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A Brief History of China by Jonathan Clements
Category: History
A comprehensive, yet entertaining look at China's history through a modern lens. For millennia, China was the largest and richest nation on earth. Two centuries ago, however, its economy sank into a depression from which it had not fully recovered--until now. China's modern resurgence as the world' ...Show more
A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun by Jonathan Clements
Category: History | Series: Brief History of Asia Ser.
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. Stretching for nearly 2000 miles and encompassing almost ...Show more
A Brief History of Khublai Khan by Jonathan Clements
Category: History | Series: A Brief History of
His grandfather was the bloodthirsty Mongol leader Genghis Khan, his mother a Christian princess. Groomed from childhood for a position of authority, Khubilai snatched the position of Great Khan, becoming the overlord of a Mongol federation that stretched from the Balkans to the Korean coastline. His ar ...Show more
A Brief History of the Martial Arts: East Asian Fighting Styles, from Kung Fu to Ninjutsu by Jonathan Clements
Category: Sports and Hobbies | Series: Brief Histories
Folk tales of the Shaolin Temple depict warrior monks with superhuman abilities. Today, dozens of East Asian fighting styles trace their roots back to the Buddhist brawlers of Shaolin, although any quest for the true story soon wanders into a labyrinth of forgeries, secret texts and modern retellings. T ...Show more
A Brief History of the Samurai by Jonathan Clements
Category: Popular History | Series: Brief History of
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 ...Show more
A History of the Silk Road by Jonathan Clements
Category: History
The Silk Road is not a place, but a journey, a route from the edges of the Mediterranean to the central plains of China, through high mountains and inhospitable deserts. For thousands of years its history has been a traveler's history, of brief encounters in desert towns, snowbound passes and nameless f ...Show more
A Short History of Beijing by Jonathan Clements
Category: History
A guide to the history of China's capital, from before its rise to prominence as the seat of empires to the 2022 Winter Olympics. Before China's capital became a sprawling megacity and international center of business and culture, its fortunes fluctuated under a dozen dynasties. It has been a capital ...Show more
An Armchair Traveller's History of Finland by Jonathan Clements
Category: Travel
In the American mind, Finland is often swept up in the general group of Nordic countries, little known and seldom gaining prominence on its own. But as Jonathan Clements shows in An Armchair Traveller's History of Finland, it has a long and fascinating history, one that offers oddities and excitements g ...Show more
An Armchair Traveller's History of the Silk Road by Jonathan Clements
Category: Travel
The Silk Road is not a place, but a journey - a route from the edges of the Mediterranean to the central plains of China, through high mountains and inhospitable deserts. For thousands of years its history has been a traveller's history, of brief encounters in desert towns, snowbound passes and nameless ...Show more
Anime - A History by Jonathan Clements
Category: Cinema & TV
Japanese animation is at the nexus of an international multimedia industry worth over $23.6 billion a year, linked to everything from manga to computer games, Pokémon and plushies. In this comprehensive guide, Jonathan Clements chronicles the production and reception history of the entire medium, from a ...Show more
Anime: A History by Jonathan Clements
Category: Film
Japanese animation is at the nexus of an international multimedia industry worth over $6.5 billion a year, linked to everything from manga to computer games, Pokemon and plushies. In this comprehensive guide, Jonathan Clements chronicles the production and reception history of the entire medium, from a ...Show more