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 enlarge | Author: Jonathan D. Spence
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $57.55
Buy Used: $27.99
You Save: $29.56 (51%)
New (36) Used (25) from $27.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 119774
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2 Sub
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 728
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393973514
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.03
EAN: 9780393973518
ASIN: 0393973514
Publication Date: January 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 An Unponderous History May 24, 2007
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
To truly know China, it is essential to have a grasp of its rich history. But that history is so vast and dense, it is easy to get lost. This book is an admirable guide. For a review of contempory issues, see my own book: The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won
Great book May 16, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is probably my favorite Chinese history book that I've read. Its easily quotable, well written, and intriguing. I found it to be clear cut and concise, but not bogged down by elevated language, or too simplistic. Its a shame books like this one are not used more in Universities.
 A nice introduction March 23, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
The book makes a good impression. It is an eloquently written, absorbing narrative, attentive to detail and yet broad in scope. The book nicely integrates discussion of political history with discourse on society and culture of modern China.
It is ostensibly weaker towards the end - barely a fraction of the book deals with post-1949 China. The PRC's foreign policy during the Cold War unfortunately receives scant attention; the Cultural Revolution is addressed as if in passing. Sino-US rapprochement is barely mentioned (with a questionable assertion that it was mainly a product of pressure on the part of the Chinese oil lobby).
The part on the democratic movement in China was an interesting read, but it overshadowed other important issues in the last 20-30 years of China's political and economic development.
Overall, excellent book, certainly one of the best introductions to modern history of China out there, highly recommended for new students of Chinese history as a starting point.
timely and important work November 12, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The scale of this book is vast, and the scholarly undertaking is impressive. In the modern world with Chinese influence growing all the time an understanding of Chinese history is increasingly important. A must-read!
Ian Ruxton, editor of The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, British Envoy in Peking (1900-06), Vol. 1 and The Semi-Official Letters of British Envoy Sir Ernest Satow from Japan and China (1895-1906), both available on amazon.
Excellent work. August 18, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I'm a Chinese and I was fancinated by it when I was working as a visiting scholar at a Canadian University. I couldn't help buying it for myself when I came back to mainland China later. It's a little expensive to buy it from here, but it's worth it. For me, this book is the most comprehensive and objective history work about modern China that I have seen.
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