A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century

by Charles Holcombe

Overview

The third edition of this ambitious book begins by asking: What is East Asia? Today, many of the features that made the region distinct have been submerged under revolution, politics, or globalization. Yet in ancient times, what we now think of as China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam had both historical and cultural coherence. Thoroughly revised and updated to include recent developments in East Asian politics, with new illustrations and suggestions for further reading, this book traces the story of East Asia from the dawn of history to the modern age. New discussion questions at the end of each chapter encourage readers to reflect, while a glossary, pronunciation guide, and parallel timeline enable a closer engagement with this complex subject. Charles Holcombe is an experienced and sure-footed guide who encapsulates, in a fast-moving and colorful narrative, the connections, commonalities, and differences of one of the most remarkable regions on earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009504782
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/05/2025
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	529
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Charles Holcombe is Professor of History at the University of Northern Iowa. Having spent a year researching Six Dynasties China at Kyōto University in Japan, his awakening interest in East Asian interconnections led him to write The Genesis of East Asia, 221 BC–AD 907 (2001). He won the Regents' Award for Faculty Excellence at the University of Northern Iowa (2007).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of maps; Pronunciation guide; Timeline; Glossary; Preface to the third edition; Introduction: what is East Asia?; 1. The origins of civilization in East Asia; 2. The formative era; 3. The age of cosmopolitanism; 4. The creation of a community: China, Korea, and Japan (seventh-tenth centuries); 5. Mature independent trajectories (tenth-sixteenth centuries); 6. Early modern East Asia (sixteenth-eighteenth centuries); 7. Dai Viet (Vietnam before the nineteenth centuries); 8. The nineteenth-century encounter of civilizations; 9. The age of Westernization (1900–1929); 10: The dark valley (1930–1945); 11. Cold War East Asia; 12. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Overseas Chinese; 13. Globalization, and the resurgence of East Asia; Character list; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'Holcombe’s book is a precious guide to the histories of East Asia. It is clear and incisive, as any textbook should be, but it also offers and alternative and specialist reading.' Noemi Lanna, University of Naples 'L'Orientale'

Review of first edition: 'Treading a line between the emerging field of transnational history and a more traditional regional history, Holcombe has written a valuable and impressive guide to the histories of East Asia. The historical and regional scope, reaching from the ancient past to the ultra-modern present, is unprecedented in a volume of this size. Students of East Asia and of international history will find this book essential reading.' Chris Goto-Jones, University of Victoria, British Columia

From the Publisher