Books 2009: not exactly light reading
Nov. 24th, 2009 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2009: 102
non-fiction
102. Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600, W.W.Norton, London & New York, 2000.
I owe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tanaise for the recommendation. This is an introductory textbook for Chinese history, stretching from the Bronze Age to the Ming Dynasty. It's reasonably well-written, and offers an overview accessible to the most ignorant of beginners (to whit, me).
It recounts history both chronologically and thematically, with the themes incorporated into the historical sections. As a historian, I would have preferred slightly more analysis and discussion both of the sources and of what they reveal, but. Introductory textbook. Nearly three thousand years' worth of data. Fortunately, it has numerous suggestions for further reading at the end.
Definitely worth reading.
Still sick, in case you were wondering. Although I suspect at this point it's more to do with the antibiotic and too much time in bed than the original illness.
non-fiction
102. Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600, W.W.Norton, London & New York, 2000.
I owe
tanaise for the recommendation. This is an introductory textbook for Chinese history, stretching from the Bronze Age to the Ming Dynasty. It's reasonably well-written, and offers an overview accessible to the most ignorant of beginners (to whit, me).It recounts history both chronologically and thematically, with the themes incorporated into the historical sections. As a historian, I would have preferred slightly more analysis and discussion both of the sources and of what they reveal, but. Introductory textbook. Nearly three thousand years' worth of data. Fortunately, it has numerous suggestions for further reading at the end.
Definitely worth reading.
Still sick, in case you were wondering. Although I suspect at this point it's more to do with the antibiotic and too much time in bed than the original illness.
