Sign-In
Cart
The Island That Refused to Disappear: Taiwan's Hidden History: Identity, Sovereignty, and the Island the world Refused to Recognize
Paperback
Chinese HistoryGeneral Political Science
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Apr 30 2026
Pages: 78
Weight: 0.23
Height: 0.20 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
My daughter came home from school one afternoon and asked me: Dad, my teacher said Taiwan isn't a country. Is that true?
I didn't know what to say.
My children were born and raised in America. They carry a Taiwanese surname and a face that looks like mine. But somewhere between the textbooks and the world maps, their heritage had been quietly erased - Taiwan shown in the same color as China, described as a province awaiting reunification. A 23-million-person democracy, one of Asia's most advanced, rendered invisible.
The Island That Refused to Disappear is the book I wrote to answer my children's questions - and to tell the history that their textbooks left out.
This is Taiwan's complete story. From the Austronesian peoples who were there thousands of years before any empire arrived, through 50 years of Japanese colonization, the 228 Massacre, the Nationalist retreat, and the geopolitical betrayals of 1971 and 1979 that stripped Taiwan of its UN seat and diplomatic recognition - to the island's extraordinary democratic transformation and its emergence as the world's most critical semiconductor producer.
What you will discoverThe history your textbook skipped: Why the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki - not any recent political decision - first ceded Taiwan to Japan, and why that matters for Beijing's always been China claim today.
What really happened at the UN: Taiwan held China's Security Council seat - with veto power - until 1971. What Resolution 2758 actually says, and why Beijing's interpretation goes far beyond the text.
The Shanghai Communiqué decoded: Why acknowledges is not the same as recognizes, and how Nixon's careful language has been deliberately misread for 50 years.
Beijing's playbook exposed: How the One China Principle is used to strand Taiwan from the WHO, ICAO, Interpol, and the world's climate agreements - and what that cost in lives during COVID-19.
The democratic miracle: How Taiwan transformed from 38 years of martial law - the longest in modern history - into one of Asia's freest democracies in a single generation.
Taiwan's global contribution: The semiconductors powering your phone, the boba tea on every street corner, the films of Ang Lee and Hou Hsiao-hsien - all Taiwanese.
What international law actually says: The Treaty of San Francisco (1951) left Taiwan's sovereignty legally undetermined - not Chinese. The legal case Beijing doesn't want you to read.
This is not a polemic. It is a rigorously researched history written with the clarity and humanity of a physician-author who grew up on the island and has spent decades watching the world pretend it doesn't exist.
Also in
General Political Science
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Taylor, Astra
Hardcover
Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction
Coleman, Kevin
James, Daniel
Paperback
The Craftivist Collective Handbook: Projects, Stories and Methods for Your Gentle Protests
Corbett, Sarah P.
Hardcover
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media Are Destroying America
Pfeiffer, Dan
Hardcover
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias
Biddle, Stephen
Hardcover
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, David
Talbot, Margaret
Hardcover
Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
Giridharadas, Anand
Hardcover
Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal
Cummins, Ronnie
Paperback
Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War
Wasserman, Mark
Paperback
Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back
Stirewalt, Chris
Paperback
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy
Crass, Chris
Paperback
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Kristof, Nicholas D.
Wudunn, Sheryl
Paperback
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Swan, Jonathan
Haberman, Maggie
Hardcover
The College Scam: How America's Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth
Kirk, Charlie
Hardcover
Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
Fugelsang, John
Hardcover
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
Meacham, Jon
Hardcover
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paperback
The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America
Warnock, Raphael G.
Hardcover
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
The Elijah Mandate: A Call to Courageous Faith in a Hostile World
Piflaks, Tolik
Tsarfati, Amir
Paperback
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Hardcover
The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
Wegman, Jesse
Hardcover
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Soares, Nate
Hardcover
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
Bevins, Vincent
Paperback
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Bird, Kai
Goldmark, Susan
Hardcover
Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Hardcover
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Hardcover
Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage
Thompson, Heather Ann
Hardcover
The Origins of Totalitarianism: With a New Introduction by Anne Applebaum
Applebaum, Anne
Arendt, Hannah
Paperback
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover