This work chronicles the history of China for over four hundred years through the spring of 1989.

China today is never out of the news: from human rights controversies and the continued legacy of Tiananmen Square, to global coverage of the Beijing Olympics,

Clear and engaging, this is the definitive history of China, one of the most important political, economic, and cultural players in the modern world. 8-page col

“Thoughtful, probing...a worthy successor to the famous histories of Fairbank and Spence [that] will be read by all students and scholars of modern China.”

Jean-Louis Rocca's admirably concise A Sociology of Modern China wears its scholarship lightly and paints an intimate and complex portrait of Chinese society, a