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Michael Wood
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The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream Kindle Edition

by Michael Wood (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 196 ratings
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A single volume history of China, offering a look into the past of the global superpower and its significance today.

Michael Wood has travelled the length and breadth of China, the world’s oldest civilization and longest lasting state, to tell a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and deep humanity that stretches back thousands of years.

After a century and a half of foreign invasion, civil war, and revolution, China has once again returned to center stage as a global superpower and the world’s second largest economy. But how did it become so dominant? Wood argues that in order to comprehend the great significance of China today, we must begin with its history.

The Story of China takes a fresh look at the Middle Kingdom in the light of the recent massive changes inside the country. Taking into account exciting new archeological discoveries, the book begins with China’s prehistory—the early dynasties, the origins of the Chinese state, and the roots of Chinese culture in the age of Confucius. Wood looks at particular periods and themes that are now being reevaluated by historians, such as the renaissance of the Song with its brilliant scientific discoveries. He paints a vibrant picture of the Qing Empire in the 18th century, just before the European impact, a time when China’s rich and diverse culture was at its height. Then, Wood explores the encounter with the West, the Opium Wars, the clashes with the British, and the extraordinarily rich debates in the late 19th century that pushed China along the path to modernity.

Finally, he provides a clear up-to-date account of post-1949 China, including revelations about the 1989 crisis based on newly leaked inside documents, and fresh insights into the new order of President Xi Jinping. All woven together with landscape history and the author’s own travel journals, The Story of China is the indispensable book about the most intriguing and powerful country on the world stage today.

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  1. Print length
    617 pages
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  4. Publisher
    St. Martin's Press
  5. Publication date
    November 17, 2020
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Deeply researched and energetically written, this immersive account is a worthy introduction to the vast sweep of Chinese history and culture." ―Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Michael Wood has worked as a journalist, broadcaster, and filmmaker and is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including Legacy, In Search of the Trojan War, and The Story of England. He has numerous documentary films to his name, among them Legacy, Saddam's Killing Fields, and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. He lives in Hampstead, North London, with his wife and two daughters.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0818N5WNX
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (November 17, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 17, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 25044 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 617 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 196 ratings

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Michael Wood

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
196 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mustafa Aydin
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable Storytelling
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2023
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A unique perspective into Chinese history. Where the reader is able to see multiple aspects of Chinese history from the memories and writings of people from different parts of society. Truly an eye opening book.
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Mary Simkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2022
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A very good overview of Chinese history, it's people, rulers Nand relationships with the rest of the world. I love Ichae Woods work. I have read many of his books and seen some of his documentaries. Always well done, understandable and informative.
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4.0 out of 5 stars A vivid book of Chinese history mostly free from Orientalism, but not unbiased
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2020
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As a Chinese citizen who is reading this book, here's what I want to say:

This is indeed a very vivid if not comprehensive book about Chinese history, mostly free from Orientalist cliché. It's clearly aimed at a general Western audience with little to no knowledge about Chinese history.

However, while free from Orientalist cliché, the author does not shy from Western Liberalism cliché, especially in his reading of Chinese history since the Ming Dynasty.

Unsubstantiated, he makes the indication that Song Dynasty somehow was more 'Liberal' than the subsequent Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. He also points to several Late Ming neo-Confucian scholars such as Huang Zongxi as Chinese predecessor of Western democracy. This is indeed, a popular attempt to somehow link traditional Asian thought with Western Liberalism, not the least made by some modern Chinese liberals. Scholars like Huang Zongxi might be against monarchial absolutism, but it's too far-fetched to say that his ideas are similar to Western Liberalism.

So here's the issue. If you really want to understand modern China, keep in mind that China is fundamentally a Marxist-Leninist state. Traditional China has its value, but modern PRC Chinese are happy to crash any tradition if it is at odds with the progress of the level of productivity and technology, in accordance with the Marxist view. Modern Chinese view Liberalism not from a lens of the traditional Chinese Confucian scholar (despite what some oversea Chinese might tell you, because Marxism-Leninism has a bad name in the West so they don't want to be associated with it.), but from a Marxist-Leninist of view. The CPC is a Marxist-Leninist party at its core.

The modern West gets China wrong not because it doesn't understand Chinese history, but because contemporary modern Western scholarship is so averse to Marxism-Leninism that virtually no scholar in the West now truly understand it. (If you hate something so much that demonizing it is a necessity, it's impossible to learn the reality about it.) Modern China is a deeply 'Westernized' country, just not in the sense of Western Liberalism, which only dominates the West for just a few decades since the 1980s. Chinese thought is not just Confucianism; Western thought is not just Liberalism either.
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KK
5.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing Read on the History of China
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2021
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Great book that is definitely not another generic narrative of the many dynasties. Although I would have loved for the author to include more insights on the complexities and intrigues of the Warring States Period and (especially) the Three Kingdoms Period, the insights from the common folk living in these various dynasties, their daily lives and perspectives were very refreshing. A very recommendable book for those familiar and unfamiliar with the history of China.
7 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Book condition as described
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2022
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The book was very well packed.
Received in excellent condition.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it!
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2021
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Super engaging read! Michael Wood is a masterful story teller!
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Maria-Anne
4.0 out of 5 stars This might want you the check out the PBS documentary with the same name.
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2020
Anybody that is interested in the history in China this is definitely a book for you, it might be a bit too much detail for the general public but even then a lot of people might like getting tidbits of new information. Just take your time and enjoy. It’s not a book to hurry through. I visited China for a month about 20 years ago and reading about the various places brought back the memories of the trip. Most of the books I have read so far where for the 50 years following World War II and so it was great to get a better overview over the centuries. The author explains the rise and fall of the various dynasties. I always knew China had a very interesting history and reading this book endorsed that point.
I took a while to get into it because the first part of the book does a bit of jumping around and I felt like getting information overload. After that I enjoyed it more. Not an easy task to pack 4000 years of history into 600+ pages. Wood makes clear the different stages of the history of China.
I would have given the book a five star but I felt that the book could have used clearer breaks to make it easier for the reader
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JLA
5.0 out of 5 stars Book arrived as described.
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021
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Thanks.
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Top reviews from other countries

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MARIA C. MA
5.0 out of 5 stars Another EPIC BOOK!!
Reviewed in Canada on March 19, 2024
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The author described the history perfect, easy to follow and enrich my history knowledge of my ancestry!!!
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Cliente Kindle
1.0 out of 5 stars The Story of China: The epucbhistory
Reviewed in Brazil on September 7, 2022
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Não me agradou, texto.muito cansativo
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SimonJ
5.0 out of 5 stars quiet
Reviewed in Germany on July 3, 2023
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just a perfect alarm clock
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Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars Michael Wood never disappoints.
Reviewed in Canada on March 10, 2023
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A travellogue throughout four millenia of China and it's peoples in it's many convolutions, revolutions and evolutions as still; one nation.
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Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars Michael Wood never disappoints.
Reviewed in Canada on March 10, 2023
A travellogue throughout four millenia of China and it's peoples in it's many convolutions, revolutions and evolutions as still; one nation.
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John Doyle
4.0 out of 5 stars A great book for those who want to know about Chinese history
Reviewed in Canada on October 18, 2021
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This book was very good. I have many Chinese friends and I grew up in a time when what happened in China was largely unknown, before it opened up in the 70s. The breadth of the description of the development of Chinese culture is huge. The only criticism is that it sometimes ignores developments that happened outside of the Chinese context, like the development of Hong Kong as a separate entity. This may be because it is written totally from the perspective of China, not from outsiders' perspectives. It covers the development of the Chinese language very well, which was very interesting for me.
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