Asia Books

My son read this book as part of a book club. He enjoyed it thouroughly. It gave us an opportunity to talk about a different culture. Some of the text describing the behaviors and actions of the characters were a great place to ask text comprehension questions. I enjoyed reading it along side with my son.

I read this book and then had my 8 year old daughter read it and give me a report on it. She not only loved the story, she picked up on Pong Lo's plan right away and couldn't wait to get to the end to see what came of it. It's a very good story with more than one great lesson.

Multiplicaton pays the bills .He wants to marry the princess,but he is a peasant. See how Pong Lo wins the right to marry her by using his math skills. Wonderful story about an old culture and about how smart people are regardless of their social stature.Ahhhhh....yes ! DON'T FORGET THE RICE.

This is a great story for teaching how something as small as a grain of rice can earn a farmer a marriage to the princess, and a kingdom. Multiplication is used in the book, and can spring into a math lesson for teachers and parents alike. It is most likely to interest 4th and 5th grade children.

Prof. Mungello wrote this comprehensive book on the intercourse of China and West in culture and religion in a highly readable text.
Between 1500-1800, China was a powerful country. Catholics dreamed of converting China into a Christian country. However, it was Chinese influence to Europe to bring about Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. He showed that missionaries sent back Tao Te Ching, I Ching and Confucius teaching to the European educated to help bring about the Enlightenment Movement.
What would happen when China is Christianized and the West goes Taoist Way?
By 1800, China was still in its glorious satisfaction while European Powers underwent industrialization. Britain unable to balance the trade deficit pushed opium and war on China. The 1997 Hong Kong Hand-over concluded the last British Imperial chapter in history. China was at its nadir at 1900 Boxer Movement with eight foreign countries invaded Peking.
Napoleon said, "When China wakes, it will shock the world". History affirms the Tao in East and West, strong and weak, grandeur and decline, war and peace. Prof. Mungello presents the readers the historical background to understand the modern China. A number of Westerners see Deng's reform with market economy lead to China rising as a world threat. Reading this book will help open up their horizon.

Will US wage war on China in the billions of dollar trade deficit as their British cousins did in 19th Century?

I think Mungello has done a wonderful job in reconstructing the meeting between China and the Western world.

Dr. Mungello has done a great job in presenting how the (Far) West met with Chinese culture over the period of 1500-1800. This book was written in easy and non-technical language. As a Chinese that has learnt Chinese history all through my school years, I am intrigued to read simialar materials presented from a Western perspective in simple English.

Dr. Mungello noted that the Chinese in Song Dynasty mistook the picture of Virgin Mary as Guanyin (Chinese Goddess of the sea). A three-story high statue given by Portuguese to Macau, China shortly before 1999 was meant to be Guanyin but it certainly looks like Virgin Mary. What went around has come around:) Thanks for writing such a good book and I enjoyed it very much.

University Profs take note: Although I had to read this book because I was in the author's class at Baylor, it really is a good introductory book. Dr. Mungello is one of the world's top Sinologists and did his graduate work at the U. of California at Berkeley and I am privelaged to be one of his students.

Half of the book is focused at the West meeting China, and the other half is China meeting the West. It answers the questions: What did the West reject and accept from China? What did China accept and reject from the West?

This remarkable, very readable book is written as a conversation between two women born in Beijing at the same time as the People's Republic of China. As the women explore the similarities and differences in their experiences--from housing arrangements, to elementary school, to their roles in the early months of the Cultural Revolution, to the years spent working in rural China--the reader learns about the wide range of what it means to have grown up in the PRC. The result is a reflective, thought-full, and nuanced look at this tumultuous period in China's recent history.

Weili's book is remarkable. I was struck by her honesty, studiousness of recording details, and courage of facing the past events, no matter how ugly they were, and searching for the truths and true feelings. One of the most memorable moments of the book was the story about Weili's mother, walking 20 miles, close to the distance of a Marathon, to give birth in the cold winter by herself in 1945. As a female soldier in the People's Liberation Army, Weili's mother had to go outside of the WWII Japanese controlled territory to avoid capture. She was crippled for many years after this experience. Weili's mother's personal story was an example of the war time suffering the Chinese people went through. Weili described this story to give background on her family and the Great Culture Revolution. Ironically, many people who suffered a great deal to establish the new government in 1949 were tormented, imprisoned, or killed during the Great Culture Revolution.

