Novedades del último mes en eBooks de Historia de los países de Asia

Una mirada incisiva al ascenso industrial y tecnologico de ChinaDurante casi una década, Dan Wang ha observado el crecimiento tumultuoso de China. El Estado ha levantado puentes colosales, redes ferroviarias modernas y vastas fabricas en tiempo record para impulsar la economia, aunque ese cambio acelerado tambien ha tenido un alto coste social.China ha crecido tan rapido, en parte, al imponerse a Estados Unidos en su propio terreno: el capitalismo y la movilizacion de una poblacion inmensa. En A toda maquina, Wang combina el analisis politico y economico con el reportaje y propone un marco provocador para entender China que, al mismo tiempo, arroja nueva luz sobre Estados Unidos: un Estado de ingenieros volcado en construir frente a una sociedad dominada por abogados que bloquea el cambio.En un contexto de relaciones tensas e inciertas entre ambas potencias, A toda maquina ofrece una nueva forma de pensar China y Estados Unidos, y muestra como cada uno señala un camino mejor para el otro. Best seller del New York TimesLibro del año segun el Financial Times y el Sunday TimesFinalista del premio al Libro de Negocios del Año del Financial Times y Schroders

Reconocido como uno de los mayores arqueólogos chinos de su tiempo, Su Bingqi (1909-1997) realizó en sus investigaciones una extraordinaria exploración de los orígenes de la civilización china. En este libro que compendia algunas de sus mas importantes contribuciones a la arqueologia, traducidas por primera vez al español, explora desde una macroperspectiva las fuentes, caracteristicas y reglas de desarrollo de las diversas culturas regionales de este vasto territorio asiatico. Fundador de la tipologia arqueologica en su pais, dedicada a estudiar la evolucion de la morfologia de los materiales arqueologicos, como las ceramicas, busco establecer las relaciones temporales y espaciales de las diversas culturas arqueologicas en un marco historico y en su contexto fisico, social y espiritual. Creo asi un puente de conexion entre la arqueologia y otras disciplinas, ofreciendo una impresionante panoramica de los origenes de esta grandiosa civilizacion.

"A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson is one of the most influential accounts of piracy during the so-called Golden Age of Piracy in the early eighteenth century. First published in 1724, the book presents vivid biographies of notorious pirates such as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Calico Jack, and the female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Blending historical reporting with dramatic storytelling, the work captures the brutality, audacity, and unpredictability of life at sea.Johnson recounts battles, mutinies, betrayals, and daring escapes, portraying pirates as both ruthless criminals and rebellious figures who defied imperial authority. The narrative details the social structures aboard pirate ships, including codes of conduct, divisions of plunder, and unusual forms of democratic governance.While the books authorship remains debated, its impact is undeniable. It shaped the popular image of pirates for centuries, influencing literature, folklore, and modern entertainment. The text oscillates between moral condemnation and fascination, offering insight into the economic and political tensions that fueled piracy.A General History of the Pyrates remains a foundational source for understanding maritime crime and legend, blending documentation and myth in a work that helped define the enduring mythology of pirates."

The Prophet, conocido en español como El profeta, es una obra filosófica y poética escrita por Khalil Gibran.En este libro, un sabio maestro comparte profundas reflexiones sobre los aspectos esenciales de la vida humana antes de emprender su viaje de regreso a su tierra natal. A traves de una serie de meditaciones llenas de belleza y sabiduria, el autor aborda temas universales como el amor, la libertad, el trabajo, la alegria y el dolor.Con un lenguaje lirico y espiritual, El profeta invita al lector a reflexionar sobre la vida, las relaciones humanas y el significado de la existencia, convirtiendose en una de las obras mas inspiradoras y leidas de la literatura moderna.

