East Asian History Textbooks  

For HIST 010, 172, 174, 175, 480, and 481 at Penn State University, and for reading by anyone who might be interested in these subjects.

Welcome PSU students and other readers. Although the textbooks in this site are designed for specific Penn State courses, students at many other institutions also use this material, as do a variety of readers around the world. Many thanks to all of you who have sent words of encouragement or pointed out glitches, typos and other problems. There are still a few imperfections waiting for you to find, so please let me know should you discover something. Anyone may use the material here for non-profit, educational purposes without seeking permission. This usage includes any graphics I have created (although there is no way to know for sure which ones are my creations). Other images are, to the best of my knowledge, in the public domain. Feel free to make PDF files from this site, if you must. However, because the material here is frequently revised, linking to the site is a much better method for using it. Please note that this site contains no commercial advertising. A few of the sites to which this site is linked do contain commercial advertising, but for the most part the links lead to sites whose primary purpose is educational.

The textbooks in this site originated during the final decade of the twentieth century as volumes printed on thin pieces of processed wood pulp known as paper. There are still some vestiges of those original paper texts here and there, but I am gradually rooting them out. Although the pages in this site can be printed, all the graphics are optimized for screen display, and the assumption is that readers will view the "books" on computer screens. The material here undergoes constant revision, the pace of which depends on my spare time and energy. If you are new to this site, please take a moment to examine the "read first" material in the menu below before going on to the books and other material.

At the top of the page, the books are arranged by course with cascading menu access to each chapter. Let your pointer hover over each chapter selection to see its title (does not work in IE). To go to each book's table of contents, click the relevant course number in the top menu bar.  To see the books with their titles, select "The Books" from the top menu bar.

Note: This site has received media attention in connection with efforts to reduce the prices of textbooks. My main intention in creating these textbooks was to have a perfect fit with the courses I teach. That these books are free of charge is a nice side effect of putting them up on the web. I support the Open Textbooks movement and other reasonable attempts to lower the price of textbooks. However, I am not in a position to play an active role in these endeavors beyond creating and maintaining this site.

The main URL for this site is http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks. A backup copy of this site is available at http://s118842024.onlinehome.us/textbooks/.