This is a history of China for the 900-year time span of the late imperial period. A senior scholar of this epoch, F. W. Mote highlights the personal characteristics of the rulers and dynasties and probes the cultural theme of Chinese adaptations to recurrent alien rule. No other work provides a similar synthesis: generational events, personalities, and the spirit of the age combine to yield a comprehensive history of the civilization, not isolated but shaped by its relation to outsiders.

This vast panorama of the civilization of the largest society in human history reveals much about Chinese high and low culture, and the influential role of Confucian philosophical and social ideals. Throughout the Liao Empire, the world of the Song, the Mongol rule, and the early Qing through the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns, culture, ideas, and personalities are richly woven into the fabric of the political order and institutions. This is a monumental work that will stand among the classic accounts of the nature and vibrancy of Chinese civilization before the modern period.

《书法与古籍》无意深入探究书法这种艺术形式的美学内容，而旨在试图展示理解这种形式确有问题，并明确厘定其界限。藉此至少有助于观看和沉思此番名为“书法与古籍”展览所选诸项展品。因此，我们面对的问题有两个，而不是一个：先要理解何以导致书法在东亚如此重要；其次，必须认识书法在中国与东亚古籍漫长发展史起到什么作用。当然，只限于展品本身所带来的眼福而未加深究也不为其过。上述两个问题同样恰切，而后者可以导致从外部观察一种文明时最常见、最严重的错误：想当然地类比原本乌有之物。我们起码致力于展现中国书法之为迥异于西方文化传统中的书法。

如果说中国文化是一座宏大的宫殿，那先秦思想就是这座宫殿的基础。 该书是美国流传已久的一本介绍中国思想的必读书。书中对儒家、道家、墨家、名家、法家的思想和代表人物有简明精微的介绍。同时又以宏观的话题，如宇宙论、世界观、知识论等贯穿在对诸子百家的介绍和分析中，既高屋建瓴，又曲尽其妙，是大家小书的典范。