Reddit mentions: The best asian history books

Every time I read these they become worse. Let's concentrate on some thing I noted this time:

>For example, it is very easy to include God or gods in one's definition of church. In that case, we throw out Buddhism, which is surely a legitimate religion. I assume your version of separation of church and state includes separation of Buddhism and state. Mine sure does. And what about Scientology? Shouldn't we have separation of Scientology and state? I'm guessing you'll sign up for this one as well.

...Buddhism, as the great majority of Buddhists worldwide practice it, is in no way contrary to the existence of gods, quite the other way around. An argument has been made that the whole idea of Buddhism as an atheist religion is mainly the result of a relatively recent process of interplay between (South) Asian nationalists and their state-building projects and British post-Enlightenment intellectuals projecting their own values on an exotic religion. Don't know enough to say, but seems plausible. Likewise, I can't say my theological knowledge of Scientology is vast, but according to Wikipedia, it is a theist religion:

>Scientologists believe in an "Infinity" ("the All-ness of All"). They recite a formal prayer for total freedom at meetings, which include the verses "May the author of the universe enable all men to reach an understanding of their spiritual nature. May awareness and understanding of life expand, so that all may come to know the author of the universe. And may others also reach this understanding which brings Total Freedom ... Freedom from war, and poverty, and want; freedom to be; freedom to do and freedom to have. Freedom to use and understand Man's potential – a potential that is God-given and Godlike." The prayer commences with "May God let it be so."[51] [52]

Scientologists affirm the existence of a deity without defining or describing its nature. L. Ron Hubbard explains in his book Science of Survival, "No culture in the history of the world, save the thoroughly depraved and expiring ones, has failed to affirm the existence of a Supreme Being. It is an empirical observation that men without a strong and lasting faith in a Supreme Being are less capable, less ethical and less valuable." Instead of defining God, members assert that reaching higher states of enlightenment will enable individuals to make their own conclusions about the Supreme Being.[53]

Okay, is that important? Yes, because at this point, Moldbug's argument is basically "Yes, you could defined a church through belief in a God or gods, but what about Buddhist and Scientology, then? Huh? Huh" which, at the very least, rests on very thin ice... and then Moldbug starts taking this badly founded argument and expanding it to an entire worldview.

Another thing that I've thought many times but really only now conceived: how parochial Moldbug's worldview is. The second entry is based on the notion that maybe American revolution was a bad thing - possibly a mindblowing thing to someone who has grown up amidst American patriotic mythos, at most an interesting thought experiment to basically everyone else. There's a whole country to the north of US that was basically founded on the principle that American revolution was a bad thing and which Moldbug does not mention once. United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada continues to exist, contrary to:"Loyalism gives us an extremely foreign perspective of the present world. There are no other Loyalists in 2009. So, when we think as Loyalists, we have no choice but to think for ourselves."

Of course, current Canadians, or Canadian Loyalists, don't probably support the same values that the original Tories who went to Canada did, but that brings me to another point - a rather common habit of taking one movement at point A (hundreds of years ago), then finding a descendant of that movement at point B (now, or may be a few decades ago) and then going "See, it's the same thing!" For instance, here Moldy takes Puritans and the current American mainstream ideology - and, indeed, a case can be made that there's a continuity; certainly American patriotism is in many ways built on what originally were Reformed movements inside and outside the Anglican church and the foundations of current American liberalism are in many ways built on the mainline Protestant variety of this ideology.

However, that would ignore the complete shift in Protestant thinking that modernism brought, how fundamentalism was specifically a reaction that aimed to return Protestantism back to its "fundaments" from mainline's changes, how American patriotism was also affected by Deist and Christian-Deist enlightenment thinking, how current liberalism is also the child of progressivism, populism, Catholic social gospel, reform Judaism etc. and so on. But that's complicated! "Modern Left is Puritans, that's that" is easier and punchier.

Fourth thing is a general comment on neoreaction in general - the biggest reason why the whole movement was a flash-in-the-pan affectation of the few intellectuals was that the original reaction was, essentially, very much a religious movement expressing in the political arena its fear of Enlightenment usurping religion as the main source of societal justification, and much of neoreaction has been at most culturally religious. It just doesn't work! You might as well try to build a movement that's re-establishing the Caliphate - not due to any sort of a belief in Islam, but due to a belief that it just would form the best societal structure to do... well, whatever you want it to do.

There are far too many to describe one as "the best", but here are some of my favourites.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a well deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A combination of history, science and biography and so very well written.

A few of my favourite biographies include the magisterial, and also Pulitzer Prize winning, Peter the Great by Robert Massie. He also wrote the wonderful Dreadnaught on the naval arms race between Britain and Germany just prior to WWI (a lot more interesting than it sounds!). Christopher Hibbert was one of the UK's much loved historians and biographers and amongst his many works his biography Queen Victoria - A Personal History is one of his best. Finally, perhaps my favourite biography of all is Everitt's Cicero - The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician. This man was at the centre of the Fall of the Roman Republic; and indeed fell along with it.

Speaking of which, Rubicon - The Last Years of the Roman Republic is a recent and deserved best-seller on this fascinating period. Holland writes well and gives a great overview of the events, men (and women!) and unavoidable wars that accompanied the fall of the Republic, or the rise of the Empire (depending upon your perspective). :) Holland's Persian Fire on the Greco-Persian Wars (think Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes! Think of the Movie 300, if you must) is equally gripping.

Perhaps my favourite history book, or series, of all is Shelby Foote's magisterial trilogy on the American Civil War The Civil War - A Narrative. Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read.

If, like me, you're interested in teh history of Africa, start at the very beginning with The Wisdom of the Bones by Alan Walker and Pat Shipman (both famous paleoanthropologists). Whilst not the very latest in recent studies (nothing on Homo floresiensis for example), it is still perhaps the best introduction to human evolution available. Certainly the best I've come across. Then check out Africa - Biography of a Continent. Finish with the two masterpieces The Scramble for Africa on how European colonialism planted the seeds of the "dark continents" woes ever since, and The Washing of the Spears, a gripping history of the Anglo-Zulu wars of the 1870's. If you ever saw the movie Rorke's Drift or Zulu!, you will love this book.

Hopkirk's The Great Game - The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia teaches us that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I should imagine that's enough to keep you going for the moment. I have plenty more suggestions if you want. :)

Most of the answers here are providing opinions, rather than actual historical context. I am a practicing Hindu, so let me add my own voice to this.

Most Hindus believe in the supreme authority of the Vedas, the four sacred books written in Sanskrit. There are many other supplementary works around them.

The three main concepts are

• Anant Brahma - The Unending Supreme Being, not to be confused with Brahma, the creator in the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh(another name for Shiva). Brahma is the ultimate god for all Hindus. The difference is in the attributes assigned to the other god and their position relative to the Supreme Being.
  
• Atman - The soul that is within everyone.
  
• Maya - The all encompassing illusion cast by the Supreme Being on all creation. The goal of all creation is to dispel the illusion and know the true nature of the Supreme Being.
  
  The religious belief and practices can be divided into roughly four categories -
  
  
• Dvait - Dualism. The belief that everyone's soul is unique and different and distinct from god. In this belief system, any deity can be considered to be unique as well as supreme by their followers. They believe in Maya but believe all creation and souls are separate. Within Dvait, the concept of Bhakti (Knowing god through worship) was made popular among the masses by saints like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Purandardas and is the closest to Christianity.
  
  
• Vishishta Advaita - Special Dualism. All creation is one, with everyone thinking they are distinct due to the Supreme Being's Maya. Made popular by Ramanujacharya but I don't know much more about this.
  
• Advaita - Non-dualism. This is the ultimate monotheistic idea in Hinduism, where all creation and the Supreme Being are one, the idea being if god is omniscient and omnipresent then nothing can be distinct from god. In this belief system, everything is one with the Supreme Being but Maya makes us think we are distinct. Adi Shankaracharya brought prominence to this belief system.
  
• Samkhya - What the previous three have in common is belief in the Vedas. People who refused to believe in the authority of the Vedas as the word of god but considered them to be just moral precepts to be adapted as necessary. One main reason for the Samkhyas opposition to the Vedas was due to their use to create and sustain the caste system, where the majority of the population was considered lower caste and barred from reading any religions books, entering temples or in any practice which would let them get higher than a menial existence. Anyone managing that was promptly found to actually have been of higher birth and just needed purification.
  
  Hindus believe there are 330 million gods, which is assumed that it is the founder's estimate of number of unique creatures in nature.
  
  Most Hindus will consider either Shiva or Vishnu or one of Vishnu's incarnations - Krishna, Ram etc. to be supreme. Among others, most will consider the goddess Durga in that position
  All belief systems in Hinduism can be seen through this lens. Some like Swami Vivekananda tried to thread the needle by saying it is hard to envision and believe in a formless omnipresent being so most people find it easier to worship through a physical form, like an idol, with the thought of eventually graduating to more complex forms of worship.
  
  Such a complex belief system means Hindus just assume they are Hindu at birth. There was no process of converting to Hindu (which has changed with ISKCON and some other institutions having rituals to convert people to Hinduism) When Hinduism is under threat, they simply absorb the other religion's ideas. When Buddhism was on the rise, Hindus decided being vegetarian was an important part of the religion and Buddha was made into one of the Avataras(appearings) of the God Vishnu. Hindus will also go and worship in a mosque or church or have the idol of Mother Mary or Jesus Christ next to their own religions idols in their house place of worship.
  
  Lastly, this post is not really worthy of being in r/history but hope the mods will let it stand or at least inform me before deleting.
  
  I am from Goa, a state in India which was ruled by the Portuguese, rather than the British. While the Portuguese managed to convert most people to Christianity, some people escaped by going deep in the jungles and establishing their temples and deities there. You can see it today, with most temples within a few square miles of each other.
  
  Here are some sources
  
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy
  
• http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm
  
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/history_1.shtml
  
• https://www.amazon.com/India-History-Revised-John-Keay/dp/0802145582
  
  I find history is deeply murky on Hinduism and pre-colonial India but this is what I could find.
  
  Personally, I am a follower of Vivekananda.
  
  
  Edit - Edited for formatting.
  
  Edit 2 - Adding a link to the Goa Inquisition by the Portuguese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Inquisition This was used to punish those who had been converted to Christianity but had secretly returned to their original rituals and beliefs. I don't know about Muslims but converting Hindus was relatively easy. The Brahmins of the time believed in the superiority of their own religion and had numerous restrictions on the populace and ways one could be outcast. For example, traveling by sea or drinking tea in a porcelain cup or even eating bread. The Portuguese and the British missionaries would simply drop bread in the community village and whoever drank water from that would be ostracized by their own brethren and considered to have converted to Christianity. Ironically, it took the British unification of India and the liberalization of the religion to enable it to survive the onslaught.
  
  Even today, in Goa, if someone visits the temple and mentions their overseas trip, they have to go through a purification, involving a ritual bath, cleansing chanting by a priest and being sprinkled with a drop of cow urine before entering the inner sanctum and worshipping.

>stopping drug trafficing officially was a high priority in the war as you might know.

That is a high priority for the British and a lesser extent to the Americans. But really it isn't as high a priority as most people think.

>now production is on an all time high and the soldiers arent even allowed to interfere with the farmers

Going and burning some farmer's opium or marijuana cash crop would be pretty devastating for him, and not all farmers have a choice what they grow.

Also when you are fighting a counter insurgency and you go in and destroy a farmer''s livelihood then the various insurgents come in and give him a rifle and $100 and tell him to go shoot at NATO soldiers. Destroying the drug networks at a low level really does nothing but push the populace into the hands of the insurgency. It's counterproductive.

>they are not even allowed to gently convince farmers to change their mind there.

That's not actually true. They are working on various agricultural programs to replace the drug cultivation with other cash crops. Pomegranates is a major one as are grapes and melons. They are also working on trying to increase grain production to help increase food security and stability. Civil military teams and government departments are working together to help establish supply chains and export markets for Afghan crops. Pakistan and India are major markets right next door.


>some large fields have even been guarded by troops. thats corruption for me.

I haven't seen references to this, would you have any reliable ones? Some troops are really local village militias, designed to help deter intimidation by insurgents. Technically they are on the government payroll, but in reality they will do whatever is in the best interests of their village a lot of the time.

>anyway i really hope that the situation will get better over there. i really would like to visit some places there at some point.

I know a lot of people who have been there more times than myself. The situation started so bad that it was hard not to improve it. Security is getting better, but I won't go into specific details as I am sleepy and don't want to look up what is open source.

You may want to look up this book. It's a pretty good read and the next best thing to going there yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Places-Between-Rory-Stewart/dp/0156031566

>would be cool if the people could be actually called free then and that they not just go right back into tyranny once the troops leave.

I'm sure there will still be an insurgency for some time. There are too many competing interests in the country. That being said you only need look at the Afghan forces now compared to how the were before. Afghan special forces, which include women, are now conducting the raids on IED cells and insurgent leaders. They are doing it without coalition troops on the ground. they don't have a first world army obviously, but what they do have is "Afghan good enough". They still need a lot of work in logistics, service support, repair, planning and sustainment but they have some decent troops. If you are a bunch of terrible soldiers it's a pretty Darwinian environment. I'm reasonably sure they'll muddle through.

The very recent Western civilization (if it could in fact be called a civilization) has a tendency to project it's own modern standards onto the entire history of mankind, as if it's the one and only proper worldview, according to whose standards every other past and present civilization on Earth must be judged. I challenge you to go read Orientalism by Edward Said to try to ameliorate any such unfelt tendencies. And don't worry, even the colonized end up measuring their own worldviews by the colonizer's standards, given the inferiority complex resulting post-colonization.

What I'm trying to say is that when you want to judge any far away culture (in time OR space) from your own, be very careful what elements you measure by your specific modern standards, and what elements you should judge by their distant standards. The prophet ﷺ was under constant attack by his enemies at the time, and his possible marriage to a 9 year old (many sources actually say 19, others 14, others 12 btw, but of course, the media will want to stick with the youngest of these), or the fact that he married multiple women weren't ones of the points of attack. Let that tell you something for starters: that both practices were considered normal at the time.

On another note, do you think a 9 year old female (or male for that matter) of 6th century Arabia would be the same as a 9 year old female in modern California, for instance? I'm talking in terms of maturity. Even today, have you ever met aboriginals? beduins? any community that still have not become completely westwashed and modernized? I have. And their 12 year old women can put our 21 year old women to shame in their maturity. Same with men, btw. At 21 years old, Mohammad alFatih led the Muslim army into Constantinople. There are many other examples. My own great grandmother, Syrian, married when she was 14.

Polygamy makes evolutionary sense more than polyandry, and our species have always been polygamous. So this, again, will have to be measured not by our current modern Western standards.

