The Shortest History of China: From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History)

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Author :
Publisher : The Experiment, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1615198210
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (151 download)

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Book Synopsis The Shortest History of China: From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) by : Linda Jaivin

Download or read book The Shortest History of China: From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) written by Linda Jaivin and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journey across epic China—through millennia of early innovation to modern dominance. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. As we enter the “Asian century,” China demands our attention for being an economic powerhouse, a beacon of rapid modernization, and an assertive geopolitical player. To understand the nation behind the headlines, we must take in its vibrant, tumultuous past—a story of “larger-than-life characters, philosophical arguments and political intrigues, military conflicts and social upheavals, artistic invention and technological innovation.” The Shortest History of China charts a path from China’s tribal origins through its storied imperial era and up to the modern Communist Party under Xi Jinping—including the rarely told story of women in China and the specters of corruption and disunity that continue to haunt the People’s Republic today. A master storyteller and exacting historian, Linda Jaivin distills this vast history into a short, riveting account that today’s globally minded readers will find indispensable.

A Brief History of China

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Author :
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1462921019
Total Pages : 458 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (629 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of China by : Jonathan Clements

Download or read book A Brief History of China written by Jonathan Clements and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, yet entertaining look at China's history through a modern lens. For millennia, China was the largest and richest nation on earth. Two centuries ago, however, its economy sank into a depression from which it had not fully recovered--until now. China's modern resurgence as the world's largest nation in terms of population and its second-largest economy--where 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the space of a few decades--is the greatest untold story of the 21st century. A Brief History of China tells of the development of a rich and complex civilization where the use of paper, writing, money and gunpowder were widespread in ancient times and where silk, ceramics, tea, metal implements and other products were produced and exported around the globe. It examines the special conditions that allowed a single culture to unify an entire continent spanning 10 billion square kilometers under the rule of a single man--and the unbelievably rich artistic, literary and architectural heritage that Chinese culture has bequeathed to the world. Equally fascinating is the story of China's decline in the 19th and early 20th century--as Europeans and Americans took center stage--and its modern resurgence as an economic powerhouse in recent years. In his retelling of a Chinese history stretching back 5,000 years, author and China-expert Jonathan Clements focuses on the human stories which led to the powerful transformations in Chinese society--from the unification of China under its first emperor, Qinshi Huangdi, and the writings of the great Chinese philosophers Confucius and Laozi, to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan and the consolidation of Communist rule under Mao Zedong. Clements even brings readers through to the present day, outlining China's economic renaissance under Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping. What really separates this book from its counterparts is the focus on women, and modern themes such as diversity and climate change. Chinese history is typically told through the stories of its most famous men, but Clements' telling gives women equal time and research--which introduces readers of this book to equally important, but less commonly-known facts and historical figures. Often seen in the West in black or white terms--as either a savage dystopia or a fantastical paradise--China is revealed in the book as an exceptional yet troubled nation that nevertheless warrants its self-description as the Middle Kingdom.

A Short History of China

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Author :
Publisher : Oldcastle Books
ISBN 13 : 1842439693
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (424 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of China by : Gordon Kerr

Download or read book A Short History of China written by Gordon Kerr and published by Oldcastle Books. This book was released on 2013-01-25 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The turbulent and chequered past of the world's most populous country is one of the most fascinating in world history, and relatively little known in the West. From the beginnings of Chinese prehistory right through to internet censorship with the 'Great Firewall of China', Gordon Kerr offers a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous country. A Short History of China provides an absorbing introduction to more than 4,000 years of Chinese history, telling the stories of the tyrants, despots, femmes fatales, artists, warriors and philosophers who have shaped this fascinating and complex nation. It describes the amazing technological advances that her scientists and inventors made many hundreds of years before similar discoveries in Europe. It also investigates the Chinese view of the world and examines the movements, aspirations and philosophies that moulded it and, in so doing, created the Chinese nation. Finally, the book examines the dramatic changes of the last few decades and the emergence of China as an economic and industrial 21st century superpower, making Napoleon Bonaparte's words about her ring true: "Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world."

