Drawing from a power elite perspective and the latest empirical data, Domhoff’s classic text is an invaluable tool for teaching students about how... power operates in U.S. society.

China's transformation in the last few decades has been perhaps the most remarkable -- and most controversial -- development in modern history. Barely a... century removed from the struggling and out-dated Qing Empire, China has managed to reinvent itself on an unprecedented scale: from Empire, to Communist state, to hybrid capitalist superpower. Yet the full implications of China’s rapid march to modernity are not widely understood -- particularly, the effects of China’s meteoric rise on the nation’s many ethnic minorities. China: A Modern History is the definitive guide to this complex contemporary phenomenon.Deng Xiaoping’s 1980s policy of 'reform and opening," which saw China enter the world market, is only the most recent in a series of dramatic shifts that have transformed Chinese society over the past 150 years. China: A Modern History explores these contrasts in detail, while also highlighting the enduring values which have informed Chinese identity for millennia. Michael Dillon’s China: A Modern History is essential reading for those interested in the past, present and future course of one of the world’s great nations. Clearly and compellingly written, this will stand as the best introduction to this spectacular and still-unfinished story. 

Scholars have long accepted China's own view of its traditional foreign relations: that China devised its own world order and maintained it from the... second century B.C. to the nineteenth century. China ruled out equality with any nation: foreign rulers and their envoys were treated as subordinates or inferiors, required to send periodic tribute embassies to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese court was otherwise uninterested in foreign lands. Its principal interests were to maintain peace with what it perceived to be barbarian neighbors and to coax or coerce them into admitting China's superiority and accepting the Chinese emperor as the Son of Heaven.But Chinese foreign policy was not monolithic. Court officials in traditional times were much more realistic and pragmatic than is commonly assumed. They did not scorn foreign trade, nor were ignorant of foreign lands. Challenging the accepted view of Chinese foreign relations, the authors of China among Equals contribute to a clearer assessment of Chinese foreign relations and policy. From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, China did not dogmatically enforce its own world order. Chinese were eager for foreign trade and knowledgeable about their neighbors. The Sung (960-1279), the principal dynasty during that era, was flexible in its dealings with foreigners. Its officials recognized the military and political weakness of the dynasty, and in general they adopted a realistic and pragmatic foreign policy. They were compelled to accept foreign states as equals, and the relations between China and other states were defined by diplomatic parity.

China and Albert Einstein is the first extensive study in English or Chinese of China's reception of the celebrated physicist and his theory of... relativity. Tracing the influence of Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century and Western missionaries and educators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as they introduced key concepts of Western physical science and paved the way for Einstein's radical new ideas, Danian Hu shows us that Chinese receptivity was fostered by the trickle of Chinese students sent abroad for study beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and by the openness of the May Fourth Movement (1916-1923). In a series of biographical studies of Chinese physicists, Hu describes the Chinese assimilation of relativity and explains how Chinese physicists offered arguments and theories of their own. Hu's account concludes with the troubling story of the fate of foreign ideas such as Einstein's in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when the theory of relativity was denigrated along with Einstein's ideas on democracy and world peace. China and Albert Einstein is an important contribution to Einstein studies and a landmark work in the history of Chinese science.

"Peaceful coexistence," long a key phrase in China’s strategic thinking, is a constructive doctrine that offers China a path for influencing the... international system. So argues Liselotte Odgaard in this timely analysis of China's national security strategy in the context of its foreign policy practice.China’s program of peaceful coexistence emphasizes absolute sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. Odgaard suggests that China’s policy of working within the international community and with non-state actors such as the UN aims to win for China greater power and influence without requiring widespread exercise of military or economic pressure. Odgaard examines the origins of peaceful coexistence in early Soviet doctrine, its midcentury development by China and India, and its ongoing appeal to developing countries. She reveals what this foreign policy offers China through a comparative study of aspiring powers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She explores its role in China’s border disputes in the South China Sea and with Russia and India; in diplomacy in the UN Security Council over Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar; and in China’s handling of challenges to the legitimacy of its regime from Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Japan.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009! In its quarter-century-long shift from communism to capitalism, China has transformed itself from a desperately... poor nation into a country with one of the fastest-growing and largest economies in the world. Doug Guthrie examines the reforms driving the economic genesis in this compact and highly readable introduction to contemporary China. He highlights the social, cultural and political factors fostering this revolutionary change and interweaves a broad structural analysis with a consideration of social changes at the micro and macro levels. In this new, revised edition author Guthrie updates his story on modern China and provides the latest authoritative data and examples from current events to chart where this dynamically changing society is headed and what the likely consequences for the rest of the world will be.

