该书是为公众撰写的一本中国近代史简明读本。该书坚持历史唯物主义，反对历史虚无主义，以1840～1949年近代中国的政治发展为主导，兼顾近代中国的经济状况、思想斗争、文化变迁、社会状况，描写了近代中国人追求独立的过程。此书的英文版为中宣部2018年外宣任务类项目，给予稿费和翻译费全额资助。

1 Opium Wars and China's Decline
1 China andtheWorldbefore 1840
2 The British Opium Smuggling and Lin Zexu's Anti-Smuggling Endeavor
3 Treaty of Nanjing and Its Aftermath
4 The Chinese Intellectuals'Reaction and Solution
5 Social Changes in the Post-War China
2 The Qing Government in Despair
1 The Taiping Rebellion and Its Socio-Political Experiments
2 The Aggressive Anglo-French Expedition Against China
3 The Tsarist Russia：A Gluttonous Grabber of Chinese Lands
4 The Taiping Rebellion in Its Late Phase：Zeng Guofan and the Hunan Army
5 The Fall of the Heavenly Kingdom Of Great Peace
3 The Lost Three Decades
1 Changes of the Central and Local Govemments
2 The Self-Strengthening Movement（SSM）
3 Reformism in Its Initial Stage
4 Border Crises and The Sino-French War
5 Endless Incidents Involving Christian Missionaries
6 The 1 895 Sino-Japanese War
7 The Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Cession OfTaiwan
4 The Post-1895 China：Reform．Rebellion and Revolution
1 Return of the Liao Dong Peninsula to China and Imperialistic Powers'Rat RaceintheFarEast
2 The Scramble for China
3 China's Sprouting National Capitalism
4 Sun Yat-sen and Early Revolutionaries
5 The Abortive 1 898 Hundred Days'Reform
6 The Boxer Uprising：A Chinese Peasants'Patriotic Anti-Imperialistic Endeavor
7 The Aggressive Allied Forces of Eight Powers and Qing's Response
8 The Boxer Protocol and a Fully Semi-Colonialized and Semi-Feudalized China
5 On the Eve of Great Change
1 Qing's New Policies and Social Changes Ensued
2 The British Empire's Invasion of Tibet and the Russo-Japanese Conflict in the Northeast China
3 Tongmenghui and the Debates Involving Revolutionaries and Conservatives
4 Boycotting American Goods and Restoring China's Rights
5 Building China's Constitutional Monarchy
6 The Revolutionaries in Action
6 The 1911 Revolution：A Blend of Success and Failure
1 The Crisis-Ridden Qing
2 Huanghuagang Uprising and Railway Protection Movement
3 The Wuchang Uprising
4 Sun Yat-sen，the President of the Nanjing Provisional Government
5 The Collapse of Qing and the Rise ofYuan Shikai
7 China at Its Lowest Ebb：The Rule of Beiyang Warlords
1 Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen
2 The Rapid Collapse of Hongxian Reign
3 China under Warlords'Rule
4 The Growth of China's National Capitalism and Working Class
5 The New Culture and May Fourth Movements
6 The Dissemination of Marxism and Socialism
8 The Beginning of China's Tortuous Path to Progress
1 The Birth of the Communist Party of China
2 Kuomintang's First National Congress，the First United Front，and the Northem Expedition
3 The Clash Between the CPC and Kuomintang and the Failure of the First Revolutionary Civil War
4 The Convergence ofWuhan and Nanjing Nationalist Govemments and the Nominal Unification Of China
5 Establishing Armed Independent Regime of Workers and Peasants in Jiangxi
6 Kuomintang’S Encirclement and Annihilation and the CPC's COunterattacks
7 The Social History Controversy in the 1930s
9 The Deepening National Crisis and the Adjustment of Class Relations
1 The September 1 8 Incident and the Nonresistance Strategy
2 Japan's Intensified Aggression Against China and Chiang Kai-shek's Increased Nonresistance
3 China's Greater Effort to Fight against Japan
4 The Setback for the Chinese Communist Movement
5 Sian Incident and China's New Opportunity to Rehabilitate
10 The Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan
1 The Lugouqiao Incident
2 The August 1 3 Incident in Shanghai and the Anti—Japanese National United From
3 The National Defense System and the CPC and Kuomintang's Strategies
4 ERA（Eighth Route Army）and The Battle of Shanxi
5 The Battle of Shanghai and the Nanjing Massacre
6 China's Great Victory in Taierzhuang and the Fall of Wuhan an