The Shortest History of England: Empire and Division from the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History)

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Author :
Publisher : The Experiment, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1615198156
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (151 download)

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Book Synopsis The Shortest History of England: Empire and Division from the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) by : James Hawes

Download or read book The Shortest History of England: Empire and Division from the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) written by James Hawes and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the most powerful country in the UK was forged by invasion and conquest, and is fractured by its north-south divide. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. England—begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, star of beloved period dramas, and home of the House of Windsor—is not quite the stalwart island fortress that many of us imagine. Riven by an ancient fault line that predates even the Romans, its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbors; and for the past millennia, it has harbored a class system like nowhere else on Earth. This bracing tour of the most powerful country in the United Kingdom reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented—yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon Line. It carries us swiftly through centuries of conflict between Crown and Parliament (starring the Magna Carta), America’s War of Independence, the rise and fall of empire, two World Wars, and England’s break from the EU. We discover: why the American colonists of 1776 believed that they were the true Anglo-Saxons how the British Empire was undermined from within why Winston Churchill said the UK could only be saved by splitting up England itself and how populism spawned Brexit and its “new elite.” The Shortest History of England brings all this and more to prescient life—offering the most direct, compelling route to understanding the country behind today’s headlines.

A Short History of Chinese Philosophy

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0684836343
Total Pages : 406 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by : 馮友蘭

Download or read book A Short History of Chinese Philosophy written by 馮友蘭 and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1948 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A systematic account of Chinese thought from its origins to the present day"--Cover.

A Short History of China and Southeast Asia

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Author :
Publisher : Allen & Unwin
ISBN 13 : 9781864489545
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (895 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of China and Southeast Asia by : Martin Stuart-Fox

Download or read book A Short History of China and Southeast Asia written by Martin Stuart-Fox and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2003 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New in the Short History of Asia series, edited by Milton Osborne, this is a readable, well-informed and comprehensive short history of China's relationships with its Southeast Asian neighbours from ancient times to the present day.

Collecting China

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1611490065
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (114 download)

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Book Synopsis Collecting China by : Vimalin Rujivacharakul

Download or read book Collecting China written by Vimalin Rujivacharakul and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collecting China is a unique collection of essays that brings together theories of materiality and what collecting has meant to various peoples over time. Collecting China grew out of a simple question: how does a thing become Chinese? Fifteen essays explore this question from different angles, ranging from close examination of world-renowned private collections to critical reinterpretations of historical writings.

A Short History of China

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Author :
Publisher : New York, Harper
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 736 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of China by : Edward Thomas Williams

Download or read book A Short History of China written by Edward Thomas Williams and published by New York, Harper. This book was released on 1928 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Modern China: A Very Short Introduction

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191578797
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis Modern China: A Very Short Introduction by : Rana Mitter

Download or read book Modern China: A Very Short Introduction written by Rana Mitter and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-02-28 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, and the Chinese 'economic miracle'. It seems a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction offers the reader with no previous knowledge of China a variety of ways to understand the world's most populous nation, giving a short, integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics and art. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A Brief History of Chinese Civilization

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Author :
Publisher : Wadsworth Publishing Company
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 454 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of Chinese Civilization by : Conrad Schirokauer