Actually, at the time of the prophet ﷺ, Islam came and limited polygamy to 4 wives, when the number was unlimited and when they had nothing to ensure the rights of the wives to inheritence and custody of children etc. Islam came to curb that and provided specific details about their rights.

I advise you also to read about the different understandings of "marriage" across human history. The model we're currently living (the marriage of romance and feelings) is but one of many in the genealogy of this institution.

Do you know anything about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ? We call them the Mothers of the Believers in Islam. Why don't you read and get to know them and understand the relationship going on in 6th century Arabia? For example, one of the common reasons behind marriage in premodern civilizations was for bigger tribal/societal reasons, like ending decade-long feuds between tribes and building alliances. Not to mention, marrying to provide divorced women and widows a safe haven to belong to a family and community.

That's not to say there was no love or beautiful romance. Go read about the Prophet's love to his first wife: Khadija, who was actually his employer at the time; one of the biggest business women of Mecca. Go read about his love for this wife Aisha you speak of. Talk about romance? He used to drink from the same spot where she placed her lips. They used to race and she'd always win (until she gained some weight, peace be upon her soul XD and he won for the first time.) He once ordered the entire army to stop and look for her necklace. She used to climb on his back and watch Africans dances when they come to Mecca. When he was dying, he asked the permission of his other wives that he be nursed and end his life in her appartment on her lap. He asked her for siwak before he died which she moisturized with her own mouth.

This Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) became one of the most prominent scholars of Islam, she was the scholar of scholars. The love story of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Aisha is one of the most beautiful stories of Muslim civilization.

Sorry for the wait, delivering!

I recently moved, so most of my books are still in boxes. However, I've already unboxed the best ones, so I'll list them here (note that most of them are not written by anthropologists per se, but are good books nonetheless):

1. Mechademia. Technically, it's not a book (it's a journal), but it's by far the best publication in the area. There are lots of articles on the most diverse subjects, and even reviews of related publications. (If you haven't got JSTOR access, come see us on /r/Scholar!);
   
2. Frederik Schodt's Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics is THE classic on manga. 10/10, will definitely read again. (there's a sequel, Dreamland Japan, but I haven't read this one yet);
   
3. Paul Gravett's Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics is a good overview on the history of manga;
   
4. Roland Kelts' Japanamerica: How the Japanese Pop Culture has invaded the U.S. is fairly good, specially the chapter on hentai. But beware: it's a little less academic than I would like it to be;
   
5. Patrick Galbraith's [The Otaku Encyclopedia: An Insider's Guide to The Subculture of Cool Japan] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Otaku-Encyclopedia-Insiders-Subculture/dp/4770031017/ref=pd_sim_b_6) is an amazing book, a fast read and full of awesomeness. I can't recommend it enough. (He has another book called Otaku Spaces and has recently edited a book about idols, but I have yet to read these two);
   
6. Last but not least, Hiroki Azuma's Otaku: Japan Database Animals is an excellent book on otaku culture. Azuma's overwhelming knowledge is well conveyed by the translation, IMO.
   
   OK, I'll stop here. If you want more recommendations (specially stuff on other languages, like Portuguese, French or Japanese, that I didn't bother listing here), feel free to PM me ;)

It was suggested I post here. I have to say it's pretty outside of my location and timeframe. Most of my reading is centered around Buddhism and what I know about India that's not political in nature is mostly centered around Buddhism. Even the concepts I know of Hinduism are usually through a Buddhist lens.

What I do know about the development I also can't provide a source. I studied at the Royal Thimphu College and once sat down with a Bengali professor who explained her own dissertation to me about the development of the Varna system in India, which ended up being a primer on "Brahmanism." (Which then led to a long discussion on the inaccuracy of the term "Hinduism" which was developed post-independence as a response to the development of Pakistan for Muslims, India for Hindus. When I presented the irony that "India" and "Hindu" both stem from the "Indus River" which is currently in Pakistan, Runa, aforementioned professor, winked at me and said "Exactly. Hindus are political, Brahmanists are religious." The logic being that Brahmanists derive religious authority from the Brahmin Varna, just as Christians derive religious authority from Christ, and Muslims from submission to God.)

Anyway, I'll just point out some of the books that have helped me in understanding this complex religion and maybe you can go on with your search from there.

Originally I was interested in Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History but found out it was full of selective information and skewed perspectives. I was more interested in a general history of India and fell upon John Keay's India: A History which he describes as "A historiography of India as well as a history." And he does go over developments of Brahmanism threaded with the rise and fall of conquerors through the region.

My introduction to Brahmanism (though he DOES refer to it as Hinduism) was Huston Smith's The World's Religions which doesn't go over the history as much of any of the religions, but is a nice starting point, especially when comparing say Buddhism with Brahmanism, which most people regularly do. It's also a good outliner for the different Brahmanist traditions (or at least the major trends in Brahmanism).

Finally, probably the most accurate to your original question though it has a broader focus and a point to make, Karen Armstrong's *The Great Transformation remains one of my favorite books on the Axial Age in which she covers the religious shifts that occurred more or less simultaneously in Greece, the Levant, India, and China. Of interest to you would be the Vedic response to the growth of Buddhism and Jainism, the development of the Mahabharata, and the changing understandings of the Vedas and Upanishads. It's a pretty great book, and Karen Armstrong can of course lead you further down the path of Indian religious history.

Hope that helps at all.

<Blind faith is un-Buddhist.

I don't disagree, but I'm an academic. The understanding of Buddhism I have is academic and my arguments are based in issues of history as I understand it.

<I quote scholars and you quote yourself, as if you are an authority. State your name and your credentials then.


This tells me that my arguments alone are insufficient to identify me as an authority to you- really I wouldn't claim to be on this topic. As I said, I study mostly American Buddhism today- no I will not provide my name because I like to preserve some anonymity on the internet. I have a M.A and am doing PhD coursework. The problem that you are having is that you are not taking an academic view of the discussion.

>Your faith is greater than your wisdom

This is an ad-hominem fallacy at its best. I'm not Buddhist at all. I have no faith because I study the topic. I respect the tradition but I certainly don't worship in it. This is a discussion about historical understanding- something that you have garnered from questionable scholars. Here is a brief reading list of real scholars you can take and read to see what actual authorities in the field are saying.

Don Lopez: Elaborations on Emptiness
Don Lopez: The Heart Sutra Explained this is a series of translated commentaries on the Heart Sutra. Though it uses the long version, which is problematic.

J.L Austin: How to Do Things With Words This will tell you a lot about the linguistic empiricists and how words function in religious settings.

If you want to read the theory that I do you might also read
Alfred North Whitehead: Process and Reality
Also:Whithead's Symbolism: It's meaning and Effect
And
Bruce Lincoln's Authority

For Buddhist histories that are not popularist:

Peter N. Gregory: Tsung-Mi and the Sinification of Buddhism

Gimello's Paths to Liberation
or his Studies in Ch'an and Hua-yen

For modern philosophical takes on Buddhism Nancy Frankenberry's Religion and Radical Empiricism though to understand her you need a wider knowledge base than you probably have. Here, let me suggest something for you to read first:

James: The Varieties of Religious Experience
James: The Will to Believe
James: Pragmatism
Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
Rorty: Consequences of Pragmatism

This one is particularly important for you:
Rorty: Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth

You want to know about the origins of Buddhism? How about Vajrayana?
Snellgrove: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism
Pollock (a great book): The Language of the Gods in the World of Men
For a modern take: Wedemeyer: Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism

Davidson: Indian Esoteric Buddhism
Bhattacharyya: An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism These last few present conflicting views on the nature of Tantrism, particularly the last one that might fit your "fundamentalist" category.

TO understand American Buddhism better:
Merton: Zen and the Birds of Appetite
Eck: A New Religious America
Tweed (this is one of my favorite books ever) The American Encounter with Buddhism 1844-1912
Neusner (ed) World Religions in America
on individuals: Sterling: Zen Pioneer
Hotz: Holding the Lotus to the Rock Sokei-an was a traditionalist and a near mirror of Thich Nhat Hanh, yet his teachings never took off.
Since you Love Thich Nhat Hanh: Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966 and the companion to that, Merton's journals
Another of Hanh's Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire This is before he was popular and so is much more interesting than some of his later works.

Also Mcmahan: The Making of Buddhist Modernism

So I recently graduated with a 3.0 GPA with a Biology degree. I'm two months out and I've still been having a tough time finding a job. I wanted to go into research but lab jobs are scarce.

However, I have been taking some classes at my local community college and I discovered that there are some programs that are relatively cheap to get into. For example, getting certified as an EMT only costs a few thousand dollars or so. This is a lot but if you save up, you might be able to afford it.

Basically if you can't get a job in your field, look into getting retrained cheaply, either in Community College or trade school or even military. You may not necessarily want to do this immediately but think about it.

And I absolutely second JBlitzen's advice:

> It would be beneficial, though, for you to start asking yourself what value you intend to create for others. And how your current path will help you to do so.

Essentially, figure out a plan on what you want to do with your current skills. Next, figure out a backup plan if it goes bad.

It definitely sucks to graduate knowing that you didn't do so well in college. I feel for you man, I'm pretty much in the same spot. Don't give up, don't get discouraged, lots of people have been in worse situations and have come out OK. Just read the book Scratch Beginnings or Nothing to Envy. In both stories, the protagnoists succeed in overcoming incredible odds to live a good life.

Figure out what your dreams are and keep going after them. I believe you can reach them. And no, I'm not just saying that.

EDIT:

Also, network! Get to know your teachers and make sure they like you so you have references!!! Show interest in your classes this last semester. You have no idea how important personal references are. Better yet, ask your teachers if they know of any jobs or have any job advice.

All job searching is personal. Employers want to hire people they know will do a good job. Hence the need for personal connections or references (At least someone though this guy was competent.) or demonstrating interest in a particular position. You're still in school so you still have a solid amount of opportunities to network.

Also, some hepful links

http://www.askamanager.org/2012/12/if-youre-not-getting-interviews-read-this.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/jobs

Whilst you're right the Taliban and Mujahidden are separate entities, one coming after the other, to say that 'The US had nothing to do with this organization or their takeover of power in 1996.' is disingenuous at best.

The Taliban very much came from the ashes and socially-politically tilled land the US prepared. They actively fostered a climate of radicalisation and militancy, they even translated the Qu'ran into Russian satellite languages, with their own militant interpretations, and canvassed the Soviet satellites with it. They actively armed, taught, funded, harboured and trained militant behaviour. It's a bit of a stretch that the US had no hand in the rise of the Taliban. They very much prepared the way. That's the sort of ball that doesn't just stop rolling when the Soviets pull out of the country.

• Mohammed Omar, the spiritual founder of the Taliban, was himself Pashtun Mujahidden that fought the Soviet occupation! He actively recruited not only in Madraddahs, but in the Afghan refugee camps from the proxy war the west enabled, and then the other Pashtun Mujahidden factions began to join him.
  
  
• A prominent supporter of Omar and the Taliban, Jalaluddin Haqqani, had his own supporters, the Haqqani Network, which very much WAS set up with the help of the CIA. He's said to be the one who first introduced suicide bombers to Afghanistan. He was an ardent Mujahidden fighter and leader, who now fights for Omar and alongside the Taliban.
  
  The Taliban and the Mujahidden, whilst different, go hand in hand with one another. In many cases the Taliban forces they're fighting very much are connected to the Mujahidden and the Cold War operations:
  
  
• Take for example Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, also former Mujahidden but who set up the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) faction. Still fighting against NATO forces, very much maligned by Mohammed Omar's political party, but still part of the Taliban led insurgency. Again a Mujahidden fighter that sets up his own faction with other former Mujahideen fighters, builds a powerbase, maligned by the Taliban when they first came to power but now fight as part of the insurgency.
  
  
• An other prominent Taliban insurgent leader: Sirajuddin Haqqani. Son of the afore mentioned Jalaluddin Haqqani - father - son - Mujahidden - Taliban. The continuity line is there for all to see.
  
  
• The CIA itself had strong links with Pakistan's ISI throughout the 80s and 90s, even at one stage approving its directors, and for the latter half of the 90s the ISI is well known to have supported and worked with the Taliban when Omar first took control. Certainly Omar's role and connection with the Mujahidden helped him come to power. The radicalisation was already there from the Soviet operations, Omar just pointed them in the direction of his own aspirations for Afghanistan using the lessons they'd learned. Pakistan directly favoured backing the winning Pashtun faction as their candidate to take over Afghanistan. When it became clear that faction was going to be Taliban they threw their support behind them.
  
  
• Fazal-ur-Rehman is a pro-Taliban Pakistani that held office in Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto. He is known to have used his connections with the ISI, which the CIA helped become what it is, to in turn help and provide assistance to the Taliban in the 90s. Indirectly again the US-MI6 intervention in the 80s can be followed back to the rise of the Taliban, not just by Pakistan and the ISI discretely offering support as matter of judged foreign policy, but ISI was already infiltrated at the highest levels by a known Taliban sympathiser effectively turning the capability of the infrastructure put in place over to the emerging Taliban through the compromised security at the hands of a radical fundamentalist.
  
  The Taliban is not Mujahidden, that much is true.
  
  "The US had nothing to do with this organization or their takeover of power in 1996" - is most definitely not true. The Taliban are the bastard child of the Frankenstein monster the CIA, MI6, ISI and Saudi Arabia cobbled together in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
  
  For much more reading with numerous CIA and MI6 testimony, from mid-level all the way up to a director of the CIA, and industry acknowledged (Pulitzer): http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wars-Afghanistan-Invasion-September/dp/1594200076

Today I'm mainly working, but I'm really enjoying it lately so it's really not so much of a chore.

On the music front I'm really enjoying Olly Murs at the moment, it may be a bit wushu washy but it's super catchy and makes you smile

Reading wise I have almost (last 10 pages) finished Hiroshima by John Hersey and although it is obviously a bit grim, it's a fascinating read and I would definitely recommend it to you if you are at all interested in what happened to the people of Hiroshima after the bomb dropped. Once I've finished it I've got the entire Hitchikers collection by Douglas Adams to power through (sans the first one which I have already read)

As far as thoughts, I went good shopping yesterday and bought honey cured bacon on a whim (it was only 10p more in lidl) and holy crap! I was sceptical at first but the honey actually caramelised as I cooked it this morning and it is by far the greatest bacon I have ever had!

To answer your bonus question, I am with EE, from an old Orange contract, and although their phones and signal are alright, their customer service is shite! I have been double charges multiple times and have only been able to get a refund for one or two...

Hahaha, my pleasure! I've been reading up on language and culture in Afghanistan for a few years now, so I love it when people ask questions like yours. Afghanistan is one of the most interesting countries in the world when it comes to languages--Persian is an incredibly diverse language in this country, so much so that individual valleys (and even towns within them!) have their own dialects.