Billed as the unbreakable "Iron Dam" and a triumph of socialist engineering, the Banqiao Reservoir in Henan province was designed to withstand a once-in-a-millennium flood. But in August 1975, the stationary Typhoon Nina dumped more than a years worth of rain onto the region in just 24 hours. The resulting failure triggered a domino effect of 62 dam collapses, unleashing an apocalyptic wall of water.The disaster obliterated entire cities and claimed an estimated 171,000 to 230,000 lives, making it the deadliest structural failure in human history. Yet, the Chinese government successfully buried the disaster in classified archives for over two decades. The collapse was not just an act of nature, but a catastrophic failure of arrogant engineering, poor maintenance, and a rigid chain of command that prevented emergency gates from being opened in time.This event exposed the terrifying fragility of massive hydro-infrastructure projects built during periods of rapid, unchecked industrialization. It serves as a grim warning about the catastrophic consequences of ignoring hydrological limits.This deep dive into the declassified meteorological and engineering reports pieces together the timeline of the collapse. Readers will understand the brutal mechanics of water pressure and the deadly cost of political cover-ups.

The Taiping Rebellion was the deadliest civil war in world history, claiming an estimated 20 to 30 million lives in 19th-century China. This book provides a detailed and authoritative analysis of this monumental conflict, which was led by Hong Xiuquan, a visionary who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ.The author unveils the "hidden mechanics" of the rebellion, analyzing the unique blend of pseudo-Christian millenarianism, social grievances, and anti-Manchu sentiment that fueled the uprising. Explore the establishment of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom," its radical social reforms, and its ultimate collapse due to internal conflicts and the joint efforts of the Qing Dynasty and foreign powers."The Taiping Rebellion: Understanding Chinas Bloodiest Millenarian Civil War" is an essential resource for historians, political scientists, and all interested in Chinese history and the dynamics of religious and millenarian conflicts. This book offers profound insights into the complex forces that shaped this devastating civil war and its enduring impact on Chinas historical trajectory.

In August 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated the overthrow of Irans democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. The operationcode-named Ajaxwas the first successful U.S.-engineered coup of the Cold War, executed to protect Western oil interests and prevent perceived Soviet expansion. The result would shape the geopolitics of the Middle East for decades, replacing democracy with monarchy and sowing the seeds of revolution.This book traces Operation Ajax from planning rooms in Washington and London to the streets of Tehran, drawing on declassified intelligence reports, memoirs of operatives, and Iranian eyewitness testimony. It exposes the network of bribes, propaganda, and provocations that toppled Mossadeghs government and restored Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to absolute power.More than a story of spies and oil, this is a history of the moment when covert action became a cornerstone of American foreign policy. The coup that seemed a triumph of Cold War strategy ultimately became a cautionary taleone whose reverberations continue to define U.S.Iran relations to this day.

Before nations conquered continents, a company did. Chartered in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I, the East India Company began as a trading venture and evolved into the most powerful commercial enterprise in historycommanding armies, minting coins, and toppling kingdoms in pursuit of profit. It was a corporation that ruled more subjects than any European monarchy, a private empire that blurred the line between commerce and conquest.This book recounts how a small group of merchants turned trade into territorial domination, reshaping the political geography of Asia and laying the foundations for Britains global empire. Drawing on company records, Indian archives, and parliamentary debates, it examines the Companys dual identityas merchant and sovereignand the mechanisms through which capital became a tool of colonization.From the Bengal Famine to the 1857 Rebellion, the narrative traces how corporate ambition and imperial ideology intertwined, leaving a legacy of extraction, resistance, and reform that continues to haunt postcolonial economies today. More than a story of empire, it is a warning about what happens when private interests wield public power without accountability.

For nearly four centuries, the Ottoman Empire transformed from a small Anatolian principality into one of historys most formidable powersstretching across three continents and reshaping the political, cultural, and religious landscape of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This book traces that remarkable journey, from the early campaigns of Osman I through the conquests of Mehmed II and Suleiman the Magnificent, to the empires dramatic overreach at Vienna in 1683.Drawing on Ottoman chronicles, diplomatic correspondence, and archaeological evidence, the narrative examines how military innovation, administrative flexibility, and strategic diplomacy fueled expansion. It explores the perspectives of those who lived within and beyond Ottoman borderssoldiers, merchants, diplomats, and subject populationsrevealing an empire far more complex than either its admirers or critics have acknowledged.At its core, this is a story about the limits of power: how ambition, logistics, and geopolitics ultimately defined where an empire could and could not reach.

