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The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE – 1500 CE
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ by Graham Squires

The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE – 1500 CE

In 2015, Cambridge University Press published a seven-volume series titled "The Cambridge World History." The series aimed to offer a comprehensive account of a variety of cultures and communities as they are understood today. The range of...
Insight Guides Silk Road (Travel Guide)
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Graham Squires

Insight Guides Silk Road (Travel Guide)

Over the last 20 years, there has been quite a boom in the publication of books about the Silk Road. The Silk Road would more accurately be referred to as the plural "Silk Roads," since it was a network of roads rather than a single highway...
Articulating Bodies: The Narrative Form of Disability and Illness in Victorian Fiction
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Reisa Rogovein

Articulating Bodies: The Narrative Form of Disability and Illness in Victorian Fiction

Kylee-Anne Hingston, Assistant Professor of English at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, Canada, uses a conversational approach and gentle writing to show how literary forms create and determine literary characters' bodily images in her...
Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Graham Squires

Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE

In the book's Introduction, Craig Benjamin writes that, between the 2nd century BCE and the mid-3rd century CE, the Silk Roads linked together many cultures and communities throughout Afro-Eurasia. This is the “First Silk Roads Era,” which...
Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Zhihui Zou

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States

A popular perception both in and out of academia is this: a few millennia ago, agriculture let hunter-gatherers settle down and form permanent societies and governments, which provided better living conditions compared to unsettled nomadic...
Reading Medieval Ruins: Urban Life and Destruction in Sixteenth-Century Japan
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Fin Davey

Reading Medieval Ruins: Urban Life and Destruction in Sixteenth-Century Japan

Although this is a wonderful read for anyone having a deep infatuation with Japanese history, it mostly appeals to a scholar or a reader who is somewhat familiar with the topic. This, however, should not discourage any passionate readers...
The American West: A New Interpretive History (Second Edition)
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Zhihui Zou

The American West: A New Interpretive History (Second Edition)

When the first edition of The American West: A New Interpretive History, penned by Professor Robert V. Hine (1921 - 2015) and Professor John Mack Faragher, was published in 2000, it was an instant success despite the field of the American...
Expansion and Global Interaction: 1200-1700
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ by Graham Squires

Expansion and Global Interaction: 1200-1700

Before he passed away in 2020, David Ringrose was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, San Diego. He was an expert on the history of Spain while also having an interest in world history at large. As the book's Preface...
Warriors of Japan: As Portrayed in the War Tales
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ by Graham Squires

Warriors of Japan: As Portrayed in the War Tales

Paul Varley, who passed away in 2015, was a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University for many years before coming to the University of Hawai’i. He specialized in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. Varley's book, Warriors of Japan...
Japan in World History (New Oxford World History series)
Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ by Graham Squires

Japan in World History (New Oxford World History series)

This is a volume in the New Oxford World History series. The aim of the series is to provide an account of world history that is broader than the old approach that tends to focus only on Europe and North America. The author of Japan in World...
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