Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

A wonderful job! So lucid, beautfully written, with great range and insight. This will set a new standard for short general histories of China.

--Michael Gasster, professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University

Newly updated and revised, China: Its History and Culture, Fourth Edition, incorporates the crucial social and economic changes that have taken place in China over the last decade. Through rich detail and engaging illustrations, the book traces China's history from Neolithic times to the present day.

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Excellent Introduction to the vast subject of Chinese History

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I wanted a short history of China before my trip to Shanghai and Xian, so that I might more fully appreciate the artifacts and sites I was going to see. I luckily chose this book by Scott Morton. I got so much more out of the trip than my "fellow travelers," and was able to assist them in keeping the dates and facts straight. Now I need to continue in depth my study of China, but I highly recommend this book for a starter. I am sending this book to my Shanghai guide as a handy reference for him.

concentrates on 19th and 20th centuries	Customer Rating:
almost half the book covers the 19th and 20th centuries, leaving 140 pages for the other 5000 years...what coverage there was seemed good, however.

Clear, Concise Overview of Chinese History

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With such a huge subject, this book makes easy work of approaching the dynasties and intellectual movements without fear of overload. In roughly 350 pages, the authors take the reader from Zhou to Zemin with a minimum of effort and confusion. For those who think China has no exciting movements and tales, think again. the most indelible impression on the Chinese nation was made by a single 15-yr dynasty (the Qin Dynasty, for which the westernized name "China" came into Romanized coinage, and which, speaking of coinage, finally standardized coinage to a state that remained unchanged until modern times. The Qin expanded to the current borders closer than any other had done before or since, and codified laws via Legalism, rather than the lax Confucian tradition of reasonable mediation). Most other dynasties lasted several hundreds of years, yet made far less noteworthy statebuilding achievements, nor were as unsupported by the populace at large. The Qin also hosted the first "cultural revolution" in Chinese history, which would much later be repeated under Mao with unexpectedly disastrous effects. Rome never knew of China beyond the association with silk trade, mostly from merchant tales. This state of affairs held largely unchanged until modern times, whereas China knew Romans intimately from around 300 AD onward. Learn why China fell so quickly in with Communist ideology and why the color red was so natural a choice for a Chinese revolutionary movement (if somewhat ironic). After reading this, for an expanded look, buy Gernet's legendary work of same subject.

Excellent short history

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This book does an excellent job of condensing centuries of history into its most salient points. The authors manage to pick the biggest factors of change or stability in each time period, and do a good job of tieing in the high points of Chinese culture, including art, religion and philosophy. I read this book before my trip to China and felt very well briefed on the long and diverse history of the area, especially for such a short volume. I thought it was a great introduction to Chinese history and culture, and found many reference items included to follow up on. Well done.

Is China too big of a subject for a short book?

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I loved Scott Morton's book on Japan. The China book, however, was difficult to get through. I think part of the reason is that China is too big. I've tried other books on Chinese history and they all seem to have the same problem. There is so much going on its hard to get a feel for each time period. To get a more intimate look China's history would probably have to be studied by region (or by periods).