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His book is a major achievement, describing both the grand narrative of Vietnam''s story but also the byways, curiosities, differences, cultures and peoples that have done so much over the centuries to define the many versions of Vietnam.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549202620798,"sku":"NW9780141047010","price":15.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141047010.jpg?v=1781524919"},{"product_id":"restless-empire","title":"Restless Empire","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOver the past 250 years of momentous change and dramatic upheaval, China has proved itself to be a Restless Empire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eTracing China’s course from the eighteenth-century Qing Dynasty to today''s People’s Republic, \u003ci\u003eRestless Empire \u003c\/i\u003eshows how the country’s worldview has evolved. It explains how Chinese attitudes have been determined by both receptiveness and resistance to outside influence and presents the preoccupations that have set its foreign-relations agenda.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithin two decades China is likely to depose the United States as the world’s largest economy. By then the country expects to have eradicated poverty among its population of more than one and a half billion, and established itself as the world’s technological powerhouse. Meanwhile, some – especially its neighbours – are afraid that China will strengthen its military might in order to bend others to its will.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA new form of Chinese nationalism is rising. Many Chinese are angry about perceived past injustices and fear a loss of identity to commercial forces and foreign influences. So, will China’s attraction to world society dwindle, or will China continue to engage? Will it attempt to recreate a Sino-centric international order in Eastern Asia, or pursue a more harmonious diplomatic route? And can it overcome its lack of democracy and transparency, or are these characteristics hard-wired into the Chinese system? Whatever the case, we ignore China’s international history at our peril.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRestless Empire is a magisterial and indispensible history of the most important state in world affairs today.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWINNER OF THE 2013 ASIA SOCIETY BERNARD SCHWARTZ BOOK AWARD\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549255541118,"sku":"NW9780099569596","price":12.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099569596.jpg?v=1783000872"},{"product_id":"aqa-transformation-china-1936-1997-a-as","title":"Aqa Transformation\/china 1936-1997 A\/as","description":"Approved by AQA and tailored to the latest specification, The Transformation of China 1936-1997 helps students understand the reasons for and the maintenance of communist rule in China, and the transformation of China into a modern state.It explores:- Maoism- mass mobilisation- economic control- ideological changeEvents and developments are covered with precision.Focus on skills building and exam practiceKey features are:- Source-Based Learning. Includes a wide range of sources and extracts to develop vital skills in historical interpretation and source analysis- Exam Practice. Features exam-style questions and study tips to help students prepare and performPerfect for any student studying AQA AS or A Level History, this book helps students achieve success in The Transformation of China 1936-1997.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549357482366,"sku":"NW9780198354567","price":39.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780198354567.jpg?v=1781527094"},{"product_id":"hunter-killers","title":"Hunter Killers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“A GRIPPING CLASSIC. Exhaustively researched, \u003cem\u003eThe Hunter Killers\u003c\/em\u003e puts you directly into a Wild Weasel fighter cockpit during the Vietnam War. Dan Hampton lets you feel it for yourself as no one else could.”--Colonel LEO THORSNESS, Wild Weasel pilot and Medal of Honor recipient\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the height of the Cold War, America''s most elite aviators bravely volunteered for a covert program aimed at eliminating an impossible new threat. Half never returned. All became legends. From \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling author Dan Hampton comes one of the most extraordinary untold stories of aviation history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVietnam, 1965: On July 24 a USAF F-4 Phantom jet was suddenly blown from the sky by a mysterious and lethal weapon—a Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM), launched by Russian \"advisors\" to North Vietnam. Three days later, six F-105 Thunderchiefs were brought down trying to avenge the Phantom. More tragic losses followed, establishing the enemy''s SAMs as the deadliest anti-aircraft threat in history and dramatically turning the tables of Cold War air superiority in favor of Soviet technology.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStunned and desperately searching for answers, the Pentagon ordered a top secret program called Wild Weasel I to counter the SAM problem—\u003cem\u003efast\u003c\/em\u003e. So it came to be that a small group of maverick fighter pilots and Electronic Warfare Officers volunteered to fly behind enemy lines and into the teeth of the threat. To most it seemed a suicide mission—but they beat the door down to join. Those who survived the 50 percent casualty rate would revolutionize warfare forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"You gotta be sh*#@ing me!\" This immortal phrase was uttered by Captain Jack Donovan when the Wild Weasel concept was first explained to him. \"You want me to fly in the back of a little tiny fighter aircraft with a crazy fighter pilot who thinks he''s invincible, home in on a SAM site in North Vietnam, and shoot it before it shoots me?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on unprecedented firsthand interviews with Wild Weasel veterans and previously unseen personal papers and declassified documents from both sides of the conflict, as well as Dan Hampton''s own experience as a highly decorated F-16 Wild Weasel pilot, \u003cem\u003eThe Hunter Killers\u003c\/em\u003e is a gripping, cockpit-level chronicle of the first-generation Weasels, the remarkable band of aviators who faced head-on the advanced Soviet missile technology that was decimating fellow American pilots over the skies of Vietnam.