This book examines key events in modern Chinese history to question the notion of historical inevitability and stresses the role of contingent circumstances. The constant change and diversity of Chinese society contrasts the persistence of a unitary autocratic state and suggest a key lesson in history is that China will continue to surprise us.

Joseph W. Esherick is professor emeritus of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego. He is the holder of the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies. His books include Modern China: The Story of a Revolution, co-authored with Orville Schell; Lost Chance in China: The World War II Despatches of John S. Service; Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei; and The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. His awards include the John K. Fairbank Prize from the American Historical Association, the Joseph Levenson Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, and the 1989 Berkeley Prize from the University of California Press.