While John Whelpton's history of Nepal focuses on the period since the overthrow of the Rana family autocracy in 1950-51, the early chapters are devoted to the origins of the kingdom and the evolving relations of its diverse peoples. Whelpton portrays a country of extraordinary contrasts, whose history has been buffeted constantly by its neighbors, China and India. Economic and political turmoil over the last fifty years came to a climax with the massacre of the royal family in 2001, when the country erupted into civil war. This book is the most comprehensive and accessible English-language one-volume history of Nepal. John Whelpton, who works as a teacher in Hong Kong, is an historian and linguist. He has worked and traveled extensively in Nepal, and has written numerous articles and books on the subject. These include Nationalism & Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics and Culture of Contemporary Nepal (Routledge, 1997), and Kings, Soldiers and Priests: Nepalese Politics and the Rise of Jang Bahadur Rana, 1830-1857 (South Asia Books, 1992).

While John Whelpton's history of Nepal focuses on the period since the overthrow of the Rana family autocracy in 1950-51, the early chapters are devoted to the origins of the kingdom and the evolving relations of its diverse peoples. Whelpton portrays a country of extraordinary contrasts, whose history has been buffeted constantly by its neighbors, China and India. Economic and political turmoil over the last fifty years came to a climax with the massacre of the royal family in 2001, when the country erupted into civil war. This book is the most comprehensive and accessible English-language one-volume history of Nepal. John Whelpton, who works as a teacher in Hong Kong, is an historian and linguist. He has worked and traveled extensively in Nepal, and has written numerous articles and books on the subject. These include Nationalism & Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics and Culture of Contemporary Nepal (Routledge, 1997), and Kings, Soldiers and Priests: Nepalese Politics and the Rise of Jang Bahadur Rana, 1830-1857 (South Asia Books, 1992).

In more recent times Shah kings claimed also to embody national unity in their own person. Since the 19th century, Nepal has experiences the autocracy of the Ranas, a first experiment with parliamentarianism, guided partyless democracy led by the king, multi-party constitutional monarchy finally reversed by massive street ptotests, a ten year peoplewar launched by the Maoists in 1996 followed by a peace process.