Rhoads Murphey - Böcker

This accessible text offers a comprehensive history of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, including coverage of everyday life, women and gender-related issues, and the environment–topics often neglected in other texts.  Throughout his distinguished career, author Rhoads Murphey has inspired within students an appreciation for the rich and unique history of Asia. The Fifth Edition of this text on East Asia is certain to bring this fascinating region to life for many of today’s students.

The comparative study of empires has traditionally been addressed in the widest possible global historical perspective with comparison of New World empires such as the Aztecs and Incas side by side with the history of imperial Rome and the empires of China and Russia in the medieval and modern periods. Surprisingly little work has been carried out focusing on the evolution of state control and imperial administration in the same territory; approached in a rigorous and historically grounded fashion over a wide extent of historical time from late antiquity to the twentieth century. The empires of Rome, Byzantium, the Ottomans and the latter-day imperialists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, all inherited or seized and sought to develop overlapping parts of a common territorial base in the Eastern Mediterranean and all struggled to contain, control or otherwise alter the political, cultural and spiritual allegiances of the same indigenous population groups that were brought under their rule and administration.The task undertaken in Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean is to investigate the balance between continuity and change adopted at various historical conjunctures when new imperial regimes were established and to expose common features and shared approaches to the challenge of imperial rule that united otherwise divergent societies and imperial administrations. The work incorporates the contributions by twelve scholars, each leading practitioners in their respective fields and each contributing their particular insights on the shared theme of imperial identity and legacy in the Mediterranean World of the pagan, Christian and Muslim eras.

First published in 1980.This book analyzes Chinese society and evaluates the achievements and failures of the Maoist ideology. The central theme is the urban and rural balance in China's development from the Revolution to the late twentieth century. The Fading of the Maoist Vision shows how the original Revolutionary blueprint was altered and the ways in which China has steered a different course from that charted by Mao as the ideological vision encountered an increasingly pressing set of economic realities. The book: · Is particularly valuable in setting China's achievements in the larger context of global ideas about the problems of national development and by comparing them to the experience of India in its pursuit of the Gandhian ideal.

This book introduces the beginning student to the major concepts, materials and tools of the discipline of geography. While it presents geographic theory, as whole and for each of its parts, the chief emphasis is on concrete analysis and example rather than on abstraction, an approach which has proven more successful for undergraduate courses than those with a more heavily theoretical bias. The text was extensively re-written for the third edition, which enhanced its clarity and effectiveness, with expanded cartographic coverage.

Materials from the past that wrongly anticipate the future, or present information or judgments that are later proved misleading or erroneous, are sometimes overlooked in reconstructing the past. Yet such documents are as legimiate, and perhaps as important, as those that are vindicated by events or continue to share perspectives with later generations. The five documents reproduced in Nineteenth-Century China are typical of the periods from which they come, but each was overtaken or contradicted by events. Collected with a belief in the legitimacy of attempting to see every period as much as possible in its own terms, these texts offer a glimpse of what China looked like and suggested to Englishmen on the spot in Canton and Hong Kong in the first half of the nineteenth century, and how they viewed their own country and its role vis-à-vis the China they observed. The first two texts in Nineteenth-Century China exemplify the imperialist mind’s eagerness to explore the world, to get a picture of all of its parts, and as rapidly as possible to “open” all areas to the benificent influence of the West, notably through an expanded commerce that would enrich its Western masters. Samuel Ball’s “Observations” (1817) show how much detailed information was available to Westerners and what the mercantile British were after, and an anonymous dissertation (1838) provides an example of the dream of the China as El Dorado: an immense population of eager traders, hard workers, and willing buyers. The third text (1845) is an early foreshadowing by a colonial official, R. M. Martin, of Western imperial arguments, rationalizations, and attitudes that would become common fifty years later. The fourth selection consists of an exchange of correspondence in 1847 about British access to and use of land in the vicinity of Canton. A short statement of purpose (1848) from the Morrison Education Society, demonstrating a missionary enterprise combining Christian evangelism and English education, concludes the book.

