The Ganga River & State Formation in Mughal India
A Review of The Political Economy of the Ganga River: Highway of State Formation in Mughal India, c. 1600-1800, by Murari Kumar Jha. Murari Jha’s dissertation…
Category Archives: East, South & Southeast Asia
A Market for Speech: Poetry in Late Mughal India
Review of A Market for Speech: Poetry Recitation in Late Mughal India, 1690-1810, by Nathan Tabor. Something strange happened to poetry around the time William…
Guido F. Verbeck as Pioneer Missionary in Japan
A review of Verbeck of Japan: Guido F. Verbeck as Pioneer Missionary, Oyatoi Gaikokujin, and “Foreign Hero”, by James Mitchell Hommes In the early 1850s,…
Shinto, Nature, and Sacred Space in Japanese Forests
A review of Forests of the Gods: Shinto, Nature, and Sacred Space in Contemporary Japan, by Aike P. Rots Aike Rots’ thesis expands our understanding…
Culture and Power in the Chinese Communist Revolution
A review of Reordering China: Culture and Power in the Chinese Communist Revolution, by Xiaohong Xu. Bu Dahua, one of the students who led the…
Immigrants in Classical Greece, Imperial Rome, and Tang China
A review of My Neighbor the Barbarian: Immigrant Neighborhoods in Classical Athens, Imperial Rome, and Tang Chang’an, by Ryan Russell Abrecht. Ryan Abrecht’s dissertation is…
Cultural Meaning and Power of Starbucks in South Korea
A review of Building an Empire One Cup at a Time: Cultural Meaning and Power of Starbucks Korea, by Jee-eun Regina Song. Jee-eun Regina Song’s…
Hindus, Muslims, and Music in India
A review of Brahmans Beyond Nationalism, Muslims Beyond Dominance: A Hidden History of North Indian Classical Music’s Hinduization, by Justin Scarimbolo. The discipline of historical…
Biopower, Governmentality & Life Insurance in Modern Japan
A review of Tabling Death: Life Insurance in Modern Japan, 1881-1945, by Ryan Moran. From the 1820s onward, Western societies, roughly in tandem, bore witness…
Mobility and Senses of Belonging among the Fatani People
A review of Be-longing: Fatanis in Makkah and Jawi, by Muhammad Arafat bin Mohamad. Muhammad Arafat bin Mohamad offers an intriguing and perceptive study on…