Rating: 
Summary: An excelent,well researched documentation.
Review: Barbara Tuchman sheds much light on a time in history that is very much misunderstood,and,of which there is very little knowledge. I read Stilwell many years ago and think it should be reprinted,It would be very informative as to the actual history of China in the 20th century,and how she evolved into what she is today.Russ Strand
Rating:
Summary: Oustanding work, both scholarly and an enjoyable read.
Review: I dicovered this book by accident in a used book store a few years ago. My first introduction to Barbara Tuchman, and I was hooked. The other reviewers have highly rated the ease of reading this book and I wholeheartedly agree. This is a substantial book on many levels. I would like to comment that in addition to its ease of reading, it brought to light a man that I believe has been neglected by post World War II historians, politicians and his own military. I recall the (1960s) film titled Merrill's Marauders in which General Stillwell makes a brief appearence. Little did I know then what depth of involvement he had in China and that theatre of the war. One knows of Patton, Nimitz, King, Halsey, and of course, Eisenhower and MacArthur, but Stillwell, well, he truly had the most thankless job in WW II. Ms. Tuchman did a wonderful job of describing a China caught between feeble attempts at modernizing and reverence for the old ways, competing political systems and national interests at a time of great change in the world at large. I came away from this book with the utmost respect for General Stillwell.
Rating:
Summary: Oustanding work, both scholarly and an enjoyable read.
Review: I dicovered this book by accident in a used book store a few years ago. My first introduction to Barbara Tuchman, and I was hooked. The other reviewers have highly rated the ease of reading this book and I wholeheartedly agree. This is a substantial book on many levels. I would like to comment that in addition to its ease of reading, it brought to light a man that I believe has been neglected by post World War II historians, politicians and his own military. I recall the (1960s) film titled Merrill's Marauders in which General Stillwell makes a brief appearence. Little did I know then what depth of involvement he had in China and that theatre of the war. One knows of Patton, Nimitz, King, Halsey, and of course, Eisenhower and MacArthur, but Stillwell, well, he truly had the most thankless job in WW II. Ms. Tuchman did a wonderful job of describing a China caught between feeble attempts at modernizing and reverence for the old ways, competing political systems and national interests at a time of great change in the world at large. I came away from this book with the utmost respect for General Stillwell.
Rating:
Summary: Tuchman is the best
Review: I don't know how many stars should give I it, let along that it deserves any. It's obviously a beautifully written book but its bias only gives General Chennault more credibility. As a distant relative of Chennault (I only found this out recently), I've been researching and studying this field for many years. This book only shows what Stilwell COULD have done but didn't do. It also shows his incompetence and disrespect toward Generalisimo Chiang Kai-shek (nicknaming him the Peanut). His only objective was trying to overthrow an ally early on because Chiang Kai-shek refused to become a puppet of the US. By the way, the part about him wanting to shoulder a rifle with Communist General Chu Teh IS true. A photocopy of a letter he wrote stating that appeared in an American pro-Communist newspaper in 1945. It was not made up by Chennault as the book stated. Great men like Generals Patton and Chennault have had their faults and even they were willing to admit it and apologized, making the effort to do better. General Stilwell never admitted his faults nor did he ever apologize. He is no military maverick and should not be considered one.
Rating: 
Summary: Only shows that General Stilwell was no hero at all!!!
Review: I don't know how many stars should give I it, let along that it deserves any. It's obviously a beautifully written book but its bias only gives General Chennault more credibility. As a distant relative of Chennault (I only found this out recently), I've been researching and studying this field for many years. This book only shows what Stilwell COULD have done but didn't do. It also shows his incompetence and disrespect toward Generalisimo Chiang Kai-shek (nicknaming him the Peanut). His only objective was trying to overthrow an ally early on because Chiang Kai-shek refused to become a puppet of the US. By the way, the part about him wanting to shoulder a rifle with Communist General Chu Teh IS true. A photocopy of a letter he wrote stating that appeared in an American pro-Communist newspaper in 1945. It was not made up by Chennault as the book stated. Great men like Generals Patton and Chennault have had their faults and even they were willing to admit it and apologized, making the effort to do better. General Stilwell never admitted his faults nor did he ever apologize. He is no military maverick and should not be considered one.
