The Baghdad railway: Its new rôle in the Middle East

General

Gardens of Paradise: The History and Design of the Great Islamic Gardens. By John Brookes. London, Weidenfeld &; Nicolson, 1987. Pp. 240. Maps. Bibliog. Index. Chronology. Illus. £20.00.

The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia. By E. L. Jones. Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. 279. Bibliog. Index. £27.50 Hb, £9.95 Pb.

Expansion of Third World Navies. By Michael A. Morris. London. Macmillan, 1987. Pp. 293: Index £35.00.

Central Asia

Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom ‐ the Legend of the Kingdom of Prester John. By Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev. Translated from the Russian by R. E. F. Smith, Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. 403. Bibliog. Index. Maps. (First published in Russian, under the title: Poiski vymyshlennogo Tsarstva: legenda o Gosudarstve presvitera Ioanna, Moscow, 1970). £37.50.

Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan. By Albert von Le Coq. Hong Kong. Oxford University Press, 1987. Pp. 180. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £8.50 Pb.

The Tragedy of Afghanistan: the Social, Cultural and Political Impact of the Soviet Invasion. Edited by Bo Huldt and Erland Jansson. London, Croom Helm, 1988. Pp. 270. Index. £27.50.

South Asia

The New Cambridge History of India. Vol. II 1. Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. By Dr. C. A. Bayly. Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. 206. Gloss. Bibliographical Essay. Index. £17.50.

The New Cambridge History of India, II, 2: Bengal: the British Bridgehead: Eastern India 1740–1828. By P. J. Marshall. Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. 195. Index. Maps. £17.50.

India and Tibet. By Francis Younghusband. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1985. Pp. 455. Illus. Maps. Index. £21.00.

Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj. By Marian Fowler. New York, Viking, 1987. Pp. 337. Illus. Notes. Bibliog. $19.95.

Mediaevalism to Modernism: Socio‐economic and Cultural History of Hyderabad 1869–1911. By Sheela Raj. London, Sangam Books, 1987. Pp. 340. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £19.95.

The Days of the Beloved. By Harriet Ronken Lynton and Mohini Rajan. London, Sangam Books, 1988. Pp. 279. Illus. £11.95.

South Asia: The Narrowing Options. Economist Intelligence Unit Special Report No. 110. By Brian Slocock. London. Economist Intelligence Unit. 1988. Pp. 119. Map. £115.00 Pb.

The Cat and the Lion. Robert W. Stern. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1988. Pp. 331. Bibliog. Index. $56.00.

Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement. By Edward Duyker. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1987. Pp. 201. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £11.95.

The Political Economy of Pakistan, 1947–85. By Omar Noman. London, KPI, 1988. Pp. 218. Bibliog. Index. £25.00.

Banditry in Islam: Case Studies from Morocco, Algeria and the Pakistan North West Frontier. By David M. Hart. London Middle East and North African Studies Press, 1987. Pp. 86. Maps.

Sri Lanka: A History. By Chandra Richard de Silva. London, Sangam books, 1987. Pp. 316. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £14.95.

Crime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka. By John D. Rogers. Curzon Riverdale, 1987. Pp. 270. Appendices. Bibliog. Index. No price stated.

South‐East Asia

ASEAN at the Crossroads. Ed. by Noordin Sopiee, Chewhay See and Lim Siang Jin. Kuala Lumpur. ISIS, Malaysia, 1987. Pp. 577. $25.00.

Financing East Asia's Success. By Michael Skully and George Viksnis, London, Macmillan, 1987. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £29.50.

The Commerce in Rubber ‐ The First 250 Years. By Austin Coates. Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1987. Pp. 380. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £25.

Government and Politics in Singapore. Ed. Jon S. T. Quah, Chan Heng Chee and Seah Chee Meow. Southeast Asian Studies Program, Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1987. Tables, Bibliog. Index. Pp. 338. £11.50.

On the Road to Tribal Extinction: Depopulation, Deculturation, and Adaptive Well‐Being Among the Batak of the Philippines. By James F. Eder. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987. Pp. 276. Maps. Notes. Index. $38.00.

Land, Poverty and Politics in the Philippines. By Mamerto Canlas, Mariano Miranda Jr., and James Putzel. London, Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1988. Pp. 87. Map. Index. £4.95.

Punishing the Poor: The International Isolation of Kampuchea. By Eva Mysliwiec. Oxford, Oxfam Publications, 1988. Pp. 172. £3.95. Pb. £14.95 Hb.

Middle East

Israel and the American National Interest ‐ A Critical Examination. By Cheryl A. Rubenberg. Urbana and Chicago. University of Illinois Press, 1986. Pp. 446. Index. $24.95.

The Zealous Intruders: The Western Rediscovery of Palestine. By Naomi Shepherd. London, Collins, 1987. Pp. 282. Illus. Map. Bibliog. Index. Price not stated.

Far East

The Cambridge History of China. Volume 13. Republican China 1912–1949, Part 2. Edited by John K. Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker. Cambridge University Press, 1986. Pp. 1111. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £60.00.

The Cambridge History of China. General Editors, Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank. Volume 14, The People's Republic, Part 1: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1949–1965. Edited by R. L. MacFarquhar and J. K. Fairbank. Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. 722. Bibliographical Essays. Bibliog. Gloss. Index. £50.00.

