Half the world: The history and culture of China and Japan

For two thousand years Europeans have behaved as if theirs were the only civilization in the world. Until very recently 'history' automatically meant Western history, literature' meant Western literature, 'philosophy' meant Western philosophy, and so on. Only, in fact, with the generation of Arnold Toynbee have some historians seen it as their task to present a picture that bears more resemblance to reality. As the world shrinks and all nations become involved with one another, our ignorance of the great and ancient civilizations of China and Japan begins to seem as benighted as the medieval astronomers' ignorance of the solar system.

The thirteen authors (listed on the back flap) who have combined to write this book represent modern scholarship at its widest and deepest. Aware of the unfamiliarity of the subject, they have assumed nothing but the reader's desire to know, but they have resisted the temptation to oversimplify.