Hazaragi is especially interesting as it has a substantial inventory of Mongolic loanwords. This makes some sense when you see what the Hazara (3rd largest ethnic group in Afghanistan) look like. Linguists and historians speculate that the etymology of Hazara comes from the Persian word for 1,000 (hezar) as these folks are thought to be descendants of garrisons Ghengis Khan left in Bamyan after he wrecked shit there--his forces were divided into groups of 1,000 soldiers. Many Afghans are still salty about the devastation brought by the Mongols, a fact not helped by the fact that the majority of Hazara are Twelver Shia'a in a country more rooted in Sunni tradition--life ain't easy for the Hazara nowadays.

Besides Persian (an Indo-European language in the Indo-Iranian >> Western Iranian >> Southwestern Iranian family), Afghanistan has a shit ton of other languages. You mentioned Pashto, which is an Eastern Iranian language (so not mutually intelligible with Persian--no data to back this up, but I'd hazard the difference is like English and Norwegian or something like that). There's also the Pamiri languages (pretty sparse, also Eastern Iranian but of the northern subset), Balochi (Northwestern), and a whole independent group of Indo-Iranian languages called Nuristani, which is spoken in the very last area of Afghanistan to have been converted to Islam (late 18th century, I think!). Outside the Indo-Euro family, there are large groups of Turkic speakers, particularly Uzbek and Turkmen in the northern parts of the country, though there are some Kirghiz speakers way up in the Wakhan (the little panhandle stickin out to China).

Not on the list is Arabic--contrary to what a lot of people here in the West think, Arabic is spoken by hardly anybody in Afghanistan! It is a Semetic language of the Afro-Asiatic family and the last of its native speakers in this area of the world were Persianized quite some time ago (though Persian and Pashto both have a large number of Arabic loanwords on account of the Arab conquests and the spread of Islam). This is interesting as, especially in more conservative areas, there is still a massive reverence towards those who earn the title "Guardian" or Hafez (not the poet, though people love him too) by memorizing the Quran in its entirety, even if they don't understand 95% of what's being said in it! If you're into recent history in this area of the world, there's plenty of food for thought in how fundamentalism and extremism took such strong roots in a country that doesn't have the language or educational infrastructure in place to "home grow" such interpretations of religion.

Woah holy shit /rant. Didn't mean to type this much! Probably way more than you wanted to read! In the offchance it isn't, I recommend reading The Places In Between by Rory Stewart to wet your appetite. Homeboy walked across Afghanistan (Herat --> Kabul) in December 2001 and documented his adventure pretty well. No bias, no sugarcoating, no demonizing--he really does a good job showing the humanity of the place. If you're like me and want to dive more deeply into this fascinating country, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History is a bone dry but informationally rich textbook on the country. Land Beyond the River provides a great collection of well-researched anecdotes dealing with recent history in the areas directly north of Afghanistan and provides great light on how the Russian conquests of the Khanates and city-states to the north impacted Afghanistan, culminating in the Soviet invasion in the late 70s.

Alright, now I'm done.

Sorry, wish I could answer your questions but I just found the post on Imgur and put it up. I did live in South Korea myself for the last 3 years as an ESL teacher and had a chance to visit the DMZ between the two countries, did a lot of research as well because I find it so fascinating and tragic that a place like the North can actually exist today. I think the answer to a lot of those questions you asked can be found in the VICE doc. There's one called "Mass Games" that is excellent as well. If you're interested in how the whole cult of personality/communist Kim succession thing took root, the book "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" by an American journalist who has visited DPRK several times is excellent.
http://www.amazon.ca/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312323220
From what I understand, you see only what they want you to see, you ask only certain questions and get only certain responses. It's all a dog-and-pony show. Korean food is pretty decent, and almost every guy on the peninsula over the age of 16 smokes like a chimney. Hope this info helps!

Every time a discussion regarding tourism to North Korea starts, this point always comes up. After all, it is a valid and natural point of concern.

Yes, North Korea has concentration camps and an atrocious human rights record. Nobody (except the North Korean government) is going to deny that. Yes, any foreigners in North Korea will have significant restrictions on freedom of movement. No one who has gone there is going to tell you otherwise.

Having been educated and cultivated in the West, where oftentimes we can take matters like human rights and freedom of movement for granted, our instant reaction is to be disgusted by this - so disgusted that we'll cry out "North Korea is the most evil place in the world" and instantly clam up in anger. Sometimes that anger, and the lack of reliable information about North Korea, will lead us to sensationalize. We'll try to explain unexplainable evil as a massive prison camp or a farcical socialist movie set.

This is natural and has basis in reality, but, in my opinion, is unhelpful.

If we want to truly make some sense out of that unexplainable evil, which to an appreciable extent is a prerequisite for any sort of meaningful change, we need to take a more nuanced approach. Sometimes, that could involve taking a visit.

From my perspective, going on a tour to North Korea is not supposed to be like sunning in Mallorca or frolicking in Disneyworld. You don't go there to have "fun", you go there to learn. If your objective in traveling is to have "fun", then by god don't go to North Korea. But my objective in traveling places is not to have "fun"; it's to learn.

The next instinctual response is to cry out: "But you won't learn anything! They're just going to parade you around and show you propaganda!"

Again, I think this line of thinking trivializes the matter. In earlier stages of Western education systems, we oftentimes learn about bias and come to perceive it as an absolute negative. In secondary schools you might hear kids going "oh, this source is biased, so we can't use it!" This is incorrect. Bias is not an absolute negative; biased sources like propaganda simply need to be approached differently. Propaganda is rich with information, but not the factual, face-value information you might expect from some place like an encyclopedia. Instead, you glean the wealth of contextual information it offers. Let's say you're reading Chinese propaganda from the Cultural Revolution, and some of it praises this guy named Lin Biao, while some of it denounces him. From that you shouldn't conclude "some of this shit must be fake". Instead, you can extract hints of the regime's worldview, and use the propaganda to piece together the context that perhaps Lin Biao had a falling out with Mao.

Visiting North Korea is much like that. There's a richness of context from both what's seen and unseen, from what's heard and unheard. If you're equipped with the right advance knowledge and the right academic mindset, there is in fact a lot you can internalize about actual North Koreans and the country itself.

Yes, there remains the issue of lining the pockets of the regime and whatnot, and I'm fully aware of that fact. As with everything else relating to the DPRK, there's layers of nuance to this financial facet of the regime that would take rather long to explain, so I won't do it here.

If you do want to hear that explained/debated, and go beyond CNN articles and "Team America", I'd recommend starting off with the following books:

• Under the Loving Care of Fatherly Leader, by Bradley K. Martin: A 900 page behemoth that's probably the most comprehensive guide to the North Korean regime out there.
  
• Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick: If you want to learn more about the ordinary lives of "actual North Koreans" from outside Pyongyang.
  
• The Aquariums of Pyongyang, by Choi-hwan Kang: The first book published from someone who went through one of those infamous concentration camps.
  
• The Impossible State, by Victor Cha: Written by a former White House official and Six-Party Talks participant, this book provides a view into the complex foreign policy calculus relating to the DPRK.
  
  If after you finish reading all that stuff you get curious enough to go, then that's your choice. If you don't, no one's going to force you to go either. We're fortunate enough to live in societies that generally respect freedom of choice and movement; if we want to play the game of moral superiority, being able to visit North Korea is the ultimate manifestation of that freedom.
  
  

I read it in Bradley K. Martin's book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. I can't get a page reference because I lent my copy to someone and God only knows where it is.

Most information available from North Korea is, unfortunately and by necessity, anecdotal. That being said, Martin has had almost unprecedented access to North Korea, both in terms of actual visits and in terms of defector interviews, the latter of which are featured extensively in this particular text. The point I made above I will now elabourate on slightly:

During the period when it had become clear that Kim Il-Sung intended to appoint a successor but when he had not yet made a choice, there were several men who considered themselves fit for the role. Most of them were high-ranking military officials who, like Kim the Elder himself, had earned popular credibility as anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters during the occupation and as military commanders during the Korean War. However, Kim was not about to entirely overlook his own offspring. Kim Jong-Il had no military experience and none of the charisma his father had in spades, but what he did have was political savvy. He had a certain leeway in his affairs anyway, being the son of the Great Leader, and he used it to buy gifts and flatter his father and other men in high positions. The more he did, the more his own position improved. He recognised the supreme vanity of his father and so, rather than present himself as the best candidate, he focused all his efforts on creating a nationwide cult of personality around Kim Il-Sung, alleging semidivine origins (which, as he knew, would only serve to further his own cause in the future when he himself led the nation). As part of the system of flattery which was in place around Kim Il-Sung, there were dispatches from the Party which would search through the countryside, in every small village, for pretty young girls (and I mean young. 12-16 years of age in many cases) whom they would abduct and spirit away to one of Kim's numerous mansions around the country. The family would, after wondering where their daughter could be, generally wind up receiving a note telling them their daughter had been chosen to join the [can't remember the name. It was an official organ of the military, something like Women's Auxiliary Service Corps] and was a hero of the perpetual revolution. The family would also, in fact, receive fairly substantial extra rations. The girls would eventually get too old and would then be married off to Party and military officials. This practice seems to have been widespread enough to be uncontroversial among defectors who would have been in a position to know about it.

And believe me, I know plenty about the RoK. Despite the truly incredible progress in the South since the War, there are, shockingly, people still in prison here who were arrested on suspicion of Communist sympathies in past decades, some as early as the 1940s.

Thanks for the tips! The pie shakes at Hamburg Inn sound amazing. I actually just caved in tonight and got a burger/shake combo after a week of eating healthy...

As far as recommendations go, I have a feeling you've likely read most of the fiction I'd suggest. That said, here's a couple non-fiction suggestions you might not have read:

Walkable City, by Jeff Speck. If you've ever been interested in cities, what makes them work (or not work), and what types of decisions urban planners make, check it out. It's a quick read, entertaining, and you'll never see your city or any other city in the same way.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick. Told primarily through the eyes of two people, this book provides readers with a glimpse of what life is like for the millions of ordinary North Korean citizens.

Anyway, I know it's well past the time frame for your AMA, but if you get a chance, I'd love to know if there's any one book that helped you the most as a writer (e.g. King's, "On Writing"), or any one piece of advice that has carried you the most. I don't ever plan on writing professionally, but I've always wanted to write a novel just for the satisfaction of creating something, regardless if anyone actually reads it. I just feel like I spend so much time consuming things others have created, while creating nothing in return. Plus, getting 'lost in a world you're creating' sounds immensely satisfying.

I think the first point to consider is that The Orphan Master's Son should be read as a domestic drama, more along the lines of Nothing to Envy than any of the foreign-policy focused news and zomg-weird-pop-performance-footage that dominates this subreddit and /r/northkoreanews.

In that light, the Orphan Master's Son is a lovely, well-told story, and it was well-researched, but it's still clearly a second-hand impression of the country. It doesn't add to the outside world's stock of DPRK information; it just retells the tragedies already told by Shin Dong-hyuk and Kenji Fujimoto in a literary style.

Then too, there are places where the needs of the story subsume the reality on the ground. For example, the book entertains the notion that the state would promote just individual one actress its paragon of female virtue and one individual soldier as the paragon of male virtue. This is important to author's point about public and private identity and whether love also needs truth, but it's wholly out of step with the Kim regime's way of doing business. Kim Il Sung is the one god in North Korea, and the only permissible icons are his successors, and to a lesser extent, senior party politicians. Pop figures are disposable.

But The Orphan Master's Son is a good read. It would go high on my list of recommendations for someone who wants a starting point on the country but is scared of footnotes and foreign names. But if your DPRK obsession hinges more on predicting the fate of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, it won't give you much.

Booktopia's got a bunch of Aussie military history books here.

Regimental Books has military books in e-book format too.

I think if she likes military history and biographies she might, at a stretch, enjoy Nothing To Envy, which I thought was an amazing account of life in North Korea. Also a book called The Aquariums of Pyongyang.

Biographies, she might like Swimming to Antarctica, about an endurance swimmer who swam a mile in antarctic waters.

If she's at all interested in science fiction, Baen's Free E-book Library has a bunch of "starter" books for their series, which tend to be military-based sci-fi.

And Project Gutenberg has a ton of military history; they're the go-to free e-book supplier. Loads of good stuff. This is my favorite to recommend - A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas by Fanny Loviot. She's such a fun read! Combines pirates, history, and biography all in one.

When you say you have studied Japanese for 2.5 years that's really not enough information. Have you been to Japan? Have you been there for an extended amount of time (e.g. several months?). I doubled my number of Kanji while I was staying in Japan, whenever I saw a sign / something written on my milk carton / my aircon remote, I would look it up and learn it that way. While in the subway I would take my time to look up random Kanji I saw in the advertisments.

I would use Kanji flashcards of the kind you can by in 500 box sets and go through a couple of them after a day of life in Japan: some characters I would have seen today but maybe would not remember, so going through the flash cards would help me remember them and clarify their reading. I would not learn with flash cards of Kanji I hadn't ever seen before - a useless exercise for me, I can only remember characters I've seen used in a real-life context. I don't "learn" Kanji programmatically taking them from some list and remembering the on- and kun-readings, I will only ever care about what I need to know in order to understand the text I'm working on. A children's book, song lyrics I got from the internet, texts for learners, Wikipedia articles, NHK news. The real lesson is: in order to get good at reading, you have to read a lot. Today I got a copy of a printed newspaper (読売新聞), you can buy those internationally, I got one from my local retailer at a train station in Germany. Reading an article takes an hour and a PC with a Kanji search by radical and a dictionary site, but I can do it.

For refreshment, I use resources like the amazing etymological dictionary "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters" which will tell you the historical evolution and proper decomposition of Kanji, some stories can be really interesting. With this help I can tell that when seeing a character such as 緒, it consists of thread (糸) and the pronunciation しょ/しゃ(者), hence "the word meaning together (=bound by a thread) pronounced kind of like 者)". Next to etymological help you can also use pure visual clues.

When you read real Japanese texts, you quickly realize that 2000 Kanji is not enough. Even children's literature would use characters outside of that official list. 3000 is more realistic. You should have material (dictionaries, flash cards etc.) that covers more than the official list. Don't despair though, actual Japanese native speakers take their time learning them, too! The more Japanese you come in contact with every day, the better.

I, too, was looking for some really good Japanese history books and in my searches I found that these are among the best: A History of Japan, by George Sansom.

They start with pre-history and go up to 1867. Sansom's stated reason for not continuing his history beyond this year is that he had lived too close to events of the Meiji Restoration (1868) for him to develop a perspective that only distance could supply. For later events, The Making of Modern Japan (Amazon), by Marius B. Jansen, another outstanding scholar of Japanese history, would be a good choice. Since this history begins at 1600, there are overlapping accounts of the Edo period, but from two quite different perspectives.

An alternative presented by t-o-k-u-m-e-i:
>The best overview text in terms of presentation and interpretation for 1600 to the present is Gordon's A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present.

