Scholars have generally assumed that authoritarianism and rule of law are mutually incompatible. Convinced that free markets and rule of law must tip authoritarian societies in a liberal direction, nearly all studies of law and contemporary politics have neglected that improbable coupling: authoritarian rule of law. Through a focus on Singapore, this book presents an analysis of authoritarian legalism. It shows how prosperity, public discourse, and a rigorous observance of legal procedure have enabled a reconfigured rule of law such that liberal form encases illiberal content. Institutions and process at the bedrock of rule of law and liberal democracy become tools to constrain dissent while augmenting discretionary political power - even as the national and international legitimacy of the state is secured. This book offers a valuable and original contribution to understanding the complexities of law, language and legitimacy in our time.

二十一世紀第一個十年，在獨裁者與民主陣營的戰爭中，阿拉伯之春令人為之一振。埃及、突尼西亞與葉門的暴君都被趕下台。但阿拉伯世界只是第一戰 線。從委內瑞拉到中國，從蘇聯到馬來西亞，從到緬甸到伊朗，這麼多國家的極權政權還是極力鞏固權力，並設法面對最難預料與最大的威脅──人民。

　 　今日的極權政權領導者與二十世紀的獨裁者不同，不像北韓那樣完全凍結在時光裡，還繼續用勞改營、暴力、洗腦的手段控制人民。新興的極權國家，如中國、俄 羅斯、委內瑞拉、伊朗，它不會變成警察國家，反而給人民許多表面與程序上的自由，並滲透這些自由。在經濟上，新的獨裁者更聰明，不再封閉守貧，切斷與世界 的聯繫。他懂得從全球體系獲得資源，卻不會失去自己的統治權。

　　雖然獨裁者越來越靈活，反抗者的花招也越來越多。獨裁者現在要對付的人可多了：慈善家、學者、部落客、NGO與學生團體。這些人現在都有能力在片刻間透過網路將訊息傳出，比如伊朗的綠色革命甚至被稱為「Twitter革命」。

　　在世界各地，獨裁者與反抗者的戰爭正要開打。這是貓與老鼠的戰爭，兩邊都展現高超的鬥志，都在磨練戰力。它是我們這時代的戰爭。道布森以他最具創見的報導、最聰慧的分析，為我們揭開今日獨裁政權的內部運作，帶我們前往自由之戰的前線。

陳冠中的新書《北京零公里》是一部曠世奇書。在一個縱橫古今中外的虛構框架下，作者用真實的歷史敘述，寫作了一部歷史傳奇。

整本書分三部分：內篇、外篇、秘篇。內篇是整本書的主體，外篇和秘篇作為補充，使得整個傳奇故事顯得更加豐富、魔幻怪異。
所謂「北京零公里」，是有事實根據的，具體指的是位於北京市天安門廣場的一個中國公路零公里的標誌。這是全中國所有公路的起點，比如說從北京到香港有一千九百五十九公里，就是從這一點算起的。作者站在這一個實際的零點位置，以一個存於虛無世界的歷史學家的視角，敘述北京城八百年來的歷史、人物、事件。從傳說中劉伯溫建北京四九城，到十四世紀大明皇朝設順天府，大興土木築建紫禁城皇城，成就了現在「北京零公里」這個標誌周圍的核心地帶的北京，再到一六四四年李自城攻佔北京42天，燒毀城樓，隨即幾天之後滿人入京，建立清皇朝，北京重現帝都的輝煌，直至辛亥革命推翻帝制，民國接收清帝國，依然定都於北京，十六年後才遷都南京。當然我們現代人最熟悉的北京是四九年後人民共和國的首都北京。
在上千年的宏大歷史時空中，不同朝代的更替，一般的只有幾十年，長的三四百年，最短的才四十二天，生活在其中的人生壽命也都不過幾十年，舊城變新城，生人變鬼魂，至於什麼是歷史，什麼是歷史真相，無斷累積出來的歷史知識又有什麼用，作者是抱着懷疑態度的。然而正就是這種懷疑精神，使得作者把整本書的敘述，視野一再擴闊，一方面深入探究了傳說中的北京地下城世界，另一方面用一個「外篇」寫北京的「吃」，表面是一部食經，實則寫出北京作為首善之都的掌權者的權力貪婪，最高權力交替的風詭雲譎，以及極權國家秘密操作的恐怖，引人入勝，欲罷不能。­