Download or read book A Brief History of Chinese Civilization written by Conrad Schirokauer and published by Wadsworth Publishing Company. This book was released on 2005 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part I: THE CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION OF CHINA. 1. "China" In Antiquity. The Neolithic. The Origins of Chinese Writing. The Rise of the Bronze Age. The Shang. The Western Zhou Dynasty. The Book of Odes. 2. Turbulent Times and Classical Thought. The Spring and Autumn Period. The Rise of Hegemons. The Warring States Period. "The Hundred Schools." Confucius. Mozi. Mencius. Xunzi. Laozi and Zhuangzi. Han Feizi. 3. The Early Imperial Period. Qin. Sources and Historiographical Problems. Reappraisals. Han. The Formative Years. The Quality of Han Rule. The Xiongnu and Other Neighboring Peoples. Intellectual Movements. The Visual Art and Poetry. Changes in Political Economy during the Han period: Women. Fall of the Han. Part II: CHINA IN A BUDDHIST AGE. 4. China During The Period Of Disunity. The Fundamentals of Buddhism. A World in Disarray. China Divided. Buddhism in the North. Daoism The Religion. The South. Poetry. Calligraphy. Painting. Buddhism in the South. China on the Eve of Unification. 5. The Cosmopolitan Civilization Of The Sui And Tang: 581-907. The Sui (581-617). The Tang: Establishment & Consolidation. Gaozong & Empress Wu. High Tang. Chang'an. The Flourishing of Buddhism. Daoism. The Rebellion of An Lushan (755-763). Li Bai & Du Fu. Late Tang. Late Tang Poetry & Culture. Collapse of the Dynasty. Part III: LATE IMPERIAL/EARLY MODERN. 6. China During the Song: 960-1279. The Founding. A New Elite. The Examination System. The Northern Song. Government and Politics. Wang Anshi. The Economy. The Religious Scene. The Confucian Revival. Poetry and Painting. The Southern Song (1127-1279). Southern Song Cities and Commerce. Literary and Visual Arts. "Neo-Confucianism". Values and Gender . The End. 7. The Mongol Empire and the Yuan Dynasty. Chinggis Khan: Founding of the Mongol Empire. China under the Mongols: The Early Years (1211-1260). Khubilai Khan and the Early Yuan. The Yuan continued, 1294-1355. The Economy. Society. Religion. Cultural and Intellectual Life. "Northern" Drama. Painting. Rebellions and Disintegration. 8. The Ming Dynasty 1368-1644. The Early Ming (1368 -1424). Maritime Expeditions (1405-1433). The Early Middle Period (1425-1505). The Later Middle Period (1506-1590). Economy and Society. Literacy and Literature. The Novel. Drama. Painting. Ming Thought: Wang Yangming. Religion. Ming Thought after Wang Yangming. Dong Qichang and Late Ming Painting. Late Ming Government (1590-1644). 9. East Asia and Modern Europe: First Encounters. The Portuguese in East Asia. The Jesuits in Japan. The Impact of Other Europeans. The "Closing" of Japan. The Jesuits in China. The Rites Controversy. The Decline of Christianity in China. Trade with the West and the Canton System. 10. The Qing Dynasty. The Founding of the Qing. Early Qing Painters and Thinkers. The Reign of Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Eighteenth Century Governance. Eighteenth-Century Literati Culture. Fiction. A Buoyant Economy. Social Change. Ecology. Dynastic Decline. Part IV: CHINA IN THE MODERN WORLD. 11. The Troubled Nineteenth Century, Part I The Opium War and Taiping Rebellion. The Opium War (18391841) and Its Causes, The Treaty of Nanjing and the Treaty System, Internal Crisis, The Taiping Rebellion (18501864), Zeng Guofan and the Defeat of the Taiping, China and the World from the Treaty of Nanjing to the End of the Taiping, PART II 1870-94. The Post-Taiping Revival, Self-Strengtheningthe First Phase, Self-Strengtheningthe Theory, The Empress Dowager and the Government Education Economic Self-Strengthening, The Traditional Economic Sector, Missionary Efforts and Christian Influences, Old Wine in New Bottles, Part III Foreign Relations. Continued Pressures, Vietnam and the Sino-French War of 1884-1885, Korea and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, The Treaty of Shimonoseki (April 1895). 12. Endings and Beginnings, 18951927, Part 1. The Last Years of the Last Dynasty. The New Reformers, The Scramble for Concessions, The Boxer Rising, Winds of Change, Stirrings

China to 1850

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Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804709583
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis China to 1850 by : Charles O. Hucker

Download or read book China to 1850 written by Charles O. Hucker and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the author of the highly acclaimed China's Imperial Past and written in the same lively style, this is a distillation of what every general reader and beginning student should know about the history of traditional Chinese civilization. It weaves together chronologically all aspects of Chinese life and culture, broadly surveying general history, socioeconomic organization, political institutions, religion and thought, and art and literature. The author explains how the Chinese empire emerged in antiquity, how it flourished and declined in successive cycles for thousands of years, and how in the end it found itself unprepared for both the domestic and the external challenges of the modern era. The result is a concise overview that is both absorbing in itself and basic to a more detailed study of China's long and complex evolution. I

A History of Chinese Civilization

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521497817
Total Pages : 836 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (978 download)

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Book Synopsis A History of Chinese Civilization by : Jacques Gernet

Download or read book A History of Chinese Civilization written by Jacques Gernet and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-05-31 with total page 836 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When published in 1982, this translation of Professor Jacques Gernet's masterly survey of the history and culture of China was immediately welcomed by critics and readers. This revised and updated edition makes it more useful for students and for the general reader concerned with the broad sweep of China's past.

Ming China, 1368-1644

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442204907
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Ming China, 1368-1644 by : John W. Dardess

Download or read book Ming China, 1368-1644 written by John W. Dardess and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging, deeply informed book provides the first concise history of one of China's most important eras. Leading scholar John W. Dardess offers a thematically organized political, social, and economic exploration of China from 1368 to 1644. He examines how the Ming dynasty was able to endure for 276 years, illuminating Ming foreign relations and border control, the lives and careers of its sixteen emperors, its system of governance and the kinds of people who served it, its great class of literati, and finally the mass outlawry that, in unhappy conjunction with the Manchu invasions from outside, ended the once-mighty dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century. The Ming witnessed the beginning of China's contact with the West, and its story will fascinate all readers interested in global as well as Asian history.