>The Jansen book is also good, but I (and most of the profs I know) feel that Gordon's interpretation is better

In short, this set is a good buy and is likely to remain a standard text for decades to come.

I've only just recently started reading the first book of the series and I find it very insightful. It starts by describing the geography of Japan and how that shaped and molded the early Japanese and their sensibilities.

Amazon Links:
A History of Japan to 1334
A History of Japan, 1334-1615
A History of Japan, 1615-1867

Google Books Previews:
A History of Japan to 1334
A History of Japan, 1334-1615
A History of Japan, 1615-1867

Author:
Sir George Bailey Sansom

Edit:
The author also has a shorter book published earlier which focuses primarily on culture.
Amazon - Japan: A Short Cultural History
Google Books - Japan: A Short Cultural History

Edit2:
Added an alternative suggestion for the history from 1800 onward given by t-o-k-u-m-e-i.

I'm going to specifically compare Churchill's notion about Greco-Roman thought to the importance of Chinese classics in East Asia. I'd say it is comparable, but distinct from the Roman/Greek case, especially colored by the very recent history running up to where Churchill was.

In the Chinese case, on-and-off dynasties were run according to the precepts of the "four books and five classics." The four books were a set of texts written (or at least compiled by) Confucius and Mencius. While composed as mostly anecdotes, they established a system of propriety, morality, and "right action" that extended upwards and outwards from the home to the government. The classics were the basis of ancient Chinese religious, poetic, and ritual thought. They established a huge amount of the underlying aesthetic, religious, and cosmological worldviews that you see for millennia. These were seen as seminal to almost all literate Chinese individuals, right up until the reforms and upheavals towards the end of the Qing empire as the 19th century ended.

A specific example of their importance is the "Imperial exam system." Set up in the 600s, it determined participation in government work was based almost exclusively on these texts. Specific forms varied and, as time wore on, some texts and requirements were added or subtracted based on which dynasty was giving the test. The underlying basis, though, was always the four books and five classics.

The thought (and, specifically, the Four Books/Five Classics) was also extremely important to the Imperial forms of government in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam (to varying degrees based on place, time, and who in particular was running things).

Chinese Dynastic succession kept up at a reasonably fast pace and established successive, stable empires, with only a century or two of chaos in between--even foreign invaders like the Mongols or Manchu would acquire Han-educated advisors and set up governments based largely on Confucian tenets (Yuan and Qing were both 'foreign' dynasties). The thought of ancient China wasn't seen as something of a bygone age--it was immediate and current, seen as a lineage. As the Qing declined throughout the 19th and early 20th century, however, many saw it as clear to them that the entire worldview was flawed. Western nations, with their own notions of the world, were militarily superior and bullied the Qing Empire (dealing with its own massive internal issues, including a civil war that left more dead than 20 American Civil Wars). As a result, the ancient thought was discredited and a variety of Western ideologies took root. The one that eventually triumphed, Maoist Communism, explicitly sought to utterly destroy Confucian thought in the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese Communist Party has significantly moderated that stance since then, though, and the classics are once again revered. This is at least partially to set up a credible competing nationalist ideology to "the West,"
and one which isn't based on the now also largely discredited (and also, really, Western) Communist thought.

In Europe, you have the fall of Rome in the 400s and largely, there's chaos thereafter (Things are different in the East with the continuation of Byzantium, but Churchill speaks to a specifically Western European mode of thought). There were various Renaissances (many more than most people give credit for, I don't mean to get any Medievalists on me for downplaying the achievements in the period too much)--Charlamagne, the Ottonians, and others. Still, though, none of them succeeded in achieving anything close to the political hegemony of the Romans, much less in physical, engineering terms. Importantly, also, none of them had the control or longevity to be compared to really any of the dynasties that followed the Roman-comparable Han in our contrasting Chinese example. Rather than the living, functional, developing ideology that informed Empire after Empire, Rome was an ancient wonder. It was present--they could see it around them in the roads and aqueducts they used, the Christian religion they practiced, and the cities they lived in--but they couldn't match it. While pretensions to being "successors" to Rome and many aspects of Roman culture had remained, much of the specific text and practice had long passed by the wayside to be rediscovered during the Renaissance.

In the 'Renaissance that stuck' in the 1400s and onwards, they looked on Roman thought and art as something ancient and wonderful. Statues dug up, texts acquired from the Islamic world (where they had been continuing study of Plato/Aristotle for many of the intervening centuries), and other aspects of greco-roman thought created an idealized past of the "ancients" for the "moderns" to compare their world to. Since there was such distance, I would editorialize, it allowed for way more idolization. As the Renaissance and Enlightenment spread, modern nation-states still based a great deal of thought and practice rooted in this source of cultural legitimacy: A perfect empire that existed an untold amount of time ago.

This is where Churchill is coming from; an agent of a modern empire that, still, desperately wanted to cast itself in the mold of the source of ancient legitimacy. Rather than seeing ancient thought as shackles on modernity, it was (mostly rightly) seen as the seed from which the Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, and subsequent ability to dominate most of the globe had sprung.

To sum up the difference: In China, you have a constant lineage of social and political thought that was in operation in an Empire torn to shreds and thus discredited, though later redeemed as a source of cultural/nationalist pride. In the UK, you have a strain of thought, the specifics of which were lost, held in reverence as a golden age before centuries of intermittent warfare and chaos. Its rediscovery sets off, in part, a sequence of events that sets the UK up as a truly global empire--reflecting on the idealized past, the British Empire is lionized as a "new Rome," necessarily owing much to the ideas from the "old Rome." Nothing legitimizes your social and political thought (in your mind, anyway) than literally conquering most of the planet with it.

Edited to add sources of where I formed these views--by no means exhaustive, mainly what I can remember off the top of my head/can pull off a bookshelf:

Chinese history:

• Fairbanks-- http://www.amazon.com/China-History-Second-Enlarged-Edition/dp/0674018281
  
• De Bary-- http://www.amazon.com/Sources-Chinese-Tradition-Vol-1/dp/0231109393
  
• Hsu-- http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Modern-China-Immanuel/dp/0195125045
  
• I also have read through most of Confucius -- Analects and (Mythically Fu Xi, true author debated) -- I Ching at various times
  
  European:
  
  Roman period:
  
  
• Plutarch, Caesar, Livy
  
  Renaissance thought:
  
  
• Arnold-- http://www.amazon.com/Knighthood-1050-1300-University-Academic-Monograph/dp/0198219601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374248705&sr=1-1&keywords=German+Knighthood+1050-1300 (Used basically as the background text for the 1000-1500 class I took, basis to build around "dark ages")
  
• Machiavelli- Discourses on Livy (while it's more complicated than simple idolization, he definitely looks back on the Romans as a period starkly different and superior to the one he lives in)
  
  Enlightenment-Beyond:
  
  
• Jonathan Swift: Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns (Focus is mainly on literary tradition, but does add the complication that, especially as time wore on, not everyone agreed that Roman thought should be idolized. It highlights this, while also reinforcing the distinction--this was not seen as "Western" or "European" thought that evolved and developed down the ages--there are ancients and there are moderns)
  
• Levine -- http://www.amazon.com/British-Empire-Sunrise-Sunset/dp/0582472814/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374249026&sr=1-1&keywords=levine+the+british+empire
  
• Mokyr-- http://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Athena-Historical-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0691120137/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374248779&sr=1-1&keywords=gifts+of+athena
  
  

> I guess I'm suggesting that we attempt overt effort and push for a modernized Buddhism.

Well, in that case, I think we ought to look at the Buddhist Modernism that is already in progress, and the distortions that have arisen due to it. The best book on the subject is David McMahan's The Making of Buddhist Modernism.

Put another way: we need to make sure that the modernized Buddhism we end up with is still Buddhism, after it is modernized.

> As for the areas I'm most interested in, I suppose most obviously any writing on Buddhism in America or in the West is of particular interest to me.

The McMahan is a great place to start, then.

In the opposite direction, Richard Gombich's book What the Buddha Thought does an excellent job of showing the elements of the Buddha's thought that were directly commenting on Brahmanic/Vedic doctrines that are likely unfamiliar to you.

Finally, for a fascinating and completely counter-intuitive view, take a look at this video on "The Buddha as Businessman" by Gregory Schopen.

They had to praise him when the bandages came off or they'd be thrown out of their housing or sent to a work camp. Also, those people were handpicked by the government for their loyalty and training in ideology. They knew it was being filmed. It was a free propaganda stunt for NK.

It's impossible to know how brainwashed the country is. The documents and testimonials that came out of the USSR after the fall attest to this. Many of them simply went along with the party line to survive, while others consciously (or sub consciously) produced a mixture of Soviet and civilian (for lack of a better term) culture that served to both keep the regime satisfied and fulfill their own societal and cultural needs. This could very well be happening in NK. We have no idea, but recent videos that have been smuggled out show unrest in the provinces. People are talking back to police, and there was the incident with the grafitti last month. Modified radios are also more widespread than once though, so outside news is getting in moreso than it was in the last few decades.

RansomIblis is right, the army is starving. They had been the most taken care of segment of the population until very recently. If they starve, everything falls apart. They will not shoot civilians if they see that they are no longer any better than the average citizen.

I'm glad that you're interested in the NK situation, but please do some more research beyond youtubes and online vids. Check out this book for a great education on the subject. It's big, but highly readable and enjoyable.

Have you read [Into Thin Air] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-personal-disaster-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590869&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air) by Jon Krakauer? I enjoyed reading this one.

I also read [Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage] (http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B006L74DMC/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590938&sr=1-1&keywords=endurance+shackleton%27s+incredible+voyage), could not put it down. Would still recommend giving it a shot, even though in the other comment you said you weren't interested.

You could also probably find a book about the [Donner party] (http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Passage-Donner-Perilous-Journey/dp/0195383311/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591075&sr=1-1&keywords=donner+party+books). Have not read this one yet.

I actually really want to read more of these true doom/adventure stories as well. Let me know which ones you'd recommend or find interesting. We can swap notes :) (I'm looking up the Franklin expedition right now!)

Edit: another recommendation is possibly books on North Korea? [Escape from Camp 14] (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591287&sr=1-1&keywords=escape+from+camp+14) coming to mind. It's still got that morbid fascination element to it. Another good one is [Nothing to Envy] (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591283&sr=1-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy).

Edit2: Saw you wanted to read about that rugby team that was stranded in the Andes, was this the book you were thinking of: [Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors] (http://www.amazon.com/Alive-Survivors-Piers-Paul-Read/dp/038000321X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591507&sr=1-1&keywords=alive+the+story+of+the+andes+survivors). The only other book I can think of is [Miracle in the Andes] (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Andes-Days-Mountain-Long-ebook/dp/B000GCFW6O/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591638&sr=1-1&keywords=Miracle+in+the+andes).

>writings on NGE's impact on anime and western culture

I don't know whether this will be any good to you as I've only seen the first volume of this (I think there are six so far) but if you can find this, it's probably your best bet for that kind of stuff. Not really sure on contents of any given issue, but you can probably find that info somewhere. 'Essay' probably means university, and that means university library, which means inter-library loan is an option too.

Another one to definitely read: Otaku - Japan's Database Animals, by Hiroki Azuma. Don't worry, it's translated very well. This is dense stuff but fascinating, and reads like a design doc for TVTropes; it also focuses significantly on Eva. A must-read for you, I think, given your focus. Certainly a favourite of mine - it changed how I see all media.

As for whether or not Christian is any more real in the finale than in the first episodes, we receive a straightforward explanation as to why he appears in the island timeline, and a straightforward explanation as to why he appears in the finale. Seems difficult to debate.

I think a lot of the resistance to your theory is coming from the fact, as the creators insisted throughout the run of the series, Lost was a character-based show. The mythology of the island and the genre elements were a lot of fun, but the characters were meant to be the main event.

If the entirety of the series is taking place in Jack's head, it negates the importance of the very large cast; including the favorite characters of many (if not most) of the viewers. Further, a major thematic concern of the series is the dichotomy of "us vs. them," and the manner in which this breaks down given familiarity with those around us -- naturally, this theme cannot exist if all is within Jack's mind. Finally, the series presentation of the afterlife in season 6 is entirely based on the idea that what is most important in life is those around us ("nobody does it alone"), and that we should embrace others, no matter what that circumstances are that bring us together.

You mentioned an interest in the literary traditions Lost mentions; you might be interested in Edward Said's literary criticism, in particular his work on "Orientalism". This concerns the creation of an "Other," the implications of which should be clear with regard to its relation to the series, and a vital thematic element which must be negated if all is within Jack's head.

Sidebar: thanks for taking the time to continue the discussion here. Even though I disagree with your theory, the discourse surrounding the show always has been (and continues to be) the best thing about the series, and a large part of what makes it so worthwhile.

You pretend Obama is sympathetic towards the South Koreans, but he really isn't. A republican - not a democrat - G.W.Bush is actually generally respected as the president in living memory who has done the most for US-Korean relations^1 . South Koreans advocate a Korea First mentality, North Korea has Juche. Frankly, these 3 countries would get along a lot better if the USA admitted to itself and eachother that they're OK with prioritizing themselves. It's natural; and nationalism doesn't preclude allies...

Also, the Kim regime is built upon the principle that they are the rightful protectors of the Korean peninsula. Their [completely insane] origin story has Kim Jong Il being born on a sacred mountaintop, while Kim Il Sung was the leader of the Korean independence movement (independence from Japan). Supposedly, even Kim Il Sung's grandfather was the mastermind behind the General Sherman Incident.

Kim Jong Un might be ridiculous, but pretty much his only mandate is to create a united, independent Korea.

^1 Cha, Victor. The Impossible State (2013).

>Ho didn't defend shit, his regime proudly valued their Marxist allies' aid more than morality or anything approaching people's rights if they opposed that of the state.

HCM was actually a pretty shrewd diplomat who played the Chinese off against the USSR and used both for aid while completing his domestic objective of unifying the country. Need I remind you that he appealed to the United States first before going to the socialist bloc for aid? America was too busy propping up the French and later the "Republic" of Vietnam.

Ho listened to the Chinese and used their resources to develop a "people's war" division in the form of the Viet Cong and stockpiled Soviet heavy artillery, tanks, and aircraft because they wanted him to fight a conventional land war against the RoV. By never fullying adopting one doctrine but switching between the two as time went on, the North was able to wheedle more aid out than was strictly necessary by making China and Russia compete to see who could be more influential. And as Nixon withdrew they were able to dial back the VC and ramp up the conventional combined arms conflict to crush the South.

I recommend reading Karnow's Vietnam: A History if you want the most comprehensive take on the war, with interviews from senior officials on all 3 sides of the conflict.


>Both are now backwater countries that have been superseded by their neighbors.

Which neighbors? The US leveled nearly all of SE Asia with the exception of Thailand.

