[.ca] The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC - AD 2000 (ISBN 0802118143)

well written:
Rather interesting book and well written. It offers huge historical views on China and its evolving intl relations in the far past. But there may be one weakness. The Chinese nation faces more deadly problem with its abusive bureaucratic power, which is true for ages. Even today, China's progress remains blocked by the corrupt bureaucracy. For this, read a nice book: China's global reach: markets, multinationals, and globalization by Chinese journalist George Zhibin Gu, which offers sweeping views of the current Chinese politics and business.

A Grand History:
The Great Wall - China Against the World 1000 BC - 2000 AD Reviewed by: Nathan Hoturoa Gray: Author of First Pass Under Heaven: One Man's 4000km Trek along the Great Wall of China: "You're not a real man, unless you've got to the Great Wall," so said China's infamous Communist leader Mao Zedong - inspiring his troops to make it to the Great Wall after 6000 miles of arduous trekking during the Long March. What then, does it take, to be a real woman? At 350 pages, 3000 years of blood thirsty history, and 7,000 km of bricks, clay and mortar, Cambridge scholar Julia Lovell's deeply researched and enormously enlightening account of the Great Wall's history puts her efforts in a similarly enduring calibre. Taking the reader into the intriguing depths of the Chinese cerebral, her 2 and a half year thesis intellectually engages the reader from beginning to end, gradually unravelling wall upon wall that has hidden China from the western psyche. This is no small feat. From the hilarious opening where she describes how the first western diplomats to the Chinese Emperor kowtowed full body frontal on the freezing cobblestones of the Forbidden City to win his favour, and, in return for their civic obedience, received gnawed lambs bones and accommodation `fitter for hogs than human creatures:' - Lovell's apt description of the superior `Middle Kingdom' mindset resonates as a solid authority on the political perspectives provided throughout this wieldy hardcover brick. Thus, while many emperors decided upon a xenophobic, even provocative choice of foreign policy protecting themselves from the `animalistic Mongolian hordes' by building Walls rigourously since 230 BC - it was only until the end of the Han Dynasty almost 500 years later that Lovell describes that the idea to actually `include outsiders' became a minor trend. Yet she goes on to say that even this cultural renaissance had its draw backs opening up civilised Chinese values of filial honour and patriarchal piety to the Barbarian traits of fratricide - aspiring young emperors beginning to kill off their own family in the relentless pursuit of power and political control. Lovell's take on the pros and cons of Wall building is balanced, albeit philosophical as she leaves it up to the reader to take their particular stance. `Walls are useful when there are enough institutionalised super-ideologies (Capitalism, Communism, and German Expansionism) to require erection of clear cut barriers. However when is it no longer necessary to build walls to divide those who can behave from those who can't?" The account traces the story of allegiance and power - its use and abuse - stupidity and genius - as well as the limitations that isolationism and seclusion have brought upon China right through to the present day. Examining Chinese control over the Internet with what she calls the `firewall' and the continuing role of the Great Wall as a more unifying tool to galvanise globalisation, the book brilliantly covers all the stages of Chinese history including President Nixon's famous visit to the Wall at Badaling. It is a great read for anyone with the time and the fancy to unravel the mysteries behind China's complex Communist and Capitalistic mindset - and leaves the reader musing about where this global giant is heading... By Nathan Hoturoa Gray - Author of First Pass Under Heaven: One Man's 4000km Trek along the Great Wall of China: Penguin Books.