About this item
The Encyclopedia of Modern Asia is a monumental new scholarly work, as expansive in scope as the continent of Asia itself. Under the direction of cultural anthropologist David Levinson, 800 contributors from around the world -- including 25 Asian countries -- provide 6, 000 articles on Modern Asia from a global perspective. The Encyclopedias comparative, cross-cultural approach allows students and researchers to identify the similarities and differences among Asian nations and religions. The work focuses on Asia in the modern world -- including Central Asia, the Middle East and the Far East -- and contemporary issues are given full and authoritative treatment. Historical articles emphasize people, places, events and developments that have had a lasting influence on Asia. Articles also cover Asian relations with Western nations, the relations between nations within Asia and also the flow of people, goods and ideas within Asia and globally. Also includes approximately 1, 000 black-and-white photographs, maps, sidebars and a comprehensive index.
About the Author
An intrepid solo traveler since age fourteen, always in love with books and global vistas, Karen has edited well-known reference works such as the Encyclopedia of Community and is the author of a number of popular environmental books, including The Armchair Environmentalist, which have been translated into French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai. She is CEO of Berkshire Publishing Group, which she cofounded in 1998.
Karen grew up in Minnesota and in the Silicon Valley in California. After graduating with a degree in literature from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, she went to London and worked as a nanny and chauffeur before starting her publishing career at Blackwell Scientific Publications and Faber & Faber, where she was editorial assistant to Valerie (Mrs. T. S.) Eliot on the first (and so far only) volume of the T. S. Eliot letters (1988) . Her memoir of work on the T. S. Eliot letters, "Dear Mrs. Eliot," was the cover story in the U.K. newspaper the Guardian's Review magazine, 29 January 2005.
