The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra by Roger Hart [Book Review]

The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra by Roger Hart [Book Review]

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“Tattered sandles.” This was the judgment of Xu Guangqi, the official collaborating with the Jesuit Matteo Ricci’s effort to bring Euclid’s Elements to China, on the state of contemporary Chinese mathematics. These sentiments were repeated by later academics and historians, who created…

Mission to China by Mary Laven [Book Review]

Mission to China by Mary Laven [Book Review]

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Narratives created to explain trends of national power often falter when tested against history. No sooner had the narrative of liberalism finally winning its long struggle against totalitarianism been postulated that the emergence of a successful yet authoritarian China started…

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher [Book Review]

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher [Book Review]

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At first, the idea that language affects the way we think seems plausible, if not obvious. Given that we often perceive people of different cultures to be thinking differently, and language is often coterminous with culture, one might be forgiven…

Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power by Robert Kaplan [Book Review]

Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power by Robert Kaplan [Book Review]

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For 800 years, the lines of global commerce did not lie across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, but between the various communities bordering the Indian Ocean. Arab sailors created a network of trade routes fanning out from the trading sultanate…

The Mao Case by Qiu Xiaolong [Book Review]

The Mao Case by Qiu Xiaolong [Book Review]

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The Mao Case, the latest book in Qiu Xiaolong’s series of crime novels, gives Inspector Chen, the poetry-quoting Shanghai detective, a new case to solve, involving capitalists, traditions and the meddling of the Communist Party. Once again, Qiu uses Chen’s…