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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly Engaging, Entertaining, August 9, 2008
China, it seems, is a land that conjures much myth among non-Chinese, and "the Great Wall," as historian John Man deftly illustrates, is one such myth. To begin with: there is no wall; it doesn't exist. Rather there are a whole series of walls, built at different times, by different rulers, of different materials, and for a whole host of different reasons. This assortment of barriers was never effective at keeping out the marauding barbarian hordes, chiefly because it was never intended to do that. And those barbarian hordes, as Man explains, were never that barbaric to begin with. In fact, just about every notion you ever had about the divide(s) is most likely dead wrong, and part of the pleasure of reading this book is finding out the truth. Man's style is a bit workmanlike in places, but occasionally it glimmers with poetic description. He's a researcher - an expert on Mongolia, for example - and an explorer, and his tone is intelligent and down to earth. He tracks the walls' sections through most of the country, and his travels, supplemented by his copious research and excellent knowledge of ancient Chinese and Mongolian history, are really fun to read. Here's a man on a serious mission in an often baffling, bizarre, and not-so-serious nation. I really liked this book. I learned heaps and was entertained while doing it. In fact, I went out and bought another one of his books, The Terracotta Army, also very good. With The Great Wall, don't expect to be bowled over with elegant prose, but do expect do come away knowing a great deal more about China's national symbol - and its national mindset - than just about anyone. Troy Parfitt, author of Why China Will Never Rule the World
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Great Book!, September 1, 2008
"The Great Wall" by John Man is also a great book! Throughly loved it from the beginning to the end. It kind of felt like I had actually traveled the length of the actual walls (Yes - walls, it is not just one wall!). Author John Man, who has a way of making something that is historically complex come across as both interesting and entertaining; while at the same time, he manages to educate the reader. This is one history book well worth reading. I was ignorant enough to think I knew a little something about Chinese history; I found that I knew nothing. This book is well researched and goes beyond just the physical building of the walls. The author manages to skillful inter-weave politics, history, culture, and related stories into a literary blueprint of the history of the walls. The book should be considered the ultimate authority on the history of the Great Wall of China; this is the gold standard that scholars and historians should use to study. I highly recommend this book for all those readers interested in history, China or who want to learn something new. The book receives the American Authors Association's highest book rating of FIVE STARS! It also gets my personal approval!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting for a novice...., July 3, 2010
John Man describes various aspects of the Great Wall, how it came into being, where it is, and also explains some aspects of Chinese history. Yet ultimately the book disappoints in several ways. Overall it is nothing which has not been written about in a thousand other books, for example in 'The Great Wall' by Julia Lovell and many others. The meetings with modern day Chinese are the most interesting aspects of this book yet there are very few of them. Therefore this books resembles less original research but seems to be more an armchair collection of facts and a rehash of what others have written about (like the 'lost' Roman legionaires etc.). For someone who has not yet read about the Great Wall this might be a nice primer. Yet what ultimately makes me wonder about the qualifications of the author is his assertion that Zheng He, the Chinese Navigator, has founded colonies in Australia and South America. This is straight from Mr. Gavin Menzies '1421 - The Year China Discovered the World', a book which occupies the same shelf space as books on Ufologie and the Loch Ness Monster.
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