The Mozartian Historian: Essays on the Works of Joseph R. Levenson is a profound tribute to the intellectual legacy of Joseph Levenson, an innovative historian whose interpretations of Chinese history reshaped the discipline. Edited by Maurice Meisner and Rhoads Murphey, this volume emerged from the shared sense of loss and intellectual urgency felt by colleagues after Levenson’s untimely death. More than a commemorative festschrift, the book serves as an analytical deep dive into the themes and methods that defined Levenson’s work, emphasizing their lasting relevance to historical and intellectual inquiry.Levenson’s scholarship, particularly in his seminal trilogy Confucian China and Its Modern Fate, challenged conventional historiographical norms by intertwining Chinese history with universal historical discourse. His comparative approach revealed the unique dimensions of Chinese traditions while situating them within broader human experiences of modernity and change. The essays in this collection reflect on Levenson’s radical conception of historical continuity, his dialectical understanding of change, and his incisive critique of cultural determinism. Balancing rigorous analysis with personal recollections, the contributors illuminate the intellectual audacity and humanity that defined Levenson’s career, making this book a vital resource for historians, Sinologists, and anyone engaged with the enduring tensions between tradition and modernity.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

The Mozartian Historian: Essays on the Works of Joseph R. Levenson is a profound tribute to the intellectual legacy of Joseph Levenson, an innovative historian whose interpretations of Chinese history reshaped the discipline. Edited by Maurice Meisner and Rhoads Murphey, this volume emerged from the shared sense of loss and intellectual urgency felt by colleagues after Levenson’s untimely death. More than a commemorative festschrift, the book serves as an analytical deep dive into the themes and methods that defined Levenson’s work, emphasizing their lasting relevance to historical and intellectual inquiry.Levenson’s scholarship, particularly in his seminal trilogy Confucian China and Its Modern Fate, challenged conventional historiographical norms by intertwining Chinese history with universal historical discourse. His comparative approach revealed the unique dimensions of Chinese traditions while situating them within broader human experiences of modernity and change. The essays in this collection reflect on Levenson’s radical conception of historical continuity, his dialectical understanding of change, and his incisive critique of cultural determinism. Balancing rigorous analysis with personal recollections, the contributors illuminate the intellectual audacity and humanity that defined Levenson’s career, making this book a vital resource for historians, Sinologists, and anyone engaged with the enduring tensions between tradition and modernity.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

The studies presented in this collection are concerned most particularly with the material conditions of life in the mature Ottoman state of the 16th-18th centuries. They range from the evaluation of sources of livelihood and conditions in the workplace on the one hand, to notions of domesticity and organization of the private sphere on the other, and deal with the provinces, in both the Balkans and in Asia, as much as with Istanbul. At the same time the volume aims to illuminate Ottoman imperial institutional forms and norms as they existed in the high imperial era before the rapid change and transformation associated with late imperial times when the empire was more exposed both to global economic forces and external political pressures. This concentration on the relatively stable conditions that prevailed in the empire throughout the bulk of the early modern era (ca. 1450-ca. 1750) provides the reader with an opportunity to assess Ottoman institutional development and observe social and economic organization in their relatively 'pure' state before the double impact of industrialization and increasing Westernization in the late nineteenth century.

Ottoman Warfare is an impressive and original examination of the Ottoman military machine, detailing its success in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Focusing primarily on the evolution of the Ottoman military organization and its subsequent impact on Ottoman society in a period of change, the book redresses the historiographical imbalance in the existing literature, analyzing why the Ottomans were the focus of such intense military concern.Several books have been written on the fiscal, technological, tactical, and political dimensions of Ottoman military history; little has been attempted, however, to recreate or evoke the physical and psychological realities of war as experienced by Ottoman soldiers. Rhoads Murphey seeks to rectify this imbalance, favoring operational matters and providing a detailed study of a number of campaigns: we are offered, for example, vivid descriptions of life in the trenches with the diggers at Baghdad in 1638, who dug a total of five miles at 50 yards a day. Murphey's analysis does not focus on the Ottoman's success or failure in particular campaigns per se; he focuses on understanding the actual process of how the Ottoman military machine worked.This long-awaited work will become the definitive study of Ottoman warfare in the early modern period, and will be invaluable to those studying the Ottoman Empire and early modern European history in general.