泡沫狂欢后的“天坑”该由谁买单？
海量触目惊心的真实案例、第一手资料首度公开
《朝日新闻》采访组直击日本国民热议话题，引发全民讨论
🏠 编辑推荐
◎ 到了免费送也无人问津，惟愿早日摆脱税费梦魇的那一天，“不动产”就成了“负动产”。
◎ 截至2018年，日本房屋空置率达到13.6%，到2033年将会达到30%。
◎ 《朝日新闻》采访组直击国民热议话题，海量触目惊心的真实案例、第一手资料首度无死角公开，引发全民讨论。
◎ 深挖“土地神话”为什么成了“负动产深渊”？追问政策滞后和相关部门的疏忽，该由谁买单？
🏠 内容简介
年轻时拼力买下昂贵的房产，想着退休以后能和家人一起颐养天年；经营多处房产，期冀子女日后能靠长租公寓多一份收入和保障；未加深思便继承了故人遗产，以为房产再多一两处又何妨。但曾经的“土地神话”已化为泡影，截至2018年全日本的空房率达到13.6%，再次刷新历史峰值。
当年高位接盘的人，后来都过得怎么样了？众人趋之若鹜的房产和土地为何会沦为避之唯恐不及的烫手山芋？人口剧减已成定势，日本多地却仍旧频现房地产热潮，背后交织着哪些不为人知的利益暗流？
《朝日新闻》大型连载“负动产时代”在全日本引发巨大反响，本书在此基础上进行了大规模增补和调整，通过海量一手资料和真实案例，深入分析日本“负动产”的成因、现状以及可能的解决方向，全民买房时代究竟该不该上车？本书或已给出答案。

A work of extraordinary range and striking originality, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen traces the global history of written constitutions from the 1750s to the twentieth century, modifying accepted narratives and uncovering the close connections between the making of constitutions and the making of war. In the process, Linda Colley both reappraises famous constitutions and recovers those that have been marginalized but were central to the rise of a modern world.
She brings to the fore neglected sites, such as Corsica, with its pioneering constitution of 1755, and tiny Pitcairn Island in the Pacific, the first place on the globe permanently to enfranchise women. She highlights the role of unexpected players, such as Catherine the Great of Russia, who was experimenting with constitutional techniques with her enlightened Nakaz decades before the Founding Fathers framed the American constitution. Written constitutions are usually examined in relation to individual states, but Colley focuses on how they crossed boundaries, spreading into six continents by 1918 and aiding the rise of empires as well as nations. She also illumines their place not simply in law and politics but also in wider cultural histories, and their intimate connections with print, literary creativity, and the rise of the novel.
Colley shows how--while advancing epic revolutions and enfranchising white males--constitutions frequently served over the long nineteenth century to marginalize indigenous people, exclude women and people of color, and expropriate land. Simultaneously, though, she investigates how these devices were adapted by peoples and activists outside the West seeking to resist European and American power. She describes how Tunisia generated the first modern Islamic constitution in 1861, quickly suppressed, but an influence still on the Arab Spring; how Africanus Horton of Sierra Leone--inspired by the American Civil War--devised plans for self-governing nations in West Africa; and how Japan's Meiji constitution of 1889 came to compete with Western constitutionalism as a model for Indian, Chinese, and Ottoman nationalists and reformers.
Vividly written and handsomely illustrated, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen is an absorbing work that--with its pageant of formative wars, powerful leaders, visionary lawmakers and committed rebels--retells the story of constitutional government and the evolution of ideas of what it means to be modern.

