Books by Timothy Brook

The Mongol takeover in the 1270s changed the course of Chinese history. What China had been before its reunification as the Yuan dynasty in 1279 was no longer what it would be in the future. Four centuries later, another wave of steppe invaders replaced the Ming dynasty. This title explores what happened to China between these two invasions.

Timothy Brook studies three widely separated and economically dissimilar counties. He draws on rich data in monastic gazetteers to examine the patterns and social consequences of patronage.

The concept of "civil society" was borrowed from 18th-century Europe to provide a framework for understanding the transition to post-authoritarian regimes in Latin America and post-communist regimes elsewhere. This book asks whether this concept is useful for analyzing China.

The Ming dynasty era (1368-1644) saw the development of a relationship between the state and society that continues in China today. Brook argues that this was in response to changes in commercial relations and social networks, which created a stable society and a corresponding 'demand' for a stable government.

Offers an understanding of Vermeer's paintings and of the era they portray.

In Beijing in 1904, multiple murderer Wang Weiqin became one of the last to suffer the extreme punishment known as lingchi, called by Western observers "death by a thousand cuts." This is the first book to explore the history, iconography, and legal contexts of Chinese tortures and executions from the 10th century until lingchi's abolition in 1905.

Studies of collaboration have changed how the history of World War II in Europe is written, but for China and Japan this aspect of wartime conduct has remained largely unacknowledged. In a bold new work, Timothy Brook breaks the silence surrounding the sensitive topic of wartime collaboration between the Chinese and their Japanese occupiers.