The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538161540
Total Pages : 181 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810 by : Robert J. Antony

Download or read book The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810 written by Robert J. Antony and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810 exposes readers to the little-known history of Chinese piracy in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries through a short narrative and selection of documentary evidence. In this three-hundred-year period, Chinese piracy was unsurpassed in size and scope anywhere else in the world. The book includes a carefully selected and wide range of Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Japanese sources—some translated for the first time—to illustrate the complexity and variety of piratical activities in Asian waters. These documents include archival criminal cases and depositions of pirates and victims, government reports and proclamations, memoirs of coastal residents and pirate captives, and written and oral folklore handed down for generations. The book also illuminates the important role that pirates played in the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations of early modern China and the world. An historical perspective provides an important vantage point to understand piracy as a recurring cyclical phenomenon inseparably connected with the past.

A Military History of China

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813135842
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Military History of China by : David Andrew Graff

Download or read book A Military History of China written by David Andrew Graff and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gaining an understanding of China's long and sometimes bloody history can help to shed light on China's ascent to global power. Many of China's imperial dynasties were established as the result of battle, from the chariot warfare of ancient times to the battles of the Guomindang (KMT) and Communist regimes of the twentieth century. China's ability to sustain complex warfare on a very large scale was not emulated in other parts of the world until the Industrial Age, despite the fact that the country is only now rising to economic dominance. In A Military History of China, Updated Edition, David A. Graff and Robin Higham bring together leading scholars to offer a basic introduction to the military history of China from the first millennium B.C.E. to the present. Focusing on recurring patterns of conflict rather than traditional campaign narratives, this volume reaches farther back into China's military history than similar studies. It also offers insightful comparisons between Chinese and Western approaches to war. This edition brings the volume up to date, including discussions of the Chinese military's latest developments and the country's most recent foreign conflicts.

Encyclopedia of Chinese History

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317817168
Total Pages : 862 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (178 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Chinese History by : Michael Dillon

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Chinese History written by Michael Dillon and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 862 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China has become accessible to the west in the last twenty years in a way that was not possible in the previous thirty. The number of westerners travelling to China to study, for business or for tourism has increased dramatically and there has been a corresponding increase in interest in Chinese culture, society and economy and increasing coverage of contemporary China in the media. Our understanding of China’s history has also been evolving. The study of history in the People’s Republic of China during the Mao Zedong period was strictly regulated and primary sources were rarely available to westerners or even to most Chinese historians. Now that the Chinese archives are open to researchers, there is a growing body of academic expertise on history in China that is open to western analysis and historical methods. This has in many ways changed the way that Chinese history, particularly the modern period, is viewed. The Encyclopedia of Chinese History covers the entire span of Chinese history from the period known primarily through archaeology to the present day. Treating Chinese history in the broadest sense, the Encyclopedia includes coverage of the frontier regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet that have played such an important role in the history of China Proper and will also include material on Taiwan, and on the Chinese diaspora. In A-Z format with entries written by experts in the field of Chinese Studies, the Encyclopedia will be an invaluable resource for students of Chinese history, politics and culture.

A Short History of Beijing

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Author :
Publisher : Haus Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1913368475
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (133 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of Beijing by : Jonathan Clements

Download or read book A Short History of Beijing written by Jonathan Clements and published by Haus Publishing. This book was released on 2022-07-26 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to the history of China’s capital, from before its rise to prominence as the seat of empires to the 2022 Winter Olympics. Before China’s capital became a sprawling megacity and international center of business and culture, its fortunes fluctuated under a dozen dynasties. It has been a capital for several states, including those headed by Mongolian chiefs and the glorious Ming emperors, whose tombs can still be found on its outskirts. And before all that, it was a campsite for primitive hominids, known as the Peking Man. A Short History of Beijing tells the story of this remarkable city, from its more famous residents—Khubilai Khan, Marco Polo, and Chairman Mao—right up to the twenty-first century, as modern construction wiped out so much of the old city to make way for its twenty-million-strong population. Through his timely and intimate portrait of the world’s most populous capital city, Jonathan Clements reveals the history of China itself.