China's revolution, as time passes, may well stand out as the epicentric event of the late years of the second millennium. Certainly no event has affected so many human beings, directly and indirectly. It is the great gift of John Fairbank's knowledge and skill to tell this story in compact, dry, often humorous terms in a manner which does not debase scholarship in order to inform the general public. Fairbank's The Great Chinese  Revolution is a small classic, permeated with insight and earthy touches. It will be read widely and for many years.

Foreword

  Chronology

1. Understanding China's Revolution

PART I:

LATE IMPERIAL CHINA:

 GROWTH AND CHANGE,1800-1895

2. The Manchu Rulers' Outlook from Peking

3. Some Theoretical Approaches

4. The Growth of Commerce Before the Treaty Period

5. Problems.Within Chinese Society

6. The Western Intrusion

7. Efforts at Modernization

PART II:

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE LATE

  IMPERIAL ORDER, 1895-1911

8. Reform and Reaction

9. The Genesis of the Revolution of 1911

PART III:

  THE ERA OF THE FIRST

  CHINESE REPUBLIC,1912-1949

10. The Early Chinese Republic and Its Problems

11. The New Culture and Sino-Liberal Education

12. The Nationalist Revolution and the First KMT-CCP

United Front

13. Nationalists and Communists, 1927-1937

14. The War of Resistance and Civil War, 1937-1949

PART IV:

  THE CHINESE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC

 1949-1985

15. Creating the New State

16. The Great Leap Forward and Its Consequences

17. Mao's Greaf Proletarian Cultural Revolution

18. New Directions: Deng Hsiao-p'ing's Reforms

19. Perspectives

Anti-Bibliographic note

Appendix: The Cambridge History of China, Contents,

  Volumes 10-15

Sources of Quotations

Index

MAPS

China

Late Imperial China

Railways of China

People's Republic of China