Best Selling Asian History Books

Chart of the top 50 most popular and best selling Asian history ebooks at the Apple Books.

Chart list of the top Asian history ebooks was last updated:

History Ebook Best Sellers

Top Asian History Ebooks

1

The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang Cover Art

The Rape of Nanking

The Rape of Nanking The Forgotten Holocaust Of World War II by Iris Chang

The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal—and forgotten—massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II. "A powerful, landmark book, riveting in its horror." —Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered—a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Historian Iris Chang tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, in The Rape of Nanking Chang analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. It also tells of the concerted effort during the Cold War on the part of the West and even China to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Drawing on extensive interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time, Iris Chang’s classic is the definitive history of this horrifying episode.

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Empire of Ashes - James M. Scott Cover Art

Empire of Ashes

Empire of Ashes Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War by James M. Scott

From the acclaimed Pacific War historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, the harrowing story of America’s bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the dramatic struggle to end World War II. At 9:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, an American bomber pierced the skies over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The single bomb it dropped unleashed an atomic hurricane that toppled homes, vaporized birds in flight, and carbonized humans. Three days later, a second bomb flattened the port city of Nagasaki. In the span of a mere 75 hours, the United States—a nation once morally opposed to the bombing of civilians—killed 120,000 men, women, and children, dooming tens of thousands more to agonizing death in the weeks and months ahead. Empire of Ashes explores the final brutal months of the war in the Pacific, featuring the voices of never-before-heard victims of the atomic bombs. Through interviews with survivors and accounts gleaned from Japanese sources, New York Times best-selling author James M. Scott combines the attacks’ heart-wrenching details with their causes and consequences, from debates within the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, Oakridge, and Hanford to the fallout that would alter decades of life in Japan. Scott also delves into the political maneuvering in Washington and Tokyo between two seemingly unlikely leaders—President Harry S. Truman and Emperor Hirohito—that led to unprecedented violence and, eventually, surrender. Scott grapples with questions that still haunt the detonation of the atomic bomb to this day: What justified the first and only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict? And how does a nation reconcile the pride of liberating millions, with its own unprecedented violence? With startling immediacy, Empire of Ashes illuminates the moral dilemma at the center of America’s decision to inflict total war upon Japan.

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The Party - Richard McGregor Cover Art

The Party

The Party The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor

"A masterful depiction of the party today. . . . McGregor illuminates the most important of the contradictions and paradoxes. . . . An entertaining and insightful portrait of China's secretive rulers." —The Economist "Few outsiders have any realistic sense of the innards, motives, rivalries, and fears of the Chinese Communist leadership. But we all know much more than before, thanks to Richard McGregor's illuminating and richly-textured look at the people in charge of China's political machinery. . . . Invaluable." — James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic In this provocative and illuminating account, Financial Times reporter Richard McGregor offers a captivating portrait of China's Communist Party, its grip on power and control over China, and its future. China's political and economic growth in the past three decades has been one of astonishing, epochal dimensions. The most remarkable part of this transformation, however, has been left largely untold—the central role of the Chinese Communist Party. McGregor delves deeply into China's inner sanctum for the first time, showing how the Communist Party controls the government, courts, media, and military and keeps all corruption accusations against its members in-house. The Party's decisions have a global impact, yet the CCP remains a deeply secretive body, hostile to the law and unaccountable to anyone or anything other than its own internal tribunals. It is the world's only geopolitical rival of the United States, and is primed to think the worst of the West.

4

On the Brink - Eric Setzekorn Cover Art

On the Brink

On the Brink A Military History of Taiwan by Eric Setzekorn

Drawing on newly declassified U.S. records and Chinese-language sources, this is the first comprehensive history of Taiwan’s armed forces and their central role in resisting Chinese pressure for more than seventy-five years. It reveals how Taiwan built a resilient military under extreme constraints, forged a lasting U.S. security partnership, and helped shape the island’s democratic transformation.  Since 1949, Taiwan’s armed forces have faced the daunting task of defending an island less than one hundred miles from China’s coast against a far larger adversary. Spanning seventy-five years of conflict, deterrence, and adaptation, the military has not only ensured the island’s survival, but has also shaped its political transformation and place in the international system. In On the Brink, author Eric Setzekorn offers the first comprehensive history of Taiwan’s armed forces, situating their experience at the center of debates over security in East Asia.  At its core is the account of how Taiwan confronted the threat of the People’s Republic of China and built a credible defense under severe financial, technological, and diplomatic constraints. Military leaders and policymakers sustained deterrence through decades of U.S. assistance and cooperation, creating one of Washington’s most effective and enduring security partnerships. The resilience of this relationship stands in sharp contrast to troubled American efforts in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, highlighting Taiwan as a rare success story in alliance and defense policy.  The Taiwanese military reaches deeply into Taiwanese society. Conscription touches nearly all households, veterans shape communities, and the gradual integration of women has reflected broader cultural change. During Taiwan’s democratic transition, the armed forces remained central, influencing debates over citizenship, identity, and reform. Rather than existing apart from society, the military is embedded in the fabric of everyday life and political change.  Based on newly declassified U.S. records, Chinese-language sources, and the author’s background as both a U.S. Army officer and historian, On the Brink weaves military, political, and diplomatic history into a unified narrative. It challenges portrayals of Taiwan as a passive object of great-power rivalry, showing instead how its armed forces forged resilience, supported democratization, and sustained deterrence against China for more than three quarters of a century.  Accessible yet rigorous, this work speaks to historians of modern East Asia, scholars of security studies, and readers concerned with the future of U.S.-China competition. More than a chronicle of past conflicts, it offers a framework for thinking about deterrence, alliance, and strategy in one of the most contested regions of the twenty-first century. 

5

On China - Henry Kissinger Cover Art

On China

On China by Henry Kissinger

“ Fascinating, shrewd . . . The book deftly traces the rhythms and patterns of Chinese history. ” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “No one can lay claim to so much influence on the shaping of foreign policy over the past 50 years as Henry Kissinger.” — The Financial Times In this sweeping and insightful history, Henry Kissinger turns for the first time at book length to a country he has known intimately for decades and whose modern relations with the West he helped shape. On China illuminates the inner workings of Chinese diplomacy during such pivotal events as the initial encounters between China and tight line modern European powers, the formation and breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean War, and Richard Nixon’s historic trip to Beijing. With a new final chapter on the emerging superpower’s twenty-first-century role in global politics and economics, On China provides historical perspective on Chinese foreign affairs from one of the premier statesmen of our time.

6

Vietnam - Christopher Goscha Cover Art

Vietnam

Vietnam A New History by Christopher Goscha

The definitive history of modern Vietnam and its diverse and divided past. “The best one-volume history of modern Vietnam in English.” — Wall Street Journal In Vietnam , Christopher Goscha tells the full history of Vietnam, from antiquity to the present day. Generations of emperors, rebels, priests, and colonizers left complicated legacies in this remarkable country. Periods of Chinese, French, and Japanese rule reshaped and modernized Vietnam, but so too did the colonial enterprises of the Vietnamese themselves as they extended their influence southward from the Red River Delta. Over the centuries, numerous kingdoms, dynasties, and states have ruled over—and fought for—what is now Vietnam. The bloody Cold War-era conflict between Ho Chi Minh's communist-backed Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the American-backed Republic of Vietnam was only the most recent instance when war divided and transformed Vietnam. A major achievement, Vietnam offers the grand narrative of the country's complex past and the creation of the modern state of Vietnam. It is the definitive single-volume history for anyone seeking to understand Vietnam today.

