In this fully revised and updated third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (R) , Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to the most urgent questions regarding the newest superpower, and offer a framework for understanding China's meteoric rise from developing country to superpower. Focusing their answers through the historical legacies--Confucian thought, Western and Japanese imperialism, the Mao era, and the massacre near Tiananmen Square--that largely define China's present-day trajectory, Wasserstrom and Cunningham introduce readers to the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, and the environmental fall-out of rapid Chinese industrialization. They also explain unique aspects of Chinese culture such as the one-child policy, and provide insight into Chinese-American relations, a subject that has become increasingly fraught during the Trump era. As Wasserstrom and Cunningham draw parallels between China and other industrialized nations during their periods of development, in particular the United States during its rapid industrialization in the 19th century, they also provide guidance on the ways we might expect China to act in the future vis-a-vis the United States, Russia, India, and its East Asian neighbors. Updated to include perspectives on Hong Kong's shifting political status, as well as expanding on President Xi Jinping's time in office, China in the 21st Century provides a concise and insightful introduction to this significant global power.

About the Author
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is a Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. His previous books include Global Shanghai, China's Brave New World, and Twentieth-Century China. Maura Elizabeth Cunningham is an Associate at the University of Michigan's Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. She has written on modern Chinese history for the Wall Street Journal and the LA Review of Books.

Reviews
It is always difficult to find a good introduction to contemporary China that does not deter newcomers into the field. It is particularly excruciating to recommend a book that assesses the to-and-fro of China's history with easiness and academic rigour. Happily, Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Maura Cunningham's third edition of China in the 21st Century gives us that and much more. The colossal task has been taken with unflappable conviction, fulfilling the wishes of the neophyte and satisfying the critical eye of the seasoned China hands. * Pablo Ignacio Ampuero Ruiz, NewBooks.Asia *
Wasserstrom is a sure-footed guide through the thickets of China's history and the turbo-driven landscape of its current affairs. Indispensable reading. * Andrew Ross, author of Fast Boat to China: Lessons from Shanghai *
Readers who know a fair bit about China already will be left better informed, looking at what they already knew in another light. Readers new to the subject couldn't start in a better place. * Urbanatomy.com *
Wasserstrom, a preeminent scholar of Chinese history, here provides a useful resource for those who want a greater understanding of the how and why of China's emergence as a global power. * Library Journal *
Praise for the first edition: "Wasserstrom has accomplished a remarkable feat: melding the insights from deep scholarly immersion in history with an up-to-the-minute grasp on contemporary developments in China and beyond. Written in a crisp prose,...questions big and small, alarmingly complex and deceptively simple * from who Confucius was to how the Communists defeated the Nationalists and whether China was bent on world dominationare answered with aplomb and precision.... I for one am grateful to have this little book in hand when I greet the next round of fresh-faced undergraduates coming to my classes wishing to know something about 'China.'Haiyan Lee, Stanford University *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190659080
Author Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 274g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 141mm * 16mm