Although different in methodology, approach, and periodization, Timothy Brook's Great State: China and the World and Rebecca E. Karl's China's Revolutions in the Modern World: A Brief Interpretive History make for stimulating companions. Together, they tell the story of China and the world from the thirteenth century to the present. The two authors share similar goals. Brook, who focuses primarily on the Mongols, the Ming, and the Qing, seeks to “exemplify how the world has mattered to China, how China has mattered to the world, and how China has always been in the world” (Brook, p. 9). Karl, who analyzes China's revolutions from the nineteenth century to the present, argues that “while modern revolutions in China have of course always been Chinese, they always have been global as well” (Karl, p. 2). What is perhaps most interesting about these books is the way the authors use China's relationship with the...

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