1.Chinese History: A Manual by, Endymion Wilkinson
Harvard University Asia Center; Revised edition (March 2000)
I very good book I own and have read and it is not small it is 1,181 pages. But goes back to the beginning to modern communism.
It talk of all the wonders of China such as, chapters on language, etymology, people, geography, chronology, warfare, leishu, food, and the Chinese world order. It includes origins of Chinese characters, history of Chinese food, how to handle dates and chronology; how to find out where places are and who people are the communist revolution as well as the old dynasties.
2. China: Its History and Culture by, W. Scott Morton, Charlton M. Lewis, and Charlton Lewis.
McGraw-Hill; 4 edition (June 1, 2004)
This is another book I own and have read and again covers all you are seeking to learn about from the old to the new from communist revolution to cultural revolution. It traces China's history and culture from Neolithic times to the present, working into an integrated and authoritative narrative that covers centuries of politics, warfare and government, science and technology, economics and commerce, religion, philosophy, and the arts. Most valuable of all, Dr. Morton illuminates the essential Chinese design, the underlying mental set of the people and the society. He has given approximately equal treatment to all premodern periods, as each has its importance in the evolving history of the Chinese experience, and has illustrated the work with numerous photographs, maps, paintings and drawings and quotations from the literature.
Books one and two I own and have read and based on your question they are exactly what you are looking for.
