From the Publisher
"An ingenious look at an often misunderstood country." — Kirkus Reviews
“Historical resonance sounds in every country and culture largely because humans are preordained by their natures to react in certain ways to similar circumstances. But in China, argues Timothy Brook in his excellent new book Great State, there is a crucial extra dimension. The power of this book lies partly in the fact that Brook does not overstate his case. While he does not seek to claim that China’s current actions are prefigured by the past, an attentive reader cannot fail to notice extraordinary parallels.” — Financial Times
“A dizzying and exhilarating journey. . . . Understanding how China sees itself and how it justifies its actions is critical to understanding today’s world. Great State offers some compelling lessons for today, and for all our futures.” —New Statesman — New Statesman
New Statesman
A dizzying and exhilarating journey. . . . Understanding how China sees itself and how it justifies its actions is critical to understanding today’s world. Great State offers some compelling lessons for today, and for all our futures.” —New Statesman
Financial Times
Historical resonance sounds in every country and culture largely because humans are preordained by their natures to react in certain ways to similar circumstances. But in China, argues Timothy Brook in his excellent new book Great State, there is a crucial extra dimension. The power of this book lies partly in the fact that Brook does not overstate his case. While he does not seek to claim that China’s current actions are prefigured by the past, an attentive reader cannot fail to notice extraordinary parallels.
Financial Times
Historical resonance sounds in every country and culture largely because humans are preordained by their natures to react in certain ways to similar circumstances. But in China, argues Timothy Brook in his excellent new book Great State, there is a crucial extra dimension. The power of this book lies partly in the fact that Brook does not overstate his case. While he does not seek to claim that China’s current actions are prefigured by the past, an attentive reader cannot fail to notice extraordinary parallels.
Jonathan Spence
From the epicenter of Delft, Brook takes his readers on a journey that encompasses Chinese porcelain and beaver pelts, global temperatures and firearms, shipwrecked sailors and their companions, silver mines and Manila galleons. It is a book full of surprising pleasures.
Ross King
Praise for Vermeer’s Hat: “Thanks to Brook’s roving and insatiably curious gaze, Vermeer’s small scenes widen onto the broad panorama of world history . . . The result is like one of Vermeer’s trademark reflective pearls that magically reveals a world beyond itself. A more entertaining guide to world history - and to Vermeer - is difficult to imagine.
Seattle Times on Vermeer’s Hat
Elegant and quietly important . . . Brook does more than merely sketch the beginnings of globalization and highlight the forces that brought our modern world into being; rather, he offers a timely reminder of humanity’s interdependence.
Entertainment Weekly on Vermeer’s Hat
Brook utilizes the props in Vermeer’s tableaux as starting points to journey into the cultural and economic world of the time: A teacup pours forth the history of the porcelain trade with China, while a felt hat is traced to beaver trapping in North America. It’s a fascinating approach to cultural history, providing new ways of thinking about the origins of commonplace objects.
Library Journal
03/01/2020
Brook (history, Univ. of British Columbia; Sacred Mandates) convincingly argues that the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368) was a critical moment in Chinese history, which had profound impacts that reverberate to this day. This dynasty, established by Mongol descendents of Genghis Khan, incorporated new areas into the borders of China and introduced the concept of the Great State, which the author defines as "the right to extend authority…out across the entire world." To make his case, the author tells the stories of 13 fascinating events from the 13th to the early 20th centuries. These stories of Chinese explorers, Portuguese merchants, Japanese occupiers, and more challenge the myth that China was historically a closed country. The book concludes with a discussion of China's current internal and international situation. Readers will come away with a better understanding of China's past and present. VERDICT This enjoyable read is essential for all students of Chinese history, and accessible to anyone with a general interest in the topic. A solid companion to Odd Arne Westad's Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750.—Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX
Kirkus Reviews
2020-01-12
A Canadian scholar of Chinese history offers a fresh look at China's engagement with the outside world over centuries in the form of 13 illustrative stories.
In this academic yet mostly accessible work, Brook makes two significant revisionist arguments about China and its history. First, he moves up China's sense of being a unified state from the third century B.C.E., when it developed "dispersed kingdoms," to the 13th century, when its occupation by the Mongol armies imbued it with a sense of military domination exercised through conquest. This was the self-important "Mongol Great State," and every ruler since then has declared his regime to be a "Great State," according to Brook. Second, the author argues that, contrary to the myth of Chinese isolation from the world, the nation was very much aware of the "10,000 countries" that lay outside it, as the author relays through fascinating stories of contact. These involve a wide variety of protagonists that may be unfamiliar to many readers, including the "Persian Blue Princess" whom Khubilai Khan recruited for the Mongol throne; Korean emissaries who blew off course and landed in China; the Italian Jesuit missionaries who spread Renaissance ideas; and the droves of European traders descending on ports such as Canton. Indeed, Brook reminds us, China has frequently endured waves of conquest and occupation by "foreign" armies, from the marauding Mongol hordes led by Khan, who established the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), to the subsequent rise of the Ming Dynasty until 1644, when the Manchus swept through and established the Qing Great State, which collapsed in 1911. Brook then takes us all the way up to the early 21st century, noting how "China's relationship with the world will continue to change." The author also turns up intriguing new DNA evidence that the plague had likely emerged from Central Asia and devastated Chinese cities far earlier than it arrived in Europe.
With useful maps and stories within stories, this is an ingenious look at an often misunderstood country.