A History of Asia is the only textbook to provide a historical overview of the whole of this region, encompassing India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Engaging and lively, it chronicles the complex political, social, and intellectual histories of the area from prehistory to the present day. Taking a comparative approach throughout, the book offers a balanced history of each major tradition, also dedicating coverage to countries or regions such as Vietnam and Central Asia that are less frequently discussed in depth. This eighth edition has been streamlined and updated to reflect the most recent scholarship on Asian history, bringing the book up to date with recent events and key trends in historical research. Highlights of the book include close-up portraits of significant Asian cities, detailed discussion of environmental factors that have shaped Asian history, quotes from Asian poetry and philosophical writing, and attention to questions of gender and national identity.Highly illustrated with images and maps, each chapter also contains discussion questions, primary source excerpts, and in-depth boxed features. Written clearly throughout, A History of Asia is the perfect introductory textbook for all students of the history, culture, and politics of this fascinating region.

A History of Asia is the only textbook to provide a historical overview of the whole of this region, encompassing India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Engaging and lively, it chronicles the complex political, social, and intellectual histories of the area from prehistory to the present day. Taking a comparative approach throughout, the book offers a balanced history of each major tradition, also dedicating coverage to countries or regions such as Vietnam and Central Asia that are less frequently discussed in depth. This eighth edition has been streamlined and updated to reflect the most recent scholarship on Asian history, bringing the book up to date with recent events and key trends in historical research. Highlights of the book include close-up portraits of significant Asian cities, detailed discussion of environmental factors that have shaped Asian history, quotes from Asian poetry and philosophical writing, and attention to questions of gender and national identity.Highly illustrated with images and maps, each chapter also contains discussion questions, primary source excerpts, and in-depth boxed features. Written clearly throughout, A History of Asia is the perfect introductory textbook for all students of the history, culture, and politics of this fascinating region.

The studies presented in this collection are concerned most particularly with the material conditions of life in the mature Ottoman state of the 16th-18th centuries. They range from the evaluation of sources of livelihood and conditions in the workplace on the one hand, to notions of domesticity and organization of the private sphere on the other, and deal with the provinces, in both the Balkans and in Asia, as much as with Istanbul. At the same time the volume aims to illuminate Ottoman imperial institutional forms and norms as they existed in the high imperial era before the rapid change and transformation associated with late imperial times when the empire was more exposed both to global economic forces and external political pressures. This concentration on the relatively stable conditions that prevailed in the empire throughout the bulk of the early modern era (ca. 1450-ca. 1750) provides the reader with an opportunity to assess Ottoman institutional development and observe social and economic organization in their relatively 'pure' state before the double impact of industrialization and increasing Westernization in the late nineteenth century.

This book introduces the beginning student to the major concepts, materials and tools of the discipline of geography. While it presents geographic theory, as whole and for each of its parts, the chief emphasis is on concrete analysis and example rather than on abstraction, an approach which has proven more successful for undergraduate courses than those with a more heavily theoretical bias. The text was extensively re-written for the third edition, which enhanced its clarity and effectiveness, with expanded cartographic coverage.

First published in 1980.This book analyzes Chinese society and evaluates the achievements and failures of the Maoist ideology. The central theme is the urban and rural balance in China's development from the Revolution to the late twentieth century. The Fading of the Maoist Vision shows how the original Revolutionary blueprint was altered and the ways in which China has steered a different course from that charted by Mao as the ideological vision encountered an increasingly pressing set of economic realities. The book: · Is particularly valuable in setting China's achievements in the larger context of global ideas about the problems of national development and by comparing them to the experience of India in its pursuit of the Gandhian ideal.

The comparative study of empires has traditionally been addressed in the widest possible global historical perspective with comparison of New World empires such as the Aztecs and Incas side by side with the history of imperial Rome and the empires of China and Russia in the medieval and modern periods. Surprisingly little work has been carried out focusing on the evolution of state control and imperial administration in the same territory; approached in a rigorous and historically grounded fashion over a wide extent of historical time from late antiquity to the twentieth century. The empires of Rome, Byzantium, the Ottomans and the latter-day imperialists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, all inherited or seized and sought to develop overlapping parts of a common territorial base in the Eastern Mediterranean and all struggled to contain, control or otherwise alter the political, cultural and spiritual allegiances of the same indigenous population groups that were brought under their rule and administration.The task undertaken in Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean is to investigate the balance between continuity and change adopted at various historical conjunctures when new imperial regimes were established and to expose common features and shared approaches to the challenge of imperial rule that united otherwise divergent societies and imperial administrations. The work incorporates the contributions by twelve scholars, each leading practitioners in their respective fields and each contributing their particular insights on the shared theme of imperial identity and legacy in the Mediterranean World of the pagan, Christian and Muslim eras.