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549406175614,"sku":"NW9780062375124","price":9.72,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780062375124.jpg?v=1781527892"},{"product_id":"southeast-asia-1","title":"Southeast Asia","description":"Straddling the equator, Southeast Asia comprises Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines, as well as Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and East Timor. Despite its extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, religions, and political systems, Southeast Asia plays a key role in global economies and geopolitics, especially in light of its strategic position bordering China and India. This Very Short Introduction explores the contemporary character of Southeast Asia''s national societies through the lens of their historical evolution, from the eras of indigenous kingdoms and colonies under Western rule to the present''s independent nation states. Deftly combining historical analysis and geopolitical insights, the book paints a bird''s eye view of contemporary Southeast Asia as a community of diverse societies and traditions as well as a political theater-of-action nested between India and China and tangled in global economic traffic patterns, balance of powers, and environmental forces.As James R. Rush explains, archaic structures, such as religious and ethnic rivalries, tenacious feudal hierarchies, and age-old trade and migration patterns, remain rooted in today''s Southeast Asia beneath the surface of modern national governments. The book draws on a wide range of examples from the major nations, including the ethno-religious violence in Myanmar, the Muslim-led rebellion in the southern Philippines, the Thai-Cambodian territorial rivalries, the Confucian-inspired governance in Singapore, the military rule and democratization in Indonesia, the environmental consequences of agribusiness, mining, and unchecked urbanization, and the big-power alignments and tensions involving the United States, China, and Japan. By delving into the cultural, political, and geographical background of Southeast Asia, Rush shows that Southeast Asia is unquestionably modern, but it is modern in distinctively Southeast Asian ways.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549455196542,"sku":"NW9780190248765","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780190248765.jpg?v=1781528526"},{"product_id":"modern-india","title":"Modern India","description":"India is widely recognised as a new global powerhouse. It has become one of the world''s emerging powers, rivalling China in terms of global influence. Yet people still know relatively little about the economic, social, political, and cultural changes unfolding in India today. To what extent are people benefiting from the economic boom? Does caste still exist in India? How is India''s culture industry responding to technological change? And what of India''s rapidly changing role internationally?This Very Short Introduction looks at the exciting world of change in contemporary India. Craig Jeffrey provides a compelling account of the recent history of the nation, investigating the contradictions that are plaguing modern India and the manner in which people, especially young people, are actively remaking the country in the twenty first century. One thing is clear: India is a country that is going to become increasingly important for the world over the next decades.  ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549489668478,"sku":"NW9780198769347","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780198769347.jpg?v=1781529214"},{"product_id":"souls-of-china","title":"Souls Of China","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Masterfully opens up a little explored realm: how the quest for religion and spirituality drives hundreds of millions of Chinese'' Pankaj Mishra\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A fascinating odyssey ... a nuanced group portrait of Chinese citizens striving for non-material answers in an era of frenetic materialism'' Julia Lovell, \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''\u003cb\u003eThe reappearance and flourishing of religion is perhaps the most surprising aspect of the dramatic changes in China in recent decades...t\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ehis is a beautiful, moving and insightful book''  Michael Szonyi\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn no society on Earth was there such a ferocious attempt to eradicate all trace of religion as in modern China. But now, following a century of violent antireligious campaigns, China is awash with new temples, churches, and mosques - as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty - over what it means to be Chinese, and how to live an ethical life in a country that discarded traditional morality and is still searching for new guideposts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Souls of China\u003c\/i\u003e is the result of some fifteen years of studying and travelling around China. The message of Ian Johnson''s extraordinary book is that China is now experiencing a ''Great Awakening'' on a vast scale. Everywhere long-suppressed religions are rebuilding, often in new forms, and reshaping the values and behaviours of entire communities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIan Johnson is as happy explaining the wonders of the lunar calendar as talking to the \u003ci\u003eyinyang\u003c\/i\u003e man who ensures proper burials. He visits meditation masters and the charismatic head of a Chengdu church. The result is a rich and funny work that challenges conventional wisdom about China. Xi Jinping, China''s current leader, has put a return to morality and Chinese tradition at the heart of his ideas for his country - but, Johnson asks, at what point will the rapid spread of belief form an unmanageable challenge to the Party''s monopoly on power?