For more than three decades, Ali Khamenei has presided over one of the worlds most complex theocratic systemsoutlasting sanctions, uprisings, and the death of the revolutions founder. Yet his grip on power remains poorly understood outside specialist circles. He is neither a charismatic populist nor a conventional autocrat, but something harder to categorize: a ideological arbiter who rules through institutions, networks, and carefully managed ambiguity.This book examines the architecture of Khameneis authorityhow the Supreme Leader position was redesigned to fit him, how the Revolutionary Guards became instruments of political as well as military control, and how state media, clerical networks, and economic patronage bind elites to the system. It traces key moments of crisis, from the 2009 Green Movement to the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, showing how the regime absorbed pressure, adapted, and endured.Drawing on declassified documents, opposition testimony, and regional analysis, this is a rigorous study of how ideological power sustains itself in the twenty-first centuryand what its limits reveal about Irans future.

On March 3, 1924, Abdulmecid II boarded a train from Istanbul into exile, carrying the title of Caliph spiritual leader of the worlds Sunni Muslims for the last time in history. Mustafa Kemals new Turkish republic had abolished the caliphate, severing a chain of Islamic imperial authority that traced itself back to the companions of the Prophet. It was the final act in a dissolution that had been unfolding for over a century, accelerated by two Balkan wars, a catastrophic World War, and the ambitions of European powers who had long treated the Ottoman Empire as a inheritance to be divided.This book reconstructs the Ottoman endgame as both an imperial collapse and a civilizational transformation. It traces the Young Turk revolution of 1908, the catastrophic decision to enter World War I alongside Germany, the genocidal campaigns against Armenian and other Christian minorities, and the post-war partition negotiations that reduced a six-century empire to a rump Anatolian state. It follows the War of Independence that Kemal launched against occupation forces and the radical secularist project he imposed once victory was secured.Drawing on Ottoman imperial archives, British Foreign Office records, diplomatic correspondence, and survivor testimony, this is a rigorous account of how one of historys most enduring empires dissolved and what its ending revealed about the forces reshaping the modern Middle East.

Since 2015, Yemen has endured one of the worlds most devastating humanitarian catastrophesa war that has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, and pushed entire regions to the edge of famine. Yet outside specialist circles, the conflict remains poorly understood, obscured by competing geopolitical narratives and inconsistent international media coverage.This book examines how hunger became a deliberate instrument of war in Yemen: port blockades restricting food imports, agricultural infrastructure targeted by airstrikes, and aid access systematically obstructed by multiple armed parties. Drawing on UN investigative reports, humanitarian field documentation, journalist testimony, and survivor accounts, it traces how a civil conflict became a proxy war sustained by foreign arms, funding, and political calculation.The narrative refuses to reduce Yemen to statistics. It centers the experiences of families navigating collapsing healthcare systems, aid workers operating under fire, and communities watching centuries-old agricultural traditions destroyed within a single decade. It also interrogates the legal and institutional frameworksinternational humanitarian law, UN Security Council dynamics, arms export regulationsthat failed to prevent mass civilian harm.A measured, rigorously sourced account of how modern warfare weaponizes basic human needs, and what accountability might look like when the fighting stops.

