China, the greatest nation on earth, is one of the world’s oldest states. It has maintained virtually unchanged borders since the 13th century, when it was invaded by the Mongols under Kubilai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty and created the mighty Great State that Marco Polo described in his diaries.
Over the centuries, powerful domestic interests tried to keep China isolated, and so its image was coined in history. Timothy Brook, however, shows that it was never cut off from the rest of the world, and he does so through the individual stories of the country’s notables and humble people, narrating the structures of the Great State, how they lived through wars, diplomacy, vassalage, religion, invasions to and from the steppe, the arrival of new ideas and technologies, the blurred line between trade and piracy, between resistance and complicity with the colonial powers. In other words, China’s relationship with the rest of the world over the last eight centuries, from the time of the Yuan dynasty to the present day, through the periods of the successive Ming and Qing dynasties, the republic and the communist regime. The Great State is a history of how the Chinese see and have seen themselves over time, and how this has influenced the way they act, both at home and abroad, in the past and in the present. A book that will help to understand today’s and tomorrow’s world in its relations with China.
Pages: 496
Publisher: ALIANZA EDITORIAL
Binding: Soft cover
ISBN: 9788413623597
RPP: 27,55 euros
