Um, the country, not the stuff you eat off of.
My father-in-law wants a book for his birthday, and one of his interests is (in his own words “history of China in the 20th century, especially Chairman Mao and the long struggle with the corrupt government of National China.”
So. I’ve gotta order some other stuff from Amazon.com, and figured I’d just find a good book there. Suggestions? I know little about the topic myself.
My Government teacher Ross Terrill, an Austrailian on loan from Harvard, wrote a book a while back just called “Mao”. We had to read a section of it for the class and it seemed pretty interesting. He also wrote a book called “Madam Mao: White Boned Demon”, almost sounds like a sequal like Ms. Pac-Man or something.
Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng is a good firsthand account of life as a victim of the Cultural Revolution.
Red China Blues by Jan Wong. She’s a Montrealer of Chinese descent who travelled to China during the Cultural Revolution as an exchange student and devout Marxist and ended up embittered and disillusioned.
“To the Storm” by Yue Daiyun which recounts an intellectual’s experience during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
hmmm, good question. Other posters have come up with good ideas for personal accounts of the cultural revolution, and commentary/ancedotal accounts of after the opening to the west began.
Cranky, sounds like your FIL wants something that chronicles the struggle of the Communists versus the Nationalists, the Long March, Yen’an years, the Xi’an Incident, and finally the founding of the PRC. Timeline would be roughly from 1920-1950. Maybe a bit earlier to set the stage… This Yale link gives a decent overview: http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.05.x.html
The classics in the field would be by John Fairbank. Here is an Amazon link to his body of work: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7129963-0036726 It’s been many many years since I’ve read his work and I can’t remember which one was the most definitive. (IIRC, The United States and China is his most famous and scholarly work.) I have not read this one, but here is a CNN link http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/imperial.icon/rulers/
Check out this link http://konrad.lawson.net/books/chinhis.html for introductions to books covering the period. I haven’t read any of these but this one might fit the bill: China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History 1912-1949
by James E. Sheridan.
Your FIL might enjoy Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 by Barbara W. Tuchman. General Stilwell spoke excellent Chinese and details his relationship with Generallisimo Cash My Check aka I layed the Peanut Low aka Chiang Kai-shek, who was the nationalist leader that fled to Taiwan. Stilwell had a large measure of contempt for Chiang based on multiple encounters, and details repeated examples of when Chiang refused to fight the Japanese. I really liked this book.
He’s probably read Edward Snow’s Red Star Over China, about an American journalist that was forced to take part in the Long March and stayed in Yenan for a few years. Here is a review: http://www.fogg.cc/reviews/books/breview094.htm
I can’t think of any more candidates at the moment.