Why should one read Weili's oral history book on the Great Culture Revolution in China? Here are the reasons I would suggest:

1) To understand what happened in history.

Weili and Ma Xiao Dong's personal encounters were a part of the Chinese history, and a part of the human history. The author described the years of her youth spent in China when the daily reality seemed so unbelievable and crazy. A totalitarian region was created to isolate the 1 billion Chinese people from the rest of the world. It could be called the biggest scale social experiment. In the name of revolution, beating someone to death, looting, and public humiliation were common practice in those days. Once targeted as a counter-revolutionist for whatever reasons, one lost individual rights and faced physical attacks by the mobs.


Yet, those 10 traumatic years were not a total loss. The authors wanted to show you that living an innocent and simple life was somewhat possible at times for young people. The young people were initially enthusiastic to fight for the revolution and get reeducated by going to the country side. They were with people their age, away from home to serve as laborers on the farms for 5, 10, or even sometimes 20 years. They sang, performed, and made friends. Later, the reality of famine, poverty, and personal encounters in the country side left them confused and disillusioned. They matured beyond their years due to the sent-down experience.


2) To learn from this period of Chinese history. How did the Culture Revolution happen?

It happened mostly because Mao's communism "religion" dominated all. Weili's stories took us to a different time when everyone was labeled and categorized into 9 different "red" and "black" types. The man-made caste system marginalized the intellectuals and business people. So beware of religious fanatics or other ideology fanatics who would not tolerate others with different viewpoints, and do not let one voice dominate a country or a group. Masses can be brainwashed into a lot of ugly things such as killing neighbors who are identified as enemies. Racial violence and ethnic cleansings are examples of those belief systems in other parts of the world.

Second, life itself was not valued in the teaching of the time. Young kids were taught that life should be easily given up for a greater cause such as the revolution. There were plenty of books and films on the heroes who sacrificed lives for the new government. In addition, killing or beating an "enemy" was encouraged. Not respecting life was also one of the reasons that the Culture Revolution caused so much damage.

The third reason that the Culture Revolution occurred was due to the desire to negate history or anything old while jamming down a new belief system. The poetic side of Mao wanted to cleanse the past and create a new society. As Mao grew increasingly impatient with the speed of the progress, he resorted to extreme measures of "cleansing," - the Great Culture Revolution. The Red Guards (young people who pledged allegiance to the revolution) and the masses fought, killed, or tormented anything or anybody who were deemed counter-revolutionary. The violence was justified and praised. The Red Guards thought that they were doing the right thing for a cause. Later Red Guards fought each other because one group thought it was more revolutionary than another.

3) To appreciate women's perspectives on growing up during the culture revolution. The new government was supposed to have liberated women. They were equal to men in a lot of ways. Considering that women still had feet bound 50-60 years earlier, this was a remarkable accomplishment. Weili's mother was a combat pilot during the revolution. Weili's mother said that women must stand tall, which seemed to be something Hilary Clinton would have said.

However, the authors described what they experienced and learned as women, Chinese women specifically, in a male-dominated society. Weili's mother held leadership positions outside of the house, yet at home she cooked, cleaned, respected her husband's authority, and was a model wife. Women were expected to play these two different roles in a modern society. Moreover, the media and culture at the time encouraged young women to dress like soldiers with uniforms and heavy belts. Femininity was denied and considered "bourgeois." The young women at times did not want to be mothers because culturally motherhood devalued a woman and raising kids appeared to be hard, tedious, and not as meaningful as other work. If life is not valued, of course the tasks of raising kids are not respected.

The dialog format throughout the book was powerful and very easy to read. The author had a very crisp and clear writing style on some of the most difficult subjects. All in all, a terrific reading experience for me.

