Bubonic Plague in Nineteenth-Century China

Bubonic Plague in Nineteenth-Century China PDF

Author: Carol Ann Benedict

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780804726610

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book, the first work in English on the history of disease in China, traces an epidemic of bubonic plague that began in Yunnan province in the late eighteenth century, spread throughout much of southern China in the nineteenth century, and eventually exploded on the world scene as a global pandemic at the end of the century. The author finds the origins of the pandemic in Qing economic expansion, which brought new populations into contact with plague-bearing animals along China’s southwestern frontier. She shows how the geographic diffusion of the disease closely followed the growth of interregional trading networks, particularly the domestic trade in opium, during the nineteenth century. A discussion of foreign interventions during plague outbreaks along China’s southern coast links the history of plague to the political impact of imperialism on China, and to the ways in which European cultural representations of the Chinese influenced the theory and practice of colonial medicine.

Triad Societies: Selected writings

Triad Societies: Selected writings PDF

Author: Kingsley Bolton

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 9780415243933

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This set comprises a comprehensive selection of colonial Western scholarly texts on Chinese secret societies from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. It includes a selection of important papers on Chinese secret societies by a variety of scholars, missionaries, and colonial officials.

New Terrains in Southeast Asian History

New Terrains in Southeast Asian History PDF

Author: Abu Talib Ahmad

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 0896802280

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Annotation Southeast Asian scholars may have special insights into their respective countries, but they are just as easily infected by political and didactic functions of their national histories as any historian. The editors (a professor and former professor with the School of Humanities, U. Sains Malaysia) present 15 papers in which Southeast Asian scholars turn a critical eye on their national historiographies. Five of the papers explore broad methodological issues, while others examine particular historiographic traditions from Burma (Myanmar), Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The final group consists of case studies of the application of new methodologies and understandings to particular historical events or periods. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

The Chinese in America

The Chinese in America PDF

Author: Susie Lan Cassel

Publisher: Rowman Altamira

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 9780759100015

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This new collection of essays demonstrates how a politics of polarity have defined the 150-year experience of Chinese immigration in America. Chinese-Americans have been courted as 'model workers' by American business, but also continue to be perceived as perpetual foreigners. The contributors offer engrossing accounts of the lives of immigrants, their tenacity, their diverse lifeways, from the arrival of the first Chinese gold miners in 1849 into the present day. The 21st century begins as a uniquely 'Pacific Century' in the Americas, with an increasingly large presence of Asians in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The book will be a valuable resource on the Asian immigrant experience for researchers and students in Chinese American studies, Asian American history, immigration studies, and American history.

Mafia Brotherhoods

Mafia Brotherhoods PDF

Author: Letizia Paoli

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-06-01

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0199705097

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Relying on previously undisclosed confessions of former mafia members now cooperating with the police, Letizia Paoli provides a clinically accurate portrait of mafia behavior, motivations, and structure in Italy. The mafia, Paoli demonstrates, are essentially multifunctional ritual brotherhoods focused above all on retaining and consolidating their local political power base. A truly interdisciplinary work of history, politics, economics, and sociology, Mafia Brotherhoods reveals in dramatic detail the true face of one of the world's most mythologized criminal organizations.

The Historical Evolution of World-Systems

The Historical Evolution of World-Systems PDF

Author: C. Chase-Dunn

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2005-02-18

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1403980527

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The rise and decline of great powers remains a fascinating topic of vigorous debate. This book brings together leading scholars to explore the historical evolution of world systems through examining the ebb and flow of great powers over time, with particular emphasis on early time periods. The book advances understanding of the regularities in the dynamics of empire and the expansion of political, social and economic interaction networks, from the Bronze Age forward. The authors analyze the expansion and contraction of cross-cultural trade networks and systems of competing and allying political groupings. In premodern times, theses ranged from small local trading networks (even the very small ones of hunting-gathering peoples) to the vast Mongol world-system. Within such systems, there is usually one, or a very few, hegemonic powers. How they achieve dominance and how transitions lead to systems change are important topics, particularly at a time when the United States' position is in flux. The chapters in this book review several recent approaches and present a wealth of new findings.

Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven

Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven PDF

Author: David M. Robinson

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9780824823917

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

To understand how this extraordinary meeting came about requires a consideration of the economy of violence during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Here, for the first time in any language, is a detailed look at the role of illicit violence during the Ming.".