It always surprises people to find out just how popular some Western holidays are in China. I was stunned the first time I saw a Christmas tree and heard “White Christmas” playing. Anyone who stays in Chinese hotels during December will come home ready to break dishes if they hear “Frosty the Snowman” one more time.
Even though here in the Berkshires we are experiencing an uncommonly mild winter, we still can yearn to get away from it all. Some of us might dream of a beach in the Bahamas, while others bewail the lack of snow and opportunities to ski. Perhaps we should send the latter off to Davos, Switzerland, where
David Christian's This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity is available directly from Berkshire (with discounts on multiple copies - students can order together and save 10-30%, see below), from Barnes & Noble bookstores across the United States, and at bn.com and Amazon.com. Copies ordered from Berkshire will come from the third printing, which features
I'm often surprised by the good stuff in my own files, forgotten entirely sometimes and stumbled on by accident. Like this set of questions developed in advance of the only on-site editorial meeting we've held, for the first edition of the Encyclopedia of World History. Now that we're in the thick of the second edition, adding
I've been struggling with HTML and WordPress, trying to get a collection of Berkshire articles on Iran up. They're very useful, and quite broad, but as you'll see at this "parent" page, all the text is centered and I can't figure out how to correct it. But I did get a hierarchy set up, so they're
For Immediate Release: 23 June 2009 Great Barrington, Massachusetts—The world’s least likely China expert may be a New England publisher, Karen Christensen, whose interest in preparing her two children for the 21st century led her to start a project that the real China experts thought impossible: a 5-volume, 2,800-page Encyclopedia of China. As well as being
There are many extraordinary and important aspects of what is going on, online and off, in Iran and in coverage of the Iranian election. The most striking thing, though, is how differently things appear--because of the content itself and the way stories are told--when I flip between mainstream media and the interactive online world. My kids
I'm a publisher and a writer, so attribution matters a lot to me. This post needs attribution, you see, to my daughter who has been, like thousands of her peers around the country and the world, transfixed by events in Iran over the last 48 hours. And it isn't the mainstream media that has so engaged
I'm rather disappointed. People seem to have believed my April Fools Day joke. Tom says this means it was really good, but I'm not so sure. Anyhow, here it is for anyone who missed it, and do click that link at the end of the paragraph. China introduces global food sensation: Töfood 1 April, 2009, Great Barrington,
Isn't it wonderful when the news actually echoes one's own more obscure interests and information quests. I was pondering today the disconnect between the endless stream of e-mails I get from India offering technical and publishing services and the almost complete e-mail silence otherwise, even from scholars. I am in constant touch with Chinese scholars, even
