You have been reading selections from a variety of books this year. Of all the books you have read, which one would you recommend to the class? Describe the topic of the book, some things you learned and why you would recommend the book. What are the book's value and limitation?
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Of all the books that I have read this year, I would definitely recommend the book Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. It is the autobiography of Li Cunxin, who was a part of the last ballet group in china that was under the direction of Mao’s wife. This book is a telling of Li Cunxin’s life, and it strives to effectively portray his life journey, and the obstacles that he faced, from being poor under Mao’s regime, to becoming a leader in the youth communist party, to defecting to the United States.
ReplyDeleteThe book has a great message of never giving up, while at the same time looking at the social, economic, and political aspects of china. It also gives an inside look at the lives of the people, as well as insight into Chinese history and traditions (such as how they get married) and how China has changed over time.
It increased my knowledge of China at the time and Mao’s regime; before I knew about the political turbulence and changes; however I never really correlated it to the economics and social aspects of the time.
The value of this book is that, Li Cunxin actually lived through the events that he writes about in his book, and is able to give insight to what was going on.
There are limitations to this book as a source. It is extremely biased, and seeing as it is an autobiography, this is logical. Later on, when he is a student at the ballet academy everything that he learns about has been filtered, and edited so that they would only believe what the government wanted them to believe. So he can only write about what they told them, which at times was not the truth and did not reflect upon facts.
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Out of all the books I have read, I would recommend “Daily Life during WWI“ by Neil M. Heyman. The book shows the different military techniques and effectiveness of Germany, France and Great Britain during WWI. The author demonstrates their military tactics such as trenches and evaluates the military on a social level as well, as he examines the humanity in a war.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned the most from the book was about the trench systems: All trench systems consisted of several parallel lines. All trenches had a „no man‘s land“. The enemy could enter the „no man‘s land“ and fire down the trench‘s entire length. France is said to have the less effective one and Germany the most effective because the German system has deep shelters that made it possible to resist enemy artillery fire. There were many problems with Trenches. Rain and flooding would made the walls of the trenches collapse. Soldiers were in constant danger from snipers( a marksman who shoots at people from a concealed place), mortars (attack or bombard with shells fired from a mortar), and artillery fire. The health conditions of soldiers being in trenches was also very poor, as there was a lot of mud, dirt, lice, and rats.
I recommend the book as it combines social as well as military perspectives of WWI, and it also allows incorporates opinions from people that have actually fought during the war, and it shows how soldiers were psychological effected by their combat in trenches. The books value is that the author served in the Army, which provides him more insight on the military.Furthermore, it combines military aspects with social aspects.
A clear limitation of the book is that he does not include the economic effect that the military had on each country.
(Juliane, 297)
Out of all the books I have read the book I would recommend to the class is the Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. This book is about life in China told from perspective of women from three generations.; the author’s great grandmother, grandmother, and mother. This book is very interesting and one can learn a lot about the history of China from this book. I have learned a lot about the Chinese culture in this book. Life in China was strictly ruled by customs and traditions and being a woman, one had to be very careful in protecting her “face” and pleasing the men of the society. I wasn’t aware of the fact that binding a woman’s feet was necessary to gain the approval of the in-laws. Large feet or normal feet were considered to bring shame on a husband’s house. I didn’t know that becoming a mandarin was the only way a non-noble could escape the cycle of injustice and fear levied on them by the officials with powers. The goal of all men was to pass the exams to become a mandarin, an official. The value of the book lies in the fact that the author narrates the story of her own great-grandmother, grandmother, and her mother. The close ties the author has with the characters in the book makes it more personal and connected. The book also does an effective job of depicting life in china in relation to the political issues of the time. The limitation of this book is that it provides the point of view of the middle class and the rich class but fails to address the issues concerning the peasants or the poor class in China.