> No, but it's just as corrupt as a system that instead of buying land, let's you "rent it from the state" with payouts to the appropriate cadre members. Is this really what you want for the future of Asia?


At the risk of sounding like a pot kettle attack that's how real estate works everywhere. Trump pays the mafia to develop. People in north St. Louis are going to get kicked out of their homes when the defense mapping agency moves across town. Ever since Kelo v. City of New London the Supreme Court has ruled that the government can seize your property as a taking for the enjoyment of private developers, not just in the public interest.

>Just like the unwillingness of this sub to be anything but a pro-communist echo chamber.

It's not like I even think state socialism or Mao is that great of a dude. I just don't see a lot of compelling evidence to suggest that the Republic of Korea, the KMT, or any of the other groups they fought against were that much better. If their causes were so righteous and backed by the world's preeminent superpower then how did they lose?

if you're okay with pretty modern history, I recommend North Korea. the secretiveness about the country is fascinating.

For documentaries, i recommend National Geographic: Inside North Korea. there's also the Vice Guide to North Korea and I also personally like their documentary on North Korean work camps inside Russia. If you have netflix, there's also Kimjongilia and Crossing the Line.

As for books, I really liked Nothing to Envy:Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. It talks about the lives of several defectors mainly during the famine in the 90s and also talks about how their lives are now in South Korea. Right now i'm reading Escape from Camp 14
which is about a guy who escaped from one of North Korea's many prison camps.

With a lot of recent events, I think it's important to understand the history of the country. also, Korea under Japanese rule might be interesting to.

Good Luck :)

EDIT: spelling

If truly interested you should start with Nothing to Envy. Then read Aquariums of Pyongyang:10 Years in the North Korean Gulag as well as Long Road home which give two very good acounts of imprisonment in the Gulags of NK.

After that I really recommend Dear Leader which is a great book written by the founder of New Focus International about his role in the top levels of the propaganda department in Pyongyang and his escape from the country after running afoul of the regime.

After that a more detailed and encompassing view from the start of the Kim regime can be found in Under the Loving care of the Fatherly Leader which I consider to be a must read, but only after becoming a little familiar with the subject as some who read it as their first NK book sometimes don't grasp it all.

Honestly I've read about 15 different books on the DPRK so if one catches your eye I've probably read it and can recommend a book if there is a specific topic you'd like to read about.

> Chinese textbook claim Tibet is always part of China, this is not correct. India textbook claim China has nothing to do with Tibet until 1950 invasion, that is not correct either.
>

This is incredibly basic understanding of academia. This is literally entry-level thought. Even at Wikipedia they've always disallowed sources based on criteria just like this. This is not something you should be trumpeting as giving your opinion authority, this is something you should assume everybody already knows.

Because they do.

> do yourself a favor to borrow a book called great game. https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223 At least learn some history of Tibet first.

I appreciate the offer, but I am already pretty well versed in this topic. Apart from anything else, your reccomendation lacks accuracy - the Great Game was between the British and Russian Empires, with Central Asia merely the staging ground. Moreso, that staging ground focused on the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan and the push to India, not the Himalayas. Tibet would be a passing reference in such a text.

I'm glad you're thinking about this period and these issues, so please take my reply as encouragement to continue rather than discouragement. I've discussed the problems with the idea of "sakoku" and what you're calling the Christian samurai revolt here and here. Please read over those and then come back to this.

So you have some fundamental problems with your premise that you would need to rethink (and get away from popular history books on Japan, they're terrible and misleading). But I think you can still make a paper out of the contact end. At this point, there's little point on focusing on isolation because almost no culture group is entirely isolated from every other culture group. It rarely happens, and in Japan's case, never happened.

Your example with the system of alternating attendance had more to do with the centralization and control needed post Sekigahara as well, so to warn you up front, you can't connect that to "isolation." Though, keeping all of that in mind, you might look at the Satsuma clan. I think that could lead you to a very interesting paper, but that's all the hint I'm going to give you since this is for homework. If you want to ask about resources you can start with, or if you have any questions about my other comments, I'm happy to help and answer, but I'm going to leave you on your own for making connections past that. This book is probably your best place to start.

Hope that helps.

Not the Middle East exactly, but if you want a GREAT perspective on the Middle East and Central Asia you MUST read, The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk.

This an excellent long view of history for those areas. You will not be disappointed.

Buddhism isn't and doesn't claim to be a divine revelation. It developed out of Indian asceticism, which to my understanding has always had an attitude of utter disgust towards the world and sensory pleasures. Now, there is a definite logic to the renunciate position. Dealing with pleasures of the world does naturally generate craving, so isolating yourself from those can be an effective first step towards extinguishing craving. This is a pretty interesting read on the subject, and Buddha's rant to the poor sod who had sex with his wife once out of filial duty was outright funny. Better to stick it into the mouth of a black viper or pit of embers, indeed...

However, there are other approaches. Buddhism changed long ago on entering China, and it changed when it entered West. If I had to quickly summarize McMahan's The Making of Buddhist Modernism, I'd say that what's practiced in the West tends to be a sort of syncretic tradition with elements from traditional Buddhism, Protestant Christianity, modern psychology and Romanticism. Since we aren't talking about Divine Truth here, being different from the early Buddhism doesn't make this intrinsically wrong.

What it might be is less effective at attaining its goals, but personally, I think it just has different strengths. Sure, staying engaged with the world and its beauty will probably keep you experiencing subtle levels of craving and suffering much longer than going ascetic. Yet suffering less is a worthy goal in itself, and the enlightenment found in ascetic setting seems to be vulnerable to collapsing outside of it. If you Awaken while living in the world, in the process you've probably rooted out all kinds of dysfunctional habits and patterns of thinking that monks just don't encounter.

Tl;dr: Suttas are worth reading and thinking about, but not something to take as given truth or to imitate despite deep misgivings.

The last one isn't a "miracle" it's coincidence. There was a guy who was in Hiroshima hospital who just happened to duck down and tell himself to be brave when the bomb hit. The flames ripped the glasses off his face and burned the entire hallway, but he was unharmed due to DUMB LUCK. Was that a miracle? Is Buddha the real god now? Read the non-fiction account "Hiroshima" for more stories like that.

http://www.amazon.com/Hiroshima-John-Hersey/dp/0679721037/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381494773&sr=8-1&keywords=hiroshima

As far as Fatima goes, there have been dancing plague epidemics in Europe and many other examples of mass psychosis due to water contamination / etc. There have also been laughing epedemics and PLENTY of people who mistake high up atmospheric phenomenon like red sprites for UFOs.

For Korea in general I took a lot of East Asian history courses, including courses on relations with the west, in college. I studied abroad in South Korea for a time where I studied Korean history (ancient and modern) as well as Korean culture and sociology (mostly South Korea). I also had the pleasure of speaking with someone from North Korea.
But if you're interested to know more, these are some sources I can personally recommend...

Books:

• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
  
  
• Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
  
  
• The Cleanest Race
  
  
• Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty
  
  
• North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea
  
  
• Korea's Place In The Sun by Bruce Cummings
  
  
• Korea Old and New by Harvard Press and Korea Institute
  
  
  And there's more that I have not read yet. If you only read one book out of these, I'd say Nothing to Envy is a great place to start. It gives the most complete picture, in my opinion.
  
  
  Documentaries:
  
  
• A State of Mind (2004)
  
  
• Seoul Train (2005)
  
  
• National Geographic: Inside North Korea (2007)
  
  
• Inside Undercover in North Korea (2007)
  
  
• The Vice Guide to North Korea (2008)
  
  
• Kimjongilia (2008)
  
  
• The Juche Idea (2008)
  
  
• Seven Days in North Korea (2008)
  
  And there's a whole bunch more that I have not seen yet.
  
  And there's a whole bunch of essays and journals/photo collections floating around the internet as well.

I've seen both documentaries mentioned above. Both are excellent.

If you have Netflix instant check out "National Geographic's Inside: North Korea." as well as "Seoul Train".

The latter isn't a joke and is probably the best documentary about NK on Netflix instant.
I just finished this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904

Its an excellent read into the daily lives of NK citizens told from the perspective of defectors.

Also HIGHLY recommended is this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tourist-Sightseeing-Unlikely-Destinations/dp/1847398464/

It's not specifically about NK but Dom Jolly (Trigger Happy TV) travels there in this fantastic book. He offers a different, hilarious take on his experience in "The DPRK".

"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" is the best book on North Korea that I've ever read. I'd say it's a good place to start.
http://www.amazon.com/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312323220

North Korea was for a time the richer Korea. Here's a nice graph of their approximate GDP per capita. http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/chart-graph/institutions-matter-real-capita-gdp-north-and-south-korea

To be fair there's some truth in what you are saying. Tibet was a tribute nation to various dynasties since something like the 14th century, however I don't think any of them directly controlled Tibet - and they especially did not control the Tibetan Buddhist religious organization (for better or worse). It was more like frequent symbolic gift giving and emperors asking lamas sometimes to give off good impressions to their people other times as a way to show face while receiving gifts. Source

You think that you've just made a super intelligent point because you've pointed out the obvious fact that the US has issues with human rights and with over-criminalization. It isn't an intelligent point because you don't know jack shit about North Korea. You don't know dick about how people live there, and I know that because if you did, you would pull your head out of your ass and realize that the issues that the United States has are not even in the same order of magnitude as the issues that North Korea has.

I recommend that you read the following books to give you a better sense of life in North Korea, so that in the future you can be more educated on the subject:

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow is the best non-fiction book I have read regarding the war.

As far as fiction goes, if you are looking for an idiosyncratic, unconventional, and hilarious analysis of the conflict, I highly recommend Norman Mailer's Why Are We In Vietnam? Note: at first glance it may seem like this book has NOTHING to do with Vietnam (in fact, the word "Vietnam" appears nowhere in the text itself) but bear with it! It provides an amazing critique of American culture and foreign policy during the fifties and sixties. One of the best and most decisive works from the greatest war writer of all time.

This, really, is what you want. Hiroshima by John Hersey. Yes, you can read it online for free; I recommend you buy it from Amazon for 8 dollars, because then you'll also get the fascinating Afterward.

This is a real classic of American journalism. You follow the lives of six people who were all living in Hiroshima at the time: what their lives were like just before the bombing; what they were like for the next few minutes, for that morning, that day, and the days afterwards. The hard copy comes with an Afterward: Hersey went back to Japan 40 years later to follow up on all six survivors.

Strongly recommended.

We don't really proselytize, so you wouldn't be "sold" necessarily. Also, are you thinking of an academic primer or something more basic?

There's the [Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture] (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-History-Culture-Edition/dp/1592572405/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341422012&sr=1-2&keywords=Idiot%27s+guide+to+judaism) and Essential Judaism. Those are both pretty good books. Also, Chabad has an excellent and very informative website, though in person they're a bit too much for me.

On a tangential note, I highly recommend From Beirut to Jerusalem and Orientalism if you're interested in the Middle East.

NB: While I'm expecting to catch some flack for the idiot's guide link, it is basically an "Explain Like I'm Five" book series.

Well, the Cambridge History of China is a great resource, but I don't know if you can find that in eBook form or not. Those tomes cover just about everything you'd need.

If you're interested in modern Chinese history, The Search for Modern China is an excellent book.

For the Song dynasty: The Age of Confucian Rule, and Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion. Just remember that the books can't cover everything, so occasionally they oversimply - particularly Kuhn's book and its overemphasis on Confucianism.

Oh, and one more recommendation for now: the Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian).

My understanding of it is that segments of Kabul society were very much indeed quite liberal, similar to what Tehran was like. If you google image search "Afghanistan 1970s" you'll find some stunning pictures of how different Kabul looked then. Rural Afghanistan, however, may as well have been a different planet, as it remains today.

Rory Stewart (who later became a provincial governor in Iraq and is now a British MP) walked across Afghanistan in 2002 and wrote a brilliant, harrowing book about a rural Afghan society virtually untouched by modernity. There, there are women who are barely able to speak, having been held inside their homes hidden from anyone outside their families for virtually their entire lives. Some of them have only rarely seen daylight.

This is a pre-medieval society whose ideology took greater hold over the rest of the country in the 1980s.

I travelled in rural Iran a few years ago and rural Turkey two years ago. I didn't see anything remotely as primitive or conservative as what Stewart described in his book. My guess is that that's in part because those two countries have long been much richer than Afghanistan.

You see often-illiterate migrant Afghan workers in Iran (their languages are similar) and these guys look like African Bushmen dropped into Midtown Manhattan.

It seems that you are more on top of the new shows than me, but I think your last line sort of nails it. No one expects a lot of these shows to be life-changing. They are just for fun. What is different is that the aesthetic medium. A lot of Marvel and DC comics are pretty baseless (and the film versions even more) but the fanboy culture surrounding that seems to get a pass in the US (although I have sense some resistance to that lately).

If you really want to dig into this though, there are a number of scholars that have been thinking about the 'Why?' question concerning manga. Azuma Hiroki is the big name here, and has some interesting things to say (though it can be a bit cerebral). Here is another article by Stevie Suan that discusses Manga and Anime as well.

EDIT:

Why am I getting downvoted?

Botany of Desire. The title turned me off, but it's actually really interesting and my whole family has read and enjoyed it.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary lives in North Korea Serious stuff, but so fascinating.

Stumbling on Happiness. Fun read on human nature and happiness.

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty was a good read. It is more about the Kim family regime than the creation of NK, although it is addressed in a chapter to some detail.

One of the best historiographies ever composed on USA involvement in Viet-Nam:

https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Lake-Vietnamese-Americans-Vietnam/dp/0316159190/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505052020&sr=1-1&keywords=fire+in+the+lake+by+frances+fitzgerald

Pretty good:

https://www.amazon.com/Embers-War-Empire-Americas-Vietnam/dp/0375756477/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505068806&sr=1-1&keywords=embers+of+war+logevall

Pretty good:

https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505068845&sr=1-1&keywords=vietnam+a+history

I'd like to take a moment to plug Hiroshima by John Hersey, which deals with first-hand accounts of survivors of Hiroshima. It does touch on reactions from the general populace but mostly follows a handful of survivors in the aftermath of the attack and what happened to them decades later. One of the best books I've read in recent years and a must for anybody remotely interested.

Sorry if this sort of thing isn't explicitly permitted but it's a great book I thought would be relevant to anyone interested in this question.

Peter Hessler's writings on China are great reads for people who are interested in the region. I particularly enjoyed River Town and country Driving, but Oracle Bones (which I haven't read) is a more historical outlook.