製造「雲南」就是創造「中國」！
從古滇國、南詔國、大理國，再到雲南省，
「雲南」曾經主導東南亞的全球貿易中心，
為何最終被中華帝國統合，而淪為邊疆省分？
一部雲南二千年史，何以見證中國的民族建構？
中國歷史特殊論？且看本書如何挑戰葛兆光《宅茲中國》論述！
＊＊＊＊＊
■「雲南人」的地方認同，是大一統帝國的發明
中國大多數含有「東西南北」等方位名詞的省分名稱一般都與河流或山脈有關，如兩河、兩湖、山東、山西等等，但「雲南」卻是例外――作為地名的「雲南」，既與河流、山脈無關，也不是當地族群自發形成的政治地理名稱。
既然「雲南」原本不存在，自然也就沒有「雲南人」。事實上，「雲南」源自於一種來自遙遠北方的距離感與陌生感――它是中國歷代王朝製造出來，強加給帝國西南邊陲地區的一種「想像」。本書便是以「中國的東方主義」及「中國中心論」來形容這種隱藏於漢字觀點下的偏見。
雲南自古以來就是部落林立、政權更迭的獨立區域，一直要到十四世紀才正式被蒙古帝國征服，此後歷經明清兩代，成為「中華帝國」的邊疆省分直到今日。雲南這一省級行政區是元帝國的發明，在此政治空間之下，本地原住民與漢人移民逐漸融合，服膺於帝國秩序，並透過科舉制度與儒家文化，逐漸催生了「雲南人」這個「大一統王朝臣民」的身分認同。
因此，「雲南人」不是「獨立」的想像，而是「臣民」的想像。從明代開始，「雲南」在政治和文化上成為中華王朝的重要部分。所謂的「雲南人」，同時也成為「中國人」的具體表述。
■從雲南的形成，思考中國民族主義的建構本質
今天的雲南地區，早在春秋戰國時代前就獨立形成了發達的青銅器文明。在相當長的時間裡，那裡生活著不同的部落、部落聯盟和王國，使用具有異國風味的名稱（如滇、僰、昆明、夜郎、哀牢、勞浸、靡莫、邛都等）。「雲南」這兩個漢字首次出現於西漢時期，屬於漢王朝在西南邊疆設置的「益州郡」之下。
西漢之後，儘管中原政權聲稱其擁有對雲南地區的統治權，但從未確立過牢固而連續的統治。雲南地區出現的獨立政權，如滇王國、南詔國、大理國，不斷與向南擴張的北方政權發生衝突，同時也透過貿易與移民進行交流。直到清末民初時期，「雲南」才在「軍閥割據」狀態下恢復了一定程度的自主權。
在一九四九年後，新成立的中華人民共和國重新征服雲南，並對當地展開了「民族識別」，將官方認可的各種少數民族，歸併至「中華民族的大家庭」裡，以「民族主義」的方式徹底統合了「雲南人」。
當代中國的民族政策，承接了歷史上不同政權的帝國遺產，透過「中華民族」的概念維護著古代的「大一統」帝國框架，而雲南就是最鮮明的案例。因此，理解「雲南」形成的歷史，同時也是反思「中國」作為民族主義建構的本質。
■歐亞「大分流」時代的來臨，最終將雲南推向了中國！
雖然從中華帝國的視角來看，雲南不過是邊陲；但是，若從全球交流的視野來看，雲南絕不是封閉落後、尚待「開化」的蠻荒之地，而是一個位處西南絲綢之路上，貿易頻繁、文化多元的開放地區。雲南的傳統國際貿易網絡，不但可直接通往東南亞、南亞及印度洋，甚至遠及中亞與非洲。
縱使被蒙古帝國征服後，雲南仍然維持其國際貿易的核心要角長達數百年之久。因此，雲南文化深深受到各種國際因素的影響，帶有鮮明的異國特色。本書最具代表性的案例，便是分析雲南如何使用「貝幣」――來自馬爾地夫島出產的海貝、西南絲路與印度洋貿易的主要媒介――從上古一直持續到十七世紀。在歐洲勢力進入印度洋後，歐洲通貨逐漸取代了貝幣的使用，最終造成雲南經濟的崩潰，並轉向以中國主導的大陸貿易體系。
因此，雲南最終被併入中國，不能單獨從中國史的角度來解釋，而必須進一步思考世界史的關鍵影響，才能理解其中的結構性因素。同時，「中國」從傳統的帝國逐漸轉型為現代民族國家，也不只是王朝更迭的內部變化，更受到世界格局變化的外部影響。

听，这很久很久以前流传下来的故事——
也不知真的发生过还是没发生过，
即便没有，
必当真有过来听呀——
“讲了一百万次的故事”日本卷。“讲了100万次的故事”系列，是乐府文化故事系列的重要组成部分。在这套丛书中，我们收集了不同国家和地区有着深厚生命力的民间传说、神话和童 话故事，它们都是来自往昔的声音，呈现出故事的原初面貌，更呈现出不同民族和整个人类童年的模样。这些故事与大自然和想象力密不可分，让我们看到了生生不息的人类精神世界，也看到了人性和文化的发展脉络。这些故事像人类的DNA密码一样，在讲述中传递讯息。它们或熟悉，或陌生，阅读这套丛书，就像在世界各个地域深度旅行一样，领略着不同的精神传统。
本书为精装上下册套装，其底本是日本民俗学家关敬吾编《日本の昔ばなし》三卷本，由美空翻译，小满绘图。结集在这里的民间故事，如《桃 太郎》《浦岛太郎》《摘瘤子的 老爷子》《一寸法师》《割了舌头的麻雀》等都是从古至今在日本流传、为村中老翁老妪们代代传讲的传统民间故事，也就是笔录的口承故事，故事类型多样，想象丰富，是培养儿童想象力的极佳读物。
古老的昔话随着岁月流转被口口相传地保留了下来，其中相当一部分在流传的过程中发生了改变，作为日本民俗学之父柳田国男的弟子，关敬吾在搜集整理这些故事的时候，也在探究这些改变，其中涉及了日本古时的风土人情、生活习惯、民族心理、观念信仰等，跟着民俗学家探究这些改变的发生，也是阅读本书的一大趣味

http://r4ds.had.co.nz/

The Sassoons and the Kadoories--two Jewish families from Baghdad--had long been successful in business, politics, and society. They kept up their intrigues and opium smuggling while helping to rescue 18,000 Jews from Hitler's Europe, and though they soon faced the tsunami that was communism, their legacy remains today.

