https://www.scmp.com/rss/312306/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad Allen Lane We tend to suffer from what evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins terms the “tyranny of the discontinuous mind” – a weakness for putting things into clearly defined and labelled boxes that inevitably clash with the inescapable facts of the real world. Our understanding of our own history, in particular, falls prey to this tendency. And this can have unfortunate consequences, as Odd Arne Westad’s excellent precis of the cold war reminds... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2108749/sweeping-new-history-cold-war-reminder-how-stupidity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2108749/sweeping-new-history-cold-war-reminder-how-stupidity?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Aug 2017 12:02:42 +0000 The China Reader: Rising Power edited by David Shambaugh Oxford University Press 4 stars There’s something endearingly quaint about The China Reader, like some treasure from a bygone era that’s somehow wiggled through a wormhole into the internet age. The China Reader series began life in 1967, with the publication of the first three volumes covering Imperial China, Republican China and Communist China up to 1966. The 1974 fourth edition, People’s China, charted Mao’s disastrous social... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/1999541/book-review-sixth-edition-china-reader-follows-nation-death-deng?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/1999541/book-review-sixth-edition-china-reader-follows-nation-death-deng?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:02:05 +0000 SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard Profile In one of the many glowing critiques of Mary Beard’s SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome that have been published since your humble reviewer received his copy in the post, The Economist describes the book as “exemplary popular history, engaging but never dumbed down”. I had two reasons for breaking my rule never to read what others have written before reviewing a book myself. First, this latest offering from the prolific professor of Classics at... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1892388/book-review-mary-beards-spqr-impressive-scholarly-monument-one-thats?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1892388/book-review-mary-beards-spqr-impressive-scholarly-monument-one-thats?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Dec 2015 04:00:45 +0000 For punctuation, 1890 was a traumatic year. At one stroke, about a quarter of a million apostrophes were wiped from the surface of the earth. The decision by the US Board on Geographic Names to do away with “apostrophes suggesting possession or association” in names such as Pikes Peak and Harpers Ferry is one of the more dramatic examples of the changeable fortunes of the cluster of squiggles that pepper our written language. David Crystal’s superb new book is packed full of illuminating... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1866843/book-review-david-crystals-history-punctuation-marked-success?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1866843/book-review-david-crystals-history-punctuation-marked-success?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Oct 2015 03:11:29 +0000 You sent out the email two weeks ago for the Big Event. Forty-six friends. Too crass to ask for an RSVP. It's just a housewarming; not a wedding. Nobody replied. The invite said 8ish and it's 8.04. You check your email and your phone; you peek through the spyhole in the door; you listen for the lift. You're in the grip of iktsuarpok, the Inuit term for the fidgety anxiety felt before the expected arrival of visitors. Torschlusspanik (German for "gate-closing-panic") might set in when the guests... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1864160/book-review-book-human-emotions-exercise-managing-slight-frustration?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1864160/book-review-book-human-emotions-exercise-managing-slight-frustration?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Oct 2015 07:01:36 +0000 North Korea continues to spellbind and dumbfound. Kim Jong-un, a pudgy clone of his grandfather who founded the hereditary Stalinist state, recently executed his defence minister using a unique firing squad: a battery of anti-aircraft guns. Obliteration is the name of the game, whether it's feeding your uncle to dogs or wiping out all the relatives and friends of potential rivals. With every ghoulish twist and turn of the Kim family saga, we wonder what enables these monsters to hang on to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1812080/book-review-great-leader-and-fighter-pilot-flight-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1812080/book-review-great-leader-and-fighter-pilot-flight-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 May 2015 14:54:07 +0000 Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama Profile Books Businesswoman Laura Cha stirred up a storm in October when she suggested that Hong Kong citizens should be patient in waiting for true universal suffrage, comparing their journey towards democracy to that of African-Americans. Her chosen example drew headlines like Quartz's "An HSBC director just likened Hong Kong's citizens to slaves". Her comment, however, touches on the big questions that have been gripping Hong Kong in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1668657/francis-fukuyama-brilliantly-analyses-different-roads-democracy-book?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1668657/francis-fukuyama-brilliantly-analyses-different-roads-democracy-book?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Dec 2014 04:26:01 +0000 The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia by Shaun Rein Wiley Shaun Rein is irrepressible. Hot on the heels of the relentless boosterism of The End of Cheap China, he's back with the promise of yet another paradigm shift that will shake the world. The same forces that spell an end to China's role as the world's purveyor of cheap toothbrushes and plastic toys, Rein writes, are also driving a wave of domestic innovation as the easy pickings from... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1650706/book-review-end-copycat-china-paula-campbell?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1650706/book-review-end-copycat-china-paula-campbell?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Nov 2014 12:30:00 +0000 Meltdown in Tibet by Michael Buckley Palgrave Macmillan Tonle Sap lake in central Cambodia acts as a giant overflow for the Mekong River. When monsoon floods submerge the surrounding forest, they create an ecosystem rich in mineral-bearing silt and a fish hatchery that may account for more than half of the annual animal protein intake of the country. Such rare habitats are sensitive to change and so act as an early warning signal - for anyone willing to listen. Tonle is sounding an alarm right... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1639630/book-review-meltdown-tibet-michael-buckley?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1639630/book-review-meltdown-tibet-michael-buckley?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Nov 2014 12:16:22 +0000 The South China Sea – The Struggle for Power in Asia by Bill Hayton Yale University Press Disputes over the South China Sea can seem as unfathomable as the storm-swept waters that batter its contested cluster of tiny islands, uninhabitable rocks and semi-submerged reefs. Bill Hayton's superb and timely book, The South China Sea - The Struggle for Power in Asia, brings much-needed clarity to an issue that poses a threat to the region, if not the world. A BBC journalist and Southeast Asia... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1618390/book-review-south-china-sea-struggle-power-asia-bill-hayton?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1618390/book-review-south-china-sea-struggle-power-asia-bill-hayton?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:53:34 +0000 Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case by James Ward Profile Books As any parent knows, the siren song of the stationer is crack for kids, with its smorgasbord of potential impulse purchases. Even adults can get caught up, tapping a sentimental vein as we hunt for nuggets in the half-hidden piles at the back of the shelf. For most of us, however, it's a whimsical indulgence of a child-like fascination with small bits of "stuff". James Ward, though - now he has a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1613643/book-review-adventures-stationery-james-ward?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1613643/book-review-adventures-stationery-james-ward?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Oct 2014 14:52:31 +0000 The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century by Jürgen Osterhammel (translated by Patrick Camiller) Princeton University Press 4.5 stars This is not a book for wimps. It's not just the historical significance of Jürgen Osterhammel's The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century. Your reviewer nearly broke his nose after losing control of the brick-sized, 1,192-page tome. It's weighty in every sense of the word. Indeed, every word... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1459261/ambitious-new-book-captures-19th-centurys-lasting-impact-our-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1459261/ambitious-new-book-captures-19th-centurys-lasting-impact-our-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Mar 2014 08:15:30 +0000 The News: A User's Manual by Alain De Botton Pantheon Books 2.5 stars Ben Richardson Last week The Philosophers' Mail proclaimed, under its masthead: "We're a news organisation with a passionate belief that too much news is bad for you." Noodling through other editions of the online newspaper, you can find an interview with David Beckham's soul, an article on Tamara Ecclestone, daughter of the Formula One supremo, Bernie, as a test case for capitalism, and a photo of One Direction heartthrob... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1427774/when-too-much-news-bad-news?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1427774/when-too-much-news-bad-news?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Feb 2014 10:46:55 +0000