China

A History

De: John Keay

Narrado por: Anne Flosnik

Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's unrivaled, voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has composed a vital and illuminating overview of the nation's complex and vivid past. Keay's authoritative history examines 5,000 years in China, from the time of the Three Dynasties through Chairman Mao and the current economic transformation of the country.

Crisp, judicious, and engaging, China is the classic single-volume history for anyone seeking to understand the present and future of this immensely powerful nation.

©2009 John Keay (P)2016 Tantor

Enjoyable and Exhausting

Narration was fine, there were a few places were the recording blurred, overall I learned a lot and will continue to broaden my understanding of eastern countries

A great history book, HORRIBLE narration

I love this book - I’ve read it a few times in the past and I would have enjoyed listening to it as a refresher. However I can’t stand the narration - I have lived in China for several years now and I’m fairly knowledgeable about Chinese history… but whenever this narrator mentions a person or place I barely know what they’re talking about, it is so horribly mispronounced. Never mind getting a Chinese speaker, the producers could have at least found someone who can correctly read pinyin. Such a pity for a book that otherwise gets so much right.

China's Long History Revealed

For most of us in the west the history of the far east is shrouded in mystery. John Keay has attempted to unveil this mysterious land, its people, and its remarkable story. I found many of the names of people and places a little difficult to follow, but the stories of the huge civil engineering projects undertaken in pre-modern times were fascinating. This may be a difficult read, but the Audible recording is excellent.

Excellent in every way

I've been to China several times and have read a lot about Chinese culture and history, but never a single work like this one. It's strongest for early history and pre-history. If you're looking for something that focuses on current history and events look elsewhere. But if you want to understand context and learn the players and events you'll enjoy this book a lot. I certainly learned a lot, particularly about early days. Keay is a good scholar and he brings the various scenes and historical figures to life. The narrator is also excellent.

Probably a great book, but worst performance ever

Couldn’t listen for more than a few hours: the narration is HORRENDOUSLY monotone and dull.

great book, terrible narrator

Were the producers trying to be ironic by casting an ESL narrator who misses all the tonal subtleties of English to read a history of a place with highly tonal languages? Might as well have been computer generated narration. The John Keay history of India had a pitch perfect narrator. Hopefully the production company fixes its mistake and rerecords with him.

Good, but a little out of order

The narrative kept moving forward and back in time. The information was good, but it was tough to know when events described were occurring.

This is great, but why not Keay's "India"?

I enjoyed this title, but the books for which Keay is most famous are "The Honourable Company" about the East India Company (which used to be available on cassette) and "India," the culmination of his life-long study of the Indian subcontinent. One always wonders whether the good people who make decisions as to what to make available on audio really have any idea what they're doing. . .

great history of china

detailed and particularly stated ...deals with ancient times as well as modern times ...comprehensive ...

A lot of names and dates

She made it as interesting as possible with the limited information and very long expanse of time. Even now it’s hard to know what was exactly the truth on current events happening every day.