Analyzes the internal pressures and social crises that fostered the beginnings of the Chinese Revolution

The Routledge Companion to World History since 1914 is an outstanding compendium of facts and figures on World History. Fully up-to-date, reliable and clear, this volume is the indispensable source of information on a thorough range of topics such as: the Arab-Israeli conflict anti-semitism and the Holocaust all the world's major famines and natural disasters since 1914 whether all countries of the world have a king, president, prime minister or other governance GNP of the world's major states, year by year biographies of key figures civil rights movements the Vietnam War the rise of terrorism globalization. Thematically presented, the book covers topics relevant from the First World War to the Iraq war of 2003, and from post-colonial Africa to conflicts and movements in Southeast Asia. With maps, chronologies and full bibliography, this user-friendly reference work is the essential companion for students of history, politics and international relations, and for all those with an interest in world history.

For much of the world, the twentieth century can be seen as a big-budget disaster film--the stifling darkness of oppression, the green of the ruling classes. For the world's elite, the near-universal adoption of capitalism today reveals modern history as a narrative of unbroken progress. Eschewing conventional chronological accounts, The Twentieth Century is organized around the major themes of the last hundred years. To help us understand our recent past and probable future, Clive Ponting offers a "world systems" theory. His analysis holds that a few core states have dominated much of the rest of the world, which provides raw materials and cheap labor and remains tied to the core as virtual colonial territory. Between these extremes are Latin America, the Middle East, and eastern Asia, which have a limited shot at self-determination. Economic, social, and political differences between the core and periphery continue to grow. Atlantic predominance, which molded world history for four hundred years, has been challenged by the countries of the Pacific. The book's central theme revolves around the struggle between progress and barbarism; the hope for our future is that "our conscience will catch up with our reason." Everywhere in the world people now live longer than their predecessors. A majority has become literate, and most have benefited from recent technological progress. Nevertheless, democracy is unavailable to the preponderance of people, and in the century's final years the chasm between rich and poor continues to expand. On the eve of the millennium this vivid history is a must-read.

Providing historical insights essential to the understanding of contemporary China, this text presents a nation's story of trauma and growth during the early twentieth century. It explains how China's defeat by Japan in 1895 prompted an explosion of radical reform proposals and the beginning of elite Chinese disillusionment with the Qing government. The book explores how this event also prompted five decades of efforts to strengthen the state and the nation, democratize the political system, and build a fairer and more unified society. Peter Zarrow weaves narrative together with thematic chapters that pause to address in-depth themes central to China's transformation. While the book proceeds chronologically, the chapters in each part examine particular aspects of these decades in a more focused way, borrowing from methodologies of the social sciences, cultural studies, and empirical historicism. Essential reading for both students and instructors alike, it draws a picture of the personalities, ideas and processes by which a modern state was created out of the violence and trauma of these decades.

How has the world changed in the last century? As we look back across a hundred years of turbulence, Clive Ponting provides a major reassessment of what the twentieth century hgas meant to people throughout the world. THE PIMLICO HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY analyses the fundamental forces of population, industry and their consequences for the environment. it traces the rise and full of empires, the impact of nationalism, examines domestic politics from all political persepctives, and considers the darker side of history in the growing repressive power of states across the world and the most terrible of twentieth-century crimes - genocide. THE PIMLICO HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is a provocative and challenging analysis of the whole world in the twentieth century, combining a global sweep with an eye for detail and individual experiences.

How has the world changed in the last century? As we look back across a hundred years of turbulence, Clive Ponting provides a major reassessment of what the twentieth century has meant to people throughout the world. Progress and Barbarism analyses the fundamental forces of population, industry and their consequences for the environment. It traces the rise and fall of empires, the impact of nationalism, examines domestic politics from all political perspectives, and considers the darker side of history in the growing repressive power of states across the world and the most terrible of twentieth-century crimes - genocide. Progress and Barbarism is a provocative and challenging interpretation of twentieth-century history, combining a global sweep and an eye for detail and individual experiences.

The Handbook of the Politics of China is a comprehensive resource introducing readers to the very latest in research on Chinese politics. David Goodman provides an introduction to the key structures and issues, providing the foundations on which later learning can be built. Including a comprehensive bibliography, it is an ideal reference work for undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics. The Handbook contains four sections of new and original research, dealing with leadership and institutions, public policy, political economy and social change, and international relations. Each of the 26 chapters has been written by a leading internationally-established authority in the field and each reviews the literature on the topic, and presents the latest findings of research. Presenting the state of the art of the field, this reader-oriented Handbook is an essential primer for the study of China’s politics.