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Warfare and Culture in World History
It has long been acknowledged that the study of war and warfare demands careful consideration of technology, institutions, social organization, and more. But, for some, the so-called "war and society" approach increasingly included everything but explained nothing, because it all too often seemed to ignore the events on the battlefield itself. The military historians in Warfare and Culture in World History return us to the battlefield, but they do so through a deep examination of the role of culture in shaping military institutions and military choices. Collected here are some of the most provocative recent efforts to analyze warfare through a cultural lens, drawing on and aggressively expan...
Warfare and Culture in World History, Second Edition
An expanded edition of the leading text on military history and the role of culture on the battlefield Ideas matter in warfare. Guns may kill, but ideas determine when, where, and how they are used. Traditionally, military historians attempted to explain the ideas behind warfare in strictly rational terms, but over the past few decades, a stronger focus has been placed on how societies conceptualize war, weapons, violence, and military service, to determine how culture informs the battlefield. Warfare and Culture in World History, Second Edition, is a collection of some of the most compelling recent efforts to analyze warfare through a cultural lens. These curated essays draw on, and aggress...
On the Trail of the Yellow Tiger
"Examination of the social and demographic effects of the Ming-Qing transition on southwest China and the devastation wrought by the warlord Zhang Xianzhong"--Provided by publisher.
Through a Forest of Chancellors
Liu Yuan’s Lingyan ge, a woodblock-printed book from 1669, re-creates a portrait gallery that memorialized 24 vassals of the early Tang court. Liu accompanied each figure, presented under the guise of a bandit, with a couplet; the poems, written in various scripts, are surrounded by marginal images that allude to a contemporary novel. Religious icons supplement the portrait gallery. Liu’s re-creation is fraught with questions. This study examines the dialogues created among the texts and images in Lingyan ge from multiple perspectives. Analysis of the book’s materialities demonstrates how Lingyan ge embodies, rather than reflects, the historical moment in which it was made. Liu unveile...
Telling Chinese History
"Frederic Wakeman's scholarship is impeccable and the breadth of learning in this book is astounding. I repeatedly found myself slowing down to savor the material. Many of the essays in this collection are no longer easily accessible, and placing them together in a single volume will be a great benefit to the next generation of students and scholars. "—Joseph W. Esherick, author of The Origins of the Boxer Uprising "This book brings together the best of Frederic Wakeman's articles, all of which are beautifully written and represent the remarkable breadth of Wakeman's research. The opportunity to read them together sheds new light on Chinese history and on the thought processes of one of the West's greatest historians."—Madeleine Zelin, Director of the East Asian National Resource Center at Columbia University
Turning Points and Transformations
From the Irish Cailleach and other shape-shifters of folk legends to modern movie “transformers”; from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the moment when Gregor Samsa woke up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect in Kafka’s novella; from conversion narratives to slave narratives, turning points and transformations have always been central to literary works and to cultural developments. In fact, with Freytag’s pyramid in mind, one could claim that all literary works focus on the trope of a transformation born of a turning point, because such moments comprise the very essence and vitality of human life and culture. But why are turning points necessarily transformational and in ...
The East and West in Late Medieval Travel Writings
This book traces the history of encounter between Eastern and Western cultures by closely examining a body of medieval travel writings penned or related by Europeans and by inhabitants of East Asia. Whilst these texts are usually considered in the context of kindred European or Chinese literature, this study will make a case for considering them as a common literature of medieval encounters with foreign people. For the modern historian writing in a world that so consciously thinks of itself as ‘global’, these accounts offer a precious lens through which to enter into the world before globalization. In particular, the book shows that these narratives show the similarity in how Eastern and Western travellers thought and behaved in the face of difference, and will show that individuals often held somewhat different views, shaped by their particular experience or agendas, than those of their government or of local cultural convention.
The Dragon's Jaws
Roy Melville goes to China to save his kidnapped father, who is being held for a million-dollar ransom in diamonds. On the voyage over he meets Myrna Lang, whose father is murdered in mid-ocean, and learns from her that their tragedies have a common instigator—the evil, mysterious Lan Chao-tao, a Chinese star bandit, whom few have ever seen but whose appalling activities have spread octopuslike throughout the world. These two young people unite in a valiant effort to best their mysterious enemy, and the result is a story of breathless incidents which hinge on such unusual things as the action of tides in Chinese rivers, the architecture of a certain deserted temple or the anticipated actions of Chinese militia.
The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics
"Book Abstract and Keywords: The study of Japanese politics has flourished over the past several decades. This Handbook provides a state-of-the-field overview for students and researchers of Japanese. The volume also serves to introduce Japanese politics to readers less familiar with Japan. In addition, the volume has a theme of "evaluating Japan's democracy." Taken as a whole, the volume provides a positive evaluation of the state of Japan's democracy. The volume is divided into two parts, roughly corresponding to domestic Japanese politics and Japan's international politics. Within the domestic politics part, there are four distinct sections: "Domestic Political Actors and Institutions," c...
The Tapestry of Popular Songs in 16th- and 17th Century China
This study of popular songs offers a new hypothesis about the role of elite in popular culture and evidences how commercial publishing facilitated the rise of selective reading and imitation of texts in late-Ming China, creating a new basis for describing desire and the self.