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Of all the books I have read this year, I would recommend Life During the Russian Revolution by Victoria Sherrow to the class. The topic of the book is the way in which the Russian Revolution was caused, notably the fact that it was caused by the working class and peasants who were being neglected by the Czar, and the pressures of industrialization. This is very important to the author as she seeks to undermine the previous theories that angry radicals simply wanted to overthrow the Czar to gain control. I would recommend this book to the class because it discusses an array of aspects of the Russian Revolutions, and a person seeking to understand and uncover further information about the Russian Revolutions, can consult this book for clarity and depth. “Bolshevik leaders had promised peace, bread, social equality, land for peasants, and better wages and working conditions. However, the new order also brought dissension, famine, and repressive laws backed by broad police power”. This quote is one of the examples of the book's demonstration of clashing aspects of life in Russia. The value is that the author of this book spent over 20 years researching and living in Europe in order to familiarize herself with the region, and she has received many literary accolades worldwide. The limitation is that Sherrow uses several memoirs and personal diary entries as primary documents to portray life during the Russian Revolution. Sources of this nature aren't completely credible because they only give a person's specific perspective.
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This class has required me to read a great variety of books that extended from the political desires that Bismarck had for Germany to the economic motivation of Japan to occupy Manchuria. The book that I would recommend most to the class is Studies in Soviet thought by Avraham Yassour. In the book Yassour effectively exhibits that he is a Bogdonav scholar through his analysis of Bogdonav’s actions and intentions. I recommend this book because it had exceptional knowledge of the dissolution of the Bolshevik center, and most notably the involvement of Lenin and Bogdonav within it. The book explained in depth what occurred during the third Duma in between Lenin and Bogdonav, and also condemns that the dissolution of the Bolshevik Center was caused by the disputes between the two. When the party became divided, Lenin knew that soon this would cause great issues within the party and had wanted to fix it before it got out of control. Unfortunately Lenin was never able to gain that control and the dissolution was one of the things that probably led to the even greater changes within the Russian government. Had there not been disputes that occurred within the Bolshevik Center between Lenin and Bogdonav there would not have been a two front struggle among the Communist parties in Russia where the disputes impeded both parties involvement in politics. A value of the book is that official documents from meetings of the parties were used as primary sources which are much more reliable than sources from books which had information that was already analyzed and could have lead his personal viewpoints and perspectives askew. A limitation of the book was that Avraham Yassour lacked access to the principal archives which limited his information he had concerning the Communist Party and their involvement within the Duma.
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Of all the books I have read for this class the most interesting selection that I have read was "The Red Scarf Girl" by Ji Li Jiang. I recommend that the class read this memoir for the insight that the book provides into the social structure of China under Mao's rule. Some of the major points of this reading are primarily informative in their portrayal of the beginning of the cultural revolution. It tells of the recruitment of Mao's liberation dancers as well as the purging of the four olds which are old ideas, old habits, old customs, and old culture. This is particularly associated with the educational system in the memoir. The value of the book is that it is a memoir so I have a very clear image of the sentiments felt by a certain individual in society at this point in time. Since this is a first person memoir I can see events as they happen and what appears most important to the author. The author does not have expertise in Chinese history of social structure but her life experiences are extremely valuable to everyone who wishes to know how life was for someone deemed "black" or was just not completely conformed to the new revolutionary ideologies present during the cultural revolution. The limitation of this book is exactly why its beneficial. The fact that it’s a memoir means that certain events can be given importance while others are faded. The author has the power demonstrate the social atmosphere during this time period in any way she wishes and since the author has this power her story cannot be completely trusted. And since only the events that she experienced are in the memoir it is not a complete telling of China at this time.
