Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2014 -

For novices, an arduous fact about learning the ancient Chinese language is the necessity of resorting to bulky, battered Chinese-English dictionaries compiled decades ago, if not earlier.  Kroll (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder), drawing experiences from some 50 years of teaching and research, has compiled this handy, concise, and exhaustive dictionary of classical and medieval Chinese from roughly the Warring States period to the Tang dynasty, i.e., 500 BCE to 1000 CE.  Some 8,200 carefully selected graphs (Chinese characters) are diachronically annotated in precise English.  Special care is given to grammatical particles (e.g.,y) and concrete words that are either rich in cultural context (e.g.,chuígng) or easily misunderstood if interpreted literally (e.g.,juédo).  The dictionary's value is enhanced by Middle Chinese readings of each graph, and several useful appendixes with basic charts of Chinese astronomy, a list of dynastic reign titles, and an index of the characters' radical and stroke numbers.  Aided by this dictionary, users will be able to read with ease Chinese texts such as theAnalects of Confucius, theRecords of the Grand Historian, and Han Yü's essay "Proclamation to the Crocodile."  Although it might have offered a few more illustrative words for each character, this fine work will benefit all learners of classical Chinese.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.

This splendid reference book by historians Narangoa and Cribb (both, Australian National Univ.) surveys the history of northeast Asia through the early-modern and modern periods from the perspective of geography.  Fifty-two full-color maps depict the movement of people and the flow of events as they played out over more than four centuries in the territory of Mongolia, Manchuria, eastern Siberia, and the Korean peninsula.  The region's geographic position lying amid many powerful states in Asia makes this region historically significant, but the portrayal of events there in most of the extant written sources makes its geography extraordinarily difficult to navigate conceptually.  The authors have resolved many ambiguities with these maps, and their clarity will improve the understanding of students and scholars at many levels and for many purposes.  Each map depicts political boundaries, military campaigns, and major population movements, as well as major cities, fortifications, or topographical features.  The atlas includes an index to the maps and the substantial text that accompanies each.  An appended gazetteer listing the names of various places as they are described in more than seven languages is an extraordinarily helpful reference tool.  Reproductions of 19 historical maps of European and Asian origin supplement these riches.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic audiences; general readers; professionals/practitioners.