Category: History

Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era

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Envisioning Eternal Empire: Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era, by Yuri Pines, is an ambitious work that looks into the reasons for the exceptional durability of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia (221 BCE–1911 CE). Pines identifies the roots of the empire’s longevity in the activities of thinkers of the Warring States period (453–221 BCE), who, in their search for solutions to an ongoing political crisis, developed ideals, values, and perceptions that would become essential for the future imperial polity. In marked distinction to similar empires worldwide, the Chinese empire was envisioned and to a certain extent “preplanned” long before it came into being. As a result, it was not only a military and administrative construct, but also an intellectual one. Pines makes the argument that it was precisely its ideological appeal that allowed the survival and regeneration of the empire after repeated periods of turmoil.

December 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3275-9 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

Japan’s Motorcycle Wars

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For decades a crown jewel of Japan’s postwar manufacturing industry, motorcycles remain one of Japan’s top exports. Japan’s Motorcycle Wars: An Industry History, by Jeffrey W. Alexander, assesses the historical development and societal impact of the motorcycle industry, from the influence of motor sports on vehicle sales in the early 1900s to the postwar developments that led to the massive wave of motorization sweeping the Asia-Pacific region today.

“Reading this book is a revelation and a thrill. It is an excellent example of business history done right. Alexander’s contribution here is thoroughly original; he gives us a rare look into the experiences of the losers as well as the winners in Japanese business. He will open the eyes of everyone in the field to the significance of the motorcycle industry on Japan’s economic and technological development.” —William Tsutsui, author of Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan

December 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3328-2 / $28.00 (PAPER)

A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples

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Written by Alastair Couper, a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders: A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history.

December 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3239-1 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

Buddhist Archaeology, Architecture, and Icons of Seventh-Century Japan

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Few periods in Japanese history are more fascinating than the seventh century. This was the period when Buddhism experienced its initial flowering in the country and the time when Asukadera, Kudara Odera, Kawaradera, and Yakushiji (the “Four Great Temples” as they were called in ancient texts) were built. Despite their enormous historical importance, these structures have received only limited attention in Western literature, primarily because they are now ruins. Focus has been placed instead on Horyuji, a beautifully preserved structure, but not a key temple of the period. In The Four Great Temples: Buddhist Archaeology, Architecture, and Icons of Seventh-Century Japan, Donald F. McCallum seeks to restore the four great temples to their proper place in the history of Japanese Buddhism and Buddhist architecture.

November 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3114-1 / $38.00 (CLOTH)

Carlos Andrade Book Launch at Native Books

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Carlos Andrade will read from and discuss his recently published book, Ha‘ena: Through the Eyes of the Ancestors, on Thursday, October 30, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i, Ward Warehouse. A book signing and light refreshments will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Andrade is associate professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai‘i and director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Ha‘ena reveals the complex history of a rich and fertile ahupua‘a in north Kaua‘i, blending folklore, geography, history, and ethnography.

Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan

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Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty, 650–800, by Herman Ooms, is an ambitious and ground-breaking study that offers a new understanding of a formative stage in the development of the Japanese state. The late seventh and eighth centuries were a time of momentous change in Japan, much of it brought about by the short-lived Tenmu dynasty. Two new capital cities, a bureaucratic state led by an imperial ruler, and Chinese-style law codes were just a few of the innovations instituted by the new regime. Ooms presents both a wide-ranging and fine-grained examination of the power struggles, symbolic manipulations, new mythological constructs, and historical revisions that both defined and propelled these changes.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3235-3 / $48.00 (CLOTH)

Kabuki’s Forgotten War

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According to a myth constructed after Japan’s surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945, kabuki was a pure, classical art form with no real place in modern Japanese society. In Kabuki’s Forgotten War, 1931–1945, senior theater scholar James R. Brandon calls this view into question and makes a compelling case that, up to the very end of the Pacific War, kabuki was a living theater and, as an institution, an active participant in contemporary events, rising and falling in consonance with Japan’s imperial adventures.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3200-1 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea

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Anthropologists and world historians make strange bedfellows. Although the latter frequently employ anthropological methods in their descriptions of cross-cultural exchanges, the former have raised substantial reservations about global approaches to history. Fearing loss of specificity, anthropologists object to the effacing qualities of techniques employed by world historians—this despite the fact that anthropology itself was a global, comparative enterprise in the nineteenth century. Anthropology’s Global Histories: The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea, 1870–1935, by Rainer F. Buschmann, seeks to recover some of anthropology’s global flavor by viewing its history in Oceania through the notion of the ethnographic frontier—the furthermost limits of the anthropologically known regions of the Pacific. The colony of German New Guinea (1884–1914) presents an ideal example of just such a contact zone.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3184-4 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

The World of East Asia Series

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For more than half a century, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho) possessed an independent police force that operated within the space of Japan’s informal empire on the Asian continent. Charged with “protecting and controlling” local Japanese communities first in Korea and later in China, these consular police played a critical role in facilitating Japanese imperial expansion during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Remarkably, however, this police force remains largely unknown. Crossing Empire’s Edge: Foreign Ministry Police and Japanese Expansionism in Northeast Asia, by Erik Esselstrom, is the first book in English to reveal its complex history.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3231-5 / $59.00 (CLOTH)


Between 1932 and 1945, more than 320,000 Japanese emigrated to Manchuria in northeast China with the dream of becoming land-owning farmers. Following the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and Japan’s surrender in August 1945, their dream turned into a nightmare. Since the late 1980s, popular Japanese conceptions have overlooked the disastrous impact of colonization and resurrected the utopian justification for creating Manchukuo, as the puppet state was known. This re-remembering, Mariko Tamanoi argues, constitutes a source of friction between China and Japan today. Memory Maps: The State and Manchuria in Postwar Japan tells the compelling story of both the promise of a utopia and the tragic aftermath of its failure.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3267-4 / $49.00 (CLOTH)

For more information on the new World of East Asia series, click here.

Prophet Motive Now Available in Paperback

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Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburo, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial Japan, by Nancy K. Stalker, is now available in paperback.

“Nancy Stalker’s study of Deguchi Onisaburô and the Japanese new religion Oomoto sheds new light on issues of religious leadership, charisma and entrepreneurship. In analysing how one seminal new religion expanded in early twentieth-century Japan, she focuses on what she terms Onisaburô’s ‘charismatic entrepreneurship’ to demonstrate the close links between innovative leadership and religious success. In so doing she contributes significantly to the study of new religions by demonstrating the importance of entrepreneurial leadership and the close and essential links between religion and economics. . . . By widening her focus to the Japanese new religions in general, Stalker shows Onisaburô to be one of the most important figures in Japanese religious history. His activities, such as his espousal of art, internationalism and peace messages, have served as a virtual blueprint of activity for many subsequent Japanese religious leaders. She demonstrates further the significance of Oomoto as one of the most seminal new religions of the twentieth century.” —Ian Reader, University of Manchester

September 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3226-1 / $26.00 (PAPER)

The Shaolin Monastery Now Available in Paperback

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The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts, by Meir Shahar, is now available in paperback.

“A real gift to martial arts enthusiasts and historians alike. Combining scholarly caution and respectful appreciation, Shahar shows how much and how little can be learned about the origins of the monastery in the fifth century, its close relationship with the Tang emperors (618–907), its flowering as a religious and military institution in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and the suspicion with which it was regarded by the Qing state (1644–1911). . . . This refreshingly original study is indispensable for understanding both the history and the hype.” —Choice

September 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3349-7 / $23.00 (PAPER)

Cambodge Now Available in Paperback

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Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860–1945, by Penny Edwards, is now available in paperback.

“Penny Edwards’ Cambodge is an original and impressive tour de force of scholarly analysis. She provides a richly textured cultural genealogy of state formation in Cambodia by reassessing the impact of French colonialism on modern Khmer thought and nation building. Relying on extensive archival research, Edwards traces a complex cultural history of Angkor as the site of competing religious and political investment that not only redefined regional boundaries and imperial power relations but also determined the very notion of Khmerness. Her book is a most important intervention in Southeast Asian history and should engage scholars across such diverse disciplines as archaeology, art, history, religion, cultural and literary studies.” —Panivong Norindr, author of Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature

September 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3346-6 / $25.00 (PAPER)

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