Last Post: The end of Empire in the Far East by John Keay

$10.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: good

John Keay's epic, expert study of the twentieth-century demise of colonial rule in the Far East The names echo like the last long notes of a bugle call: Hiroshima, Dien Bien Phu, Tiananmen Square; MacArthur and Mountbatten; The Quiet American and Bridge over the River Kwai. In a twentieth-century welter of war, Depression and Communism four empires crumbled and the West was bundled out of the East. John Keay's acclaimed study of this imperial finale draws on contemporary sources ranging from Ho Chi Minh to Dirk Bogarde. The narrative swoops from the showpiece cities of Shanghai, Saigon and Manila to the tough backwaters of Borneo and the tinkling rice fields of Bali. Grandeur of treatment is matched by trenchant analysis; unexpected continuities are revealed; and to the interaction of West and East is traced the dynamism of the Far East today. First published 1997. ...Show more

Southeast Asia and New Zealand: A History of Regional and Bilateral Relations by Anthony L. Smith

$16.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

Published in association with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and the NZ Institute of International Affairs. Drawing together the most prominent scholars of New Zealand's relations with Southeast Asia, this study is divided into chapters that examine the overall military, multilatera l and commercial relationships and chapters that assess individual bilateral relationships and diplomatic controversies. ...Show more

The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma by Peter Popham

$12.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Peter Popham's major new biography of Aung San Suu Kyi draws upon previously untapped testimony and fresh revelations to tell the story of a woman whose bravery and determination have captivated people around the globe. Celebrated today as one of the world's greatest exponents of non-violent political d efiance since Mahatma Gandhi, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize only four years after her first experience of politics. In April 1988, Suu Kyi returned from Britain to Burma to nurse her sick mother but, within six months, found herself the unchallenged leader of the largest popular revolt in her country's history. When the party she co-founded won a landslide victory in Burma's first free elections for thirty years, she was already under house arrest and barred from taking office by the military junta. Since then, 'The Lady' has set about transforming her country ethically as well as politically, displaying dazzling courage in the process. Under house arrest for 15 of the previous 20 years, she has come close to being killed by her political enemies and her commitment to peaceful revolution has come at extreme personal cost. In November 2010, after fraudulent elections in which she played no part, Suu Kyi was again freed. She was greeted by ecstatic crowds but only time will tell what role this remarkable woman will have in the future of her country. ...Show more

Everyday Life in Traditional Japan by Charles J. Dunn

$12.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

Everyday Life in Traditional Japan paints a vivid portrait of Tokugawa Japan, a time when contact with the outside world was deliberately avoided and the daily life of the different classes consolidated the traditions that shaped modern Japan.With detailed descriptions and over 100 illustrations, authen tic samurai, farmers, craftsmen, merchants, courtiers, priests, entertainers and outcasts come to life in this magnificently illustrated portrait of a colorful society. Most works of Japanese history fail to provide enough details about the lives of the people who lived during the time. The level of detail in Everyday Life in Traditional Japan allows for a more complete picture of the history of Japan.In fascinating detail, Charles J. Dunn, describes how each class lived: their food, clothing, and houses; their their beliefs and their fears. At the same time he takes account of certain important groups that fell outside the formal class structure, such as the courtiers in the emperor's palace at Kyoto, the Shinto and Buddhist priests, and the other extreme, the actors and the outcasts. he concludes with a lively account of everyday life in the capital city of Edo, the present–day Tokyo. ...Show more

The Suicide Club: A Virgin Tea Planter's Journey by Herman Gunaratne

$12.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Genghis Khan. The Death and Resurrection by John Man

$12.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

Genghis Khan - creator of the greatest empire the world has ever seen - is one of history's immortals. In Central Asia, they still use his name to frighten children. In China, he is honoured as the founder of a dynasty. In Mongolia he is the father of the nation. In the USA, Time magazine, voted Genghis Khan 'the most important person of the last millennium'. But how much do we really know about this man? How is it that an unlettered, unsophisticated warrior-nomad came to have such a profound effect on world politics that his influence can still be felt some 800 years later? How he united the deeply divided Mongol peoples and went on to rule an empire that stretched from China in the east to Poland in the west (one substantially larger than Rome's at its zenith) is an epic tale of martial genius and breathtaking cruelty. John Man's towering achievement in this book, enriched by his experiences in China and Mongolia today, is to bring this little-known story vividly and viscerally to life. ...Show more

The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave

$12.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: good

The Making and Unmaking of Empires - Britain, India, and America C.1750-1783 by P. J. Marshall

$45.00 NZD

Category: History | Reading Level: very good

In The Making and Unmaking of Empires P. J. Marshall deals with a crucial period in the history of the British Empire in trying to explain how the British at the same time lost an empire in North America, while winning one in parts of India. He shows that British objectives were much the same all over t he world and examines the conditions in America that frustrated these objectives and those in India that facilitated them. ...Show more

India - From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond by Shashi Tharoor

$14.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, a new nation was born. It has 17 major languages and 22,000 distinct dialects. It has over a billion individuals of every ethnic extraction known to humanity. It has a population that is 32 percent illiterate, but also one of the worlds largest pools of trai ned scientists and engineers. Its ageless civilization is the birthplace of four major religions, a dozen different traditions of classical dance, and 300 ways of cooking a potato. Shashi Tharoors INDIA is a fascinating portrait of one of the worlds most interesting countriesits politics, its mentality, and its cultural riches. But it is also an eloquent argument for the importance of India to the future of America and the industrialized world. With the energy and erudition that distinguished his prize-winning novels, Tharoor points out that Indians account for a sixth of the worlds population and their choices will resonate throughout the globe. He deals with this vast theme in a work of remarkable depth and startling originality, combining elements of political scholarship, personal reflection, memoir, fiction, and polemic, all illuminated in vivid and compelling prose. ...Show more

The China Mission - George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947 by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan

$25.00 NZD

Category: America | Reading Level: very good

As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission--this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Across the Pacific, conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatene d to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III. In his thirteen months in China, Marshall journeyed across battle-scarred landscapes, grappled with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and plotted and argued with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his brilliant wife, often over card games or cocktails. The results at first seemed miraculous. But as they started to come apart, Marshall was faced with a wrenching choice. Its consequences would define the rest of his career, as the secretary of state who launched the Marshall Plan and set the standard for American leadership, and the shape of the Cold War and the US-China relationship for decades to come. It would also help spark one of the darkest turns in American civic life, as Marshall and the mission became a first prominent target of McCarthyism, and the question of "who lost China" roiled American politics. The China Mission traces this neglected turning point and forgotten interlude in a heroic career--a story of not just diplomatic wrangling and guerrilla warfare, but also intricate spycraft and charismatic personalities. Drawing on eyewitness accounts both personal and official, it offers a richly detailed, gripping, close-up, and often surprising view of the central figures of the time--from Marshall, Mao, and Chiang to Eisenhower, Truman, and MacArthur--as they stood face-to-face and struggled to make history, with consequences and lessons that echo today. ...Show more

Bushido: The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture

$10.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

This is Paradise!: My North Korean Childhood by Hyok Kang

$10.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Hyok Kang was eighteen when he escaped from North Korea, a country locked away from the outside world. This personal, illustrated account of school days in a rigidly communist institution and everyday life with his family and community provides a rare glimpse of this secretive nation. His shocking and m oving portrayal bears witness to this spirited young boy's resilience and survival in a society forced to operate under the shadow of labour camps, public executions and the deception of UN representatives by Korean officials. When the famine comes so too does death by starvation of friends and close ones, and Hyok Kang watches as his classmates drop out of school one by one, too weak to attend. All this is normal. After all, the propaganda North Koreans are fed by their government insists that compared to the rest of the world, this is paradise! Hyok Kang's childhood and courageous escape through China Vietnam and Cambodia to South Korea is a remarkable story that goes to the heart of a nation living under a disturbing delusion of paradise'. ...Show more