这不是美国通史，也不是学术著作，是作者多年观察美国的心得，尽量用浅显的“大白话”讲出来。这些个人心得却也不是一时心血来潮，而是经过反复思考、探索的结果。
本书作者对美国的论述，是把美国作为一种文明或者西方文明的变异来研究的，特别是把美国的政治、经济等制度作为一种人类正常的迥异于我们传统的政治文明来研究。

《资中筠自选集(套装共5册)》包括：《资中筠自选集：感时犹世》、《资中筠自选集：士人风骨》、《资中筠自选集：做观天下》、《资中筠自选集：闲中记美》、《资中筠自选集：不尽之思》。本人忝列“学者”圈，以笔耕为业，实际上是半百以后才开始。前半生所写文字都是奉命之作，多为“内部”报告，偶然以他人名义公开发表，也多为应景文章，不值得追认。我笔归我有，迄今不过三十载。前期主要是专业研究的学术著作。在“正业”之外兴之所至写点东西始于上世纪80年代，当然是与当时的开放形势分不开的。对我这个半生为驯服工具的人来说，发现原来这支笔还能属于自己，可以这样来用，是一大解放。开始只是偶一为之，且多为读书心得，后来逐渐欲罢不能，大量写作始于90年代，特别是正式退休之后。这些文章都是有所思而流诸笔端，没有任何功利目的，完全摆脱了命题作文之累。80年代初的心情充满了对未来的热情和期待，自己似乎大梦初醒，从精神桎梏和迷失中走出来。尽管仍然感觉到旧的顽固势力和种种太熟悉的思维习惯的羁绊，总的心态是乐观而有信心。以后种种是那时未料及的，所以从文章时序来看，越到后来，所表达的心情越沉重。

“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.”   With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage.   Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.

《首都计划》是中华民国国民政府在民国十八年（1929年）所编写的建设首都南京的计划大纲。《首都计划》吸收当时古今中外的建设理念，对抗日战争前的民国南京城的各项建设发挥了重要的指导作用，对于今天的城市建设仍有相当的参考价值。

《南薰殿歷代帝后圖像》歷朝皆藏於宮中，所繪歷代帝后朝服像，無論立像、坐像、半身像，在形貌、服飾的配件，或龍椅、地毯等紋飾等，描繪真實，筆法工整精細，設色富麗，具有極高的藝術造詣，更是研究歷史與服飾史珍貴的圖像資料。
1989年起，本院陸續輯印《故宮書畫圖錄》32冊，惟因《南薰殿歷代帝后圖像》缺乏高解析圖檔，先前出版計畫內容未涵蓋在內，本書作為研究中國歷代人物畫之重要資料，且可呈現故宮典藏文物之整體性，故予以校對整理出版。

This volume brings the studies of institutions, labour, and material cultures to bear on the history of science and technology by tracing the workings of the Imperial Household Department (Neiwufu) in the Qing court and empire. An enormous apparatus that employed 22,000 men and women at its heyday, the Department operated a "machine" with myriad moving parts. The first part of the book portrays the people who kept it running, from technical experts to menial servants, and scrutinises the paper trails they left behind. Part two uncovers the working principles of the machine by following the production chains of some of its most splendid products: gilded statues, jade, porcelain, and textiles. Part three tackles the most complex task of all, managing living organisms in nature, including lotus plants grown in imperial ponds in Beijing, fresh medicines sourced from disparate regions, and tribute elephants from Southeast Asia.

