About the book
“A erudite, wise, and beautifully written single-volume history of a civilization I knew I should know more about.” Tom Holland
‘Masterful and fascinating… well-paced, eminently readable and timely. A must-read for those who want and need to know about China yesterday, today and tomorrow’ Peter Frankopan
The history of China is extraordinarily rich and dramatic. Now Michael Wood, one of the UK’s pre-eminent historians, brings it all together in a major new history of China in one volume that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand its burgeoning role in our world today.
China is the oldest living civilisation on earth, but its history is still surprisingly little known in the rest of the world. Michael Wood’s dazzling narrative – combining great breadth with local and personal stories, interwoven with the author’s own travel diaries – is a fascinating account of 4,000-year-old Chinese tradition, spanning life stationed at the Great Wall or within the Forbidden City. The story is enriched by the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries; correspondence and court cases dating back to the Qin and Han dynasties; family letters from real-life Terracotta Army soldiers; stories of Silk Road traders and Buddhist travellers, together with memoirs and diaries of emperors, poets and peasants.
Set in the modern era, the book is packed with new insights, featuring electrifying manifestos by feminist revolutionaries Qiu Jin and He Zhen, extraordinary eyewitness accounts of the Japanese invasion, the Great Famine, and the Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao, and fascinating newly published sources for the great turning points in modern Chinese history, including the Tiananmen Square crisis of 1989 and President Xi Jinping’s new order.
A compelling portrait of a single civilization over an immense period of time, the book is packed with intimate detail and colorful voices, taking us from the desolate steppes of Mongolia to the ultramodern world of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. It also asks what were the forces that held China together for so long. Why was China overtaken by the West after the 18th century? What lies behind China’s extraordinary rise today? The Story of China tells a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and profound humanity; a portrait of a country that will be of the greatest importance to the world in the 21st century.
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/la-historia-de-china