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毛泽东专政始末 - 唐德刚 Cover Art

毛泽东专政始末

毛泽东专政始末 by 唐德刚

本书是唐德刚教授《民国通史》系列“人民政府篇”第一分册。 毛泽东生前当国,前后凡二十八年(一九四九-一九七六),从完全正确,到完全错误,最后把八亿人民,都整到家破人亡的绝境;古老民族也被他弄到了人相食,和亡国灭种的边缘,自成五千年国史上,前所未有的一个特殊阶段。何以毛公这样一位雄才大略的历史人物,弄成这样一个“小时了了,大未必佳”地可笑的结局呢?关于毛氏晚年的失德,近年来大众媒体上的评毛之论,都太看重于毛氏个人的行为了。历史人物尤其是转型期中的历史人物的政治行为,不是不重要,但是其重要性亦有其极限。在治宏观史学的社会科学家看来,一部中国近现代史原只是一部近代中国社会转型史。 毛泽东在中国近代转型史中,原只是个转型中期的民族领袖。他个人的个性、见识、修养、训练和时代,都只能铸造他做个转型高潮中的秦始皇,而不能做个完成转型的汉武帝。这就叫做形势比人强。毛泽东自视为天生圣哲,其实他和你我一样,也只是个渺小的脊椎动物,并不能扭转他们唯物主义者曲不离口的所谓“客观实在”啊!他是时势所造的英雄;但是他这个盖世英雄却未能创造时势。夫复何言?

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Revolusi - David van Reybrouck Cover Art

Revolusi

Revolusi Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van Reybrouck

Cundill History Prize Finalist Baillie Gifford Prize Finalist “Epic.” —Ari Shapiro, NPR’s All Things Considered From the internationally best-selling writer, a masterful account of the epic revolution that sparked the decolonization of the modern world. On a sunny Friday morning in August 1945, a handful of people raised a homemade cotton flag and, on behalf of 68 million compatriots, announced the birth of a new nation. With the fourth largest population in the world, inhabiting islands that span an eighth of the globe, Indonesia became the first country to rid itself of colonial rule after World War II. In this vivid history, renowned scholar and celebrated author of Congo David Van Reybrouck captures a period of extraordinary tumult and chaos to tell the story of Indonesia’s momentous revolution, known as the “Revolusi.” Encompassing several hundred years of history, he details the formation of the Dutch East Indies, the Japanese invasion that followed, and the young rebels who engaged in armed resistance once the occupation ended. British and Dutch troops were sent to restore order and keep peace, but instead ignited the first modern war of decolonization. America, too, became embroiled with the Indonesians’ fierce struggle for freedom. That struggle inspired independence movements in Asia, Africa, and the Arab world, especially in the wake of Indonesia’s monumental 1955 Bandung Conference, the first global conference without the West. The whole world had become involved in Revolusi, and the whole world was changed by it. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and eyewitness testimonies, David Van Reybrouck turns this vast and complex story into an utterly gripping narrative, written with remarkable historical clarity and filled with tragedy and passion. A landmark history, Revolusi cements Indonesia’s struggle for independence as one of the defining dramas of the twentieth century and entirely reframes our understanding of post-colonialism.

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Kiss of the Yogini - David Gordon White Cover Art

Kiss of the Yogini

Kiss of the Yogini "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts by David Gordon White

For those who wonder what relation actual Tantric practices bear to the "Tantric sex" currently being marketed so successfully in the West, David Gordon White has a simple answer: there is none. Sweeping away centuries of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, White returns to original texts, images, and ritual practices to reconstruct the history of South Asian Tantra from the medieval period to the present day. Kiss of the Yogini focuses on what White identifies as the sole truly distinctive feature of South Asian Tantra: sexualized ritual practices, especially as expressed in the medieval Kaula rites. Such practices centered on the exchange of powerful, transformative sexual fluids between male practitioners and wild female bird and animal spirits known as Yoginis. It was only by "drinking" the sexual fluids of the Yoginis that men could enter the family of the supreme godhead and thereby obtain supernatural powers and transform themselves into gods. By focusing on sexual rituals, White resituates South Asian Tantra, in its precolonial form, at the center of religious, social, and political life, arguing that Tantra was the mainstream, and that in many ways it continues to influence contemporary Hinduism, even if reformist misunderstandings relegate it to a marginal position. Kiss of the Yogini contains White's own translations from over a dozen Tantras that have never before been translated into any European language. It will prove to be the definitive work for persons seeking to understand Tantra and the crucial role it has played in South Asian history, society, culture, and religion.

10

The Vietnam War - Geoffrey Wawro Cover Art

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War A Military History by Geoffrey Wawro

“Remarkable… the best overview of America’s misadventure in Southeast Asia, and it is sure to become the standard one-volume book on the war.” – Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times The Vietnam War cast a shadow over the American psyche from the moment it began. In its time it sparked budget deficits, campus protests, and an erosion of US influence around the world. Long after the last helicopter evacuated Saigon, Americans have continued to battle over whether it was ever a winnable war. Based on thousands of pages of military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, Geoffrey Wawro’s The Vietnam War offers a definitive account of a war of choice that was doomed from its inception. In devastating detail, Wawro narrates campaigns where US troops struggled even to find the enemy in the South Vietnamese wilderness, let alone kill sufficient numbers to turn the tide in their favor. Yet the war dragged on, prolonged by presidents and military leaders who feared the political consequences of accepting defeat. In the end, no number of young lives lost or bombs dropped could prevent America’s ally, the corrupt South Vietnamese regime, from collapsing the moment US troops retreated. Broad, definitive, and illuminating, The Vietnam War offers an unsettling, resonant story of the limitations of American power.

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Midnight's Furies - Nisid Hajari Cover Art

Midnight's Furies

Midnight's Furies The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition by Nisid Hajari

A "fast-moving and highly readable account" of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 and its lasting legacy in today's geopolitical tensions ( The New York Times ).   An NPR and Seattle Times Best Book of the Year   Nobody expected the events of 1947 in Southeast Asia to be so bloody. The liberation of India and the birth of Pakistan were supposed to realize the dreams of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for centuries. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi's protégé and the political leader of India, believed Indians were an inherently nonviolent, peaceful people. Pakistan's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a secular lawyer, not a firebrand.   In August 1946, exactly a year before Independence, Calcutta erupted in street-gang fighting. A cycle of riots—targeting Hindus, then Muslims, then Sikhs—spiraled out of control. As the summer of 1947 approached, all three groups were arming themselves as the British rushed to evacuate. Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern history erupted on both sides of the new border, searing a divide between India and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many evils. From jihadi terrorism to nuclear proliferation, the searing tale told in Midnight's Furies explains all too many of the headlines we read today.

