作为中国问题专家，“支那通”是日本陆军中的一个特殊群体。他们是战前日本对华外交的先锋，对中国革命抱有强烈的共鸣，但后来却推动日本走向了侵华战争，并对中国进行了最激烈的批判。这种转变的根源是什么?在这一过程中，“支那通”们的所思所想和具体作为又是怎样的?本书意在通过对这些问题的探究，寻找日本对华政策失败的原因。

在明治时期因军纪严明、遵守国际法等而在国际上受到很高的评价日本陆军，却在昭和时期因虐待俘虏、杀害平民等而臭名昭著。曾经走在时代前列的日本陆军为什么会异化成反近代的象征呢？日本防卫大学教授户部良一以“近代化”与“成长”为关键词，力图在历史的连续性中解明这一谜团。

What was the role of merchant guilds in the medieval and early modern economy? Does their wide prevalence and long survival mean they were efficient institutions that benefited the whole economy? Or did merchant guilds simply offer an effective way for the rich and powerful to increase their wealth, at the expense of outsiders, customers and society as a whole? These privileged associations of businessmen were key institutions in the European economy from 1000 to 1800. Historians debate merchant guilds' role in the Commercial Revolution, economists use them to support theories about institutions and development, and policymakers view them as prime examples of social capital, with important lessons for modern economies. Sheilagh Ogilvie's magisterial new history of commercial institutions shows how scrutinizing merchant guilds can help us understand which types of institution made trade grow, why institutions exist, and how corporate privileges affect economic efficiency and human well-being.

For many years scholars have sought to explain why the European states which emerged in the period before the French Revolution developed along such different lines. Why did some become absolutist and others constitutionalist? What enabled some to develop bureaucratic administrative systems, while others remained dependent upon patrimonial practices? This book presents a new theory of state-building in medieval and early modern Europe. Ertman argues that two factors - the organisation of local government at the time of state formation and the timing of sustained geo-military competition - can explain most of the variation in political regimes and in state infrastructures found across the continent during the second half of the eighteenth century. Drawing on insights developed in historical sociology, comparative politics, and economic history, this book makes a compelling case for the value of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of political development.

"Rereading America "remains the most widely adopted book of its kind because of its unique approach to the issue of cultural diversity. Unlike other multicultural composition readers that settle for representing the plurality of American voices and cultures, "Rereading America "encourages students to grapple with the real differences in perspectives that arise in our complex society. Selections model writing from a wide variety of disciplines and genres, and each chapter features a selection that explores how the media sells the myth in question. With extensive editorial apparatus that puts readings from the mainstream into conversation with readings from the margins, "Rereading America "provokes students to explore the foundations and contradictions of our dominant cultural myths.

【中文阅读世界第一部全面比较秦汉与罗马帝国的创新性历史作品，以科学思维、全球眼光，看帝国兴衰和大国治理智慧，许倬云先生致敬推荐！】
当统治精英只顾特权，罔顾公利，国运可否长久？
难民潮汹涌，当代欧洲会再现西罗马灭亡的惊人一幕吗？
崛起的新中国，又该怎样面对有“新罗马”之称的美帝国？
以科学的思维、全球的眼光，看帝国兴衰和大国治理智慧；
贯通历史、政治、经济、管理学的跨界作品，许倬云先生致敬推荐！
★ 跨界创新：这是中文阅读世界第一部从政治、经济、军事、民族、思想与习俗等诸多角度全面比较秦汉与罗马帝国的创新性历史作品。作者欧阳莹之教授是深受国学传统薰陶、并在科学界卓有成就的物理学家，她的这部作品以科学家的理性思维、全球性的开阔视野，看帝国兴衰和大国治理智慧，贯通历史、政治、经济、法律、社会学、管理学等领域，原创性强，故事有趣有味，分析鞭辟入里，读来畅快淋漓。
★ 名家推荐：历史学家许倬云先生作序致敬推荐！斯坦福大学“古罗马穿越之旅”（即罗马帝国数字地图，Orbis: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World）主创者、斯坦福大学人文学系Dickason讲座教授兼古典与历史学系教授沃尔特•沙伊德尔先生（Walter Scheidel）高度称赞！
★ 精选插图：特别收录彩色历史图片十余幅，图文相得益彰。
【名家推荐】
此书乃是知识的盛宴；我向作者致以诚挚的敬意，她能够不受专业的约束，以通达的眼光，提供读者们，如此有用的一部好书。
——历史学家 许倬云
全球化时代需要一种超越常规边界的新历史作品，欧阳莹之教授对古代大帝国的比较分析，回应了这个挑战，令人印象深刻。
——斯坦福大学教授 沃尔特•沙伊德尔
即便是古罗马与中国历史方面的新手，也会喜欢这种清晰、迷人和明智的讲述。
——密苏里大学副教授 劳伦斯•奥卡穆拉
【关于本书】
故事开始时，中国仍在青铜时代，与进入铁器时代的地中海一带相比，犹如十九世纪的中国和西方。战国时期中国迎头赶上，其后秦汉王朝和罗马帝国并驾齐驱，各自创下四百年的辉煌。其时，人类社会大概有一半人处在两大帝国的控制之下。世事难全美，称雄东西方的帝国，最终都败亡于来自北疆的蕞尔小敌。它们抵御外侮的能力，被内部的压制、腐败和治理不善消耗殆尽。后来，中华帝国反复重生和扩张，而罗马帝国则不可挽回地分裂了。然而，欧洲再次统一的梦想从未磨灭：它彰显于教皇和“神圣罗马帝国皇帝”的宣言；它被拿破仑的雄鹰承载；它成为欧盟的内在抱负——当今难民潮汹涌，欧盟各国将何去何从？
欧阳莹之教授以秦汉帝国与罗马帝国的兴衰为线索，全面探讨两大帝国的政治、经济、军事、民族、思想与习俗等诸多方面的异同，尤其强调双方相异处对东西方世界面貌所造成的重大影响，总结其间的历史教训与大国治理之道。全书文字平实，逻辑缜密，兼顾叙述与评论；衡量东西方帝国的相对优劣，重新检视传统历史旧说，指出被忽略的因素以解释历史疑案。
龙是中国传统四灵之一，后成为皇权的专属符号；鹰是罗马军团的标志，后成为罗马霸权的象征。龙与鹰象征秦汉与罗马帝国运权统治的风格，历久弥新。当正在崛起的新中国，面临有“新罗马”之誉的美帝国，传统作风犹自可见于当今世局。今天的中国人，应如何理解中美之间的合作与冲突？

Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world, as told by Steven Bown, .Canada's Simon Winchester. (Globe and Mail).
Through the Age of Heroic Commerce, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life merchant kings ruled vast tracts of the globe and expanded their far-flung monopolies to generate revenue for their shareholders, feather their own nests and satisfy their vanity and curiosity. Their exploits changed the world during an age of unfettered globalization, mirroring a world we know today.
Merchant Kings looks at each ruling monopoly through its greatest merchant king and considers their stories together for the first time. (

This illuminating study of the evolution of Chinese capitalism chronicles the fortunes of the Song family of North China under five successive authoritarian governments. Headed initially by Song Chuandian, who became rich by exporting hairnets to Europe and America in the early twentieth century, the family built a thriving business against long odds of rural poverty and political chaos.
A savvy political operator, Song Chuandian prospered and kept local warlords at bay, but his career ended badly when he fell afoul of the new Nationalist government. His son Song Feiqing inspired by the reformist currents of the May Fourth Movement developed a utopian capitalist vision that industry would redeem China from foreign imperialism and cultural backwardness. He founded the Dongya Corporation in 1932 to manufacture wool knitting yarn and for two decades steered the company through a constantly changing political landscape the Nationalists, then Japanese occupiers, then the Nationalists again, and finally Chinese Communists. Increasingly hostile governments, combined with inflation, foreign competition, and a restless labor force, thwarted his ambition to create an Industrial Eden.
Brett Sheehan shows how the Song family engaged in eclectic business practices that bore the imprint of both foreign and traditional Chinese influences. Businesspeople came to expect much from increasingly intrusive states, but the position of private capitalists remained tenuous no matter which government was in control. Although private business in China was closely linked to the state, it was neither a handmaiden to authoritarianism nor a natural ally of democracy."

本书作者为奥地利学者耿爱德，分为上、下两册。全书重点论述了中国的金属硬币，分为银部、金部、铜部三编，对中国货币之流通、种类、市场分布、产地、外汇市场等方面进行了论述，勾勒了中国货币发展脉络，对后人解读、研究中国货币，尤其是金属货币助益良多。

If one had looked for a potential global city in Europe in the 1540s, the most likely candidate would have been Antwerp, which had emerged as the center of the German and Spanish silver exchange as well as the Portuguese spice and Spanish sugar trades. It almost certainly would not have been London, an unassuming hub of the wool and cloth trade with a population of around 75,000, still trying to recover from the onslaught of the Black Plague. But by 1700 London’s population had reached a staggering 575,000—and it had developed its first global corporations, as well as relationships with non-European societies outside the Mediterranean. What happened in the span of a century and half? And how exactly did London transform itself into a global city?
London’s success, Robert K. Batchelor argues, lies not just with the well-documented rise of Atlantic settlements, markets, and economies. Using his discovery of a network of Chinese merchant shipping routes on John Selden’s map of China as his jumping-off point, Batchelor reveals how London also flourished because of its many encounters, engagements, and exchanges with East Asian trading cities. Translation plays a key role in Batchelor’s study—translation not just of books, manuscripts, and maps, but also of meaning and knowledge across cultures—and Batchelor demonstrates how translation helped London understand and adapt to global economic conditions. Looking outward at London’s global negotiations, Batchelor traces the development of its knowledge networks back to a number of foreign sources and credits particular interactions with England’s eventual political and economic autonomy from church and King.
London offers a much-needed non-Eurocentric history of London, first by bringing to light and then by synthesizing the many external factors and pieces of evidence that contributed to its rise as a global city. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in the cultural politics of translation, the relationship between merchants and sovereigns, and the cultural and historical geography of Britain and Asia.