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RR 2017/028 The China Reader: Rising Power (6th edition) Edited by David Shambaugh Oxford University Press Oxford 2016 xvi + 547 pp. ISBN 0 19 939707 5 (hbck) ;ISBN 0 19 939708 2 (pbck) £64 $99 (hbck); £25.99 $39.95 (pbck)
When a reviewer is informed that a book is in its sixth edition, his or her first reaction will be to find out how far it differs from the fifth. In the case of The China Reader , it turns out to be completely different. The first 'edition' appeared as long ago as 1967 and aimed to survey Chinese history from the late eighteenth century to 1964; later ones have been, in effect, supplements to it, each concerned with a more recent period. The present volume covers the years from 1997 to 2014. So, in fact, it would be better described as a "sixth series" rather than a "sixth edition".
The book has 72 contributions, all previously published elsewhere between 2002 and 2014, but the majority date from 2010 or later. There are about 50 authors, of whom only about a dozen are Chinese, including several of the country's leaders; the rest are Western scholars. The editor explains that the book aims to provide a combination of primary material originating in...