Eastern University Books

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

The author paints a unique portrait of Taiwan's spiritual underworld; thus, it is a wonderful resource for foreigners who wish to understand Chinese, specifically Taiwanese, culture. I just reread the book, and it was more "haunting" the second time.

this book really opened my eyes to the strange beliefs of some Taiwanese women. This book was a fun read and I recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about Taiwan and the people there.

Moscowitz has done an excellent job of taking an incredibly complicated subject and made it accessible to a wide range of audiences without sacrificing any of the content. The topic itself is fascinating and will most likely prove to be a seminal work in understanding how ancient cultures adapt to modern life. I can think of no topic better suited than abortion and the haunting fetus to highlight the conflicts and contradictions inherent in this process. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the metamorphosis of traditional Chinese culture as it moves into the new millenium.

In this highly readable yet intellectually engaging
work, Moskowitz delivers a remarkable account of the
practice of fetus worship in contemporary Taiwan.
Integral to this account is a compelling discussion
of the cultural and emotional struggles Taiwanese women
experience in their decision to undergo an abortion,
and in their consequent attempts at finding psychological
and spiritual resolution.

Moskowitz's analysis is also noteworthy in its ability
to situate the psychological implications of these practices
in a complex religious and historical context. The result is
a truly fascinating work and an important contribution toward the
understanding of sexuality and spirtual life in Taiwan.

I read this book in its unedited form, so it may have changed a bit since then, but I loved it. The picture it paints of life in Taiwan is moving and explicit, and the language and situations range from compassionate to humorous. The topic is academic but the langauge isn't, so it's appropriate for the general public as well as academians. I especially loved the section on the noodle vendor who ran an appeasement sideline. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest, however passing, in Asian culture.

Being a western student learning about the Oriental (non-Chalcedonian) Churches, I often got fustrated reading church history books that still regard these Eastern churches as heretics, if they mention them at all. This book, written by a Copt, gives the rich history of these churches a loud voice to the English world. This book is absolutely indispensible to anybody who wants to know what the Armenian, Syrian, Nestorian, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches are all about, and what they still think about themselves, without the western bias.
The only drawbacks to the book is, because the author is a Copt, the chapters on the Nestorian and Ethiopic churches are slightly slanted, though not as slanted as say, a Greek. The Nestorians get a very short chapter, presumably because they were the first to be declared heretics by the Church and because they are diophysites, which Atiya believes to be nothing short of denying the Incarnation. Atiya also seems to imply that they allied themselves with the Muslims against the Miaphysite Syrians. The Ethiopic Church gets a biased look because Atiya wants to think that this Church is historically under the See of Alexandria, when in fact the sources show that the Ethiopic Church is Antiochene.
While biases do come to play, this book is much more unbiased and more comprehensive than any other book in English about the Oriental Orthodox churches, and I would highly recommend it to anyone studying or meeting with these churches.

"Though conscious of the controversial character of some of my arguments, I have decided to relinquish even the most provocative among them so long as they have any foundation in available source material." A. S. Atiya


Oriental Churches?
The late professor Atiya's treatise, "The History of Eastern Christianity," introduces the reader masterfully to the fascinating and neglected Oriental Churches, called apologetically non-Caledonian since they are not subscribers to what they consider, the schismatic Council of Chalcedon, and are critical of Leo's Tome, as a pseudo Nestorian confession.
While Church history books ignore them, some petrified Eastern Orthodox still regard them as schismatic if not heretics. Interest in patristic hermeneutics, and the spirituality of the Desert Fathers, renewed the search into their dividing Cyrilic Christological confession, with amazing results. Martin Luther to A. von Harnack, and especially Karl Barth, sided with their Miaphysite Christology of the hypostatic union and in the last half century the most prominent Catholic theologian led by Grillmeier and Cardinal Kasper condemned Chalcedon as static, and Leo's Tome, as a thorn in the flesh.

'A History of Eastern Christianity':
This book, is rather a History of 'Oriental' Christianity, that constitute the forty some millions mainly of the Great See of Saint Mark, including the Copts, and Eritrio/Ethiopians, and the Ancient Apostolic Churches of Antioch and Armenia. Written by an eminent historian, a scholar in the areas of Medieval, Coptic, and Islamic studies, and founder and director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center and Library is an American Copt (Editor of the 8 volumes Coptic Encyclopedia, 1991, mcmillan) exposes the rich history of these churches with a clear enlightening voice for the Anglophones.
"The author describes his work as; 'The Fulfillment of a lifelong vow, 'a vow of the teaching deacon that A. S. Atiya, delivered on 'the extensive and complex but highly interesting subject of the Oriental Christian Churches.' This is the history of the churches who led Orthodox Christianity, whose theology and dogma could be intellectually defined as the dialogue between Alexandria and Antioch." Didaskalex

