Anonymous
Posted April 9, 2002
As a student of Chinese history, this book was an invaluable source on modern Chinese history. Very well written, and comprehensive. Spence's books are never a disappointment.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 21, 2002
I grew up in Taiwan and learned the 'correct' version of Chinese history revised by Koumintang. Since coming to US, I came to know many friends from China who told me the other 'correct' version - revised by Communists. Each version portraits its own government as the legitimate product of evolution of China's unique culture and history, and many truths were lost or distorted as a result. Although I'm a engineer, not a history major, but when I first read this book, I couldn't put it down until I finished it (1 week later). It was like some stranger from afar tells you things about your family that you didn't know, and those things finally answered many questions you had for years.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 22, 2001
Spence has written a thorough but engrossing history of the last 4 centuries of China. I cannot imagine a better book on this topic. His knowledge is unbelieveable and his prose impeccable. For a whole week I read this book for 5 hours a day because finally I was reading the true history of China from a interesting writer. This book can be read on a beginning or advanced level because it is so well developed.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
More About This Textbook
Overview
Author Biography: Jonathan D. Spence is Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, where he has taught for thirty years. He has been awarded MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The Search for Modern China won the Lionel Gelber Award and the Kiriyama Book Prize.
Covering more than four centuries of epic history with unsurpassed learning, imagination, and passion, Spence tells a story of vast struggle, of exhilarating dreams and crushed lives, and above all of the sheer capacity of the human spirit to endure. Professor of history at Yale University and author of numerous works on China, Spence shows the reader a world struggling to remake itself and establish harmony in light of recent events.
Editorial Reviews
New York Times
“Monumental.... History that is always lively, always concrete, always comprehensible.”Washington Post Book World
“History at its best...all in the vivid, accessible style for which the author is well known.”New York Times
Monumental.... History that is always lively, always concrete, always comprehensible.Boston Globe
A remarkable achievement...vivid...fluent, graceful.... A publishing event.Washington Post Book World
History at its best...all in the vivid, accessible style for which the author is well known.Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Spence advocates democracy in China and presents contemporary views of its oppressive history, including Chiang Kai-Shek's fascist supporters and the bloodbath known as the Cultural Revolution. ``A splendid achievement, this sweeping . . . epic chronicle compresses four centuries of political and social change into a sharply observant narrative,'' said Publishers Weekly.New York Times Books of the Century
[Spence] shows, rahter than tells, the continuity of Chinese history....This superb history will challenge and enrich Western thinking about contemporary China.Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
Table of Contents