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India After Gandhi - Ramachandra Guha Cover Art

India After Gandhi

India After Gandhi The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha

A definitive history of post-Partition India, now revised and updated with extensive new material. "Guha has given India the rich, well-paced history it deserves." — Washington Post Book World Told in lucid and beautiful prose, the story of India's wild ride toward and since Independence is a riveting one. Taking full advantage of the dramatic details of the protests and conflicts that helped shape the nation, politically, socially, and economically, Ramachandra Guha writes of the factors and processes that have kept the country together, and kept it democratic, defying the numerous prophets of doom. Moving between history and biography, this story provides fresh insights into the lives and public careers of those legendary and long-serving Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi. Guha includes vivid sketches of the major "provincial" leaders, but also writes with feeling and sensitivity about lesser-known Indians—peasants, tribals, women, workers, and Untouchables. Massively researched and elegantly written, this is the work of a major scholar at the height of his powers, a brilliant and definitive history of what is possibly the most important, occasionally the most exasperating, and certainly the most interesting country in the world. This tenth anniversary edition, published to coincide with seventy years of India's independence, is revised and expanded to bring the narrative up to the present. "Guha is a scholar of astounding energy and ingenuity. . . . He seems to have visited every archive from Alabama to Allahabad, Calcutta to California, delving into a sea of private correspondence, news reports, pamphlet ephemera, as well as state papers. The result is a fascinating, kaleidoscopic narrative." — Daily Telegraph (UK)

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The China Mirage - James Bradley Cover Art

The China Mirage

The China Mirage The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia by James Bradley

From the bestselling author of  Flags of our Fathers ,  Flyboys , and  The Imperial Cruise , a spellbinding history of turbulent U.S.-China relations from the 19th century to World War II and Mao's ascent. In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America's engagement in Asia. Now comes his most engrossing work yet. Beginning in the 1850s, Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans who made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As they—good Christians all—profitably addicted millions, American missionaries arrived, promising salvation for those who adopted Western ways. And that was just the beginning. From drug dealer Warren Delano to his grandson Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from the port of Hong Kong to the towers of Princeton University, from the era of Appomattox to the age of the A-Bomb,  The China Mirage  explores a difficult century that defines U.S.-Chinese relations to this day.

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A Brief History of the Samurai - Jonathan Clements Cover Art

A Brief History of the Samurai

A Brief History of the Samurai by Jonathan Clements

'Clements has a knack for writing suspenseful sure-footed conflict scenes: His recounting of the Korean invasion led by samurai and daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi reads like a thriller. If you're looking for a samurai primer, Clements' guide will keep you on the hook' Japan Times , reviewed as part of an Essential Reading for Japanophiles series From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.

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The Last Kings of Shanghai - Jonathan Kaufman Cover Art

The Last Kings of Shanghai

The Last Kings of Shanghai The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman

"In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."— The Boston Globe "Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."— LA Review of Books An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon—billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty—the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite and Charlie Chaplin has entertained his wife-to-be. And a few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist Party have been plotting revolution. By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty—the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and losing nearly everything as the Communists swept into power. In The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families participated in an economic boom that opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil at their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival. The book lays bare the moral compromises of the Kadoories and the Sassoons—and their exceptional foresight, success, and generosity. At the height of World War II, they joined together to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. Though their stay in China started out as a business opportunity, the country became a home they were reluctant to leave, even on the eve of revolution. The lavish buildings they built and the booming businesses they nurtured continue to define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day. As the United States confronts China's rise, and China grapples with the pressures of breakneck modernization and global power, the long-hidden odysseys of the Sassoons and the Kadoories hold a key to understanding the present moment.

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The Storm of War - Andrew Roberts Cover Art

The Storm of War

The Storm of War A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts

“Gripping. . . . splendid history. A brilliantly clear and accessible account of the war in all its theaters. Roberts’s prose is unerringly precise and strikingly vivid. It is hard to imagine a better-told military history of World War II.” –New York Times Book Review Andrew Roberts's acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic conflict. From the western front to North Africa, from the Baltic to the Far East, he tells the story of the war—the grand strategy and the individual experience, the brutality and the heroism—as never before. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, The Storm of War illuminates the war's principal actors, revealing how their decisions shaped the course of the conflict. Along the way, Roberts presents tales of the many lesser-known individuals whose experiences form a panoply of the courage and self-sacrifice, as well as the depravity and cruelty, of the Second World War.

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War's End - Charles W. Sweeney, James A. Antonucci & Marion K. Antonucci Cover Art

War's End

War's End An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission by Charles W. Sweeney, James A. Antonucci & Marion K. Antonucci

On August 9, 1945, on the tiny island of Tinian in the South Pacific, a twenty-five-year-old American Army Air Corps major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion. In the belly of his bomber, Bock's Car , was a newly developed, fully armed weapon that had never been tested in a combat situation. It was a weapon capable of a level of destruction never before dreamed of in the history of the human race, a bomb whose terrifying aftershock would ultimately determine the direction of the twentieth century and change the world forever. The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Major General Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. Now updated with a new epilogue from the co-author, his book is an extraordinary chronicle of the months of careful planning and training; the setbacks, secrecy, and snafus; and the nerve-shattering final seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what is arguably the most significant single event in modern history: the employment of an atomic weapon during wartime. The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Major General Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. His book is an extraordinary chronicle of the months of careful planning and training; the setbacks, secrecy, and snafus; and the nerve-shattering final seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what is arguably the most significant single event in modern history: the employment of an atomic weapon during wartime.

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Samurai William - Giles Milton Cover Art

Samurai William

Samurai William The Englishman Who Opened Japan by Giles Milton

An eye-opening account of the first encounter between England and Japan, by the acclaimed author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a mysterious letter from Japan, written several years previously by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Foreigners had been denied access to Japan for centuries, yet Adams had been living in this unknown land for years. He had risen to the highest levels in the ruling shogun's court, taken a Japanese name, and was now offering his services as adviser and interpreter. Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams, in the belief that he held the key to exploiting the opulent riches of this forbidden land. Their arrival was to prove a momentous event in the history of Japan and the shogun suddenly found himself facing a stark choice: to expel the foreigners and continue with his policy of isolation, or to open his country to the world. For more than a decade the English, helped by Adams, were to attempt trade with the shogun, but confounded by a culture so different from their own, and hounded by scheming Jesuit monks and fearsome Dutch assassins, they found themselves in a desperate battle for their lives. Samurai William is the fascinating story of a clash of two cultures, and of the enormous impact one Westerner had on the opening of the East.

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Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa Cover Art

Musashi

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely.

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Embracing Defeat - John W. Dower Cover Art

Embracing Defeat

Embracing Defeat Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize Embracing Defeat is John W. Dower's brilliant examination of Japan in the immediate, shattering aftermath of World War II. Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources and illustrated with dozens of astonishing documentary photographs, Embracing Defeat is the fullest and most important history of the more than six years of American occupation, which affected every level of Japanese society, often in ways neither side could anticipate. Dower, whom Stephen E. Ambrose has called "America's foremost historian of the Second World War in the Pacific," gives us the rich and turbulent interplay between West and East, the victor and the vanquished, in a way never before attempted, from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes and fears of men and women in every walk of life. Already regarded as the benchmark in its field, Embracing Defeat is a work of colossal scholarship and history of the very first order.

