The history of China for over four hundred years through the spring of 1989.

Maps on end papers. Includes a glossary (pages 789-811).

The use of Pinyin -- Conquest and consolidation -- The late Ming -- The glory of the Ming -- Town and farm -- Corruption and hardship -- The Ming collapse -- The Manchu conquest -- The rise of the Qing -- Conquering the Ming -- Adapting to China -- Class and resistance -- Kangxi's consolidation -- The war of the Three Feudatories, 1673-1681 -- Taiwan and maritime China -- Wooing the intellectuals -- Defining the borders -- A mixed legacy -- Yongzheng's authority -- Qing power and taxation in the countryside -- The center and channels of power -- Moral authority -- Chinese society and the reign of Qianlong -- Social pressures and population growth -- "Like the sun at midday" -- Eighteenth-century Confucianism -- The dream of the Red Chamber -- Qianlong's later years -- China and the eighteenth-century world -- Managing the foreigners -- Aliens and Chinese law -- Opium -- Western images of China -- Fragmentation and reform -- The first clash with the West -- The response of China's scholars -- China's political response -- Britain's military response -- The new treaty system -- The crisis within -- Social dislocation north and south -- The Taiping -- Foreign pressures and Marx's views -- The Nian Rebellion -- Muslim revolts -- Restoration through reform -- Confucian reform -- Defining foreign policy -- The Missionary presence -- Overseas Chinese -- New tensions in the late Qing -- Self-strengthening and the Japanese war -- The Reform Movement of 1898 -- Three sides of nationalism -- Emerging forces -- The end of the Dynasty -- The Qing Constitution -- New railways, new army -- Nationalists and socialists -- Qing fall -- Envisioning state and society -- The New Republic -- Experiment in democracy -- The rule of Yuan Shikai -- Militarists in China and Chinese in France -- The political thinking of Sun Yat-Sen -- "A road Is made" -- The warning voice of social Darwinism -- The promise of Marxism -- The facets of May Fourth -- The Comintern and the birth of the Ccp -- The industrial sector -- The clash -- The initial alliance -- Launching the Northern Expedition -- Shanghai spring -- Wuhan summer, Canton winter -- Experiments in government -- The power base of Chiang Kai-Shek -- Mao Zedong and the rural Soviets -- China and the United States -- China and Japan -- China and Germany -- The drift to war -- The Long March -- The national mood and Guomindang ideology -- Crisis at Xi'an -- The Chinese poor -- War and revolution -- World War II -- The loss of East China -- China divided -- Chongqing and Yan'an, 1938-1941 -- Chongqing and Yan'an in the widening war -- War's end -- The fall of the Guomindang State -- The Japanese surrender and the Marshall Mission -- Land reform and the Manchurian base -- The losing battle with inflation -- Defeat of the Guomindang Armies -- The birth of the People's Republic -- Countryside and town, 1949-1950 -- The structure of the new government -- The Korean War -- Mass party, mass campaigns -- Planning the New Society -- The first Five-Year Plan -- Foreign policy and the national minorities -- Army reform -- The Hundred Flowers -- Deepening the revolution -- The great leap forward -- The Sino-Soviet Rift -- Political investigation and "socialist education" -- The cult of Mao and the critics -- Launching the Cultural Revolution -- Party retrenchment and the death of Lin Biao -- Living in the world -- Reopening the doors -- The United States and the Nixon visit -- Attacking Confucius and Lin Biao -- Defining the economy, 1974-1975 -- 1976: the Old Guard dies -- Redefining revolution -- The Four Modernizations -- The Fifth Modernization -- Taiwan and the Special Economic Zones -- "Truth From Facts" -- Levels of Power -- One billion people -- Governing China in the 1980s -- The problems of prosperity, 1983-1984 -- Rebuilding the law -- Testing the limits -- Emerging tensions in 1985 -- Democracy's chorus -- Broadening the base -- Social strains -- The breaking point -- Map: China during the Late Ming -- Map: contemporary China.