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CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: What Everyone Needs to Know. By Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. Oxford, U.K.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. xvii, 164 pp. US$16.95. ISBN 978-0-19-539412-2.
This is one of those little, readable books that could only have been written by someone who has spent a career working on the subject matter. Wasserstrom gives us a contemporary account that fluently summarizes and explains the trajectories and significance of recent Chinese history, without bemusing the beginner or irritating the more experienced China scholar. I have already recommended the book to colleagues teaching China-related courses to general arts students. This will give them a grounding in some key ideas, facts and narratives, and will steer them towards a balanced and thoughtful approach to the idea of China.
The book is divided into six sections: Schools of Thought; Imperial China; Revolutions and Revolutionaries; From Mao to Now; US-China Misunderstandings; and The Future. There is also a useful section on further reading, and an index. The first three sections aim to provide an overview of the core principles of Chinese thought and of historical milestones, sufficient to ask interesting questions of the present day. Thus, the section on Schools of Thought focuses mainly on Confucianism, as it is thus that Wasserstrom can explain how notions of harmonization and economic...