Intertwining the history of art, literature, food, music and religion, Baldoli explores Italy's history from the Middle Ages to the present. The book... offers an insight into continuities across past and present day Italian culture, politics, and identity, drawing on a range of recent historiography and contemporary sources. 

"All students of Japanese history will welcome the completion of this history... These volumes, with the author's earlier works, provide the standard... and point of departure for future work in Japanese history." -- The American Historical Review "Written in the elegant and lucid prose that has become for a generation of students the hallmark of Sir George's writing, all three volumes are indispensable for students of Japan." -- The Annals "Marks a milestone in the history of Western scholarship on Japan."
-- The Journal of Asian Studies

This is an updated edition of Conrad Totman’s authoritative history of Japan from c.8000 BC to the present day. The first edition was widely praised... for combining sophistication and accessibility. Covers a wide range of subjects, including geology, climate, agriculture, government and politics, culture, literature, media, foreign relations, imperialism, and industrialism. Updated to include an epilogue on Japan today and tomorrow. Now includes more on women in history and more on international relations. Bibliographical listings have been updated and enlarged.

A new simplified edition translated by Don Sanderson. The original three-volume work, first published in 1979, has been revised specially as a single... volume paperback which concentrates on the development of Japanese literature.

Seventeen distinguished experts on Japanese religion provide a fascinating overview of its history and development. Beginning with the origins of... religion in primitive Japanese society, they chart the growth of each of Japan's major religious organizations and doctrinal systems. They follow Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity, and popular religious belief through major periods of change to show how history and religion affected each-and discuss the interactions between the different religious traditions.

In a rare combination of comprehensive coverage and sustained critical focus, this book examines Japanese history in its entirety to identify the... factors underlying the nation's progression to superpower status. Japan's achievement is explained not merely in economic terms, but at a more fundamental level, as a product of historical patterns of response to circumstance. Japan is shown to be a nation historically impelled by a pragmatic determination to succeed. The book also highlights unresolved questions and little-known facts.

Japan's impact on the modern world has been enormous. It occupies just one 300th of the planet's land area, yet came to wield one sixth of the world's... economic power. Just 150 years ago it was an obscure land of paddy fields and feudal despots. Within 50 years it became a major imperial power – it's so-called 'First Miracle'. After defeat in the Second World War, when Japan came close to annihilation, within 25 years it recovered remarkably to become the world's third biggest economy – it's 'Second Miracle'. It is now not only an economic superpower, but also a technological and cultural superpower. True miracles have no explanation: Japan's 'miracles' do. The nation's success lies in deeply ingrained historical values, such as a pragmatic determination to succeed. The world can learn much from Japan, and its story is told in these pages. Covering the full sweep of Japanese history, from ancient to contemporary, this book explores Japan's enormous impact on the modern world, and how vital it is to examine the past and culture of the country in order to full understand its achievements and responses. Now in its third edition, this book is usefully updated and revised.

A fascinating look at Japan from its early pre-history through the post-cold War period to the collapse of the Bubble Economy in the early 1990's. ... Recent findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture. Also included here is an in-depth analysis of the religion, arts and culture of the Japanese people form the 6th century B.C.E. to the present. This contemporary classic, now updated and revised, continues to be an essential text in Japanese studies.

"Superb... This work will be the standard history of Japn for all serious students."
--The American Historical Review "Not likely to be superseded...... An impressive achievement." -- The Times Literary Supplement (London) "A brilliant synthesis... The culmination of the life work of he most distinguished historian writing on Japan, it is not likely to be equalled in our generation." -- The Canadian Historical Review

A History of Keyboard Literature: Music for the Piano and Its Forerunners presents a comprehensive and easily accessible history of literature for all... stringed keyboard instruments.

A one-voume reference to the history of ideas that is a compendium of everything that humankind has thought, invented, created, considered, and... perfected from the beginning of civilization into the twenty-first century. Massive in its scope, and yet totally accessible, A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE covers not only all the great theories and discoveries of the human race, but also explores the social conditions, political climates, and individual men and women of genius that brought ideas to fruition throughout history."Crystal clear and concise...Explains how humankind got to know what it knows."Clifton FadimanSelected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the History Book Club

In this comprehensive yet compact book, Michael J. Seth surveys Korean history from Neolithic times to the present. He explores the origins and... development of Korean society, politics, and its still little-known cultural heritage from their inception to the two Korean states of today. Telling the remarkable story of the origins and evolution of a society that borrowed and adopted from abroad, Seth describes how various tribal peoples in the peninsula came together to form one of the world's most distinctive communities. He shows how this ancient, culturally and ethnically homogeneous society was wrenched into the world of late-nineteenth-century imperialism, fell victim to Japanese expansionism, and then became arbitrarily divided into two opposed halves, North and South, after World War II. Tracing the past seven decades, the book explains how the two Koreas, with their deeply different political and social systems and geopolitical orientations, evolved into sharply contrasting societies. South Korea, after an unpromising start, became one of the few postcolonial developing states to enter the ranks of the first world, with a globally competitive economy, a democratic political system, and a cosmopolitan and dynamic culture. North Korea, by contrast, became one of the world's most totalitarian and isolated societies, a nuclear power with an impoverished and famine-stricken population. Seth describes and analyzes the radically different and historically unprecedented trajectories of the two Koreas, formerly one tight-knit society. Throughout, he adds a rich dimension by placing Korean history into broader global perspective and by including primary readings from each era. All readers looking for a balanced, knowledgeable history will be richly rewarded with this clear and concise book.

This comprehensive narrative history of Korean literature provides essential information for scholars and students as well as others. Combining history... and criticism, the study reflects the latest scholarship and includes an account of the development of all genres. In 25 chapters, it covers twentieth-century poetry, fiction by women, and the literature of North Korea. It will be a major contribution to the field and a study that will remain for many years the primary resource for studying Korean literature.

A concise, lively history of Korea, which explores the richness of Korean civilization from the ancient era through to the jarring transformation... that resulted in two distinctive trajectories through the modern world. Chapters flow both chronologically and thematically, covering themes such as identity, gender and family.