This book seeks to reconcile the dual forces of war and economic globalization in tracing China's early modernity. For late imperial China, there were two forms of encounter with the West; the guns of invading Europeans, and the ledgers by which trade between China and the West was measured and regulated. Even today, China's reactions to the West oscillate between business-driven openness and military paranoia. In this intellectual tour de force, Bozhong Li, one of China's preeminent intellectual and economic historians, traces the unprecedented transition that led China into the modern world; the book will be of value for economists, historians, and sinophiles alike.

Auteur

Bozhong Li was born in Kunming, Yunnan Province in 1949. He graduated with a Ph.D degree in History from Xiamen University in 1985, becoming one of the first group of Ph.D students after the Chinese mainland resumed the academic degree system. He is a chair professor in humanity studies of Peking University, professor of Department of History of Peking University, consultant of National Center for Economic Research at Tsinghua University, as well as distinguished professor of School of History of Capital Normal University. He has also been the guest professor or visiting scholar to Harvard University, University of Michigan, UCLA, MIT, California Institute of Technology, U.S. Congress Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the US National Humanities Center, Cambridge University, London School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, Keio University and French School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).