Translated a lot of world history books, but also did not completely read, white translation, itchy heart, I also want to write a book, talk about the topic of interest to myself.
If all goes well, my first original work, The German Aristocracy: A History, will be launched by Century View in the summer of 2022.
The following is an excerpt from the book's foreword
"There is an earl in our village who is in the flower business and has his own greenhouse." More than a decade ago, Sandra, a female college student from Germany's Black Forest region, told me during a small talk. I was teaching myself German, Sandra was my language partner, I taught her Chinese, she taught me German.
I majored in English as an undergraduate and studied English and American literature as a graduate student, and German is another of my hobbies. The reason why I have to go to great lengths to learn German is because I have long been interested in German history, geography and literature. On the one hand, because of the legends I had read about the "Red-bearded Emperor", "Canossa's Trip", "King Friedrich", on the other hand, the influence of books such as William Schayler's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", and because I was very fond of the works of Stephen Zweig, Heine and others at that time, I began to learn this language in college.
Not only In Germany, but I am interested in the distant past and the long ago, far away. Like many post-80s generations, my love of world history has been greatly influenced by computer games like Age of Empires. Later, I began to translate books on world history, which was a combination of personal interests and work.
What is the hardest part of translating history books? It is roughly necessary to count the translation of titles, official titles, and institutional names, that is, "naming" unfamiliar concepts. The most difficult problem I personally have is the translation of the word Prince. The English word Prince is better spoken as a grocery store and worse as a dumpster, which can be used to translate many different concepts from different historical periods, different languages and cultural backgrounds, including the Russian word Князь (Knyaz, maharajah, duke, etc.), the German word Prinz and Fürst. The work of English translators is relatively easy, and these words can be translated into Prince in one brain, but how to translate the various Prince into Chinese, Chinese translators will hurt a lot of brains. For example, in the Chinese world, prinz is often translated as "prince", "prince", etc., such as Heinrich von Kleist's famous play Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, which is often translated as "Prince Humboldt", and some people use "Prince Humboldt". Is this translation correct? This book will be devoted to discussion. What brought my attention to the subject of the "German aristocracy" was first the question of the translation of the words Prinz and Fürst.
Speaking of nobility, Chinese readers are probably most familiar with the British aristocracy. The rank of the English nobility (seemingly) is very clear and simple: the dukes and uncles (and, of course, from barons, knights, etc.). In fact, this is using ancient Chinese concepts to be rigid, and the British Duke and Marquis and the Chinese princes certainly cannot be equated, not to mention that these concepts in China are different in different dynasties. However, the translation of "Gonghou Bozi Male" has been established, and I have considerable respect for it and dare not neglect it.
It is not a big problem to take the "princely uncle" to set up the French nobility, but if you go to the German nobility, the trouble will come. For a number of reasons (such as the long period of partition that led to the states being effectively independent sovereign states), the titles and ranks of the German nobility were much more complex than those of England and France. For example, titles associated with "Graf" alone include Graf, Markgraf, Landgraf, Reichsgraf, etc. Because of the special electoral system for emperors, Germany also had the title of Elector (Kurfürst), which Britain and France did not have.
These questions made me think about them for a long time, prompting me to concentrate on searching for and reading books and materials on the subject of "German aristocracy", and gradually wrote some scattered small articles. Around 2015, with the encouragement of Yingying Zhang, the editor of Century Wenjing Publishing House, I began to consider writing a book dedicated to the topic of "German aristocracy". It was also at this time that I recalled the words of my German friend Sandra many years ago. This sparked a new interest in me: what kind of life did the "counts" live in today's Federal Republic of Germany? Is there still a "nobility" in Germany under a republican system? What does their self-perception look like? What do others think of them?
This book is a summary of what I've read and explored over the years. I have tried to sort out the historical phenomenon and historical group of the "German aristocracy", paying as much attention as possible to all aspects of politics, military, economy, culture and daily life. This is obviously an overly ambitious idea, but I want to be as objective as possible, to construct some kind of systematic exposition as much as possible, and I hope that readers who are interested in German history will find this book helpful to them. I became interested in the German nobility as a translator, and I also paid special attention to words, concepts, and their rich meanings from the perspective of a translator. This book is primarily descriptive and does not make moral evaluations. I will not criticize the aristocracy as an exploiting class, because the role of the aristocracy as a historical social elite is obviously more than that of an oppressor. Nor would I be naïve enough to believe that the world of nobility is all Downton Abbey. I reject oversimplified, black-and-white judgments.
