John Pomfret. (2016). The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present. Henry Holt and Co.

John Pomfret. 2016. The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present. Henry Holt and Co.

John Pomfret, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present. Henry Holt and Co, 2016.

John Pomfret. The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present. Henry Holt and Co, 2016.

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America and China, 1776 to the Present

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1. • value: International Politics
2. • value: american political history
3. • value: Chinese Cultural History
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5. • value: us china relations
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7. • value: chinese in america
8. • value: chinese foreign relations
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13. • value: china foreign relations
14. • value: chinese international relations history
15. • value: chinese political history
16. • value: chinese ties to america
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20. • value: american international relations history
21. • value: american ties to china
22. • value: history american merchants
23. • value: united states china relations
24. • value: soong dynasty

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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Pomfret, John
   • bioText: John Pomfret, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, served as a correspondent for the Washington Post for two decades, covering wars, revolutions, and China. His recent book, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, won the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. The recipient of numerous journalism awards, he lives with his wife and three children in Berkeley, CA.
   • name: John Pomfret

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2016-11-29T00:00:00-05:00

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title

The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom

fullDescription

A remarkable history of the two-centuries-old relationship between the United States and China, from the Revolutionary War to the present day
From the clipper ships that ventured to Canton hauling cargos of American ginseng to swap Chinese tea, to the US warships facing off against China's growing navy in the South China Sea, from the Yankee missionaries who brought Christianity and education to China, to the Chinese who built the American West, the United States and China have always been dramatically intertwined. For more than two centuries, American and Chinese statesmen, merchants, missionaries, and adventurers, men and women, have profoundly influenced the fate of these nations. While we tend to think of America's ties with China as starting in 1972 with the visit of President Richard Nixon to China, the patterns—rapturous enchantment followed by angry disillusionment—were set in motion hundreds of years earlier.
Drawing on personal letters, diaries, memoirs, government documents, and contemporary news reports, John Pomfret reconstructs the surprising, tragic, and marvelous ways Americans and Chinese have engaged with one another through the centuries. A fascinating and thrilling account, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom is also an indispensable book for understanding the most important—and often the most perplexing—relationship between any two countries in the world.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: South China Morning Post
   • content: "The book is sweeping in scope but nonetheless manages to paint a vivid picture of personal interactions, adventures and misadventures... a deeply informative work. Examining the relationship between two countries as vast and complicated as the US and China takes stamina, yet as the world increasingly revolves around the interactions of these two superpowers, it is important to understand how their relationship has developed, succeeded and failed over the past 240 years. Pomfret does a masterful job of presenting the good, the bad and the ugly from generations of interactions."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
   • content: "A tour de force. Beautifully written, sweeping in scope, learned, lively, and filled with fascinating stories, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom is a timely and important book written by one of the most brilliant and insightful China experts of our day."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Karl W. Eikenberry, Ambassador and Lieutenant General, United States Army, Retired
   • content: "If you are going to read one book on US-China relations, make it John Pomfret's The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom. Superbly researched and historically grounded, this book soars on its rich narrative filled with fascinating vignettes. No one is more equipped than Pomfret by intellect, by experience, and by passion to attempt such an ambitious work – and he has skillfully delivered a masterpiece."
4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 24, 2017
     Perkins does not try to dramatize one or another event, plays no vocal games with humor or irony, and makes no effort to distinguish the voices of the innumerable Chinese and American players in this history of U.S.-China relations from the 18th century to the Obama administration. The book is strongest when focusing on America’s contributions to China, but Pomfret gives China some credit for cooperative periods and blames both countries for the recurring love-hate pattern in their relationship over the centuries. Reader Perkins offers a clear, well-paced, and perfectly serviceable rendering of Pomfret’s comprehensive book. A Holt hardcover.

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     September 15, 2016
     An in-depth look at the historically deep and mutually influential relationship between the United States and China.Since the American Revolution, the Middle Kingdom (China) and Meiguo, the "Beautiful Country" (America), have enjoyed both a rich exchange of culture and trade and bitter enmity, especially during the early communist era. In this thoroughgoing study that moves from the revolutionary era to the present, former Washington Post foreign correspondent Pomfret (Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China, 2006), who was recently a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Beijing, delves into the historical relations between the two and offers a fresh appraisal of each nation's contributions to the other. The author asserts that the U.S. has had a significant role in China's rise, reaching back to when the U.S. provided China an early market for its coveted "china," tea, and drapery. On the other hand, in China, many Americans, such as John Perkins Cushing and Franklin Roosevelt's grandfather Warren Delano, made their fortunes in pelts, silks, tea, opium, and other commodities. By the mid-19th century, missionaries had a huge influence on the Chinese, as China represented the big prize in missionary work during the series of Great Awakenings that swept America. Pomfret credits the early missionaries, especially women like Adele Fielde, with bringing Western medicine, education, and law to China and helping to outlaw infanticide and foot binding. The building of the First Transcontinental Railroad required enormous labor, and the Chinese stepped in where Americans would not; however, after the Civil War and the demobilization of soldiers moving West in search of work, the tables turned on the Chinese in the form of pogroms and anti-Chinese immigration legislation. In this highly detailed narrative, Pomfret moves chronologically through these developments, ably fleshing out the characters involved. Regarding recent events, he is not uncritical of China's cyberspying and aggression in the South China Sea. An occasionally too-dense but impressively wide-ranging history demonstrating that the U.S.-China relationship began decades before Richard Nixon arrived on the scene.

     COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 15, 2016
     Pomfret (Chinese Lessons, 2006) offers a panoramic view of U.S.-Chinese interactions, emphasizing both constant motion and consistent mutual dependence. His narrative begins in 1776, and from the start, we see two nations infatuated with each other: the Chinese, seeing an ally against European influence, and the Americans, seeing the possibility of vast fortunes selling products to the vast Chinese market. But high hopes led to disappointments, resentment, and mistrust. Though Chinese workers built much of the infrastructure of the American West, discrimination and racism prevailed. Even though China was a crucial ally in WWII, diplomatic relations remained frosty. Pomfret's narrative stands out for his exploring not just political and diplomatic but also cultural aspects of the relationship, as missionaries and merchants import American arts into China, and China begins to feature more prominently in American film, literature, cuisine, spirituality, and innovation. If a pattern emerges, suggests Pomfret, it may be something like the Buddhist notion of reincarnation: a cycle of highs and lows; moments of enchantment and disgust; a long history filled with new beginnings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     June 1, 2016
     

     Currently on a Fulbright Senior Scholar's grant in Beijing, Pomfret is a former Washington Post correspondent who has won honors (e.g., the Osborne Elliot Prize) for his coverage of Asia and wrote the best-selling Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China. All of which suggests that he should be spot-on in this history of the relationship between the United States and China since the Revolutionary War. It's revealing to see how much there is to say--just check the page count. With library marketing.

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from October 1, 2016
     

     Journalist Pomfret (Chinese Lessons) offers a comprehensive exposition of U.S.-China relations from the birth of the American nation to the present, with extensive coverage of the World War II and Cold War periods. The author illuminates this long and complicated relationship by examining the colorful stories of the merchants, missionaries, soldiers, diplomats, students, athletes, etc., who have bridged the divide between the two countries. Included are accounts of people such as Howqua, the Chinese merchant whose investments funded America's early railroads; and Frederick Townsend Ward, an American adventurer who became an officer in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) army and successfully defended Shanghai against rebels. Readers will learn how both nations have contributed to each other's development. For example, in the 19th century the profitable China trade was a motivating factor in America's westward expansion, and in recent years China has successfully implemented American expertise to improve its air traffic safety. VERDICT A delightful read that is essential for anyone with an interest in the topic. While it covers similar terrain as James Bradley's The China Mirage, Pomfret's work is far more detailed and offers different interpretations on key issues. [See Prepub Alert, 5/2/16.]--Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 1, 2016
     

     Journalist Pomfret (Chinese Lessons) offers a comprehensive exposition of U.S.-China relations from the birth of the American nation to the present, with extensive coverage of the World War II and Cold War periods. The author illuminates this long and complicated relationship by examining the colorful stories of the merchants, missionaries, soldiers, diplomats, students, athletes, etc., who have bridged the divide between the two countries. Included are accounts of people such as Howqua, the Chinese merchant whose investments funded America's early railroads; and Frederick Townsend Ward, an American adventurer who became an officer in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) army and successfully defended Shanghai against rebels. Readers will learn how both nations have contributed to each other's development. For example, in the 19th century the profitable China trade was a motivating factor in America's westward expansion, and in recent years China has successfully implemented American expertise to improve its air traffic safety. VERDICT A delightful read that is essential for anyone with an interest in the topic. While it covers similar terrain as James Bradley's The China Mirage, Pomfret's work is far more detailed and offers different interpretations on key issues. [See Prepub Alert, 5/2/16.]--Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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A remarkable history of the two-centuries-old relationship between the United States and China, from the Revolutionary War to the present day
From the clipper ships that ventured to Canton hauling cargos of American ginseng to swap Chinese tea, to the US warships facing off against China's growing navy in the South China Sea, from the Yankee missionaries who brought Christianity and education to China, to the Chinese who built the American West, the United States and China have always been dramatically intertwined. For more than two centuries, American and Chinese statesmen, merchants, missionaries, and adventurers, men and women, have profoundly influenced the fate of these nations. While we tend to think of America's ties with China as starting in 1972 with the visit of President Richard Nixon to China, the patterns—rapturous enchantment followed by angry disillusionment—were set in motion hundreds of years...

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America and China, 1776 to the Present

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   • description: History / United States / General
3. • code: POL011000
   • description: Political Science / International Relations / General