South East Asia is a big and varied region, is there a particular region or specific area in history you're interested in? In 20th century history there are many great biographies on Gandhi and also a lot of informative non-fiction on the Vietnam conflict

For modern India, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi. The dude digs up every memo, every administrative note, personal letter available, to narrate the story of India from around independence till current times (still have to get there). Lots of details, but it is sometimes quite gripping. The whole correspondence between Chou En Lai and Nehru, culminating in the War of '62, is particularly worth reading. Highlights the different governance of the two countries, and causes for India's defeat. There's a lot more. The story of Partition, and how Vallabhai Patel and his secretary (VP Menon) worked to accomplish the daunting task of integrating the over 500 princely states into one, democratic Indian Union is essential.

For ancient India, I am just starting. I just got into John Keay's India: A History. This is a beautiful book. Starts with India's most ancient known civilisation, the Harappas, and proceeds to chronicle the evolution of the country ever since, from the consequential "invasion" of Arya, to the skirmish with Alexander, the rise of Mauryan empire (and Ashoka the great) and the Indian "Dark Age" (that's as far as I have gotten!), and beyond (emergence of the Gupta empire is just around the corner). It is pragmatic, unbiased, thorough narrative of this subcontinent. I really enjoyed the chapter on Vedic era; finally got to know what is reliable and what isn't from that era, and a brief glimpse into how historians work to check the veracity of all the bold claims in the two great epics of Indian literature, Mahabharata and Ramayana. There is also frequent mention of the lineage of kings in Puranas (it is mostly unreliable, with little to know details of the time periods).

This is a novice beginning for me, and I will have to re-read these two books alone several times, to cement any idea of the complexity and diversity of Indian history. Maybe someday, I will get to move on to European history and everything in between!

Don't be silly. First, there's no way that that tour company does a lot of good humanitarian work in NK because nothing can be done without the explicit approval of the state. Whatever money they think they're giving, and however many meals they think are going to the orphanage, are probably going to help mid-level cadres bribe their kids' way into Kim Il-Sung University. Of course that money is going straight to the NK government. The only reason they let tourists in is because tourists pay lots of money for the privilege of a sanitized tour of the nicest parts of Pyongyang, with bonus appearances by North Korean citizens who definitely, 100% were not placed there by the regime and do not have to report on you afterwards. I recommend you read the book 'Nothing to Envy' by Barbara Demick for a general idea of things.

I'm a historian by major but working outside the profession. That said, I don't often post here but when I do, I hope I'm writing within the rules. Apologies in advance.

What OP is refering to is Historiography . The rest of the question depends completely on what you're reading/watching etc. If you're reading scholarly publications typically bias level is very low. If you're watching a documentary on any cable channel you need to be much more aware. One of the first things you're taught is to examine the source of the information and intent of the author.

The end goal of creating original historical scholarly work would be a product with as little bias (exaggerations and hearsay) as possible. I say as little because Historiography tells us it's impossible to create work completely free of bias.

It's impossible to remove our understanding and experience from the material because we use everything as context. If this is a subject that interests you I would highly recommend reading Orientalism by Edward Said. It's focus is the idea of our understanding of anything (person, event, time period, etc) is formulated based on our own culture.

I recognize linking wikipedia isn't a great thing to do in this sub however, I felt it appropriate to the topic.

Yeah, those 'r's are tricky. It's more like a combination of D and L.

The Pict-O-Graphix versions are pretty useful. They have one for Kana, which is like a really tiny pocket-book, and then one for Kanji which has about 1000 kanji and is rather large. Like this

Piggybacking your comment to tell anyone interested in the situation in N.K. to read the book "Nothing to Envy"

This is true. When Jong Il was in power, and the famine was extremely harsh, free markets sprung up and foreign aid was available for sale. It was the first time a lot of people had been able to get white rice in years. I love to hear this; hopefully it's the beginning of the end for their government. When history looks back on what's been going on in North Korea, I'm sure it will judge the rest of the world harshly for letting this oppression go on so long, leading to the deaths by starvation of so many people.

There is an amazing but very dark book called "Nothing to Envy" link. It's an amazing snapshot of what's going on in that country, written at an interesting time. When Korea finally opens up, we won't be able to get the points of view of people who are absolutely indoctrinated with the propaganda of the North.

I really like Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms or any book by Richard Fortey, really if paleontology and the biological history of the earth is interesting to you.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded is also great, especially if you like volcanoes. And sort of similarly is Eruptions that Shook the World.

I also second The Seashell on the Mountaintop that /u/ap0s suggested. It's very good!

There are a couple from the great game period, where Russia and Britain were rivaling each other in the central asia. You'll likely find plenty original intelligence officers as authors in the references of Hopkirk's "The Great Game".

"The English Passengers" is the latest book I read that I can recommend. I've loaned it to half-a-dozen people this year and they all really liked it.

The "Flashman Papers" are also really absorbing. "Flashman and the Redskins" was the one I stumbled upon first and I enjoyed it so much I ended out reading the whole series.

While not a fiction novel, if you want a book you can't put down, try Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game.

Apologies if these have been posted already, but I'd highly recommend Simon Winchester's work, particularly The Professor and the Madmad and Krakatoa.

Well researched, well written and thoroughly enjoyable.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a great book.
Penmanship is technically drawing.
Another fun exercise is using a children's kanji book regarding Japanese calligraphy.
Some random choices arbitrarily picked as examples.
http://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Pict-O-Graphix-Over-Japanese-Mnemonics/dp/0962813702
....http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Learn-Kanji-Introduction-Components/dp/156836394X
....http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Japanese-Kanji-Book/dp/4805310375
The more you draw, the better you get at drawing.
Chinese traditional drawing books are also helpful.
http://www.amazon.com/Blossoms-Orchid-Chrysanthemum-Drawing-Chinese/dp/7115268126/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408974775&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=chrysanthemums+and+grasses+drawing

On North Korean along with the Vice ones you've already seen I can recommend the following that you can find on Netflix:

Inside North Korea Lisa Ling (sister of Laura Ling, who was trapped in North Korea) travels to North Korea with an eye surgeon who is doing humanitarian work there. There's a really great scene after all of the patients get their bandages unwrapped.

Crossing the Line About Americans who defected to North Korea during the Korean War and live/lived in Pyongyang. Really interesting stuff.

Kim Jong Il's Comedy Club / The Red Chapel This one is about Korean-Danish comedians who go to Pyongyang to do a very peculiar comedy routine. It's full of awkward moments but there's some pretty insightful stuff in there.

A State of Mind I haven't seen this one, and it's not on Netflix, but it's the same director as Crossing the Line (he's earned DPRK's trust and is allowed access for movies). It's about North Korean girls preparing for the Mass Games.

Also two books I would recommend are Nothing to Envy about ordinary citizens lives during the famine of North Korea and The Real North Korea which explains why politically, North Korea has no choice but to continue the current path.

I don't have any recommendations for China, sorry.

That's interesting. I've only torrented music once, and that's because it wasn't available otherwise.

Growing up in a place where there wasn't a live music scene at all, I've never looked at music in anything but the long-term sense, comparing crystallized recordings from across wildly different musical eras and contexts. It's this that allows me to look at a chill-out track by Yoshinori Sunahara and say, hey, this sounds a bit like Lofticries by Purity Ring . That's probably a pretty useless connection to make, but I enjoy making it. The converse of this is that I've never learned to enjoy music as a moment, as a unique personal expression that comes only once between you and the players and then is forever lost. There might be something truly magical in that, that I will never know. I'm just a database animal.

Anyway, it's good that you've found music that speaks to you, but be aware that when I am elected next month I will get back at you by raping your ears with The Protomen, indie game soundtracks, and mod tunes.

e: also klezmer, Balkan brass, and Balkan folk. And a better example of comparing different musics might be Vlastimir Pavlović Carevac playing the Serbian folksong Bojarka vs. Smetana's Vltava/Die Moldau. Turns out, Vltava is based on an Italian melody that spread to Czech and became a folk song there. In fact, it became a folk song in a bunch of places. I'm just an amateur, but I'd hazard a guess that Bojarka has the same origin.

The gullibility and smarmy naivete in this thread is just pathetic. Yes. War is bad. What a revelation. Why hasn't anybody else thought of that before?

If you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside go buy a Hallmark card or go browse /r/aww.

People living in the real world understand that geopolitics is a game of advantage that you can't circumvent by pleading for everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. When you appease dictators and cede ground to them you simply enable and embolden their behavior. Furthermore, the South Korean president is hugging and holding hands with a mass murderer who has enslaved over 20 million people, condemning them to a live a life of near starvation and physical/psychological imprisonment. You're the leader of an extraordinarily prosperous, democratic country; have some dignity. You're meeting a piece of human excrement who is feeling on top of the world right now. You shake the man's hand for diplomacy's sake. You don't hug and caress him.

It's just so god damned pathetic how naive people are. What's happening here is that South Korea learned to live under a nuclear DPRK a long time ago. What they can't abide is constantly ratcheting up brinksmanship that is eagerly stoked by a senile reality tv star with the strongest military in the history of the world at his beck and call.

China, RoK, and DPRK have cooked up this appeasement scheme to dupe Trump into thinking he's quelled the DPRK threat. DPRK will keep its nuclear weapons (the announcement that they've completed their nuclear weapons program and no longer need the facility they're shutting down should have been a good indicator of DPRK's intentions for people that were too blind to them up until now) and as we can see here, the Kim regime gets boatloads of photo opportunities, diplomatic prestige, increased security internally, increased legitimacy externally and inevitably sanctions relief. China will benefit from further DPRK stability and increased trade opportunities (and leverage on Trump as well). And South Korea gets to see the sabre-rattling cease and they receive the same benefits China does from prolonged security for Kim regime. They don't want to deal with that humanitarian crisis either. Trump gets a plaque on his wall that says "Best Negotiator Ever" and a polaroid of a North Korean testing facility with a "closed" sign on the gate.

But don't let me get in the way of everyone "awwwwww"ing over this like it's a picture of a cat hugging a golden retriever. Bunch of rubes.

edit: Can't wait to see all the memes come out of this. Kim Jong Un is gonna have his image rehabilitated the same way GWB did lol... But I don't want this to just a useless rant yelling at silly people. So, before you guys start memeing up KJU let me give you guys a short reading list of DPRK books I've greatly enjoyed (I've been fascinated with DPRK for at least a decade):

• Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea. This is a great firsthand account of an "inner" party member who lived the relatively high life in Pyongyang as a propagandist.
  
  
• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Exactly what it sounds like: biographies of normal people who live(d) in DPRK over the last 30 years. This book is shocking, sickening, heart wrenching, triumphant, and any other superlative descriptor you can think of. Can't recommend it enough.
  
  
• Aquariums of Pyongyang. Nothing to Envy describes gulag life in detail but this book delves into it exclusively and I found myself enthralled but revolted at the same time. You'll have to take breaks to process the horror and atrocities it describes.
  
  So yeah, check any of those books out then come back here and see if you're still inclined to "oooo" and "awww" and talk about how sweet this is.

Rather than watch the vice guide videos (which only show you the propaganda that the DPRK wants you to see) you should go read books like these:

• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
  
• Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty
  
• The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
  
  These and other books give you amazing insight into what it's like to actually live inside North Korea. May of the defectors who have been interviewed for these books do indicate that they do believe in the personality cult around the Kim's, at least at a certain level.

History

The classic Fairbanks book, China: a New History for overview.

The always classic, Cambridge Illustrated History of China for reference. Though the real reference is the completely 12 volumes of The Cambridge History of China, which is not for the faint of heart. At that point, you might as learn Chinese and read The Comprehensive Mirror yourself.

For an aspiring historian
China: A Macro Hisotry



Culture

For old pre-revolutionary China, My Country and My People by Lin Yutang

For modern China, you're better off watching TV dramas. I recommend Ode to Joy as a start.

The Great Game - Peter Hopkirk

Anything else by Hopkirk is also worth reading, but The Great Game focuses on the rivalry between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. It's a long book, but very readable. I read it before the current conflicts and went back and reread it. Amazing how little some things change.

I'd recommend something from a journalist who's traveled in a specific region or regions (it usually goes hand in hand), it can give you a great perspective from the ground up.

Something like. http://www.amazon.com/The-Places-Between-Rory-Stewart/dp/0156031566

Not an expert by any means, but have read several books on the Korean penisula. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is a book mostly about the Kim dynasty, but the first section of the book compares the two Koreas right after the war in an engaging way. Might be a place to start. Hope this helps.

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312323220

Check out Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. Great book.

they weren't necessarily lucky, at least in the short term. post war, the north was extremely prosperous, (due to the USSR's backing), whilst the south went through military dictatorships, food shortages, police states and constant political unrest. the south only began to economically eclipse the north in (I think) the 1980s. This is a bad source but it's the best I can find on short notice, (the section on the Korean Rivalry). This book gives a much better breakdown of the two countries' differing fortunes if anyone is interested. edit: grammar

This is not true. I read the book about Krakatoa http://www.amazon.com/Krakatoa-World-Exploded-August-1883/dp/0060838590

They actually heard Krakatoa over 3000 miles away but people that were close did not report it as being that loud, really muffled sounding, probably having to do with the way acoustic waves work but interesting either way. That book has some really interesting stuff in it. Krakatoa was the first truly global event since the telegraph lines had just been laid across the oceans.

I also really enjoyed Nothing to Envy.

I would add

'Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' - Bradley K. Martin

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312323220

Here's an extremely abbreviated version of what happened: the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, we decided to punch them in the nuts, so we began arming and training large numbers of Afghan freedom fighters.

They began punching the Russians in the nuts. The Russians eventually were like, fuck this dude, we're out, and withdrew.

Natch, we were all "OMFG YES WE'RE THE BEST. Now on to other things" and totally moved on from the conflict.

By arming these freedom fighters we had created basically a system of well armed warlords. The power vacuum left by the Russians created intense fighting and strife. The Taliban expanded in this vacuum, offering relative peace.

Oh, and somewhere a congressman was fucking around so they made a movie about it.

For a real in depth, actual learning experience about this I strongly recommend Ghost Wars by Steven Coll: http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wars-Afghanistan-Invasion-September/dp/1594200076

Honestly. Check this out.

If you want literature, I really like these books:

Check out Fairbank, it's amazing.
Or maybe: John Keay
Or try: Ying-Shih Yü

Or alternatively, google it (see first link). If you don't want to pay for any of these books just check your local library (-Genesis). I wouldn't call you out for torrenting/DLing them, since that would make me a hypocrite.

You're welcome! It's good there can be something beneficial come from my obsession of reading North Korean books and articles. Even if that's helping a few people on the interweb learn a bit more.

I really do strongly recommend you get the book Nothing To Envy. It will blow your mind, but is also fairly easy and approachable to read.
https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912

Yep, and there's already a book that's exactly her idea, for about 1000 Kanji:

> http://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Pict-O-Graphix-Over-Japanese-Mnemonics/dp/0962813702

But I agree, once you get past a few dozen easy ones, something like Heisig's idea is going to be much easier (and in any case the more absurd & obscene the story you create is, the easier to remember)

I was gonna say Lost City of Z. There's The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, which is supposed to be really good. Here's the first page, it definitely got my interest.

