The Search for Modern China

The history of China is as rich and strange as that of any country on earth. Yet for many, China's history remains unknown, or known only through the stylized images that generations in the West have cherished or reviled as truth.

With his command of character and event--the product of thirty years of research and reflection in the field--Spence dispels those myths in a powerful narrative. Over four centuries of Chinese history, from the waning days of the once-glorious Ming Dynasty to Deng Xiaoping's bloody suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Spence fashions the astonishing story of the effort to achieve a modern China. Through the ideas and emotions of its reformist Confucian scholars, its poets, novelists, artists, and visionary students, we see one of the world's oldest cultures struggling to define itself as Chinese and modern.

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The Search for Modern China

The history of China is as rich and strange as that of any country on earth. Yet for many, China's history remains unknown, or known only through the stylized images that generations in the West have cherished or reviled as truth.

With his command of character and event--the product of thirty years of research and reflection in the field--Spence dispels those myths in a powerful narrative. Over four centuries of Chinese history, from the waning days of the once-glorious Ming Dynasty to Deng Xiaoping's bloody suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Spence fashions the astonishing story of the effort to achieve a modern China. Through the ideas and emotions of its reformist Confucian scholars, its poets, novelists, artists, and visionary students, we see one of the world's oldest cultures struggling to define itself as Chinese and modern.

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The Search for Modern China

The Search for Modern China

by Jonathan D. Spence

Narrated by Frederick Davidson

Unabridged — 36 hours, 51 minutes

The Search for Modern China

The Search for Modern China

by Jonathan D. Spence

Narrated by Frederick Davidson

Unabridged — 36 hours, 51 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

$26.05
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Overview

The history of China is as rich and strange as that of any country on earth. Yet for many, China's history remains unknown, or known only through the stylized images that generations in the West have cherished or reviled as truth.

With his command of character and event--the product of thirty years of research and reflection in the field--Spence dispels those myths in a powerful narrative. Over four centuries of Chinese history, from the waning days of the once-glorious Ming Dynasty to Deng Xiaoping's bloody suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Spence fashions the astonishing story of the effort to achieve a modern China. Through the ideas and emotions of its reformist Confucian scholars, its poets, novelists, artists, and visionary students, we see one of the world's oldest cultures struggling to define itself as Chinese and modern.


Editorial Reviews

New York Times

Monumental.... History that is always lively, always concrete, always comprehensible.

Boston Globe

A remarkable achievement...vivid...fluent, graceful.... A publishing event.

Washington Post Book World

History at its best...all in the vivid, accessible style for which the author is well known.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Spence advocates democracy in China and presents contemporary views of its oppressive history, including Chiang Kai-Shek's fascist supporters and the bloodbath known as the Cultural Revolution. ``A splendid achievement, this sweeping . . . epic chronicle compresses four centuries of political and social change into a sharply observant narrative,'' said Publishers Weekly.

New York Times Books of the Century

[Spence] shows, rahter than tells, the continuity of Chinese history....This superb history will challenge and enrich Western thinking about contemporary China.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169907889
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date: 08/02/2012
Edition description: Unabridged
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