HarperCollins presents Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century

6 February 2024

presents

Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century
by Sugata Bose

Published by:

A concise new history of a century of struggles to define Asian identity and express alternatives to European forms of universalism.

A brilliant history of continental connections which offers vital lessons for Asia’s shared future. – Amartya Sen

Hardcover |Non-fiction | 288 pp | INR 699
Releasing 5 February 2024

About the Book
The balance of global power changed profoundly over the course of the twentieth century, above all with the economic and political rise of Asia. Asia after Europe is a bold new interpretation of the period, focusing on the conflicting and overlapping ways in which Asians have conceived their bonds and their roles in the world. Tracking the circulation of ideas and people across colonial and national borders, Sugata Bose explores developments in Asian thought, art, and politics that defied Euro-American models and defined Asianness as a locus of solidarity for all humanity.
Impressive in scale, yet driven by the stories of fascinating and influential individuals, Asia after Europe examines early intimations of Asian solidarity and universalism preceding Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905; the revolutionary collaborations of the First World War and its aftermath, when Asian universalism took shape alongside Wilsonian internationalism and Bolshevism; the impact of the Great Depression and Second World War on the idea of Asia; and the persistence of forms of Asian universalism in the postwar period, despite the consolidation of postcolonial nation- states on a European model.
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Sugata Bose, author of Asia After Europe, says, ‘My decision to write this book stemmed from the conviction that the phenomenon described as the rise of Asia had to be placed in proper historical perspective. It is a history of Asia as a connected space not only after the European
colonial presence, but also a conceptual history of universalism and cosmopolitanism that moves beyond European definitions of reason, national identity, and federation. Asia stands today at the end of an era as alternative futures beckon. This book offers my interpretation of the changing balance of global power during the long twentieth century between Asia and Euro-America by painting a portrait of an age. What should we choose among inheritances from the past to take with us on the uncertain journey ahead?’
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Praise for Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century
Bose is at the top of his game—a brilliant, urgent, and passionate book. -Tim Harper, University of Cambridge
A trenchant, capacious, and moving feast of historical interpretation. Drawing on the full breadth of insights from a distinguished career studying Asia’s interconnected past, Sugata Bose illuminates ways to a more plural and inclusive Asian future. – Sunil Amrith, Yale University
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About the Author
Sugata Bose is Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. He is the author of His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire and A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire.

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Press Contact: Naiyya Singh Senior Manager, Marketing Email: naiyya.singh@harpercollins.co.in