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, and Russia and offer authoritative analyses." -- The Journal of Cold War Studies. Claen, unread copy.

Softcover. London/NY, Cambridge University Press, reprint, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 234 pages with index, b&w illustrations. Brazil once enjoyed a near monopoly in rubber when that commodity was gathered in the wild. By 1913, however, cultivated rubber from Southeast Asia swept the Brazilian gathered product from the market. In this innovative study, Warren Dean demonstrates that environmental factors have played a key role in the many failed attempts to once again produce a significant rubber crop in Brazil. Dean traces the numerous attempts to plant rubber in Brazil, including the ill-fated Ford estates, and others established by the major multinational tire companies. He also analyzes the struggles of the Brazilian government to foster rubber development, in the hope of obtaining a domestic source of supply for national industries that are now dependent on imports from Southeast Asia. Bookseller label on rear cover otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st US, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, olive green boards, gilt lettering on spine. Illustrated with B&W plates and maps; Large 8vo 9' - 10' tall; 686 pages; 'Allen's work deals primarily with the human elements of the forgotten war waged between the doomed empires of Great Britain and Japan in Southeast Asia between 1941 and 1945. The author's familiarity with Japanese sources enables him to strike a balance unusual in Western accounts. Allen's Japanese are as much prisoners of their culture as the British are of theirs. They are victims of incompetent command and inadequate logistics. They do not want to die, but their ready acceptance of death lends a special horror to Allen's descriptions of some of the century's most vicious fighting.' Clean bright copy, no dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, chipped dust jacket, 181 pages. The tales contained in this collection were first told in the dark decade of Burmese history (1876-85) during the coming event of the British conquest. The stories combine exotic background with strong details that offer the Western reader both a picture of Burma in the nineteenth century and an understanding of the basic good sense, gaiety, and gentleness of the Burmese people and the Buddhist clergy. The characters that appear in the book illustrate timeless truths about human nature, which today's reader can apply to existing people and situations. For the first time since the eleventh century the future of Burmese Buddhism became uncertain, and there was widespread fear, both in Upper Burma still under a Burmese king and in Lower Burma already under British rule, that the final fall of the Burmese kingdom would result in the total extinction of both the national religion and the Burmese way of life. Told with the purpose of allaying this anxiety and fear, these tales give a full and faithful resume and appraisal of the position of Burmese Buddhism on the eve of the British conquest of 1886. Name on front fly leaf which has mild edgewear. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Seoul, Royal Asiatic Society, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 328 pages, b&w illustrations. Five decades of North American missionary work in Korea are revealed in this book, giving readers a glimpse into the profound struggle for cultural and spiritual identity that often accompanied the Christian missionaries' foray into unbaptized territory. Most could not make the necessary leap from their own backgrounds to their new home culture; a few did, and came away from the experience with a sharper perception of self, society, and the sometimes problematic nature of their work. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Asia Center, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 544 pages. Minor corner and edge wear, spine bump, otherwise, spotless and tight copy.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Asia Center, 1st pbk, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 445 pages, b&w illustrations. In China Made, Karl Gerth argues that two key forces shaping the modern world-nationalism and consumerism-developed in tandem in China. Early in the twentieth century, nationalism branded every commodity as either "Chinese" or "foreign," and consumer culture became the place where the notion of nationality was articulated, institutionalized, and practiced. Based on Chinese, Japanese, and English-language archives, magazines, newspapers, and books, this first exploration of the historical ties between nationalism and consumerism reinterprets fundamental aspects of modern Chinese history and suggests ways of discerning such ties in all modern nations. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 258 pages. The beginnings of the Chinese Communist Party, and the personalities and backgrounds of the two party founders, Ch'en Tu-hsiu and Li Ta-chao. Analyses of the perculiar nature of the Communist-Kuomintang alliance of 1924. Very good, no dust jacket.

Singapore, Asiapac Books, reprint, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover 121 pages. The infamous and powerful eunuchs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties come to life in this graphic novel. Illustrated in b&w line.

Softcover. Mechanicsburg PA, Stackpole Books, 1st pbk, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages, b&w illustrations. From their perches on islands such as Buka and Bougainville, coast watchers -- for the most part, Australian civilians -- monitored Japanese shipping and aircraft activity. They played a pivotal role during the battle for Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942, when their intelligence facilitated the interception and destruction of twelve Japanese transports. These reports from the participants themselves provide a fascinating account that will intrigue historians as well as World War II and espionage buffs. Clean copy.

Softcover. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale , 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, stiff paper covers with light edgewear, tanning, 356 pages, TEXT IN FRENCH. Illustrated throughout, folding map.

Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 402 pages. Remarkable study of smuggling, which illustrates how Americans related to the world from the Founding to World War I. From the beginning, the United States sought to build nationalism by limiting their own ability to trade with foreigners. But at the same time, Americans like Charles L. Lawrence defied customs authorities, insisting that trade be free. The government responded by building a potent army of customs inspectors and treasury agents, who profiled Jews, Asians, and women in the pursuit of tariff revenues.Beautifully written, the author uses the stories of smugglers like Jean Lafitte, Charles L. Lawrence, and Rose Eytinge to illustrate not only the history of Protectionism, but also the rise of American empire and the development of the modern social safety net. He shows that the tariff was far from an unpopular relic, but rather the foundation of the nineteenth century state. Clean copy.