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I would recommend reading Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. This book is an autobiography that Li Cunxin; he was born during Mao's reign and lived in one of the communes until he was recruited for Madame Mao's Ballet School in Beijing. By reading this book, I learned how hard life was for the people living in communes that textbooks aren't able to describe. Li's family had a hard time finding food to eat during this period, and often had only yams left to eat. As difficult and hard as this sounds, their family was actually one of the lucky ones that actually had yams left to eat, because the majority of the families living there had nothing to eat. This book is valuable because it comes from the point of view of someone that lived during Mao's rule – making the reader able to perceive and understand the living conditions. The book's limitation is that although what Li writes about is accurate for his family, and possibly for other families in his commune, it is not necessarily an accurate representation of families that live in other areas and communes in China. In addition to showing the living conditions during Mao's period in China, it also shows how totalitarian Mao and the government was. In the book, there are moments when the reader knows that Li doesn't agree with Mao's policies, but is too scared to speak out in fear of punishment for him and/or his family. This becomes especially clear when he is in America, and the Chinese Embassy lie to him in order for them to get what they want. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to understand more about Mao and China, that would appreciate reading a Chinese citizen’s perception of that time period.
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A book I have read that would be an excellent addition to the study of the 1920’s was FRANCE IN THE AGE OF ORGANIZATION, Factory, Home and Nation from the 1920s to Vichy by Jackie Clarke. It goes over a period between the wars, when France was faced with a growing sense that "organization" was the solution to the nation's perceived social, economic and political problems. It examines the roots of this idea in the industrial movement and its manifestations in areas like domestic organization and economic planning. In doing so, it shows how experts in fields ranging from engineering to biology shaped visions of a rational social economic order from the 1920s. I learned of the author’s belief that more attention should be paid to the French case when discussing the comparative history of rationalization, which often is seen as too homogenous. The value of this reading is that it gives a well in depth insight on what has been one and could have been done in order to organize France. Ideally, the author comments on the events with both a very personal perspective and a elaborate professional perspective on the events in France. The limitation of this reading is that it lacks some primary implement of perspective. Despite its position on social and economic policies along with other geographical displays, it lacks the individual perspectives from the people themselves. Organization might seem like a well thought out thesis but it wouldn’t succeed with a rebellious society. Such implementations therefore lack the consideration of all perspectives at play, past and present, and ultimately show the minute flaws in the reading. Despite these minor inconveniences, it’s a great addition to the understanding Frances hopes and anxieties, and will gladly aid in any French related questions regarding economy, society, or politics.
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One book that I have read this past year and would recommend to the class is “Stalinist Russia” by Steve Phillips. The topic of the book focuses on Russia once Stalin assumed power after Lenin’s death. I would recommend this book because it allows the reader to have a strong concept on how Stalin came to power, and the book also provides the reader with information on policies that were taking place in Russia in the period of the 1920s. The value of the book is that it provides the reader with all forms of perspectives, where the book seems to have all its provided information balanced out. The author of the book also has a background of teaching students, which shows that he has knowledge over the information he is delivering. Along with this, the book is very clear to understand, where it has all unclear terms defined and he also provides a short description of events mentioned in the book. The limitation of this book is that even though the author focuses on Stalin, he does not provide a lot of information on Trotsky, and why he failed at acquiring power after Lenin. I would like to have read a little about the ideas of Trotsky and the policies he would have placed in Russia if he would have assumed power after Lenin rather than Stalin. When I began to read this book, I was not yet familiar with Russia during the time of Stalin, but my reading over this book allowed me to learn more about how Stalin gained popularity, such as being in charge of the “Lenin Enrolment”, and I also became familiar with Stalin launching the Five-Year Plans in 1928, and the negative consequences they had on Russia.