We also printed Qu'rans in a multitude of languages to help inspire the mujahideen of the region. Steve Coll's book Ghost Wars is a great look at American covert action in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Amazon link

The "Great Game" period between the Russian and British Empires vying for supremacy in 19th century Central Asia. Really fascinating historical period complete with stories of amateur explorers, pathological fear of Russian encroachment on India, military incursions, domestic, colonial, and foreign politics, eccentric belief in "Empire", chance encounters on the road, psychopath kings and khans, etc. Surprising connections to events today and hammers home the dangers of engaging in Afghan affairs!

Here's the wikipedia for some info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game

My favorite book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223

> Those governments and insurgents were supplied and trained by US as a part of the Great Game as the USSR supplied and trained their own groups and governments to advance their interests.

Yeah... I'm interested in the British Empire, especially in India, and read Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game, which is mostly about the UK-Russia's proxy war in Afghanistan. It's kind of amazing how little has changed in the area after a century.

> only the afghan mujahideen were supported by the U.S. the 'afghan arabs' never got a dime from the U.S.

You need to read Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and perhaps get some perspective on what a meaningless assertion that is.

For one, The U.S. did quite a bit of operating through proxies in the region, who were very indiscriminate regarding who they sold to. Aid took the form not only of direct cash disbursements, but discounts on arms. Trying to claim bookkeeping technicalities is like saying you didn't spend your grocery money on the lottery ticket because you actually spent your laundry money.

Second, the leadership in the U.S. most certainly did prefer any sort of Islam over Soviet communism. William Casey, director of the CIA at the time, sold U.S. involvement in Afghanistan on the premise that Christians owed support to fellow "religions of the Book" over atheists.

> I sort of wish Ken Burns would do a documentary on Vietnam. A lot of the feature length stuff about it just seems over dramatized.

Have you seen Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War or Vietnam: A Television History?

Both are extensive examinations and outstanding in their depth and breadth. Vietnam: A Television History also has a super thorough companion book called Vietnam: A History written by journalist/historian Stanley Karnow. It's perhaps the best single-volume history of the Vietnam war.

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122916/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_clf7Ab99NDEFR

Also the person in the neighborhood that reports on you part I mentioned is from this book

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385523912/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_fmf7AbD5VBWRV

I can suggest some books that are really helpful in filling in the blanks.

For a basic overview of Islam's history and the reality of Islamic countries in the modern world I'd recommend "Introducing Islam."

For a seriously compelling look at the Sunni/Shia split and the conflict between the two sects I highly recommend "After the Prophet". Not only is this good history, it's a very well written.

And for a really excellent look at the misconceptions westerners have about Islam, and the ways in which those misconceptions are transmitted and perpetuated, you can't beat the works of Edward Said. He wrote three books on the subject that he considered a trilogy. They are:

Orientalism

The Question of Palestine

and

Covering Islam

Also, here's a documentary that is largely an interview with Said on the topic of Orientalism.

And a documentary called "Reel Bad Arabs" that examines the way the middle east is portrayed by western media.

Jonathan Spence's Search for Modern China is a nice overview of recent-ish stuff. Spence's other works are also pretty fantastic.

Are you interested in a particular aspect of geology?

Are you perhaps interested in sub/related disciplines? If so, I have some paleoclimate, geochemistry, etc. recommendations.

It might be blasphemy on this subreddit, but in a similar thread a ways back, a few people were really singing the praises of The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. I frankly found it to be more than a little boring, even taking Winchester's digression-heavy style into account.

I recently started Krakatoa (also by Winchester) and it seems a bit more like what I was hoping for.

"Light" geology reading is kind of a tough needle to thread, I think.

Pulitzer Prize winner John Hersey's Hiroshima is a gripping account of survirors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in the first year after the weapon's use. The first edition follows the survivors for the first year. A newer edition from 1985 covers the subjects in the ensuing decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_(book)

Highly recommended!

If you like that book, I highly recommend Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game. A page-turner history of that spy-vs-spy era.

A few that came to mind:
The Great Influenza
Autism's False Prophets
1776
The Greatest Show On Earth
Ghost Wars
The Demon-Haunted World

Hitchens (2010) recommended Myer's The cleanest race: How North Koreans see themselves and why it matters.

I recommend Demick's (2010) Nothing to envy: Ordinary lives in North Korea and Martin's (2006) Under the loving care of the fatherly leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty.

There's a good audio course called Yao to Mao. I like this because it was easy to listen to while travelling around China.

My favourite comprehensive history book is The search for modern china

Some people did fairly okay.

Source: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader

for people interested in everyday life in NK: I just read a fantastic book by an American journalist following the lives of (I think) 6 defectors while also providing some good historical and cultural background.

It's called Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. Highly recommended.

I think Heisig is good as a reference book, as in, if you have difficulty learning/remembering a particular kanji, you can take a look at it and hopefully that will lock in the kanji and pronunciation, but as the only way to learn kanji it seems a bit troublesome to me. Another book that is pretty good is Pict-o-Graphix which again is good as a reference book, not a good learning resource.

I personally use Anki and a new site memrise to practice a lot of kanji reading/meanings.

I read the same thing. 99% sure I read it from the book nothing to envy.

http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324420437&sr=8-1

It's a pretty good book.

What world do you live in? Seriously, I would really like to know what deluded fantasy that you live in where this kind of money goes back to the people. It doesn't. You think this tourism helps people, think its help them open their eyes? Well what happens then if their eyes are somehow magically opened by the tourists who they have little to no contact with. Its not like you can walk up to someone and start talking to them, or does somehow the sight of a foreigner open their eyes to over 60 years of continuous brainwashing? But say they are somehow magically opened, what then? They are stuck in a country where their neighbors would rat them out for a hint of dissent, and they and their entire family would be shipped off to concentration camps that would make the Nazis proud.

Are you so fucking naive to believe this actually helps the citizens? Every time we try to give aid to the North, we can't even get the simplest guarantee from them that they would go to the people. They can't even finish their own infrastructures without foreign help, and even if they finish the outside they don't even bother to work on the inside. The vast majority of their spending goes to the military, we know this for a fact, that's why they invest so heavily into nuclear weapons and they actually have been able to accomplish some things (albeit poorly).

Economic liberalization would be helpful to the North for a variety of reasons but this is all tightly controlled, regulated and run by the state. This is not some private enterprise of North Koreans, they are carefully, screened, chosen and watched by a state, whose only purpose is to keep itself afloat and to keep its top people rich off the backs of its own citizens. But this tourism is stupid, especially when people come back with these misguided ideas of "Oh it doesn't look so bad". To think that this benefits anyone other than the state is a complete delusion. If you actually want to learn something about North Korea I would reccomend those books.

I recommend reading Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. There is a chapter dedicated to this topic, and it is touched upon several times in the book. There is a lot of detail.

I am a Historian I think many of those books highlighted are not really a master list but a good jumping off point to delve into the region. I would suggest for India to read " India after Gandhi" http://www.amazon.com/India-After-Gandhi-History-Democracy/dp/0060958588.

Also a good primer would be: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802145582/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944579842&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0060958588&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1NYR2DTB6GR13K5JBN1S

Kind of looks like Kanji Pict-o-Grafix by Michael Rowley. They have one for Kana as well. Very useful for beginners.

https://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Pict-Graphix-Japanese-Mnemonics/dp/0962813702

I really enjoyed Three Cups of Tea, The Places In Between is another great read, this one is about a man who decides to walk across Afghanistan. A very eye opening account of how life is lived all over Afghanistan.

Thanks for defending my comment Forensic and Rancmeat.

I was indeed being serious - life in North Korea truly sucks ass - and they do eat grass and all kinds of other horrible things (unless they are favoured enough to live in Pyongyang).

For anyone that is interested, check out this book . It is only one of many very interesting books about this country but probably the best and most insighful (although it might be a bit ambitious for those just starting to learn about this country).

I guess I'll also make a suggestion to some of the commenters on this page - don't blame the governement, the media and "them" (whoever them are) for not giving you the straight story about NK (and in general). If you take the time to read a little (like not not blogs, and the first paragraph of an article) you will learn some stuff. Sorry to be a preachy asshole - but some of the comments have just been brutal lately.

Am re-reading Steve Coll's, Ghost Wars The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001,....started 3 days ago, 400 pages down. ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING, like I am spellbound when I read it, forgetting the present entirely. Read it when it came out which was around 2005, was diggin through my library and picked this up. Forgot how awesome it is.

Ordered Private Empire, ExxonMobil & American Power by the same author, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. By Lawrence Wright are both pending delivery, so you can guess which I am moving onto next. After an Indian history binge last month, this month am into all things Mujahideen and AQ.

If anyone's interested in these walking adventures The Places In Between was a really good read.

http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912

I'm pretty sure it's this book. Highly recommend

not really sure in what grade or class you are, but i don't think these 5 questions will cut it. if you want to go into the topic why people like anime i recommend you giving Otaku - Japans Database Animals a read: http://www.amazon.com/Otaku-Japan’s-Database-Hiroki-Azuma/dp/0816653526

Peter Hopkirk wrote a superb book about this, called The Great Game. I highly recommend it.

It will make you very, very angry at US policy in Afghanistan and central Asia.

Racism is usually defined as views, practices and actions reflecting the belief that humanity is divided into distinct biological groups called races and that members of a certain race share certain attributes which make that group as a whole less desirable, more desirable, inferior, or superior. (Wikipedia)

So for the first part you are right, but stereotypes are bigger than race, they go way beyond that. In a stereotype you can include all races, sexes, sexual orientations and what not, while a "race" is pretty narrow-minded. Btw, stereotypes are not necessarily a bad thing, it's just the way our brain handles stuff that is new to us. It happens everywhere as well, it's not just us rich Swiss judging evil foreigners, it goes both ways.

If you're interested, I'd recommend giving this a read: James G. Carrier - Occidentalism, Images of the West
and Edward Said - Orientalism

>Would anybody be able to tell me what North Korea is like? Not as a western tourist, but as an average citizen, privileged and favored or not.

No, sorry. It really is the "hermit kingdom." The closest you can get is watching interviews with defectors on YouTube, this AMA or reading Nothing to Envy.

doesn't look like it is. won a non-fiction award. http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912

Simon Winchester is really good. I enjoyed Krakatoa and The Professor and the Madman.

A book I would recommend looking at is Jonathan Spence's The Search For Modern China *, which is one of the best and most readable books that touches on every question you've asked. You can follow its foot notes for more material citations

"Treatise on the Gods" by H. L. Mencken is great, studies religion and its origins and very matter-of-factly spells out how it has been used to obtain and maintain power over people. You might find a cheaper used copy on Half.com.

If you're into WW2 stuff, there's "Tigers In The Mud", a story about the war from a German Tiger tank commander's perspective. Similarly there's "Hiroshima", tells about the bomb and its devastation from some different peoples' perspectives.

I'd also like to reccomend The Impossible State. It's a great primer on North Korea.

I did take it! :)

P.S. My favorite NK defector(s) book is Nothing to Envy - if you read just one, go with that!

This semester I had to read a non-fiction book too, so I picked this:

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

No regrets. Excellent flow, loved the author's way of presenting different events, multiple sources and excellent knowledge to acquire about the past and current life in North Korea.

I'm aware of the state of things in NK. I just didn't think "cult of personality", however extreme, counted as a recognized religion. :) Perhaps I'm wrong.

(Also, I just finished reading the fascinating book Nothing to Envy. Highly recommend it!)

Interesting... it's a super complex question. Have you read The Making of Buddhist Modernism? Much of modern Buddhism, even in the East, has already intertwined with Christianity and modern science.

Also, depending on the vehicle - Hinayana, Mahayana, or Vajrayana, and specific methods of practice, the moral codes in Buddhism can drastically differ. For example, a Mahayana teacher might tell you to eat a bland vegetarian diet to stay on the Middle Way, while a Vajrayana teacher might tell you to eat bugs and drink blood to dissolve duality of holy vs profane.

My interpretation of Nietzsche is that he's almost a Vajrayana Buddhist, but without the understanding that the self is nebulous/illusory. Zen is weird in that it's technically Mahayana, but has many Vajrayana-like traits too. An excellent read on this topic is Nietzsche and Zen.

The shallowness people call out in Danys plot and character in the east is due to the very overused western trope, Orientalism.
As great as Martin is he does have to resort to this literary style with her because otherwise she would have no purpose for the first few books/seasons. It offers substance to a plot that western entertainment can grab on to.

It boils down to the idea that her atrocities as a super white and perfect and westerosi raised person and a young women to boot, are justified because what the ordered "normal" west do in terms of culture and law are the "correct" ways in our minds and in the character minds of the West. And that the east are in news of this reform regardless of how harsh it comes off as. Because they are considered, lower, more savage and animalistic. The examples in the show are everywhere.

Examples in western entertainment are everywhere too, one that everyone can relate to is the scene in Indiana Jones when Indie squares off with the masked "Arab" who is too I'll educated to not back down from a gun fight with a knife, and he pays.

An anthropologist Edward Seid coined the trope.

https://www.amazon.com/Orientalism-Edward-W-Said/dp/039474067X

You're right, there are some really interesting-looking areas in Pyongyang, as well as some cool buildings like the Sci-Tech complex or the Great People's Study House. They're almost all concentrated in areas for tourists and Party employees though, and one thing you don't get from pictures is the rot. Everyone who visits North Korea says that even in the tourist areas there's constant signs of decay- stains in the carpets of government buildings, weeds overgrowing the sidewalk, broken lights, plumbing that doesn't work, constant power outages. In Brad Martin's book he describes being shown round a hospital, the staff proudly showing off their medical equipment... some of which was rusty, all of which was out-of-date. The city is a kind of cut-rate Potemkin village.

I enjoyed Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester.

Also, and this one isn't strictly geo, but it's awesome, The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean. Basically a history of the periodic table. And it's really funny too.

If you're looking for a more in-depth work, there's a fantastic book about six North Korean refugees who are mostly rehabilitated in Seoul now. Here's the link; I highly recommend it.

I believe this is mostly a misconception. Despite how the government tries, North Koreans are more aware than you might think. There’s a fantastic book about life in NK that I highly recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. I can't explain why in just a few words but it is simply the best book I've ever read.

The Penguin History of Modern China
is a great overview and very easy to read.

One of the best books on the subject I've read is
The Search for Modern China by. Jonathan Spence but it is very dry.

The shitstorm makes perfect sense when it you recognize it is the type of mistake KanColle made rather than the mistake itself. The problem is that Kantai Collection is a game that is almost five years old, and that thrives on its community interactions. Most of the endearment towards characters are generated by fan-made content. I have changed my opinions on many different characters based on reading various fan manga and artwork. Kantai Collection is the best example you can find of the database model work put forward by Hiroki Azuma in his book.