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Brief History of Japan - Jonathan Clements Cover Art

Brief History of Japan

Brief History of Japan Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun by Jonathan Clements

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion. First revealed to Westerners in the chronicles of Marco Polo, Japan was a legendary faraway land defended by a fearsome Kamikaze storm and ruled by a divine sovereign. It was the terminus of the Silk Road, the furthest end of the known world, a fertile source of inspiration for European artists, and an enduring symbol of the mysterious East. In recent times, it has become a powerhouse of global industry, a nexus of popular culture, and a harbinger of post-industrial decline. With intelligence and wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles to connect the past, present and future of Japan, and in broad yet detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests. Among the chapters in this Japanese history book are: The Way of the Gods: Prehistoric and Mythical Japan A Game of Thrones: Minamoto vs. Taira Time Warp: 200 Years of Isolation The Stench of Butter: Restoration and Modernization The New Breed: The Japanese Miracle

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鄧小平時代(繁體版) - Ezra F. Vogel Cover Art

鄧小平時代(繁體版)

鄧小平時代(繁體版) by Ezra F. Vogel

本書是逾八十高齡的作者傾十年之心力而完成的一部權威性的鄧小平傳記。作者不僅閱讀了大量的當代中國檔案,特別是中國過去十五年公開的歷史材料,而且由於其人脈關係得以深入廣泛地訪談了鄧小平子女以及諸多不同背景的中國高層及其子女、秘書等。作者曾在多屆美國政府擔任東亞事務顧問,並曾以學者身分在美國國家情報委員會任職,這些經驗使得他對《鄧小平傳》的寫作既有社會學學者的專精,又能超越學院的限制,而從政治經驗、政治智慧的角度理解鄧小平的政治實踐。作為真正的中國通,他對鄧小平的把握既能入乎其中,又能站在中立、客觀的學術立場上而出乎其外,讓讀者全面而深度地把握鄧小平及其整個改革開放時代。

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The Way of the Samurai - Miyamoto Musashi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo & Inazo Nitobe Cover Art

The Way of the Samurai

The Way of the Samurai The Book of Five Rings, Hagakure: Book of the Samurai, Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Miyamoto Musashi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo & Inazo Nitobe

Presented here in one volume are three of the seminal texts relating to the Japanese 'Way of the Samurai', essential reading for anyone interested in the Samurai culture of Japan. 'Go Rin No Sho', or 'The Book of Five Rings' is a famous text written by the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi in 1645, concerning Martial Arts, in particular Kenjitsu and the art of Zen. Miyamoto Musashi uses language that is as sharp and decisive as his sword - delivering in unfaltering steps the most direct path towards the objective - to cut down your opponent and emerge unscathed and victorious. 'Hagakure' provides a peerless view into the mindset and morality of the Japanese Samurai. Written by the Samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo in the early 18th Century, the text illustrates the concept of 'Bushido'. 'Bushido' translates literally as 'the way of the warrior', and is the Japanese word used to describe the ancient code of the Samurai. It is a complex and chivalric code of behavior that prizes loyalty and honor above all, but also champions the qualities of dedication, frugality, and mastery of martial arts. Fundamental to 'the Way of the Warrior', is the concept of a 'good death'.   Tsunetomo urges his Samurai readers to assume themselves already dead, to completely remove the fear of death, giving them the freedom to act rapidly and decisively, regardless of whether the actions might result in their own demise. The three books in this volume have been beautifully arranged with color images and an interactive table of contents for ease of navigation.

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The Golden Road - William Dalrymple Cover Art

The Golden Road

The Golden Road How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize 2026 * A Kirkus Reviews Best History Book of 2025 * A Library Journal Best Book of the Year * An NPR Book We Loved This Year The instant New York Times bestseller and international sensation-a sparkling, soaring history of ideas, tracing South Asia's underappreciated role in producing the world as we know it. For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilization. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics, and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. In The Golden Road, William Dalrymple gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world, drawing from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India's oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today, India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world-and our world today as we know it. And in this magisterial account, Dalrymple restores ancient India as a cultural and economic superpower.

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Unit 731 - Hal Gold Cover Art

Unit 731

Unit 731 Firsthand Accounts of Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program by Hal Gold

This is a riveting and disturbing account of the medical atrocities performed in and around Japan during WWII. Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of the continent. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments. In the first part of Unit 731: Testimony author Hal Gold draws upon a painstakingly accumulated reservoir of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities. The second half of the book consists almost entirely of the words of former unit members themselves, taken from remarks they made at a traveling Unit 731 exhibition held around Japan in 1994-95. These people recount their vivid first-hand memories of what it was like to cut open pregnant women as they lay awake on the vivisection table, inject plague germs into healthy farmers, and carry buckets of fresh blood and organs through corridors to their appropriate destinations. Unit 731: Testimony represents an essential addition to the growing body of literature on the still-unfolding story of one of the most infamous "military" outfits in modern history. By showing how the ethics of normal men and women, and even an entire profession, can be warped by the fire of war, this important book offers a window on a time of human madness, in the hope that such days will never come again.

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Train To Pakistan - Khuswant Singh Cover Art

Train To Pakistan

Train To Pakistan by Khuswant Singh

"In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the new state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight, By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra." It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the "ghost train" arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endures and transcends the ravages of war.

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这个历史挺靠谱:袁腾飞讲中国史. 上 - 袁腾飞 Cover Art

这个历史挺靠谱:袁腾飞讲中国史. 上

这个历史挺靠谱:袁腾飞讲中国史. 上 by 袁腾飞

《历史是个什么玩意儿》升级修订插图版,中国通俗讲史界领军人物袁腾飞代表作。近30年来最受欢迎的中国通史,千万读者热烈追捧!袁腾飞从先秦时代一直讲述到清朝中期,生动活泼地再现了这段风云激荡的历史,精彩纷呈地演绎了诸多著名历史典故,如“烽火戏诸侯”“商鞅变法”“武帝汉匈之战”“隋炀帝下扬州”“玄武门之变”“杯酒释兵权”“岳飞遇害风波亭”“蒙古横扫中原”“明成祖夺天下”“康熙擒鳌拜”等。袁腾飞以让人忍俊不禁的语言,轻松有趣地讲述了中国古代史,给千万读者进行了一次全方位的中国古代史大普及。

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A Brief History of Thailand - Richard A. Ruth Cover Art

A Brief History of Thailand

A Brief History of Thailand Monarchy, War and Resilience: The Fascinating Story of the Gilded Kingdom at the Heart of Asia by Richard A. Ruth

Thailand is known for its picturesque beaches and famous temples, but there's much more to this popular holiday destination than many realize. A Brief History of Thailand offers an engaging look at the country's last 250 years--from coups and violent massacres to the invention of Pad Thai in the 1930's. Readers will learn the vibrant story of Thailand's emergence as a prosperous Buddhist state, its transformation from traditional kingdom to democratic constitutional monarchy and its subsequent rise to prominence in Southeast Asian affairs. Thailand's dramatic history spans centuries of conflict, and this book recounts many of these fascinating episodes, including: The true story of Anna Leonowens, the British governess hired to teach the children of King Mongkut, fictionalized in Margaret Landon's bestselling novel Anna and the King of Siam and turned into a hit Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and film, The King and I The bloodless Siamese Revolution of 1932 that established overnight the first constitutional monarchy in Asia, ending almost eight centuries of absolute rule and creating a democratic system of parliamentary government The Japanese invasion of Thailand and construction of the "Bridge Over the River Kwai" made famous by the novel and Oscar-winning filmThe mysterious death of King Ananda Mahidol, murdered in his bed in 1946, and a source of controversy ever sinceThe development of Thailand as an international playground during the Vietnam War, when American military used it as rowdy destination for servicemen on furloughThe 70-year reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-serving monarch, who was born in the U.S., educated in Switzerland, loved to play the saxophone and was idolized by his people With this book, historian and professor Richard A. Ruth has skillfully crafted an accessible cultural and political history of an understudied nation. Covering events through the King's death in 2016, A Brief History of Thailand will be of interest to students, travelers and anyone hoping to learn more about this part of the world.

