This text, the classic introduction to modern China for students and general readers, emerged from Spence's highly successful introductory course at Yale, in which he traced the beginnings of modern China to internal developments beginning in the early 17th century. Strong on social and political history, as well as Chinese culture and its intersections with politics, this paperback is a longstanding leader in the survey course on modern China.
Part I: Conquest and Consolidation
1. The Late Ming
2. The Manchu Conquest
3. Kangxi's Consolidation
4. Yongzheng's Authority
5. Chinese Society and the Reign of Qianlong
6. China and the Eighteenth-Century World
Part II: Fragmentation and Reform
7. The First Clash with the West
8. The Crisis Within
9. Restoration through Reform
10. New Tensions in the Late Qing
11. The End of the Dynasty
Part III: Envisioning State and Society
12. The New Republic
13. "A Road is Made"
14. The Fractured Alliance
15. The Guomindang in Power
16. Communist Survival
Part IV: War and Revolution
17. World War II
18. The Fall of the Guomindang State
19. The Birth of the People's Republic
20. Planning the New Society
21. Deepening the Revolution
22. Cultural Revolution
Part V: Re-entering the World
23. Reopening the Doors
24. Redefining Revolution
25. Levels of Power
26. Testing the Limits
27. Century's End
28. Breakthrough (new chapter to this edition)
