Great State

China and the World

By: Timothy Brook

Narrated by: Timothy Brook

Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

The world-renowned scholar and author of Vermeer's Hat does for China what Mary Beard did for Rome in SPQR: Timothy Brook analyzes the last eight centuries of China’s relationship with the world in this magnificent history that brings together accounts from civil servants, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, migrant workers, invaders, visionaries, and traitors - creating a multifaceted portrait of this highly misunderstood nation.

China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, has maintained them for the eight centuries since. China remained China through the Ming, the Qing, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. But despite the desires of some of the most powerful people in the Great State through the ages, China has never been alone in the world. It has had to contend with invaders as well as foreign traders and imperialists. Its rulers for the majority of the last eight centuries have not been Chinese.

China became a mega-state not by conquering others, Timothy Brook contends, but rather by being conquered by others and then claiming right of succession to the empires of those Great States. What the Mongols and Manchu ruling families wrought, the Chinese ruling families of the Ming, the Republic, and the People’s Republic, have perpetuated. Yet a contemporary Chinese idea of a "fatherland" that is, and always has been, completely and naturally Chinese persists. Brook argues that China, like everywhere, is the outcome of history, and like every state, rests on its capacities to conquer and suppress.

In The Great State, Brook examines China’s relationship with the world at large for the first time, from the Yuan through to the present, by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met, and continues to meet, the world.

©2020 Timothy Brook (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Great

A fascinating book for those who are interested in Chinese history. Brook excellently narrates his own audiobook as well. One of my favorite audiobooks I’ve listened to.

Inconsistent

Each chapter could be read independently, which means that you almost invariably will like some chapters but not others. I found the middle of the book to be very dull, but the chapters at the beginning and the end to be interesting. My biggest problem with the book is that it is not a history of China, but rather a history of a few random events that the author has tried to use as examples of China's politics and culture at the time each event occurred, which is less helpful to a China novice like myself.

No Cohesiveness

Very chaotic narrative. Filled with exhaustive minutiae. Floods us with a hodgepodge of data and facts with no analysis. From cartography to microbioligy with no bearing to the main topic, China.