Is it possible to identify the ‘essence' of Ottoman kingship? And if so, what were the core motivating principles that governed the dynasty over its 600 year lifespan and how continuous and consistent were they? Following the death of the dynasty's eponymous founder Osman in 1324, 35 successors held the throne. Despite the wide range of character traits, dispositions and personal preferences, they led the expansion, stagnation and eventual collapse of the empire. Rhoades Murphey offers an alternative way of understanding the soul of the empire as reflected in its key ruling institution: the sultanate. For much of the period of centralized Ottoman rule between ca. 1450 and 1850 each of the dynasty's successive rulers developed and used the state bureaucratic apparatus to achieve their ruling priorities, based around the palace and court culture and rituals of sovereignty as well as the sultan's role as the head of the central state administrative apparatus. Sovereignty was attached to the person of the sultan who moved (with his court) both often and for prolonged stays away from his principal residence. In the period between 1360 and 1453 there were dual capitals at Bursa and Edirne (Adrianople) and even after 1453 several Ottoman sultans showed a preference for Edirne over Istanbul. Even Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent - held by the Ottomans, western contemporaries and modern analysts alike to be the pinnacle and paragon of Ottoman kingship - spent far more time away from his residence at the Topkapi Palace than in it. This book explores the growing complexity of the empire as it absorbed cultural influences and imperial legacies from a wide diversity of sources each in turn engendering a further interpretation of existing notions of kingship and definitions of the role and function of the ruler.

Is it possible to identify the 'essence' of Ottoman kingship? And if so, what were the core principles that governed the dynasty over its 600 year lifespan? Following the death of the dynasty's eponymous founder Osman in 1324, 35 successors held the throne. Despite the wide range of character traits, dispositions and personal preferences, they led the expansion, stagnation and eventual collapse of the empire. Rhoades Murphey offers an alternative way of understanding the soul of the empire as reflected in its key ruling institution: the sultanate. For much of the period of centralized Ottoman rule between ca. 1450 and 1850 each of the dynasty's successive rulers developed and used the state bureaucratic apparatus to achieve their ruling priorities, based around the palace and court culture and rituals of sovereignty as well as the sultan's role as the head of the central state administrative apparatus.Sovereignty was attached to the person of the sultan who moved (with his court) both often and for prolonged stays away from his principal residence.In the period between 1360 and 1453 there were dual capitals at Bursa and Edirne (Adrianople) and even after 1453 several Ottoman sultans showed a preference for Edirne over Istanbul. Even Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent - held by the Ottomans, western contemporaries and modern analysts alike to be the pinnacle and paragon of Ottoman kingship - spent far more time away from his residence at the Topkapi Palace than in it. This book explores the growing complexity of the empire as it absorbed cultural influences and imperial legacies from a wide diversity of sources each in turn engendering a further interpretation of existing notions of kingship and definitions of the role and function of the ruler.

Frontiers of Ottoman Studies provides a comprehensive overview of the surge in research into Ottoman history and culture over the past two decades. The first volume reflects the growing interest in the provinces, communities and cultures outside the imperial capital of Istanbul and covers four major areas: politics and Islam; economy and taxation; development of Ottoman towns and Arab and Jewish communities. Chapters on Ottoman legal and fiscal institutions provide a fascinating insight into the Ottoman government's interaction with the Empire's subjects, while reviews of Egypt and the Arab provinces emphasise the stirrings of Arab nationalism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that ultimately contributed to the demise of the Empire.

Frontiers of Ottoman Studies provides a comprehensive overview of the surge in research into Ottoman history and culture of the past two decades. The second volume covers Ottoman-European International Relations; Ottoman manuscripts in Europe; Ottoman-European cultural exchange and Christian influence and the advent of the Europeans. The work makes a significant contribution to diplomatic history and international relations; Ottoman geographical knowledge; the nature of Ottoman artistic and cultural aesthetics and the intellectual, cultural, technological and human interactions between the Ottoman world and Europe.

A study of the Ottoman military machine and its successes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in a period when they were feared by western European states and the focus of much military concern. The book is intended for undergraduate courses in early modern history, Ottoman history, history of the Middle East and North Africa, and for military historians.