Mention Japanese history to a non-Japanese, and the first thing that will likely come to mind is the samurai, the legendary warrior elite who ruled the country for over one thousand years. But how did they meet their end? With their two swords, top-knot haircut, and legendary code of honor, the samurai were the absolute, unquestioned rulers of the country. That all began to change rapidly when the "black ships" of US Commodore Matthew Perry arrived...

A classic of Japanese history, this book is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume, complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period A History of Japan covers every important aspect of history and culture through feudal Japan to the post-cold War period and collapse of the Bubble Economy in the early 1990s. Recent findings shed...

"Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists had a different view. This 'Bomber Mafia' asked:...

A modern history of the Cambodian province of Kampot, told through the lives of the salt fields people of Chum Kriel. Just outside of Kampot town is the district of Chum Kriel, which contains hundreds of salt fields, fringed with small, basic houses and rice paddies. This book tells the stories of some of the resilient, resourceful and courageous people who have made their lives there. Based on both documentary research and individual interviews,...

“[The Rising Sun] is quite possibly the most readable, yet informative account of the Pacific war.”—Chicago Sun-Times
This Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s...

Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy. In braille.

"How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway? Guided by Katy Hessel, art historian and founder of @thegreatwomenartists, discover the glittering paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the nineteenth-century United States and the artist who really invented the "readymade." Explore the Dutch...