Joshua Fogel offers an incisive historical look at Sino-Japanese relations from three different perspectives. Using first a wide lens, he suggests a new way to capture the relationship between China and Japan by characterizing the nature of their contact. From the first century ce, the primary reasons for contact moved from political and ceremonial to cultural, and on to commer...(展开全部)

What type of exchanges occurred between West and East Asia in the first millennium CE? What sort of connections existed between Persia and China? What did the Chinese know of early Islam? This study offers an overview of the cultural, diplomatic, commercial, and religious relationships that flourished between Iran and China, building on the pioneering work of Berthold Laufer’s ...(展开全部)

Theirs was a world of exploration and experimentation, of movement and growth - and in this, the thinkers of the Renaissance, poets and scientists alike, followed their countrymen into uncharted territory and unthought space. A book that takes us to the very heart of the enterprise of the Renaissance, this closely focused but far-reaching work by the distinguished scholar Angus...(展开全部)

Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united in a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined? On this issue, two of the wor...(展开全部)

A brilliantly clear and penetrating exposition of developments in physical science and mathematics brought about by the advent of non-Euclidean geometries, including in-depth coverage of the foundations of geometry, the theory of time, Einstein’s theory of relativity and its consequences, other key topics.

One fine day, and I know how romantic and old-fashioned that sounds, but it is what happened in my case, I packed a rucksack, took leave of my mother, and caught the train to Breda. An hour later - you know how small the Netherlands is - I was standing at the side of the road on the Belgian border sticking my thumb in the air, and I have never really stoppped since.' After maki...(展开全部)

Since making his first voyage as a sailor to earn his passage from his native Holland to South America, Cees Nooteboom has never stopped traveling. Now a selection of his best travel pieces are gathered together in this collection of immense range and depth, informed throughout by author's wonderful sense of humor. From exotic places like Isfahan, the Gambia, and Mali, to seem...(展开全部)

This volume sheds light on the important role of copper in early modern Sino-Japanese trade. By examining the demand for copper and the policy on copper procurement in Japan and China as well as the role of Osaka merchant houses, this volume provides a new slant on the “life” of Japanese copper – from production and distribution to consumption. In addition, papers on other sign...(展开全部)

This volume sheds light on the important role of copper in early modern Sino-Japanese trade. By examining the demand for copper and the policy on copper procurement in Japan and China as well as the role of Osaka merchant houses, this volume provides a new slant on the “life” of Japanese copper – from production and distribution to consumption. In addition, papers on other sign...(展开全部)

There are some wonderfully bizarre ideas in physics, and it seems a pity to keep them locked up in small boxes, available only to an esoteric coterie of key holders. Brian Ridley's book sets out to survey in simple, nonmathematical terms what physics has to say about the fundamental structure of the universe. He deals with all the basic concepts of modern physics: elementary pa...(展开全部)