Empires at War

From the author of Hirohito's War comes the second edition of his magisterial modern history of Asia, Empires at War. With 13 new and 2 updated chapters, Francis Pike brings the reader up to 2020, covering what has arguably been the most important decade yet for Modern Asia and its role on the global stage. Asia - with over four and a half billion people, a huge landmass and the fastest-growing economies - has transformed the geopolitical global balance. Taking the bombing of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 as its starting point, Francis Pike chronicles the modern fortunes of 17 Asian and 3 western countries. The iconic figures of post-World War II Asia; Mao, Gandhi, Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, General MacArthur and Lord Mountbatten, and modern leaders such as Trump, Kim-Jong-Un and Xi Jinping feature prominently, as do a number of lesser-known but pivotal figures. Francis Pike weaves the dramatic events and episodes of the region over the last 75 years into a coherent whole, which forms the essential guide to the history of modern Asia. A reader can dip in for an overview of a specific country, or read through for a comprehensive and broad understanding of Asia in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Francis Pike is a historian, journalist and specialist in Asian economics, politics and history. He is the author of Empires at War: A Short History of Modern Asia Since World War II (2009).