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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
This book presents a masterful, introductory overview (or a neat refresher) of modern Chinese political history. A good primer or quick reference work for anyone studying the history and political transmutations of modern China at degree level, written by a very distinguished historian of the subject then nearing the end of a long career, it serves as a kind of personal scholarly distillation of the greater depth and detail which can be found in the Cambridge History of China series (Vols 10-13), of which Fairbank was editor (which ultimately will be of greater use to students as they go on to sharpen their focus on this period), and to which he points the reader in lieu of providing more traditional endnotes. Fairbank's prose is occasionally leavened by some personal and chatty asides, which may not chime well with all readers (and which may not always be readily comprehensible to non-Americans); as can also be said for his idiosyncratic romanisation of certain Chinese names - e.g. "Deng Hsiao-p'ing" - halfway between Wade-Giles and Pinyin. In certain places the book does show its age somewhat, but it certainly still bears reading alongside similar, more up-to-date works (e.g. - by historians, such as Julia Lovell, Robert Bickers, William T. Rowe, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, et al) which will in time, from certain perspectives, probably supersede it; not least, as Fairbank himself notes, because: "Each generation's historians have the task of presenting the past's relevance to our present concerns." As such, this book will undoubtedly become an interesting window on how China was perceived and so will still retain its historiographical relevance for quite some time yet.
