Books, Nonfiction, Education, Asia, Africa & Pacifica

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William Finnegan
Crossing the Line: A Year in the Land of Apartheid
by Harpercollins (Hardcover)

William Finnegan's compelling account of a year spent teaching in a colored high school, "across the line," in Cape Town, South Africa brings the irrationality and injustice of apartheid into focus for the American reader. A new preface, written after the author's observation of the historic 1994 elections evaluates the progress made--and not made--toward dismantling the apartheid system.

Ming Chan, Arif Dirlik
Schools into Fields and Factories: Anarchists, the Guomindang, and the National Labor University in Shanghai, 19271932
by Duke University Press (Hardcover)

In this collaborative effort by two leading scholars of modern Chinese history, Ming K. Chan and Arif Dirlik investigate how the short-lived National Labor University in Shanghai was both a reflection of the revolutionary concerns of its time and a catalyst for future radical experiments in education. Under the slogan “Turn schools into fields and factories, fields and factories into schools,” the university attempted to bridge the gap between intellectual and manual labor that its founders saw as a central problem of capitalism, and which remains a persistent theme in Chinese revolutionary thinking.During its five years of existence, Labor University was the most impressive institutional embodiment in twentieth-century China of the labor-learning ideal, which was introduced by anarchists in the first decade of the century and came to be shared by a diverse group of revolutionaries in the 1920s. This detailed study places Labor University within the broad context of anarchist ...

Lawrence R. Murphy
The American University in Cairo: 1919-1987
by American University in Cairo Press (Hardcover)

This lavishly illustrated history of the AUC describes expansion problems, cultural and religious differences, strains in American-Egyptian relations in the 1950s and 1960s, and looks at how the university's fortunes have been linked to the major historical events of this century.

John Israel
Lianda: A Chinese University in War and Revolution
by Stanford University Press (Hardcover)

In the summer of 1937, Japanese troops occupied the campuses of Beijing’s two leading universities, Beida and Qinghua, and reduced Nankai, in Tianjin, to rubble. These were China's leading institutions of higher learning, run by men educated in the West and committed to modern liberal education. The three universities first moved to Changsha, 900 miles southwest of Beijing, where they joined forces. But with the fall of Nanjing in mid-December, many students left to fight the Japanese, who soon began bombing Changsha.In February 1938, the 800 remaining students and faculty made the thousand-mile trek to Kunming, in China’s remote, mountainous southwest, where they formed the National Southwest Associated University (Lianda). In makeshift quarters, subject to sporadic bombing by the Japanese and shortages of food, books, and clothing, students and professors did their best to conduct a modern university. In the next eight years, many of China’s most prominent intellectuals ...

Philip West
Yenching University and Sino-Western Relations, 1916-1952 (Harvard East Asian Series)
by Harvard University Press (Hardcover)

Yenching University was perhaps the most impressive example of Sino-Western cooperation in the twentieth century. In charting the ebb and flow of university life, this definitive work sheds light on the intellectual, social, and diplomatic forces at work in this transitional period in Chinese history. In his handling of intercultural history, West has a keen appreciation for the interplay of political forces and individuals. The demise of Yenching and the breakdown of Sino-Western relations generally are seen in terms of the individual behavior of Yenching personalities, the pressures of Communist ideology, and also Western diplomacy surrounding the Korean War.

Stuart Saunders
Vice-chancellor on a Tightrope: A Personal Account of Climactic Years in South Africa
by David Philip, Publishers (Hardcover)

The personal memoir of a vice-chancellor of a university at the centre of a political storm and the period which immediately followed it.

David Lelyveld
Aligarh's first generation: Muslim solidarity in British India
by Princeton University Press (Unknown Binding)

The book explores the nature of Muslim cultural identity in nineteenth century India and the changes it underwent through colonial rule. It shows how one institution, The Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College, with its founders and early students mediated these changes during the first 25 years of its existence, and evolved methods of adapting to the challenges of colonialism and nationalism.

D.School
by OUP India (Hardcover)

Collective reminiscences.

S.G. Foster, Margaret M. Varghese
The Making of the Australian National University: 1946-1996
by Allen & Unwin (Hardcover)

Tracing the origins and evolution of the Australian National University from its beginnings as an expression of post-war optimism, through the introduction of undergraduate teaching in 1960, to the troubled years following the Dawkins revolution in higher education. On the way it introduces prominent Australians who contributed to the University's making, including Howard Florey, Mark Oliphant, W.K. Hancock, John Crawford, Peter Karmel, J.C. Eccles, Russel Mathews, Beryl Rawson and Manning Clark. The authors explore many issues and trends in higher education, including academic freedom, relations between universities and politicians, the "two cultures", collegial politics and universities in the marketplace.

Albert Adu Boahen
Mfantsipim and the Making of Ghana: A Centenary History, 1876-1976
by Sankofa Educ. Publ. (Paperback)

Winner of The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. The jury cited the book as "...no ordinary history book. It is a fascinating story, elegantly told by a meticulous historian in a beautifully produced volume. The author, a major historian and political figure, skilfully presents the story of the making of modern Ghana through the life history of one school." The author illuminates how western education has refined and changed the destiny of Ghanaian families from the school, and the contribution of the school to nation building through the excellence of the products of the school. The history of the school is set against the background of the history of Ghana in general; and a completely new light is thrown on a turning point in Ghana's history - the 1948 riots and their aftermath.

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