Product Description

This account of China's rise to world power status is a useful guide for anyone who wants to understand this dynamic society. The study explores China's entire history, from Prehistoric times to the present day. Some aspects of China's history are hotly debated, but this book offers a path through these conflicting views on the development of China throughout history. It reveals the immense riches and sophistication of ancient China, and banishes the view of Chinese history as a long, repetitive catalogue of one dynasty following another. In drawing together the broad themes of political, social, economic and cultural history, the dramatic development of one of the world's great civilizations is brought to life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #263906 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 500 pages

About the Author
J.A.G.Roberts is Principal Lecturer in the University of Huddersfield, specialising in the history of China and Japan.

Customer Reviews

More of a Thesis than a book
I found this book disappointing. In order to make best use of it one would need an army of reference books to keep up with the constant referrals to other authors. In short, it reads more like a thesis than a book. The use of Pinyin names throughout also makes it heavy weather, Jiang Jieshi for Chiang Kai Shek, Beiping for Beijing under the Nationalists, Xianggang for Hong Kong, and then interspersed with Western names such as Confucius and Mencius, an illogical lack of consistency. To call it the complete history is stretching the point, and some of the discussion misses the point, or is too brief to make any point at all. It is disappointing that Cixi is again blamed for most of China's ills at the end of the nineteenth century, and it is about time some serious academic work was put into establishing just how much of a role she really had, what her real influence was, and how much of what we currently understand about her is myth or incorrect. Warfare in all its forms and at all times is glossed over, giving an indication of the narrow academic scope of this work. In summary, this is not a complete history, and will need to be read alongside many other reference works. It lacks any major insights into Chinese history, being a summary of many other works, and lacks any original research into contentious or little understood areas. It is a broad overview, not a complete history.

Long history well sumerised
J. A. G. Roberts, like Lawrence James, started on the assumption that he could write a history of a mighty nation and empire in a single volume – and succeeds. This book is a fantastic resource to the history of China, covering over two thousand years, and covers most events that would interest AH fans, as well as the general reader.

Events that are told mainly from the perspective of westerners are explored here from the point of the Chinese, detailing little known Chinese successes in the wars and their success at delaying the ‘foreign barbarians’ from occupying all of China. That they were forced, by the means of having a system that made improvements very difficult, to resort to such methods is shameful, yet Roberts escapes the sense of disdain that penetrates most writings on the subject, explaining how the Manchu’s were held down by their customs and traditions.

He also explores many questions that leave people baffled. For example, why was china not partitioned by the great powers? Roberts presents several views on the subject, from the bigger powers getting the lion’s share, to the Boxer Uprising being seen as a warning from the people of China not to proceed. Roberts hints that there was a combination of those factors, rather than one overwhelming reason.

Further, Roberts explores China’s attempts to strengthen itself against encroachment. While he does not make this comparison, China’s problems could be compared to France before the Revolution: there were so many established interests that the rulers had to consider their claims and compromise with those interests – often fatally weakening their reforms and their positions. Such a system needed to be wiped away before any serious reforms could be made and it was, in France by Napoleon and in China by the revolution of 1911. However, china was too big and lacked a government that was the equivalent to the Directory (one of the worst governments France saddled itself with) and therefore China suffered a decade of warlord rule in many places. Further, there were several attempts by foreigners to gain control of China’s armies and naval forces that would have placed them under outside control. Quite rightly, they were dispensed with, but that crippled the Chinese forces.

The final part of the book deals with war. Roberts does not explore the wars in great detail, but he discusses their effects on China, forcing a genuine sense of nationalism to appear and how the Chinese fought, first Japanese invaders and then a civil war. Roberts suggests that China had learnt to fight effectively by that time, but the problems on an individual basis meant that China rarely won in open combat. The communists began a process of reforms that convinced people that they could be trusted (and in fact they could be until later) and even convinced them that a career in the military was worthwhile.

The tragedy of China, despite desperate efforts on the parts of a few far seeing people, was that it was unable to adapt to new technology and social systems. Chinese men in power dithered until it was too late, a trend that shows no sign of leaving or even being mildly abated. The communists did attempt to destroy that system, but failed in the end, victims of their own success.

A good guide to China's history
This book details the history of China from prehistoric times until around 1997 and as you would expect from a book that focuses on such a large period of time for such a large country some sections are somewhat brief but all the important events are detailed to some degree or other.

The book is split into two sections with the first detailing the period from prehistory until 1800 and the second section detailing from 1800 to 1997. Of these sections I found the first one to be the easiest to read but this may be due to the period being covered being of more interest to me rather than any difference in style. Having said this, the book is generally well set out with each chapter covering a specific subject and each chapter is relatively short and concise in its writing.

As you would expect there is little room in this book to go into excessive detail about anything but the most important events but despite this the book still has a very comprehensive feel to it. Even if the text can be a little dry in places the book dose nonetheless come across as a very well researched piece of work that would be a good place to start for anyone who is studying any period of China's long history.