[.ca] All Under Heaven: A Complete History of China (ISBN 0470865342)

Comprehensive, Brief & Confusing:
I was very much interested in this book when I found it on Amazon.ca, especially with regards to the title "A Complete History of China". I expected a review of historical events with a proper timeline, yet what I found in this book was a narrative story with the timeline, but tend to be circling around on certain subjects. Rather than describing all the major events in the Chinese history, the author was a bit heavy on certain subjects in every of his chapters. For example, in one chapter regarding the Chou era, he put a lot of stress on Confucius rather than the then government/political leaders. There are some interesting points that the Author made in this book such as how cast iron was highly developed in China meanwhile the Western civilations were still in the simpler and less capacity wrought iron technology. But even there, the Author lacked a more in-depth on why and how it occured. Another point I'd include here is the language that the Author uses, which is rather hard for me to digest. I had to read one paragraph at least twice to understand the main points. If English is your second language or reading book is not your natural talent, I'd suggest to find another reference for learning the Chinese history.