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El fusilamiento en 1896 de José Rizal, acusado de conspirar contra la integridad territorial española avivó el movimiento de independencia, dirigido por su nuevo jefe, Emilio Aguinaldo quien, junto con Andrés Bonifacio, se lanzó a la lucha más enconada. D ... Read more

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Describes the ancient culture of the Australian Aborigines and discusses the continuing struggle of these native people to preserve their way of life and regain the rights to their traditional lands. ... Read more

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The Asia-Pacific region now looks set to become a major economic and political global force. Focusing on both southeast and northeast Asia, this highly illustrated volume examines the broad, cross-cutting themes of regional history, emphasizing the interactions between cultures and nations. Spanning the whole history of Pacific Asia, from ancient times to the present day, the book concludes with a look at the probable future for the nations of this rapidly emerging region. Poised to enter the twenty-first century, the Asia-Pacific region is rapidly emerging as a global economic and political powerhouse. This illustrated volume stresses broad, cross-cutting themes of regional history with an emphasis on the interactions between cultures and nations. The author begins with an overview of political evolution and cultural and economic trends since ancient times and then considers more recent developments in their historical context, noting that prior to the current economic boom there were at least two great ages of commerce in the Pacific Basin.The conclusion weighs the key domestic and international issues facing the nations of Pacific Asia and evaluates the interactions of these countries with North America and with the global economy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Black and white text books can cure insomnia
I had this book for a US - East Asian affairs class at my local community college. It was a decent text book and contains tons of information about Asian history and the emergence of Asian nations as strongpoints in thePacific.

Each page of the book is separated into two columns which meansthat you have to read each page twice. Also, the whole book including allthe pictures is in black and white. When reading about the extensiveChinese dynasties, these combined factors can make the casual reader verydrowsy. ... Read more

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...a most disturbing portrait of the effects of nuclear weapons testing on the people of Micronesia...--Library Journal ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Human Radiation Experiment Victims
The native population on Rongelap were in close proximity and downwind of a 15-megaton H-bomb test. Jane Dibblin provides an investigative reporter's account of the devestating impact on the islanders.

WARNING!
I read this book several years ago.Excellent, but extremely thought provoking.Be warned, it is very upfront and to the point, in regards to what the U.S. government did to the people in the Marshall Islands.

WARNING!
I read this book several years ago.Excellent, but extremely thought provoking.Be warned, it is very upfront and to the point, in regards to what the U.S. government did to the people in the Marshall Islands.

Good Look at the Nuclear testing in the Pacific
This book is an interesting look at the nuclear testing the U.S. did in the Pacific Islands.It is a great book when you must write a paper on the subject, because of its understandability.I would recommend that anybodywho wants to know about the horrors that the Islanders went through duringthe testing and the aftermath of testing should take a look at this book. ... Read more

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Global Studies is a unique series designed to provide comprehensive background information and selected world press articles on the regions and countries of the world. This edition includes country reports, current statistics, and background essays on the Pacific Rim, the Pacific Islands, and Japan. This title is also supported by the student web site, www.dushkin.com/online. ... Read more

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Review
Although required for my class, the book can be a very useful text for anyone who is interested in learning more about the diverse countries of Asia.

Great overview of the Pacific Rim
The Global Studies series is a great way to get a general overview about a region of the world and its quick history.Each country is divided up into a quick overview of demographics, trade, economics, population and other pertinent data similar to a scaled down CIA world fact book.There is then a general overview of each country and how it has played its part in the region with a particular focus on World War II to the present.Finally there are about 24 articles in this one that focus on all sorts of different aspects from the region.They address everything from gambling opportunities in Macau to population control in Japan.Overall this book does an excellent job of capturing the Pacific Rim and the countries that reside there. It is a great start to learning about the region and provides an overview that will give you a focus to direct further investigations.If you are just getting started on this area of the world as I am you will find it an invaluable resource.

Good buy for international business enthusiast
Book was new and just as described.Good information regarding Japan's history and economy as well as good information on countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. ... Read more

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How does law transform family, sexuality, and community in the fractured social world characteristic of the colonizing process? The law was a cornerstone of the so-called civilizing process of nineteenth-century colonialism. It was simultaneously a means of transformation and a marker of the seductive idea of civilization. Sally Engle Merry reveals how, in Hawai'i, indigenous Hawaiian law was displaced by a transplanted Anglo-American law as global movements of capitalism, Christianity, and imperialism swept across the islands. The new law brought novel systems of courts, prisons, and conceptions of discipline and dramatically changed the marriage patterns, work lives, and sexual conduct of the indigenous people of Hawai'i. ... Read more

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Groundbreaking!
In Colonizing Hawaii, Sally Engle Merry examines of the use of law as a colonizing tool. Merry presents the evolution of law in Hawaii in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a point of method, Merry examines court records of the Hilo district on Hawaii Island. In part one, Merry describes how and why Hawaii's legal system changed from the pre-contact Native Hawaiian system centered on oral traditions, genealogies, and the kapu system to the post-contact Calvinist missionary, New England style laws carrying a punishment of with western style consequences, including the development of a full blown penal system. In part two, Merry focuses on the impact of these social (and legal) changes to the Hilo community. Merry examines how demographics as well as crime statistics and court records metamorphosed over time.

