A Classic - Rated 
I bought this book to supplement other books on Chinese history. It really brings the whole thing to life. Spence is such a good writer; I was so impressed I ended up buying other books by him.
He made a source book which accompanies this book, which has extra documents and pictures.
So good - Rated
Wow! Ever so big, yet so very readable. An exhaustive history of China from then till now, it covers every aspect of chinese civilization. Spence uses an incredible amount of detail to make four centuries+ of chinese history come alive and draw the reader ever deeper, rather than bore him to tears as so many authors seem to do with this kind of work. Need I say more? Get it.
Spence takes you there - Rated
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.)
A magnet for the eyes - Rated
War, revolution, drama, triumphs and defeats: It's all here in this 800+ page book. Spence, a scholar with unquestionable competence, does a great job detailing the struggle of a nation trying to claim its place in the modern world. From the conquest of the Manchus to the dominance of Western powers, from the fall of the last imperial dynasty to the birth of a republic, and from the tragedy of Tiananmen to the promise of a better future, the reader gets a sense of history unfolding before his own eyes. The beautiful photographs and illustrations included brings the reader even closer to being a witness of history.
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