The Story of China

Description

Michael Wood traces China’s development from prehistoric communities and early dynasties to its emergence as a major global power. He follows the formation of the state and the cultural roots of the Confucian age, then examines periods of scientific and artistic achievement under the Song and Qing. The Opium Wars and nineteenth-century arguments over modernization introduce China’s fraught encounter with the West, while the modern account moves through post-1949 politics, the 1989 crisis, and the era of Xi Jinping. Landscape history and Wood’s travel journals connect sweeping political change to particular places. The result is a broad historical narrative organized around a pressing question: how did China’s long continuity, repeated transformations, and contested encounters produce the country that shapes the present world?

Themes