It is neither a glorification of the old way of life nor a defense of the new. It is merely a story of how men and women in the contemporary era grow up and learn to live with one another, how they love and hate and quarrel and forgive and suffer and enjoy, how certain habits of living and ways of thinking are formed, and how, above all, they adjust themselves to the circumstances in this earthly life where men strive but the gods rule.

    It begins with the revolution sweeping down the Yangtze, when young students, fired with new patriotism, went singing to jail or to the beheading ground. It ends in the mountains of inner China, where driven back again and again by the invader, students and peasants, old war lords and young guerilla alike, stand in a united front and fight on.Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

    Reprinted many times, this classic, of Agnes Keith's observations and reflections of the time, is a true-to-life record of society and culture then and of the captivating natural beauty of Sabah. Today, Sabah continues to be known as the "land below the wind", a phrase used by seafarers in the past to describe all the lands south of the typhoon belt, but which Agnes effectively reserved for Sabah through her book. One of few written accounts of contemporary life in Borneo in the 1930s, this book is an invaluable record of a world gone by.

    Hailed as a masterpiece when first published in French in 1939, and in English in 1970, this great work of synthesis brings before us the great people of the steppes, dominated by three mighty figures - Attila, Genghiz Khan, and Tamberlain - as they marched through ten centuries of history, from the borders of China to the frontiers of the West. Includes nineteen maps, a comprehensive index, notes, and bibliography.

    Her many friends there provided her with a wealth of information about China's convoluted politics, and the secret life and unique personalities of Shanghai--material she used as the basis of Shanghai '37. The hotel depicted in the novel was the Cathay, which, on August 14, 1937, following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, was attacked by a bomb. This incident, known as "Bloody Saturday," caused considerable damage and the deaths of many people. It forms the climax of Shanghai '37, a story that follows the lives of nine people to Shanghai and the hour of their death. This book, the second of Baum's "hotel" novels, was first published in America in 1939.

    For two hundred and fifty years--from 1563 to 1813--they regularly made the five-to-eight-month voyage across the Pacific between Manila and Acapulco. The largest and riches merchandise ships of their age, the galleons carried to Mexico all the fabulous luxuries of the Orient and returned to the Philippines laden with silver ingots. Their capture was the ultimate ambition of every pirate and privateer. Many were lost at sea; one drifted down the Mexican coast without a living soul on board; the mutiny on the San Geronimo surpassed in dram that on the Bounty.But this is more than a story of ships, for whole history of the Pacific Area revolved around these lonely voyages. They supplied the central theme of Philippine history; they were the original motive for the exploration and settlement of California; they brought the Chinese and Japanese to the Philippines."This is a sumptuous banquet of glamor, excitement and thrill. The reader is given a glowing and unforgettable panorama of one of the most romantic ventures in history." (Howard Mumford Jones)