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

The second edition of Charles Holcombe's acclaimed introduction to East Asian history from the dawn of history to the twenty-first century.

Charles Holcombe (Author)

9781107544895, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 January 2017

492 pages, 56 b/w illus. 22 maps
25.4 x 17.8 x 2.2 cm, 1.03 kg

Review of first edition: 'Treading a line between the emerging field of transnational history and a more traditional regional history, Holcombe has written a valuable and impressive guide to the histories of East Asia. The historical and regional scope, reaching from the ancient past to the ultra-modern present, is unprecedented in a volume of this size. Students of East Asia and of international history will find this book essential reading.' Chris Goto-Jones, University of Victoria, British Columia

Charles Holcombe begins by asking the question 'what is East Asia?' In the modern age, many of the features that made the region - now defined as including China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam - distinct have been submerged by the effects of revolution, politics or globalization. Yet, as an ancient civilization, the region had both an historical and cultural coherence. This shared past is at the heart of this ambitious book, which traces the story of East Asia from the dawn of history to the twenty-first century. The second edition has been imaginatively revised and expanded to place emphasis on cross-cultural interactions and connections, both within East Asia and beyond, with new material on Vietnam and modern pop culture. The second edition also features a Chinese character list, additional maps and new illustrations.

List of illustrations
List of maps
Pronunciation guide
Timeline
Glossary
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 century)
8. The nineteenth-century encounter of civilizations
9. The age of Westernization (1900–29)
10. The Dark Valley (1930–45)
11. Japan since 1945
12. Korea since 1945
13. Vietnam since 1945
14. China since 1945
Afterword
Character list
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: History: earliest times to present day [HBL], Asian history [HBJF], General & world history [HBG]