I believe a book is best useful when it makes me question myself or change my attitude. Ye and Ma's book is definitely one of such books. They help me see the Cultural Revolution in a new light.
Born after the Cultural Revolution, I do not have the opportunity to live this turbulent time myself. Identified as poor-peasants (pin-nong, though not peasant at all) and being non-intellectuals, both my father's and mother's families were not targeted or severely affected in the Cultural Revolution. Or if they were, they did a good job shielding me from that memory. My high school history book only gave a cursory glance at the Cultural Revolution, about which my history teacher did not take the liberty to say more. The notion that "this is a taboo" had been planted in my immature mind without myself knowing exactly where it came from. Therefore, I never thought about inquiring about it before I went to college.
Since then I came to understand how and why it was a mistake, a huge mistake that was almost irreparable. However, what has done cannot be undone. What we can do is to mind the present and create a better future to make up for the losses. I brought into the general morale of "looking-forward" (xiangqiankan, this is more telling in its homophone in Chinese which means "looking toward money") and felt reassured about it.
However, now being a graduate student in the United States, I was exposed to more western intellectual works. Their obsession with the Cultural Revolution made me unable to continue my "ostrich strategy." As one of the generation "growing up under the red flag," I read such starkly downbeat criticism of the Cultural Revolution as capitalism's unrelenting ideological attack on the Chinese Party: Cultural Revolution, as China's stigma, is the best topic they can engage in order to castigate China. Nationalist sentiment also made me reluctant to directly confront this traumatic national memory. Particularly, I had a hard time reading the "victim literature" produced by people who suffered during that time and later went to the West--the "land of free speech"--to let out their sorrow and hatred. I knew I was unfair to them--they have been so profoundly affected by that past that time cannot separate them from its horror or undo its effects. I also knew my resentment testified to the success of Chinese government's "thought control." However, no matter where my sources of rejecting the negative portrayal of the Cultural Revolution came from and no matter to what extent I could question myself, the more stark and inhuman the Cultural Revolution is depicted, the less I would trust the accounts.
Yet, Growing up in the People's Republic finally enabled me to comfortably and bravely face up to this burden of history. On the one hand, Ye honestly related the death of her school principal, the story that has haunted her for years, and Ma daringly confesses her participation in violence, which is made more compelling as she juxtaposes it with the violence her mother was afflicted with. The immense difficulty they have in "opening up deep wounds" reveals the highest moral integrity. On the other hand, their telling of the sweet childhood adds an intimate dimension to this supposedly brutal age. Ye's apathy to join the revolution in contrast to Ma's enthusiasm in embracing the "winds and waves" convinces me that they did not grow up "drinking wolf milk," as they are represented in some literature. The complexity of this era can only be understood by lending a humanistic understanding to the seemingly unimaginable individual behavior. By transforming the unbelievable into the understandable, what this book gives me touches at a level deeper than history.

I am the author of the book Growing Up in the People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). I am very grateful to the press for bringing it out to the reader, yet I have to say I feel dismayed by the cover design. The actual cover is not the same as the one shown on Amonzon.com. The most conspicuous feature on the current cover is a rather mean-spirited looking Chinese soldier. Judging by the modern communication equipments he's is wearing, the soldier is a military policeman. Incidentally, the military police only began to appear in China in the 1980s. What does a soldier of the police force have to do with a book about the growing-up experiences of two women in the 1950s and 1960s?

Yet I understand right away the symbolic meaning of the soldier. What he represents is a dark, repressive "police state." It is exactly this highly simplistic and unrelievedly negative image of the PRC (People's Republic of China) that I question in the book. What my book presents is a multi-faceted picture of the "Mao era." Through the conversations between me and Ma Xiaodong (my conversational partner in the book), we try to sort out, from personal, generational, and gendered perspectives, the entangled history and mixed legacy of a complex age. What distinguishes my book from most of the existing personal memoirs on the Mao era is precisely this more nuanced and more reflective approach. Such a distinction is recognized by Prof. Paul Cohen in his Forward to the book as well as the description of the book on the back jacket.

Unfortunately, the current jacket design contradicts what the book is about. It misrepresents the book and undermines its central message. It is an irony that a book intending to reveal the many "shades of grey" of a complex world is packed in "black-and-white" color. As the author, I believe I should let my readers know what I think about the matter. It is also worth noting here that I was not consulted with about this design beforehand. In this specific case, there was a lack of communication between the press and the author.

