Jonathan Fenby, "Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present"

No country on earth has suffered a more bitter history in modern times than China. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it was viewed as doomed to extinction. Its imperial rulers, heading an anachronistic regime, were brought low by enormous revolts, shifting social power patterns, republican revolutionaries, Western incursions to "split the Chinese melon" and a disastrous defeat by Japan.

The presence of predatory foreigners has often been blamed for China's troubles, but the much greater cause came from within China itself. In the early twentieth century, the empire was succeeded by warlordism on a massive scale, internal divisions, incompetent rule, savage fighting between the government and the Communists, and a fourteen-year invasion from Japan. Four years of civil war after 1945 led to the Maoist era, with its purges and repression; the disastrous Great Leap Forward; a famine that killed tens of millions; and the Cultural Revolution.

Yet from this long trauma, China has emerged amazingly in the last three decades as an economic powerhouse set to play a major global political role, its future posing one of the great questions for the twenty-first century as it grapples with enormous internal challenges. Understanding how that transformation came about and what China constitutes today means understanding its epic journey since 1850 and recognizing how the past influences the present.

Jonathan Fenby tells this turbulent story with brilliance and insight, spanning a unique historical panorama, with an extraordinary cast of characters and a succession of huge events. As Confucius said, To see the future, one must grasp the past.

Reviews
"[T]he most compelling and judicious account of China's phoenix years that is currently available. If it cannot exactly delight, it certainly impresses... a journalist's eye for detail, undemanding prose and a thunderous sense of narrative assure Jonathan Fenby of a triumph. The highly readable trounces the nigh unspeakable."—Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Panoramic narrative... a wonderful resource... One does not often feel that an author has got it just about all covered but Mr. Fenby is approaching the mark."—Far Eastern Economic Review

"His book is a powerful revisionist account of a country whose history needs to be understood if the west is to comprehend China's role in the present and future... That century-old dilemma of how to create a strong China in a world buffeted by global forces in painfully relevant today. Jonathan Fenby's account of how China has coped with that dilemma makes his illuminating book the first major history that looks at the country with the eyes of the 21st century rather than the 20th."—Financial Times

Contents

“

Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration and Currency List of Illustrations List of Maps Introduction Part 1: End of Empire  1 Sons of Heaven  2 Upheavals  3 Strength and Weakness  4 Reform and Reaction  5 On the Ropes  6 Final Act Part 2: Revolution and Republic  7 A Very Young Baby  8 Warlords  9 Ice and Ancient Charcoal  10 Divided We Stand Part 3: Wars Without End  11 Enemy of the Heart  12 Enemy of the Skin  13 Mao's March  14 Total War  15 The Great Retreat  16 Tangled Alliance  17 The Last Battle Part 4: The Rule of Mao  18 The Winner  19 Plots and Plans  20 Leaping to Disaster  21 Famine and Retreat  22 Demons and Monsters  23 All-Out Civil War  24 American Interlude  25 Only Heaven Knows Part 5: The Age of Deng  26 Little Peace Plays His Trumps  27 To Get Rich is No Sin  28 Gathering Storm  29 Beijing Spring  30 Three Weeks in May  31 Massacre in Beijing Part 6: Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao  32 The New-Old Generations Epilogue Notes Bibliography Appendices  Who's Who in Modern China  The Late-Qing Emperors  China's Growth 1976–2006  Communist Party Leaders in the People's Republic  Communist Party Organization at the Centre Index

”

Tags: qChina, qHistory, qWorldPolitics

Andrew F. Krepinevich, "7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century"

Constantine C. Menges, "China: The Gathering Threat"

Jasper Becker, "Dragon Rising: An Inside Look At China Today"

Jonathan D. Spence, "The Search for Modern China"

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, "Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years"

Paul Johnson, "Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Revised Edition)"

J. M. Roberts, "The New History of the World, 4e"

Tony Judt, "Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945"

J. M. Roberts, "Twentieth Century: The History of the World, 1901 to 2000"

Daniel Yergin & Joseph Stanislaw, "The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (revised and updated)"

Muhammad Yunus, "Creating A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism"

Thomas P. M. Barnett, "Great Powers: America and the World After Bush"

Thomas L. Friedman, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America"

David E. Sanger, "The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power"

Ian Bremmer, "The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall"

David S. Landes, "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor"

Thomas L. Friedman, "The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century"