A Tribute to the Author:
From 1935 to 1939, Atiya served as Docent and Honorary Professor of Medieval (including Oriental) History for Kahle's Orientalisches Seminar in Bonn, Germany. In 1939, however, he returned to Egypt and began a tenure as Professor of Medieval History at Cairo University. In 1942, he moved to Alexandria University, where he held a foundation chair in Medieval History until 1952, and as Chairman of the History Department (1952-1954). During this period in Egypt, Atiya married, and participated in many academic expeditions.
For the 1955-56 session, he served the University of Michigan as Medieval Academy Visiting Professor, and then Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. In 1957, he became Patten Visiting Professor and Lecturer at Indiana University. That year's lectures became his two books Crusade, Commerce and Culture, and Crusade Historiography and Bibliography. He then spent two years at Princeton as Professor of Arabic and Islamic History (1957-1958) and then as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study (1958-1959).
In 1959, Atiya came to the University of Utah as a Professor of Languages and History to build a complete center for the study of Arabic and Middle East cultures. In 1967 he was designated Distinguished Professor of History, and was further granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Brigham Young University at the same time made him an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), in recognition of some of his discoveries in the world of papyri. In 1968, he published The History of Eastern Christianity and in 1969, he organized the publication of Catalogue Raisonné of the Arabic Manuscripts of Mount Sinai. At the time of his death, Atiya was preparing to publish an eight volume Coptic Encyclopedia. Overall, Atiya published approximately twenty books.

An Ecclesiastic Student's View:
"This book is absolutely indispensable to anybody who wants to know what the Armenian, Syrian, Nestorian, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches are all about, and what they still think about themselves, without the western bias. ... and I would highly recommend it to anyone studying or meeting with these churches." Reviewer: Sarah Wgner (Jerusalem, Israel)

Aziz Atiya's work, The History of Eastern Christianity, masterfully introduces the reader to a fascinating and little known segment of the Christian World. The chapters are well-organized thematically, ranging from the origins and histories of the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Nestorian Churches (among others), to descriptions of Christian communities in far-off India. Atiya's flair for storytelling combines well with his scholarship, making this work an interesting read for both scholars and interested non-scholars alike.

A Hint on this Work
The author describes his work as;" The Fulfillment of a lifelong vow", a vow of the teaching deacon (Didaskalos) that A. S. Atiya, of blessed memory, delivered on "the essentials of the extensive and complex but highly interesting subject of the Eastern Christian Churches." This is the history of the churches who led Orthodox Christianity, whose theology and dogma could be intellectually defined as the dialogue between Alexandria and Antioch. Eric Jurgens precisely describes it as "masterfully introduces the reader to a fascinating and little known segment of the Christian world". (preceding review)

Summery of Contents
I. Alexandrine Christianity, the Copts, the Ethiopians and their Church
II. Antioch and the Jacobites
III. The Nestorian Church
IV. The Armenian Church
V. St. Thomas Christians of South India
VI. The Maronite Church
VII.The Vanished Churches; Carthage, Pentapolis, and Nubia

Beautiful Erudite Introduction
Looking at the front page, enjoy reading the Coptic icon (the Louvre): Christ with his right arm around the shoulder of St. Menas, an Egyptian martyr, theology of beauty. The preface is key to Atiya's philosophy of Church history, "Though conscious of the controversial character of some of my arguments, I have decided to relinquish even the most provocative among them so long as they have any foundation in available source material." Seven maps introduce you to the geography of the early Christian world, and the regional facts of the time.

Eastern Christianity at a glance:
Part I: Alexandrine Christianity:
The ancient patriarchate of Alexandria was one of the chief sees of the early church. The Copts, descendants of the ancient Egyptians, never assumed their Church ethnic identity untill after the Arab invasion of the Byzantine empire. Through a long period of persecution since Byzantine domination of the East, the Orthodox Church in Egypt tenaciously held fast to the "faith of the fathers", preserving the Coptic language in their liturgy. One of its main strengths was in continuing the ascetic and monastic traditions originated by the Egyptian deserts fathers. The church has initiated considerable missionary work early in its ministry in europe and British Isles, recently in other parts of the African continent, and has a significant diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.
The Ethiopian church has a history going back to apostolic times. For long under the tutelage of the Church of Alexandria. In 1959, the Coptic patriarch consecrated the Ethiopian Abuna as Catholicos of the Church of Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa. The church uses both the ancient language of Geez and modern Amharic in its liturgy, and has produced considerable religious literature with its own iconographic tradition.
The Eritrean Orthodox Church is an autocephalous church, depending directly on the See of St. Mark , got its catholicos and Synod in recent years, after separation of Eritria from Ethiopia.

Part II; Antioch and the Jacobites
The Syrian Orthodox Church traces its history to the early traditions of St Peter's work, Christians were first called by their name in Antioch. The church suffered severe persecution during the struggle against Byzantine domination after the council of Chalcedon, and later through invasions and Islamic rule. The patriarchate had to be moved several times until it was established in Damascus during this century. Syrian liturgical and theological life flourished until the 13th century, and became an inspiration to the Coptic Church which was in desolation, but steadily declined afterwards. The monastic movement produced many universally acknowledged saints and contributed enormously to the creation of a rich liturgical tradition.
In the seventeenth century, the Antiochian church came into contact with the ancient church of St Thomas Christians in India, and W. Syrian liturgy was thus introduced to the Christians in South India. Though the Syrian church is vastly reduced in number, it has a considerable diaspora in the US, Australia and Europe.