Thank you very much for reading the book. I'd appreciate it deeply if I could hear your feedback.

Thanks for a great book..

The Healthy Jewish Cookbook collects one hundred mouth-watering recipes from around the world. Full-color photographs illustrate cultural delicacies from Fava Beans in Olive Oil, to Roast Tomatoes with Garlic, to Vegetarian Cholent, Spiced Lamb Cutlets, Coconut Bread Pudding with Strawberries, and much more. The meticulous instructions touch upon the history, tradition, and health benefits of individual recipes as well as the mechanics of how to prepare them. An index allows for quick and easy references in this visual and taste-pleasing compilation.

So far this is a book that I will have for a very long time. It is well written and well illustrated.

I purchased a copy at Eichlers Judaica (Boro Park), and i was amazed at this beautiful collection of pictures, and very good recipes.

This work is most misunderstood by those who approvingly cite this, and by those who criticize this work. This misunderstanding has nothing to do with the structure of the book, but everything to do with the nature of any scientific hypothesis. The author has *not* criticized the concept 'religion' because the latter is western: do we think the concept of positron is western? And this book is not a critique of essentialism: entire natural sciences are `essentialistic.' `culture' is not monolithic; of course, species is not monolithic either, yet is amenable to study. What properties of Christianity are ones by virtue of which Christianity is a religion? Here Sweet Willman, in his criticism of the book, presumed that the properties of Christianity = the properties of religion. There are others who criticize it because it conflicts with their intuition. Of course, the author explained the necessity of experiencing religion in India.

Coming back to what the book does: the author identified a set of problems through historical research. Any theory of religion has to solve these problems. The author proposed a hypothesis of religion that solves these problems, and further explains the experience of believers; that shows why one can't study, say, Christianity as religion without being a believer. Then it is showed, one is compelled to do theology in order to study Christianity as a world view. Given this, the author shifted the study to a different level of abstraction: religion as that which generates a configuration of learning. This hypothesis sheds light on various issues: skepticism of Antiquity; origin of natural sciences in the West; vacuous debates of all sorts of relativism; cultural differences; theories of actions; etc. In other words, this theory does generate more problems, and can solve the same problems-in the long run.

The author nowhere did mention that `Hinduism', `Buddhism' etc. are not `something' else but not religions; whatever conceptual gestalts these entities `Hinduism' etc. refer to are non-existent in the way unicorn is.

It is not often that one reads a book that changes one's outlook drastically. This is one such book. I am really impressed. Sooner or later, the ideas propounded in this book will prove to be a major challenge to many disciplines like anthropology, religious studies, and such like.

It is not often that one reads a book that changes one's outlook drastically. This is one such book. I am really impressed. Sooner or later, the ideas propounded in this book will prove to be a major challenge to many disciplines like anthropology, religious studies, and such like.

Although the theory on religion that is submitted in this book is generally found to be highly controversial, Balagangadhara's arguments are so strong that one cannot simply dismiss this theory as intellectual 'spielerei'. His account identifies crucial constraints on Western thinking about other cultures and the social world in general, and convincingly explains why even 'giants and geniusses' have not been able to surmount these constraints. I heartily recommend this fantastic book. In the legendary words of one reader: "it might even change your world view."

Ho trovato questo libro molto ben fatto.
Le riproduzioni sono bellissime e ognuna e' dettagliatamente ed analiticamente spiegata.
Lo consiglio vivamente