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Kahlil Gibran: A Biography - Mikhail Naimy Cover Art

Kahlil Gibran: A Biography

Kahlil Gibran: A Biography by Mikhail Naimy

An intimate, literary biography of the renowned Lebanese-American poet, written by his close friend and fellow author.   Best known for his collection of prose poetry, The Prophet , Kahlil Gibran is a legendary figure of early twentieth century literature. In this biography, Mikhail Naimy digs beneath the mythologized persona. Here is Gibran the man: wanderer, lover, and seeker of truth and beauty.   Naimy, for whom Gibran called on his death bed, was a literary leader of the Middle East. He speaks as a direct observer and confidant, setting forth in intimate detail the incidents of Gibran's life. Many of Gibran's previously unpublished writings and sayings are included, throwing new light on the perspective and personal thoughts of a writer who has been so influential in the worlds of literature, art, and philosophy.   An extensive supplement includes, among other valuable material, Gibran's last will and testament, and a series of personal letters written by him to the author over the years.

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The Lost Samurai - Stephen Turnbull Cover Art

The Lost Samurai

The Lost Samurai Japanese Mercenaries in South East Asia, 1593–1688 by Stephen Turnbull

"An inherently fascinating, impressively well written, exceptionally informative, and meticulously detailed history" of Japanese overseas mercenaries ( Midwest Book Review ). The Lost Samurai  reveals the greatest untold story of Japan's legendary warrior class, which is that for almost a hundred years Japanese samurai were employed as mercenaries in the service of the kings of Siam, Cambodia, Burma, Spain and Portugal, as well as by the directors of the Dutch East India Company. The Japanese samurai were used in dramatic assault parties, as royal bodyguards, as staunch garrisons and as willing executioners. As a result, a stereotypical image of the fierce Japanese warrior developed that had a profound influence on the way they were regarded by their employers. While the Southeast Asian kings tended to employ samurai on a long-term basis as palace guards, their European employers usually hired them on a temporary basis for specific campaigns. Also, whereas the Southeast Asian monarchs tended to trust their well-established units of Japanese mercenaries, the Europeans, while admiring them, also feared them. In every European example a progressive shift in attitude may be discerned from initial enthusiasm to great suspicion that the Japanese might one day turn against them, as illustrated by the long-standing Spanish fear of an invasion of the Philippines by Japan accompanied by a local uprising. During the 1630s, when Japan chose isolation rather than engagement with Southeast Asia, it left these fierce mercenaries stranded in distant countries never to return: lost samurai indeed!

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野心時代【十週年經典回歸.2025年重新校訂版】 - 歐逸文 Cover Art

野心時代【十週年經典回歸.2025年重新校訂版】

野心時代【十週年經典回歸.2025年重新校訂版】 在新中國追求財富、真相和信仰 by 歐逸文

2014年美國國家圖書獎.非虛構類大獎 十週年經典回歸,2025年重新校訂版 特別增加作者新序,細述此後十年中國的變化 如果每個時代都有它獨一無二、不可替代的傳記 中國在習近平上台前的那個時代 則是由歐逸文來蓋棺定論──冠之以「野心時代」

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Storm Clouds over the Pacific, 1931–1941 - Peter Harmsen Cover Art

Storm Clouds over the Pacific, 1931–1941

Storm Clouds over the Pacific, 1931–1941 by Peter Harmsen

"An excellent primer about World War II in Asia prior to the involvement of the United States"—part one of a fascinating history trilogy ( New York Journal of Books ).   War in the Far East is a trilogy of books offering the most complete narrative yet written about the Pacific Theater of World War II, and the first truly international treatment of the epic conflict. Historian Peter Harmsen weaves together a complex and revealing narrative, including facets of the war that are often overlooked in historic narratives. He explores the war in subarctic conditions on the Aleutians; details the mass starvations in China, Indochina, and India; and offers a range of perspectives on the war experience, from the Oval Office to the blistering sands of Peleliu.   Storm Clouds Over the Pacific begins the story long before Pearl Harbor, showing how the war can only be understood if ancient hatreds and long-standing geopolitics are taken into account. Harmsen demonstrates how Japan and China's ancient enmity led to increased tensions in the 1930s, which, in turn, exploded into conflict in 1937.   The battles of Shanghai and Nanjing were followed by the Battle of Taierzhuang in 1938, China's only major victory. A war of attrition continued up to 1941, the year when Japan made the momentous decision to pursue all-out war. The infamous attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into the war, as the Japanese also overran British and Dutch territories throughout the western Pacific.

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Battleship Yamato - Alexander Wooley Cover Art

Battleship Yamato

Battleship Yamato The Ship, The Myth, The Legend by Alexander Wooley

This book explores the enduring legacy of the battleship Yamato , weaving together history, myth, and cultural impact to reveal how a wartime icon became a symbol of Japan’s identity and imagination across generations. ​   The battleship Yamato was conceived as the ultimate expression of Imperial Japan’s naval power—the largest and most heavily armed battleship ever built. Yet her significance did not end with her destruction in the final months of World War II. In this book, author Alexander Wooley traces Yamato ’s story from secretive construction and brief combat career to her extraordinary afterlife as one of Japan’s most enduring cultural symbols. Wooley explores how a single ship came to bridge history and myth, continuing to shape cultural conversations long after the guns fell silent.  Beginning with Yamato ’s design and deployment, Wooley places the ship within the strategic ambitions and constraints of Japan’s wartime navy, culminating in her final mission and sinking in 1945. But the heart of the book lies beyond the battlefield. Wooley shows how Yamato —despite limited operational impact—came to represent far more than a warship. In the decades after the war, she became a vessel of memory, shaped by defeat, loss, and national reckoning.  Drawing on wartime records, postwar accounts, interviews, and cultural analysis, the book follows Yamato ’s interpretation in museums, literature, film, anime, manga, and video games. From ship to space cruiser to mythic protector, Yamato reflects Japan’s evolving relationship with its past and its efforts to reconcile wartime experience with postwar identity. Each reinvention reveals as much about society interpreting her as they do about the ship herself.    Balancing naval and cultural history, this book offers a focused examination of how technology, memory, and imagination intersect. It will appeal to readers interested in World War II at sea, Japanese history, and the ways nations remember—and reinterpret—their most powerful symbols.

