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haraldg's reviews
758 reviews
The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC - AD 2000 by Julia Lovell
4.0
An excellent 3000 year history of China. The book's recurrent theme is the imperial regimes different foreign policies towards the outside world, excemplified how to keep the barabarians out by maintaining the Great Wall fortifications.
The first chapters are truly remarkabl examples of cultural history, stressing the surprising point that it was actually western visitors in 18th and 19th century that taught the Chinese to appreciate the Great Wall as something to be proud of (as national identity). Before that, the wall was simply a fortification system carrying no significance as a national symbol.
Most chapters are standard traditional political history (i.e. dynasties and wars), but the cultural history parts really stand out as a wonderful account of how history are USED, not that it just something that happened.
The first chapters are truly remarkabl examples of cultural history, stressing the surprising point that it was actually western visitors in 18th and 19th century that taught the Chinese to appreciate the Great Wall as something to be proud of (as national identity). Before that, the wall was simply a fortification system carrying no significance as a national symbol.
Most chapters are standard traditional political history (i.e. dynasties and wars), but the cultural history parts really stand out as a wonderful account of how history are USED, not that it just something that happened.