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Civil war or its threat have determined China's political course at least three times this century: in 1911-13, when the Qing military commander Yuan Shikai forced the dynasty to abdicate; in 1926-8, when the Nationalist armies of Chiang Kai-shek defeated and replaced the regime of Yuan's successors; and in 1945-9, when Mao Zedong's communist armies defeated Chiang and established the People's Republic of China. The author sketches the broad historical background to his subject and drawing on Chinese and Western research, focuses on three levels of the conflict: the battle itself (making use of eyewitness accounts and memoirs), the strategy of campaigns, and the political significance of war (how battles concretely affected the endless political contention of military leaders). With an awareness of the larger interpretative questions surrounding his subject, he provides a guide to the mountainous stuggles that wracked China in the first half of this century, with repercussions stretching down to the present day.