There are too few book editions of the print series of Hiroshige. There are a few books featuring his "100 Views of Edo" such as the excellent one by Uspensky which I own; a smallish paperback version of the first edition of "53 Stations of the Tokaido" by Muneshige Narazaki; and a book featuring his early bird and flower prints. This book by Marije Jansen is a fine and welcome addition to the few books we have.
The book illustrates Hiroshige's "Rokujuyoshu Meisho Zue", "The Famous Views of Sixty-odd Provinces", meaning "more than sixty provinces". The prints featured are from the first edition set owned by Professor Gerhard Pulverer, and were once owned by Frank Lloyd Wright. The introduction features the ubiquitous biography of Hiroshige, followed by an overview of his well known landscape series, an overview of the Provinces series illustrated, a discussion of the format used, later editions of the series, and an explanation regarding the Pulverer prints.
After the introduction, there is a map of Japan showing the locations of every print in the series. The map, and the accompanying key on the opposite page, show that the prints were arranged geographically.
The main body of the book has explanatory text and images on the left hand pages, with a full page print from the series on the right. There are 70 prints. These include the table of contents print, 68 prints of the Provinces, and a print of the capital Edo (#17).
The author gives a brief explanation of each print and what it depicts. A great deal of research has been done on the historical, artistic, and literary background of each scene.
In the upper left of the text page there is factual information on the date, the censors, the block-cutter, and the publisher. The location of the various seals is explained for every print. At the bottom of every text page is a smaller version of the print keyed to a description of how later editions degraded in quality. These include things like poorer colors, missing colors, loss of wood grain, etc. There are usually 10-12 items described per print. This is invaluable for collectors and artists studying wood block printing.
Unlike his prints of the Edo and Fuji environs, and his Tokaido series, Hiroshige did not visit all the locations shown. He was one of the first Japanese landscape artists who actually did make prints from sketches of places he actually visited. It was customary for artists to use the sketches or verbal descriptions of others to make prints, and many of the prints in this series were taken from the guidebook "Sansui Kikan" by Fuchigami Kyokko (26 of the prints), as well as other sources. The prints are wonderful however.
The images are large and beautiful, and this book will give you many hours of enjoyment. You'll want to look through the prints again and again. I know I do.

Loved the selection and quality of the prints. Great as a gift to someone who is interested in the subject

the book is totally wonderful! completely met my expectations. i couldn"t be happier with it or the service.

I bought this book for its China centered content, and I was not let down, but what I liked best about this work is that Professor Cohen weaves in a fourth component; a discourse on what historians actually do. Just as he divides the Boxer Movement into the above noted three parts he does so as well with the historical craft itself, in the process explaining his development as a historian and seriously examining in what ways history itself can have value greater than myth and commonly held beliefs. Cohen approaches history in a modest, human, and clear thinking way which makes this highly academic work also highly enjoyable to read. I enthusiastically recommend this wonderful book to anybody that is interested in Chinese society, Chinese history, or the art of making history.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The book is split into three parts, each covering the same events from different perspective.

The first part is covered just like most any other historical book. Mostly facts and dates, and reasons as to why certain things turned out the way they did.

The second part of the book, by far the most interesting to me, was the history of the events as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it: the missionaries, the rebels, and the townsfolk. Mostly derived from writings of people that were living in China at the time, it shows their feelings and thier thoughts.

The third part involves the use of the boxers in the agendas of political and social parties in subsequent years. It is very possibly one of the best history books that I have read.

Not only does it cover this particular historical event, it also is a study of historians and their craft. It looks into how historians decide what is to be recorded and what is not and shows you how this affects the way people in the future perceive the event.

Cohen's book analyzes a particularly notorious (for Chinese and Western commentators) historical event--the Boxer Rebellion in North China (1899-1900) from an extremely fresh perspective. It is hardly poststructuralist to assert that people live history one day at a time, rather than according to some grand plan, and that is how Cohen treats the Boxer Rebellion. Most Western scholars merely see the Boxers as a manifestation of an irrational, bloodthirsty xenophobiba, while Chinese scholars seem to fall into two categories: (1) those like the early twentieth century modernizers who saw the Boxers as an embarrassment to the cause of national unity and freedom, and (2) those like Communist Chinese historians who see the Boxers as a precursor of their own victorious struggle in 1949. Cohen masterfully demythologizes the Boxers and puts them into the context of (gasp!) their own lives. Working from a combination of secondary and primary sources, Cohen reconstructs the domestic situation in China during the late nineteenth century and argues that domestic issues (particularly famine and floods) more than anything else prompted the Boxer uprising. This thesis, of course, turns on its head the idea that the Boxers were an instrument of the evil Dowager Empress Cixi in order to prevent Westerners from disturbing China's ancient and corrupt culture. Cohen is especially interesting in examining the mechanics and experience of mythmaking, applied in this case to the Boxers but which could be applied to just about any event or experience that has emotional or subjective importance for a group of people. This book is extremely useful for anyone, history students or otherwise, who are interested in Chinese history, or perhaps more fundamentally, how we reconstruct the past in order for it to make sense.

