The Search for Modern China

From the Publisher

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.

Boston Globe
A remarkable achievement...vivid...fluent, graceful.... A publishing event.

Washington Post Book World
History at its best...all in the vivid, accessible style for which the author is well known.

New York Times
Monumental.... History that is always lively, always concrete, always comprehensible.

Publishers Weekly
Spence advocates democracy in China and presents contemporary views of its oppressive history, including Chiang Kai-Shek's fascist supporters and the bloodbath known as the Cultural Revolution. ``A splendid achievement, this sweeping . . . epic chronicle compresses four centuries of political and social change into a sharply observant narrative,'' said Publishers Weekly.

New York Times Books of the Century
[Spence] shows, rahter than tells, the continuity of Chinese history....This superb history will challenge and enrich Western thinking about contemporary China.