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Title: The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0-393-30780-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.03 (32 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent history for the novice
Comment: I enjoyed this book for several reasons. The writing is excellent. It does not read like dry history. The author starts with the fall of the Ming dynasty. This is an excellent choice. By starting here, the reader better understands why China views the west it does. This places current events more in historical perspective. I also liked the author making value judgments about various historical figures and events. I am sure these value judgments will provoke controversy by the academic community. Spence does a good job of showing that the Communist revolution was more than a cult of Mao. Others were involved and Mao had his limits of power. This book is an excellent choice for someone who knows little about Chinese history but wants a quick survey of recent history.
As for weaknesses, I thought the coverage of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution was weak. The horror of these two events is discussed too dispassionately. If readers have no previous knowledge of these two events, it is hard from this text to understand the nature of the true tragedy.
As a disclaimer, I am not a scholar of Chinese history. I had only read a few books and have had no academic courses in Chinese history
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent introduction to modern Chinese history
Comment: This is probably the most accessible history of modern China written so far. Jonathan Spence, a Yale professor of history, has written extensively on Chinese history and his insights into the culture and people are invaluable.
Overall the reader is presented with a picture of the nature of change in Chinese civilization and how those changes are sometimes culture specific. Chinese intellectual, political and social organizations are presented. Importantly Spence shows the difficulty in incorporating Western concepts both technological and philisophical into Chinese society and the sometime rejection of these concepts for political and cultural reasons.
Spence's scholarship is second to none and this is a very readable history, both enjoyable and informative. No better praise can be given than besides a college text on Chinese history "The Search For Modern China" is just as well suited as an informative and entertaining read for the layperson. The integration of scholarship and writing makes this a good standard to judge other general histories.
Rating: 3
Summary: Factual but Detached
Comment: I'm reading Spence's book for a college course on Modern Chinese History. I find the writing to be very clear and organization to be very good. The information presented is relevant and Spence provides good anecdotes that do not stray too far away from the subject.
My only complaint with Spence's book is that it is too light on the Western imperialists that devastated China from 1840-1949. Being Western himself, Spence seems to excuse western military, political and religious exploitation of China by portraying imperialism as some sort of paternal guidance. Spence also makes little or no judgements on the events of history. While this "detached" form is usually the style for textbooks, I find it to be representative of intellectual cowardice. Spence and the West continually refuse to face up to the fact that 50 or 60 years ago, the western nations embraced social, political evils in the name of profit while at the same time espousing empty slogans of liberty and freedom.
While, it is extremely tiring to read communist literature that seems to include an insult every other sentence, Spence's book is extreme on the other end of the scale. It is time that historians and academics faced the fact that history is not some intellectual exercise that they can undertake in their university offices. Writing about the death of millions and the collpase of nations in an emotionally detached way seems inappropriate for me. Make a judgement, and make it right. Historical representation is inherently political. "Objective" history is a lie.
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Title: The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection by Pei-Kai Cheng, Michael Lestz, Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0393973727 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $27.70 |
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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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Title: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by JUNG CHANG ISBN: 0385425473 Publisher: Anglophone Sa Pub. Date: 03 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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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: 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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