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Black Snow - James M. Scott Cover Art

Black Snow

Black Snow Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb by James M. Scott

"Riveting.…This book is required reading for anyone with even a passing interest in World War II and the Pacific Theater." —Bob Carden, Boston Globe Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: “If we lose the war, we’ll be tried as war criminals.” James M. Scott reconstructs in granular detail that horrific night, and describes the development of the B-29, the capture of the Marianas for use as airfields, and the change in strategy from high-altitude daylight “precision” bombing to low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing. Most importantly, the raid represented a significant moral shift for America, marking the first time commanders deliberately targeted civilians which helped pave the way for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later. Drawing on first-person interviews with American pilots and bombardiers and Japanese survivors, air force archives, and oral histories never before published in English, Scott delivers a harrowing and gripping account, and his most important and compelling work to date.

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The Devil Reached Toward the Sky - Garrett M. Graff Cover Art

The Devil Reached Toward the Sky

The Devil Reached Toward the Sky An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb by Garrett M. Graff

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Magisterial…A stunning account that brings to the fore the nuclear saga’s surreal combination of ingenuity, fate, and terror.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) • “If you are an intelligent person, or at the very least think you are, you have to read The Devil Reached Toward the Sky …This period in history has never been more relevant and frightening than it is today.” —James Patterson • “Comprehensive and engrossing…Excellent oral history.” — Kirkus Reviews On the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, the Pulitzer Prize finalist whose work is “oral history at its finest” ( Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ) delivers an epic narrative of the atomic bomb’s creation and deployment, woven from the voices of hundreds of scientists, generals, soldiers, and civilians. The building of the atomic bomb is the most audacious undertaking in human history: a rush by a small group of scientists and engineers in complete secrecy to unlock the most fundamental power of the universe. Even today, the Manhattan Project evokes boldness, daring, and the grandest of dreams: bringing an end to World War II in the Pacific. As Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen fight overseas, men and women strive to discover the atom’s secrets in places like Chicago, Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos. On August 6, 1945, the world discovers what the end of the war—and the new global age—will look like. The road to the first atomic bomb ends in Hiroshima, Japan, but it begins in Hitler’s Europe, where brilliant physicists are forced to flee fascism and antisemitism—bringing to America their determination to harness atomic power before it falls into the Führer’s arsenal. The Devil Reached Toward the Sky traces the breakthroughs and the breakneck pace of atomic development in the years leading up to 1945, then takes us inside the B-29 bombers carrying Little Boy and Fat Man and finally to ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff comes a panoramic narrative of how ordinary people grapple with extraordinary wartime risks, sacrifices, and choices that will transform the course of history. Engineers experiment with forces of terrifying power, knowing each passing day costs soldiers’ lives—but fearing too the consequences of their creation. Hundreds of thousands of workers toil around the clock to produce uranium and plutonium in an endeavor so classified that most people involved learn the reality of their effort only when it is announced on the radio by President Truman. The 509th Composite Group trains for a mission whose details are kept a mystery until shortly before takeoff, when the Enola Gay and Bockscar are loaded with bombs the crew has never seen. And the civilians of two Japanese cities that have been spared American attacks—preserved for the sake of judging the bomb’s power—escape their pulverized homes into a greater hellscape. Drawing from dozens of oral history archives and hundreds of books, reports, letters, and diaries, Graff masterfully blends the memories and perspectives from the known and unknown—key figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and President Truman; the crews of the B-29 bombers; and the haunting stories of the Hibakusha—the “bomb-affected people.” Both a testament to human ingenuity and resilience and a compelling drama told by the participants who lived it, this book is a singular, profound, and searing work about the inception of our most powerful weapon and its haunting legacy.

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Japan: A History - Lucas Peyton Thomas Cover Art

Japan: A History

Japan: A History by Lucas Peyton Thomas

Kyoto - founded in the year 794 and capital of Japan for fully half that nation's recorded history - sits firmly in the center of Lucas Peyton Thomas's compelling, vivid history of Japan. Here, in vibrant detail, are the stories of the rise and fall of Japan's aristocracy, of the days of the shoguns and samurai, of life in its palaces and moated castles, of a country that once sought to rule China but chose to isolate itself for more than 200 years. Mysterious Japan - a nation known to the West only after the travels of Marco Polo - is unveiled in this engaging book.

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The Gate of Heavenly Peace - Jonathan D. Spence Cover Art

The Gate of Heavenly Peace

The Gate of Heavenly Peace The Chinese and Their Revolution by Jonathan D. Spence

  “A milestone in Western studies of China.” (John K. Fairbank)   In this masterful, highly original approach to modern Chinese history, Jonathan D. Spence shows us the Chinese revolution through the eyes of its most articulate participants—the writers, historians, philosophers, and insurrectionists who shaped and were shaped by the turbulent events of the twentieth century. By skillfully combining literary materials with more conventional sources of political and social history, Spence provides an unparalleled look at China and her people and offers valuable insight into the continuing conflict between the implacable power of the state and the strivings of China's artists, writers, and thinkers.

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The Heike Story - Eiji Yoshikawa Cover Art

The Heike Story

The Heike Story by Eiji Yoshikawa

Kyoto in the twelfth century was a magnificent city, but crime, disorder, and lust were rampant. The people were abused by the nobility, while the armed Buddhist monks terrorized court and commoner alike. In despair, the Emperor called upon the Heike and Genji clans to quell civil disturbances. Although the clans succeeded, they quarreled over the spoils of war and plunged the country into a century of warfare. This novel describes the rise to power of Kiyomori of the Heike clan during this turbulent time. From a youth sunk in poverty, Kiyomori eventually rose to become the Emperor's Chief Councillor. Although he was a gentle, enlightened man, he left a trail of bloodshed and ruin in his wake. The strange twists of Kiyomori's fate are the core of this epic novel."The Heike Story" is a modern translation of a Japanese classic. Its exotic atmosphere, narrative power, pageantry, and poetry will enthrall English readers and provide an entertaining introduction to an important source of Japanese culture.

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Special Forces Combat Recon Manual - U.S. Special Forces Cover Art

Special Forces Combat Recon Manual

Special Forces Combat Recon Manual (includes original 1970 and 1995 updated versions) by U.S. Special Forces

Project Delta - The Origins of LRRP, Recondo in Vietnam This document collection includes the original 1970 Combat Recon Manual by Project Delta and the 7th Special Forces updated version from 1995, plus a third book on WW2 Jungle Fighting. This is the famous "Tips of the trade" training document outlining tactical doctrine /techniques for special patrolling teams that would search for the enemy and transportation units along the Ho Chi Minh trail. Project DELTA was the first of the four Special reconnaissance (SR) units with a Greek letter formed by the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) during the Vietnam War to collect operational intelligence in remote areas of South Vietnam. Project DELTA was established at Nha Trang in 1964 and consisted of six reconnaissance hunter-killer teams each composed of two United States Special Forces (USSF) and four Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces (LLDB) and later supported by the 91st Ranger battalion. It was designated Detachment B-52, 5th Special Forces Group. DELTA's mission included operational and strategic reconnaissance into long-held Viet Cong areas and the direction of air strikes on them. They were also to conduct bomb damage assessment, conduct small scale reconnaissance and hunter-killer operations, capture and interrogate VC / NVA, tap communications, bug compounds and offices, rescue downed aircrew and prisoners of war, emplace point minefields and other booby traps, conduct psychological operations, and perform counter intelligence operations. They were to focus on base areas and infiltration routes in the border areas.   During its storied history, Project DELTA captured or destroyed numerous major enemy installations and supply routes. It was awarded numerous honors including the Valorous Unit Award, RVN Cross of Gallantry, RVN Civil Actions Honor Medal (PC) and the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon. Project DELTA was deactivated in June of 1970. The successful Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) training program was originally established by Detachment B-52 of the 5th Special Forces Group (Project Delta). The Project Delta course was first established in May 1964 and would eventually evolve into the famous Vietnam RECONDO school. BONUS book: This ebook collection also contains a historical report on Jungle Warfare, written in 1942 just months into the Guadalcanal campaign during World War II. Via interviews with front lines Marines and Army soldiers it goes into great details of how the Japanese fought, weapons and tactical reports with specifics on what worked and what didn't. This no holds-barred feedback help U.S. military adapt and supply what our troops needed to succeed in the jungle of the Pacific war. Of note are comments from a one, Lt. Col. L.B. Puller, the legendary 'Chesty' Puller of Marine Corp fame to this very day. Keywords: jungle,reconnaissance,patrolling,infiltration,scouting,tactics,vietnam,warfare, recon, Guadalcanal

