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These essays offer a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary study of the ways in which communities of people understand and inhabit their environments. They examine and compare human/environmental interactions in communities across the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Rim, and Asia. ... Read more

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Labor migration is regulated by the government private, and non-governmental/non-private organizations. Tyner argues that migrants are socially constructed by these parties and that migrants in turn become political resources. ... Read more

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This accessible volume provides a brief introduction to the institutions, policy concerns, and international roles of the Pacific islands. Evelyn Colbert expertly paints an overall picture of the region using broad brush strokes, complementing the mostly specialized literature available about the South Pacific. ... Read more

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The contributors to this volume explore the close relationship between education and the molding of modern immigrant societies through case studies of either Asian migrants or Asian immigrant societies. This volume will be especially useful for researchers, educators, and students intent on understanding some of the critical challenges faced by a globalizing world.

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Examines the geography, history, culture, and people of Japan. ... Read more

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No description available ... Read more

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How effective are regional and interregional institutions in managing Asia’s increasingly complex economic and security ties? This question is currently the subject of intense debate among both academics and policymakers. Based on an innovative approach to analyzing institutional design, this path-breaking book provides a rich theoretical and empirical analysis of trends in Northeast, Southeast, and South Asia. In particular, it shows how three major shocks—the end of the Cold War, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the 9/11 attacks—have challenged Asia’s long-standing trade and security order and generated a new set of institutional structures for coping with regional dynamics. Whereas the original postwar trade and security order revolved around bilateral alliance structures, global economic and security institutions, and long-standing corporate and ethnic networks, the new institutional environment in Asia is manifested by the proliferation of preferential trading arrangements and security dialogues, both official and unofficial, formal and informal, bilateral and minilateral. Asia’s New Institutional Architecture brings together a multinational group of specialists on Asian trade and security to provide a theoretically grounded analysis of historical and current developments in the region. The book will be must reading for those interested in examining future trends for Asia and its relations with the world.

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Each title looks at a different region of the world, covering topics such as climate, economic development, religious groups, education, health and the political and social status of women.The series combines in-depth information in the form of maps, diagrams and statistics with case studies to make the books a source of geographical information and statistics.It features a range of maps, including landform, political, climate and population, make this a useful resource for enhancing map reading skills. It highlights major issues and challenges facing each region in the years ahead. It includes tables and charts to support the learning of information-retrieval skills. ... Read more

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Edited by Frederic Shoberl.This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1820 edition by R. Ackermann, London. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautiful reissue
I wish I had chosen the cloth edition instead of the softcover, but the book is a wonderfull edition anyway ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by Frederic Shoberl.This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1820 edition by Frederic Shoberl, London. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautiful reissue
I wish I had purchased the cloth edition but its a wonderfull reissue of this book. ... Read more

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Edited by Fenton Aylmer. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1860 edition by Hurst and Blackett, London. ... Read more

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The many different localities of the Pacific region have a long history of transformation, under both pre- and post-colonial conditions. More recently, rates of local transformation have increased tremendously under post-colonial regimes. The forces of globalization, which rapidly distribute commodities, images, and political and moral concepts across the region, have presented Pacific populations with an unprecedented need and opportunity to fashion new and expanded understandings of their cultural and individual identities.

This volume, the first in a new series, examines the forces of globalization at different levels, as they manifest themselves and operate across cultural, cognitive and biographical dimensions of human life in the Pacific. While posing familiar questions, it offers new answers through the integration of cultural and psychological methods. The contributors draw on practice theory, cognitive science and the anthropology of space and place while exploring the key analytical rubrics of human agency, memory and landscape. ... Read more

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This is the first comprehensive scientific publication on the tropical islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Almost 38,000 of the approximately 45,000 tropical islands on our planet are systematically described and illustrated with typical examples.

In addition to those islands which are of special geographical interest, this volume focuses on those where international tourism is a significant factor in the local economy, together with specific regional problems such as rainforest destruction, rice cultivation, and the impact of monocultures. Another highlighted aspect is the socioeconomic diversity of these regions, ranging from traditional societies in the interior of Madagascar, Borneo, and Papua New Guinea to the high-tech lifestyles of the city-islands of Singapore and Hong Kong.

