I finished college but never took any Eastern history classes. Is there a generally respected textbook? Or are there 5-10 subjects I could read about (on Wikipedia, etc.) that would give me a decent idea of main points? Thank you.
"East" is an extremely broad and IMO effectively meaningless term. Could you specify a bit more? What do you want to know about? Western Asia/North Africa? Central Asia? South Asia? Southeast Asia? East Asia?
I guess I was contrasting it to my "western history" courses.
But I'm a curious and bored stay at home mom, so "Yes" to all of the above.
When we start in ancient Greece, what's going on elsewhere? I feel like some of the art history, BBC-type shows about Egypt, and "story of writing" shows and books I've read have given a general foggy picture of Northern Africa and the Americas. Occasionally the Middle East was pulled into my medieval history course, and some of Eastern European history as well, as the civilizations came into contact. I guess I have a "feel" for what was going on. Like I could add a well-timed morsel to a conversation with knowledgable people, and it would seem like I had... Well, like I had been to college.
But if I was in a post apocalyptic scenario in which I had to teach my son as much as I could? All I could say about most of Asia ancient-1995 (excluding WWII)? Great Wall, Mongol hordes, Ghengis Khan, Marco Polo, Silk Road, Japanese Tea ceremony, Japanese isolationism, Buddhism, Confucius, Tibet, Dalai Lama, gunpowder, Kama sutra, third eye, Islam...
It feels like my sense of history for "the Far East" is half vague guide for tourists and half stereotypes. I only learned about the terra cotta warriors in the past five years. I'm 32.
Sorry this was super wordy.
TL;DR- tell me all the things!
Reasonabler TL;DR - Top five leaders, top five military accomplishments, and an idea as to when and how developed agriculture/law/mathematics/science/literature and art were at 500bc, 1ad, 500 ad, 1000ad, 1500ad, and say, 1800s. For the areas encompassing modern day Japan, China, India, Mongolia, pacific islands and Russia.
Reasonable TL;DR: you're a history buff, I'm a naive girl at a college party asking questions. You have 20 minutes before whatever is in my solo cup renders me unable to follow. My older brother is in your frat and has been keeping an eye on me; the only way to impress me is to share your knowledge of and enthusiasm for "Eastern history."