The book is divided into six parts. The first is a basic introduction, including some of the peculiarities of the German aristocracy compared to the British and French aristocracy. The second part describes the ranks and titles of the German nobility and determines translations of several concepts to facilitate the following. The choice of certain translated names is my personal decision, and the reader will surely have his own opinion. The third part is roughly chronological, introducing the living conditions of the German nobility in different historical periods, what kind of problems and challenges the nobles encountered when each new era came, how they faced and solved problems, and how to ensure the survival of their own class. Parts IV and V are written not chronologically, but according to themes, with each chapter revolving around a theme introducing the german aristocracy's way of life and their careers and occupations. These two parts use historical materials to recreate the daily life of the nobility as much as possible, such as hunting, balls, and marriages. This is the part of my most enjoyable writing and I hope readers will enjoy it. The sixth part is an appendix that introduces the German nobility outside of Germany, such as Austria and the Baltic sea region, and contains some other interesting material. In some chapters, I draw on Sir Richard Evans' History of Penguin Europe: The Struggle for Power, and begin with a story (often in the form of a biography) to draw on the theme.
Writing such a book that spans a long time, a vast space, and a wide range of topics will inevitably rely on a large number of published books and papers. I'll comment on a few books that I find more important or have helped me a lot. In the process of writing, I traveled to some places in Germany and Austria, and I had some intuitive feelings about the topics I wrote, had the privilege of communicating with researchers on the history of the German nobility abroad, and interviewed an Austrian nobleman of Habsburg ancestry.
Translation work continues, and starting in 2022, it should take several years to launch the following translations.
Emperor: A new biography of Charles V
It is expected to be launched in January 2022
Author: [English] Jeffrey Parker
Publisher: Social Science Literature Publishing
Translator: Lu Dapeng / Liu Xiaohui
Book Awards: Aspects of History Magazine's 2020 Book of the Year; Ohio Historical Society's 2020 "Previous Year's Outstanding Achievement Award"
Charles V was originally only the young heir to parts of the Netherlands, but because of a series of unexpected deaths, marriages and inheritances, he became the great king who ruled most of Europe. He used money to win the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor and brought the King and pope to his knees through war and power. He worked to bring about religious reconciliation, launched the Crusades, and proclaimed himself the most devout and powerful defender of Christendom.
Although Charles V left a wealth of literature, he remained an elusive figure. Jeffrey Parker uses surviving historical materials in six languages to vividly and three-dimensionally show the life of Charles V. Charles V greatly changed the international landscape of Europe and the Mediterranean in the 16th century, and his life largely reflected the complex and ever-changing political environment of the time: balance of power became an important issue in international relations in Europe in the early modern period, the Americas came to the historical stage and became increasingly influential, and the war between Christians and Muslims will continue...
This is not only a personal biography, but also a world history of the early modern period.
She said
It has been translated and is expected to be launched in the first half of 2022.
Two female pulitzer prize-winning journalists at The New York Times reveal the story of Harvey Weinstein that inspired the METAO movement.
Catherine the Great and Potemkin
This is the greatest romance in history. Catherine the Great was a passionate woman, extremely politically talented and charismatic. The high-profile and talented Duke Potemkin was the love of her life, her secret husband, and ruled the empire with her. Their relationship was like a storm, and they had to make arrangements and share power. Potemkin was set free to love several of his beautiful nieces, while Catherine the Great had her own lover. But these two "souls with sharp hearts" always loved each other. Using their letters, Montefiore told the story of the couple and political collaborator on paper and gave Catherine the Great and Potemkin the historical status they deserved: they were giants of their time and gods.
Book Review:
"One of the greatest love stories in history can be compared to the stories of Napoleon and Josephine, Antony and Cleopatra ... Wonderful, excellent grasp of details, outstanding literary brilliance. ”
- The Economist
"If you want to read a wonderful quality history book, this is it. Good book of the year. ”
—Antonia Fraser
"It's overwhelming... Shocking, glamorous and gripping. Good book of the year. ”
—Anthony Beaver, The Sunday Post
"Quite a wonderful book..."
—Mick Jagger, The Sunday Times
White Mughals
It has been translated and is expected to be launched in the second half of 2022.
The book won the 2003 Wolfson Prize in History.
Works by William Darlingpur. Here's an article I interviewed him before:
Interview with Indian General William Dalllingpur
James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British representative of the Court of Nizham in Hyderabad. In 1798, he came across a beautiful young Mughal aristocratic woman, Hel Nissa (meaning "the best woman"). James fell in love with Hale, broke through many obstacles, converted to Islam, and married her. He also agreed to become a double agent, serving Nizham against his employer, the East India Company.
But Kirkpatrick's story is not alone. In his time, one in every three British men in India lived with Indian women, and many British accepted the Indian way of life, clothing, habits, and even religion. They crossed the cultural divide and became the "White Mughals".
