- Hardcover: 346 pages
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press; illustrated edition edition (Nov 26 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0521630274
- ISBN-13: 978-0521630276
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14.2 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 558 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"With an informative,scholarly text enhanced with illustrations and quotations....[this book] is recommended for academic reading lists and reference collections as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in understanding India's contemporary political and economic relationships with the community of nations..." Library Bookwatch
"Lucid comprehensive and up-to-date, this book will surely establish itself as essential reading for all undergraduate and graduate courses on South Asian history..." C.A. Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge
"Lucid comprehensive and up-to-date, this book will surely establish itself as essential reading for all undergraduate and graduate courses on South Asian history..." C.A. Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge
Product Description
In a challenging new history of modern India, the authors explore the imaginative and institutional structures that have changed and sustained the country. While previous histories have been composed as handmaids of British nationalism or as products of emerging nationalist identities, this book challenges the notion that a continuous meaning can be applied to social categories such as "caste," "Hindu," "Muslim," or even "India,". An initial chapter focuses on the period of Muslim dynasties that preceded colonial conquest, while the final chapter analyzes the dramatic recent events of the 1990s, including economic change, religious nationalism and India's emergence as a nuclear power. Illustrations and quotations from historical sources are integral to the narrative. Thomas R. Metcalf is Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. His previous books inlcude An Imperial Vision (California, 1989) and Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge, 1997). Barbara Metcalf is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. She is the editor of Making Muslim Space in North America (University of California Press, 1996).
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Imagine a time traveller standing in Mughal Delhi, amidst the splendor of the emperor Shah Jahan's (r. 1627-58) elegant, riverside city, in the year 1707 (plate 1.1). Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Imagine a time traveller standing in Mughal Delhi, amidst the splendor of the emperor Shah Jahan's (r. 1627-58) elegant, riverside city, in the year 1707 (plate 1.1). Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Two lovers and a naughty-bore of a child,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Concise History of India (Paperback)
The Metcalf's have produced a book rich in factoids, post-colonial sentimentalism, and wretched prose. Clearly, the authors had good intentions in terms of contriving a history that implored us to mock the sunny empire. However, instead of focusing on their keen ehtical duty to educate against empire, they should have considered the horror that comes with mirthless prose and inevitable colonization of any passionate interest the reader ever had.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing in its correction of bias, but indigestible,
By Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Concise History of India (Paperback)
Most of the concise histories of India commonly assigned to students, such as those by John Keay and by Kulke and Rothermund, have been accused of having to Eurocentric a bias. The Metcalfs, professors at the UCalifornia schools, remedy this slant in their new CONCISE HISTORY OF INDIA by stacking the deck against European colonialism. While this is welcome, it is not without cost. The greatest, perhaps, is that the Metcalfs often seem to great length to vilify some figures or parties while at pains elsewhere to vindicate others . While their biases are understandable (even ones with which I basically agree), this does not make for the most balanced or objective of histories.More worrying is their utter dryness of tone: it would be hard to imagine anyone being introduced to India (presumably the book's target audience) finding this book anything other than a painful chore. key figures or concepts are introduced basically offhand, then circled back to discuss in greater length much later when you've forgotten who or what they were; very minor figures from the nation's history or culture are often brought forth to comment on the events, but the authors do not clarify whether these commentators are important or central or not. There are good maps, and a useful beginning glossary, but I would have to recommend John Keay's book (for all its European bias) as a much more readable introduction to India than this one.
2.0 out of 5 stars
There is nothing remotely "concise" about this book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Concise History of India (Paperback)
I am very interested in learning about India and Indian Culture, as I am planning to marry an Indian man who was born and raised in Bombay, however my fiance is extremely Westernized and would love to live in the United Sates as well as India. In fact, he loves Hollywood Blockbuster movies, while I actually prefer foreign films. Anyway, as I may end up living in Bombay someday, I wanted familiarize myself wih the history of the country and culture of the people. While the authors of this particular book are obviously very well educated and experts on the subject, the content of the material is written in such a dry, unimaginative manner that I have pretty much given up on finishing it. It seems hard to believe that book written about a country with such a vibrant, colorful past could be so boring! For a person such as myself who really needed to start from the basics, this book was much too detailed and academic to hold my interest. However, I am sure other professors and those people who are more familiar with the subject matter may find this book of great use to them. Needless to say, I was disappointed with it, as it wasn't quite what I was looking for in reading material regarding this particular subject.
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