"Could not be timelier...At a time when Washington is trying to cajole China into helping to halt Iranian efforts to build nuclear weapons and... long-range missiles, diplomats and scholars ought to put this solid, sober, well-researched, reasonably priced book near the top of their reading lists." -Choice MagazineIran's nuclear aspirations increasingly dominate its relations with the United States and Europe. China remains one of Iran's strongest allies on the Security Council, and also its most likely supplier of technology and assistance, built on decades of close economic and military relations. Iran is enjoying strong new influence in the Middle East and Asia following record oil profits and Shi'i victories in Iraqi parliamentary elections. Like Iran, China fought for decades to increase its self-reliance and geopolitical influence after painful experiences under European colonialism, which spurred nationalist revolutions.With China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World, John Garver breaks new ground on the relationship between the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Grounding his survey in the twin concepts of civilization and power, Garver explores the relationship between these two ancient and proud peoples, each of which consider the other a peer and a partner in their mutual determination to build a post-Western-dominated Asia. Successive governments of both China and Iran have recognized substantial national capabilities in each other, capabilities that allow the countries to achieve their own national interests through cooperation. These interests have varied - from countering Soviet expansionism to resisting U.S. unilateralism - but the cooperative relationship between the two nations has remained constant.In his compelling analysis, Garver explores the evolution of Sino-Iranian relations through several phases, including Iran under the shah and before the 1979 revolution; from the 1979 revolution to 1989, a year marked both by the end of the Iran-Iraq war and the beginning of conflict in Sino-U.S. relations; and from 1989 to 2004. China and Iran includes discussion of the current debates at the International Atomic Energy Agency over Iran's nuclear programs and China's role in assisting these programs and in supporting Iran in international debates. Garver examines China's involvement in Iran's efforts to modernize its military, including China's offer of weapons, capital goods, and engineering services in exchange for Iranian oil, suggesting links between this energy exchange and China's support for Iran in political arenas.In today's political climate, where China is recognized as a rising and increasingly influential global power and Iran as one of the most powerful nations in the Middle East, this book presents a crucial analysis of a topic of utmost importance to scholars and the general public today.John W. Garver is professor of international affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Among his previous books are Protracted Contest: Sino-Soviet Rivalry in the Twentieth Century and Face Off: China, the United States, and Taiwan's Democratization."An excellent study of complex and understudied issues. It is absolutely seminal in the sense that there is no book at all on this topic, and precious few articles. China and Iran is a major contribution to the field." - Kamran Aghaie, University of Texas at Austin"Garver has again proven himself to be the nation's leading scholar of China's foreign relations. This pathbreaking scholarship provides a much-needed corrective to media caricatures and fills a void of reliable information." - David Shambaugh, George Washington University"Garver's painstaking research shows how China and Iran try consistently to resist perceived American hegemony and invoke their ancient relations to legitimize the convergence of their national interests. Garver empathetically probes these relations from the perspectives of their leaders, rather than his own American lenses." - R. K. Ramazani, University of Virginia"Garver's incisive and lucid work draws attention to the range and depth of China-Iran cultural interactions and how these shape their perceptions and projection of power.... These rigorous, refreshing, innovative insights on the intricacies of regional politics are likely to recast our thinking on power relationships in Asia and the Middle East." - Saaed Shafqat, Columbia University"A tour de force of the highest importance to U.S. policymakers and scholars alike." - Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr."The first of its kind, Garver's timely book combines exciting insights on politics, ideology, Islam, and energy, as well as military and nuclear policy. This will be the standard work for some time to come." - Yitzhak Shichor, University of Haifa

China and Maritime Europe, 1500-1800 looks at early modern China in some of its most complicated and intriguing relations with a world of increasing... global interconnection. New World silver, Chinese tea, Jesuit astronomers at the Chinese court, and merchants and marauders of all kinds play important roles here. Although pieces of these stories have been told before, these chapters provide the fullest and clearest available summaries, based on sources in Chinese and in European languages, making this information accessible to students and scholars interested in the growing connections among continents and civilizations in the early modern period.

