{"title":"Books by Rana Mitter","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780192806055","title":"A Bitter Revolution","description":"China is now poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. Rana Mitter goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world. \nBy the 1920s the seemingly civilized world shaped over the last two thousand years by the legacy of the great philosopher Confucius was falling apart in the face of western imperialism and internal warfare. Chinese cities still bore the imprints of its ancient past with narrow, lanes and temples to long-worshipped gods, but these were starting to change with the influx of foreign traders, teachers, and missionaries, all eager to shape China's ancient past into a modern present. \nMitter takes us through the resulting social turmoil and political promise, the devastating war against Japan in the 1940s, Communism and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and the new era of hope in the 1980s ended by the Tian'anmen uprising. He reveals the impetus behind the dramatic changes in Chinese culture and politics as being China's \"New Culture\" - a strain of thought which celebrated youth, individualism, and the heady mixture of strange and seductive new cultures from places as far apart as America, India, and Japan.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201559658674,"sku":"9780192806055","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780192806055_1b745931-3d74-485d-b0be-eb9cfb356e58.jpg?v=1786010959"},{"product_id":"9780141031453","title":"China's War with Japan, 1937-1945","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Duke of Westminster Medal for Military Literature \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDifferent countries give different opening dates for the period of the Second World War, but perhaps the most compelling is 1937, when the 'Marco Polo Bridge Incident' plunged China and Japan into a conflict of extraordinary duration and ferocity - a war which would result in many millions of deaths and completely reshape East Asia in ways which we continue to confront today. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith great vividness and narrative drive Rana Mitter's book draws on a huge range of new sources to recreate this terrible conflict. He writes both about the major leaders (Chiang Kaishek, Mao Zedong and Wang Jingwei) and about the ordinary people swept up by terrible times. Mitter puts at the heart of our understanding of the Second World War that it was Japan's failure to defeat China which was the key dynamic for what happened in Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224392544629,"sku":"9780141031453","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141031453_fb675dd0-ac91-4c61-bb73-b65149b6bac4.jpg?v=1786011631"},{"product_id":"9780674278615","title":"China’s Good War","description":"A Foreign Affairs Book of the YearA Spectator Book of the Year“Insightful…a deft, textured work of intellectual history.”—Foreign Affairs“A timely insight into how memories and ideas about the second world war play a hugely important role in conceptualizations about the past and the present in contemporary China.”—Peter Frankopan, The SpectatorFor most of its history, China frowned on public discussion of the war against Japan. But as the country has grown more powerful, a wide-ranging reassessment of the war years has been central to new confidence abroad and mounting nationalism at home.   Encouraged by reforms under Deng Xiaoping, Chinese scholars began to examine the long-taboo Guomindang war effort, and to investigate collaboration with the Japanese and China’s role in the post-war global order. Today museums, television shows, magazines, and social media present the war as a founding myth for an ascendant China that emerges as victor rather than victim. One narrative positions Beijing as creator and protector of the international order—a virtuous system that many in China now believe to be under threat from the United States. China’s radical reassessment of its own past is a new founding myth for a nation that sees itself as destined to shape the world.   “A detailed and fascinating account of how the Chinese leadership’s strategy has evolved across eras…At its most interesting when probing Beijing’s motives for undertaking such an ambitious retooling of its past.”—Wall Street Journal“The range of evidence that Mitter marshals is impressive. The argument he makes about war, memory, and the international order is…original.”—The Economist","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294100468085,"sku":"9780674278615","price":16.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674278615_78f32f1e-31ca-42e9-bba0-a51115f61959.jpg?v=1786014501"},{"product_id":"9780198931102","title":"Modern China","description":"Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring\n\nChina is a country of huge economic influence, with ambitions to alter the balance of power between East and West. At the same time, many of its citizens live in poverty, while others occupy futuristic cities with advanced surveillance systems.\n\nModern China: A Very Short Introduction by Rana Mitter offers an integrated picture of Chinese society, culture, economics, politics, and art. The author addresses China's current international status, examining the country's growth in political and financial significance in the 21st century. Professor Mitter also investigates China's changing foreign policy, the events and legacy of COVID era on the country, and the remarkable growth in China's technological innovation and its implications for the world. Modern China: A Very Short Introduction is a study of both the growing influence of Xi Jinping and of the society and structures that have lead to this position. \n\n\nABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311616799093,"sku":"9780198931102","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780198931102_c820d0c8-1137-4dbd-ba6c-0c6bcdac1624.jpg?v=1786015798"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-rana-mitter.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}