Throughout the second century B.C., the world of East Asia was divided between two great superpowers, the Han Chinese and the Hsiung-nu, facing off against each other sometimes peaceably and sometimes antagonistically. In Ancient China and Its Enemies, Nicola Di Cosmo provides a magisterial survey of the rise of the lesser known of these two powers, the nomadic Hsiung-nu. This book is invaluable not only for understanding the relations between ancient China and its major enemy, but also for understanding either of the powers individually.
Several good histories of China for general readers have been published in recent years, e.g., Witold Rodzinski's The Walled Kingdom (Free Pr., 1984). Cotterell's book, however, is too amateurish to be among them. It alternates between convention and error and often condenses history in a confusing way. Huang's macro history, on the other hand, is most welcome.
The History of China: Volume 11, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, Part 2
This is the second of two volumes in this major history dealing with the gradual decline of the Ch'ing empire in China (the first was volume 10). Volume 11 surveys the persistence and deterioration of the old order in China during the late nineteenth century, and the profound stirring during that period, which led to China's great twentieth-century revolution.
The History of China: Volume 5, The Sung Dynasty and its Precursors, 907-1279, Part 1
This addition to the authoritative multivolume History of China presents a chronological account broadly focused on the political and military history of a period of vast, deep, and irreversible change...Scholarly footnotes, 32 maps, and a 53-page bibliography offer guidance for further research...
The History of China: Volume 15, The People's Republic, Part 2, Revolutions within the Chinese Revolution, 1966-1982
Volume 15 of The History of China is the second of two volumes dealing with the People's Republic of China since its birth in 1949. The harbingers of the Cultural Revolution were analyzed in Volume 14. Volume 15 traces a course of events still only partially understood by most Chinese.