With one of the world's fastest-growing economies and a population quickly approaching two billion, China holds substantial sway over global financial,... social, and cultural networks. This volume explains China's economic rise and liberalization and assesses how this growth is reshaping the structure and dynamics of global capitalism in the twenty-first century.China has historically been the center of Asian trade, economic, and financial networks, and its global influence continues to expand in the twenty-first century. In exploring the causes for and effects of China's resurging power, this volume takes a broad, long-term view that reaches well beyond economics for answers. Contributors explore the vast web of complex issues raised by China's ascendancy.The first three chapters discuss the global and historical origins of China's shift to a market economy and that transformation's impact on the international market system. Subsequent essays explore the ability of large Chinese manufacturers to counter the might of transnational retailers, the effect of China's rise on world income distribution and labor, and the consequences of a stronger China for its two most powerful neighbors, Russia and Japan. The concluding chapter questions whether China's growth is sustainable and if it will ultimately shift the center of global capitalism from the West to the East.This cutting-edge collection of works by leading global political economists links current events to long-term trends in global capitalist development to provide a comprehensive analysis of China's impact on the world. Scholars of China, world systems and globalization, international relations, and political economy will find this assessment worthy of study and an important starting point for further research.Contributors: Richard P. Appelbaum, Giovanni Arrighi, Edna Bonacich, József Böröcz, Paul S. Ciccantell, John Gulick, Ho-Fung Hung, Stephanie Luce, Beverly J. Silver, Alvin Y. So, and Lu Zhang.

In the quarter century after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Beijing assisted Vietnam in its struggle against two formidable... foes, France and the United States. Indeed, the rise and fall of this alliance is one of the most crucial developments in the history of the Cold War in Asia. Drawing on newly released Chinese archival sources, memoirs and diaries, and documentary collections, Qiang Zhai offers the first comprehensive exploration of Beijing's Indochina policy and the historical, domestic, and international contexts within which it developed.In examining China's conduct toward Vietnam, Zhai provides important insights into Mao Zedong's foreign policy and the ideological and geopolitical motives behind it. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he shows, Mao considered the United States the primary threat to the security of the recent Communist victory in China and therefore saw support for Ho Chi Minh as a good way to weaken American influence in Southeast Asia. In the late 1960s and 1970s, however, when Mao perceived a greater threat from the Soviet Union, he began to adjust his policies and encourage the North Vietnamese to accept a peace agreement with the United States.

John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient... civilization. It remains a masterwork without parallel. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date, covering reforms in the post-Mao period through the early years of the twenty-first century, including the leadership of Hu Jintao. She also provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come.

After the 1978 Economic Reform, China's economic development has been on a fast track ever since. Later on, the successful accession into the WTO in... 2001 accelerated China's economic transformation and made it more integrated with the world. Today, as the second-largest economy in the world, China has earned herself a leading role on the world stage beyond dispute. This book provides readers with answers to why and how China functions as a leader in the world economy. This book surveys China's economy in four parts -- economic institutions, economic problems, economic policies and economic analyses. It is based on the author's latest findings from his scholarly research on China's economy, his involvement with China's economic reform and development, and his personal contacts with Chinese academics, entrepreneurs, government officials and ordinary citizens for over thirty years. The book is written in a style accessible to the general readers, since most chapters are based on articles published in three major Chinese newspapers, of which the author is a columnist. It can also serve as a reference book for professionals, an authoritative guide for general readers and a supplementary text for university students. The author uses it as a supplementary text for his course on the Chinese economy at Princeton University.

Whether revealing small-town superstitions or exposing Beijing’s underworld, these works of literary fiction offer insights to modern China and its... myriad of social, cultural, and human concerns. An expansive country, China is made up of numerous ethnic groups with a dizzying array of local dialects and subcultures. In addition, China is experiencing staggering change, which is explored in contemporary literature. From the idyllic mountains of West Hunan to the picturesque water town of Zhejiang, from the high plateau of western Sichuan to the harsh landscape of the northeast — this compelling collection of short fiction represents the incredible diversity that is China.

In a tender and uproarious memoir, singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly of a dirt-poor southeast Texas boyhood. The... only child of a hard-drinking father and a holy-roller mother, acclaimed musician Rodney Crowell was no stranger to bombast. But despite a home life always threatening to burst into violence, Rodney fiercely loved his mother and idolized his blustering father, a frustrated musician who took him to see Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash perform. Set in 1950s Houston, a frontier-rough town with icehouses selling beer by the gallon on payday, pest infestations right out of a horror film, and the kind of freedom mischievous kids dream of, Chinaberry Sidewalks is Rodney's tribute to his parents and his remarkable youth.  Full of the most satisfying kind of nostalgia, it is hardly recognizable as a celebrity memoir.  Rather, it's a story of coming-of-age at a particular time, place, and station, crafted as well as the perfect song.