"History in Three Keys" is an excellent history of the Boxer Rebellion in northern China in the late nineteenth century. Even more than that, however, it is a look at the historian's craft, how history is experienced and related, and how history is used in the present. The book is divided into three parts, which discuss the Boxer Rebellion as Event, Experience and Myth. The first consists of standard historical writing, a brief survey of the Boxer movement. It relates important names, dates, ideas and events in a narrative history constructed by the author.

The second section, The Boxers as Experience, is more interesting. Cohen attempts to analyze the experiences of the Boxers, to form a picture of the past. He looks at various themes, discussing how they shaped the Boxer movement and the attitudes and beliefs of those involved. Making extensive use of primary documents, he tries to determine their thoughts and feelings regarding foreigners, magic, gender and death. Of course, Cohen realizes that he cannot fully recount or recreate the experience of the Boxer rebellion, and spends many pages discussing ways historians and writers can approach history to try to understand and explain it.

These themes become more fully developed in the book's final section, The Boxers as Myth. Here Cohen explores the various ways the Boxers have been used as myths in twentieth century China, serving "the political, ideological, rhetorical and/or emotional needs" of the moment. While foreigners and the New Culture movement mythologized the Boxers as symbols of Chinese superstition and backwardness, anti-Imperialists cheered their anti-foreignism and nationalism, and cultural revolutionaries idolized their rebelliousness and the mythical role of women in the rebellion.

Cohen explores the difference between historians, who attempt to understand and explain the past, and mythologizers, who try to use history to advance an agenda in the present. He discusses the process of myth-making, in which contexts and inconvenient facts are ignored and a one-dimensional 'history' in created through distortion and oversimplification. Still, Cohen has some respect for mythologizing the past, and notes that experience itself is "processed" in terms of culture and myth. "Mythic constructions are ubiquitous in the world of experience and form an inseparable part of it."

I was assigned part of this book in a history course on nineteenth century globalization, but ended up reading the whole thing - and I'm glad I did. In addition to giving an excellent history of the Boxer Rebellion, "History in Three Keys" contains valuable insights into more recent Chinese history and development. Even more valuable are the discussions about the nature of history, myth, historical writing and the historian's craft. It is well written, clear and engaging, with extensive notes, index and bibliography. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it to all interested in Chinese history or historical writing in general.

Six years ago, I wrote my first review for Amazon, of Richard N. Frye's "Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement". Frye's work, concentrating mostly on the 10th and 11th centuries, described in detail how Turkic-speaking nomads combined with Iranian city dwellers and Arab bringers of a new religion to create a new synthesis in Islam in Central Asia, particularly in the city of Bukhara. That syncretic Islam later became most instrumental in the development of the Muslim faith in the Indian subcontinent. Levin's THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD mainly describes the condition of music and musicians in the 1990s in the modern republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. That same Richard N. Frye provides a strong endorsement on the back cover. I too find that this volume is a worthy successor in the on-going "project" of bringing Central Asian history and culture before Western eyes. The musical world of Central Asia still involves synthesis and syncretism---between the West and tradition, between new conservatism and older tolerance, between Soviet atheism and local spirituality, between Islam and older religions which we might label shamanistic, and between so-called ethnic groups like Uzbeks and Tajiks.

