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Merle D. Goldman

China: A New History, Second Enlarged Edition Paperback – April 30, 2006

by John King Fairbank (Author), Merle Goldman (Author)

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John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. It remains a masterwork without parallel. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date, covering reforms in the post-Mao period through the early years of the twenty-first century, including the leadership of Hu Jintao. She also provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come.

Print length

640 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Publication date

April 30, 2006
Dimensions

6.37 x 1.19 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0674018281
ISBN-13

978-0674018280
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5 star		69%
4 star		14%
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The most defintive and comprehensive overview of Chinese history still to date.

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2018

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Out of the countless books there are on Chinese history meant for either a academic or general readership, this has the distinction of being one of the most comprehensive and definitive books on the subject. Before I get into the strengths and features of this book let me first do away with the negative reviews. The book is massive but a short paragraph in the introduction has made a subset of readers somehow disregard the whole book because of it. There are all from American conservatives who dislike it when someone disagrees with their political beliefs. The author simply mentions his disagreement with conservative politicians and their beliefs in relation to the reality of modern Chinese society. I recommend to these people to grow up. It's sad and infantile that the whole book was given a negative review just because of that. Anyway, let me finally touch upon the strengths of this book by making a list.

The strengths and features of the book:
1. Gives the most comprehensive overview of Chinese history from prehistory to the modern day still to date.
2. Authoritative. This is the greatest work of the late John K. Fairbank who was a giant of Chinese studies. This revised edition also inlcludes contributions to the latest chapters from Merle Goldman, a scholar with expertise on modern China and it's economy.
3. Includes many useful maps and information tables that illuminate the text.
4. Many great photos and illustrations.
5. Coverage of China's geography, everyday life, religions and more which is something few history books do in general.
6. A detailed bibliography and invaluable resources for further reading. This is gold for students or scholars.
7. Written in a accessible and entertaining way. This book is hard to put down.

My only complaint is the book's lack of coverage of non-Chinese dynastie, states, and neighbors. This gives a lopsided account of China's history and continues to ignore the influence of ethnic groups in Chinese history. Little mention of Xinjiang or Mongolia are good examples of this. Even with all that said, I can't overstate the utter comprehensiveness and mountain of information this book contains. This is the best book on Chinese history which should be a essential read for anyone even remotely interested in China.

28 people found this helpful

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M. A. Seifter

Excellent history of China

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2021

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I had wanted to purchase this back-to-front history of China for some time, and I am now glad that I own it. Written by one of America's mainline experts on the history, society, civilization and politics of China, John K. Fairbanks (and Merle Goldman, JKF's successor at Harvard), this book is thoroughly accessible from the first page to the last, and its prose is rewardingly clear. I urge everyone interested in the history and fate of this great civilization and our leading international rival today to acquire this book.

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TJW

If you are interested in the history of the earlier ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2017

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If you are interested in the history of the earlier dynasties, look elsewhere. The entire history of China prior to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) is crammed into 142 pages.

13 people found this helpful

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warren white

Like a history of Europe where the first half gets you to World War I

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2022

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The 20th century was not only ridiculously overemphasized, but described with far too many boring details. There was an underlying theme suggesting disappointment that China had missed its opportunity to become something like the 1950's US. The Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Chinese history offers much more detail and insight on China from Confucius to the opium wars.

The extensive bibliography gives a roadmap for more detailed reading.

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spunky

interesting, insightful, well written

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2011

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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.

4 people found this helpful

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S P

Look Elsewhere

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2011

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I give China: A New History credit for trying to do it all. It hopes to condense hundreds of years of dynastic struggle, economic development, and external strife into a few hundred pages. It does so very poorly.

Think of this book as two in one: a look at the long and intricate history of the imperial dynasties, and an exploration of post-dynastic national development. With regard to pre-dynastic history, such a short read does the dynasties little justice. It leaves out many entirely, and spends mere pages on others. The book does slightly better when it explores the past century. It devotes at least some time to major movements leading up to and throughout the revolution. Where it once again falls short is in trying to explain a massively important struggle in a few words and then move onto the next. I am not completely dissatisfied with its historical coverage, however. Goldman does a great job of summarizing contemporary developments with a focused and balanced perspective. I would love for everyone outside China to read these sections, which concisely but effectively explain recent developments.

Thankfully, the book takes a largely impartial view of controversial and still-relevant issues. It fairly explains the motivations behind the CCP leaders without blaming or criticizing them. Fairbank was right to allow readers to draw their own conclusions from the facts. The epilogue, meanwhile, takes a more conclusive and opinionated stance about the future direction of the PRC. I enjoyed this section for its optimism about future change. Such positivity is grounded in the facts and figures of the preceding history.

At its beginning, the book also draws helpful comparisons between China and the West. For those with little knowledge of Asia but extensive knowledge of Europe, these links will make it easier to dive right into the content. The comparions seem reasonable, and consider the complexity of both cultural traditions.