The collective interaction that is Kantai Collection means that the developers need to be responsive to fan feedback if they want the work to be successful. Intrepid's character design was a tone deaf move that was dismissive of fans' desires. It showed that the developers either didn't listen to their fans, or thought they could get away with ignoring their fans. It breaks the illusion that the fans are partners in this enterprise as opposed to subordinates.

To put it in perspective, the feelings that fans experienced over Intrepid is the same feeling that causes rebellions and revolts in the real world. The Stamp Act of 1765 is what galvanized many of the American colonialist into opposing the Crown, and British inability to effectively respond and compromise resulted in the American Revolution.

I don't use that example to say that Intrepid's design is the same as the American Revolution, but to say that humans have clear and predictable psychological responses to actions by those in authority. This incident won't cause a revolution or revolt, but it could very well destroy the Kantai Collection franchise if the developers can't effectively respond. KanColle's saving grace is that there isn't strong competition. Azur Lane is the closest thing, but it has its own flaws and isn't in a position to exploit Kantai Collection.

Yeah, parent is entirely untrue. In fact, many of their TVs are Chinese and Japanese, which are then modified by the telecommunications bureau to only receive government stations. As you might expect, hacking them back to full functionality is a time-honored pastime.

This book describes the phenomenon, and is generally excellent. It even describes what happened when an NKer got their hands on a copy of 1984!

If you don't get an AMA, then this book was quite an interesting read.

It's by Victor Cha, Wikipedia describes him as follows:

>He is a former Director for Asian Affairs in the White House's National Security Council, with responsibility for Japan, North and South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.[1] He was President Bush's top advisor on North Korean affairs.[2] He currently holds the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies and is the Director of the Asian Studies program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Cha is also senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

There’s a travel autobiography/journal called The Places in Between about Rory Stewart’s hiking from Iran through Afghanistan during the early part of the invasion of Afghanistan (2002 is when he did the trip).

Beyond it being an amazing read about a Brit travelling through Taliban-controlled territory (including spending time with Taliban commanders), the saddest part of the book is when he gets his dog companion that survives all the way to the Pakistani border. He was prepared to take the dog home with him, including all the ridiculous hoops of customs for importing a dog, until a friend who was watching the dog at the British embassy gave it a bone from dinner. While good natured enough, the dog had never had a bone in its life, and it choked on the bones.

I cried when I got to that part. But it’s an amazing book and your comment made me think of it and I completely recommend it.

Thanks for the comment, very interesting to read. I'm now slightly more knowledgeable, and just a hair more dunk to make this a great impulse buy!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0674009916?pc_redir=1414055008&robot_redir=1

It's not propaganda. The vast majority of the population is brainwashed and have little access to external news. Only a carefully vetted elite few can travel to China or anywhere out of the country. Having a satellite phone will land you in a labor camp. Underground printing presses? You must be kidding. The North Korean government is a truly tyrannical, oppressive regime with ever present mechanisms of control and suppression inherited from the Soviets and fine-tuned over decades of practice.

If you want to read a fascinating book about NK told through the eyes of an English teacher take a look at Without You There Is No Us. Also really good Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea.

Here is the deal with N. Korea. Pretty much the ones who live in Pyongyang, aka where the media actually have cameras, are brainwashed. Apparently, those who live in the city are chosen by the leadership to live there as it is an honor. Those on the outskirts of the main drag are more in tune to the reality of the situation their country is in. Yes, they still have the mandatory framed pictures of Kim Jong Il & Un on their walls and yes if interviewed, taped or pressured they will act as they are expected to but in reality they know something isn't right. I suggest anyone who is interested read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

This is not biographical, but for anyone interested in the period, The Search For Modern China is worth mentioning.

That was the thing that always blew me away about the event: That the effects of Krakatoa on the atmosphere are observable today in landscape paintings made at the time from as far away as England.

There's a really good book on the event called Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded by Simon Winchester in case anyone is interested.

Edit:correction to book title

Ok fine, but where's even that coming from?

After reading this I don't assume that it could be easy.

I have to recommend this book, Nothing to Envy to anyone interested in the human side of North Korea. Daily life from Northern North Korea, not the showcase city of Pyongyang. I just finished it earlier this season, real page turner and its pretty understanding and sympathetic but also sensible, you really get emotionally invested in the characters.

Can't recommend the book that blogger talks about highly enough. For the lazy, and non-lazy, it's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and one of the best contemporary nonfiction books I've ever read. SO GOOD.

Yes, living in North Korea is like 1984 except everyone is starving. I highly recommend reading this book for more information.

If you live in the Western world, what you learn about North Korea is almost literally unbelievable.

I highly recommend The Making of Buddhist Modernism by David McMahan for anyone interested in better understanding this topic and the complex problems arising as Buddhism finds its place in the 'western' world.

Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven

Orientalism by Edward Said

The second one is not South Asia specific but rather how we are viewed in occidental intellectual traditions.

Can you summarize Tibet history briefly? If you have no idea, do yourself a favor to borrow a book called great game.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223

At least educate yourself first.

I was reading the Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 and it talked about how the American government was promoting a jihad against communism in Central Asia and paid to have Qurans translated into Uzbek and giving arms to radicals in the hope of triggering an anti-Soviet jihadi movement in the region. It's mentioned in this article as well:

>It did not have to be this way. Western intelligence during the Cold War always saw the region as poised for revolt, a potential dagger aimed at the heart of the "evil empire." During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA had copies of the Koran translated into Uzbek and smuggled across the border in the hopes of starting an anti-Soviet jihad among the USSR's Muslims.

>Is it really tyranny if God can forgive anything?

I don't recognise his authority to pass judgement on me. He is a self-appointed adjudicator.

>He never spoke about homosexuality

This is simple cherry-picking. You're dismissing the disgraceful doctrines in Leviticus and accepting the absence of comment on the subject by someone for whom there is no evidence even of existence.

This is actually to your credit. I am not insulting you for being inconsistent, I am giving you credit for being better than the religion.

>I seem to find it a little hard as to how God could be elected. He created the universe

God claims to be in an ultimate position of being judge and jury of people, of whom he claims ownership, and implements eternal torture in a barbaric legal system with no appeals procedure. It is to this position he appoints himself. I do not recognise the right of anyone to hold such a position, especially if it is unelected and undemocratic.

Just as a parent cannot claim ownership of his child or torture it, creating something does not grant you sole judgement of it or ownership of it.

>I think of a dictator as a power-hungry individual who rules alone over a group of people against the interests of the people, and uses immoral tactics to retain power.

A dictator is a ruler who wields absolute authority. What you describe is closer to a tyrant. A dictator holds an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without restraint by a legislative assembly. A dictator is inherently antidemocratic.

>God rules, for lack of a better word, over us as a benevolent Father

I don't see anything about the rule of God as benevolent and anyone can claim to be your "Father" -- remember Kim Il-sung?

>He acts so that we may benefit forever in Heaven, even sending Himself down as Jesus to die so that we can benefit.

This sounds either like an honour killing or the ravings of a madman.

Quite aside from the antiscientific practices of Christianity and the utter lack of evidence for its supernatural claims, the doctrine of Christianity promotes outrageous ethics and ancient, tribal ideas of retribution. It demands, under threat of torture, that we support the unelected dictatorship of God who has a disgraceful justice system of torture with no appeals procedure. Christianity is an expression of support for a permanent, unelected, unalterable, unquestionable dictatorship, capable of convicting thoughtcrime, demanding unending praise and worship under threat of violence and torture for an eternity after death. This dictatorship claims ownership of people. I do not recognise the right of anyone to own anyone else. This dictatorship is utter and it is horrifying. I don't want it and I don't respect anyone who does. It is a very good thing that there is no evidence for it.

I really loved this book: Kanji Pict-o-Graphix

I'm a very visual learner. This book isn't perfect, but it helps a lot with recognition and memorizing kanji that are related to each other.

I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312322216

It's one of the greatest and most interesting reads ever. It covers every aspect of North Korea and mixes in the facts with really striking survivor testimony. The first few chapters are a bit boring, as they just discuss Kim Il Sung's life, but once it gets into the meat, you can't put it down.

Yes. The older generation that still remembers are in favor of unification, but the younger generations see them as another country, and a burden that they'd have to pay for (in an already highly competitive society). They see them as a massive amount of uneducated and brainwashed refugees they would have to pay for who would not fit into modern South Korean society.

North Koreans do escape and defect to the south. It is not an easy thing for them. They are looked down on by the South Koreans, and they are in a place where the language is different, their skills and credentials are no longer valid (I remember reading an interview with a girl who was a doctor in North Korea, but her credentials were not accepted by places in the South and she had to go back to school).

North Koreans who escape to the South are automatically granted citizenship. Right now, with a trickle of defectors, that is fine. But if the country fell, they would need to keep them sequestered in NK, and then deal with the North's disillusionment as they see how bad they are off compared to the South, and that they will likely never be able to have the lives that the South Koreans have achieved after reunification and the anger that will bring. The issue would reverberate long after, and it may only be the children or grandchildren of those from the North who will finally succeed in the South.

If you are interested in the history of North Korea, I highly recommend reading Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, which gives a very good and complete history of North Korea from its founding till the 1990's.

After that, I recommend Nothing to Envy, which is a collection of interviews following the lives of six North Korean defectors.

Other Books to read:

• Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee--A Look Inside North Korea
  
• This is Paradise!: My North Korean Childhood
  
• The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
  
• The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea

Jag vet att folk gillar nordkoreansk propaganda, men varför inte läsa något ur en nordkoreans perspektiv istället för samma trötta charterresa? Det bor över 20000 nordkoreaner i Sydkorea, och en majoritet av dem har flytt dit under det senaste decenniet.

Här är några bokrekommendationer:

• Nothing to Envy: Fokuserar ganska mycket på svältkatastrofen på 90-talet men också många skildringar av vardagen i Nordkorea. Släpptes nyligen på svenska.
  
  
• Escape from Camp 14: Biografi om den enda person som fötts i ett nordkoreanskt koncentrationsläger och lyckats fly landet. Över 200 000 personer tros sitta i dessa läger och Camp 14 är det absolut värsta, i klass med Auschwitz-Birkenau vad gäller grymhet. The Aquariums of Pyongyang handlar om ett annat läger.
  
  
• Några bra böcker som inte är skrivna av/med "avhoppare" (dvs nordkoreanska flyktingar) är The Cleanest Race (om Nordkoreas interna propaganda; väldigt bra för den som undrar "hur de kan tro på det där"), North of the DMZ, och Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader (nästan encyclopedisk bok om nordkoreas historia).

there is a book that is called "kanji pictographics" that helps with about 1000 basic kanji. nice to have on your coffee table. or kotatsu once you get to japan.

http://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Pict-O-Graphix-Over-Japanese-Mnemonics/dp/0962813702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269813970&sr=8-1

Amazon is wonderful.

Hiroshima by John Hersey
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679721037/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_b7KUtb05ZJ0TB

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223 A book I'm reading that is really awesome and that I was looking up reviews for.

Can you please give a general sense of how the South Koreans feel about the North Korean nuclear and missile issue? I imagine being under the US nuclear umbrella lessens the impact of N Korea's activities.

As a quick plug to Redditors interested about N Korea, get this book.

missyb described it best in her comment, but I'm making mine a separate comment to make sure you see this. In Barbera Demick's work Nothing to Envy, she describes the North Korean reaction to the death of Kim Il-Sung. People were being watched for their emotional displays, and everyone was afraid of not expressing enough remorse/love (in turn leading to ever more frenzied displays of emotion fueled by the others/the fear of being "out-devoted"). Like missyb says, "Don't be so accepting of people's stylised emotional displays." And please don't necessarily accept all the explanations of "it's a hive state" and "it's the power of religion in practice" as the sole explanations. While I have no doubt that the social structure and religious nature of the state have played major roles in creating this "love," most North Koreans aren't stupid or entirely brainwashed - and many lived through the famine and were forced to see the lies with their own eyes. Don't take their intelligence for granted.

It's a question with an answer that exists at the core of all authoritarian regimes: how much of what we are seeing is truly real? I encourage you to read Demick's work and make your own judgement call. (My answer: some of it is, some of it isn't. Unsatisfying, but that's the real world for you.)

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 is a great read.

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk.

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick goes into this quite a bit, as well as just general life in the DPRK, if you're interested at all.

>Dude believe what you want but for every manuscript written by an islamic person there are ten thousand written non muslim that portray a brutal life under muslims.

This is something you want to be true, but isn't. You want it to be true, so you will never seek out information that contradicts it. I get the impression that you've never read a primary source written from within the Muslim empire. You've been told these things, but you're too intellectually lazy to wonder if they might be lies, misunderstandings, and myths. If you want to be spoonfed you interpretation of history instead of researching it yourself, that's your business. But don't claim to have knowledge of history if second hand accounts and Crusades-era anti-Islam propaganda are the shaky foundation you want to build your worldview on.

Once again, the image of Islam would be seriously shaken if you read something written by scholars, like No God but God or After the Prophet, or Orientalism. Unfortunately it's pretty clear that you lack the curiosity to verify what you believe.

Well, Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan right after the USA invaded in 2002. It is a good read.

http://www.amazon.com/Places-Between-Rory-Stewart/dp/0156031566

I don't think visiting a country who has a differing foreign policy is really comparable to visiting a country where an oppressive dictator has kept 23 million brainwashed people in utter poverty and starvation. Whatever money you spend in North Korea goes to those in power, and they certainly aren't using that money to feed their people. No, it's more like Hennessy and cigarettes.

Furthermore, anyone who suggests that the official tour that everyone who visits NK goes on is in any way a full and accurate depiction of day to day life in North Korea is kidding themselves. That tour is carefully crafted to only show what the propaganda arm of NK wants. You have two tour guides who are carefully selected from party loyalists, you're not allowed to leave their sight, you're not allowed to talk with anyone else, you're not allowed to take pictures they don't like. I'm not quite sure how you would bring a "glimpse of hope" to an average North Korean if you're not allowed to interact with them in any way.

If you're interested in learning about day to day life in NK, I would recommend reading North of the DMZ by Andrei Lankov, who studied in North Korea in the 80's, or Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, who interviewed many defectors about their experiences in NK.

Tourism isn't going to do much for the average North Korean. For a start, I'd place my money on soap operas smuggled in from South Korea and pirate radio stations.

Also check out the book nothing to envy http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904 fantastic read.

"Nothing to Envy" https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912

Good read if your into that stuff.

Also "Escape from Camp 14" https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916

That one is less about ordinary citizen's lives and more about the modern day concentration camps the North Korean government is controlling.

Any who are interested in this stuff would love Simon Winchester's book on Krakatoa. The man makes the story come alive from both the personal and historical context of it all.

Also holy hell, it was heard on an island 3000 miles away. Imagine hearing something from New York while standing on the Santa Monica pier.