The text is illustrated with numerous photos taken by the authors during their journeys in the tropics. ... Read more

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The purpose of this volume is to create an awareness among managers and planners concerned with natural resources and environmental management, about usefulness of remote sensing and geographic information system techniques in mapping, monitoring and managing the land and its resources in tropical environments. Remote sensing is a key issue, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, where more than half of the world's natural disasters occur, and adding pressure on national and regional efforts to achieve the goals of sustainable development. It is recognized that monitoring the Earth's environment by space technologies, like remote sensing, provides an opportunity for greater information sharing and predicting changes in the Earth's environment. ... Read more

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In an era of rapid change in the world environment, Southeast Asia is a key, yet often overlooked, region. This book assesses Southeast Asia both regionally and in terms of individual nations struggling to fit into a changing global context. Within a framework that combines comparative and international approaches, Neher considers the increasingly vital issues of modernization, democratization, economic development, US-Southeast Asian relations, and the role of state. Interweaving historical, political, and cultural themes, he enables readers to understand the region from a Southeast Asian rather than a Western perspective. This text may be of use for courses in international relations, Third World politics, Asian politics and comparative politics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Thorough, but lacks cohesiveness
The book covers Southeast Asia in great breadth.Each country is broken up and anylzed one at a time, with the exception of an overall introduction to Southeast Asia.

Lacking
Neher provides a decent overview of Southeast Asia, but anyone with even a scant background in the area will find it to be wholly incomplete.Although not innacurate, Neher's treatemnt of the region and its history is cursory, its numerous deficiencies really are inexcusable for such an author.

Good Overview on Southeast Asia
Clark Neher, professor of political science and director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University, presents a comprehensive view of Southeast Asia. Having lived in Thailand and thePhilippines for seven years, Neher shows clear understanding of the presentsituations in the region. Neher points out that there is greatdiversity in the region. Other than geographical proximity and a colonialpast, there is little that link the nations in this region to be seen as acoherent whole.The primary focus of the book deals mostly with theprocess of modernization especially within the twentieth century up to thetime of his writing, and how the Southeast Asian countries fit in the NewInternational Era. Thus the whole outlook of the book deals almostexclusively with political and economic developments since the World WarII. After a brief introduction to the region and its emergentimportance in the international scene, Neher gives an overview of each ofthe ten Southeast nations, namely, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia,Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. However,the report on each nation was not evenly dealt with. I feel that adisproportionate coverage was given to Thailand and the Philippine comparedto the other nations. His overview of these two nations took up almost 80pages, whereas only 140 pages were given to the remaining eight nations. This does not reflect good scholarship when the author did not provide areason for it, especially when one realizes that the author had actuallyresided in these two countries for seven years. Furthermore, althoughthe third edition was published in 1999, most of the latest updates weregiven up to early 1998. Most of these additions were single-paragraphadd-ons of news without further analysis. A reader seeking understanding ofthe latest development of the financial crisis finds little helpfulunderstanding of the situation. One would expect better analysis of thesituation since it has far reaching consequences in the global scene.Thislack of coverage betrays the intent of the author to present Southeast Asiain the New International Era and the fact that it was revised in 1999.Oneserious mistake was the addition of a paragraph detailing political changein 1998 in Indonesia by mistake in the section that deals with Malaysia. Neher's presentation gives a lucid account on how each of the SoutheastAsian countries grappled with democratization in the postwar era as eachwas trying to gain economic and political stability. For example inThailand, the traditional culture of venerating the monarch gives it uniquestability even in the face of numerous coups and military rule. The Kingintervened successfully in each case, thus was able to avert bloodshed evenwhen the country went through many changes of government. In recentyears, Southeast Asia has enjoyed relative peace and stability that broughteconomic boom to the region. Such economic success did not occur evenly inall the Southeast Asian countries. Burma, Laos, and Cambodia remainedisolated; while Indonesia has its fare share of political unrest. However,as the author points out, most of the Southeast Asian nations are movingfast, though each at different pace, toward modernization. ... Read more

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Students and other interested readers finally have a solid resource that describes the breadth of the evolving modern Australian society. Culture and Customs of Australia is the first general introduction to the rugged continent, written by an Australian novelist with particular insight. Clancy focuses on the Anglo-Irish and more recent immigrants, but the Aboriginal context is also presented. ... Read more

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derivative culture
Don't get your hopes up with this book. A tired old refrain about Australia, that was only half a joke, was that it had little culture. Much of the local scene was derivative. The book only slightly disabuses that view. It describes a largely immigrant society, that is strong because of its pluralistic makeup. But which also has had less time to develop truly distinguishing customs.

