ABSTRACT
Providing historical insights essential to the understanding of contemporary China, this text presents a nation's story of trauma and growth during the early twentieth century. It explains how China's defeat by Japan in 1895 prompted an explosion of radical reform proposals and the beginning of elite Chinese disillusionment with the Qing government. The book explores how this event also prompted five decades of efforts to strengthen the state and the nation, democratize the political system, and build a fairer and more unified society.
Peter Zarrow weaves narrative together with thematic chapters that pause to address in-depth themes central to China's transformation. While the book proceeds chronologically, the chapters in each part examine particular aspects of these decades in a more focused way, borrowing from methodologies of the social sciences, cultural studies, and empirical historicism. Essential reading for both students and instructors alike, it draws a picture of the personalities, ideas and processes by which a modern state was created out of the violence and trauma of these decades.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|144 pages
The road to revolution, 1895–1919
chapter 1|18 pages
The rise of Confucian radicalism
chapter 2|23 pages
1911: History and historiography
chapter 3|22 pages
Ideas and ideals in the fall of the Qing
chapter 4|20 pages
From the military dictator to the warlords
chapter 5|17 pages
Social conditions in the countryside
chapter 6|16 pages
Urban social change
chapter 7|17 pages
Intellectuals, the Republic, and a new culture
part II|150 pages
Nationalism and revolution, 1919–37
chapter 8|21 pages
Politics and culture in the May Fourth movement
chapter 9|20 pages
National identity, Marxism, and social justice
chapter 10|20 pages
The rise of political parties
chapter 11|20 pages
Ideology and power in the National Revolution
chapter 12|18 pages
The Northern Expedition and the rise of Chiang Kai-shek
chapter 14|24 pages
Peasants and Communists
part III|63 pages
War and revolution, 1937–49