The Rough Guide Chronicle China

by Justin Wintle

Home to a quarter of the world's population, China is the rising super-power of the 21st century. The Rough Guide Chronicle gives you the country's core history in accessible style and handy format,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1858287642
• ISBN13: 9781858287645
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 459 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Concise Overview

I bought this book at Frankfurt airport and it has been an eye opener. It should be stressed that this series of books is physically tiny and each book can almost fit into your pocket. An excellent time-line summary of Chinese history. There are intermittent, approximately one page long explications of various issues/people in Chinese history. Well illustrated, though it's tiny size limits it maps. The lack of maps makes some points of its text difficult to follow. The bibliography is extensive and will direct the interested further along. Overall, if your new to Chinese history, or need an easy to refer to general overview, this book is for you.

Chinese History for Travelers

Reviewed by David Ewing, US-China Peoples Friendship Association, Co-Chair, San Francisco, 9/4/04 This pocket history of China is part of the Rough Guide travel book series from Great Britain. The publisher also produces a good general travel guide on China and a less satisfactory phrasebook that suffers from a misguided attempt to convert Pinyin (Chinese Romanization) into English sounds. The Rough Guide History of China is a unique resource for travelers. This ambitious book is a complete outline of Chinese history from Neolithic times through 2001, in a paperback pocket volume that measures four inches by five and one-half inches, and is only one inch thick. It may be comfortably carried in a jacket pocket. The history is presented in a chronological outline that will please history buffs but can be bewildering at times because of the immense compression of events and names to fit the small format. The type is clear and readable, if not large. The saving grace of the book is the two hundred or so short essays scattered through the timeline that explain the important events and dramatis personae of China's long history. I noticed several minor factual mistakes such as the misspelling of Pinyin names. Wang Jinwei, a colorful scoundrel from the Nationalist period, has his given name rendered as "Jingmei" on page 364 and in the index. More troubling than the minor errors is the book's attempt to conform to the most conventional, and least controversial, presentation of historical events. Much of Chinese history is subject to contending interpretations. The modern period beginning with the anti-colonial struggle, World War II, and the eventual success of the Communist movement are given a bland factual treatment that sometimes lapses into conventional prejudice. I especially disliked the author's reliance on Li Zhisui's sensational "The Private Life of Chairman Mao", which is now generally regarded as an insider's fabrication by most China scholars. The book is strong on China's early history and is therefore a wonderful new resource for travelers visiting ancient sites. The index permits one to quickly locate information about cities, people or events that a travel guidebook could not hope to cover. I think any traveler will find The Rough Guide History of China to be an entertaining read. The advantage of the chronological presentation is that it can be put down and picked up again without losing one's place when the exigencies of travel disrupt your reading.