Forthcoming Greenwood Books on Asia

Citation

(1999), "Forthcoming Greenwood Books on Asia", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.17308bad.007

Forthcoming Greenwood Books on Asia

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Forthcoming Greenwood Books on Asia

The Singapore Puzzle, Edited by Michael Haas (Praeger Publishers)

Although Singapore's struggle for independence was led by politicians promising democracy, the leaders have sought to maintain power by reversing democratic practices and subverting democratic institutions. The case for Singapore's government today is based on economic prosperity that has raised the per capita income of the country into the top ten states of the world. The case against Singapore's government is that the economic policies have been copied from Hong Kong, the rule of law has become rule by political appointees, the free press has been muzzled, and the foreign policy is narcissistic in the extreme.

The reason for the paradox of increasing dictatorship as the economy improves is the establishment of a mass society, that is, a society with few intervening groups or institutions between the public and the government. Although the government blames mass society on rapid social change, the authors in this book identify myriad instances when the government itself destroyed intervening social institutions and, thus, intensified mass society. This is an important study for scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with Asia and the developing world in general.

East Asian Development: Will the East Asian Growth Miracle Survive? Edited by F. Gerard Adams and Shinichi Ichimura (Praeger Publishers)

East Asia's rapid economic growth and the crisis of 1997 have caught the world's attention. As the Asian miracle has turned to meltdown, the critical question has become whether growth will resume. Based on research and conferences at ICSEAD in Kitakyushu, Japan, this book brings together the work of Asian economic development experts. It considers the forces behind the East Asian growth miracle, the process of growth, the effect of saving, and the effect of foreign direct investment and multinationals. Taking an optimistic view, the authors conclude that rapid growth may resume in East Asia once the crisis has been resolved.

The authors argue that a growth process links East Asian countries to each other and to the industrial world, and that growth reflects a process that combines capital formation and technical and institutional change. The 1997 crisis grew out of excessively rapid boom and must be handled before growth will resume. But, the authors conclude, once the crisis has been resolved, the linked process of growth supported by appropriate policies, high levels of savings and investment, and foreign investment will allow growth to resume, although perhaps with a different geographic centre of gravity.

Doctoral Dissertations on China And on Inner Asia, 1976-1990: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies in Western Languages, Compiled and edited by Frank J. Shulman (Greenwood Press)

This bibliography includes annotated entries for more than 10,000 dissertations on China, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Taiwan and Tibet completed between 1976 and 1990, with more than half of these not cited in Dissertation Abstracts International. The volume provides a broad picture of doctoral research on China and Inner Asia, with coverage of dissertations in the social and natural sciences, the arts and humanities, education, theology and the major professions, including law, medicine and architecture. While nearly half of the dissertations cited have been submitted to educational institutions in the US, more than 5000 entries represent research completed in 39 other countries. Slightly more than 70 per cent of the dissertations focus almost entirely on China, the Chinese or Inner Asia. Each entry provides full bibliographic information, citations to one or two of the author's published thesis abstracts, and an indication of the availability of copies. This material is accompanied by a brief descriptive annotation of the scope, contents, objective, and relevance of the dissertation. Entries are grouped in topical chapters, and the volume includes a detailed table of contents, extensive cross-references, and thorough indexes to facilitate use. Since many of the dissertations are unavailable from UMI, an appendix provides a detailed guide to obtaining copies of these works.