Here, brought vividly to life, is an icon of Japanese culture and custom--the geisha in her role as human work of art and perfect woman.

A hundred years ago geisha numbered eighty thousand; today there are a thousand at most. Happily, Jodi Cobb is able to show us--before they vanish--both[...]

I Tyskland och Japan lever minnena av ländernas våldsamma historia under andra världskriget kvar hos befolkningen. I Auschwitz, Berlin, Hiroshima och Tokyo möter Ian Buruma forskares, politikers och överlevares motsägelsefulla och mer eller mindre förvrängda bilder av kriget. Han träffar m�[...]

Traces the murder of the controversial Dutch filmmaker and great-grandnephew of Vincent van Gogh by an angry Muslim immigrant's son who promptly committed ritual suicide, describing how the event sent shock waves throughout Europe and tested the boundaries of the secular West's tolerance of other cu[...]

Anglomania, the craze for all things English, gripped Europe during the mid-to-late 18th century. As perceived by Anglophiles such as Voltaire and Montesquieu, England was a land of reason, freedom, and tolerance, a place where the Enlightenment found its greatest expression. What began as an intell[...]

For eight years the president of the United States was a born-again Christian, backed by well-organized evangelicals who often seemed intent on erasing the church-state divide. In Europe, the increasing number of radicalized Muslims is creating widespread fear that Islam is undermining Western-style[...]

Vibrantly bringing to life the frenetic, constantly changing mood of Germany and Europe between the wars, Berlin in Lights is a fascinating collection of diaries written by German aristocrat Harry Kessler, a diplomat and publisher who moved easily among the world of art, politics, and society. Kessl[...]

In this entrancing story of spiritual adventure, a Westerner in Peking seeks the mystery at the heart of the Forbidden City. He takes as a tutor in Chinese the young Belgian Rene Leys, who claims to be in the know about strange goings-on in the Imperial Palace: love affairs, family quarrels, conspir[...]

On a cold November day in Amsterdam, an angry young Moslem man shot and killed the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, for making with the vocally anti-Islamic Somali-born Dutch politician, Ayaan Hersi Ali, a movie that 'blasphemed' Islam. Here, the author sees what meaning [...]

Explores the duplicity of feeling towards World War II amongst the people of two very different participant countries: Germany and Japan. This title compares how Germany and Japan have attempted to come to terms with their violent pasts, and investigates the painful realities of living with guilt, a[...]

'A Japanese Mirror is what the tourist who wants to see the real Japan - "through the looking glass" - should pack in his flight-bag.' TLS[...]

This sweeping, boldly original book describes the violence, racketeering and retroactive justice as well the hope and optimism that erupted at the end of the Second World War.[...]

En kall novemberdag i Amsterdam 2004 cyklade den hyllade och kontroversielle Filmaren Theo van Gogh till jobbet. Han kom aldrig fram. Han mördades av en fanatisk ung muslim, Mohammed Bouyeri, som hade provocerats av en film van Gogh gjort med islammotståndaren Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Mordet chockade v[...]