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Sandra Reyes
ReplyDeleteOne of the books I would recommend is Modern Italy: A Political History by Denis Smith since this book touched on Italy and Mussolini's rule. The major point of this reading is to explain and show what kind of leader Mussolini was in Italy. It goes into different economic, social and political aspects that Mussolini impacted as he was in power. The author touches on the social aspects by describing how many of the Italians reacted to the action of Mussolini. He also looked at the economic policies that were imposed during Mussolini and how it affected the civilians focusing on politics as well. It helps to show civilians opinions and who were those who supported Mussolini and those who saw bad in him. From this book I learned Mussolini had a plan for everything he wanted to entrench his party in power but without acting to fast to alert his enemies and frighten them which resulted in resistance. It turned out that he didn’t really need it because ether way he already had most of the popular votes. Mussolini had gained so much popular vote through the Catholic Church. It was interpreted that the Church had decided against the continuance of a popular Catholic party because they felt threaten that it would break free from its earlier collaboration with fascism. Fascism started of with no economical policy’s which lead to many downfalls for Italy’s which left him opened for opponents to come in and try to bring him down.
Value: The author has received literary awards in Italy as well as written other books on Italian history proving that he has a really good understanding of Italy’s history and accurate. Limitation: This book focuses mostly on politics although it does touch social and economic aspects.
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Alfredo Almazan
ReplyDeleteOut of all the books I have read in class, I would recommend A Historical Reader: World War I. As the name suggest the books discusses World War I. I learned about various topics such as the impact WWI had on the twentieth century, especially the events that followed like the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, or the rise of communism in Russia. It also mentions the cultural impact and life as a soldier. It also even mentions the role Moltke, the Commander in Chief, and others like Prince Lichnowsky, ambassador in London, played in the mobilization of troops and, in the end, the start of World War I. It also shows the Kaiser’s decisions and actions. The value of the book is that Alan John Percival Taylor was a renowned British historian who specialized in 19th and 20th century European diplomacy. He was also a Fellow of the British Academy, so he is reputable and knows well about this topic. The information provided by him would therefore be pretty accurate. Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American historian and author and was also a very famous one. Since she is a well-known author and historian her work should be reliable. There is not much on Erich Paul Remarque, further verification and validation of his work could be done. The limitation is that the book covers political and social perspective, but fails to mention economic aspects relating World War I. Although it covers several topics, economic issues could shine new light on reasons and causes. How did economics play a role? Did nations act on it? How or to what extent did they do? I would recommend this book because it is concise and contains very useful information especially for Paper 2 Topic 1- World War I.
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Tatyana Guy
ReplyDeleteI recommend the book The Cold War by Jay Speakman because it is interesting to read. It was also written in two different viewpoints. Speakman gives reasons for why the United States was the cause of the Cold War, and why the USSR was a cause of the Cold War. It is not biased towards one single country, but rather gives us insight on both countries and the reasons why they helped start the Cold War. It does not blame one country for starting the Cold War, but both. This book is valuable because it gives us the author’s views on why the Cold War started. It also gives us two different views from one author, so that the author is not biased towards the US side, or the USSR side. The author has a Ph.D. in Political Science, so he is a reliable source. This book is limited because it does not go into very much detail about the economy, and how that factored into the start of the Cold War. This book will tell you how the political hostility and social fear caused the Cold War. However, when discussing countries and war, economic aspects are also important. Speakman states that Communism was a major factor in causing the Cold War because people feared Stalin and Communism, causing the Western world to become hostile towards the USSR. He also states, however, that the United States’ hostility towards the USSR was a cause of the start of the Cold War. I would recommend this book also because it was easy to read and helps put the Cold War and its start into perspective, so the reader can then develop an opinion of their own.
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Out of all of the books I read this year, the one I would recommend to the class is The World at War: 193-1945 written by the Reader’s Digest. It goes into depth about the historical figures that contributed to the war, the main battles of the war and the events occurring on the home front during the war, with the use of pictures and maps to help illustrate the events. Some things that I learned through reading this novel were the extent to which rationing was used in Great Britain and the United States in order to increase the supplies going to the troops. There was also a significant amount of propaganda used to encourage the civilians to contribute to the cause. I also learned about the Nazi “Final Solution” in which they mass murdered many Jews. This book covered the scientific methods used in this project, as well as its impact on society. A final thing I learned from the book was about D Day, the most significant turning point in the war, in which the British and American soldiers surprised the Germans with an attack on the Atlantic Coast, which allowed the Allies to take back the coast line. Some of the values of the book are that it has significant details about the strategies used by both sides in the war. It also was written by a source that has an abundance of information both first hand and from historians, which contribute to the source. There are limitations of the book however including the fact that it was written in America that gives it a biased opinion towards the American viewpoint. It is also limited because it focuses mainly on events that took place in America or had American involvement. Overall, I really enjoyed the book.
