After fall of the Qing dynasty, decades of civil war, and Japanese occupation, China emerged as a superpower in the second half of the twentieth century. Today, China's economy rivals the world's largest, the United States, in terms of growth, productivity, and innovation. This compelling volume analyzes China since the end of World War II. Chapters discuss the communist victory in the civil war, the consolidation of disparate provinces into a unified state, building a robust industrial economy out of an agrarian culture, and the challenges facing the country in an increasingly globalized world.