Part IV; The Armenian Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church: Armenia is the first nation to accept Christianity as the official religion traditionally Orthodox Christianity is linked with the preaching of St Thaddeus and St Bartholomew. Armenian Christians heroically preserved their apostolic faith, and were victims of terrible persecution through the centuries. There are three ecclesiastical centres within the church apart from Armenia: the catholicate of Cilicia (Antelias, Lebanon), the patriarchate of Jerusalem and the patriarchate of Constantinople. The Armenian church has a very significant diaspora spread out in all the continents. The Armenian national aspirations and the Armenian Orthodox faith are integrally interconnected.

The Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Church has always cherished the tradition of St Thomas as the founding father of Christianity in India. The Indian church, has suffered from Western colonial missions. The church came into contact with the west Syrian patriarchate of Antioch in 1665 and thus inherited the Syrian liturgical and spiritual tradition. The Orthodox church in India declared itself autocephalous in 1912, though conflicts with the Syrian patriarchate continue. With a well- equipped theological college, a mission training centre and many educational and charitable institutions, the church is fully involved in the life of the country. With the catholicos residing in Kerala. It has a diaspora in North America, Malaysia, Singapore and the Gulf countries.

The Late A. S. Atiya
the author, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Utah, is one of the greatest Coptologists, and Editor in Chief of the 8 volume, Coptic Encyclopedia. He was a member of the Mount Sinai expeditions of U. of Alexandria with The Library of Congress, and with U's of Princeton and Michigan, he then discovered the Codex Georgianus. While tenure in Alexandria, he was the Henry Luce visiting professor of world Christianity, at Union Theological Seminary New York. In conclusion, he says about his book: "In sum, if this book proves to be a modest counterweight to the Galaxy of standard manuals of the History of Western Christianity, I shall be more than rewarded."

For further reading
1. Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions, john Meyendorff, SVS, 1989
2. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils, Leo D. Davis, M. Glazier, 1987
3. The Rise of the Monophysite Movement, WHC Frend, Cambridge U. P., 1972
4. Christ in Christian Tradition, Vol. 2, Part Four, The Church of Alexandria with Nubia and Ethiopia,
Aloys grillmeier, theresia hainthaler, Nowbray & W j Knox, 1996.

Atiya performs a real service to ecumenical Christianity with this history of ancient church traditions from North Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Byzantium, Mesopotamia, Armenia and Central Asia. These are churches which once held the large majority of Christians in the world, but have been largely ignored in the West for many centuries. Atiya shows how the old Armenian Church (which was the first state-backed Christian church in the world) retained a tradition of leadership chosen by "the people". And therefore the Armenians drifted away from Rome's imperial church, with its constant demands for obedience and attempts to appoint superiors over the locally elected leaders. In similar defense against centralized administrative tyranny, the Egyptian Coptic, Syrian Jacobite, and Nestorian churches all declared independence from the state church of Rome. Later, of course, the Greek and Latin churches also slowly split, mainly over the issue of who should obey whom. In a Western Europe-centric view, all these churches "went astray" and were excommunicated from the real church. Atiya shows that all these churches were real, and the excommunications were mutual. The call for unity through obedience to one supreme authority was just what drove the international movement of Christianity apart.

Concerning the next 1500 or more years, Atiya follows the evolution of Eastern churches, explaining the moral, political and theological choices they made. He pays respect to their unique blends of Jewish, Christian, and local ethnic traditions, patiently sharing their gifts with other Christians around the world.

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

This novel has emerged, from the ruins of the purges, like a pure, unspoiled and immaculate gem. As an autobiographical novel, one cannot deny the importance of this work to provide for insights into Bukharin's private life, given that most biographies of Bukharin are about his political and intellectual life.

Not only is this work important in this regard, Bukharin's stunning literary ability comes to the forefront in this work, which details, with a humanistic empathy, the plight of the peasants, family relations and the psychology of a middle class family from the late 19th century Russian society. The novel begins with the birth of "Kolya" and is seen through the boy's eyes as he grows up. It ends, poignantly, (Bukharin did not live to finish the work) with the death of his brother.

Of particular note is the rich texture of his narrative; it powerfully invokes a child-like sense of wonder that is intrinsic to children of that age. There are indeed very few works out there that parallel the vivid evocation of imagery which Bukharin is capable of. Bukharin's description of the Russian landscape was beautifully detailed, as was the heartfelt revelations about life which slipped through.

It is through this work that we come to realize that the interior life of this man was not only brilliant, but that his political stance was chosen fundamentally because of his humanistic understanding of Russian peasants and the impoverished.

This edition comes with very lovely pictures, too.

Set in the pre-revolutionary Russia, Bukharin's novel attempts to demonstrate, through the eyes of a youth named Nikolai Petrov, how the revolutionary spirit fermented and grew among the youth and intelligentsia. While this novel could be read with an eye toward the abuses of the Soviet Union and dismissed as political propaganda, in doing so the reader would miss the wealth of historical detail with which Bukharin writes. Every page is bursting with succulent fruit for anyone interested in the social, economic, and cultural world of the peasants and the working class at the turn of the century in pre-revolutionary Russia. Part of that fruit is socialism, communism, atheism, and the raging underground debates taking place during that period; seen as history, however, Bukharin gives us an invaluable insider's view, recalling his youth in all its variety and discussing the situations that led him down the path his life had taken.

