A Short History of the Far East by Kenneth Scott Latourette

I bought this book perhaps 15 years ago when I was first getting into history and it's been waiting ever since for my "pivot east".  It provided a much needed overview of Asia, extending far west of the Far East, including India.

Three major themes:

• The dominance of China as by far the most powerful culture across all of Asia; all nations and regions, it would seem, are variations on China.

• The influence of India, predominantly due to Buddhism, which spread fervently across the vast majority of Asia; ironically Buddhism's influence has seriously waned in its birthplace of India, and it's adolescence in China, but it still reigns supreme across much of southeast Asia.  Indonesia, Indochina and many more regions owe their dominant influence to India.

• Lastly, Japan's distinctly different reaction to the arrival of the Occident, as opposed to that of China.  China resisted the west until it had no choice.  Japan adopted western culture in droves almost from day one, albeit adapting it to it's own needs.  This led to Japan's economic - and ultimately, militaristic - rise and dominance over China and the rest of Asia.  It led directly to Japan's attempt to take over the eastern world in World War II.

I now need to dive into deeper accounts of the individual culture's across Asia.  Detailed histories of Japan, China, India, and other important countries are in my future.