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The Story of China - Michael Wood Cover Art

The Story of China

The Story of China The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream by Michael Wood

A single-volume history of China, offering a look into the past of the global superpower and its significance today. Michael Wood has traveled the length and breadth of China, the world's oldest civilization and longest lasting state, to tell a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and deep humanity that stretches back thousands of years. The Story of China explores the Middle Kingdom in the light of the recent massive changes inside the country. Taking into account exciting archeological discoveries, the book begins with China's prehistory—the early dynasties, the origins of the Chinese state, and the roots of Chinese culture in the age of Confucius. Wood looks at particular periods and themes that are now being reevaluated by historians, such as the renaissance of the Song with its brilliant scientific discoveries. He paints a vibrant picture of the Qing Empire in the 18th century, just before the European impact, a time when China's rich and diverse culture was at its height. Then, Wood explores the encounter with the West, the Opium Wars, the clashes with the British, and the extraordinarily rich debates in the late 19th century that pushed China along the path to modernity. Finally, he provides a clear up-to-date account of post-1949 China, including revelations about the 1989 crisis based on leaked inside documents, and fresh insights into the new order of President Xi Jinping. All woven together with landscape history and the author's own travel journals, The Story of China is the indispensable book about the most intriguing and powerful country on the world stage today.

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Slim, Master of War - Robert Lyman Cover Art

Slim, Master of War

Slim, Master of War Burma, 1942-5 by Robert Lyman

How 'Uncle Bill' won the war in Burma Defeated and demoralised, British units in the Far East had virtually been ejected from Burma when, in 1943, General W. J. Slim organised, trained and then deployed his famous 'forgotten' 14th Army to devastating effect, defeating the Japanese twice and liberating Burma in the process. One of the most innovative soldiers of his generation, Slim's 'smart' style of soldiering was startling in its modernity - and with it he achieved something no one believed possible. An intelligent, compassionate commander, the unconventional Slim was also a heroic figure to the men he commanded - known affectionately to the ranks as 'Uncle Bill'. This biography tells the fascinating story of how he brought victory out of defeat; Lyman now gives him his rightful place, alongside Patton and Guderian, in the pantheon of eminent and unorthodox Second World War commanders.

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A History of Taiwan - Lin Chia-Hao Cover Art

A History of Taiwan

A History of Taiwan by Lin Chia-Hao

A History of Taiwan offers a sweeping narrative that takes readers from the island’s prehistoric roots as the ancestral homeland of the Austronesian peoples through successive waves of migration, colonization, and resistance that have forged its unique identity. You will explore how early indigenous societies developed distinct cultures, how the Dutch and Spanish established footholds in the 17th century, and how Koxinga’s Kingdom of Tungning briefly challenged both European and Qing authority before the island became a frontier province of the empire. The book details the turbulent Qing era marked by illegal Han migration, frontier conflicts, and rebellions such as the Zhu Yigui and Lin Shuangwen uprisings, revealing how a sense of local identity emerged amid oppression and hardship. It then follows the dramatic shift to Japanese colonial rule, illustrating the dual forces of brutal assimilation and remarkable modernization that built infrastructure, eradicated disease, and transformed Taiwan’s economy while sowing the seeds of nationalist thought. Moving into the 20th century, you will witness the trauma of the 228 Incident, the decades‑long White Terror, and the land‑reform policies that laid the foundation for the postwar economic miracle. The narrative covers the rise of export‑oriented industrialization, the creation of high‑tech hubs like Hsinchu Science Park, and the political awakening that culminated in the lifting of martial law, the first direct presidential election, and the peaceful transfer of power in 2000. Finally, the book brings the story to the present, examining Taiwan’s vibrant democracy, its complex cross‑strait relations, its pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain, and the social movements that have redefined identity, culture, and human rights on the island. By the end, readers will have a deep understanding of how geography, migration, colonialism, resistance, and modernization have intertwined to create the Taiwan of today—a resilient, prosperous, and democratic society navigating profound challenges in the Indo‑Pacific.

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Operation Vengeance - Dan Hampton Cover Art

Operation Vengeance

Operation Vengeance The Astonishing Aerial Ambush That Changed World War II by Dan Hampton

" Operation Vengeance  is colorful, intimate, eye-popping history, delivered at a breakneck pace. I loved it."  –Lynn Vincent The New York Times bestselling author of Viper Pilot delivers an electrifying narrative account of the top-secret U.S. mission to kill Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese commander who masterminded Pearl Harbor. In 1943, the United States military began to plan one of the most dramatic secret missions of World War II. Its code name was Operation Vengeance. Naval Intelligence had intercepted the itinerary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, whose stealth attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America’s entry into the war. Harvard-educated, Yamamoto was a close confidant of Emperor Hirohito and a brilliant tactician who epitomized Japanese military might. On April 18th, the U.S. discovered, he would travel to Rabaul in the South Pacific to visit Japanese troops, then fly to the Japanese airfield at Balalale, 400 miles to the southeast. Set into motion, the Americans’ plan was one of the most tactically difficult operations of the war. To avoid detection, U.S. pilots had to embark on a circuitous, 1,000-mile odyssey that would test not only their skills but the physical integrity of their planes. The timing was also crucial: the slightest miscalculation, even by a few minutes—or a delay on the famously punctual Yamamoto’s end—meant the entire plan would collapse, endangering American lives. But if these remarkable pilots succeeded, they could help turn the tide of the war—and greatly boost Allied morale.  Informed by deep archival research and his experience as a decorated combat pilot, Operation Vengeance focuses on the mission’s pilots and recreates the moment-by-moment drama they experienced in the air. Hampton recreates this epic event in thrilling detail, and provides groundbreaking evidence about what really happened that day. Operation Vengeance includes 30 black-and-white images.  This cockpit-level account of the top-secret Yamamoto mission reveals: The P-38 Lightning Pilots: The untold stories of the aviators, including Rex Barber and John Mitchell, who risked everything on a near-suicide mission deep in enemy territory. A High-Stakes Interception: A meticulous recreation of the intelligence breakthrough and daring flight plan for the 1,000-mile mission to find one man in the vast Pacific sky. The Architect of Pearl Harbor: A compelling profile of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the brilliant, Harvard-educated tactician who became America’s most wanted man. WW2 Aviation History: A thrilling narrative informed by the author’s experience as a decorated combat pilot, bringing minute-by-minute aerial combat to life.

