Research Guides: HIST 313: Time, Space and Modernity in East Asia (HC): Background Information

Background Information- Countries

The following sources provide overviews of Asian history. They are a quick way to find out the basic facts and recent scholarly interpretations.

When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, frequently, Web resources considered to be the most up-to-date and reliable.

China

Cambridge history of China
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This multiple-volume history provides detailed analyses of pertinent social, political, and economic issues.
Chinese History: A New Manual
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This new edition features informed introductory essays, side bars and tables, and comments for nearly every title cited, those written in Chinese and other languages as well as English.
A Companion to Chinese History
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This book offers an overview of the latest intellectual developments in the study of China's history with scholarship by historians from both China and around the globe. Pertinent essays include:
"Nineteenth-Century China: The Evolution of American Historical Approaches"
"Republican History"
"Rethinking the History of Maoist China"
Also available in Tripod in print copies.

Japan
Cambridge History of Japan
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Leading historians contributed thematic essays to this comprehensive history of Japan. Contents include:v. 5. Nineteenth Century; v. 6. Twentieth Century.
A Companion to Japanese History
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Relevant essays include:
"Intellectual Life, Culture, and the Challenge of Modernity"
"Modernity, Water, and the Environment in Japan"
Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese History
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Relevant essays include:
"Urban Life and the City Idea in the Twentieth Century"
"The Path of Economic Development from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Economic Miracle"

Korea
Encyclopaedia of Korea
Open access text of more than 1400 pages written by specialists. Articles concern Korean history, culture and social issues. Download the foreword and index (p. 40) for more information.
Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean History
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Essays analyze themes in 19th and 20th century Korea involving political, social and economic history.

Space and Cities

The Architecture of Tokyo: An Architectural History in 571 Individual Presentations
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Introduces the architecture of the Tokyo region, looking at buildings grouped into six time periods.
Beijing: A Concise History
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Sets out the history of the city in different periods across time. It also examines particular sites including Tian'an Men Square, the Forbidden City, its temples and museums and the Imperial Tombs.
A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture
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Includes this relevant essay:
"Urban Space and Visual Culture: The Transformation of Seoul in the Twentieth Century"
Handbook on Urban Development in China
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See the essays in this book that focus on historical conditions.
Historical Dictionary of Tokyo
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Includes a a chronology, an introductory essay and over 600 entries on people, places, events, and other terminology about the city of Tokyo.
Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History
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Pertinent essays include:
" China: 1300--1900 "
"Japan's Pre-modern Urbanism"
"China: 1900 to the Present"
See also thematic essays on industrialization, social segregation and colonial cities.
Seoul : Memory, Reinvention, and the Korean Wave
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Interrogates Seoul's contested history and its physical remnants, tacking between the city’s historiography and architecture, with attention to monuments, streets, and other urban spaces. The book’s structuring device is the dichotomy of erasure and memory as necessary preconditions for reinvention.