Robert Bickers
Beyond the Great Wall
Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750
By Odd Arne Westad
The Bodley Head 528pp £25
How do you solve a problem like China? Over the last 250 years, as LSE historian Odd Arne Westad shows in this lucid and engaging book, the country’s place in the world has been puzzled over by the Manchus, who ruled it until 1911 as the empire of their Qing Dynasty; by the Chinese revolutionaries who overthrew them and established a Republic; by its Asian near neighbours; and by the colonial empires that held such sway within its borders for a century after 1842. The solutions proposed differed widely – empire, republic, colony, client state, among others – but all agreed that China was a problem that needed solving.
The issues were fundamental. What was China? Where should its borders be? Should it be a single country? Who exactly were its peoples? How should they be governed? Many of the world’s modern states are comparatively young, and most have also been through difficult soul-searching periods, but few have travelled
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
Give the gift that lasts all year with a subscription to Literary Review. Save up to 35% on the cover price when you visit us at https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe and enter the code 'XMAS24'