China History

Hardcover. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, color illustrations; 7.2 X 0.9 X 10.3 inches; 272 pages. Tang dynasty (618-907) China hummed with cosmopolitan trends. Its capital at Chang'an was the most populous city in the world and was connected via the Silk Road with the critical markets and thriving cultures of Central Asia and the Middle East. In Empire of Style, BuYun Chen reveals a vibrant fashion system that emerged through the efforts of Tang artisans, wearers, and critics of clothing. Across the empire, elite men and women subverted regulations on dress to acquire majestic silks and au courant designs, as shifts in economic and social structures gave rise to what we now recognize as precursors of a modern fashion system: a new consciousness of time, a game of imitation and emulation, and a shift in modes of production. This first book on fashion in premodern China is informed by archaeological sources-paintings, figurines, and silk artifacts-and textual records such as dynastic annals, poetry, tax documents, economic treatises, and sumptuary laws. Tang fashion is shown to have flourished in response to a confluence of social, economic, and political changes that brought innovative weavers and chic court elites to the forefront of history. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Softcover. Princeton, NJ, Markus Weiner Publishers, 1st English Translation, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 327 pages. Softcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Decorated wrapper, excellent. Pages clean and bright. Binding good. Like new copy. This fascinating study of eunuchs guides readers as they travel through various lands and periods, familiarizing themselves with the duties and responsibilities, the unspeakable torments, and the passions and joys of these individuals.

New York, Aperture, Rep., 1998 , Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 162 pages, many B&W & sepia period photographs of China, its people and culture. Very richly illustrated, captions, chronology, list pioneer phiotographers, sources, general bibliography, acknowledgements. Photographs from the archives of Arnold Arboretum - Harvard University.

Hardcover. New York, Aperture, reprint, 1998 , Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 162 pages, many B&W & sepia period photographs of China, its people and culture. Very richly illustrated, captions, chronology, list pioneer photographers, sources, general bibliography, acknowledgments. Photographs from the archives of Arnold Arboretum - Harvard University.

Hardcover. Hamden CT, The Shoe String Press, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 265 pages, hardcover. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on front flyleaf. Non-discrept tan boards clean and tight. French policy regarding the Chinese inhabitants of Madagascar. Scarce. A bright copy.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 373 pages. Scholars have long held that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was a centralized organization from its founding in 1921. In a departure from that view, From Friend to Comrade demonstrates how the CCP began as a group of study societies, only evolving into a mass Marxist-Leninist party by 1927. Hans J. van de Ven's study is based on party documents of the 1920s that have only recently become available, as well as the writings of a wide range of Chinese communists. He analyzes the party's difficulty in building a cohesive organization firmly rooted in Chinese society. While past scholarship has emphasized the influence of Soviet communism on the CCP, van de Ven stresses the thinking and actions of Chinese communists themselves, placing their struggle in the context of China's political history and highly complex society. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Annapolis MD, Naval Institute Press, 2nd pr., 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 313 pages. Red cloth covers, gilt titles, red dust jacket with color illustration, b&w maps and illustrations. Slight wear to dust jacket, pages crisp and unmarked, tight binding; overall, a clean, tight copy. In 1949, as the Chinese Civil War was about to enter its final, explosive stage, the small British frigate HMS Amethyst was sent on a dangerous mission up the Yangtze River to protect British citizens in Nanking. En route it was attacked by the Chinese Communists and held hostage on the river for several months before the crew managed to make a daring escape. The Amethyst captured news headlines around the world and became an unlikely symbol of the cold war in Asia. This dramatic episode, hailed in the West as a triumph of the human spirit but bitterly condemned by the Chinese Communists, was to prejudice Anglo-Chinese relations for years to come.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, Ten Speed Press, Revised Ed., 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Revised Edition of a book first published in 1990 in London. 204 pages illustrated with detailed color and b&w photographs. Court fashion of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Hardcover. New York , Dodd Mead and Company, reprint, 1909, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 447 pages. Red cloth, gilt lettering to front and spine, no dust jacket issued. Light sunning and small tears to edges of spine. Slight stain to front cover. Faint foxing to end papers and title page.

Hardcover. Chicago, International Harvester Company, 1st, 1949, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in green cloth with light yellow lettering on front cover, 259 pages, b&w photos. A report by the International Harvester Company that followed a trip to China. The Chinese government invited 25 American firms to help advance the country's agriculture programs. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. New York, The New Press, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 515 pages. Hardcover. Gray cover boards, gilt title on spine. In nice shape, Dust jacket unclipped, has just a touch of age yellow. Edges show a little soil (shelfwear). Binding very tight, clean inside. Very good condition.

Hardcover. New York, M.E. Sharpe, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 410 pages, white cloth covers with brown lettering. INSCRIBED BY CHIANG, one of the editors, on the half-title page. Clean, tight copy. No dust jacket.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages. Students and teachers of Chinese history and philosophy will not want to miss Daniel Gardner's accessible translation of the teachings of Chu Hsi (1130-1200)-a luminary of the Confucian tradition who dominated Chinese intellectual life for centuries. Homing in on a primary concern of our own time, Gardner focuses on Chu Hsi's passionate interest in education and its importance to individual development. For hundreds of years, every literate person in China was familiar with Chu Hsi's teachings. They informed the curricula of private academies and public schools and became the basis of the state's prestigious civil service examinations. Nor was Chu's influence limited to China. In Korea and Japan as well, his teachings defined the terms of scholarly debate and served as the foundation for state ideology. Clean copy.

