A narrative history of China since the end of dynastic rule at the 1911 Revolution, this book seeks in nine chapters to outline the major political developments of the last eighty years, with attention also given to economic, social and cultural change. Although concerned mainly with the Chinese mainland, there is a full chapter on 'Greater China'. The book uses the pinyin system throughout for Chinese names. By providing information about both Republican and post-1949 China, the book implies that an understanding of present-day China is impossible without the background of earlier events...