Unlike other texts on modern Chinese history—which tend to be so encyclopedic as to be difficult to use in the classroom, or too pedantic to keep students' interest—this text is usably comprehensive, focused on “cutting edge” interpretations, and written in a style that engages students from beginning to end. It uses the theme of identities—of the nation itself and of the Chinese people—to probe the vast changes that have swept over China from late imperial times to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In so doing, it explores the range of identities China has chosen over time and those that outsiders have bestowed upon China and its people—showing how, as China rapidly modernizes, the issue of Chinese identity in the modern world looms large.