---
product_id: 344507836
title: "China: A Macro History (An East Gate Book)"
price: "S$80"
currency: SGD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/344507836-china-a-macro-history-an-east-gate-book
store_origin: SG
region: Singapore
---

# Concise macro history overview Ideal for readers with basic prior knowledge Thought-provoking historical insights China: A Macro History (An East Gate Book)

**Price:** S$80
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 📖 Unlock the big picture of China’s past — without the fluff!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** China: A Macro History (An East Gate Book)
- **How much does it cost?** S$80 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/344507836-china-a-macro-history-an-east-gate-book)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
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## Key Features

- • **Authentic used condition:** Good condition with a story of its own, ready to join your collection
- • **Perfect for repeat reads:** Compact size makes it easy to revisit and deepen understanding
- • **Concise yet comprehensive:** A macro lens on Chinese history without overwhelming detail
- • **Thought-provoking narrative:** Encourages critical thinking on how and why history unfolded
- • **Tailored for informed readers:** Best appreciated with some prior knowledge of Chinese history

## Overview

China: A Macro History offers a concise, thought-provoking overview of Chinese history, focusing on broad patterns and critical questions rather than exhaustive detail. Ideal for readers with some background knowledge, this used book in good condition invites multiple readings to deepen understanding of China's complex historical landscape.

## Description

Used Book in Good Condition

Review: Highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to have an ... - Highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to have an overview of Chinese history. I like that it doesn't go into all the details of historical events (that will be very very very long..), but rather makes you think 'how did this happen' and 'why it is the way it is'. It is a small and concise history book that's worth reading several times. I do recommend to only read this if you already have some basic idea of Chinese history in terms of major events and phases.
Review: Macro, it is. - I'm a male, Chinese-American. 26 y.o. I hardly knew/know much of my own ancestral history. This was a required text, but I'm glad I went thru it. It's a short (relatively speaking), concise text that's pretty absorbable. It gave me a good "introduction".

## Features

- Used Book in Good Condition

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #2,151,286 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,208 in Human Geography (Books) #2,244 in Asian Politics #2,774 in Chinese History (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.1 out of 5 stars 18 Reviews |

## Images

![China: A Macro History (An East Gate Book) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/611I9LwHHiL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to have an ...
*by S***L on January 12, 2017*

Highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to have an overview of Chinese history. I like that it doesn't go into all the details of historical events (that will be very very very long..), but rather makes you think 'how did this happen' and 'why it is the way it is'. It is a small and concise history book that's worth reading several times. I do recommend to only read this if you already have some basic idea of Chinese history in terms of major events and phases.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Macro, it is.
*by A***N on April 12, 2007*

I'm a male, Chinese-American. 26 y.o. I hardly knew/know much of my own ancestral history. This was a required text, but I'm glad I went thru it. It's a short (relatively speaking), concise text that's pretty absorbable. It gave me a good "introduction".

### ⭐⭐⭐ Decent Description; Arguable Analysis
*by R***N on April 7, 2007*

This is an ambitious effort to provide an overview of Chinese history. Huang divides Chinese history into 7 periods. The first is the period of state formation. The second is what Huang terms the First Empire, essentially the Qin and Han empires. This is followed by a chaotic interregnum, the Second Empire of the Sui, Tang, and Song, the Mongolian interlude, and the Third Empire of the Ming and the Qing. The final period is the one we're presently in, the destruction of traditional China and its replacement by a modern state. Huang covers the major dynastic changes, expansion of Chinese culture into the South of what is now modern China, and major intellectual trends. A good deal of the narrative, drawn from traditional chronicles, is 'top down' histories of the Imperial Courts. This is all solid. Huang's efforts to provide an overview of the major structural features of Chinese history is surprisingly traditional. Huang presents the early formation of centralized Chinese states as driven to a large extent by geographic factors,including the very long border with the nomadic peoples of central Asia. Huang then presents the Chinese state as having most of the same structural features from its Qin foundation to the end of the Qing. This is very much a traditional description of a centralized bureacracy resting on a mass of peasants and supported by an ideology stressing social stability and resistant to intellectual innovation. Huang doesn't quite project the Marxist cliche of the 'Asiatic mode of production' or other cliches of 'oriental despotism' but his analysis isn't far away from such approaches. At the same time, Huang shows that the Chinese state never developed the efficient bureaucracy and systems of taxation needed to run such a huge state, often the seed of dynastic failure. Huang presents also a rather traditional analysis of China's failure to break out of the mold of its traditional society. This is presented as a failure to develop the type of bourgeois institutions that emerged in early modern Europe. This is again a traditional, semi-Marxist analysis. In this context, Huang sees the enormous upheavals of the last 2 centuries as needed to destroy traditional society and reconstruct it on a modern basis. This type of traditional analysis has been attacked in recent years. Some economic historians, like Kenneth Pomeranz in his book The Great Divergence, present 18th century Qing China as much more similar to Europe than previously thought. Some of Huang's language, notably his consistent use of the idea of the rationality of history, has a teleological flavor.

## Frequently Bought Together

- China: A Macro History (East Gate Books)
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*Product available on Desertcart Singapore*
*Store origin: SG*
*Last updated: 2026-03-17*