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![The Search for Modern China](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.8.5)
The Search for Modern China
by Jonathan D. Spence, Janet Chen
Jonathan D. Spence
![The Search for Modern China](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.8.5)
The Search for Modern China
by Jonathan D. Spence, Janet Chen
Jonathan D. Spence
Paperback(Fourth Edition)
(Not eligible for purchase using B&N Audiobooks Subscription credits)
$71.75
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Overview
In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative richness and efficiency. Praised as "a miracle of readability and scholarly authority," (Jonathan Mirsky) The Search for Modern China offers a matchless introduction to China's history.
Author Biography: Jonathan D. Spence is Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, where he has taught for thirty years. He has been awarded MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The Search for Modern China won the Lionel Gelber Award and the Kiriyama Book Prize.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781324070023 |
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Publisher: | Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. |
Publication date: | 07/01/2025 |
Edition description: | Fourth Edition |
Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Jonathan D. Spence (1936—2021) was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught for more than forty years. He was awarded MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The Search for Modern China won the Lionel Gelber Award and the Kiriyama Book Prize.
Table of Contents
List of Maps | xv | |
List of Tables | xvii | |
Preface | xix | |
Acknowledgments | xxiii | |
The Use of Pinyin | xxv | |
I | Conquest and Consolidation | 1 |
1 | The Late Ming | 7 |
The Glory of the Ming | 7 | |
Town and Farm | 12 | |
Corruption and Hardship | 16 | |
The Ming Collapse | 21 | |
2 | The Manchu Conquest | 26 |
The Rise of the Qing | 26 | |
Conquering the Ming | 32 | |
Adapting to China | 38 | |
Class and Resistance | 44 | |
3 | Kangxi's Consolidation | 49 |
The War of the Three Feudatories, 1673-1681 | 49 | |
Taiwan and Maritime China | 53 | |
Wooing the Intellectuals | 58 | |
Defining the Borders | 64 | |
A Mixed Legacy | 69 | |
4 | Yongzheng's Authority | 74 |
Qing Power and Taxation in the Countryside | 74 | |
The Center and Channels of Power | 79 | |
Moral Authority | 84 | |
5 | Chinese Society and the Reign of Qianlong | 90 |
Social Pressures and Population Growth | 90 | |
"Like the sun at Midday" | 97 | |
Eighteenth-Century Confucianism | 102 | |
The Dream of the Red Chamber | 106 | |
Qianlong's Later Years | 110 | |
6 | China and the Eighteenth-Century World | 117 |
Managing the Foreigners | 117 | |
Aliens and Chinese Law | 123 | |
Opium | 128 | |
Western Images of China | 132 | |
II | Fragmentation and Reform | 137 |
7 | The First Clash with the West | 143 |
The Response of China's Scholars | 143 | |
China's Political Response | 147 | |
Britain's Military Response | 152 | |
The New Treaty System | 158 | |
8 | The Crisis Within | 165 |
Social Dislocation North and South | 165 | |
The Taiping | 170 | |
Foreign Pressures and Marx's Views | 179 | |
The Nian Rebellion | 184 | |
Muslim Revolts | 189 | |
9 | Restoration through Reform | 194 |
Confucian Reform | 194 | |
Defining Foreign Policy | 199 | |
The Missionary Presence | 204 | |
Overseas Chinese | 210 | |
10 | New Tensions in the Late Qing | 216 |
Self-Strengthening and the Japanese War | 216 | |
The Reform Movement of 1898 | 224 | |
Three Sides of Nationalism | 230 | |
Emerging Forces | 238 | |
11 | The End of the Dynasty | 245 |
The Qing Constitution | 245 | |
New Railways, New Army | 249 | |
Nationalists and Socialists | 256 | |
Qing Fall | 262 | |
III | Envisioning State and Society | 269 |
12 | The New Republic | 275 |
Experiment in Democracy | 275 | |
The Rule of Yuan Shikai | 281 | |
Militarists in China and Chinese in France | 288 | |
The Political Thinking of Sun Yat-Sen | 294 | |
13 | "A Road Is Made" | 300 |
The Warning Voice of Social Darwinism | 300 | |
The Promise of Marxism | 305 | |
The Facets of May Fourth | 310 | |
The Comintern and the Birth of the Ccp | 319 | |
The Industrial Sector | 325 | |
14 | The Clash | 334 |
The Initial Alliance | 334 | |
Launching the Northern Expedition | 341 | |
Shanghai Spring | 348 | |
Wuhan Summer, Canton Winter | 354 | |
15 | Experiments in Government | 361 |
The Power Base of Chiang Kai-Shek | 361 | |
Mao Zedong and the Rural Soviets | 370 | |
China and the United States | 379 | |
China and Japan | 388 | |
China and Germany | 396 | |
16 | The Drift to War | 403 |
The Long March | 403 | |
The National Mood and Guomindang Ideology | 410 | |
Crisis at Xi'an | 418 | |
The Chinese Poor | 424 | |
IV | War and Revolution | 435 |
17 | World War II | 443 |
The Loss of East China | 443 | |
China Divided | 450 | |
Chongqing and Yan'an, 1938-1941 | 456 | |
Chongqing and Yan'an in the Widening War | 466 | |
War's End | 474 | |
18 | The Fall of the Guomindang State | 484 |
The Japanese Surrender and the Marshall Mission | 484 | |
Land Reform and the Manchurian Base | 491 | |
The Losing Battle with Inflation | 498 | |
Defeat of the Guomindang Armies | 504 | |
19 | The Birth of the People's Republic | 514 |
Countryside and Town, 1949-1950 | 514 | |
The Structure of the New Government | 519 | |
The Korean War | 524 | |
Mass Party, Mass Campaigns | 533 | |
20 | Planning the New Society | 541 |
The First Five-Year Plan | 541 | |
Foreign Policy and the National Minorities | 551 | |
Army Reform | 557 | |
The Hundred Flowers | 563 | |
21 | Deepening the Revolution | 574 |
The Great Leap Forward | 574 | |
The Sino-Soviet Rift | 583 | |
Political Investigation and "Socialist Education" | 590 | |
The Cult of Mao and the Critics | 596 | |
Launching the Cultural Revolution | 602 | |
Party Retrenchment and the Death of Lin Biao | 609 | |
V | Living in the World | 619 |
22 | Reopening the Doors | 627 |
The United States and the Nixon Visit | 627 | |
Attacking Confucius and Lin Biao | 633 | |
Defining the Economy, 1974-1975 | 639 | |
1976: the Old Guard Dies | 645 | |
23 | Redefining Revolution | 653 |
The Four Modernizations | 653 | |
The Fifth Modernization | 659 | |
Taiwan and the Special Economic Zones | 667 | |
"Truth From Facts" | 675 | |
24 | Levels of Power | 683 |
One Billion People | 683 | |
Governing China in the 1980s | 690 | |
The Problems of Prosperity, 1983-1984 | 696 | |
Rebuilding the Law | 704 | |
25 | Testing the Limits | 712 |
Emerging Tensions in 1985 | 712 | |
Democracy's Chorus | 719 | |
Broadening the Base | 727 | |
Social Strains | 733 | |
The Breaking Point | 738 | |
Notes and Permissions | 749 | |
Further Readings | 769 | |
Glossary | 789 | |
About the Color Illustrations | 813 | |
Illustration Credits | 817 | |
A Note on the Calligraphy | 823 | |
Index | 825 | |
Map: China During the Late Ming | 878 | |
Map: Contemporary China | 880 |
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