Now if you regard the book as a travelogue, then it has a good survey of the festivals and main events in the Australian cities. Maybe it's best for this.

The coverage of Aboriginal culture, or rather what's left of it after 2 centuries of colonialism, is where the book really shows an Australian uniqueness. But to see distinctive Aboriginal events and society, you need to leave the big cities. Many Abos there are now very assimilated, and, for example, speak only English. It is in the Outback, especially in Northern Territory, that original customs are largely maintained. ... Read more

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From bamboo rafts to the double-hulled voyaging canoe, this book is a celebration of the traditional boats of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. The people of these island countries depend on the sea, and their ships reflect their mastery of sailing and shipbuilding. Early sailors built simple dugout canoes, but the invention of the outrigger and the double-hulled canoe allowed the Polynesians to navigate rough waters and sail thousands of miles more than 1,000 years before the Greeks and Romans mastered the Mediterranean. From New Zealand to Hawaii to Indonesia, this book discusses fishing techniques, navigational methods, and boat building facts. ... Read more

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Traditional Boats and Seafarers of the Pacific
Thirty Thousand years ago, the first Melanesian sailors trusting in their abilities sailed beyond the horizon in search of new lands.They settled first in the Solomon Islands and then pushed into the South Pacific.Four thousand years ago, Polynesian sailors pushed the exploration envelope by sailing as far away as Easter Island and the Hawaiian Islands.They were able to make these extraordinary voyages without the benefit of navigation tools or sophisticated maps.These are major accompolishments that are often forgotten about in Western textbooks.

John Nicholson is fascinated by the traditional boats used by these early sailors.A first rate illustrator, Nicholson describes the building techniques and riggings used by these traditional sailors.This is a book meant for school aged children but as an adult, I still found "Fishing for Islands" a fun and worthwhile read.Highly recommended. ... Read more

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Through the use of historical maps the author outlines the history of the Pacific. Topics covered include: the first colonizations; the movements of the Polynesians; the voyages of Magellan and the Elizabethan circumnavigators Drake and Cavendish; Tasman's discovery of Tasmania, New Zealand and Fiji; Cook and the mapping of Australia, the discovery of Hawaii and exploration of the Arctic; Perry opening up Japan in the mid 19th century; the age of colonialism; war in the Pacific 1941-1945; the last five maps will deal with post-war events and will examine the present power of the Pacific rim. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Great work but handicapped by its broad scope.
When I saw that Colin McEvedy had written another historical atlas, I was very excited because his atlases of Europe, Africa and North America were, for me, invaluably illuminating. However, despite his usual concise brilliance, this book was somewhat disappointing.

For one thing, when I saw the title "Atlas of the Pacific", I didn't really expect it to literally be about the ocean. When one hears "Pacific", one thinks of Eastern Asia- China, Japan, Korea, etc. However, the map template for this book consists of the Pacific Ocean occupying the vast center of the map, with Asia tucked in a little corner in the upper left and North America tucked in the opposite corner. This was simply daft. This book should have focused solely on Asia. Not only was the narrative necessarily unfocused- having to cover North America, Asia, Australia and Oceania- but the maps themselves consequently suffered from a lack of detail.

In addition, it is simply incredible that anyone thought this subject could have been covered in the limited pages it was given. It took McEvedy 4 books to cover the history of Europe; shouldn't the history of Asia have merited the same thorough treatment? He often is forced to have one map cover hundreds of years of history. One map covers a thousand years. In contrast, his medieval atlas of Europe never went more than about 50 years without an updated map.

So, even though McEvedy's scholarship and writing were as impressive as always, the bizarrely broad scope of this work hobbled the effectiveness of this work and lessened my satisfaction.

