A History of East Asia
From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century

A concise and comprehensive introduction to China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam from the dawn of history to the present day.

Charles Holcombe (Author)

9781009504782, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 June 2025

529 pages
25.9 x 18.3 x 2.8 cm, 1.28 kg

'This is a very comprehensive textbook, engagingly written and a thoroughly enjoyable read on its own.' Michael Plouffe, University College London

The third edition of this ambitious book begins by asking: What is East Asia? Today, many of the features that made the region distinct have been submerged under revolution, politics, or globalization. Yet in ancient times, what we now think of as China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam had both historical and cultural coherence. Thoroughly revised and updated to include recent developments in East Asian politics, with new illustrations and suggestions for further reading, this book traces the story of East Asia from the dawn of history to the modern age. New discussion questions at the end of each chapter encourage readers to reflect, while a glossary, pronunciation guide, and parallel timeline enable a closer engagement with this complex subject. Charles Holcombe is an experienced and sure-footed guide who encapsulates, in a fast-moving and colorful narrative, the connections, commonalities, and differences of one of the most remarkable regions on earth.

List of illustrations
List of maps
Pronunciation guide
Timeline
Glossary
Preface to the third edition
Introduction: what is East Asia?
1. The origins of civilization in East Asia
2. The formative era
3. The age of cosmopolitanism
4. The creation of a community: China, Korea, and Japan (seventh-tenth centuries)
5. Mature independent trajectories (tenth-sixteenth centuries)
6. Early modern East Asia (sixteenth-eighteenth centuries)
7. Dai Viet (Vietnam before the nineteenth centuries)
8. The nineteenth-century encounter of civilizations
9. The age of Westernization (1900–1929)
10: The dark valley (1930–1945)
11. Cold War East Asia
12. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Overseas Chinese
13. Globalization, and the resurgence of East Asia
Character list
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]