From the Chinese Predominance to the Rise of the Pacific Rim

East Asia

'Richly informative...illuminating and valuable' - Times Literary Supplement

A remarkably concise yet comprehensive account of one of the world's key regions...an impressively compact work, combining arresting detail and bold outlines

Arthur Cotterell has written another masterly book

Arthur Cotterell was principal of Kingston College. His previous books include The Minoan World, The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Ancient Civilizations, The Pimlico Dictionary of Classical Mythologies: Greece, Rome, Persia, India and China, China: A Cultural History and Chariot: The Astounding Rise and Fall of the World's First War Machine.

In recent decades there has been a dramatic transformation around the Pacific Rim. No longer 'the Far East' - that exotic, mysterious land at the distant fringe of Western consciousness - East Asia today commands the attention of the entire world. 
 
In East Asia, Arthur Cotterell condenses into a compact, highly readable book an immense amount of historical knowledge, placing this amazing economic development in its proper perspective - an Asian one. Cotterell ranges from the dawn of Chinese civilization to Japan's emergence as the first East Asian nation to develop an industrial economy. And he brings his history up to the present, examining America's setbacks in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Japan's rise as an economic superpower, and the recent histories of countries such as reunited Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. 
 
Cotterell goes on to suggest that Japan will eventually be overtaken by its neighbours, concluding that relations between the Chinese and the Japanese will ultimately determine the future of East Asia, although over the coming decades the key Pacific partners remain China and the United States. 
 
With spectacular historical perspective, Arthur Cotterell performs an invaluable service to all those who wish to have deeper understanding of our newest, and most competitive, trading partners.

The Astounding Rise and Fall of the World's First War Machine

Chariot

Lively, accessible and lavishly illustrated, this is the first account ever written which deals with the whole spread of the chariot's use as a war machine right across the Old World, from Ireland to Korea.

In this amiably discursive history, Arthur Cotterell roams up and down through time and place, seeking answers to the whys and wherefores of the chariot's rise and fall

Arthur Cotterell's previous books include The Minoan World, A Dictionary of World Mythology, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Classical Civilizations, The Pimlico Dictionary of Classical Civilizations, The Pimlico Dictionary of Classical Mythologies, East Asia and China: A Cultural History. He lives in Surrey.

The chariot changed the face of ancient warfare. First in West Asia and Egypt, then in India and China, charioteers came to dominate the battlefield. Its use as a war machine is graphically recounted in Indian epics and Chinese chronicles. Homer's Iliad tells of the attack on Troy by Greek heroes who rode in chariots. In 326 BC Alexander the Great faced charioteers in northern India, while in 55 BC, on a Kent beach, Julius Caesar was met by British chariots. 
 
Because of the danger involved, chariot racing attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators. So enthusiastic were they that the Roman emperor Nero could not resist driving his own ten-horse chariot at the Olympic Games: he fell out but still won the prize. Rivalry between groups of spectators at chariot races often ignited urban riots. In Constantinople, in 532 AD, a three-day disturbance left 30,000 dead.

An Inside View of the Celestial Empire

The Imperial Capitals of China

A unique history and exploration of China through its imperial capital cities over two millennia.

He handles with grace and skill the challenge of making the country's dynastic past intelligible to the layman

A thoroughgoing history of China's ruling dynasties and their extraordinary achievements in architecture. The author's knowledge of Chinese dynasties is nearly encyclopedic... [his] work takes the traveler deep into the fascinating recesses of each dynasty

In addition to the political history, Sinophiles should savor Cotterell's surveys of the imperial capitals

As China- the oldest continuous civilisation in existence- stands to become the most influential, with its economy expected to exceed that of the United States by 2020, Arthur Cotterell provides a panoramic sweep of an empire that lasted over two millennia through the imperial capitals that were the very foundations of each dynasty. Using original Chinese sources and eyewitness accounts he provides an inside view of the rich array of characters, political and ideological tensions, and technological genius that defined the imperial capitals of China, as each in turn is revealed, explored and celebrated. 
 
From the cosmological foundations of the first capital to the politics of empire and cataclysmic civil wars, this absorbing new book offers a level of insight indispensible for a true understanding of China today.

A History

China

A comprehensive yet accessible study of the oldest of the world's civilizations.

Excellent short guide to China's stupendous past...helps us to understand its fateful present

A knowledgable and comprehensive survey... Both scholarly and readable, it brings each era to life

A thorough, popular survery of Chinese civilization from Peking Man to Deng Xiaping. To cover such a large subject in a balanced way is a daunting task and Cotterell has aquitted himself well

Arthur Cotterell was principal of Kingston College. His previous books include The Minoan World, The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Ancient Civilizations, The Pimlico Dictionary of Classical Mythologies: Greece, Rome, Persia, India and China, and Chariot: The Astounding Rise and Fall of the World's First War Machine.

One of the most far-reaching events since the Second World War is the re-emergence of China as a world power, and its present government's willingness to open up the country to the rest of the world. 
 
This comprehensive cultural history ranges from prehistoric times to the present - from the disunity of Pre-Imperial China to the renaissance of the Sung and Tang dynasties, from the Mongol conquest to Tiananmen Square and the 1989 student revolt. By placing the modern country in historical perspective this brilliant study reveals how many continuities there are within the oldest of all civilizations.

Arthur Cotterell

Stresses the cosmopolitan nature of the ancient world, emphasising the importance of interaction between different societies from Greece and Rome to India and China

An original and unique work of reference which breaks new ground by treating for the first time the classical era of the Old World as a whole. Never before have the key peoples and events of Greece, Rome, Persia, India, and China been encompassed in a single volume, despite the fact their civilizations had much in common and laid the foundations of present-day Europe and Asia. 
 
Arthur Cotterell asserts that for too long Greece and Rome have been regarded as the classical world and its study isolated from even the major powers that confronted the Greeks and Romans in Iran and India. Today we are more aware of the complex interrelations that once existed between the Greeks and the Persians, the Macedonians and the Indians, the Romans and both the Persians and the Sasanians. The persistent isolation of China, on the other hand, cut off by mountains and deserts from India, makes the classical experience there so useful for comparison and contrast. The virtual absence of slavery in China is but one of its startling features. 
 
Comprehensive, wide-ranging and lavishly illustrated, The Pimlico Dictionary of Classical Civilizations provides a fascinating overview and a detailed analyis of the formative period of the world, making it indispensible for both students and the general reader.

Arthur Cotterell

Praise for The Pimlico Dictionary Of Classical Civilizations

Stresses the cosmopolitan nature of the ancient world, emphasising the importance of interaction between different societies from Greece and Rome to India and China

Books by Arthur Cotterell

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