Chinese History : A New Manual

From the preface of the book: "Given the length of Chinese recorded history and given the language requirements, there are moments when students may feel that the journey is impossibly long. I certainly felt that way from time to time when I began to study Chinese history 50 years ago. Like so many others I kept note on books read, references consulted, and solutions to problems encountered. These notes were published in a preliminary form in 1973 (Harvard East Asian Monograph 49). The Research Guide (for that was the ambitious title chosen) was reprinted many times, but by the 1990s a complete overhaul was needed. Accordingly, I produced a fresh manual in 1998 (and revised and enlarged it in 2000). It soon became the top selling title in both the Harvard East Asian and the Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series. But the fields of Chinese history and archeology have continued to change rapidly during the last decade, and it is these developments that the New Manual seeks to capture."