East Asia: A New History

1ST, I BORROWED THIS BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY AND THE WRITER BLEW MY MIND! THE TEXT IN THIS BOOK IS SUPERB AND HISTORY IS QUITE PRECISE!! SO I DECIDED TO BUY THIS BOOK, AND IT'S STILL AS THRILLING!!! 2ND, IT IS AN EASY TO READ BOOK - - HEY ... THE BOOK IS SO GOOD I BROUGHT AN EXTRA COPIES FOR MY COLLECTION!!!HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ANY OBSERVER AND ADVISOR!!!

Rhoads Murphey's East Asia: A New History covers everything a lay person needs and wants to know about this complex region and culture. This book is a fascinating and easy-to-read summary of Dr. Murphey's 60-year-long living and teaching experience in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries. It is an excellent introduction to Asia not just as a textbook but a very useful primer for corporate executives, professionals and even tourists. I've read this book and its various editions ever since 1973 when I first studied with Professor Murphey as a graduate student. Readers will get from this book not just the facts, images, philosophy and poetry of East Asia. You will see the humanity of a great teacher, scholar, writer and romantic who knows how to make Americans understand and appreciate our fellow men and women of this important part of the world. The book never fails to make me smile and re-discover the many simple truths about cultures that we so easily forget.

I found this book in 1997 after desperately searching for something to replace Shirokauer's creaky _Modern China and Japan_. I have used it for several Modern East Asia courses and am presently using it for a Traditional East Asia survey, and I find that students of all levels of knowledge appreciate it. It does have a few shortcomings, as I feel would be the case for any textbook on Asia, as the topic is so expansive and many situations are downright confusing. However, it gives a good balance of political to social history, has extremely useful maps and insets, and the writing is consistently good. I would also recommend it for the casual reader who wants to get a decent background on Asian culture.