China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire, (10,000 BCE - 1799 CE)

Excellent, concise, recent history that takes the reader from the earliest times up to the present. Perfect for anyone who wants a comprehensive and well-written overview of Chinese history and civilization.

I finished the book on one long week-end vacation trip because it was both efficiently informative and made for enjoyable reading. It covered a lot of ground without being sketchy or polemic. If I were going to read only one book on the history of China, this would be it.

Heavy with detail, this is almost an academic's history. I felt I was being treated with respect, that the author was not being condescending to the intellect of a non-historian. The chronology is clear enough that one doesn't lose one's place in the millennia through which Chinese culture progressed, floundered, and reinvented itself, time after time.

This was everything I wanted it to be. The book is perfect for someone like me who is not looking to earn a doctorate in Chinese history but gain a fundamental understanding of the history of the nation. I highly recommend this two part series.

The book is very detailed but well written so that it is not too boring. A good read for a history book.

Whirlwind history of China. I think its a good starting point as a backgrounder from which you can go deeper into specific times. I bought this for Kindle. Mostly text but the maps are hard to read. Paper would be better.

This book covers the history of China to about 1800. I'm not a big fan of reading history, but I wanted to know more about Chinese history, recognizing what a huge subject that is and how little I knew about it previously. This book was just what I was looking for. It covers the key people, the expanding/shrinking empires, major culture trends, and of course the history, at a deep enough level so it made sense, but not so deep that I got lost in it. It's somewhat confusing, but that's more do to the complexity of the subject matter and my ignorance than any fault of the book. I would recommend it.

Enough detail to let you feel the flavor, but so clearly written that one never feels overwhelmed. I recommend it highly.