Genghis Khans reputation rests almost entirely on destruction the cities reduced to rubble, the populations annihilated, the civilizations interrupted. What that reputation obscures is the sophisticated diplomatic apparatus through which the Mongol Empire was actually constructed and sustained. Before armies moved, envoys arrived. Genghis Khan offered submission, trade access, and administrative continuity to those who capitulated, and reserved annihilation for those who killed his ambassadors or refused his terms. Diplomacy was not the alternative to Mongol warfare it was its essential precondition.This book reconstructs Mongol statecraft through Persian, Chinese, and Armenian chronicles, the Secret History of the Mongols, and four decades of Central Asian archaeological scholarship. It examines the diplomatic infrastructure Genghis Khan built: the yam courier network that connected an empire spanning four thousand kilometers, the multilingual secretariat staffed by conquered administrators, the deliberate policy of religious tolerance as a tool of political consolidation, and the carefully calibrated use of terror as a negotiating instrument.The narrative traces how Genghis Khan transformed a confederation of steppe tribes into a functioning imperial administration recruiting Uyghur scribes, Chinese engineers, Persian financiers, and Khitan administrators into a bureaucratic system that outlasted its founder by over a century. It also examines where Mongol diplomacy failed: the miscalculations that triggered the Khwarazmian campaign, the limits of steppe political culture when applied to sedentary agricultural societies, and the gradual fragmentation of the empire into competing successor states.A rigorously sourced account of the Mongol Empire as a political and diplomatic achievement not only a military one.

In July 1908, a constitutional revolution forced the Ottoman sultan to restore parliamentary government and the men who led it believed they had saved an empire. Within fifteen years, that empire was gone, replaced by a republic they had not intended to create, built on ruins they had helped produce. The Young Turks remain one of historys most consequential and contested revolutionary movements: modernizers who embraced ethnic nationalism, reformers who presided over genocide, and empire-savers who became nation-builders by necessity.This book examines the Committee of Union and Progress the Young Turk organization as a political and ideological movement navigating an empire in terminal crisis. It traces their intellectual formation in European exile, their seizure of power in 1908, and the increasingly authoritarian trajectory that followed: the suppression of minority populations, the catastrophic alliance with Germany in 1914, and the wartime deportations and massacres of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks that would define their historical legacy. It follows the movements fragmentation after defeat and how one of its junior officers, Mustafa Kemal, salvaged Turkish sovereignty from the wreckage.Drawing on Ottoman parliamentary records, CUP internal correspondence, European diplomatic archives, and survivor testimony, this is a rigorous account of how revolutionary ambition, nationalist ideology, and imperial collapse combined to produce the modern Turkish state.

Few nations carry the weight of history as visibly as Iran. From Cyrus the Greats proclamation of the worlds first human rights charter to the 1979 revolution that reshaped the modern Middle East, the lands of Persia have been a continuous theater of empire, faith, and reinvention. Yet the through-lines connecting ancient Achaemenid ambition to contemporary theocratic governance remain underexplored in mainstream historical literature.This book traces Irans 2,500-year arc not as a sequence of disconnected dynasties, but as an evolving negotiation between centralized power, religious authority, and national identity. It examines how Persian imperial culture survived Greek conquest, Arab invasion, and Mongol devastationeach time absorbing outside forces while reasserting a distinct civilizational core. It follows the Safavid transformation of Shia Islam into a state ideology, the Qajar empires collision with European colonialism, and the Pahlavi monarchys turbulent modernization project.Drawing on archaeological evidence, classical sources, and modern historiography, this is an accessible yet rigorous account of how one civilizations long memory continues to shape its present politics, culture, and place in the world.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was founded in 1979 to protect a revolution. Within decades, it had become something far larger a parallel state with its own military command, economic empire, intelligence apparatus, and foreign policy agenda. Today the IRGC controls an estimated third of Irans economy, funds proxy forces across the Middle East, and holds veto power over domestic politics that no elected official can easily challenge.This book traces the IRGCs transformation from revolutionary militia to institutional superpower. It examines how the Guards accumulated economic assets through construction conglomerates, sanctions-busting networks, and state contracts and how that wealth translated directly into political leverage. It follows their operational reach from Lebanons Hezbollah to Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces, showing how Tehran projects influence without conventional diplomacy.Drawing on financial records, defector testimony, and regional security analysis, this is a systematic study of how a single institution reshaped an entire state and why understanding the IRGC is essential to understanding Irans role in the twenty-first century.

