New Emperors: China... [Paperback]

Harrison E. Salisbury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1993

This definitive work, based on 20 years of first-hand research and first-person interviews conducted by Pulitzer Prize-winner Salisbury, follows the lives of Mao and Deng from their rural childhood to their triumphant establishment of the People's Republic of China. "Reads as much like popular fiction as a work of history."--Orville Schell, The New York Times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Salisbury's crowning achievement, this gripping dual biograpy of China's two modern emperors--Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping--is also a revelatory history of modern China's transformation. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

After writing a dozen or more memorable books on the history of Russian communism, veteran New York Times writer Salisbury turned his attention to China about ten years ago. A consummate reporter, Salisbury knows when he has a good story, and this book is brimming with good stories about the personalities, intrigues, and conflicting aims of Mao Tse-Tung and his successor. No other Western journalist has mastered the China story as expertly as Salisbury. He uses his rich background knowledge and privileged access to a wide array of Chinese leaders to write a fascinating insider's history of events that are sometimes epic and sometimes anecdotal but always related with style and depth. This is a wonderful introduction to China's current situation--and how it got there. A helpful guide to the cast of characters is included. For general and informed lay readers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/91.
- John H. Boyle, California State Univ., Chico
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380720256
• ISBN-13: 978-0380720255
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The personalities, the influence..., October 18, 2002

By 

Andrew Bruske "Andrew Bruske" (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng (Hardcover)

This book set me off on a binge of Chinese history reading. I had to know more about Kang Sheng, for example, and "Claws of the Dragon" helped shed light on this "immortal". Then there were: Zhou Enlai's hagiography 'Eldest Son' at the hands of Han Suyin; The White Boned Demon, about Jiang Qing; Mao's doctor's self-glorifying account; Deng's biography. Nothing compares to this book for readability and sense of magnitude. You meet the twenty or so people who decided the fates of a billion Chinese. Modern democracy has nothing to compare. The personalities in recent Chinese history, the importance of them, are staggering. The Great Leap, the Cultural Revolution--these hellish mass movements affected hundreds of millions of people. You get to see the tiny coterie which ordered the lives of a significant portion of the Earth's inhabitants for fifty years. An amazing book.
I wish Harrison Salisbury were still around to write an update. TNE stops in 1991 as the economy is slowing and the hardliners are asserting themselves. Deng visited the "new cities" on the South China Sea in 1993-4, invigorating them and the "capitalism with Chinese characteristics" which they represented. What followed, of course, is our recent history of China thinking itself as a great power.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that needs to be read by more Americans, July 17, 2000

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New Emperors: China... (Paperback)

Let's face it, China is rapidly replacing Russia as the chief rival of the U.S. in world affairs. And anyone who wants to begin to understand modern China must start with this book. Harrison Salisbury is an excellent journalist and writer who chronicles the tragic history of China from the beginning of the communist regime through the early 1990s. He focusses on the two leaders, Mao and Deng, who guided China into the modern era, causing at least as much if not far more destruction to their country the good that came from modernity. The irony is that while Mao was an egomaniacal madman, Deng was at heart a decent man who rebounded from being jailed and humiliated by the Cultural Revolution only to ruin his more benevolent legacy at Tianamen Square in 1989. Salisbury's account is readable and insightful and is essential for anyone with an interest in the country.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome on Mao, Ok on Deng, January 3, 2001

By 

Shogun Len "tokieyasu" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Emperors: China... (Paperback)

I recently read the new Philip Short biography on Mao. A long and good book. However, I did not learn half as much about Mao from Short's book as I did from the New Emperors.

Salisbury writes a highly readable, brilliant book on Mao, the founding of the people's republic of China, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.

The book does a great job showing the personal side of Mao, how he treated other people, and how he changed over time between 1949 and 1976.

The book also does a great job on the early career of Deng Xiaoping. However, feel the book falters on covering the demise of the Gang of Four and the early rule of Deng. As great as the book was up to this point, I feel he does not thoroughly cover how the gang of four was defeated and the early rule of Deng.

The book recovers in its coverage of Tianaman Square and in its conclusions about China.

This book is 3/4 brilliant and 1/4 ok.