The Dragon and the Foreign Devils: China and the World, 1100 BC to the Present

"Tells the story of China from the outside as well as from the inside. [The book] explores the developing relationships involved, from the incursions into China of steppe horsemen around 200 BC to Genghis Kahn and the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century AD, from the arrival of Marco Polo and other European travellers in the late Middle Ages to the Opium Wars and China's decline after 1911, and from the Communist Revolution of 1949 to the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, ending with China's recent resurgence as a dynamic economy and a powerful international player. While explaining what motivated these foreign powers and how concerns with China fitted into their own major interests and views of the world, Harry G. Gelber also outlines the recurring cycles of Chinese history, from turmoil and disorder to strong central government and back to turmoil."--