The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present

by Dong Wang

Overview

Now fully revised and updated, The United States and China offers a comprehensive synthesis of US-Chinese relations from initial contact to the present. Balancing the modern (1784–1949) and contemporary (1949–present) periods, Dong Wang retraces centuries of interaction between two of the world’s great powers from the perspective of both sides. She examines state-to-state diplomacy, as well as economic, social, military, religious, and cultural interplay within varying national and international contexts. As China itself continues to grow in global importance, so too does the US-Chinese relationship, and this book provides an essential grounding for understanding its past, present, and possible futures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538149386
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/28/2021
Series:	Asia/Pacific/Perspectives
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dong Wang is distinguished professor of history and director of the Wellington Koo Institute at Shanghai University, a Chatham House member, and has been a research associate at the Fairbank Center of Harvard University since 2002. Her books include Longmen’s Stone Buddhas and Cultural Heritage, Managing God’s Higher Learning: U.S.-China Cultural Encounter and Canton Christian College (Lingnan University), 1888–1952, and China’s Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: The Pacific Frontier and Qing China, 1784–1911

1 Yankee Merchants and the China Trade

2 Opium Wars and the Open Door

3 Chinese Immigration: Roots in the United States

4 American Protestantism: Roots in China

Part II: The United States and China in the Era of World Wars and Revolutions, 1912–1970

5 Revolutions, Nationalism, and Internationalization

6 The Pacific War and Red China

7 Deterrence and Negotiation: American-Chinese Relations at the height of the Cold War

8 Facing East and West: Agents of Encounter

Part III: Rapprochement, the United States as the Benchmark Setter, and the China Challenge, 1970–Present

9 Renewing the Bilateral Relationship, 1970–1989

10 The China Market and the Allure of the United States

11 Clashes, Cooperation, and Fluctuations in the Relationship

12 The Race: Changing Dynamics in the Economic, Social, and Cultural Arenas

Epilogue

Bibliography

About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Rana Mitter

The relationship between the United States and China may be the single most important bilateral relationship in the modern world. Dong Wang's book is an extremely valuable guide to that relationship, combining history and international relations to give a powerful account of how the two countries first encountered each other, and why their interaction matters so much in the present day.

Editorial Reviews

A masterful history. Dong Wang deftly sets the vicissitudes of two and a half centuries of Sino-American interactions in the context of the evolving identities of the two powers as both pursue national greatness and grapple with the challenges and opportunities of a globalizing world.

Carla P. Freeman

A masterful history. Dong Wang deftly sets the vicissitudes of two and a half centuries of Sino-American interactions in the context of the evolving identities of the two powers as both pursue national greatness and grapple with the challenges and opportunities of a globalizing world.

Dong Wang has impressed me in the past and does so again with this carefully revised edition of her accessible survey of US-China relations. She has improved an already excellent tale of two countries. It now includes a deft handling of the latest dramatic developments in an always interesting diplomatic and cultural relationship that has more dimensions and arguably more global significance than ever before.

Dong Wang's outstanding volume offers uniquely a comprehensive treatment and a balanced assessment of Chinese and American perspectives in its masterful examination of the 240-year history of US-China relations. Many important lessons and insights offered along the way deepen understanding and urge moderation. They warrant careful consideration even from those on both sides now committed to zero-sum rivalry.

Dong Wang's thoroughly updated book is excellent--wide-ranging, carefully researched, clearly written. Unlike other histories of the United States and China, it skillfully presents the Chinese as well as the American sides of this complex, challenging, and consequential relationship.

From the Publisher

Dong Wang has impressed me in the past and does so again with this carefully revised edition of her accessible survey of US-China relations. She has improved an already excellent tale of two countries. It now includes a deft handling of the latest dramatic developments in an always interesting diplomatic and cultural relationship that has more dimensions and arguably more global significance than ever before.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Dong Wang’s thoroughly updated book is excellent—wide-ranging, carefully researched, clearly written. Unlike other histories of the United States and China, it skillfully presents the Chinese as well as the American sides of this complex, challenging, and consequential relationship.

Terry Lautz

Dong Wang’s outstanding volume offers uniquely a comprehensive treatment and a balanced assessment of Chinese and American perspectives in its masterful examination of the 240-year history of US-China relations. Many important lessons and insights offered along the way deepen understanding and urge moderation. They warrant careful consideration even from those on both sides now committed to zero-sum rivalry.

Robert G. Sutter

The United States and China is well researched and written. This ambitious study is a useful contribution to the literature on the history of Chinese-American relations. This book stands out for its comprehensiveness and balance, and students of history and international relations will find it to be accessible and insightful.

Pacific Affairs

Wang has written a remarkable survey of Sino-American relations from the first encounter in 1784 to the present day. There are several surveys of Sino-American relations that primarily focus on the US side of the relationship, and none of these accounts has the depth of this volume. The author constructs her chapters in a manner that gives readers a deep understanding of both sides of the equation as the relationship has developed over more than 200 years. In addition, each chapter guides readers to additional sources to go even deeper into the subject. This book will be the standard account for many years to come of how the relationship has developed and changed over time. The comprehensive bibliography by itself, including both Chinese-language and English-language sources, is worth the price of the book. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in the complex relationship that has developed between two countries that each have their own vision of national greatness; should be standard reading for policy makers on both sides of the Pacific. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Choice

The relationship between the United States and China may be the single most important bilateral relationship in the modern world. Dong Wang's book is an extremely valuable guide to that relationship, combining history and international relations to give a powerful account of how the two countries first encountered each other, and why their interaction matters so much in the present day.

Rana Mitter

Wang has written a remarkable survey of Sino-American relations from the first encounter in 1784 to the present day. There are several surveys of Sino-American relations that primarily focus on the US side of the relationship, and none of these accounts has the depth of this volume. The author constructs her chapters in a manner that gives readers a deep understanding of both sides of the equation as the relationship has developed over more than 200 years. In addition, each chapter guides readers to additional sources to go even deeper into the subject. This book will be the standard account for many years to come of how the relationship has developed and changed over time. The comprehensive bibliography by itself, including both Chinese-language and English-language sources, is worth the price of the book. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in the complex relationship that has developed between two countries that each have their own vision of national greatness; should be standard reading for policy makers on both sides of the Pacific. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

CHOICE