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The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China
Julia Lovell · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Chinese Opium Question in British Opinion and Action
Wenzao Wu · 196 pages
The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900
Diana Preston · 436 pages
"The Boxer Rebellion is a panoramic chronicle of the uprising and ensuing two-month siege of the eleven foreign ministries in Peking (now Beijing), and of the foreign community in Tientsin (now Tianjin), during the summer of 1900 - the repercussions of which have echoed throughout the intervening century. It left tens of thousands of Chinese dead, precipitated the end of dynastic rule in China, an
1421: The Year China Discovered America
Gavin Menzies · 649 pages
This volume presents the author's assertion that the fleets of Chinese Admiral Zheng visited the Americas prior to European explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, and that this same Chinese fleet circumnavigated the globe a century before the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. The author presents a series of vignettes describing his travels around the globe, examining what he claims is evidence for
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
Stephen R. Platt · 385 pages
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Victoria Finlay · 448 pages
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Nathaniel Philbrick · 461 pages
From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as author Philbrick reveals, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic. The Mayflower's religious refugees arrived in Plymouth Harbor during a period
The Witches: Salem, 1692
Stacy Schiff · 512 pages
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an 80-year-old man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involv
Civilization: The West and the Rest
Niall Ferguson · 402 pages
What was it about the civilization of Western Europe that allowed it to trump the outwardly superior empires of the Orient? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, was that the West developed six "killer applications"?that the Rest lacked: competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic. The key question today is whether or not the West has lost its monopoly on these six thing
The Discovery of India
Jawaharlal Nehru · 582 pages
Walk into the world of India and its civilization as seen by Pandit jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of Independent India
The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America
John Putnam Demos · 336 pages
Koh-I-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond
William Dalrymple, Anita Anand · 335 pages
"The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, arguably the most celebrated jewel in the world....Using original eyewitness accounts and chronicles never before translated into English, Dalrymple and Anand trace the true history of the diamond and disperse the myths and fantastic tales that have long surrounded this awe-inspiring jewel. The resulting history of south
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
Russell Shorto · 416 pages
In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.In the late 1960s, an archivist in the New York State Library made an astounding discovery: 12,000 pages of centuries-old correspondence, court cases, legal contracts, and reports from a forgotte
The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation, and World History, 1500–2000
John Tutino · 512 pages
Unfamiliar Fishes
Sarah Vowell · 256 pages
From the bestselling author of *The Wordy Shipmates*, comes an examination of Hawaii, the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn. Many think of 1776 as the defining year of American history, when we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self-government. In *Unfamiliar Fishes*, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as defining, when, in an orgy of imperial
The Conquest of New Spain
Bernal Diaz del Castillo · 412 pages
Men of iron mounted on strange beasts out to conquer an Empire There can be few more substantial and all embracing accounts of the Conquistadors than that of Bernal Diaz del Castillo. Whilst all first-hand accounts are invaluable it is unusual to find them as comprehensive as that of Bernal Diaz particularly from the 16th century. His work is so expansive it fills two substantial volumes in this s
Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Daniel K. Richter · 336 pages
"In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers." "Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus, Native people controlled most of eastern North America and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Da
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Charles C. Mann · 631 pages
From the author of 1491 -- the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas -- a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher C
The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence
Martin Meredith · 752 pages
Presents a narrative of the last fifty years of African history, analyzing the factors which account for the political chaos, financial troubles, and civil wars which prevail in many African countries today.
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
Colin Woodard · 371 pages
The author describes eleven rival regional "nations" in the United States (Yankeedom, New Netherland, the Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, the Deep South, New France, El Norte, the Left Coast, the Far West, and First Nation), and how these deep roots continue to influence our politics today.
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
Peter Hopkirk · 570 pages
An account of the encounter last century between the British in India and Tsarist Russia in Central Asia which became known as the "Great Game". When the encounter began the frontiers of Russia and British India lay some 2000 apart. By the end, the gap had shrunk in places to 20 miles.
1808: The Flight of the Emperor: How a Weak Prince, a Mad Queen, and the British Navy Tricked Napoleon and Changed the New World
Laurentino Gomes · 321 pages
Incapable of fending off Napoleon, Portugal's Prince Regent Joao ruling since 1799 in the stead of his demented mother bluffed France with promises of surrender while signing a secret agreement with Britain to secure safe passage to Brazil for Joao and his entire court, comprising up to 15,000 people. On November 29, 1807, the fleet set sail from Lisbon, leaving Portugal at the mercy of Napoleon.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
C.L.R. James · 426 pages
En 1789, les deux tiers du commerce extérieur de la France se faisaient avec sa colonie antillaise de Saint-Domingue, laquelle représentait le plus grand marché de la traite européenne des esclaves. La plus grosse colonie du monde, fierté de la France et objet de convoitise de toutes les autres nations impérialistes, faisait partie intégrante de la vie économique d'alors. Tout cet ensemble reposai