seriously we're talking like, I did my undergrad in history, studied the cold war (and Vietnam, alongside India) in pretty high depth but I really know nothing about China's history beside major global events that they played a part in (both before and after Mao); what texts in English should I read? If you've got multiple that's even better, and if they're historical secondary sources that's even EVEN better for me
also anything on Chinese economic history (either before or after industrialization, both interest me) would be much appreciated, if you happen to know of a text that's worth the read
Mao's China and After by Maurice Meisner- for a general history Rise of the Red Engineers by Joel Andreas- if you want to understand the composition of the modern CPC today
I have heard good things about Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence, though I haven't read it.
For current news and economics, I've found macropolo.org to be really interesting and useful. I also check madeinchinajournal.com and chuangcn.org frequently.