China: A New History by John King Fairbank, Merle Goldman
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(Paperback - Second Enlarged Edition)
- Pub. Date: December 2005
- 640pp
- Sales Rank: 60,387
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: December 2005
- Publisher: Harvard University Press
- Format: Paperback, 640pp
- Sales Rank: 60,387
- ISBN-13: 9780674018280
- ISBN: 0674018281
- Edition Number: 2
- Edition Description: Second Enlarged Edition
Synopsis
John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. It remains a masterwork without parallel. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date, covering reforms in the post-Mao period through the early years of the twenty-first century, including the leadership of Hu Jintao. She also provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come.
Annotation
Recognized for decades as the West's doyen on China, John King Fairbank here offers the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. Fairbank's masterwork is without parallel as a concise, comprehensive, and authoritative account of China and its people. 83 halftones, line drawings and maps.
Library Journal
No American scholar of China was better known to the public and academia alike than Fairbank. This history of China, completed two days before his death in 1991, is a fitting final work. In covering the breadth of the country's history, from the earliest archaeological records to the present, the author is occasionally short on details, but lay readers and undergraduate students will appreciate the perceptive analysis and explanation throughout, leading to a better understanding of this complex nation, its people, and its importance in the world. Furthermore, Fairbank's command of recent research, along with an excellent bibliography, will appeal to the scholarly audience. Highly recommended. History Book Club selection.-- Kenneth W. Berger, Duke Univ. Lib., Durham, N.C.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
John King Fairbank was Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and Director of the East Asian Research Center at Harvard University.
Merle Goldman is Professor of History, Emerita, at Boston University and Associate of the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University.
Customer Reviews
China: A New Historyby Anonymous
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March 02, 2006: I do enjoy this book by Fairbank. It is well written. But for beginners, it could be a difficult read. Also, on the current China affairs, it is very weak. For this, I recommend a new book, China's global reach by a Chinese commentator George Zhibin Gu, which is the best book on China's current affairs I have read.
China: A New Historyby Anonymous
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March 28, 2003: Most fascinating for me in this history of China was the discussion of the recent economic opening that this huge and populous nation has undertaken. The reasons given for why they have been becoming capitalistic, (in fear of becoming like the USSR and to try to modernize their society) were intriguing. I must admit that I had a long prejudice against Chinese politics, as I considered it a state run by thugs. But after reading this book, I realized the long tradition of Confucian thought, and its effects on governance over the history of China. Also interesting was the role the US had in the Nationalist cause at the turn of the last Century. The tragic situation of women in the society, which was not elaborated on very much, but still fascinating and disturbing was also explored. I also enjoyed the stories of the dynasties, although I still don?t have them all straight in my mind. But I did get a feel for why the dynasties rose and fell, and how they interacted with the rest of the world. The rise of the Communist party in China was very interesting, and I am very curious to see where things go now. The civic traditions and endemic corruptions inherent in the social structure could be seen in their interrelated complexities rising over the millennia as governance of this vast and diverse land was figured out. Mostly this book opened my mind to a society and culture I knew little about, and helped me to begin to appreciate it much more. Compared to the ever-present violence and destruction, religious persecution and conflict, and social disruption and seemingly unending tales of power-drunk warlords conniving to divvy up and consume land and influence that I gleaned reading the history of Europe, the history of China seems almost stable and bconsistent.
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