I could accept this book as a generalized introduction to Chinese history, were it not for its pedantic and frustrating academic style. The approach is entirely off for an introductory history text, which should focus on major issues and trends. Take the book's focus on intellectuals. Intellectuals have played a unique and surprisingly volatile role in Chinese history, yet the book overstates their importance. It avoids discussion of the common people and their culture, and tends to focus on elites of all forms: the gentry-elite, the bureaucratic elite, the bourgeois elite, and others. It focuses on bureaucratic institutions, administrative structures, and economic development. Such an aristocratic perspective leaves out important details that define and continue to shape Chinese culture. To really understand why China holds so much influence in Asian history and is poised to shape the modern landscape, look elsewhere. Most of this book meanders and avoids satisfying conclusions.

Look to this book if you understand Chinese socio-cultural history but want to understand its basic political and intellectual institutions as they have developed through the ages. Do not come in without some prior knowledge, for you may be confused and and will probably not finish. For its cursory and off-putting style, I might give it one star. Goldman's additions near the end of the book earn it two. Look elsewhere for more relevant histories.

11 people found this helpful

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John Ferngrove

Not the best but thought provoking with respect to more recent times.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2021

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I have read several, verging on numerous, one volume histories of China now. This one gets four stars because like too many, the depth of coverage decreases the further back in time one goes. We've reached the 20th Century by page 200 with 300 pages still to go. In this respect John Keay's China: a History, remains the single best one volume history from prehistoric times to 'the present', which in this book's case means 2006. There is, of course, the problem facing any such history that China has been evolving so rapidly since the revolution(s), that anything more than 5 years old, it feels like a significant gap has been left.

This book is actually a second edition from the initial publication of 1996, extended into the Jiang Zemin - Hu Jintao years by a second author. This means that the book's extensive bibliography, compiled by Fairbanks, is now very dated with few titles that would be easily available today.

For whatever reason, with most histories I have read my eyes have tended to glaze over once we reach the turmoil of the post-Mao years. Merle Goldman's extension for this edition is arguably the best feature of this book as between his contribution and Fairbanks' own coverage of the Deng Xiaoping era a very precise and clear picture is presented of the various currents in Chinese society; rural and industrial economic, popular and intellectual cultural, military within and outside government. This has greatly clarified my understanding of some of the threads that crop up repeatedly among China commentators of today. For instance, with Chinese government and politics being so opaque to the outside world, or even within China itself, it is tempting for commentators to try and guess what might be going on based on previous history. In particular, the Confucian tradition is regularly cited as a way of making sense of current Chinese society and politics. However, it is apparent that while Confucian tradition is alive and somewhat well in Chinese academia, academia is still under the thumb of the Party and the Party remains too pragmatically involved with its own objectives for Confucianism to really be an explanatory factor. There are actually few to no cases where a country's present history can be reliably inferred from that of its deep past and, if we had more access to the inner workings of Chinese government, China's deep past would not be such a heavily mined source of pseudo-explanation.

While reading this I also came to a deeper view of Mao's own journey, from presumably genuine seeker of social justice to arguably the ultimate despotic monster of all history. I find myself considering at a new level the path of decision making Mao was confronted with and trying to understand those decisions that were reasonable in the circumstances, those that were lamentable but pragmatically necessary and those which were a roll of the dice by a ruthless tyrant infatuated with his own absolute power. With the only biography of Mao I have read being that of Jung/Halliday, it is too easy to presume that the dominant factor in all Mao's decision making was invariably consideration of his own power. I now feel I need to examine the events more closely and at least begin looking for the man behind the monster

So, not the best but a very worthwhile book, particularly if your interest is in modern China.

One person found this helpful

JeanD

I wanted to get a good review of the complete history of China from the ...

Reviewed in Canada on July 20, 2014

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In preparation to an upcoming 3-week trip to China, I wanted to get a good review of the complete history of China from the early dynasties to the present time. This book met all my objectives. The original version of this classic by John King Fairbank was published in 1992 and covers the history of China up to the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. The additional chapters written by Merle Goldman, Chapter 21 on The Post-Mao Reform era as well as the Epilogue, add sixty pages of material to bring to book up to date to the year 2006. It is well written and gives a good understanding of the Chinese people, a people currently going through major economic and cultural changes that are opening up the country and bringing it into the modern era but a people still stifled by a party-state that does not allow opposition to party political views and still exert a major control over the media, although with increasing difficulty.

2 people found this helpful

Alessio Salvi

Good review of Chinese History with some limits.

Reviewed in Italy on September 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

Pretty much everyone suggested this book to me as the best introductory overview of China's history to follow after with more focused books. In that the book does delivers the promises.
That said, it is necessary to leave out much on an complete history of China and the book is very focused on the governance, less on other aspects like economics, minorities, etc.
Also on the whole it seems to me that the book is much more deep on the period after the Europeans arrival. Some periods, as for example Ming dinasty, are a bit "light".

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on August 8, 2016

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good

Celia Chen

In brilliant condition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2013

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I didn't expect much as it was tagged as an acceptable used book with marginal marks inside. It turns out, however, to be a brand new book with just a slight sign of wearing on the outside. The delivery is excellent as well. Received just four days after ordering. Very good!

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