History books extensively cover the eruptions of Vesuvius and Krakatoa, detailing their devastating impact on human civilization. Yet, one of the most violent and catastrophic volcanic events in recorded history occurred on the border of modern-day China and North Korea, an event so massive it buried entire empires in ashand then was mysteriously forgotten.In 946 AD, Mount Baekdu exploded with a force that rivaled the deadliest mega-colossal eruptions of the Holocene epoch. It blasted cubic miles of rock into the stratosphere, unleashing a terrifying "Millennium Eruption" that rained ash as far away as Japan. The ensuing volcanic winter devastated agricultural cycles, triggered mass famines across East Asia, and critically destabilized the powerful Balhae Kingdom, paving the way for its sudden collapse.This historical investigation unearths the lost timeline of the Baekdu catastrophe. You will follow modern geologists analyzing ice cores in Greenland that bear the chemical signature of the blast, and historians decoding ancient chronicles that describe a sky turned black and a summer that never arrived.Discover the hidden mega-eruption that altered the geopolitics of the East. Understand how a single geological rupture can erase a dynasty, rewrite the climate, and vanish into the shadows of historical amnesia.

When Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Irans morality police in September 2022, the grief that followed was not new but the response was. Women removed their headscarves in public. Schoolgirls chanted against the Supreme Leader. Men stood alongside them in streets from Tehran to Zahedan. The slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom" became the most powerful expression of dissent the Islamic Republic had faced since its founding.This book reconstructs Irans uprising as a historical event with deep roots and far-reaching consequences. It traces the decades of accumulated frustration economic collapse, generational alienation, and the systematic erosion of womens rights that transformed a single death into a national reckoning. It examines how the protest movement organized across ethnic and class lines, how the regime calibrated its response between lethal force and strategic concession, and why the uprising did not fall silent even after the executions began.Drawing on survivor testimony, social media archives, human rights documentation, and opposition networks, this is a rigorous and respectful account of a generation that chose the streets over silence and what their courage revealed about the limits of theocratic power.

Since 2017, credible reports from journalists, researchers, and survivors have documented the mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, northwestern Chinaa campaign Chinese authorities describe as vocational training, but which critics and international bodies have characterized as systematic cultural suppression. At its peak, estimates suggest over one million people were held in detention facilities without trial, separated from families, and subjected to political indoctrination.This book examines the Uyghur crisis through survivor testimony, leaked government documents, satellite imagery analysis, and independent investigative reporting. It traces the historical relationship between Beijing and Xinjiangs indigenous Uyghur population, the post-2001 security framework that enabled mass internment, and the international communitys fragmented response.Rather than reducing this crisis to geopolitical rivalry, the narrative centers the human costthe broken families, suppressed language, demolished mosques, and enforced silence that define daily life under surveillance. It asks how modern states construct legal and bureaucratic architecture to justify detention at scale, and why the international response has remained so inconsistent.A rigorous, ethically grounded account of one of the twenty-first centurys most documented yet least understood humanitarian emergencies.

When images from Gaza flooded screens worldwide in 2024, they triggered one of the most intense global reactions in recent memory. Governments fractured along geopolitical lines. University campuses erupted in protest. Newsrooms debated what to show and what to omit. Social media algorithms shaped what millions sawand what they didnt.This book traces the worlds response to the Gaza conflict not as a single unified reaction, but as a fragmented, contested, and deeply revealing set of struggles over narrative, power, and moral responsibility. Drawing on protest records, media analysis, parliamentary debates, and firsthand testimony, it examines how institutionsfrom the UN to major broadcastersnavigated a conflict that demanded clarity while defying easy categorization.More than a chronicle of events, this is a study of how modern societies process war: through screens, streets, and political chambers. It asks what the global reaction to Gaza reveals about the current state of international solidarity, media accountability, and the limits of institutional power.