Through biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities, John Wills displays the five-thousand-year sweep of Chinese history from the legendary sage emperors to the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. This unique introduction to Chinese history and culture uses more than twenty exemplary lives--biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities--including those of statesmen, philosophers, poets, and rulers, to provide the focus for accounts of key historical trends and pe...

China and Maritime Europe, 1500–1800 looks at early modern China in some of its most complicated and intriguing relations with a world of increasing global interconnection. New World silver, Chinese tea, Jesuit astronomers at the Chinese court, and merchants and marauders of all kinds play important roles here. Although pieces of these stories have been told before, these chapters provide the fullest and clearest available summaries, based on sources in Chinese and in European languages, m...

In The World from 1450 to 1700, historian John Wills takes a fresh look at one of the most fascinating and tumultuous periods in world history. Assuming a global perspective, rather than the traditional Eurocentric view, Wills traces the interwoven changes that led from the world of Columbus, Luther, and the Mughal emperor Babur to the world of Locke, Louis XIV, and the Kangxi emperor. The book's multi-centered approach explores historical events not in isolation but rather in a dynamic ...

"A totally absorbing book…imaginative and erudite, full of startling juxtapositions and flashes of real perception." —Jonathan D. SpenceJohn E. Wills's masterful history ushers us into the worlds of 1688, from the suicidal exaltation of Russian Old Believers to the ravishing voice of the haiku poet Basho. Witness the splendor of the Chinese imperial court as the Kangxi emperor publicly mourns the death of his grandmother and shrewdly consolidates his power. Join th...

Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai traces the roots of modern global East Asia by focusing on the fascinating history of its seaways. The East Asian maritime realm, from the Straits of Malacca to the Sea of Japan, has been a core region of international trade for millennia, but during the long seventeenth century (1550 to 1700), the velocity and scale of commerce increased dramatically. Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese smugglers and pirates forged autonomous networks and maritime po...

At a time when the basic costs of living continue to increase at a far greater pace than most wages and salaries, it’s become well known that the residential real estate sales industry can provide personal incomes that range from $100,000 to $1,000,000 per annum. This book, written during the 2008 Global Financial crisis, is a very personal account of someone who has worked step by step through a process of starting from zero to progress through to becoming a high achiever in the competiti...

Gripped by Fear, the second book in the Chicago Warriors series by John WillsPete Shannon and Marilyn Benson find themselves working their biggest case yet in their new role as Chicago Police Detectives. In this second book of the Chicago Warrior Thriller Series, a madman has inexplicably targeted women who labor as office cleaners in downtown Chicago, sexually assaulting them as they travel to and from their job.As the number of victims begins to ...

Have you ever faced manipulation in your life? It may be a salesman trying to persuade you to buy a product, or it can be a restaurant that attracts you to have dinner. Manipulation is a social influence aimed at changing others' actions or attitudes utilizing indirect, manipulative, or underhanded tactics. By promoting the manipulator's interests, often at the detriment of another, these methods could be called exploitative or persuasive. It is not necessarily harmful to have social influ...

Chicago Police Detectives Pete Shannon and Marilyn Benson are thrust into a homicide investigation, taking them away from the Violent Crimes Unit where they are normally assigned. A crazed gunman has been randomly targeting cops for his own deranged satisfaction. The duo finds themselves teamed with a pair of old-timers who do their best to interfere with the detectives’ leads and make their lives miserable. The hunt for the serial killer becomes a life-altering experience for the partners...

An unprecedented look at nuclear politics in California Vehement, widespread opposition accompanied the rise of the U.S. nuclear industry during the 1960s and 1970s. In Conservation Fallout, John Wills examines one of the most controversial atomic projects of the period: Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s decision to build its premier nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon, a relatively unsettled, biologically rich, and especially scenic part of the central California coastline. Two...

The expedition, led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, began in 1860 with the aim of exploring and mapping uncharted territories in the interior of Australia. Starting in Melbourne, the expedition traversed harsh desert landscapes, enduring extreme heat, limited water, and difficult terrain. Wills’ account captures the excitement and optimism at the start, as well as the growing sense of peril as the team encountered numerous hardships, including supply shortages, exhaustion, a...

A life terminating before it had reached its meridian, can scarcely be expected to furnish materials for an extended biography. But the important position held by my late son, as second in command in what is now so well-known as the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition across the Island Continent of Australia; the complicated duties he undertook as Astronomer, Topographer, Journalist, and Surveyor; the persevering skill with which he discharged them, suggesting and regulating the march of ...