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S'està carregant… Thunder Out of China (1946)de Theodore H. White, Annalee Jacoby (Autor)
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Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. I found this book at a used book store and stashed it away on a shelf with several other books I was collecting about China. What a treasure of information this book turned out to be! Theodore White gives us the history of China's politics from the time of their revolution through WWII in a style that is informative, yet a page turner. His book includes many first hand observations of the situation in China during WWII, a perspective few Americans can offer. He was not a fan of the Communists or the Kuomintang, but rather a supporter of a middle ground, a federal union that would allow for Democracy in China. I'm so glad I found this book, and thrilled that it is now available via Kindle! If you are at all curious about China's history this is a MUST READ. Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
Distincions
From the first outbreak of hostilities in northern China in 1937 to the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S.Missouri in 1945, this book re-creates the decade of upheaval when China was caught in the grip of revolution and war and torn from its feudal past. The authorsTime-Life correspondents during the war years, report firsthand on the rise and fall of the Kuomintang nationalist government and its leader, Chiang Kaishek, who ironically misunderstood his own people as much as the Japanese. At the same time, we see how the Communists won popular support both with more extensive social reforms and with their unrelenting war against Japan. White and Jacoby also shed new light on the actions of "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (the only American who assessed the Chinese situation accurately) and the diplomacy of Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley, also providing a classic account of the Chinese peasant and his revolution which has since proved to be the recurrent pattern of events in the developing Third World. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)951.042History and Geography Asia China and region History 1912-1949 1927-1949LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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I read this book at the same time as [b:The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion|11324722|The Righteous Mind Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion|Jonathan Haidt|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351393217s/11324722.jpg|16252969]. They both deal with politics and reading them at the same time I made a lot of connections that I might not have otherwise gotten.
There is a lot of history in here, and although it painted a very different picture than I had ever heard before, it felt credible. As I got into the last chapter or two, it began to feel more like a position paper. Unfortunately, the warning wasn't enough.
Written more than 50 years ago, the blunders described in here are common throughout history, and thus this book is still meaningful. I was impressed with the depth and to a lesser extent the breadth of coverage of China starting within the time of WWII, and continuing until about a year after Japan surrendered. I had hoped to learn how the Communists came to power, but as of the end of the book, it was about an equal match between them and the old government. I looked up what happened, and learned a little about what happened after the end of the book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War
I have long wondered how the Chinese went from a millennium of being perhaps the greatest power on the earth to being a backward country. This book didn't directly address that question, but from having read it, I now have an intriguing piece of the puzzle filled in.
It gave enough information that now I have a rudimemtary understanding of why the Communists came into power. The abuse of the people was a continual scene throughout the book. Before reading this, I had little love for Communists and thought that Chiang Kai-shek was a "good guy". Now I have a much better feel for why the people found them attractive. Chiang Kai-shek had one "good" trait in that he was violently anti-Communist. On the other hand as an oppressive dictator who tolerated graft and corruption, he did not alleviate the suffering of the people. "Believing that corruption and a lack of morals were key reasons that the KMT lost mainland China to the Communists, Chiang attempted to purge corruption by dismissing members of the KMT accused of graft." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek)
If a person read and understood this book, they would have a good idea what not to do. Doing things right is a lot harder task, but understanding history is a good start.
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