This romantic, tragic love story, which crosses forbidden borders, takes place in a world that is almost completely devoid of historical exploration. William Darlingpool's masterpiece of history reinvigorated this interesting world of court intrigue, harem politics and espionage.
Anarchy: The Rise of the East India Company
The work by William Darlingpur, which has been translated, is expected to be released in the second half of 2022.
In August 1765, the East India Company defeated the young Mughal Emperor and forced him to establish a new government in the richest provinces of the empire, under the administration of British merchants. British merchants used a ruthless private army to collect taxes. Today, we would call this situation "forced privatization."
According to the East India Company's charter of incorporation, it had the right to "go to war with the outside world." It also always uses violent means to achieve its ends. The establishment of the new government marked that the East India Company was no longer a traditional international trade enterprise in silk and spices, but had become a highly unusual new thing: it was an aggressive colonialist force, but disguised as a multinational corporation. In less than four decades, the East India Company trained about 200,000 security forces (twice as strong as the British Army at the time) and conquered the entire South Asian subcontinent, first to Bengal and then to the Mughal capital delhi in 1803. Subsequently, the East India Company's sphere of influence continued to expand until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively under the control of a board office in London.
Anarchy tells the unusual story of how one of the world's most glorious empires collapsed and was replaced by an unregulated private company headquartered thousands of miles away in a small office as wide as five windows and accountable only to shareholders in the distance. This book is william Darlingpool's most ambitious book to date, telling the story of the East India Company in an unprecedented way, drawing on the history of the first global corporate hegemony to make a very relevant warning.
The Imprudent King: The Biography of Philip II
The Jeffrey Parker work, which has been translated, is expected to be released in the second half of 2022.
Jeffrey Parker is the Andreas Doerpallen Chair Professor at the Melshane Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University. He received the Heineken History Prize in 2012. He is the author of the seminal Global Crisis: Wars, Climate Change, and Catastrophes in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the American Military Historical Society's "Best Book" award and the British Academy Medal in 2014; Philip II's Grand Strategy (Yale University Press, 1998) and Samuel Elliott Morrison; and Military Revolution (1988) the U.S. Military Research Institute's "Best Book" award. Award for "Best Book" of the Society for the History of Technology.
The foundation of this gripping new biography is Jeffrey Parker's astonishing discovery in the historical archives (as many as 3,000 documents, which no one has read since the death of Philip II in 1598). The author gives a revised new interpretation of the most famous king in Spanish history, the challenges he faced, and his misunderstood failures.
The Boundless Sea: The History of the World's Oceans
David Abrafia's works, in translation, are expected to be available in 2023.
His previous tome, The Great Sea: A History of Mankind in the Mediterranean, has been Chinese edition.
For most of human history, the oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and exchange between peoples, including the spread of ideas, religions, and commerce. This monumental work traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's oceans, and elaborates on our relationship with the oceans from the time of the earliest seafarers to the present day. The book begins with the earliest nautical societies, the Polynesians of the Pacific, who possessed intuitive navigation skills long before the compass was invented; the book concludes with talk of today's giant cruise ships and container ships, where 90 percent of today's world trade is still carried by container ships.
Between such beginnings and ends, David Abrafia describes how merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers, and travelers sought spices, gold, ivory, slaves, new lands to settle in, and knowledge of further afield. The book jumps out of the box of Eurocentrism and emphasizes the role played by navigators from other continents. This book shows how merchants traveled from the arabian peninsula and the coasts of Africa to southern China and Japan, connecting the Indian and western Pacific Oceans through their travels and connecting half the world. In the Atlantic, many peoples had sought new lands on the oceans, from the early Viking adventurers to the mighty Portuguese maritime empire and the Spanish, Dutch, and British rulers who poured in from above the waves.
In this unusual account of humans and the ocean, Abrafia shows how maritime networks have grown up from many separate locations to form a continuum of connections across the globe. This is one of the most voluminous histories, and it adopts an exciting new perspective, not from the perspective of land, as in most global histories, but from the perspective of the vast ocean.
Power and the Throne: A New History of the Middle Ages
New by Dan Jones.
Forgotten Army:
Britain's Asian Empire and its War against Japan
Christopher Bailey and Tim Harper are recognized as two of the world's leading Indian and Southeast Asian historians, both of whom have written extensively and studied in their respective fields.
Christopher Bailey is a Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at St Catherine's College, Cambridge. His books include The Meridian of Empire, Indian Society and the Formation of the British Empire, and The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914.
In June 2005, Christopher Bailey received the Wolfson Prize in History for his contributions to historical writing.
Tim Harper is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Magdalen College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of The End of empire and the formation of Malaya.
Love everything long ago and far away stuff
My Sina Weibo, Douban: Lu Dapeng Hans