The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia by Peter Marius Veth (Editor); Matthew Spriggs (Editor)

$50.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Series: Terra Australis 22 | Reading Level: very good

This volume describes the results of the first archaeological survey and excavations carried out in the fascinating and remote Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia between 1995 and 1997. The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who stopped here in search of the Birds of Paradise on his voyage through the Indo-Ma lay Archipelago in the 1850s, was the first to draw attention to the group. The results reveal a complex and fascinating history covering the last 30,000 years from its early settlement by hunter-gatherers, the late Holocene arrival of ceramic producing agriculturalists, later associations with the Bird of Paradise trade and the colonial expansion of the Dutch trading empires. The excavations and finds from two large Pleistocene caves, Liang Lemdubu and Nabulei Lisa, are reported in detail documenting the changing environmental and cultural history of the islands from when they were connected to Greater Australia and used by hunter/gatherers to their formation as islands and use by agriculturalists. The results of the excavation of the late Neolithic - Metal Age midden at Wangil are discussed, as is the mysterious pre-Colonial fort at Ujir and the 350-year old ruins of forts and a church associated with the Dutch garrisons. Book jacket. ...Show more

The Pax Britannica Trilogy by James Morris

$25.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: very good

War in the Tenasserim - The Japanese Invasion of Southern Burma, 1942 by Alastair Shephard

$45.00 NZD

Category: Maud’s Picks | Reading Level: new

"The entry of Japan into the Second World War with its attack on Pearl Harbour found the British defense of Burma very much unprepared. No invasion threat from the east had been envisaged. The British deemed the jungle and precipitous mountain ranges surrounding three sides of Burma to be impassable by any invader. At that time Britain was more concerned with the war against Hitler in Europe. The Japanese invaded southern Burma - "the Tenasserim" - in order to protect the flank of their invasion of Malaya. And they subsequently occupied the rest of the country because they viewed it as the western bastion of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", their name for their conquered territories... The book begins by tracing the initial Japanese thrust by two relatively small forces to tak the key airfields of southern Burma. The book then follows the advance of the main invasion force under Lt-General Shojiro Iida which crossed the border of Myawaddy. The arrival of the newly-formed 17th Indian Division under Major-General "Jackie" Smyth did little to arrest the momentum of the Japanese advance, culminating at the Sittang bridge. The author has recently visited many of the battle sites of southern Burma, places where numerous British, Indian, Burmese and Japanese soldiers lost their lives and which today sadly have been largely forgotten. His colour photographs along with rarely seen black and white images of wartime Burma - both British and Japanese - vividly augment the story of the first phase of the Burma Campaign."--Book cover. ...Show more

Southeast Asia: An Introductory History by Milton Osborne

$16.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: near fine

The first edition of Southeast Asia: An introductory history was published in 1979 and immediately filled a need for travellers and students interested in a tantalisingly different part of the world. Subsequent editions (translated into Japanese, Khmer, Korean and Thai) have continued to document with g reat perception the enormous changes and dramatic growth experienced in the region...Dr Milton Osborne has been a resident, student and fascinated observer of Southeast Asia for over 50 years. This familiarity has resulted in a highly readable and lively chronicle. While giving due regard to the early history of the region, Osborne concentrates on the changes that have taken place since the eighteenth century: the impact of colonial rule, economic transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries, the emergence and triumph of the independence movements, the impact of social change and the pivotal roles played by religion, ethnic minorities and immigrant groups. He also provides an introduction to the art of the region and a comprehensive guide to literature about Southeast Asia...Clearly written and extensively illustrated this twelfth edition of Southeast Asia: An introductory history remains a classic in the field. ..'While deepening our understanding of Southeast Asia, this fine introduction reminds us of the importance of history itself. ' - Anthony Milner, Basham Professor of Asian History, Australian National University ...Show more

North Korea: State of Paranoia by Paul French

$15.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Series: Asian Arguments Ser. | Reading Level: near fine