Levin travelled around the region with a musical companion, Otanazar Matyakubov, who provided endless contacts and insights. Together they interviewed and listened to all the varied performers of Central Asian music, from a female pop singer to humble performers of classical styles, from healers in remote villages who used music in their rituals to performers at schmaltzy Jewish weddings in the transplanted Bukharan Jewish community in Queens, New York. Levin describes the surroundings in which he found each musician, tells of his travels in decrepit cars between ancient cities or by donkey through the dramatic mountain scenery of remotest Tajikistan. While a certain amount of detail may be of interest chiefly to fellow ethnomusicologists, those specialized observations are spaced throughout the text in such a way that the non-professional reader never feels overwhelmed. Levin provides a number of excellent photographs, maps, and most importantly, a brilliant CD which illustrates all the styles and instruments he discusses. The effect of 70 years of Soviet policies is often mentioned, and a reader can deduce the results of this assault on local culture, though I would have liked more direct comment. Moscow's insistence on creating discrete "nationalities" created virulent brands of Uzbek and Tajik (and so many other) nationalism where none had existed. It created separate, ethnic-based countries where none had ever existed. It even created "Uzbek" and "Tajik" music out of a formerly seamless Central Asian tradition. This Soviet policy ultimately resulted in the squeezing out of Bukharan Jews-prominent in the Central Asian musical world for centuries---because they were deemed insufficiently "Uzbek" by newly nationalistic authorities.

In short, this is one of the best books of ethnomusicology I have ever read. It would be of interest to anyone trying to learn more about Central Asia and must be required reading for anthropologists concerned with the area. THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD also brings the region to life and underlines the difference between the materialistic, narrowly nationalistic present and the past in which musicians played out of devotion and love of God without trying to fit into some culture apparatchik's idea of "national music".

Mr. Levin writes about cultural survival and cultural decay in Transoxiana, as seen from the vantage point of traditional musicians. Combining his own traveler's tales with detailed but accessible musicological analysis, he examines the role of the traditional performing arts in the modern world of Uzbekistan, and the way that they have been subverted by the Soviet and successor governments. Engagingly written, without condescension towards the reader or the people of whom he writes, this book will reward readers interested in the cultural life of the region.

Mr. Levin has truly accomplished something noteworthy in this book. It is perhaps the best book from the often boring realm of ethnomusicological research that I have read in recent years. The breadth of understanding and acute cultural awareness brought out in the book is fantastic. It should find an audience among music scholars as well as the average reader, especially given the uncomplicated way Levin tells his tale. The addition of the CD to the book is truly complimentary unlike many of the other "multi-media" gimmicks so often offered to entice the buyer. This book is essential for anyone who seeks a clarity in writing about the musics of another culture.

This book is a many faceted report on the state of music in the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, especially Uzbekistan. The author did his Ph.D. research in ethnomusicology in Tashkent on traditional court music called Shash maqam in 1977-1978. At the time, Levin was not as interested in this music as he had expected, which he later attributed to the Soviet cultural policies which extinguished the spark of vivacity from the Uzbek music. This book details many of the author's subsequent travels to Central Asia in search of traditional musicians who managed somehow to develop their unique talents within the stifling socialist milieu.

Levin provides much information about the artists, their music, and their poetry, which can all be heard on the accompanying CD. In the text itself, he rarely describes the instruments played by the musicians, referring to them merely with their local names. However, descriptions of the instruments can be found in the glossary at the end of the book, which I unfortunately didn't notice until I had finished reading. Occasionally, Levin's musicology terms get a little too thick for the general reader, but on the whole, the book is quite accessible.

The strongest aspect of the book is its description of the culture history of music in the Soviet Union. In my own brief travels to the Soviet Union, I was struck by how many people there were acquainted with classical music--how an appreciation of classical music stretched across the entire society. I never saw the dark side of this, however. In this book, Levin describes how centralized state policies governed even the field of music, changing and obliterating centuries' old traditions.

I had the pleasure of stumbling across this book recently and purchasing it through Amazon; it contains striking pictures of Islamic people & places captured by Peter Sanders, a famous English photographer. The associated descriptions and quotes from Islamic sources for each impeccably selected photograph greatly enhance the high production quality.

In this day and age where the electronic media is replete with images of death, destruction, and violence this book serves as a breath of fresh air, evoking the simplicity and beauty inherent in being near to one's Creator.

Mr. Sanders has a great gift to see the world through a beautiful lens, and to be able to share it with Muslims and non-Muslims alike. He has a well-crafted web site (which I'll fail to mention, respecting Amazon's review guidelines) that contains a mini-photo gallery - as well as info on his forthcoming books in the series which I hope to see available here soon, inshAllah (God willing).

