The China Reader II: republican China

by Franz Schurman; Orville Schell (Editors)

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great set of excerpts about an important period in Chinese history. I especially enjoyed being able to read some of the ideas and intentions of figures like Sun Yat Sen, Mao Zedong, and Chiang Kai Shek in their own words. The curators of this anthology do not mince words about the immense shortcomings of the KMT and do not deny the successes of Mao’s communist party, which was a pleasant surprise for an American text from the mid twentieth century.

[Marc Kirner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating historical look-back on how the Chinese Nationalist government lost the civil war to the Chinese communists. Among other things, the story reveals the entire weakness of our State Department at that time to understand the nature of the civil war as the US was far too embedded with the Nationalist government.