For almost a hundred years from the 1860s, the City of London's overseas banks financed the global trade that lay at the core of the British Empire. Foremost among them from the beginning were two start-up ventures: the Standard Bank of South Africa, which soon developed a powerful domestic franchise at the Cape, and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. This book traces their stories in the nineteenth century, their glory days before 1914 - and their remarkable survival in the face of global wars and the collapse of world trade in the first half of the twentieth century.
The unravelling of the Empire after 1945 eventually forced Britain's overseas banks to confront a different future. The Standard and the Chartered, alarmed at the expansion of American banking, determined in 1969 on a merger as a way of sustaining the best of the City's overseas traditions. But from the start, Standard Chartered had to grapple with the fading fortunes of its own inherited franchise - badly dented in both Asia and Africa - and with radical changes in the nature of banking. Its British managers, steeped in the past, proved ill-suited to the challenge. By the late 1980s, efforts to expand in Europe and the USA had brought the merged Group to the brink of collapse.
Yet it survived - and then pulled off a dramatic recovery. Standard Chartered realigned itself, just in time, with the phenomenal growth of Asia's 'emerging markets', many of them in countries where the Chartered had flourished a century earlier. In the process, the Group was transformed. Trebling its workforce, it brushed aside the global financial crisis of 2008 and by 2012 could look back on a decade of astonishing growth. Recent times have added an eventful postscript to a long and absorbing history.
Crossing Continents recounts Standard Chartered's story with a wealth of detail from one of the richest archives available to any commercial bank. The book also affords a rare and compelling perspective on the evolution of international trade and finance, showing how Britain's commercial influence has actually worked in practice around the world over one hundred and fifty years.

In this book, distinguished historian Philip A. Kuhn tells the remarkable five-century story of Chinese emigration as an integral part of China's modern history. Although emigration has a much longer past, its "modern" phase dates from the sixteenth century, when European colonialists began to collaborate with Chinese emigrants to develop a worldwide trading system. The author explores both internal and external migration, complementary parts of a far-reaching process of adaptation that enabled Chinese families to deal with their changing social environments. Skills and institutions developed in the course of internal migration were creatively modified to serve the needs of emigrants in foreign lands.
As emigrants, Chinese inevitably found themselves "among others." The various human ecologies in which they lived have faced Chinese settlers with a diversity of challenges and opportunities in the colonial and postcolonial states of Southeast Asia, in the settler societies of the Americas and Australasia, and in Europe. Kuhn traces their experiences worldwide alongside those of the "others" among whom they settled: the colonial elites, indigenous peoples, and rival immigrant groups that have profited from their Chinese minorities but also have envied, feared, and sometimes persecuted them. A rich selection of primary sources allows these protagonists a personal voice to express their hopes, sorrows, and worldviews.
The post-Mao era offers emigrants new opportunities to leverage their expatriate status to do business with a Chinese nation eager for their investments, donations, and technologies. The resulting "new migration," the author argues, is but the latest phase of a centuries-old process by which Chinese have sought livelihoods away from home.

A pathbreaking history of the United States' overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire
We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories--the islands, atolls, and archipelagos--this country has governed and inhabited?
In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century's most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress.
In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.

清代的政务运作，可体现为文书的流转过程，而最重要的政务文书题本与奏摺，又是朝会的主要内容。朝会与文书，是政治决策的要素及具体的呈现。君臣天不亮便须进入理政与朝会程序，这被清人概括为“辨色视朝”。 本书尝试疏通晚清时期中央政府的政务流程与决策过程中诸多细节，包括清代三种朝会的主要内容及其在决策中的作用，政务文书的产生和流转过程，垂帘听政、训政、归政时期皇太后、皇帝、军机处各自的权限，晚清的“廷议”，新政时期内阁与军机处的改革，辛亥革命前后两次责任内阁的区别，尤其注意对重要史料的细致解读和细节的深入挖掘，从制度史的视角，探讨晚清高层政治决策的特征。

Politicians claim social mobility is real - a just reward for ambition and hard work. This book proves otherwise.
From servants' children who became clerks in Victorian Britain, to managers made redundant by the 2008 financial crash, travelling up or down the social ladder has been a fact of British life for more than a century. Drawing on hundreds of personal stories, Snakes and Ladders tells the hidden history of how people have really experienced that social mobility - both upwards and down.
It shows how a powerful elite on the top rungs have clung to their perch and prevented others ascending. It also introduces the unsung heroes who created more room at the top - among them adult educators, feminists and trade unionists, whose achievements unleashed the hidden talents of thousands of people.
As we face political crisis after crisis, Snakes and Ladders argues that only by creating greater opportunities for everyone to thrive can we ensure the survival of our society
A 'Best books of 2021' prediction: Financial Times, Sunday Times
Praise for The People: the Rise and Fall of the Working Class
'The People is a book we badly need' David Kynaston, Observer
'Ms Todd's great ability as an academic is to avoid writing like one' Alistair Dawber, Independent
'What differentiates Selina Todd's book from existing literature on this subject is the way her narrative actually documents the voices of working-class people . . . Brilliant and well-researched' New Internationalist