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549514244478,"sku":"NW9780141986081","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141986081.jpg?v=1781529606"},{"product_id":"asias-reckoning","title":"Asias Reckoning","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Stunningly good'' Michael Burleigh, \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year 2017 \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of 2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A shrewd and knowing book.'' Robert D. Kaplan, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A compelling and impressive read.'' \u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Skillfully crafted and well-argued.'' Jeffrey Wasserstrom, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e''An excellent modern history. . . . provides the context needed to make sense of the region''s present and future.'' Joyce Lau, \u003ci\u003eSouth China Morning Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe dramatic story of the relationship between the world''s three largest economies, one that is shaping the future of us all, by one of the foremost experts on east Asia\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than half a century, American power in the Pacific has successfully kept the peace. But it has also cemented the tensions in the toxic rivalry between China and Japan, consumed with endless history wars and entrenched political dynasties. Now, the combination of these forces with Donald Trump''s unpredictable impulses and disdain for America''s old alliances threatens to upend the region, and accelerate the unravelling of the postwar order. If the United States helped lay the postwar foundations for modern Asia, now the anchor of the global economy, \u003ci\u003eAsia''s Reckoning\u003c\/i\u003e will reveal how that structure is now crumbling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith unrivalled access to archives in the US and Asia, as well as many of the major players in all three countries, Richard McGregor has written a tale which blends the tectonic shifts in diplomacy with the domestic political trends and personalities driving them. It is a story not only of an overstretched America, but also of the rise and fall and rise of the great powers of Asia. The confrontational course on which China and Japan have increasingly set themselves is no simple spat between neighbors. And the fallout would be a political and economic tsunami, affecting manufacturing centers, trade routes, and political capitals on every continent.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549531152766,"sku":"NW9780141982854","price":10.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141982854.jpg?v=1781530034"},{"product_id":"vietnam-1","title":"Vietnam","description":"THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER‘His masterpiece’ Antony Beevor, Spectator‘A masterful performance’ Sunday Times‘By far the best book on the Vietnam War’ Gerald Degroot, The Times, Book of the YearVietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and less familiar battles such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed 2 million people.Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom forty died for every American. US blunders and atrocities were matched by those committed by their enemies. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners’ victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, Marines from North Carolina, Huey pilots from Arkansas.No past volume has blended a political and military narrative of the entire conflict with heart-stopping personal experiences, in the fashion that Max Hastings’ readers know so well. The author suggests that neither side deserved to win this struggle with so many lessons for the 21st century about the misuse of military might to confront intractable political and cultural challenges. He marshals testimony from warlords and peasants, statesmen and soldiers, to create an extraordinary record.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549626212734,"sku":"NW9780008133016","price":11.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780008133016.jpg?v=1781530172"},{"product_id":"penguin-history-of-modern-china","title":"Penguin History Of Modern China","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1850, China was the ''sick man of Asia''. Now it is set to become the most powerful nation on earth. The Penguin History of Modern China shows how turbulent that journey has been. For 150 years China has endured as victim of oppression, war and famine. This makes its current position as arguably the most important global superpower all the more extraordinary. Jonathan Fenby''s comprehensive account is the definitive guide to this remarkable transformation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''His book is a miracle of thoroughness, truthfulness and readability - the perfect primer for a time when China is about to enter all our lives'' \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Jonathan Fenby''s ... illuminating book [is] the first major history that looks at the country with the eyes of the 21st century rather than the 20th'' Rana Mitter, \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Reads like a novel and is never less than thoughtful and compassionate for the fate of a much-abused people ... [Fenby has] a journalist''s eye for telling detail'' \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eHerald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Taut, anecdote-studded ... a great introduction for a general audience, with vivid scene setting and character sketches'' Michel Sheridan,\u003ci style=\"\"\u003e Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''For an accessible, authoritative, fair and comprehensive and well written account, this would be hard to better'' \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eBBC History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A wonderful history of modern China and a cracking good read'' Chris Patten\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJonathan Fenby\u003c\/b\u003e, CBE, has been the editor of the Observer and the South China Morning Post. His books include \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eGeneralissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eDealing with the Dragon: A Year in the New Hong Kong\u003c\/i\u003e. 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The largely ceremonial summit between US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and the unpredictability of both parties, has not quelled these concerns and leaves more questions than answers for the two sides'' negotiators to work out. The Korean Peninsula''s security situation is an intractable conflict, raising the question, \"How did we get here?\"In this book, former North Korea lead foreign service officer at the US embassy in Seoul Patrick McEachern unpacks the contentious and tangled relationship between the Koreas in an approachable question-and-answer format. While North Korea is famous for its militarism and nuclear program, South Korea is best known for its economic miracle, familiar to consumers as the producer of Samsung smartphones, Hyundai cars, and even K-pop music and K-beauty. Why have the two Koreas developed politically and economically in such radically different ways? What are the origins of a divided Korean Peninsula? Who rules the two Koreas? How have three generations of the authoritarian Kim dictatorship shaped North Korea? What is the history of North-South relations? Why does the North Korean government develop nuclear weapons? How do powers such as Japan, China, and Russia fit into the mix? What is it like to live in North and South Korea? This book tackles these broad topics and many more to explain what everyone needs to know about South and North Korea.