Rating:
Summary: A great read that has a new relevancy
Review: I first read this book when it was published in the late 1960s. I even did a bok review on it for high school. Little did I realize that this book was be one who's relevancy is continuous as the United States deals with a China that has changed immensely since Stillwell left in 1944 but one wonders if policy makers are making the same mistakes now as in the 1940s.Stilwell is the main character of the book, but he meets and impacts people throughout his military career. We see his service in France as a liason officer with French forces. We see his service in China over the years and the people he met and impressed. He has a tour of duty managing the Army reserve in Southern California which was likely held with little regard by his fellows. Stilwell undertook to make these citizen soldiers ready for war and took them seriously which was not lost on the reservists themselves. His realationship with the government and rulers of China is telling and chilling. He saw what manner of eader Chaing Kai-shek was and inspite of his warnings, we see America insisting that he is the one person who can hold China together. Stilwell didn't live to see the folly of that decision and then the recriminations against those who counseled against setting too much faith in the Nationalist government. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in China and the role and impact the United States has had on China and vice versa.
Rating:
Summary: The Bafflement and the Allure
Review: Is this book quite as good as I think it is? I suspect not. Tuchman combines an impressive learning with a knack for catching you up in her narrative. She also has what comes very close to being a schoolgirl crush on General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, the somewhat equivocal protagonist of her story, and betrays her own share of that complex love-hate relationship with modern China which has served as so strong a force in modern world politics. Taken together, these qualities make for a compulsive read, but they perhaps lend themselves to a certain suspension of disbelief. Stilwell came into World War II as an acknowledged leader among his military peers. He had been scheduled to command the first American offensive of the War, when he was sen instead for the job which became the definition of his career -- the task of making China into an effective military partner. Even with all critical receptors on stun, one does sense that Stilwell embodied many of the virtues you would want in the job. He appears to be decent, high-principled, hard-working, with a keen sense of public order - but in the last analysis a fighter which is, after all, the one thing a general is supposed to be (he reminds me a bit of William Tecumseh Sherman). Moreover by just about anybody's account, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, as the leader of wartime China, was a piece of business. Perhaps even more than Stalin, Chiang was an accidental man - a smalltime thug who got caught in the updraft and found himself at least the titular head of a world power. But Stalin coupled his good fortune with an unparalleled ruthlessness and peasant savvy. It is probably an empty question whether, in the end, the Chinese were tougher to dominate than the Russians, or whether by contrast Stalin was simply better at the task of domination than Chiang. Still, Chiang in retrospect seems far more the passive object of events than the active subject. It is easy, then, to understand all of Stilwell's frustration, and to appreciate his sense of lost possibilities. Yet the fact remains that Stilwell missed futon the one item that would have made his case most convincingly, and that is success. He may have helped to fend of disaster in Asia, and he may have done a bit to make the Chinese army more effective (and the life of the Chinese soldier more bearable). Yet in the end, Stilwell's record in China survives as a chronicle of lost possibilities. What if Chiang had been a bit more forceful as a leader, or at least receptive to Western help? Yes, but what if Stilwell had been a bit more sly and ingratiating in trying to meet the Generalissimo on his own terms. It is surely a virtue of Tuchman's narrative if you can read this kind of ambiguity into it, even if it was not what she intended. This doesn't pretend to be a definitive introduction to modern China (Jonathan Spence's In Search of Modern China probably stands as canonical for the moment). But for capturing the allure and the bafflement with which the West approaches China - and for painting an attractive picture of an attractive guy - Tuchman deserves full credit.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a novel.
Review: Stillwell and the American Experience, is everything it claims to be a well written and an interesting story, told by one of the greatest historians of the twentieth century. It has a captavating introduction which draws the reader; however, about half-way through the book it begins to become somewhat repetitive and laggy, one almost feels as if he is experiencing this agonizing political war with Chaing Kia-Shek. But overall a good book about a trying time.
Rating:
Summary: ..awesome reading...
Review: This author is incredible and is by far my favorite. The insight on China in the first 100 pages is totally incredible. The title doesn't look exciting but this book was highly recommended to me about 10 years ago and I finally purchased it used a few weeks ago.
The historical background and Stillwell's unique descriptions of hie experiences in China are super interesting to me.
Rating:
Summary: ..awesome reading...
Review: This author is incredible and is by far my favorite. The insight on China in the first 100 pages is totally incredible. The title doesn't look exciting but this book was highly recommended to me about 10 years ago and I finally purchased it used a few weeks ago.
The historical background and Stillwell's unique descriptions of hie experiences in China are super interesting to me.
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