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Out of all the books that I have read, I would most recommend the book 'World War I: Opposing Viewpoints' by William Dudley. This book basically gave me more knowledge about the different outlooks and viewpoints about America' neutrality during World War I and the thoughts of America leading up to war on Germany. The value of this book is that it increases your awareness and gives you actual insight as to what happen in World War I. This increased my knowledge by actually understanding the events that triggered of caused other events, as well as why certain countries had certain alliance and why other countries wanted to avoid being involved in the war. The limitation of this book is that there are different authors writing different points of views, instead of all the authors contributing to make comments and add-ons to multiple points of views. There is one author per point of view, thus limiting how much knowledge is put in to the sub-chapter, and there can be a sense of bias based on the author’s particular knowledge of the subject. In general this book basically summarized why America joined WWI, and this would be a perfect book for those looking for the reason of WWI joining. Overall I truly enjoyed this book and would re-read it multiple times. A plus for this book is that it does not seem like an informative book, its written like an actually story which makes it that much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteSymone Magee
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The book I enjoyed reading the most this year was “Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini – Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century,” by Bruce F. Pauley. As one would imagine, the book covers totalitarianism under Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Benito Mussolini. It covers not only their political power, but their influence on society, human rights, and international policy. Bruce F. Pauley is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Central Florida. His books on European History have won awards from the Austrian Cultural Institute and the Southern Historical Association.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned from reading this book was how the totalitarian nations in Europe functioned. I learned, for instance, that out of Italy’s population of 5 million, 3 million people were illiterate, making it easier to take advantage of their votes in elections. Stalin was very weak in his public speaking and made a poor public figurehead, and pretty much gained his power strictly behind the scenes. Marxism was interpreted in various ways in Italy and Russia, and was used in setting up both political systems. All these facts made me rethink totalitarian rulers and how they ran their government. It made me realize that a lot of these governments managed to deceive their constituents yet keep them happy.
The book was written by a prize winning European History professor who specializes in ethnic conflict and has received endowments from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is clear evidence that he understands conflict within nations. There is a possible limitation as the author was not directly involved with the totalitarian rulers. As the author is comparing three rulers, it is possible that the information given pertaining to one ruler would not be the same in amount for the others. I did not find this to be a problem.
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Of all the selections I have read this year, the one that I retained the most information was from the book “20th Century China: A History in Documents” by R. Keith. This book is, as suggested by the title, a compilation of relevant documents pertaining to events within China during the 20th Century. The particular section that I read was about Mao’s reign as Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, which I found particularly useful in solidifying what I learned in class about Mao as well as clarifying some details. I recommend it because of the way the information is presented – many documents are first-hand accounts, and I found the readings to be more interesting due to the personal touches present. I really got a good feel for just how devoted the people of the republic were to Mao – and it showed me how the different peoples of the republic viewed Mao. We briefly went over those things in class, but it didn’t really sink in for me then – but when I read this selection, those things came back to me and the information was solidified in my mind; that’s why I recommend this book. The value of this book is the fact that most of the presented documents and sources are first-hand accounts; this way, the reader can see how the teachings and/or preaching that Mao gave his people affected the way they thought; Mao and his works are seen through his people’s eyes. A limitation of these first-hand accounts is that there are not necessarily solid political standpoints presented – that is, there certainly are many standpoints within some of the documents, but there is no real sense of cohesion and connection between them, so that aspect of the information is rather lost or left out of this book, I think.
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