China Transformed : : Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience / / R. Bin Wong.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Wong, R. Bin,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (352 p.)

"This bold, intellectually ambitious, and wholly original book challenges the way in which Western social science understands China. It will set the standard for all future comparative and theoretical research on China."—Timothy Brook, Stanford University"This is a most extraordinary book. Wong's approach is to explore carefully similarities and differences between Chinese and European development over the long term, highlighting themes related to state-making and popular action. This is by far the most sophisticated, extended discussion of imperial and modern China in comparative perspective that I have seen."—Peter C. Perdue, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe assumption still made in much social science research that Europe provides a universal model of development is fundamentally mistaken, according to R. Bin Wong. The solution is not, however, simply to reject Eurocentric norms but to build complementary perspectives, such as a Sinocentric one, to evaluate current understandings of European developments. A genuinely comparative perspective, he argues, will free China from wrong expectations and will allow those working on European problems to recognize the distinct character of Western development.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction: Beyond European Models of Historical Change -- One Thousand Years of Chinese History and Western Social Theory -- A Disclaimer and a Defense -- Part I. Economic History and the Problem of Development -- 1. Economic Change in Late Imperial China and Early Modern Europe -- 2. Dynamics of Industrial Expansion in Early Modern Europe and Late Imperial China -- 3. Making Modern Economies -- Part II. State Formation and Transformation in Eurasia -- 4. Chinese and European Perspectives on State Formation and Transformation -- 5. Constructing Domestic Order -- 6. Political Economies in Europe and China -- 7. The Chinese State after 1850 -- 8. China after 1949 -- Part III. Politics, Protest, and Social Change -- 9. Grain Seizures and Political Economy -- 10. State Making, Fiscal Negotiations, and Tax Resistance -- 11. Revolutions -- 12. Comparative History and Social Theory -- REFERENCES -- INDEX