{"product_id":"the-chinese-century-a-photographic-history-of-the-last-hundred-years-9780679449805","title":"The Chinese Century: A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years","description":"\u003cp\u003eChina is one of the great question marks on the world stage as we approach the third millennium. No longer a sleeping giant  neither is China a stable ally of the West. Economically it is an emerging powerhouse  and politically it is precariously balanced between the free market and military dictatorship. There could be no better time to try to understand Chinas history--the distance it has traveled  and where it may be going from here--than today.  The Chinese Century tells the story in over two hundred and fifty rare  eloquent photographs that have been chosen from archives  libraries  and private collections throughout China  Taiwan  and the West. Many of the photographs have never been seen outside China. Like a time machine  they let us see historical events that for most of us have existed until now only in words: the lives of the rural peasants and the privileged elite from the time of the Qing dynasty to the Peoples Republic  the opulence and squalor that the European colonial powers brought to China in their concession areas  the cities within Chinese cities that were inhabited exclusively by Europeans. Here are the rare photos of the Boxer Rebellion and the Rape of Nanking  the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. There are quirky moments  as well  such as American soldiers during the Second World War eating their K rations with chopsticks  and private photographs of Mao Zedong covered in river mud after a leisurely swim.  The photographs are paired with a stunning historical text by one of the Wests most respected China scholars  Jonathan D. Spence  writing here for the first time with his wife  Annping Chin. The narrative traces the nations disintegration into civil and world war  Communist revolution  and its slow reemergence as a military and economic superpower. Focusing on the lives of ordinary Chinese as well as on the towering figures such as Chiang Kai-shek and Meo Zedong  Spence weaves an intricate and fascinating social  political  and military history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45495911612469,"sku":"ByrdShop_0679449809","price":53.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780679449805.jpg?v=1780903571","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-chinese-century-a-photographic-history-of-the-last-hundred-years-9780679449805","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}