The Problem of China - Tapa blanda

This study of the history of China, its social forces and tendencies and the character of its people, was originally published in 1922, following the author's return from a year as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Beijing. Although much has happened in the years that have intervened, the book still has great value and interest for all who are concerned to understand China and her future amongst the major nations of the world. It contains much interesting historical analysis which is very relevant today, and some extraordinarily far-sighted observations. For this reason a reprint has been felt desirable and it has been left unchanged. If in part it may reveal a record of dead hopes and dead fears, those parts which are not topical are still true; and, having regard to China's rapid growth in industrial and international power, those permanent elements of the book cannot be neglected either by the student of international affairs or by the general reader.

A European lately arrived in China, if he is of a receptive and reflective disposition, finds himself confronted with a number of very puzzling questions, for many of which the problems of Western Europe will not have prepared him. Russian problems, it is true, have important affinities with those of China, but they have also important differences; moreover they are decidedly less complex.