万历十五年，亦即公元1587年，在西欧历史上为西班牙舰队全部出动征英的前一年；而在中国，这平平淡淡的一年中，发生了若干为历史学家所易于忽视的事件。这些事件，表面看来虽似末端小节，但实质上却是以前发生大事的症结，也是将在以后掀起波澜的机缘。在历史学家黄仁宇的眼中，其间的关系因果，恰为历史的重点，而我们的大历史之旅，也自此开始…… 《万历十五年》是黄仁宇的成名之作，也是他的代表作之一。这本书融会了他数十年人生经历与治学体会，首次以“大历史观”分析明代社会之症结，观察现代中国之来路，给人启发良多。英文原本推出后，被美国多所大学采用为教科书，并两次获得美国书卷奖历史类好书的提名。

《从大历史的角度读蒋介石日记》是黄仁宇先生的一部历史著作，记叙的时间自1924年国民党黄埔建军始，至1945年抗战结束止。书中对海内外关于蒋介石的评议，多有精彩的辨析；作者拣择与排比史料的方式，别具慧眼，言人所不能言。作者沿袭其大历史观的研究方法，检视蒋介石的历史定位及其历史局限性。作者曾说，写作此书，目的在于阐明中国由“中世纪国家”步向现代的挣扎和转折。此次增订出版，增补了作者相关的四篇文章，作为附录；并对全书的文字重新做了核订并有所补充，使全书更趋完善。

1587, a Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline (Chinese: 萬曆十五年; pinyin: Wanli Shiwunian) is Chinese historian Ray Huang's most famous work. First published by Yale University Press in 1981,[1] it examines how a number of seemingly insignificant events[which?] in 1587 might have caused the downfall of the Ming dynasty. The Chinese title, meaning "the fifteenth year of the Wanli era", is how the year 1587 was expressed in the Chinese calendar: the era name of the reigning Chinese emperor at the time, followed by which year of his reign it was. Major figures discussed in the book besides the emperor are Grand Secretaries Zhang Juzheng and Shen Shixing, official Hai Rui, general Qi Jiguang and philosopher Li Zhi. Although Huang had completed the manuscript by 1976, no publisher would accept it at first, as it was not serious enough for an academic work, but was too serious for popular non-fiction. The work has been translated into a number of different languages: Chinese, Japanese, German and French.