This is an essential instrument to understand China, its people and its culture through its long history. Wood paints a grand portrait, aimed at showing how the history, especially in China, is deeply intertwined with cultural, natural and societal issues. Especially for a westerner, where we get few, if any, reviews of Chinese history in school, this book is an eye opener. Wood's style makes it almost a novel, although sustained by an authoritative historical methodology. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding what China is, and how it came to be the nation that it is today.