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Title: The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985 by John King Fairbank ISBN: 0-06-039076-X Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 09 October, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly readable and authentic
Comment: I got this book for the specific purpose of studying China's secular civil wars -- the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1805), the Taiping Rebellion (1851-64), and the civil war that began with Mao's Long March (1934), culminating in the Great Leap Forward (1959).
Each of these civil wars resulted in massive bloodshed, including executions and famine, and was settled with compromises that lasted only a few decades, leading to the next civil war. This is important today, because the compromises forced on Mao after his disastrous and bloody Great Leap Forward are unraveling today, as peasants are losing their farms and their livelihoods and flooding into the cities. When a future economic downturn occurs, these peasants will be unemployed, with no infrastructure to support them, providing fertile ground for a new rebellion, possibly led by followers of the Falun Gong. This could happen any time in the next 10-15 years.
Fairbank's informal style presents the details of these and other historical events in an enjoyable manner and from a Chinese and China-centric point of view, rather than from the typical America-centric point of view used by other writers. The result is both enjoyable and authentic, and gives us the historical background to understand the revolutionary changes going on in China today.
Rating: 4
Summary: Very interesting interpretation
Comment: I wouldn't read this book as an introduction to Chinese history of this period. Fairbank's China: A New History, or several other general histories, are better for that. This book is Fairbank's argument that the development of Chinese history was far less heavily influenced by the West than most historians and Westerners believe. He convincingly puts the major interactions between China and the West in Chinese contexts, noting the similarities between Taipei Rebellion and the White Lotus Rebellion, for instance, although the latter event occurred when Western influence was much less. It's unfortunate that this topic is so politicized. Whether China was heavily or lightly influenced by the West should have no bearing on the inherent moral worth of the Chinese people, although many people on both sides of the debate don't see it that way. Nevertheless, Fairbank's topic is interesting in itself. Ultimately, I didn't find him fully convincing (not that I'm an expert), but I'm glad I read his book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Refreshing Storytelling
Comment: If there's one book that I could recommend to the general reader on the history of modern China (i.e. from circa 1800-1985), it would be this book.
To be honest, my first impression of this book is not a very good one in the sense that I did not feel like dancing in joy. This is because the book appears to me to be too simple, lacks good facts and not very scholarly. How could Fairbank write such a book? My expectations were very high or to be precise, I have expected the wrong things. This book is not intended to be scholarly, not intended to bog you down with boring details but is intended to be entertaining and at the same time have enough facts to highlight certain important events.
I bought this book only on a second visit to the bookshop and perhaps due to a change of mood, I find the book entertaining and at the same time enlightening in that it proposes different views on events that have not been considered before. For example, the discussion on the port of Hankow was quite enlightening. This is refreshing and after understanding the intentions of the book, my perception and expectations changed and I was able to see it in a new way. Since then, this has been one of my favourite books on modern Chinese history and will become a benchmark for me to measure good historical storytelling.
Compared to Jonathan Spence's "In Search of Modern China" this book appears to me be more entertaining and in a way, more intelligent. Highly recommended.
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Title: China: A New History by John King Fairbank, Merle Goldman ISBN: 0674116739 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0393307808 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980 by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0140062793 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1982 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Red Star over China by Edgar R. Snow ISBN: 0802150934 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: March, 1973 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: The Cambridge Illustrated History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey ISBN: 052166991X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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