Crouching tiger, rising mammoth

Historian Sugata Bose, in his new book, makes a compelling case for Asia to embrace its political, cultural, and economic diversity as it reclaims its centrality in the world

Asia after Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century

Author: Sugata Bose

Publisher: The Belknap Press (Harvard University)

Pages: 276

Price: Rs 699

On February 9, 1904, Japan launched a surprise naval attack on the Russian fleet stationed at Port Arthur, China, leading to a war between the two countries. The hostilities would end on September 5, 1905, with the complete defeat of the Russian Empire and peace mediated by then US President Theodore Roosevelt. Several historians around the world recognise this as the first major defeat of a European power by an Asian country in the modern age. This convenient signpost