Customer Reviews

All Under Heaven: A Complete History of China

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book a gem of historical synthesis and clarity. It's not easy to make an adequate summary of the millennial history of China, from prehistory to the inception of Twentieth Century, but I think the Author has succeeded, stressing the most important factors of each era, and giving us a good introduction to Chinese history.

I purchased this book to expand my very limited knowledge of China's history. The content of the book is interesting and it covers a lot of history in a concise fashion. As another reviewer has said, the book does tend to focus on specific themes for each dynasty but this is reasonible considering the amount of space available.
It was a struggle to deal with the language and sentence construction of this book. Words are often used in an archaic sense and there are instances which I can only describe as grammatical errors.
Worth a look but be prepared to reread certain sections for clarity. I rate it ***, well worth reading for the novice historian.

I was very much interested in this book when I found it on Amazon.ca, especially with regards to the title "A Complete History of China". I expected a review of historical events with a proper timeline, yet what I found in this book was a narrative story with the timeline, but tend to be circling around on certain subjects. Rather than describing all the major events in the Chinese history, the author was a bit heavy on certain subjects in every of his chapters. For example, in one chapter regarding the Chou era, he put a lot of stress on Confucius rather than the then government/political leaders.
There are some interesting points that the Author made in this book such as how cast iron was highly developed in China meanwhile the Western civilations were still in the simpler and less capacity wrought iron technology. But even there, the Author lacked a more in-depth on why and how it occured.
Another point I'd include here is the language that the Author uses, which is rather hard for me to digest. I had to read one paragraph at least twice to understand the main points.
If English is your second language or reading book is not your natural talent, I'd suggest to find another reference for learning the Chinese history.

Kruger manages to cover almost every important political development in Chinese history, touching on each administration and even the most ephemeral dynasties. And though the account ends with the birth of the People's Republic on October 1, 1949, it's impressive to fit so much into under 400 pages.

In general, the author is a respectful student of China's civilization. Still, the heavy focus on political events tends to highlight the worst aspects of history. The parade of murderous court intrigue grows almost stupefying, and the interludes on technical or artistic achievements feel like welcome relief from a horror show. Also, the author tends to convey the biases of his Chinese sources. Where many court historians liked to blame the government's problems on the baleful influence of women in politics, Kruger reports these accusations without comment. He also presents Buddhism as seen by many Confucian critics--as a world-escaping, corrupt, and ultimately useless religion. Still, the author presents a 4,000 year sweep of history in a readily readable way.

All under Heaven is a readable book. Unfortunately its fatal flaw is one of strategy not tactics. One just cannot tackle 3500 years of history of the largest country on planet earth in 400 odd pages. It is simply impossible. For instance the Hsia dynasty get only the briefest of mentions. What happens is that a vast quantity of important history is simply glossed over, and one to two particular historical episodes in each dynasty gets the star detailed treatment eg Wang Mang in the Han. The consequence is that whilst you get a mildly entertaining read and learn a little about chinese history - you do not actually learn a great deal about chinese history.