Customer Reviews

China: A New History, Enlarged Edition

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This, along with Wing-Tsit Chan's A SOURCE BOOK IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY provided my first serious look at Chinese culture.

Fairbank's CHINA details the development of China from earliest times through the Tiananmen massacre: Xia & Shang, Zhou, the Spring and Autumn period, the Warring States period, the Qin Unification, the Han dynasty, disintegration, the subsequent rise of Sia and Tang dynasties, disintegration and the rise of the Song, the Northern and Southern Song along with the development of the kingdoms and empires of the Mongols who slowly conquered China, the Ming dynasty that expelled the Mongols, the Manchurian Qing dynasty that conquered all China and ruled until China became a Republic, Sun Yatsen, Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kaishek), fascism and communism, the rise of Mao and the Nationalist flight to Taiwan, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and Deng Xiaphing (Dong Zai-phong).

Of special interest are discussions on the rise of Confucianism, Daoism, Chinese Buddhism and Christian in-roads created by missionaries; the respective roles of Legalism, early imperial Confucianism and neo-Confucianism in the formation and evolution of the Chinese state; the horrors and extent of foot-binding among Chinese women; the influence of both communists and fascists in the Guomindang party and the open conflict between the "blue shirt" fascists (formed by Chiang Kaishek) and the Communist party; and the role of the USSR and Comintern in the development and organization of Communism in China (originally in the Guomindang and later in the Chinese Communist Party).

Thought-provoking and interesting, the book does suffer from infrequent flaws such as irrelevant personal attacks (e.g., Reaganesque = simple-minded) and giving too little details in some areas. Despite these (and the fact that the author once thought Maoisim the greatest thing to happen in China for centuries), anyone interested in Chinese history cannot afford to pass up this important work.

It should also be noted that the earlier edition's last chapter was replaced by essays from other authors in the revised addition.

I am not a scholar of Chinese history. I just wanted to know more about the culture. I found the book to be very enjoyable. The topic was too broad for the book to spend much time in any detail of the subject. The book is well reasoned and excellent for those of us that want to know the basics about Chinese history. For those that read the other reviewer comments, bear in mind that the book covers Chinese history for prehistoric time to present day. Any commentary about US policy occurs in the very tail end. The book does do a good job contrasting the Chinese outlook to the western viewpoint.

You can get a lot out of this book as a basic introduction to Chinese civilization if you are willing to slog through it. It is clearly written and covers the essential facts, but it lacks taste and deep interpretation. In others words, it can be studied but should not be read for pleasure or even intellectual stimulation. I used it to complete certain gaps in my knowledge of Chinese history, which was necessary and useful, but it just feels so academic and pedantic. Maybe that is what must happen in most general survey introductions like this one: it is stripped down so far that it cut not just fat but muscle and bone. In contrast, "The Search for Modern China" by J. Spence is a work of art as well as history, and constantly stimulates the reader to probe deeper, farther, opening a world. Unfortunately, Fairbank and Goldman accomplished none of that.

Specialists in Chinese history and culture will not learn anything from this book. But that's not why it was written. Westerners are very ignorant of Chinese history, and this book is a good introduction to the big themes in China--government and protest, economic development and poverty, the influence of the West, education, and more. For example, the mistrust of China's government of Falun Gong is much more understandable when you know about the earlier religion-based revolutions and civil wars in Chinese history, which I'm sure the President of the United States is not aware of, despite his well-meaning platitudes about freedom of religion. I enjoyed this book greatly and reread portions often.

This book certainly provides a complete chronology of China's political, military, and economic history, but it is like dry wheat toast - good for you, but not very enjoyable. In places, the authors themselves seem uninterested in the subject. For example, the end of thousands of years of imperial rule is dispensed in one paragraph - no discussion. Personally, I wish I had bought a different book.

I agree with the many different comments people have had for this book. It contains a lot of information, its very dull at times, and it does not go into great depth all the time.

The bottom line is that is exactly what this book is. Its a short basic history of China. This is more of a reference book than a specific look at a very specific event.

