East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History

by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Anne Walthall, James B. Palais

Designed for the East Asian history course, these texts feature the latest scholarship on the region and offer a range of cultural, political, economic, and intellectual history. Coverage is balanced among East Asian regions, with approximately 20 percent of the complete volume focused on Korea, an area that has become increasingly important in East Asian courses and in world politics.Special attention is devoted to coverage of gender and material culture, themes that are reinforced through the text's pedagogical features. Color inserts illustrate the rich artistic heritage of East Asia and bolster the coverage of material culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Asia, Japan, China, Japanese History, Read For School

688 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Patricia Buckley Ebrey is an American historian specializing in cultural and gender issues during the Chinese Song Dynasty. Ebrey obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1968 and her Masters and PhD from Columbia University in 1970 and 1975, respectively. Upon receiving her PhD, Ebrey was hired as visiting assistant professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She became an associate professor in 1982 and a full professor three years later. She is now a professor at the University of Washington.

Ebrey has received a number of awards for her work, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Ebery's The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period received the 1995 Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. Her 2008 work, Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong, received the Smithsonian Institution's 2010 Shimada Prize for Outstanding Work of East Asian Art History.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid textbook, but a very dense read.

[Timothy Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The First few chapters were great on the pre-history and origins of the people of East Asia. The last few chapters were also great as they focused on 20th century asian history, not very frequently taught in high school history classes. In the post-war period as the Americans landed some troops in Korea, instead of denouncing those koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese they placed them in powerful positions in government. Contrast that with how they treated those Koreans who had fought tooth and nail against the Japanese for fifteen, twenty years and who happened to have sympathies with the Soviets and followed mostly communist ideology. They were only placed in positions of power in the North of the country. The South was ruled by an American controlled puppet dictator that committed terrible crimes against civilians but was bolstered by American aid and support. Now I understand a lot more about why we have a rogue state in North Korea. This has been in production for the past 70-90 years from when the Japanese first invaded. Things aren't as simple as our American politicians and media like to make them for us.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is for a class I'm taking through The National Consortium for Teaching About Asia. I feel like a student again! :)