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Rating: 
Summary: This book needs improvement in some areas
Review: 1ST, I BORROWED THIS BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY AND THE WRITER BLEW MY MIND! THE TEXT IN THIS BOOK IS SUPERB AND HISTORY IS QUITE PRECISE!! SO I DECIDED TO BUY THIS BOOK, AND IT'S STILL AS THRILLING!!! 2ND, IT IS AN EASY TO READ BOOK - - HEY ... THE BOOK IS SO GOOD I BROUGHT AN EXTRA COPIES FOR MY COLLECTION!!!HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ANY OBSERVER AND ADVISOR!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST HAVE FOR STUDENTS & CURIOSITY~!!!
Review: 1ST, I BORROWED THIS BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY AND THE WRITER BLEW MY MIND! THE TEXT IN THIS BOOK IS SUPERB AND HISTORY IS QUITE PRECISE!! SO I DECIDED TO BUY THIS BOOK, AND IT'S STILL AS THRILLING!!! 2ND, IT IS AN EASY TO READ BOOK - - HEY ... THE BOOK IS SO GOOD I BROUGHT AN EXTRA COPIES FOR MY COLLECTION!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ANY OBSERVER AND ADVISOR!!!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent primer on Asia by a humanist scholar and writer
Review: Rhoads Murphey's East Asia: A New History covers everything a lay person needs and wants to know about this complex region and culture. This book is a fascinating and easy-to-read summary of Dr. Murphey's 60-year-long living and teaching experience in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries. It is an excellent introduction to Asia not just as a textbook but a very useful primer for corporate executives, professionals and even tourists. I've read this book and its various editions ever since 1973 when I first studied with Professor Murphey as a graduate student. Readers will get from this book not just the facts, images, philosophy and poetry of East Asia. You will see the humanity of a great teacher, scholar, writer and romantic who knows how to make Americans understand and appreciate our fellow men and women of this important part of the world. The book never fails to make me smile and re-discover the many simple truths about cultures that we so easily forget.
Rating:
Summary: This book needs improvement in some areas
Review: There are a few weaknesses and factual errors in this book. 1. Index is very weak. Many important concepts are not listed in the index. 2. Too much emphasis on ancient/imperial China but not enough coverage of modern and contemporary East Asia. 3. Organization is puzzling. For instance, such an important historical period as the Northern Expedition is put under the chapter "China and Japan: the Road to War." This is an important period that deserves to have its own chapter. 4. Opinions(?)as facts. On page 349, the following description is given: "Zhang Xueliang and his troops kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek where he was spending a few days at a hot spring resort (with a lady not his wife!) and demanded...." The author has provided no documentation for Chiang's alleged liaison with another woman. Moreover, no other reference to this affair seems to be available in all relevant literature about the Xian Incident and Chiang Kai-shek . Chiang is a controversial figure but this allegation just cannot be supported. Also stated in the book is the following statement: "The [Chinese] communists were tying down about a million Japanese troops..." during WWII. Considering the total number of Japanese troops in China during that period, this is tantamount to suggesting that the communist guerrillas pretty much single-handedly handled all the Japanese troops whereas the Nationalist troops did nothing. This is factually wrong and cannot be supported by historical facts. These are just a few examples of the problems associated with this book. Here is hope that future editions will correct some of the aforementioned problems. The author did make an effort to weave all countries and historical periods together, which was challenging. He succeeded in some areas, but failed in some other.
Rating: 
Summary: Murphey's Law of Bias
Review: There are limited texts on East Asian history and it is unfortunate that this author decided to spike his with unabashed personal commentary. Overall, the content is impressive but some of Murphey's claims are hard to stomach.
An example of such outlandish claims is the theme in later chapters that American Cold War policy drove Asian Communists to a harder line by resisting them with military campaigns and non-democratic governments. Murphey insinuates that Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Min, and other Communist leaders had more moderate programs planned for when they came to power but were forced into reeducation programs and political purges because of American policy.
Besides this outright opinion paraded as fact, Murphey also annoyingly snickers and gripes with hyphenated and parenthetical commentary. There are also facts suspiciously left out. For example, Murphey spends a great deal of effort detailing conservative corruption in earlier Korean politics but mentions nothing of the massive scandals accompanying the end of Kim Dae-Jun's term. Lastly, many of Murphey's dubious claims can not be investigated by the readers. Facts are not referenced and a bibliography of only 40 sources is available at the end -- suspiciously thin for a work of this magnitude and considering the many "facts" quoted. Murphey's bias and this lack of sourcing make this book marginally useful for graduate level research, unless one is willing to accept the good professor at his word. The Ivory Tower is alive and well in Ann Arbor.
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