From: "Sumit Guha" <sguha@HISTORY.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 4:44 PM
Subject: REVIEW Buck on Ropp _China in World History_
> Paul S. Ropp. China in World History. Oxford Oxford University
> Press, 2010. xvi + 184 pp. $74.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-517073-3;
> $19.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-19-538195-5.
>
> Reviewed by David Buck (University of Wisconsin=Milwaukee)
> Published on H-Asia ( January , 2011)
> Commissioned by Sumit Guha
>
> Fitting China into World History
>
> Oxford University Press has embarked on a major effort to produce
> works suited for world history classes. They have in print a dozen
> titles, with others in preparation, in The New Oxford World History
> series edited by Bonnie G. Smith and Anand Yang. Paul S. Ropp's
> volume on China joins a group within this series that uses world
> regions as the main topic. Craig Lockard's _Southeast Asia in World
> History_ (2009) is another example of this approach. Other studies
> use a period of history, such as John E. Wills Jr.'s _The World from
> 1450 to 1700_ (2009), or examine a general topic in detail, such as
> Daniel Headrick's _Technology in World History_ (2009). The volumes,
> published both in hardcover and paperback, are aimed primarily at the
> textbook market, but also can serve as brief introductions to an
> area, a time period, or a general theme. Each runs about two hundred
> pages including ancillary material, such as timelines, notes, black
> and white illustrations, maps, suggested further reading, and an
> index.
>
> Ropp's contribution is gracefully written, fast paced, and organized
> around the standard periodization of Chinese history, into periods of
> unity and division with unity being the dominant pattern. He selects
> four distinctive characteristics for Chinese history: intensive
> agriculture, which he sees as providing "a strong impetus for
> population growth" (p. xiv); state organization of large-scale
> projects, including irrigation, walls, and canals; emphasis on
> extended family relations and ancestor worship; and finally, an
> optimistic and humanistic view of the world. Although Ropp discusses
> in detail the different dynasties, he does not emphasize the dynastic
> cycle of a strong founder followed by able early rulers, and leading
> to a plateau of moderate and less capable emperors, sometimes
> interrupted by a short revival, but inevitably leading to dynastic
> collapse.
>
> A recurring problem with general textbooks on Chinese history is the
> "one dammed dynasty after another" fatigue that students and readers
> experience. Ropp, a Distinguished Professor of History at Clark
> University, has worked hard to avoid that pitfall by emphasizing
> international influences, especially from the nomadic peoples to
> China's north and west, and detailing distinctive characteristics of
> particular periods, such as the Ming (1368-1644) creativity in
> porcelain and the early fifteenth-century great naval armadas. Ropp
> builds on key features of each era or dynasty, and, as a result,
> students should have less trouble differentiating the Tang, the Song,
> and other dynasties. Downplaying the dynastic cycle also helps in
> this effort.
>
> Ropp devotes two-thirds of the text to Chinese history before 1800.
> His chapters on the period of disunion (220-589) and the Sui and Tang
> (618-907) are particularly strong. Wisely for an introductory
> history, Ropp gives colorful descriptions of key rulers. He also
> introduces material that shows a clear pattern of evolution by
> discussing technological advances, changes in agriculture and trade,
> and growth of population and appearance of larger cities. His twenty
> pages on the People's Republic of China is an excellent summary. This
> and other chapters are well suited to an evening's assigned reading
> for beginning students.
>
> Although Ropp's title indicates that he is placing China in the
> context of world history, he stays away from some of the most
> provocative scholarship linking Chinese and world history. For
> example, he does not introduce Andre Gunner Frank's thesis that
> China's insatiable demand for New World silver bolstered the European
> economy from the sixteenth century onward (_ReORIENT: Global Economy
> in the Asia Age _[1998]), or Timothy Brook's marvelous _Vermeer's
> Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World
> _(2008), which shows how trade in Chinese objects shaped European
> taste and daily life.
>
> There now are a good many choices of introductory books on Chinese
> history. Patricia Ebrey's _Cambridge Illustrated History of China
> _(2nd edition, 2010) is twice the length and beautifully illustrated,
> while well-established texts, such as Conrad Shirokauer's _A Brief
> History of Chinese Civilization_ (2nd edition, 2006), remain
> serviceable, but Ropp's is particularly well written and presented.
> It should have a long life as a classroom text and also can be
> recommended as a good short introduction to Chinese history for the
> general reader.
>
> Citation: David Buck. Review of Ropp, Paul S., _China in World
> History_. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. January , 2011.
> URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32184
>
> This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
> Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
> License.
>
>
>
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