# Treason By The Book

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treason-by-the-book/166513>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 4, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treason-by-the-book/166513 "2003-04-04T18:34:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treason-by-the-book/166513/1 "2003-04-04T18:34:57Z")

</div>

**TREASON BY THE BOOK** , by _Jonathan D. Spence_

I found this book on an plane on my way to Orlando. Since I didn’t have a book to read, I read it. I thouroughly enjoyed it and was impressed with the amount of historical data Spence was able to find. I know little (nothing) of Chinese history and found the story a fascinating “who done it”. I thought it was a good read.

Anyone else read it? What did you think? Suggest Spence’s other work?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/treason-by-the-book/166513/2 "2003-04-07T02:46:53Z")

</div>

I have also read and really enjoyed it. I got a lot of other Spence books from the library, one at a time. He is really good at taking one incident or object and using it to bring Chinese history alive. I didn’t finish his book “The Search for Modern China.” It was good, but slow going and not as lively.