History & Culture & Politics (GR)

Spanning almost a century, this book examines the origins and development of the cheongsam in the social context of Singapore since its introduction from Shanghai in the 1920s.

Colonel William Farquhar (1774-1839) was a British Colonial Officer who became Commandant of Malacca in 1803, a post through which he was able o indulge his interest in natural history, sending men to collect various plant and animal specimens, which he then commissioned artists to paint.

Now released in a new, convenient and handy size, Over Singapore: 50 Years Ago is a view of old Singapore from a new angle. Many of the streets and buildings have changed; but many others are still instantly recognizable, and this book helps the reader make connections between places as...

By the late 19th century, Penang had become a thriving port trading in rubber, spices and tin. Its prosperity attracted immigrants from around the world and the island was a rich melting pot of Chinese, Indians, Malays, Europeans and many other peoples. The postcards reproduced in this book are drawn...

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a fictional biography showcasing the life and work of Chan Hock Chye, a pioneering but largely forgotten comics artist in Singapore. With a career spanning more than five decades, from pre-independent Singapore through its three Prime Ministers, Chan’s work reflects the changing...

#1 New York Times Bestseller The Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, now available as a beautifully packaged paperbackFrom a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanitys creation and evolution--a #1 international bestseller--that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined...

In The Future We Choose, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac—who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015—have written a cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity. The authors outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one,...

A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 An extraordinary achievement . . . gripping, grim and witty Robert MacFarlaneUnputdown-able ... No book could be more timely Richard J EvansToday, the bunker has become the extreme expression of our greatest fears: from pandemics to climate change and nuclear war. And...

In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With...

Heavily sourced, crisply written and deeply alarming. The Times This is a remarkable book with a chilling message. GuardianThe Chinese Communist Party is determined to reshape the world in its image.Its decades-long infiltration of the West threatens democracy, human rights, privacy, security and free speech. Throughout North America and Europe,...

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2021 One of the best books ever written about intelligence analysis and its long-term lessons Christopher Andrew, author of The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5An invaluable guide to avoiding self-deception and fake news Melanie Phillips, The TimesFrom the...

China and India have always been seperated not only by the Himalayas, but also by the impenetrable jungle and remote areas that once stretched across Burma. Now this last great frontier will likely vanish - forests cut down, dirt roads replaced by superhighways, insurgencies ended - leaving China and India...

The Genealogy of Kings (Malay: Sulalat al-Salatin or Sejarah Melayu), is a literary work that gives a romanticised history of the origin, evolution and demise of the great Malay maritime empire, the Malacca Sultanate. The work which was composed sometime between 15th and 16th centuries, is considered one of the...

An Economist BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR As the data economy grows in power, Carissa Veliz exposes how our privacy is eroded by big tech and governments, why that matters and what we can do about it.The moment you check your phone in the morning you are giving away your...

For centuries, human history has been shaped by politics, power, and war - but what about love? Mark Antonys love for Cleopatra led to war between Rome and Egypt; Emperor Xuanzang of Tang relinquished the Mandate of Heaven for Yang Guifei; and the English Reformation was borne out of Henry...

A LANDMARK WORK OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. A GLOBAL BESTSELLER. STILL AS RELEVANT TODAY. With the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 the threat of the Cold War which had dominated the second half of the twentieth century vanished. And with it the West looked to the future with optimism but...

Neil MacGregors A History of the World in 100 Objects takes a bold, original approach to human history, exploring past civilizations through the objects that defined them. Encompassing a grand sweep of human history, A History of the World in 100 Objects begins with one of the earliest surviving objects...

Winner of the 2019 Lionel Gelber Prize Majestic, informative and often delightful ... insights on every page Yanis Varoufakis, ObserverThe definitive history of the Great Financial Crisis, from the acclaimed author of The Deluge and The Wages of Destruction.In September 2008 the Great Financial Crisis, triggered by the collapse of...

More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Saids groundbreaking critique of the Wests historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic. In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of orientalism to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle...

From the innermost sanctum of the Prime Minister’s private offices among the Minaret-studded buildings of Putrajaya to streets filled with tear-gassed protestors in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Romen Bose, a former international correspondent and political communications consultant to then Prime Minister Najib Razak, provides a gripping and engaging true story of...