London, Athlone Press, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 151 pages. Previous owner's name inside front cover. Clean otherwise.

Hardcover. New York/Milano, Skira, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 224 pages, duotone photographs taken between 1904 and 1914 by a missionary working in China. In publisher's shrinkwrap. Leone Nani (1880-1935) lived in central China from 1904 to 1914. His missionary work took him to remote villages where he captured a world beyond the reach of other Westerners. Working in large format (mostly on glass plates he developed and printed himself in his mobile studio), Nani portrayed young couples, dignitaries, peasants and artisans. Equally gifted as an observer and reporter, he recorded everyday life scenes, religious ceremonies, architecture, and landscapes. 

Hardcover. NY/London, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, illustrated boards with short wrap-around dust jacket. 400 color photos. This lavishly illustrated book is the history of China, spanning the pre-revolutionary years to China's present day rise as a global power as told through the Magnum photo agency's legendary photographs. Magnum Photos first covered China on assignment in the 1930s, when Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson established what has become a long-standing cultural engagement with the ever-changing country. Magnum's long history with China puts the agency in the unique position of being able to provide an in-depth photographic account of China, its people, and the changes they have witnessed over the last nine decades.Featuring an outstanding selection of photographs, Magnum China is a thorough illustrated history of a vast, enigmatic country, fascinating for China-watchers and novices alike.Chronologically organized into four parts, charting the history of China from 1933 to the present day, Magnum China presents in-depth portfolios by individual photographers, accompanied by introductory commentaries on the featured work and group selections that curate individual photographs to illustrate the diverse state of China. Each part also features an introduction by respected scholar Jonathan Fenby, as well as "key dates" timelines and lists of the photographers' travels, setting the socio-political and historical context for the photography on show. Remainder line on bottom edge.

Hardcover. New York, Random House, First Edition, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 354 pages. Hardcover. Black cloth boards with gilt titles to spine. Black & white illustrations throughout. Dust jacket with only light marginal wear. Clean & unmarked.

Hardcover. New York, Macmillan Co., 1st, 1932, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 311 pages, 2 b&w fold-out maps in rear. Maroon cloth covers w/ gilt lettering. Spine faded. Previous owner's signature on front fly leaf. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Jonathan Cape /Harrison Smith, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 295 pages. Decorated cloth with black cloth spine, bright gilt lettering on spine. A French doctor's account of Chinese life & civilization, based on his twenty years of life, work & travel there; he was Director of the Imperial School of Medicine at Chengtufu. Typically patronizing and moralistic; the author credits China with having been great in the past, but now in the grip of a profound lassitude, only to be helped by Europeans. Translated from the French by Elsie Martin Jones. Previous owner's name, date on front fly leaf otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan, 1st, 1945, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light tan cloth covers with light wear, 436 pages. The author spent 25 years in China as a journalist. Powell's book covers the period between (1917-1945) and discusses the personalities of the day: Chiang Kai Shek, Yuan Shi Kai and Chang Husiliang as well the intrigues of the Soviets and the Japanese. Note: Powell lost both his feet to the Japanese at his stay at the Bridge House. No markings.

Hardcover. Michigan, Scholarly Publishing Office University of Michigan, Reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 507 pages. Hardcover. Reprint of 1857 J.B. Lippincott & Co. publication produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University's Library's preservation reformatting program. B/w illustrations throughout. Pages clean, spine straight, binding tight. ISBN label on back cover. Light foxing to edges. Blue cloth cover boards, gilt title on spine. "Visits to the Malay and Loo-Choo Islands, the Coasts of China, Formosa, Japan, Kamtschatka, Siberia, and the Mouth of the Amoor River."

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st US, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, price-clipped dust jacket, 358 pages. A close analysis of some of the typical peasant uprisings of the seventeenth century. The goal of the movements in France and China was a return to an older and more traditional society, rather than a profound transformation of the social structure. In Russia, however, the peasants attempted to overturn the rigid order of a two-class structure and replace it with a more democratic society. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Monthly Review Press, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 288 pages. "Robert Weil has written a brilliant, powerfully argued book that cuts through the hogwash pouring from the West and from China about the 'miracle' of the Deng reforms. Weil shows how Deng's use of 'capitalism to build socialism' has resulted in the use of 'socialism to build capitalism.' This is powerful stuff, must-reading for all those who care about the future of humanity."--William Hinton. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth stamped with gilt lettering on spine, pages. Black and white photos and one map. Includes footnotes, geographical note, list of local people, 2 appendices and index. "Shows how one backward village became a revolutionary bastion in the ten years after the revolution in the late 1940s." A ten years' history of one Chinese village, covering the period immediately before the setting up of the Chinese People's Republic, and based on village records and the authors' personal experiences living with the farmers.Owner's name on inside front cover, otherwise clean.