Origins Of The Far Eastern Civilizations -A Brief Handbook-1942 Smithsonian Int.

See pics for condition RARE WWII Smithsonian Pair: “Understanding the Enemy” from America’s Wartime Presses

Offered as a matched lot: Two original Smithsonian Institution War Background Studies pamphlets—essential WWII-era educational tools designed to inform Americans about Asia amid the Pacific War. Published just months after Pearl Harbor, these are scarce survivors of the U.S. government’s “know your foe” series (21 volumes total). Your set bridges ancient origins to modern Japanese society—perfect for collectors of propaganda, anthropology, or East Asian history.

Lot Details:

1. #1: Origin of the Far Eastern Civilizations: A Brief Handbook

• Author: Carl Whiting Bishop (pioneering Smithsonian archaeologist; led early China digs)

• Pub: Smithsonian Institution, June 10, 1942 (Publication 3681)

• 36 pages + illus.; staple-bound pamphlet.

• Condition: Good+. Clean interior, original beige covers with minor edge wear/toning (wartime paper stock).

‼️Also has a stamp from a Dr.Earl Shaw — teaching college in Worcester, Massachusetts

• Covers: Prehistoric China, Japan, Korea—early synthesis of 1930s fieldwork (pre-DNA era gems).

2. #7: The Japanese

• Author: John F. Embree (Harvard anthropologist; authored landmark Suye Mura village study)

• Pub: Smithsonian Institution, January 23, 1943 (Publication 3702)

• 32 pages + illus.; staple-bound pamphlet.( has tape holding front and back cover together)