Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History

Catalogue record, available from: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History.






The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History has over 140 articles and summaries available, providing in-depth overviews of the major areas of research and will continue to grow with the field over time.

The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History is a dynamic, innovative, comprehensive, self-reflexive online research encyclopedia, which provides access to state-of-the-art research and also connects readers to the full range of internet resources for research and teaching, including audio, visual, video materials, digitized archives, and other primary sources.

Some extracts from the Editor in Chief David Ludden on the ORE of Asian History:
“In standard school-book geography, Asia is a continent connected to Europe that includes Russia east of the Urals, the Caucasus, and Middle East. But in international affairs and world area studies, including History, it is a changing collection of states and cultural regions east of Iran, excluding the Caucasus and Middle East, and in some recent versions also all of Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and even Afghanistan and Pakistan. In popular discourse, Asia always excludes Russia, the Caucasus, and Middle East. In Europe and the UK, Asia commonly centers on India, but in the United States, it centers on China. In the US, being Asian usually means having traits typical in East Asia, but in Europe and the UK, most Asians are from South Asia.

This confusing mixture of territorial definitions is an intellectual legacy of Asian Studies from the days of imperialism, nationalism, orientalism, and Cold War; now it is certainly archaic, as are disciplinary separations of History from social sciences and the isolation of histories of science, art, technology, architecture, archaeology, music, health, medicine, environment, and other subjects. The internet allows disparate fields and approaches to be interconnected as never before; it can foster new conversations and collaborations. The ORE can connect specialists in new ways, forming new intellectual spaces, for example, among area specialists separated by oceans and continents. The ORE provides a way to overcome the current disconnect of Asian History from processes of globalization and worldwide Asian migrations…”

“As it evolves, the ORE of Asian History will cover the entire sweep of Asian history in its broadest definition, from prehistory to the present and into the future.”



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