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Great state : China and the world / Timothy Brook.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, [2020]Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First U.S. editionDescription: xxii, 442 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0062950983
  • 9780062950987
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction : ten thousand countries : Vancouver, 2019 -- The Great Khan and his portraitist : Xanadu, 1280 -- The blue princess and the Il-khan : Tabriz, 1295 -- The plague : Caffa, 1346 -- The eunuch and his hostage : Galle, 1411 -- The castaway and the horse trader : Zhejiang/Beijing, 1488 -- The pirate and the bureaucrat : Canton, 1517 -- The Englishman and the goldsmith : Bantam, 1604 -- The missionary and his convert : Nanjing, 1616 -- The occupied : The Yangzi Delta, 1645 -- The Lama and the prince : Kokonor, 1719 -- The merchant and his man : Ostend/Canton, 1793 -- The photographer and his coolie : Johannesburg, 1905 -- The collaborator and his lawyer : Shanghai, 1946 -- Epilogue : one hundred and ninety-three countries : New York, 1971/Quito, 2010.
Summary: The world-renowned scholar and author of Vermeer's Hat does for China what Mary Beard did for Rome in SPQR: Timothy Brook analyzes the last eight centuries of China's relationship with the world in this magnificent history that brings together accounts from civil servants, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, migrant workers, invaders, visionaries, and traitors--creating a multifaceted portrait of this highly misunderstood nation. China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, has maintained them for the eight centuries since. China remained China through the Ming, the Qing, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. But despite the desires of some of the most powerful people in the Great State through the ages, China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders as well as foreign traders and imperialists. Its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese. China became a mega-state not by conquering others, Timothy Brook contends, but rather by being conquered by others and then claiming right of succession to the empires of those Great States. What the Mongols and Manchu ruling families wrought, the Chinese ruling families of the Ming, the Republic, and the People's Republic, have perpetuated. Yet a contemporary Chinese idea of a 'fatherland' that is, and always has been, completely and naturally Chinese persists. Brook argues that China, like everywhere, is the outcome of history, and like every state, rests on its capacities to conquer and suppress. In The Great State, Brook examines China's relationship with the world at large for the first time, from the Yuan through to the present, by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met, and continues to meet, the world.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 327.51 B871 Available 33111009645413
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 327.51 B871 Available 33111009006731
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The world-renowned scholar and author of Vermeer's Hat does for China what Mary Beard did for Rome in SPQR: Timothy Brook analyzes the last eight centuries of China's relationship with the world in this magnificent history that brings together accounts from civil servants, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, migrant workers, invaders, visionaries, and traitors--creating a multifaceted portrait of this highly misunderstood nation.



China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, has maintained them for the eight centuries since. China remained China through the Ming, the Qing, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. But despite the desires of some of the most powerful people in the Great State through the ages, China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders as well as foreign traders and imperialists. Its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese.

China became a mega-state not by conquering others, Timothy Brook contends, but rather by being conquered by others and then claiming right of succession to the empires of those Great States. What the Mongols and Manchu ruling families wrought, the Chinese ruling families of the Ming, the Republic, and the People's Republic, have perpetuated. Yet a contemporary Chinese idea of a 'fatherland' that is, and always has been, completely and naturally Chinese persists. Brook argues that China, like everywhere, is the outcome of history, and like every state, rests on its capacities to conquer and suppress.

In The Great State, Brook examines China's relationship with the world at large for the first time, from the Yuan through to the present, by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met, and continues to meet, the world.

The Great State includes a 16-page color insert.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : ten thousand countries : Vancouver, 2019 -- The Great Khan and his portraitist : Xanadu, 1280 -- The blue princess and the Il-khan : Tabriz, 1295 -- The plague : Caffa, 1346 -- The eunuch and his hostage : Galle, 1411 -- The castaway and the horse trader : Zhejiang/Beijing, 1488 -- The pirate and the bureaucrat : Canton, 1517 -- The Englishman and the goldsmith : Bantam, 1604 -- The missionary and his convert : Nanjing, 1616 -- The occupied : The Yangzi Delta, 1645 -- The Lama and the prince : Kokonor, 1719 -- The merchant and his man : Ostend/Canton, 1793 -- The photographer and his coolie : Johannesburg, 1905 -- The collaborator and his lawyer : Shanghai, 1946 -- Epilogue : one hundred and ninety-three countries : New York, 1971/Quito, 2010.

The world-renowned scholar and author of Vermeer's Hat does for China what Mary Beard did for Rome in SPQR: Timothy Brook analyzes the last eight centuries of China's relationship with the world in this magnificent history that brings together accounts from civil servants, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, migrant workers, invaders, visionaries, and traitors--creating a multifaceted portrait of this highly misunderstood nation. China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, has maintained them for the eight centuries since. China remained China through the Ming, the Qing, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. But despite the desires of some of the most powerful people in the Great State through the ages, China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders as well as foreign traders and imperialists. Its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese. China became a mega-state not by conquering others, Timothy Brook contends, but rather by being conquered by others and then claiming right of succession to the empires of those Great States. What the Mongols and Manchu ruling families wrought, the Chinese ruling families of the Ming, the Republic, and the People's Republic, have perpetuated. Yet a contemporary Chinese idea of a 'fatherland' that is, and always has been, completely and naturally Chinese persists. Brook argues that China, like everywhere, is the outcome of history, and like every state, rests on its capacities to conquer and suppress. In The Great State, Brook examines China's relationship with the world at large for the first time, from the Yuan through to the present, by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met, and continues to meet, the world.

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