Not as good as the other Penguin Historical Atlases, but worth buying
This atlas covers what is now the United States, Canada, East Asia, and the entire Pacific The focus of the text is very heavily on Europe and the United States. I would have liked much more focus on China, which had a huge impact on the region. It starts in 28 million years ago and finishes in 1998.The interval between maps gradually shrinks as we get into the modern era, so relatively little is pre-AD. In all, it has over 50 maps.

While I don't think this book is as good as the rest, this entire series is superb and is absolutely essential for any lover of historical atlases. I have been an owner of virtually all of them for at ten years and I can honestly say that they are most read books of all that I own.

The reason is their unique portability and scope. Most historical atlas are huge, heavy and expensive. They are difficult to read unless you are sitting at a table and very difficult to carry. This limits their utility (even though I still love them). Most history books have lots of dense detail about one nation or one period. Virtually none cover the broad sweep of an entire region over centuries.

Like all Penguin Historical Atlases, it is small, light, reasonably priced and incredibly broad in scope. These atlases offer a unique perspective on history than is otherwise impossible to achieve. Their size and weight make them perfect for travelling. Whenever I go on a trip, I take the most relevant ones with me. That way I can brush up on my history of the region.

The format departs a bit from other Penguin Historical Atlases, which I think is a drawback. They departed from the usual map on the right and text on the left.

The relative importance of East Asia
For many years, Dr. McEvedy has been producing succinct analyses of mankind's achievements, combining wit and devastating attacks on the post-modern academic establishment.
But for some time, he left himself open to one major criticism: why deal with the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and even Africa, while relegating East Asia by implication to a historical backwater? In this book, he has convincingly rebutted his critcs.
Naturally, there will be partisans who find McEvedy's Euro-centric view of the world distasteful. To quote from an earlier work, "Asia is [rightly} considered only as a stage on which the European struts... this... needs no justification".
But here he has shown he is no mindless neo-con or jingo: he is simply not prepared to whitewash inconvenient facts, such as the smug and self-defeating attitude of the Ming and Ching rulers of China, or the fact that Japan only acquired real historical significance with the Meiji Restoration.
This is a book which will withstand the tests of time. It is brightened by the author's usual lively wit and extraordinary gift for relating maps to prose.

Rounding Out History
I am very interested in history and particulary fond of historical atlases. I own several by Colin McEvedy: The Atlases of Ancient History to Recent History, the Historical Atlas of Africa and that of North America. I particularly enjoy his witty incisive view of history. This particular atlas fills in my knowledge gap about the Pacific area. It was particulary fascinating to view the maps and read the history of this area, to find out how the "other half" of the world has been doing.

Good but not the best in the series.
Following from the excellent, entertaining and informative series of Penguin maps on Europe (Ancient, Middle ages, Modern, Recent Histories) this book attempts to show 10000 years of history in the Pacific in 100 pages using the same geographical map (of the entire Pacific rim), showing the rise and fall of cultures, civilisations and other relevant events in the history of the region.

Unfortunately, in this case it does not work so well with reading of the book a little disjointed and less absorbing that others in the series. There are two reasons why I think this is so :
1) The time frame is just too large - too much happens in 10,000 years to be described in enough detail in a book like this, and we end up with lots of details for some events (e.g. America vs. Japan in WWII, European exploration of Pacific 16th->18th centuries) and not so much on others (e.g. mass migration of Chinese to SE Asia in 19th century).
2) The geographical area covered (all the pacific rim) is just too big and in some parts just too plain empty. Further, some of the most interesting events are just outside this map and so are just shown on the periphery orget missed out, e.g. the rise and fall of various Chinese dynasties and the Russian conquest on Siberia all appear on the very periphery of the maps but the Galapagos and Easter islands are all that really exist in the SE Pacific and don't really have a lot of history but still are shown on every page.

Maybe these are just limitations of the rules of these books (i.e. to use the same map) but maybe a map of Asian history would be a good complement to it.

Despite this though, it still is a good read. Mr Mcevendy has a clever ability to describe a whole era of history in a single paragraph. And finally, as with his other books, within the text there is often some very funny lines which will keep readers amused, e.g. on the extinction of native species with the arrival of man "... the moa's problem was having had to too easy over the subsequent 150 million years : no enemies, no sense of danger, no moa". ... Read more