Merry examines several major areas vis-à-vis the evolution of law in Hawaii. Merry looks at how the Hawaiian the ali'i was eager to adopt Euro-American laws as a means of asserting their sovereignty. Moreover, acceptance of "western" ways helped the ali'i gain recognition as a sovereign nation by European and American powers. Hawai'i was threatened externally by the colonial powers of the nineteenth century and internally by foreign residents as well as investors eager to find their fortune in the islands. According to Merry, the paternalism felt by the American Christian missionaries toward the Native Hawaiian people was aimed at controlling the body.

In Colonizing Hawai'i, Merry points out four distinct contradictions. First, missionaries and lawyers seeking to help the Hawaiians retain their sovereignty created legal and governmental institutions that depended on foreigners to run them. Second, the modifications facilitated the dispossession of the maka'ainana (Hawaiian commoners) and made them into landless wage laborers. Third, the "civilizing process," the new laws and system accelerated the cultural makeover of the Hawaiian people. Fourth, the same "civilizing process" that helped to establish Hawaii as a sovereign nation, led to a radical cultural transformation vis-à-vis sexuality and the body (Merry, Colonizing Hawaii 258). In the "civilizing process" pursued by the Hawaiian elite, the royals invited American lawyers, like William Little Lee, to write and implement western laws and government structures. As the Hawaiian elite adopted the new system, they were displacing their own power. "These changes were part of a gradual process of replacing the sovereignty of the ali'i as embodiments of the will of the Akua with the sovereignty of the people (at least in theory) expressed through procedures of representative government" (Merry, Colonizing Hawaii 71). Merry outline how the use of western laws by white royal advisors made the government increased local dependence on foreigners.

Merry contributed to the field of Hawaiian history through an archival study dedicated to the ways that law and the cultural understanding of law transformed, in the colonizing process, Hilo in particular, and Hawaii in general. She shows how the Hawaiian elite, afraid their home would be taken over by the large European colonial powers like other Pacific island nations were at the time, engaged the white man's in the way they understood what needed to establish the sovereignty of Hawai'i and to save their people. Ultimately, they succumbed to a foreign system, despite being deemed uncivilized. Furthermore, Merry illustrates how the perception of criminality is determined and exercised using the law to prosecute, and how those in the quest for power in Hawaii mobilized the law to their benefit.

Valuable study and good read
This book is a valuable study of the colonization of Hawai`i and the role of "law" in the islands' cultural transformation.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a critical understanding of Hawai`i's social, economic and politial dynamics.I particularly benefited from the insights on religion, sexuality and women.Sally Engle Merry provides a good articulation of the inevitable paradoxes facing the Hawaiian Nation in the 19th century vis-a-vis encroaching American imperialism and colonization."Colonizing Hawai`i" is also a good read in the context of critical legal studies.

A great disappointment
The blurb for this book suggests a scholarly analysis of the effect of law on an emerging culture. It is anything but. It is better described as a muddled attempt to justify the modern political movement that elevates the descendants of 18th century Hawaiians to sacred victimhood enjoyed by Indians and Eskimos. The title should be a warning that this author cannot tell the difference between a colonist and an immigrant. She displays a less than adequate understanding of Hawaiian history and misses the significance of early leaders, both native and immigrant. Queen Kaahumanu, probably the most important force in creating the Hawaiian monarchy, is barely mentioned, and then denigrated as a sort of tool of the Christian missionaries. Sanford Dole, chief justice of the monarchy, head of the provisional government, president of the republic, and governor of the territory, is ignored.The biggest problem with this book is that too many readers will take it seriously. ... Read more

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This fully revised third edition of Michael Yahuda's extremely successful textbook brings the region bang up-to-date, introducing students to the international politics of the Asia-Pacific region since 1945. As well as assessing the post-cold War uncertainties that challenged balance and power with the region, Yahuda also examines the first decade of the new millennium which includes no let up on the 'war on terror', new political administrations in all the key player-states and increased cooperative security between some nations, polarised by volatile relationships between others. Anyalzing politics in terms of global, regional and local trends, this new edition features:

• In-depth discussion of the Bush administration legacy and where the new US administration's vision takes their policy
• Analysis of post-Koizumi/post-Abe Japan
• Examination of the continued Rise of China in terms of politics, security and economic dominance
• Ongoing debates concerning the 'war on terror' and how this shifts, forms and reforms relationships
• Asia-Pacific security issues

This new third edition will continue to be a core text for students of Asian politics, international relations and Cold war history

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Geography, history, people, language, culture, traditions, economy, government, politics, constitution, places to visit, info for travelers... ... Read more

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INDICE

I. LA REVOLUCION DE 1896

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An anthropologist reviews this book
I wrote this review in 2006, and it was published in Pacific Affairs, Summer 2006:volume 79, No. 2.



