East Asia: From Chinese Predominance to the Rise of the Pacific Rim

by Arthur Cotterell (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $4.34

  In recent decades there has been a dramatic transformation around the Pacific Rim. No longer 'the Far East' - that exotic, mysterious land at the distant fringe of Western consciousness - East Asia today commands the attention of the entire world. In East Asia, Arthur Cotterell condenses into a compact, highly readable book an immense amount of historical knowledge, placing this amazing economic development in its proper perspective - an Asian one. Cotterell ranges from the dawn of Chinese civilization to Japan's emergence as the first East Asian nation to develop an industrial economy. And he brings his history up to the present, examining America's setbacks in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Japan's rise as an economic superpower, and the recent histories of countries such as reunited Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. Cotterell goes on to suggest that Japan will eventually be overtaken by its neighbours, concluding that relations between the Chinese and the Japanese will ultimately determine the future of East Asia, although over the coming decades the key Pacific partners remain China and the United States. With spectacular historical perspective, Arthur Cotterell performs an invaluable service to all those who wish to have deeper understanding of our newest, and most competitive, trading partners.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $5.85

  East Asia is a survey of the history of nearly half mankind, from the rise of China, its first civilization, to the present day. As well as China, the book covers Japan and Korea, and South East Asia from Burma to Indonesia. It is already clear that by the next century the countries of the Pacific Rim will be the world's economic pace-setter, and that, in particular, East Asia will be the world's workshop. This book aims to set that development in context by revealing the long historical process of which it is a part. By doing so it also suggests pointers to the future, when Japan - now the front runner - will be overtaken by its neighbours, the greatest of which, China, has only just started to compete. Arthur Cotterell combines the broad sweep and the revealing parallel with the anecdote or telling detail that lends immediacy to the past, whether the far distant dawn of Chinese civilization or the more recent colonial interlude and Second World War. Above all, he provides a perspective on the most dramatic transformations taking place in the contemporary world for travellers to the East, students of Eastern societies, and businessmen who need to understand the background and position of their trading partners.