No, China experts will not be in love with this book. But anyone looking for a survey of Chinese History or looking for a decent desk/bookcase reference book on China will find this book useful.

I had to write a review in light of all of the 4 and 5 star reviews that convinced me to buy this book. In my view, the book is truly awful. The author writes as if he is trying to dazzle you with references and topics that he fails to explain, almost as if we are sitting in on a conversation with 10 China-historians and he's trying to sound smarter than they are. This book is only for someone already conversant with China and its history on an intermediate level. Look, I'm not stupid. I'm an attorney, I took hard classes in school, I read and write for a living, and I read history for fun in my spare time. That said, the eye-glazing, ridiculous, overly-complex langage, the endless attributions that shoudl be relegated to the endnotes (e.g. "Prosser argues x..." or Wiseman, in his 1935 treatise, compels a second look at..."), and the lack of any look into the actual humans that feature in Chinese history (you never get past names) makes this an unforgiveably dull and needlessly complicated read. It is second only to Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which at least has the excuse that it was written in the 18th Century when "pompous-sounding" was a lot more cool. Oh, and how is it a "new" history of anything? It sounds like a not-terribly-detailed summary of everyone ELSE's work. Honestly, the first 130 pages could be condensed to 10 pages for all the information it passes along. This guy needs to find an editor who writes for humans. The tone of this book is suitable ONLY for publication to fellow historians focusing on China, though its broad scope probably makes it uselessly general for that audience, too.

I came away from reading this book with a much better understanding for Chinese history and culture. For that it can be recommended.

That said, it is uneven in scope and depth of coverage. One can argue that the earliest dynasties don't have too much relevance but they should have had more archeological coverage - just why did the civilization take off? Was it a river culture like the Nile, the Tigris, or the Indus? I think they said that the start was based on millet but when did rice become so dominant?

Some have said that China is a land island but the authors barely mentioned the links to other civilizations that could have challenged them other than the grass lands invaders.

Like so many academic works on history, the text is peppered with current political self-indulgences. Early in the text has a batch of Reagan harangues but they taper off quickly only to return near the end. Nothing dates and degrades a book and its author as much as such lack of self-discipline.

Some events and eras were particularly short-changed. The Red Guard era left me wondering - was it a baby boom effect like we saw in the West that Mao exploited? History requires more distance to be understood.

In sum, I think I've a better understanding of China and the Chinese and can put current events into better and deeper perspective thanks to this book.

Most fascinating for me in this history of China was the discussion of the recent economic opening that this huge and populous nation has undertaken. The reasons given for why they have been becoming capitalistic, (in fear of becoming like the USSR and to try to modernize their society) were intriguing. I must admit that I had a long prejudice against Chinese politics, as I considered it a state run by thugs. But after reading this book, I realized the long tradition of Confucian thought, and its effects on governance over the history of China. Also interesting was the role the US had in the Nationalist cause at the turn of the last Century. The tragic situation of women in the society, which was not elaborated on very much, but still fascinating and disturbing was also explored. I also enjoyed the stories of the dynasties, although I still don't have them all straight in my mind. But I did get a feel for why the dynasties rose and fell, and how they interacted with the rest of the world. The rise of the Communist party in China was very interesting, and I am very curious to see where things go now. The civic traditions and endemic corruptions inherent in the social structure could be seen in their interrelated complexities rising over the millennia as governance of this vast and diverse land was figured out. Mostly this book opened my mind to a society and culture I knew little about, and helped me to begin to appreciate it much more. Compared to the ever-present violence and destruction, religious persecution and conflict, and social disruption and seemingly unending tales of power-drunk warlords conniving to divvy up and consume land and influence that I gleaned reading the history of Europe, the history of China seems almost stable and consistent.

The 2006 version of this book has 2 added chapters from historian Merle Goldman. She wraps up the post-Mao events, economical, political, societal, and foreign interactions. The main part of the book is informative, with objective descriptions of events and people, the last two show the changes that have occurred since 1976, with a opening left for post-2005 China changes. Well worth having for anyone interested in Chinese history, whether modern or older. This book is good for the layman who may also want to learn more, as the suggested readings are comprehensive.