The story revolves around Nikolai, who is obviously a cipher for Bukharin himself. Young Kolya (Nikolai) is full of energy, wit, and curiosity. As he grows and excels in school, his thinking begins to grow as well, from that of an innocent child to that of a young man on the verge of becoming a revolutionary himself. Unfortunately, the saddest part about this novel is that it ends in the middle of a chapter; Stalin finally had Bukharin executed, making it very difficult to continue writing. The writing is so well done it is hard to believe Bukharin never had a chance to re-write it; we are reading essentially his first draft, written in prison. His astounding intellect is obvious, quoting from German, French, English, and Russian poets and authors, occasionally making references to Latin or Greek jokes the children learned in high school, and discussing the variety of birds and other animals Kolya collects with amazing clarity.

Before reading this book, I knew Bukharin was a political genius that few have matched. However, I did not realize his brilliance as a writer: he appeals wonderfully to all the visual and emotional senses as a great novelist. He occasionally discusses his growing political awareness, but that is not the focus of this work. His love of life, nature, and family show the incredible depth of his mind. Much credit must also be given to the translator for making the language so effusive in English.

It's a wonderful miracle that this book was not destroyed by Stalin; it's just a shame that it's incomplete, cutting off in mid-thought. Nevertheless, what Bukharin was able to complete gives provides an enthralling look into life in late Tsarist Russia, as well as putting us a bit closer with one of the most tragic victims of the purges.

Bukharin's autobiographical work is a lyrical, moving, story of the life of a young boy in pre-Soviet russia. Unlike Leon Trotsky's autobiography, which is a similar work in content, this is a novel. And a grand one. When you read the touching descriptions of Kolya's then idyllic, then tragic domestic life, you feel helpless, sad, for you know that this boy will eventually be dead, the New World he helped to create corrupted and turned against him. The very existence of this novel is a message of hope, that even under the most tragic and ironic circumstances there can something joyous (Bukharin wrote the novel while in Lubyanka prison). The poignancy of all this is further increased by the included letter by Bukharin, written to his wife Anna Larina and not given to her for 50+ years. This book also stands as a monument (in a medium I belief he would have perhaps preferred) to Nikolai Bukharin, a brilliant scholar, writer, and Revolutionary

This is a remarkable book. It combines three forms in a single work: 1) a detailed and evocative story of a boy growing up in late 19th century Russia, 2) an informative and moving autobiography of one of the most important Bolshevik leaders, and 3) commentary on the social and economic developments leading up to the 1905 and 1917 revolutions, including (in the tradition of Russian novels) imagined descriptions of important meetings of leaders of state. Most remarkable, though, is that the entire book was written in the nights of Bukharin's confinement in Moscow's Lubyanka Prison while he awaited almost certain execution following his notorious "show trial". The idea of a man who knows he could be shot at any moment writing such detailed, even leisurely descriptions of his childhood in Moscow and Bessarabia is almost beyond comprehension. Indeed, the novel breaks off in mid-sentence. This book should not be missed by anyone interested in 19th and 20th century Russian history, and will be enjoyed by anyone interested in a good coming-of-age novel as well.

This is an amazing story and I concur with the previous reviews. There is also a philosophy of suffering and human nature that is presented which the reader will realize as he reads the accounts of the pain and suffering and the authors reaction to them. This is a must read and I'm looking forward to another book about human rights that this author may consdier writing.

This is a gripping story of survival in the worst of political prisons comparable to the Soviet gulag and the Nazi concentration camps. This remarkable book reminds us of the human capacity for cruelty, how ideology can justify atrocity and how absolute power corrupts. The state did not want or expect these prisoners to ever leave alive. This is the only English account of life in the Pathet Lao political prison system and is a crucial document about both Laos under communism and more generally about political systems and man's potential for cruelty. It is also a good read. The ingenuity of the prisoners that allowed them to survive torture, harassment, a starvation rice diet and no medical care was fascinating. It was also heartening to hear that the assistance his wife received from American friends during the time he was imprisoned and she did not know where he was led them to immigrate to the US.

This book is an absolute must read for anyone interested in human rights. The author's personal story of survival is set against a strong, concise modern history of Laos and southeast Asia.

You will find that this is one of the most unbelievable stories of survival ever told. Of the few who did survive the 're-education' camps in northern Laos, only one, Bounsang Khamkeo, wrote the story to bring it to the world. The book is a de facto historic document that cannot be overlooked.

Khamkeo had editorial help from a few individuals in the writing of his book. The text is not awkward like the title. Khamkeo is able and fluent in English. His story both unique and representative maintains an engaging literary quality over the roughly 400 pages. Returning from France to his homeland of Laos after the Vietnam War was over with the intention of helping his country return to normalcy, the author was arrested and put into a prison camp in 1981 after an argument with an official of the communist Pathet Lao government. He was kept in prison until 1988. The lengthy memoir is about this whole time from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, with about half given to each period. The second half of Khamkeo's time in prison is naturally more gripping, and at times harrowing. But the first half has its own significant themes and drama as well--namely, the totalitarian, capricious, demanding rule of the Pathet Lao. Whereas the second part deals with how the author survived the hardships and threats of his years in prison, the first part deals with the more subtle, yet nonetheless engaging, informative, and at times suspenseful story of how he and others had to accommodate the rigid rule of the Pathet Lao while they were at the same time trying to bring improvements to a Laos which like the other nations of Southeast Asia, was disrupted and changed by the Vietnam War. "I Little Slave" brings to light these uncertain and hostile conditions in Laos following the Vietnam War; which have not received as much attention as those in Vietnam and Cambodia. After being released from prison, Khamkeo managed to flee Laos; and today lives in Oregon and works for a state health agency.

