History of Intercultural Contact: Find Books

A history of turbulent U.S.-China relations from the 19th century to World War II and Mao's ascent.

In 1871, five young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States. Their mission: learn Western ways and return to help nurture a new generation of enlightened men to lead Japan. Raised in traditional samurai households during the turmoil of civil war, three of these unusual ambassadors-- Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige Nagai, and Ume Tsuda-- grew up as typical American schoolgirls. Upon their arrival in San Francisco they became celebrities, their travels feted by newspapers across the nation. The passionate friendships they formed reveal an intimate world of cross-cultural fascination and connection. Ten years later, they returned to Japan-- a land grown foreign to them-- determined to revolutionize women's education. Based on in-depth archival research in Japan and in the United States, Daughters of the Samurai is beautifully, cinematically written, a fascinating lens through which to view an extraordinary historical moment.

Empires and Encounters presents information on different aspects of human life in all parts of the world from the period 1350 to 1750. In the first centuries of that period people of different parts of the world were not only culturally different but also knew little or even nothing of each other. The Incas for instance had no idea of the existence of Europeans or Africans and vice versa. Inside large regions of the world, however, political interaction, as well as economic and cultural exchange, had been going on for many centuries and was during this period increasing in intensity because this was a time of worldwide empire-building. The chapters of the book examine Eurasia between Japan and Russia; the Ottoman and Iranian Empires of the Muslim world; Mughal India and the trading world of the Indian Ocean; the multicolored world of maritime Southeast Asia and Oceania; and the continents on both sides of the Atlantic under the growing impact of Europe. Europe at this time had no privileged power position, but it did enjoy a special role in establishing regular maritime interaction across the Atlantic and worldwide between the five macro-regions of the globe. The European world economy, based upon the silver of Spanish America, initiated modern globalization.

Fateful Ties draws on literature, art, biography, popular culture, and politics to trace America's long and varied preoccupation with China.

Examines how the encounters between China and Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries transformed the arts on both sides of the East-West divide.