This lively survey of the peoples, cultures, and societies of Southeast Asia introduces a region of tremendous geographic, linguistic, historical, and religious diversity. Encompassing both mainland and island countries, these engaging essays describe personhood and identity, family and household organization, nation-states, religion, popular culture and the arts, the legacies of war and recovery, globalization, and the environment. Throughout, the focus is on the daily lives and experienc...

Aspirations, desires, opportunism and exploitation are seldom considered as fundamental elements of donor-driven development as it impacts on the lives of people in poor countries. Yet, alongside structural interventions, emotional or affective engagements are central to processes of social change and the making of selves for those caught up in development’s slipstream.Intimate Economies of Development lays bare the ways that culture, sexuality and health are inevitably and insepar...

Take your fate into your own hands by facing death, not fleeing from it.Easwaran is one of the twentieth century's great spiritual teachers and an authentic guide to timeless wisdom. Understand death, Easwaran writes, and you’ll live more wisely – you’ll learn more, love more, and contribute more to all around you. By facing death, not fleeing from it, you take your fate into your own hands.With stories from East and West, and quotes from the world’s mystic...

**• New York Times bestseller •The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world“At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the clima...

The Vietnam War is a timely account of the 6,000-day conflict in Southeast Asia. The book begins with the history of South East Asia during World War II, before discussing the French involvement in the First Indochina War, and the subsequent drawing-in of the United States and its allies, Australia and South Korea. The repercussions of this bitter, tragic and costly conflict were far-reaching, for it has affected US foreign policy ever since. As the book reveals, the war remains a fascinat...

A leading spiritual teacher of the twentieth century presents meditation as a tool for better understanding not just ourselves but the world around usThese selections present the core of Krishnamurti's teaching on meditation, taken from discussions with small groups, as well as from public talks to large audiences. His main theme is the essential need to look inward, to know ourselves, in order really to understand our own—and the world's—conflicts. We are the worl...

Jeffrey D. Sachs is one of the world's most perceptive and original analysts of global development. In this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can use a holistic way forward to address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice: sustainable development.Sachs offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the too...

New in the Short History of Asia series edited by Milton Osborne this is a concise and readable history of Cambodia from its rich and powerful past through the era of French protection the Vietnamese conflict the Pol Pot regime and to its present day incarnation as a constitutional monarchy and popular tourist destination. Temples and killing fields mighty rivers and impenetrable forests a past filled with glory and decline Cambodia is a land of contrasts. A millennia ago it was an empire ...

The United States is in the throes of two unfolding energy revolutions, and partisans-convinced that only their side holds the key to American prosperity, security, and safety-are battling over which one should prevail. In The Power Surge, Michael Levi takes readers inside these revolutions to find out what's really happening-and which side is right. From the back roads of Ohio where old friends are warring over fracking, to the wilds of Colorado where speculators are chasing the holy grai...

In November 1963, the president of South Vietnam and his brother were brutally executed in a coup that was sanctioned and supported by the American government. President Kennedy later explained to his close friend Paul "Red" Fay that the reason the United States made the fateful decision to get rid of the Ngos was in no small part because of South Vietnam's first lady, Madame Nhu. "That goddamn bitch," Fay remembers President Kennedy saying, "She's responsible ... that bitch stuck her nose...

A couple's scheme to get rich by killing their father backfires, leaving them in charge of a cripple. In heaven, a baby, dead through neglect, tells his playmates: "Life down there is just one long sleep." A young soldier, saved by a stranger, can never again find her to thank her. A man carries a massive clock. Using a variety of techniques and styles, in this collection of twelve short stories contemporary Vietnamese writers—edited by poet, short story writer, and novelist Linh Dinh—show...

“It took courage to do what Spalding did—courage to make theatre so naked and unadorned, to expose himself in this way and fight the demons in public. In doing so, he entered our hearts—my heart—because he made his struggle my struggle. His life became my life.”—Eric Bogosian“Virtuosic. A master writer, reporter, comic and playwright. Spalding Gray is a sit-down monologist with the soul of a stand-up comedian. A contemporary Gulliver, he travels the globe in search of experience an...