It's so easy to ignore the inhumanity and injustices occurring around the world, but once you know, you must speak up. Bounsang Khamkeo eloquently and honestly paints each scene with vivid precision. I felt as though I was actually flying over the forests of Laos, feeling the anxiety of hostile government actions, smelling the stench of hidden prison camps, and witnessing death in it's most unforgiving form. Bounsang should be proud that he kept his promise to speak up against the injustices at the hands of his communist oppressors. I will long-remember the lives of his lost prison-mates, as well as the hundreds of thousands who have no recorded names. This would be an excellent companion to political science texts, and a must-read for us all. I literally could not put it down. As horrifying as his shared experiences were, I am left wishing for another 400 pages. Bounsang, I am proud to have met you. Thank you for speaking out about such atrocities.

Prof. Troen confronts questions that stand at the heart of Israel's self-understanding. His answers will surely arouse controversy, but the questions he poses must be faced.

Ilan Troen's Imagining Zion may well be the very most important book to appear in many years on patterns of Jewish settlement in Palestine/Israel. At a time when much discussion is devoted to Jewish settlement and, related to that, the very legitimacy of the Zionist enterprise in the Land of Israel, Troen's balanced and highly informative book is a must read. Thoroughly researched, lucidly written, and informed by an intimate familiarity with comparative materials (the author was an urban historian of the United States before switching to the history of the Yishuv), this book serves as a much needed corrective to the spate of essays that have recently appeared lining the modern state of Israel in most superficial ways to so-called settler states such as French Algeria and South Africa. In telling the compelling story of Zionist achievement, the author never loses sight of how the Jewish community in the Land of Israel envisioned the master plan of Zionist development and also took into consideration its impact on the indigenous Arab population. This highly nuanced and extremely informative book should attract audiences drawn from a wide range of academic disciplines. It is not only very timely, it has the virtue of being written in very accessible prose.

This is the only comprehensive history of Zionist and Israeli settlement available in English. Troen's focus on Zionism's developmental ethos and its realization yields an important contribution to a field dominated by high politics and military affairs.

"Among all the books on the subject of Zionist economic/security ideology, this is one of the finest I have ever read. Its research is vast, its approach is fresh and original, its conclusions are sound."--Howard M. Sachar, author of A History of Israel

"Prof. Troen confronts questions that stand at the heart of Israel's self-understanding. His answers will surely arouse controversy, but the questions he poses must be faced."--David Engel, New York University

"This is the only comprehensive history of Zionist and Israeli settlement available in English. Troen's focus on Zionism's developmental ethos and its realization yields an important contribution to a field dominated by high politics and military affairs."--Derek J. Penslar, Zacks Professor of History; Director, Jewish Studies Program, University of Toronto

"This is a superb book. A sweeping study of the Zionist settlement of Palestine from the late nineteenth century to our own time, it analyzes the ideological, pragmatic, and ultimately strategic concerns that shaped the nature of Jewish communities in the State of Israel as well as the pre-state period. It succeeds in integrating the story of the building of Israel--from the kibbutz to Tel Aviv to development towns--within the context of urban and rural development in the modern western world."--Paula Hyman, Yale University

"Ilan Troen's Imagining Zion may well be the very most important book to appear in many years on patterns of Jewish settlement in Palestine/Israel. At a time when much discussion is devoted to Jewish settlement and, related to that, the very legitimacy of the Zionist enterprise in the Land of Israel, Troen's balanced and highly informative book is a must read. Thoroughly researched, lucidly written, and informed by an intimate familiarity with comparative materials (the author was an urban historian of the United States before switching to the history of the Yishuv), this book serves as a much needed corrective to the spate of essays that have recently appeared lining the modern state of Israel in most superficial ways to so-called settler states such as French Algeria and South Africa. In telling the compelling story of Zionist achievement, the author never loses sight of how the Jewish community in the Land of Israel envisioned the master plan of Zionist development and also took into consideration its impact on the indigenous Arab population. This highly nuanced and extremely informative book should attract audiences drawn from a wide range of academic disciplines. It is not only very timely, it has the virtue of being written in very accessible prose."--Jacob Lassner, Northwestern University (author of The Middle East Remembered: Forged Identities, Competing Narratives, Contested Spaces)

This is a superb book. A sweeping study of the Zionist settlement of Palestine from the late nineteenth century to our own time, it analyzes the ideological, pragmatic, and ultimately strategic concerns that shaped the nature of Jewish communities in the State of Israel as well as the pre-state period. It succeeds in integrating the story of the building of Israel--from the kibbutz to Tel Aviv to development towns--within the context of urban and rural development in the modern western world.

