The Great Wall : China against the world, 1000 BC-AD 2000 / Julia Lovell.

Originally published: Great Britain : Atlantic Books, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-406) and index.

Note on romanization and pronunciation -- Note on names -- Introduction : Who made the Great Wall of China? -- Why walls? -- The long wall -- Han Walls : Plus ça change -- Shifting frontiers and decadent barbarians -- China reunited -- Without walls : the Chinese frontiers expand -- The return of the barbarians -- A case of open and shut : the early Ming frontier -- The wall goes up -- The great fall of China -- How barbarians made the Great Wall -- Translating the Great Wall into Chinese -- Conclusion : The Great Wall, the great mall and great firewall -- Appendix 1 : Principal characters -- Appendix 2 : Chronology of dynasties -- Appendix 3 : Significant dates in Chinese history and Wall-building.

A new and important history of the epic story of the Great Wall of China that guides the reader through the conquests and cataclysms of the Chinese empire, from the second millennium BC to present day. Over 2,200 years old and 4,300 miles long, the Great Wall of China has made an overwhelmingly confident physical statement about the country it spans: China's age-old sense of being an advanced civilization anxious to draw a clear line between itself and the barbarians at its borders. But behind the Wall's intimidating exterior - and the myths that have clustered around it - is a complex history that has both defined and undermined China. It is this history that Julia Lovell explores in her enthralling book. The Great Wall is an epic tale that stretches over two millennia as it follows the rise and fall of the great Chinese ruling dynasties. Full of astonishing details and extraordinary characters from emperors to engineers, statesmen to soldiers this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand China's past, present, and future.