By Alan Hunter and John Sexton
NEW YORK: ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, 1999
226 PAGES
Reviewed by Adam Frank
Capturing the full breadth of Chinese history, geography, politics, economics, social life, and cultural life in one short volume would present a challenging task for any author. In Contemporary China, Alan Hunter and John Sexton have generally succeeded, providing a work that is accessible to junior- and senior-level high school students, undergraduates, and the general reader. Attentive to detail and journalistic in tone, the book assumes little previous knowledge of China. Where the authors might have chosen to shy away from expressing opinion in order to cover more factual material, they instead provide selective, but insightful and even-handed comments regarding both Chinese and U.S. policies, as well as critiquing scholarly opinion on a variety of issues.