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Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford Cover Art

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The startling true history of how one extraordinary man from a remote corner of the world created an empire that led the world into the modern age—by the author featured in Echoes of the Empire: Beyond Genghis Khan . The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. From the story of his rise through the tribal culture to the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed, this brilliant work of revisionist history is nothing less than the epic story of how the modern world was made.

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Shattered Lands - Sam Dalrymple Cover Art

Shattered Lands

Shattered Lands Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple

Longlisted for the 2026 Cundill History Prize A 2026 Orwell Prize Finalist for Political Writing A Financial Times, NPR, and BBC History Best Book of the Year A bold and sweeping history of modern South Asia, told through the five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swath of Asia stretching from the Red Sea to the borders of Thailand was bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the “Indian Empire” or, more simply, as the Raj. It was the British Empire’s crown jewel, home to a quarter of the world’s population. In the span of just fifty years, that empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving it into twelve modern nations, including not only India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, but also Burma, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. In vivid and compulsively readable prose, Sam Dalrymple presents, for the first time, the whole story of how the Indian Empire was unmade. It’s a story of maps being redrawn in boardrooms and on battlefields, bumbling politicians in London and idealist revolutionaries in Delhi, kings in remote palaces and ordinary citizens swept up in wars and mass migrations. It is a history of ambition and betrayal, of forgotten wars and unlikely alliances, of borders carved with ink and fire. And it has left behind a legacy of exile and division. It began in 1937, when Burma was carved out of India, to devastating result. The partition of the Arabian Peninsula started the same year with the separation of Aden and was completed in 1947 with the transfer of the Gulf States. Also in 1947 was the “Great Partition,” culminating in the largest forced migration in history and the creation of Pakistan, swiftly followed by the partition of Princely India. Finally, in 1971, the fledgling nation of Pakistan was itself torn apart, and Bangladesh was born. Based on deep archival research, previously untranslated sources, and hundreds of interviews in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Konyak, Arabic, and Burmese, Shattered Lands is an utterly gripping history that offers a new understanding of modern South Asia—one that brings to light the continuing legacy of empire.

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紅太陽是怎樣升起的 - 高華 Cover Art

紅太陽是怎樣升起的

紅太陽是怎樣升起的 延安整風運動的來龍去脈 by 高華

延安整風運動是深刻影響二十世紀中國歷史進程的重大事件,這是由毛澤東親自領導的中共黨內第一次大規模政治運動,也是建國後歷次政治運動的濫觴。毛澤東在延安整風中運用他所創造的思想改造和審幹、肅反兩種手段,全面清除了中共黨內存留的五四自由民主思想的影響,徹底轉換了中共的「俄化」氣質,重建了以毛澤東為絕對主宰的上層結構,奠定了黨的全盤毛澤東化的基礎,其間所產生的一系列概念、範式在1949年後改變了億萬中國人的生活和命運。本書作者歷時十餘年,搜尋考辨大量歷史資料,在此基礎上,從實證研究的角度,詳細剖析了延安整風的前因後果及運動所涉及的各個方面,力圖再現當年這場運動的歷史真貌,是目前海內外唯一一本全面研究延安整風運動的歷史著作。

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Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China - Evan Osnos Cover Art

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos

Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalist Winner of the National Book Award in nonfiction. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker , Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. Age of Ambition provides a vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation. From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy-or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. In Age of Ambition , Osnos describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail. An Economist Best Book of the Year. Winner of the bronze medal for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Book Award

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The Aquariums of Pyongyang - Chol-hwan Kang & Pierre Rigoulot Cover Art

The Aquariums of Pyongyang

The Aquariums of Pyongyang Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang & Pierre Rigoulot

"Destined to become a classic" (Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking ), this harrowing memoir of life inside North Korea was the first account to emerge from the notoriously secretive country -- and it remains one of the most terrifying. Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education." Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea. Sent to the notorious labor camp Yodok when he was nine years old, Kang observed frequent public executions and endured forced labor and near-starvation rations for ten years. In 1992, he escaped to South Korea, where he found God and now advocates for human rights in North Korea. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this book brings together unassailable firsthand experience, setting one young man's personal suffering in the wider context of modern history, giving eyewitness proof to the abuses perpetrated by the North Korean regime.

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明朝那些事儿(上) - 当年明月 Cover Art

明朝那些事儿(上)

明朝那些事儿(上) by 当年明月

我早就从一些年轻朋友的口中听说有一部《明朝那些事儿》,听说它在网上受到了广泛的欢迎。朋友们问我,你怎么看待这种写法呢?我说,历史是千百万人的历史,是大家的历史,每个人都有解读历史的权力。而且,从来每个人由于立场和学养的不同,所看到的历史都是不同的。我们既不能要求历史写作的手法千人一面,又不能要求对历史的结论定于一尊。如同我们听歌唱,无论是学院派的美声的、民族的,还是山野的原生态的,都有存在的价值。其根本在于歌唱者的态度是严肃的,所献出的是精品。换句话说,无论是学院派的美声的、民族的,还是山野的原生态的歌唱者,如果其态度是不严肃的,所献出的不是精品,也是得不到欢迎的。 作者当年明月说:自己的写法是“以史料为基础,以年代和具体人物为主线,并加入了小说的笔法和对人物的心理分析,以及对当时政治经济制度的一些评价”,并且说,其作品“不是小说,不是史书”,“姑且叫做《明札记》”。这的确是别开生面的,是一种创造。我热情地支持这种探索和创造!期待他把这三百年写完。 让我们以更为轻松的状态走进历史吧。 作者当年明月写轻松的历史,其实并不轻松;大家轻松地读历史,希望真的很轻松。

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Japan Runs Wild, 1942–1943 - Peter Harmsen Cover Art

Japan Runs Wild, 1942–1943

Japan Runs Wild, 1942–1943 by Peter Harmsen

The author of Storm Clouds Over the Pacific, 1931–1941 chronicles Japan's dramatic reversal of fortune as Allied forces gained advantage during WWII. In early 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were advancing on all fronts, humiliating Allied forces throughout the Pacific. In a matter of months, Japan had conquered an area larger than Hitler's empire at its apex. Hawaiians and Australians feared a future under Hirohito. The fate of half of mankind was hanging in the balance. But by the end of 1943, the tables had turned entirely. The American-led military machine had kicked into gear, and the Japanese were fighting a defensive battle along a frontline that crossed thousands of miles of land and sea. In Japan Runs Wild, 1942–1943 , historian Peter Harmsen details the astonishing transformation that took place in that period, setting the Allies on a path to ultimate victory over Japan. The second installment of Peter Harmsen's three-part history,  Japan Runs Wild, 1942–1943  continues his comprehensive chronicle of the Pacific Theater during the Second World War. Giving due emphasis to the Japanese-American struggle, Harmsen also sheds light on the other peoples involved, including the British, Australians, Soviets, Filipinos, Indians, and Koreans. Above all, the central importance of China is highlighted in a way that no previous general history of the war against Japan has achieved.

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