This is an important volume that belongs in the library of anyone seriously interested in Bougainville before - and after - the conflict. Like all volumes that derive from conferences, it contains a variety of viewpoints and professional orientations - so many that it might be subtitled "Ways of Seeing Bougainville."Although the first two sections of the book's five sections are written by "the usual suspects," the next three sections include work by authors new to me.It is a fine thing to see new names associated with Bougainville research and commentary, and even finer that among the 23 authors (of 30 chapters)6 are Bougainvilleans. (Disclaimer: I am a Bougainville anthropologist and know many of the authors; I was asked to contribute a chapter, but was unable to do so in time for the publication.)

Contributors to the first section ("The Place and the People") represent archaeology, geology, linguistics, and anthropology.All make the point that Bougainville language and culture is impressively diverse and complex.For example, there are perhaps 25 languages among some 175,000 people.Numeric caution is required here, as elsewhere in the book: the authors have as many ways of counting and classifying as ways of seeing.This is a virtue, not a defect, because Bougainville has been in state of flux for many decades.These, and other, chapters offer no support for those who might prefer to characterize Bougainvilleans as homogenous.

The second section ("The Colonial Period to World War II") is the work of historians.The chapters are of uneven quality, and overlap considerably.There is ritual flogging of Eurocentric observers:Elder accuses Thurnwald, Blackwood, Chinnery, and Oliver of "extracting intellectual property in the form of sociological and ethnographic data..." (164); I cannot think how what they did differs from what a modern fieldworker does.Helga Griffin, in a chapter dominated by praise for Thurnwald, attempts to locate "hidden values" (205)among fieldworkers of the 60s and 70s, but the connections seem superficial.

I found the third section ("Economic and Social Change Post-World War II") the most interesting.The contributors - economist, agricultural researcher (Buin), miner, historian, politicians (Buin; Torau), teacher (Buin) are a varied lot, and ironies abound.For example, Lummani wonders whether Francis Ona and the BRA's attempt to "restore egalitarian fairness by trying to suppress developmental change" may actually have "contributed to an ever-widening situation of inequality" because Bougainvilleans "are even more dependent on cash-crop income than before the conflict" (252). The other chapters give examples of unintended and unforeseen consequences, perhaps nowhere more than in Vernon's contribution - a forthright statement from a CRA/BCL miner's perspective.I found his many"had we only known..." statements unconvincing.The information Vernon regrets not having could not have been difficult to obtain; the search for "hidden values" would be fruitful here.

The fourth section ("Persepectives [sic] on Particular Bougainville Societies") comprises competent journeyman descriptions of Buin, Haku, Nasioi, and Nagovisi.The writers - all anthropologists, one a Bougainvillean - also provide short, impressionistic post-conflict portraits.
The final section ("Towards Understanding the Origins of the Conflict") is especially useful because both writers were importantly involved with the crisis and its aftermath: Regan as an outside advisor, and Tanis (Nagovisi) as a BRA functionary, a peace process worker, and BIPG Minister.Tanis' piece moves effectively between detailed descriptions of village life and the broad sweep of the Crisis.

One final comment.Most of the authors take pains to cite multiple causes of socioeconomic change and the conflict.The list is not surprising: missionization, plantations, WW II, cash cropping, the copper mine, unwelcome migrants, and others.However, I was astonished to find only one (passing) reference to the taro blight that fundamentally altered subsistence and forced dramatic socioeconomic change in many areas in the post-WWII period.If this volume has a systemic defect, it is that the authors commonly explain change exclusively in terms of human behavior.None of the authors (except Lummani) consider ecological factors except as asides or when assessing mine-related environmental disasters.It is sad that a volume representing multiple points of view lacks this important perspective.


Buffalo State College, Buffalo, New York, USA DON MITCHELL

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In 1987 Fiji, which had often been regarded as a model for racial co-existence, surprised the rest of the world by staging not one but two coups. Most interpreters of the Fijian political scene saw the events as a result of tension between native Fijians and members of other ethnic groups. This text argues that this interpretation is simplistic. Instead, it points out that the May coup was a strike against democratic government by elements associated with Fiji's traditional oligarchy seeking to hide behind a mask of populist communalism. Howard traces the evolution of Fijian politics from the precolonial chiefdoms, through the colonial era and into the postcolonial period, emphasizing the developments during the latter half of the 1980s. As a close and involved observer, he draws a convincing picture of the leading actors in contemporary Fijian politics and the motives guiding their actions. He describes how the ruling elite - the Fijian chiefly-families and their allies - has maintained its power by manipulating communal or racially-based sentiments, and how the opposition has attempted to change the situation by creating political alignments based on social class.In the central part of the book Howard chronicles the rise of the Fiji Labour Party and its 1987 election victory over the ruling Alliance Party. He then discusses the short-lived regime of the Bavadra government and the events leading up to the May 1987 coup. Finally, he looks at events following the coup, as the oligarchy has sought to re-impose control in the face of popular opposition and internal division, discussing their implications for the social condition of Fiji, its international politics, and its internal ethnic relations. The book concludes with the death of Timoci Bavadra in late 1989. A perceptive case study of racial politics in the modern world and a significant new approach to the understanding of the dynamics of a non-Western political system, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of recent events in Fiji. ... Read more