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is completely engrossing. Rarely cam that be said of a reference type work like this! The author did an excellent job of making things understandable for someone like me who does not know any Chinese. He gives a very clear overview of the different dialects, including discussion of what exactly characterizes these dialects. It is also a great into to the other language families of China (Mongolian, Tungusic, Tai, etc.), information which is not easy to come by. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested Chinese, China, minority languages, and language classification in general.

I picked up the book out of curiosity and could not put it down. It gives an engrossing history of the Chinese people by way of a study of the languages of the area. It is not just a linguistic text however; it is about all aspects of life in China: politics, economics, poetry,history, everything. Language is just what ties it all together, much like the language ties the country together.

This book is completely engrossing. I knew next to nothing about the history of my native language and it's place among the "dialects" of Chinese. Nor was I really aware of the roles played by geography, politics, and cultural influences in shaping a language or even in a language's classification. The writing is concise and lucid; and much of it is accessible to laymen. I think for the information contained within and for the price, it deserves a 10. (FYI, the colors on one of the maps seem to be offset in my book. Maybe it's intentional?)

S. Robert Ramsey's THE LANGUAGES OF CHINA is a survey originally published by Princeton University Press in 1987. China is an immense country with a rich linguistic heritage, and it is a challenge to cover even the basics adequately in a mere 340 pages. Ramsey does an admirable job, and this student of historical linguistics was thrilled to see such attention paid to the diachrony of many languages mentioned within.

The "Chinese language", the set of mutually unintelligible dialects belonging to Han people and descended from a relatively recent common ancestor, is by far the most widely-spoken in China, and Ramsey dedicates the first half of the book to it. He begins with a presentation of the historical debate over Han linguistic unification, with the northern dialects winning out over southern dialects like those of Shanghai and Guangdong. Since Mandarin has, for better or worse, been taken as the standard, it is the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Mandarin that Ramsey describes as representative of the entire language. Ramsey clearly wrote for a non-specialist audience, as he tries to debunk older Western myths that Chinese is somehow a "primitive" language due to its lack of inflection. The grammar of Mandarin here is splendidly full for just a few pages, though the debate over the use of the particle "le" isn't mentioned.

Ramsey's coverage of Chinese isn't, however, purely synchronic, for he also devotes space to the earlier stages of the language. He begins with an explanation of the Qieyun rhyming dictionary, the document compiled by Lu Fayan that, in spite of its faults, is our only useful source for the pronunciation of Middle Chinese. Ramsey then gives a colourful presentation of the life and work of Berhard Karlgren, the Swedish scholar who, by applying the comparative method to modern Chinese dialects, worked towards a phonetic reality for the mere algebraic relationships of the Qieyun dictionary. But this is not mere blind adulation, Ramsey does acknowledge Karlgren's faults and lists the younger scholars who followed him and improved on his theories. Ramsey also briefly mentions Old Chinese, the reconstruction of which is quite uncertain, and talks about some of the important changes from Middle Chinese to modern Mandarin.

The second half of the book deals with the many non-Han languages of China. First is the "Altaic family" spoken in the north of China, the Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages that may or may not be a valid genetic grouping, but which have significant typological similarities. Here again Ramsey gives abundant space to diachronic issues, showing how various modern languages each differ from their common ancestor. Writing systems, too, are covered. The languages of the south come next, including the Tai, Tibeto-Burman, Miao-Yao, and Mon-Khmer families, as well as unclassified or isolated languages. The story of how these languages have fared under Han domination is a major theme of the book.

If you have little bit of Mandarin under your belt (and you don't need a lot) and are interested in the linguistic diversity of this part of the world, THE LANGUAGES OF CHINESE is worth seeking out. This is especially true for historical linguistics curious about China. I can only wonder why it hasn't been reissued.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I examines the Chinese language and the Chinese dialects while Part II surveys the other languages spoken and written in China.

The book offers fascinating historical, grammatical, and political, insights; for example about possible reasons why the north is more unified than the south (easily traversed northern plains vs. isolating southern valleys and mountains).

Westerners often say that Chinese is a language without grammar simply because it's uninflected. This is grossly wrong and Ramsey describes the rudiments of Chinese's positional grammar and how the grammatical rules change somewhat from dialect to dialect. He also gives many examples of morphemes and words and how different dialects put them together.

As for political insight, I am no fan of China's repressive government and its policies. But when it comes to the cultural and linguistic minorities, its policies are surprisingly tolerant and have been for centuries. When we think that as recently as the 1950s, the French government was still trying to suppress the Gaelic language of Bretagne (Breton) we must wonder if there isn't something we can learn from Chinese policies. After all China has for centuries been making room for its minorities, and when Mandarin (putonghua) was created and adopted as the national common speech, much was made that it was no one's native tongue.

I personally wasn't very interested in the other languages of China, but they get the same, though shorter, descriptive treatment of their history and grammar. On the other hand, one real failure of the book is that all the examples are romanized (pinyin) but almost always without the corresponding Chinese characters. This is a pity since with them the book would have certainly been more useful as a study aid. I suppose in 1987 it was much harder (and expensive) to typeset Chinese passages in English books.

