
- 400 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
The author of
Vermeer's Hat shares "a dizzying and exhilarating journey" through 800 years of Chinese history and national identity (New Statesman).
China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century and has maintained them ever since—through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. Yet China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders as well as foreign traders and imperialists. Its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese.
China became a mega-state not by conquering others, Timothy Brook contends, but rather by being conquered by others and then claiming right of succession to the empires of those Great States. What the Mongols and Manchu ruling families wrought, the Chinese ruling families of the Ming, the Republic, and the People's Republic, have perpetuated. Yet the idea of a naturally Chinese 'fatherland' persists to this day.
In The Great State, Brook examines China's relationship with the world at large for the first time, from the Yuan through to the present, by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met, and continues to meet, the world.
China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century and has maintained them ever since—through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. Yet China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders as well as foreign traders and imperialists. Its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese.
China became a mega-state not by conquering others, Timothy Brook contends, but rather by being conquered by others and then claiming right of succession to the empires of those Great States. What the Mongols and Manchu ruling families wrought, the Chinese ruling families of the Ming, the Republic, and the People's Republic, have perpetuated. Yet the idea of a naturally Chinese 'fatherland' persists to this day.
In The Great State, Brook examines China's relationship with the world at large for the first time, from the Yuan through to the present, by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met, and continues to meet, the world.
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Yes, you can access Great State by Timothy Brook in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Chinese History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Maps
- Dedication
- Epigraphs
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction: Ten Thousand Countries: Vancouver, 2019
- The Yuan Great State
- The Ming Great State
- The Qing Great State
- The Republic
- Epilogue: One Hundred and Ninety-Three Countries: New York, 1971/Quito, 2010
- Notes
- Index
- Photo Section
- Also by Timothy Brook
- About the Author
- Copyright
- About the Publisher