Providing concisely written entries on the most important current issues in Central Asia and Eurasia, this atlas offers relevant background information on the region’s place in the contemporary political and economic world.Features include:Profiles of the constituent countries of Central Asia, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and UzbekistanProfiles of Mongolia, western China, Tibet, and the three Caucasus states of...

This book provides a much-needed classroom text in international studies that is genuinely interdisciplinary in its approach.International Studies focuses specifically on five core disciplines; history, geography, anthropology, political science and economics, and describes them in relation to one another, as well as their individual and collective contributions to the study of global issues. The expert authors also emphasize the continuing importance of area studies within an inte...

Thant Myint-U's Where China Meets India is a vivid, searching, timely book about the remote region that is suddenly a geopolitical center of the world.From their very beginnings, China and India have been walled off from each other: by the towering summits of the Himalayas, by a vast and impenetrable jungle, by hostile tribes and remote inland kingdoms stretching a thousand miles from Calcutta across Burma to the upper Yangtze River.Soon this last gr...

The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history. In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. For centuries, key record...

Here is a fascinating compact history of Chinese political, economic, and cultural life, ranging from the origins of civilization in China to the beginning of the 21st century. Historian Paul Ropp combines vivid story-telling with astute analysis to shed light on some of the larger questions of Chinese history. What is distinctive about China in comparison with other civilizations? What have been the major changes and continuities in Chinese life over the past four millennia? Offering a gl...

The phrase "silk road" evokes vivid scenes of merchants leading camel caravans across vast stretches to trade exotic goods in glittering Oriental bazaars, of pilgrims braving bandits and frozen mountain passes to spread their faith across Asia. Looking at the reality behind these images, this Very Short Introduction illuminates the historical background against which the silk road flourished, shedding light on the importance of old-world cultural exchange to Eurasian and world history. On ...

“A wonderful job! So lucid, beautfully written, with greatrange and insight. This will set a new standard for shortgeneral histories of China.”—Michael Gasster,professor emeritus of history at Rutgers UniversityNewly updated and revised, China: Its History and Culture,Fourth Edition, incorporates the crucial social and economicchanges that have taken place in China over the last decade.Through rich detail and engaging illustrations, the book tracesChina’s ...

A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai.Every month, five million people move from the past to the future. Pouring into developing-world “instant cities” like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the da...

“Brilliant.”—Time  “Admirable, rigorous. De Waal [is] a wise and patient reporter.”—The New York Review of Books  “Never have all the twists and turns, sad carnage, and bullheadedness on all side been better described—or indeed, better explained…Offers a deeper and more compelling account of the conflict than anyone before.”—Foreign Affairs  ...

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Mongols carved out the largest land-based empire in world history, stretching from Korea to Russia in the north and from China to Syria in the south, and unleashing an unprecedented level of violence. But as Morris Rossabi reveals in this Very Short Introduction, within two generations of their bloody conquests, the Mongols evolved from conquerors and predators to wise rulers who devised policies to foster the economies of the lands ...

As one of the oldest civilizations in the world, China has a vast, rich history. In order to assist with the study of Chinese history, this book has been broken down into a series of straightforward, easy-to-read vignettes.Inside you will read about...✓ The Great Flood✓ The Great Wall is begun✓ The Terra Cotta Army is created✓ Gunpowder is invented✓ Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution✓ Marco Polo travels to China✓ The Fo...

Kazakhstan, one of the largest countries on earth, was long hidden from the rest of the world behind the Iron Curtain, and continued to remain unnoticed among the "stans" of Central Asia that gained independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Now, twenty years later, it has emerged as a modern state with far-reaching ambitions. It has developed rapidly over the last decade, raising a brand-new capital in the middle of its vast, empty grasslands, and stepping up to take the leadi...