For me the level of detail felt right for the years prior to WWII about which I knew little, but his succinctness became very apparent when I got to the later years with which I was more familiar. Westad takes a broad view with detail just sufficient to make his points. We see the evolution of Chinese thinking about the rest of the world and China’s place in that world. He ends with his thoughts on what this history tells us about China’s future. He describes the main events but particularly interesting are his descriptions of Chinese culture and how it changes and adapts as its exposure to the West increases. W Westad covers a lot of ground in 500 pages exploring China’s relationship to the world for the last 250 years.
Westad covers a lot of ground in 500 pages exploring China’s relationship to the world for the last 250 years.