All in all, a fascinating survey of the linguistic landscape of China.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Haven't finished reading the book but I found it to be very ineresting and worth my time. It takes an in-depth look at the Manchu imperial family, something that is oftentimes glossed over or ignored in history classes.
When Evelyn Rawski wrote about the Forbidden City- literally and figuratively, it is forbidden to outsiders- a real wonderland populated with characters that might eerily remind one of Alice's adventures in wonderland.

This is a great book the let people to know that Manchu still exists, because most of people had been unknown about China was named Manchu, it really named Manchu. It shows the social life style of the Manchus, the power of kingdom, which is never going to forget about the wealthy lives in Manchu, what is forbidden city really means. Forbidden City is a heaven, it is the most beautiful place to live in. It is magnificent, no where could compare with Forbidden City. Kingdom life is the best!

China should changed the name back to "Manchu" Qing Dynatsy is great!!!

This book beautifully describes the social fabric of life during the Qing Dynasty. As the author claims, she was privy to previously undisclosed Imperial records and has unearthed new insights into Qing customs.
I was introduced to this book after reading Jonathan Spence's "Treason by the book". Mr Spence, perhaps the foremost sinologist writing in a Western vein, has himself praised this book for its fount of new information on the Qing period.
I couldn't agree more and can also add that it is highly readable.

I had been taught in my high school history that "Manchus conquered China on horseback but eventually they were assimilated by the Chinese, becoming more Chinese than the Chinese". After reading E.Rawski's book, I'm beginning to question what my history teachers taught me.

E.Rawski's concentrated research on the Manchu royal family shows that the Manchus, particularly the elite did not lose their cultural heritage but in fact strove to maintain it.

The book explains how the Manchu royal family differed from the Chinese dynasties in their various aspects of social life. As the book is divided in chapters, it's easy to follow and read.

In my humble opinion, this book is for those who wish to study the Manchu monarchy in more detail.

In this work Dr. Rawski argues convincingly for her side of the sinicization debate regarding the Manchu conquest dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). For those of you who are new to the field of modern Chinese history you may be interested in reading the articles of Rawski and Ho Ping-ti (He Pingdi) found in the Journal of Asian Studies, published in the mid-90's. The debate that was started by those articles is still of great importance to modern Chinese history, and it seems that although Rawski and others have presented a very strong case no one as of yet has been victorious. Many scholars still hold the views of Ho Ping-ti (or some version there of). Although, I suspect that over time Rawski's views will triumph. The argument, simply stated, is the question - to what extent where the "conquest dynasties," especially the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, sinicized? In the past, scholars (perhaps dominated by the sino-centric Chinese interpretation) have agreed that foreign powers who dominated the Chinese empire forsook their own cultures in favor of a Chinese identity. This included the adoption of the Confucian civil service tradition as well as the Chinese language and many other Chinese cultural traits and behavior patterns. In recent years however, scholars have given evidence to support a very different view of dynasties like the Qing. A certain level of sinicization is undeniable, and no one challenges the fact that the Manchu banner-elite adopted a very Chinese approach to governance and cultural issues, however they also held on tightly to their own culture and went to great efforts to distinguish themselves from the Han Chinese as a ruling elite. The Manchu language, which many scholars had previously considered irrelevant (when studying modern Chinese history) has here become increasingly important. Rawski goes to great lengths to demonstrate the ways in which the ruling elite of China did not adopt 'Chinese' cultural practices but instead tried to be all things to all people. For the Tibetans and the Mongols they adopted the identity of a ruling clergy of Tibetan Buddhism, for the Chinese they adopted the Confucian model of governance, and for the Manchus they held on to various animistic traditions of sacrifice and deity worship.
This book is well written, except for a few minor stylistically uncomfortable passages, and really proves her point. Unfortunately, it does drag on a bit at times. Rawski gives an extremely detailed account of life in the upper echelons of Qing society focusing on the imperial household. There is a large body of work here and it will take several readings to truly imbibe all this book has to offer.
If you are looking to deepen your knowledge of the field I recommend "Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928 " by Edward Rhoads. It is a bit shorter and focuses on the ethnic and political divides between the ruling elite and the Han Chinese.

I bought this book (and books II and III) in college and have since begun studying anew. The book presents 15 characters a chapter then actually puts them into sentences which are fleshed out with pin yin words for characters yet to be introduced. The structure is great. I supplement book I with the Tuttle vol 1 flashcards and pull out the flashcards which correspond with each Read Chinese chapter. So far they match 99% of the time. I tried to replace this book (it's pretty old) with something newer which only uses simplified characters but was unable to find another beginning character book which is as easy to use and effective. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Read Chinese Book One is a great place to begin to learn Chinese characters. You must have a basic understanding of the Yale style of romanization and pronounciation of Chinese prior to beginning, but you can learn the grammar and the sentence structure from the introduction. I enjoyed using Read Chinese Book One the first time I read it over fifteen years ago, and I still use it as a refresher course when I want to brush up on my ability to read the Chinese Language.

This is the first book in Wang's series of readers. It teaches 300 frequently used characters in various combinations and reinforces them through repetition. By the end of this book, you will actually remember all the characters (unlike the Practical Chinese Reader series) and you will be able to continue to the more advanced books in the series. There is also a supplementary reader published by Yale titled "The Lady in the Painting" (ISBN: 0887100430). This is a full 90-page story which uses the 300 characters from this book. The other two books in this series also have corresponding readers. If you start here, you will have an excellent foundation in written Chinese with the option of progressing to higher levels of proficiency.

