The Search for Modern China, 2nd Edition

By Jonathan D. Spence

Book Overview

Beautifully written by a leading scholar in the field, the new edition of The Search for Modern China brings to life the characters and events of China's turbulent modern history. The narrative is detailed balanced, integrating political and cultural history with social and economic developments. Spence has streamlined and thoroughly updated the text in light of new scholarship and the major new steps China has taken in the last ten years. The Search for Modern China , Second Edition, features a visually striking art program that includes more than 150 illustrations--many by world-famous photographers--50 maps, and many helpful tables.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393973514
• ISBN13: 9780393973518
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.
• Length: 992 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.4" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

The perfect introduction to Chinese history

This textbook is the perfect introduction for students interested in an overview of modern Chinese history and a valuable reference for scholars already immersed in the subject. Drawing on his many years of teaching the survey course at Yale on Chinese history, Spence covers the major events and themes of the past four hundred years with scholarly thoroughness and a light literary hand. Although the amount of material is daunting - even Spence doesn't use it all in his course- Search for Modern China is written to be accessible to the layperson as well as the academic. Highly recommended for anyone interested in China today.

A feast of history and difficult issues

For anyone interested in contemporary China, this books provides the necessary historical backdrop in great and well reasoned detail. In my reading, Spence explains better than anyone why the Chinese currently prefer stability over democracy and why the country has made a slow and halting entry into the modern world. While making no excuses for the excesses of the Party's leadership, Spence chronicles the immense change that Mao and his successors initiated, not from the standpoint of solely the 20th Century, but over the last 300 years. If you are looking for a single book that provides a 360° view of the evolution of this ancient and complex civilisation, this is the book for you. Spence is also a master of eloquent and concise prose, refreshingly un-academic in tone and yet a brilliant synthesis of contemporary research.