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The Search for Modern China (平装)
by Jonathan D. Spence
| Category:
Chinese history |
| Market price: ¥ 288.00
MSL price:
¥ 268.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An all encompassing and matchless history of modern China, this monumental masterpiece is the best place to start to understand China's past. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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The New York Times (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
Monumental... History that is always lively, always concrete, always comprehensible. |
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The Boston Globe (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
A remarkable achievement... vivid... fluent, graceful... A publishing event.
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The Washington Post (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
History at its best... all in the vivid, accessible style for which the author is well known.
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Publishers Weekly (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
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..." |
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Eric Austrew (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
This textbook is the perfect introduction for students interested in an overview of modern Chinese history and a valuable reference for scholars already immersed in the subject. Drawing on his many years of teaching the survey course at Yale on Chinese history, Spence covers the major events and themes of the past four hundred years with scholarly thoroughness and a light literary hand. Although the amount of material is daunting - even Spence doesn't use it all in his course - Search for Modern China is written to be accessible to the layperson as well as the academic. Highly recommended for anyone interested in China today.
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Philips Moore (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
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.
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Robert Crawford (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
For anyone interested in contemporary China, this books provides the necessary historical backdrop in great and well reasoned detail. In my reading, Spence explains better than anyone why the Chinese currently prefer stability over democracy and why the country has made a slow and halting entry into the modern world. While making no excuses for the excesses of the Party's leadership, Spence chronicles the immense change that Mao and his successors initiated, not from the standpoint of solely the 20th Century, but over the last 300 years. If you are looking for a single book that provides a 360 view of the evolution of this ancient and complex civilisation, this is the book for you. Spence is also a master of eloquent and concise prose, refreshingly un-academic in tone and yet a brilliant synthesis of contemporary research.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
Just examining the China/Far East section at your local bookstore will reveal just what an authority Spence is. In the US he dominates the field and this book is his most comprehensive offering. He does indeed support a very modest bias, as another reviewer has pointed out, but this is far less apparent than in the many many other books that deal with the subject. None of Spence's contemporaries really compare, and none of his other works do either. As an history this is a phenomenal guide, providing rich detail and a cohesive overview. As I have said though - there is a slight bias in his thesis, but in the field of recent Chinese history an unbiased opinion is as rare as a comprehensive view. That is to say, of any book you're likely to find on the subject 'Search' is the most comprehensive and the least slanted. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
I just returned from a 15 day journey of China with Spence's The Search for Modern China at my side. I read it before I left and I constantly read it during the trip. Not only is Spence THE authority on Chinese history in the U.S., but the Search for Modern China is THE authority of the last three hundred years of the Han. It excellently chronicles from the last Ming Emperor, through Qianlong and the Tiaping Rebellion, to Modern China starting with Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. His analysis of the successes and flaws of Mao Zedong and those in his wake such as Deng Xiaoping is tantalizing. It is brilliantly organized and told in an interesting and beautiful manor. Spence has outdone himself and topped various other hostorians. With this book he deserves to be ranked with William Shirer, Author Goldschmidt, Jr., and Stephen Ambrose.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
War, revolution, drama, triumphs and defeats: It's all here in this 800+ page book. Spence, a scholar with unquestionable competence, does a great job detailing the struggle of a nation trying to claim its place in the modern world. From the conquest of the Manchus to the dominance of Western powers, from the fall of the last imperial dynasty to the birth of a republic, and from the tragedy of Tiananmen to the promise of a better future, the reader gets a sense of history unfolding before his own eyes. The beautiful photographs and illustrations included brings the reader even closer to being a witness of history.
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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