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Summary: Spence Was My Companion In China
Review: I just returned from a 15 day journey of The People's Republic of China with Spence's "The Search for Modern China" at my side. I read it before I left and I constantly read it during the trip. Not only is Spence THE authority on Chinese history in the U.S., but the Search for Modern China is THE authority of the last three hundred years of the Han. It excellently chronicles from the last Ming Emperor, through Qianlong and the Tiaping Rebellion, to Modern China starting with Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. His analysis of the successes and flaws of Mao Zedong and those in his wake such as Deng Xiaoping is tantalizing. It is brilliantly organized and told in an interesting and beautiful manor. Spence has outdone himself and topped various other hostorians. With this book he deserves to be ranked with William Shirer, Author Goldschmidt, Jr., and Stephen Ambrose.
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Summary: Factual but Detached
Review: I'm reading Spence's book for a college course on Modern Chinese History. I find the writing to be very clear and organization to be very good. The information presented is relevant and Spence provides good anecdotes that do not stray too far away from the subject. My only complaint with Spence's book is that it is too light on the Western imperialists that devastated China from 1840-1949. Being Western himself, Spence seems to excuse western military, political and religious exploitation of China by portraying imperialism as some sort of paternal guidance. Spence also makes little or no judgements on the events of history. While this "detached" form is usually the style for textbooks, I find it to be representative of intellectual cowardice. Spence and the West continually refuse to face up to the fact that 50 or 60 years ago, the western nations embraced social, political evils in the name of profit while at the same time espousing empty slogans of liberty and freedom. While, it is extremely tiring to read communist literature that seems to include an insult every other sentence, Spence's book is extreme on the other end of the scale. It is time that historians and academics faced the fact that history is not some intellectual exercise that they can undertake in their university offices. Writing about the death of millions and the collpase of nations in an emotionally detached way seems inappropriate for me. Make a judgement, and make it right. Historical representation is inherently political. "Objective" history is a lie.
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Summary: A must textbook for China studies
Review: It was assigned as a textbook at my university. I found it very clearly descriptive and easy to follow book. Lots of details given to broaden the perspective views of China from the early Qing dynasty to China in the nineties.
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Summary: best intro to modern(late ming on) chinese history
Review: J. Spence is simply awesome. I haven't found a book by him i didn't really like, a lot. His writing is clear, well documented, interesting-yes interesting in a history textbook. Amazing. The book will grab your attention from the first page and hold it until the last. If you have any interest in China, and have a few evenings to devote to it, there is no better, imho, introduction to modern Chinese history available in English. Thanks J.S. now i have to find another book by him to read *grin*, never thought i'd finish this volume.
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Summary: Hello China!
Review: Jonathan D. Spence proves once more that he is the undisputed China master of today (with all due respects to Maurice Meisner). His book is a wonderful overview of Chinese history from the beginning of the Chin to the Rise of Deng. Every subject is covered in depth, and objectively. The book is not colored by either pro-Western or Sinophile rantings. I have come to love China and it's history through Spence's many wonderful books on the subject, and this book may be his opus. I hope you learn as much as I did and come to be enthralled by China and it's overlooked history - at least as dramatic as anything the West has to offer. P.S: I think this may be one of the best histories since Shirer's "Rise and Fall..." for those who found that book captivating.
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Summary: But who is doing the "searching", and what is "Modern"?
Review: Jonathan Spence concludes that following the Tian An Men Square crack down in 1989, China's quest for modernization remained unfulfilled. As much as I like and respect Spence's work, this strikes me as more of a moral judgement than an objective historical analysis. I would have enjoyed this book more (and given it a much higher rating) if Spence had distanced himself from his Western preconceptions of what constitutes a modern nation, and instead focussed on the Chinese definition of successful modernization. What elements do the Chinese feel constitute modern China? How much of the West do they feel China must emulate? Which of its traditions can China keep and to what extent? How does the concept of modernization differ between China and the West? Despite its many wonderful qualities, this book has one fatal intellectual flaw: it is more concerned with one Western historian's search for modern China than it is with China's search for modern China. In this respect it is more of a romantic and colorful essay of vast proportions, than an objective scholarly analysis.
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Summary: A must read for an understanding of China
Review: Jonathan Spence is able to take an arguably esoteric subject such as Chinese history and produce a book that is as entertaining as it is informative. The depth of the book dictates that it be re-read once one already has a decent base of knowledge of China (it is impossible to retain all the information). However, the book is also an excellent starting point for anyone desiring to learn about the country. As for the subject matter; Chinese history is at times almost surreal and provides no better example that fact is indeed stranger than fiction.
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Summary: This is the one.
Review: Just examining the China/Far East section at your local bookstore will reveal just what an authority Spence is. In the US he dominates the field and this book is his most comprehensive offering. He does indeed support a very modest bias, as another reviewer has pointed out, but this is far less apparent than in the many many other books that deal with the subject. None of Spence's contemporaries really compare, and none of his other works do either. As an history this is a phenomenal guide, providing rich detail and a cohesive overview. As I have said though - there is a slight bias in his thesis, but in the field of recent Chinese history an unbiased opinion is as rare as a comprehensive view. That is to say, of any book you're likely to find on the subject 'Search' is the most comprehensive and the least slanted.
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Summary: Spence takes you there
Review: Older readers may recall those Walter Kronkite-narrated documentaries where Kronkite kept saying "And you were there!", even though the documentaries themselves were stripped-down butcherings. This book does take you there. Spence accomplishes what so few historians do--he approaches his subject on its own terms, and within the narrative seeks to immerse the reader in the temporal and geographic subject matter. This is one of the few--perhaps the only--narrative surveys where readers might root for protagonists and feel anger toward villains. In reading this book, you feel as if you _are_ China; the turmoils of the late 1800s and 1900s strike you physically, at the gut. Each chapter conveys not only the happenings, but also the mood of the period--you feel tranquil and arrogant as you read about the Qing Dynasty at the height of its power, you begin to feel anxious as the Western world arrives, and you feel helpless as internal strife and Western demands eat away at the Empire. If you have near-zero interest in history books and will read only ten in your lifetime, this should be one of them. (PS--If you are ever in New Haven during school terms, make sure to sit in on a Spence lecture.)
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Summary: Great overview!
Review: Spence's book is lucid and chock full-o-information. It is the best single volume I've read dealing with the last 500 years of China's history. You can safely ignore the reviewers who have given scathing reviews of the book without offering any justification for their attacks. When dealing with the subject of China it is not uncommon to run into people who are willing to trash scholarship only to expose a big chip on their shoulder.
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