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The Search for Modern China Paperback – January 1, 1991
| Jonathan D. Spence (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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"A remarkable achievement...vivid...fluent, graceful.... A publishing event."―Boston Globe
In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative richness and efficiency. Praised as "a miracle of readability and scholarly authority," (Jonathan Mirsky) The Search for Modern China offers a matchless introduction to China's history.- Print length912 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1991
- Dimensions6.3 x 1.9 x 9.3 inches
- ISBN-100393307808
- ISBN-13978-0393307801
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Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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-Dolores Steinhauer, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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"History at its best...all in the vivid, accessible style for which the author is well known."
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Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; 1st Paperback edition (January 1, 1991)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 912 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393307808
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393307801
- Item Weight : 2.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 1.9 x 9.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #185,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #306 in Chinese History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Important note: the first and second editions differ substantially. I read the first, which was written shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre, and I think this distorts the perspective a bit. The last section of the book is all written as a prelude to that event, and that event ends the book, with an ominous note that the CCP may not be able to control the country much longer. The event is described in tremendous detail, and a whole section of photographs is devoted to it. I was a high school student in 1989, and I remember very well how huge the event seemed to us at the time--and in fact was. But from the perspective of today all of this seems quite off-balance. Therefore I would very much recommend the first edition if you are interested in Tiananmen Square: as a document of that event and the way it was viewed from abroad, it is valuable. But if you are looking for a more balanced view of the modern period I imagine the second edition would be better. Having said that, I get the impression that the first two-thirds of this book are really where its strengths lie.
The combination of narrative and analysis reminds me of the volumes in the Oxford History of the United States series. Spence provides not only a comprehensive account of historic events, but he pauses at each juncture to introduce us to prominent individuals and explain how events were experienced by peasants, merchants, warlords, officials, and reformers.
Helpful in understanding current China's many internal (and external)issues. Place your bets on whether China's communism collapses first or whether they attack the U.S. first...
As may be the case, a terrific history and vital to understanding a county still looking over its shoulder at the effects of Western and Japanese imperialism.
Not beach reading, but that's not what it's for anyway.
Probably best for skimming and reference.
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It is worth noting that Spence is better known in academia for his cultural work, such as on Matteo Ricci's mission or the seventeenth-century woman Wang. The Search for Modern China keeps in certain respects to this mould, taking for premise the quest for modernity, and this casts a certain light on the narrative. Thus while modernity itself was a Western concept, seventeenth-century China was in some ways just as modern, or more so, than any Western model - e.g. its meritocratic administration. One wonders whether Spence may have overstated the importance of interaction with Europe, especially in the earlier years, and the extent to which modernity was necessarily an import. To take a more specific example, the all-important revolution of 1911-12 seems to have been a Chinese against Manchu uprising as much as a lurch into political modernisation. The Rise of Modern China may underplay the continuity and tenacity of hostility to a dynasty perceived as foreign: the success of revolution of 1912, indeed, is difficult to understand based on the information provided in the preceding chapters. A related problem is perhaps that Spence grants far fewer pages to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries than to the rest - surprisingly for an early modernist. Half of the book takes place after the Long March of 1935.
As the author hints in the introduction, this also remains in some ways a work in progress. The sources, one senses, simply remain quite imperfect. This seems to have led Spence to rely on official history, especially on communist China. Much detail is invested, for example, in socialist reforms that all sound the same, and in the minutia of administrative change and counter-change. Meanwhile, the Great Leap Forward, probably one of the great world tragedies of the twentieth century, is discussed over four pages, and why it backfired so badly is not made clear. The economic picture also remains reliant on examples drawn from party politics and their sterile, or counter-productive, debates. How collectivisation affected everyday life and work could have been made more explicit without adding to the book's length. At the same time, that much modern Chinese history can continue to be shrouded in obscurity or controversy illustrates how fascinating a subject this remains. The objections raised here are, moreover, but minor quibbles, and while The Search is not stylistically quite up to Spence's other works, it makes for gripping reading. This is an engrossing history, and the food for much reflection on China both past and contemporary.
Well written and eye-opening.
Truly innovative !


