This comprehensive volume provides teachers and students with broad and stimulating perspectives on Asian history and its place in world and Western history. Essays by over forty leading scholars suggest many new ways of incorporating Asian history, from ancient to modern times, into core curriculum history courses. Now featuring "Suggested Resources for Maps to Be Used in Conjunction with Asia in Western and World History".
A vast region stretching roughly from the Volga River to Manchuria and the northern Chinese borderlands, Central Asia has been called the "pivot of history," a land where nomadic invaders and Silk Road traders changed the destinies of states that ringed its borders, including pre-modern Europe, the Middle East, and China. In Central Asia in World History, Peter B. Golden provides an engaging account of this important region, ranging from prehistory to the present, focusing largely on the unique melting pot of cultures that this region has produced over millennia. Golden describes the traders who braved the heat and cold along caravan routes to link East Asia and Europe; the Mongol Empire of Chinggis Khan and his successors, the largest contiguous land empire in history; the invention of gunpowder, which allowed the great sedentary empires to overcome the horse-based nomads; the power struggles of Russia and China, and later Russia and Britain, for control of the area. Finally, he discusses the region today, a key area that neighbors such geopolitical hot spots as Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China.
East Asia and the West: An Entangled History provides readers with a comprehensive overview of modern East Asian civilizations. The text demonstrates how China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam developed into modern nations through interactions with Western ideas and military power. Part One of the text provides an overview and historical background of premodern East Asia, highlighting differences and similarities between China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, and significant partnerships and innovations from the 1500s to the 1800s. In Part Two, students learn why certain areas adopted an isolationist policy against Western influence, while others welcomed the influence. Part Three focuses on confrontation and Westernization, featuring discussion of the Opium Wars, the Meiji Transformation, and French colonization in Indochina. Part Four covers major events that occurred during World War II, including the communist movements in East Asia during the war. The final part examines the competition and confrontation between the capitalist and communist systems during the Cold War in East Asia. The text features transliteration notes, maps, and an expansive bibliography to provide students with a complete and immersive learning experience. East Asia and the West is part of the Cognella History of Asia Series, a collection of books dedicated to helping students explore the exciting, complex, and influential past of Asian countries.
A History of Asia is the only text to cover the area known as "monsoon Asia" - India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia--from the earliest times to the present. Written by leading scholar Rhoads Murphey, the book uses an engaging, lively tone to chronicle the complex political, social, intellectual, and economic histories of this area. Popular because of its scope and coverage, as well as its illustrations, maps, and many boxed primary sources, the new edition of A History of Asia continues as a leader in its field.
"An English adaptation of Helmolt's Weltgeschichte, with a rejection of sections which did not seem quite adequate from the point of view of its English readers". -- Publisher's note.
Western Civilization in World History takes up the recent debates between the well-established 'Western Civ' approach and the newer field of world history. Stearns reviews and analyzes key aspects of Western civilization in a global context.