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549677298046,"sku":"NW9780190937980","price":10.22,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780190937980.jpg?v=1781531052"},{"product_id":"japan-story","title":"Japan Story","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis is a fresh and surprising account of Japan''s culture from the ''opening up'' of the country in the mid-nineteenth century to the present.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''How much I admired it, what a lot I learned from it and, above all, how very much I enjoyed it ... M\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003easterly.'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eNeil MacGregor\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is told through the eyes of people who greeted this change not with the confidence and grasping ambition of Japan''s modernizers and nationalists, but with resistance, conflict, distress. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe encounter writers of dramas, ghost stories and crime novels where modernity itself is the tragedy, the ghoul and the bad guy; surrealist and avant-garde artists sketching their escape; rebel kamikaze pilots and the put-upon urban poor; hypnotists and gangsters; men in desperate search of the eternal feminine and feminists in search of something more than state-sanctioned subservience; Buddhists without morals; Marxist terror groups; couches full to bursting with the psychological fall-out of breakneck modernization. These people all sprang from the soil of modern Japan, but their personalities and projects failed to fit. They were ''dark blossoms'': both East-West hybrids and home-grown varieties that wreathed, probed and sometimes penetrated the new structures of mainstream Japan.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549701382526,"sku":"NW9780141985374","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141985374.jpg?v=1781531472"},{"product_id":"unruly-waters","title":"Unruly Waters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''An enthralling, elegantly written and, ultimately, profoundly alarming history'' \u003ci\u003eEconomist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eA bold new perspective on the history of South Asia, telling its story through its climate, and the long quest to tame its waters\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eSouth Asia''s history has been shaped by its waters. In \u003ci\u003eUnruly Waters\u003c\/i\u003e,  historian Sunil Amrith reimagines this history through the stories of  its rains, rivers, coasts, rivers and seas - and of the weather-watchers  and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them.  He shows how fears and dreams of water have, throughout South Asia,  shaped visions of political independence and economic development,  provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed  powerful tensions within and between nations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery year humans  have watched with overwhelming anxiety for the nature of that year''s  monsoon to be revealed, with entire populations living or dying on the  outcome. From the first small weather-reporting stations to today''s  satellites, the modern battle both to understand and manage water has  literally been a matter of life or death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday, Asian nations  are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire  environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities  threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change,  this highly original work of history is essential reading for anyone  seeking to understand not only Asia''s past but its future.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549713408382,"sku":"NW9780141982632","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141982632.jpg?v=1781531634"},{"product_id":"bending-adversity","title":"Bending Adversity","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe second edition of the definitive book on how modern Japan works, now fully updated up to include the new ''Reiwa'' Era and the year of the Olympics\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A superb book that, better than any  other I have read, manages to get  the reader inside the skin of  Japanese society ... astutely observed ...  a great read brimming with  insights''  \u003ci\u003eJapan Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite years of stagnation, Japan remains one of the world''s largest economies and a country which exerts a remarkable cultural fascination. David Pilling''s new book is an entertaining, deeply knowledgeable and surprising analysis of a group of islands which have shown great resilience, both in the face of financial distress and when confronted with the overwhelming disaster of the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBending Adversity\u003c\/i\u003e is a superb work of reportage and the essential book even for those who already feel they know the country well.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549713965438,"sku":"NW9780141990538","price":12.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141990538.jpg?v=1781531640"},{"product_id":"modern-japan","title":"Modern Japan","description":"Japan is arguably today''s most successful industrial economy, combining almost unprecedented affluence with social stability and apparent harmony. Japanese goods and cultural products are consumed all over the world, ranging from animated movies and computer games all the way through to cars, semiconductors, and management techniques. In many ways, Japan is an icon of the modern world, and yet it remains something of an enigma to many, who see it as a confusing montage of the alien and the familiar, the ancient and modern. The aim of this Very Short Introduction is to explode the myths and explore the reality of modern Japan - by taking a concise look at its history, economy, politics, and culture. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549731856766,"sku":"NW9780199235698","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780199235698.jpg?v=1781531993"}],"url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/en-eu\/collections\/asian-history-books.oembed","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}