If you're still debating whether to buy this book or not, stop and just click the button; trust me, you won't regret this purchase one bit! :)

The photography of Peter Sanders takes us into a new world of possibilties and challenges us to humanise the "other". A man who straddles East and West, Sanders captures the spiritual depth and universal message of the lived Muslim experience in a way few others have. Each photograph is the starting point for a narrative that ought to be written by those who view them. A blessed and marvelous work!

This book came as a gift from a dear friend who happens to be a Christian from Britain. His note read "I thought you might appreciate this lovely book." Lovely it is indeed. In many ways. A gift that is a challenge to repay.

Great photographers' through their works get us to see and comprehend the world surrounding us. A few among great photgraphers are able to translate to us through their images what we miss or are not able to see inside the people arround us.

Peter Sanders' work gives us glimpses of many insides. It is a look at many parts of the world of Islam. But as you go through the images and the words you see straight into the crevaces of Sanders' yearning. And from his inside you can see much of what it is to be a muslim. A word that means something along the line: one who is willfully submiting in peace, to the Peace.

In these days of many horrors this work is a gift for those who want to know. A gift for searching hearts.

Peter Sanders, one of the first non-Muslim's (Before he entered Islam) to take photo's of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, has put together an excellent pictorial journey through specific countries and places.

While the cover claims, "An Odyssey through the Muslim World", I would choose to call this collection a glimpse into the heart of Peter Sanders.

Mr. Sanders went through his extensive collection of photographs taken from throughout the World, and picked ones that he felt had something to say. He placed a quick commentary and some words of wisdom together with each photograph, and created this book.

Some of the pictures are breathtaking, and some are not so breathtaking. Some of the pictures become breathtaking after reading the commentary; Several pictures made me scratch my head in puzzlement. But after reading Mr. Sander's explanation, I found a new appreciation for the pictures.

I think the book can pass off as an interesting coffee table book. Some people though, will find the photo's and the commentary exceptionaly interesting, and find the book much more then an idle conversation passer.

Anybody interested in exceptional photography (In my limited appreciation of photography) from North Africa and the Middle East will find this book worth the cost.

Peter Sanders is an acquantance of Shaikh Hamza Yusuf; for some people, that might be enough reference to purchase the book.

This book provided everything I hoped it would: 1) A brief outline of the major events and major figures in Mughal history - 2)Some anecdotal material - 3)maps, pictures, diagrams, etc.

It also had some bonuses, like a suggested list for further reading, some translations of texts and letters from people from the time period. The Babur-nama undoubtedly provided the most entertaining texts.

This certainly isn't the be all end all of Mughal history, but that's not what this book is attempting to be. It provides a concise, brief picture of the dynasty and provides the perfect springboard to go deeper into the subject. I finished the book in one sitting in a few hours and that was with really looking at the paintings, diagrams and pictures. All in all, this is a brilliant little intro to a fascinating subject. It certainly has made me want to read further.

This is a small, but nice book that gives only an overview of the Mughal Empire. It is full of colored pictures mixed in with the text, and lots of info sidebars. While it made for an enjoyable read, if you need something more on the academic side, with heavy detail, this is not the book you are looking for.

I love the Discoveries Series. An intelligent text is interwoven with beautiful illustrations and pictures. Each illustration comes with text that is pregnant with information. In fact, the text and the illustrations can be read as parallel texts.

This one on the Mughal empire is an absolute delight - even though the final days of the Mughals India are treated only very briefly. It's the sort of text that children and adults can learn a lot from. Beautiful and Magic.

I have read lots of background essays on the influence of the Mughals in India - but Ms. Berinstein's is the best as it links the influence of the Samarkand society on an attempt by later Mughal leaders to integrate into Indian society - if you want a good reader and on the way to India - this is a must read - it is a jumping off point to read more about the Mughals individually, the Sikhs, the Rajputs and the impact of British power on a declining culture. A quality paperback (small in size but packs a wallop) with excellent pictoral displays. Jay Pineda, Ph.D (History and Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara)