Brief Description
Traces the history of modern migration against the background of empires, their dissolution and the onset of modernity.
Learn More about the Book
Migration is at the heart of Asian history. For centuries migrants have tracked the routes and seas of their ancestors merchants, pilgrims, soldiers, and sailors along the Silk Road and across the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. Over the last 150 years, however, migration within Asia and beyond has been greater than at any other time in history. Sunil S. Amrith's engaging and deeply informative book crosses a vast terrain, from the Middle East to India and China, tracing the history of modern migration against the background of empires, their dissolution, and the onset of modernity. Animated by the voices of Asian migrants, it tells the stories of those forced to flee from war and revolution, and those who left their homes and their families in search of a better life. These stories of Asian diasporas can be joyful or poignant, but they all speak of an engagement with new landscapes and new peoples. Migration has been central to making Asian societies as complex and diverse as they are today."
About the Author
Sunil S. Amrith is Senior Lecturer in History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Dr Amrith is the author of Decolonizing International Health: India and Southeast Asia, 1930 65 (2006), and his articles have been published in numerous journals, such as The American Historical Review and Past and Present.
Review Quotes
1. Sunil Amrith 's magisterial survey of the great human drama of migration across Asia during the last 150 years will find its place as the authoritative, standard work on the subject. A gripping analytical narrative of the flows and links that transcended the borders of Western empires and Asian nation-states, this book is an example of the writing of connective interregional history at its very best. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of History, Harvard University
2. This book is thoughtful, comprehensive, and yet still accessible. It succeeds in multiple ways it serves as a useful introductory textbook, but it is also a thoughtful, provocative meditation that more advanced students and scholars will enjoy. Michael Szonyi, Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University"
3. Sunil Amrith s magisterial survey of the great human drama of migration across Asia during the last 150 years will find its place as the authoritative, standard work on the subject. A gripping analytical narrative of the flows and links that transcended the borders of Western empires and Asian nation-states, this book is an example of the writing of connective interregional history at its very best. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of History, Harvard University"
