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The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800 . Pamela Kyle Crossley . Malden, MA and Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell , 2010. xvii + 307 pp. £19.99; $34.95. ISBN 978-1-4051-6080-3
Book Reviews
With each passing decade, it becomes harder to write a history of modern China. The problem is not merely the accumulation of events, but the proliferation of competing themes. As China seemingly presents a new face to the world in each succeeding decade - as imperialist victim, revolutionary ideologue, pragmatic reformer or energetic entrepreneur - a background must be sought in the recent or not so recent past. The search for modern China is in a sense unending. Pamela Crossley is both honest and straightforward when she writes: "This book has put the pieces of Chinese history since roughly 1800 into a shape that makes sense to me. Nevertheless, I have attempted to supply the reader with sufficient pieces that he or she may rearrange them if the need to create a more sensible shape is felt" (p. ix), and she is as good as her word. The book she has produced is organized around a singular perception of modern Chinese history, but...