This page brings together free pdf books about Asian history. Our collection covers dozens of topics related to Central Asia, empires, regional religions, social history, and warfare. Materials range from older public domain works for free download to best modern books.
The Topics section below helps readers find books and documents within the huge Internet Archive collection, which includes periodicals and other materials, from older historical works to recent publications. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Clicking our topics usually works better than searching Internet Archive directly.
The sections below Topics provide links to foreign news translations, vintage audiobooks and modern Open Access books. See those sections for more information.
Page Contents & Guide Index
Browse Asian History Books PDF Categories & Regional Topics
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to pdf books on Asian social structures, trade routes, and dynastic politics. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable eBooks and textbooks. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by years of publication, language, or specific subjects.
Foreign News Translations
FBIS Daily Reports – Central Eurasia – 1992-1996
1980-1995
FBIS
FBIS daily reports were English-language translations of publicly available foreign mass media reports that were transmitted by radio, television, and print. The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was an open source intelligence office within the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The JPRS reports that may also be here are essentially FBIS reports.
FBIS Daily Reports – East Asia – 1987-1996
1979-1994
FBIS
FBIS daily reports were English-language translations of publicly available foreign mass media reports that were transmitted by radio, television, and print. The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was an open source office within the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The JPRS reports that may also be here are essentially FBIS reports.
FBIS Daily Reports – Middle East & North Africa – 1978
JPRS Reports – Near East/North Africa – 1979-1983
FBIS
FBIS daily reports were English-language translations of publicly available foreign mass media reports that were transmitted by radio, television, and print. The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was an open source office within the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The JPRS reports that may also be here are essentially FBIS reports.
Stream & Download Free Asia Audiobooks Online
These links to audiobook searches of Asian subjects lead to public domain recordings from the LibriVox.org collection at Internet Archive. The audiobooks, recorded by Librivox volunteers, were nearly all published before 1930. Recordings include works on countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Asia. Nearly all source books selected by the volunteers were originally published prior to 1930, providing unique historical perspectives from past eras.
All Librivox audiobooks are in the public domain. They can be freely streamed online or downloaded for offline listening.
Open Access Free History of Asia Books PDF Download
The Open Access materials below are modern books and other works made freely available online by universities, academic publishers, the Library of Congress, and other nonprofit organizations. Open Access collections usually include pdf textbooks, online courses, classroom lesson plans, and recent academic books that reflect current scholarship and research.
Some works may only be read online, but many can be downloaded as PDF or EPUB files.
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