Secretive, mysterious, and almost certainly dangerous, North Korea is an object of endless fascination--and worry--for the rest of the world. The world's most inaccessible nuclear power, it retains Gulag-style prison camps, completely blocks Internet access, and forbids citizens to talk to foreigners wi thout approval--which makes the occasional report from a smart, dogged, connected analyst all the more valuable.   North Korea: State of Paranoia is just such a report. Drawing on an impressive range of insider sources and previously unseen archival material, Paul French examines the nation and its ruling regime in forensic detail. He offers a close analysis of the history and politics of North Korea; Pyongyang's complex relations with South Korea, Japan, China, and the United States; and the troubling implications of Kim Jong-Un's increasingly belligerent leadership in the years since his father, Kim Jong-il, died.   Straightforward and unsensationalistic, North Korea nonetheless paints a picture of a frightening unstable country, one whose sudden collapse could have globally dangerous consequences. ...Show more

Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Ngor

$10.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

Best known for his academy award-winning role as Dith Pran in The Killing Fields, for Haing Ngor his greatest performance was not in Hollywood but in the rice paddies and labour camps of war-torn Cambodia. Here, in his memoir of life under the Khmer Rouge, is a searing account of a country's descent int o hell. His was a world of war slaves and execution squads, of senseless brutality and mind-numbing torture; where families ceased to be and only a very special love could soar above the squalor, starvation and disease. An eyewitness account of the real killing fields by an extraordinary survivor, this book is a reminder of the horrors of war - and a testament to the enduring human spirit. ...Show more

India: A History by John Keay

$20.00 NZD

Category: Asia

Fully revised with forty thousand new words that take the reader up to present-day India, John Keay's "India: A History" spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their ancient beginnings in the valley of the Indus to the events in the reg ion today. In charting the evolution of the rich tapestry of cultures, religions, and peoples that comprise the modern nations of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, Keay weaves together insights from a variety of scholarly fields to create a rich historical narrative. Wide-ranging and authoritative, "India: A History" is a compelling epic portrait of one of the world's oldest and most richly diverse civilizations. ...Show more

Plain Tales from the Raj by Charles Allen (ed.)

$14.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

East by South: China in the Australasian Imagination by Paul Millar

$20.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand

At a time when China is being seen as the next superpower, both sweatshop and powerhouse for the global economy, political courtship on the part of interested governments is accompanied by grassroots hostility. Such ambivalence is not new. These essays ­ discuss ways in which people of Chinese d escent have made significant contributions to the history of both Australian and New Zealand. This is the first book to compare both countries' orientalism and its various alternatives. ...Show more

A History of Cambodia by David P. Chandler

$14.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

This clear and concise volume provides a timely overview of Cambodia, a small but increasingly visible Southeast Asian nation. Hailed by the Journal of Asian Studies as an "original contribution, superior to any other existing work," the first edition ended in 1953 with Cambodia's independence from Fran ce; the second carries the narrative forward to the present. In the new material, Chandler focuses especially on the unstable but influential career of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the bloody reign of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the relative calm that followed the Vietnamese invasion of 1979. This comprehensive general description and analysis of Cambodia will illuminate--for specialists and general readers alike--the history and contemporary politics of a country long misunderstood. ...Show more

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

$10.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn't even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was running for her life, that if she and her family stayed behind they would die -- from starvation, or disease, or even execution.In Order to Live is the story of Park's struggle to survive in the darkest, most repressive country on earth; her harrowing escape to South Korea through China's underworld of smugglers and human traffickers; and her emergence as a leading human rights activist -- all before her twenty-first birthday. ...Show more

Behind the Beautiful Forevers : Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum by Katherine Boo

$12.00 NZD

Category: Asia | Reading Level: very good

Annawadi is a slum at the edge of Mumbai Airport, in the shadow of shining new luxury hotels. Its residents are garbage recyclers, construction workers and economic migrants, all of them living in the hope that a small part of India's booming future will eventually be theirs. But when a crime rocks the slum community and global recession and terrorism shocks the city, tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy begin to turn brutal. As Boo gets to know those who dwell at Mumbai's margins, she evokes an extraordinarily vivid and vigorous group of individuals flourishing against the odds amid the complications, corruptions and gross inequalities of the new India. ...Show more