Books like A history of East Asia by Charles Holcombe

An authoritative overview of China’s modern history, from the late Qing dynasty to contemporary times, detailing political changes, social transformations, and key figures in a clear, accessible narrative.

Written by top scholars in the field, East Asia: A Cultural, Social, And Political History, delivers a comprehensive cultural, political, economic, and intellectual history of East Asia, while focusing on the narratives and histories of China, Japan, and Korea in a larger, global context.

The turbulent and chequered past of the world's most populous country is one of the most fascinating in history, and relatively little known in the West. From the beginnings of Chinese prehistory right through to Internet censorship with the 'Great Firewall of China', Gordon Kerr offers a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous country. A Short History of China provides an absorbing introduction to more than 4,000 years of Chinese history, telling the stories of the tyrants, despots, femmes fatales, artists, warriors and philosophers who have shaped this fascinating and complex nation. It describes the amazing technological advances that her scientists and inventors made many hundreds of years before similar discoveries in Europe. It also investigates the Chinese view of the world and examines the movements, aspirations and philosophies that moulded it and, in so doing, created the Chinese nation. Finally, the book examines the dramatic changes of the last few decades and the emergence of China as an economic and industrial 21st century superpower, making Napoleon Bonaparte's words about her ring true: 'Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world.' - Back cover.