The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China

Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

The history of modern China, from the rise of the Qing Dynasty through to the dramatic events of the last few years
Features fresh insights into events such as the Taiping Civil War, the Opium War, the Boxer Uprising, Tiananmen Square, and more
Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this rising superpower

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China

Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Description

This lavishly illustrated volume explores the history of China during a period of dramatic shifts and surprising transformations, from the founding of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) through to the present day.

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China promises to be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this rising superpower on the verge of what promises to be the 'Chinese century,' introducing readers to important but often overlooked events in China's past, such as the bloody Taiping Civil War (1850-1864), which had a death toll far higher than the roughly contemporaneous American Civil War. It also helps readers see more familiar landmarks in Chinese history in new ways, such as the Opium War (1839-1842), the Boxer Uprising of 1900, the rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, and the Tiananmen protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989.

This is one of the first major efforts - and in many ways the most ambitious to date - to come to terms with the broad sweep of modern Chinese history, taking readers from the origins of modern China right up through the dramatic events of the last few years (the Beijing Games, the financial crisis, and China's rise to global economic pre-eminence) which have so fundamentally altered Western views of China and China's place in the world.

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China

Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Introduction

1: Anne Gerritsen: From Late Ming to High Qing, 1550-1792
2: Stephen R. Platt: New Domestic and Global Challenges, 1792-1860
3: Robert Bickers: Restoration and reform, 1860-1900
4: Peter Zarrow: Felling a Dynasty, Founding a Republic
5: James Carter: The Rise of Nationalism and Revolutionary Parties, 1919-1937
6: Rana Mitter: The War Years, 1937-1949
7: S. A. Smith: The Early Years of the People's Republic, 1950-1964
8: Richard Curt Kraus: The Cultural Revolution Era, 1964-1976
9: Timothy Cheek: Reform and Rebuilding, 1976-1988
10: Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Kate Merkel-Hess: Tiananmen and Its Aftermath, 1989-1999
11: William A. Callahan: China Rising, 2000-2010
12: Ian Johnson: The Presence of the Past - A Coda

Timeline
Further Reading
Index

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China

Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Author Information

Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, and Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. He has edited a number of books on China and is the author of four: Student Protests in Twentieth Century China: The View from Shanghai (1991), China's Brave New World-And Other Tales for Global Times (2007), Global Shanghai, 1850-2010 (2009), and China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (2010; new ed. 2013). A co-founder of and contributing editor to the influential China Beat blog (2008-2012), he is a regular contributor to the press, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and he co-edits the Asia section of the Los Angeles Review of Books. A member of the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, he has been traveling to China regularly since the 1980s.

Contributors:

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California, Irvine
Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick
Stephen R. Platt, University of Massachusetts
Robert Bickers, University of Bristol
Peter Zarrow, Academia Sinica, Taipei
James Carter, St Joseph's University
Rana Mitter, University of Oxford
S. A. Smith, University of Oxford
Richard Curt Kraus, University of Oregon
Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia
Kate Merkel-Hess, Penn State University
William A. Callahan, University of Manchester
Ian Johnson, freelance journalist

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China

Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Reviews and Awards

"The best place to start for those who wish to get a handle on modern China." - Asian Review

The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China

Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

From Our Blog

How long was my century?

In 2002 I faced a dilemma relating to an editorial project that perhaps only another historian can appreciate. Scrambling to complete the Introduction to Twentieth-Century China: New Approaches, I had to figure out how long to say the eponymous period had lasted.

Posted on July 23, 2016

Read the blog post