'Memorable... One of [China's] most astute and sensitive foreign observers' Financial Times 'Compassionate... full of warmth' Guardian More than twenty years after teaching English to China's first boom generation at a small college in Sichuan Province, Peter Hessler returned to teach the next generation. At the sam...

This book offers a new critical intervention into the studies of the paradox of Chinese socialism. Centering on the “unremodable” Shanghai bourgeoisie and middle class, the book brilliantly discovers Chinese society's persistent aspiration to bourgeois lifestyle and remarkable resistance to socialist ideology from t...

What is justice? What is the best way to live? Can an ideal society exist? In The Republic, the philosopher Plato presents a powerful conversation between Socrates and his disciples as they explore the meaning of justice, the role of education, the nature of reality, and the qualities of an ideal ruler. Written arou...

This book charts the surge and decline in piracy in the early eighteenth century (the so-called "Golden Age" of piracy), exploring the ways in which pirates encountered, obstructed, and antagonised the diverse participants of theBritish empire in the Caribbean, North America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The book's...

A Sociology of Awkwardness shows how awkward feelings are the outcome of social interactions going wrong. Combing insights from cultural sociology and the sociologies of interactions and emotions, this book develops the first comprehensive sociology of awkwardness. It provides an understanding of how people define, ...

What does it mean to be cast outーnot just from society, but from your own conscience? In An Outcast of the Islands, Joseph Conrad explores the moral descent of Peter Willems, a corrupt European trader who flees to a remote Southeast Asian village after being disgraced. There, he finds a fragile peaceーuntil lust, a...

The Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of modernity, it has come to symbolise the transformative rebirth of knowledge, art, culture and political thought in Europe. And for the last two hundred years, historians have struggled t...

The original international woman of mystery, Mata Hari is maligned as a spy and a traitor. Having seduced a number of the most powerful men in Europe, she was accused of spying for both Allied and Central Powers during the First World War. Mata Hari's biography tells a different story. From her remarkable transforma...

This volume examines the higher-level discussions convened at Wilton Park, the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s policy forum, since its inception in 1946. Originally a ‘re-education’ camp after World War II in the principles and practice of democracy, Wilton Park has evolved into a first-class inte...

When historians discuss the great European empires of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Sweden is sometimes not included in their conversations. Despite this omission, Sweden amassed a wealthy, prosperous empire during these years. Their territory spanned several regions of Europe and even included colonies ...

A Companion to Roman Art encompasses various artistic genres, ancient contexts, and modern approaches for a comprehensive guide to Roman art. Offers comprehensive and original essays on the study of Roman art Contributions from distinguished scholars with unrivalled expertise covering a broad range of international...

Subhas Chandra Bose was a revolutionary who sought Indian independence, but as many would contend, he ended up on the wrong side of history. In order to shake off the British yoke, Bose enlisted aid from Germany and Japan during World War II. This has led some to roundly condemn Bose as nothing more than a fascist c...

The political theories of Lenin have long outlived him, and have even gone on to outlive the Marxist state he help to found; the Soviet Union. The name Lenin still reverberates around the world, and yet "Lenin" is not even his real name. He was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the name Lenin was just the word he used t...

明信片，是人們一種旅遊回憶或「到此一遊」的憑據，亦是一種具備多功能性質的媒介。它既是呈現出風土民情、湖光山色的藝術品，亦是蘊含文化積澱的收藏品及彌足珍貴的歷史資料。在資訊還未很發達的時代，明信片更加發揮教育的功能，成為人們汲取各類知識的來源。 日本是擅於運用圖像表達不同訊息的國家，明信片的面世正好大派用場。二十世紀初...

Hedy Lamarr was a rare kind of woman. She was not only a strikingly beautiful actress who took Hollywood by storm in the 1940s, but she was also an inventorーand not just any inventor. Hedy Lamarr's work with radio frequencies is credited with paving the way for Wi-Fi. It seems that the greatest bomb that this bombs...

〓 Explore the fascinating and turbulent period of European history in The Dark Ages by Charles Oman. This comprehensive work delves into the formative years of the Middle Ages, spanning from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD to the early medieval period in 918 AD. ✨ Oman masterfully chronicles the key events,...