CHINA AND THE WORLD, 1100 BC TO THE PRESENT

Shallow crease down spine. 492pp; 5 maps in b&w; 12 col plates; 12 b&w plates.

China is the most exciting rising power in the world today. The explosive growth of its economy and the possibility that it might become the next superpower, dominant in East Asia and influential in every part of the world, has attracted universal interest, admiration and fear.

Most histories approach China through the story of its dynasties, its struggle to defend its borders and its internal politics. Harry G. Geller’s The Dragon and the Foreign Devils is the first history for the general reader to tell the story of China from the outside as well as from the inside. His grand narrative explores the developing relationships involved, from the incursions into China of steppe horsemen around 300 BC to Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire, from the arrival of Marco Polo to the Opium Wars, and from the Communist Revolution of 1949 to the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989, ending with China’s recent resurgence as a dynamic economy and a powerful international player.

While explaining what motivated these foreign powers and how concerns with China fitted into their own major interests and views of the world, Harry G. Geller also outlines the recurring cycles of Chinese history, from turmoil and disorder to strong central government and back to turmoil. With essential maps and illustrations, and a series of informative capsules that elaborate on key topics. The Dragon and the Foreign Devils makes sense of China’s changing relationships with the rest of the world as never before.