China Transformed Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience

"Wong compares the growth of capitalism and the formation of national states in modern Europe with economic and political changes in China, and explains that a crucial rupture occurred when European industrialization set new conditions for material and social life. He contrasts Chinese and European political changes, and explores the implications of social protest, economic change, and state-making by comparing grain seizures, tax resistance, and revolution as they occurred in both areas. Only by evaluating where China and Europe appear to converge or diverge and by analyzing whether convergence reflects similar underlying processes, he argues, can we successfully situate the trajectories of both realms in world-historical development."--BOOK JACKET.