Note: This book uses traditional characters and Yale romanization. Yale romanization is very easy to read if you can already read Pinyin.

I agree with the previous opinions, this is a good and useful book, easy to follow the texts and it is a very well-built book with the mixed use of Chinese characters and pinyin. Even though it uses the traditional characters, it also shows the simplified ones when they are different, and at the end of the lessons there are some sentences with simplified characters also. For me it was a bit confusing that the author uses Yale romanization because I have studied international Pinyin, but after the first shock I could read the Yale romanization easily. Maybe it is easier for native-English speakers.

I just received the book, but in a glance I could know it is written by a master! It really has a phantastic method for the beginners: step by step it mixes " english-helping-words" (pyin yin) with the chinese characters! And slowly, as the new lessons come, it uses less and less pyin yin help. It works
wonderfuly! I am not so "beginner", for I could read the Lady in the Painting, but wanted to reinforce my chinese and pretend to buy the 2nd an 3rd books.Great!

See the article written by G Nicosoia>in SF Chroncile..to be posted. comparing & summarizing two war books...

WD Ehrhart's journey into the lives of fellow Marines who served with him in his 1966 basic training platoon during one of the most trying times of American history is exemplary. This is due to his persistence and meticulous research into the labyrinth of Veteran's Administration (VA) records, his hundreds of phone calls and letters of inquiry, and the other ways he found people whom he had no idea where they lived, or if they were still alive.

The book is arranged alphabetically by the platoon member's name. What the reader finds in these men's lives runs the gamut from the enigmatic to the ordinary to the heartbreaking, and at least a few whose circumstances evoke Kipling's 'angry and defrauded young.'

Most of the men served in Vietnam at some point in their enlistments. In the course of Ehrhart's inquiries, he found that some of these men simply could not be found, while others offered terse replies to his requests for interviews, and a few gave Ehrhart nothing more than reticence. Others declined an interview after initially agreeing to one. In another reply, a man who had a life at sea after the Marine Corps said his history was private, and Ehrhart's query was not welcomed; when I read this I thought of a line from a Richard Hugo poem, 'Man always brought\his anguish to the sea.'

Hence, for some of the bios in the book, there exists nothing more than a few facts gleamed from the VA records or brief facts derived from other Marines or the veteran's families. Yet for those he did reconnect with, Ehrhart was welcomed, sometimes with only telephone interviews but very often with personal visits that provided the crux of the book that emerged.

Although critics elsewhere note that the book lacks the emotional impact of war memoirs, Ehrhart's work is a vital contribution to studies of the often-misunderstood Vietnam generation, and to studies of the war's veterans in particular. As such,'Ordinary Lives' makes a perfect parallel study to Rick Atkinson's 'The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966.'

This is another fine book by an under-appreciated writer. Mr. Ehrhart, by combining talent with an enormous amount of sheer brute-force legwork, has transformed the individual, often mundane, sagas of his fellow recruit training platoon members into a work of art that is greater than the sum of its parts, much like the Marine Corps itself.

There is a minimalist economy to Mr. Ehrhart's prose, owing, no doubt, to the fact that he is an accomplished poet and therefore acutely sensitive to the value of individual words. This allows, or causes, the reader to think, really think, about any unadorned contradictions present in the lives presented. One man profiled, successful, decent, religious, thinks the United States should have "annihilated" North Vietnam.

The United States should not have been in Vietnam in the first place. Mr. Ehrhart knows this. "Ordinary Lives," without editorializing, allows us to hate the war without hating the warrior brotherhood that is the Marine Corps, and allows us to love the warriors who fought it, our sons and brothers.

This book has a different slant about the military. It follows up the lives of 80 young men who completed Marine basic training at Parris Island, S.C. Most of the men knew they were headed for Vietnam. As a veteran, I always thought about my fellow recruits and what happened to them. I was sadden by parts of the book. The chaotic nature of some after leaving the Marines, and the death of others. I read many books, rarely military types, as I flinch from violence in my older days, but this type of book had a certain measure of attraction for me. I can't get this book out of my mind, and I don't know why. An interesting concept for a book.

I hated finishing Ordinary Lives because I like the book so much. I think Ehrhart has written one of the great books about America in our time, the sort of book Studs Terkel would write if he could. Talk about American Dreams in our time, Lost and Found! Ehrhart's book is also full of mystery. Why did some of the men manage to get their act together and make something of their lives, when others who seemed to have as much or more going for them, ended up suicides? I love the relentless alphabetical format. It emphasizes the arbitrariness of our lives and works well with the military subject. Ehrhart's compassion and respect for the people he interviewed is the great strength and backbone of the book, I think. I had tears in my eyes many times. I also laughed out loud several times. While reading Steven T. Summerscales' entry I thought, there but for fortune go I. How did I end up with such a sweet deal in life, when others, perhaps more deserving, are long since dead? Ehrhart's book handles this mystery in a sensitive yet relentless way. His relentlessness also comes across in his manner of search, but he does know when to let a man go. He strikes a perfect balance between sensitivity and relentlessness in this wonderful engrossing book. David A. Willson Author, REMF Diary