Book reviews

A HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE AND FOREIGN POLICY, 1901–23. VOLUME 1. THE SEARCH FOR SECURITY IN THE PACIFIC, 1901–14. Neville Meaney, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1976. 306 pp. $18.00.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN WESTERN EUROPE. Martin Kolinsky and William E. Paterson (eds.). London: Croom Helm, 1976. Pp.360.

OCEANIA AND BEYOND: ESSAYS ON THE PACIFIC SINCE 1945; F.P. King (ed.). Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1976. 265 pp.     

Book reviews

CHINA

MURRAY A. RUBINSTEIN (ed). Taiwan: a New History . Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 536 pp. Illustrations, maps, photographs, index. US$27.95, paper.

CLARA WING‐CHUNG HO (ed). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women Vol 1: the Qing Period 1644–1911. Editors in Chief Lily Xiao Hong Lee and A. D. Stefanowksa. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. 424 pp. Bibliography, index. US$87.95, hardcover.

JUN JING. The Temple of Memories: history, Power, and Morality in a Chinese Village. Oakleigh, Victoria: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 217 pp. Illustrations, introduction, notes, references, character lists, index. A$29.95, paper.

LISA ROFEL. Other Modernities. Gendered Yearnings in China after Socialism. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999. xvi, 330 pp. 3 b/w illustrations, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$16.95, paper.

HAIPING YAN (ed). Theater & Society: an Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. xlvi, 328 pp. Introduction, notes on translators. US$ 62.95, hardcover; US$ 24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MICHAEL J. GREEN. Arming Japan: defense Production, Alliance Politics and the Postwar Search for Autonomy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 206 pp. US$19.00, paper.

T. J. PEMPEL. Regime Shift: comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Idiaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998. 263 pp. £13.50, paper.

IAN NISH (ed). The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: a New Assessment. Surrey: Japan Library, 1998. 226 pp. Foreword, list of contributors, introduction, appendix, notes, index. £40.00, hardcover.

SUGIHARA SEISHIRO (trans. Norman Hu). Between Incompetence and Culpability: assessing the Diplomacy of Japan's Foreign Ministry from Pearl Harbour to Potsdam. Lanham: University of America Press, 1997. xxv, 227 pp. Appendices, glossary, bibliography. No price given, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

JOHN DOWSON. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998. 430 pp. Rs. 100, paper.

SURES CHANDRA BANERJI. A Companion to Dharmasastra. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998. 265 pp. Rs. 350, hardcover.

ANIL KUMAR. Medicine and the Raj: British Medical Policy in India 1835–1911. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 246 pp. £27.50, paper.

VTVEK PINTO. Gandhi's Vision and Values. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 176 pp. Index. Rs. 225, hardcover.

MINA SWAMINATHAN (ed). The First Five Years: a Critical Perspective on Early Childhood Care and Education in India. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 313 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

PETER SEARLE. The Riddle of Malaysian Capitalism: rent Seekers or Real Capitalists? St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1999. xvii, 318 pp. Tables, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. A$29.95, paper.

KATHERINE A. BOWIE. Rituals of National Loyalty: an Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. xxii, 391 pp. US$49.40, hardcover; US$18.50, paper.

MICHAEL A. AUNG‐THWIN. Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Burma. Ohio University Center for International Studies, Athens, Ohio. Monograph No. 102. 1998. US$25.00, paper.

ANNE BOOTH. The Indonesian Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. A History of Missed Opportunities. Basingstoke: Macmillan, in association with the Australian National University, 1998. xvi, 377 pp. A$49.95, paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

YI‐TSI MEI FEUERWERKER. Ideology, Power, Text: self‐Representation and the Peasant ‘Other’ in Modern Chinese Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. 321 pp. $A90.00, hardcover.

PO‐CHING YIP and DON RIMMINGTON. Basic Chinese: a Grammar and Workbook. London: Routledge, 1998. vii, 221 pp. £12.99, paper.

MARY ANN FARQUHAR. Children's Literature in China: from Lu Xun to Mao Zedong. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. $US62.50, hardcover.

RAY HUANG. Broadening the Horizons of Chinese History. Discourses, Syntheses, and Comparisons. Armonk, NY; London, England: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. viii, 274 pp. Tables, graphs, notes, index. US$56.95, hardcover; US$22.95, paper.

GLORIA HEYUNG CHUN. Of Orphans and Warriors: inventing Chinese American Culture & Identity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. 198 pp. Introduction, notes, bibliography, index. US$59.00, hardcover; US$19.00, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

PURNENDRA JAIN (ed). Australasian Studies of Japan: essays and Annotated Bibliography (1989–1996). Rockhampton, Queensland: Central Queensland University Press, 1998. 341 pp. Introduction, essays, annotated bibliography, index. $A34.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

S. R. N. MURTHY. Vedic View of the Earth — aGeological Insight into the Vedas. Reconstructing Indian History and Culture, no. 14. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1997. xxvi, 306 pp. Preface, figures, glossary, bibliography, index. Rs 400, hardcover.

SUBRATA K. MITRA and V. B. SINGH (eds). Democracy and Social Change in India: a Cross‐Sectional Analysis of the National Electorate. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. 339 pp. Introduction, tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. Rs 425, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

ALBERT LAU. A Moment of Anguish: Singapore in Malaysia and the Politics of Disengagement. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998. viii, 312 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. US$39.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper (outside ASEAN and Hong Kong).

MICHAEL D. BARR. Lee Kuan Yew: the Beliefs Behind the Man. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series no. 85, 2000. £40.00, hardcover.

GENERAL ASIA

HUNG‐MAO TIEN and TUN‐JEN CHENG (eds). The Security Environment in the Asia‐Pacific. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 368 pp. Tables, index. A$24.95, paper.     

Chasing Aleck: the story of a dorm

A student raised a hand in class and asked, "Why is this dorm named after Alexander Graham Bell?" On a deaf campus, this was a loaded question. Bell was an oralist, opposed to sign language. He was a eugenicist, opposed to deaf marriages. Indeed, the more I thought about it, the better this question got. Why did the school name a dormin after him? Unfortunately, I hadn't the foggiest idea. With apologies to that student, I offer this article as a belated answer.     

Raman microprobe analysis of stucco samples from the buildings of Maya Classic Copan

Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been applied to painted stucco samples from three buildings at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras. The buildings, Clavel (AD 450–550), Ani (AD550–650) and Structure 10L-22 (AD730,) date from three phases of the Classic Period (AD400–820) acropolis construction. The red pigment has been identified as haematite and the stucco as a mixture of calcite particles dispersed throughout a calcite based lime wash stucco. The physical structure of the stucco changed through time, indicating a refining of production techniques over this period. By combining Micro-Raman spectroscopy with other micro-ATR infrared spectroscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy a detailed investigation of the materials and production techniques used to decorate these buildings has been made. Differences in the mineralogy of the red pigment used on each building indicate a different geological pigment source for each period.