The Archaeology of Ancient China. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. By Kwang‐Chih Chang. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1987. Pp. 475. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £45.00 Hb. £14.95. Pb.

A Dream of Red Mansions. By Ts'ao Hsüeh‐ch'in and Kao Ngo, (tr. Yang Hsien‐yi and Gladys Yang). London, Unwin Paperbacks, 1986. Pp. 499. £7.95 Pb.

Outlaws of the Marsh. By Shih Nai‐an and Lo Kuan‐chung (tr. Sidney Shapiro). London, Unwin Paperbacks, 1986, Pp. 458. £7.95 Pb.

Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century. By Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1987. Pp. 288. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £22.50 US $35.00.

The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. By Joseph W. Esherick. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987. Pp. 451. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. $45.00.

The Communist Party of China and Marxism 1921–1985: A Self‐Portrait. By Laszlo Ladany. London, C Hurst &; Co 1988. Pp. 588. Bibliog. Index. £32.50.

The Sino‐Soviet Confrontation since Mao Zedong. Dispute, Detente, or Conflict? By Alfred D. Low. Social Science Monographs, Boulder, 1987. Distributed by Columbia University Press. Pp. 332. Notes. Bibliog. $40.

Education and Socialist Modernization ‐ A Documentary History of Education in the People's Republic of China, 1977–1988. Edited by Shi Ming Hu and Eli Seifman. New York, AMS Press, 1987. Pp. 229. $62.50.

East Asian Conflict Zones. Ed. Lawrence E. Grinter and Young Whan Khil. Basingstoke, Macmillan Press, 1988. Pp. 239. Map. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £29.50.

Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudō Merchant Academy of Osaka. By Tetsuo Najita. Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press. 1987. Pp. 344. Index. £29.95. Hb. £11.95 Pb.

Japan in the Victorian Mind: A Study of Stereotyped Images of a Nation, 1850–1880. By Toshio Yokoyama. London, St Antony's/Macmillan, 1987. Pp. 233. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £27.50.

Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan, 1965–1975. Princeton University Press, 1987. Pp. 329. Illus. Notes. Index. £25.00. Hb. £11.70. Pb.

The Monkey as Mirror: Symbolic Transformations in Japanese History and Ritual. By Emiko Ohnuki‐Tierney. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1987. Pp. 269. Illus. Index. Bibliog. £18.75.

Dōgen Kigen: Mystical Realist. By Hee‐Jin Kim. Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1987. Pp. 324. Bibliog. Index. $18.95 Pb.

Hong Kong in Transition. Ed. Joseph Y. S. Cheng. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1987. Pp. 457. £8.95. Pb.

Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong. By Carl Smith. Oxford University Press, 1985, 1988. Pp. 252. Chronology. Plates. Notes. Index. £15.00.

Siberia and the Soviet Far East: Strategic Dimensions in Multinational Perspective. Ed. Rodger Swearingen. Stanford, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1987. Pp. 298. Index. $32.95.

Shorter notes

Soviet Economic Assistance to the Less Developed Countries. By Quintin V. S. Bach. Oxford University Press, 1987. Pp. 175. Bibliog. £27.50.

The Tibet Guide. By Stephen Batchelor. London, Wisdom Publications, 1987. Pp. 466. Illus. Index. £13.95 Pb.

The Second Afghan War 1878–1880 Casualty Roll. Compiled by Anthony Far‐rington. The London Stamp Exchange Limited, 1987. Pp. 189. (A4) £14.95.

Indian General Service Medal 1895 Casualty Roll. Compiled by Anthony Far‐rington. The London stamp Exchange limited, 1987. Pp. 166. (A4) £14.95.

The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver 1760–1860. Wynyard R. T. Wilkinson. London, W. R. T. Wilkinson, 1987. Pp. 229. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £97.50.

Kashmir. By Raghubir Singh. London, Thames and Hudson, 1987. Pp. 32. Illus. Map. £9.95 Pb.

Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Society. Ed. Chowdhury E. Haque. Winnipeg, Bangladesh Studies Assemblage, University of Manitoba, 1987. Pp. 139. Price not stated.

Course for Disaster: From Scapa to the River Kwai. By Richard Pool. London, Leo Cooper, 1987. Pp. 196. £13.95.

Medieval Persia 1040–1797. By David Morgan. Longman, London and New York, 1988. Pp. 197. Bibliog. Index. £15.95 Hb. £7.95 Pb.

Iron in the Fire: the Chinese Potters’ Exploration of Iron‐oxide Glazes. London, The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1988. Intro. Plates. £16 (incl. postage).     

Sir Henry Bland and the Fraser Government's Administrative Review Committee: Another Chapter in the Statutory Authority Wars?

The release of the 1976 Commonwealth cabinet records on 1 January 2007 provided the opportunity to review the work of the Administrative Review Committee (ARC) appointed by the Fraser government and headed by Sir Henry Bland and so to open up a hitherto little appreciated chapter in Australian administrative history. At first glance, it appeared that Bland's ARC had been strongly opposed to widespread use of statutory authorities, for so long a regular part of Australia's machinery of government, thus providing an interesting point of comparison with the Uhrig inquiry of 2003-04, which attracted much notice for its antipathy towards statutorily independent agencies. Given the unusual methodology of the ARC, it was also likely that an account of its work would shed further light on public inquiries generally, perhaps assisting in development of a typology of such inquiries.