Soong Dynasty
by Sterling Seagrave
List Price:
Our Price: $5.64
You Save: $13.35 (70%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Sterling SeagraveEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1986-03-19
ISBN: 0060913185
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Soong Dynasty
Book Review: A FEAST FOR THE CHINA READER
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is truly a feast for the reader with an interest in China as it has evolved in the previous century. This is the story of the Soong family and their enormous influence on modern China. The six Soong children, three sons and three daughters, were the offspring of Charlie Soong and Ni-Kwei-tseng. These two Chinese were very religious and God-fearing Christians. Charlie was educated in the US and made his fortune selling Bibles in China. This book tells the story of these children and their almost unbelievable lives. To quote the author "Few families since the Borgias have played such a disturbing role in human destiny". One son, T. V. Soong became perhaps the richest man in history and exerted enormous influence over US foriegn policy towards China. He was also the finance minister of China. Of three Soong sisters, one, Mai-Ling, married Chaing Kai-Chek, another, Ching-Ling, married Sun Yat-sen, and the last, Ai-Ling, married into one of the richest banking families in China. Mai-Ling was educated at Wellesley and was long regarded as one of the ten most influential women in the world. An understatement, if ever there was.
Covers the chaotic years of modern China and the long brutal wars against the Japanese and the savage conflicts between the Nationialists and the Communists. Has a lot of great information on the American involvement here, Stillwell, Claire Chennault (who was almost the only American in China who was not a fool) and the Flying Tigers (the Flying Tigers are venerated in the China of today), Hurley, Morgenthau, Henry and Claire Booth Luce and many, many others. This book is so jam packed with information that it is almost mind boggling. The Green Gangs, Big Eared Tu, a host of warlords, the dreaded gangster Tongs, drug empires, murderers, adventurers, Soldiers of Fortune, prostitutes and thieves. The cast of characters in this book is almost endless, however it all fits together very well and will leave the serious reader a changed person as far as China and our own endlessly bumbling government is concerned. Everything I have read in this books dovetails nicely with the study I have done on China.
The author, Sterling Seagrave, spent most of his life Asia and knows his subject well.
I can only say read this remarkable book. It is an absolute must have for the China history buff and scholar.
Summary of Soong Dynasty
An inside account of the Soong family, whose wealth and power have dominated China and U.S.-Asia policy in the 20th century.
China Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in China Books
Waiting for the Unicorn: Poems and Lyrics of China's Last Dynasty, 1644-1911 (Chinese Literature in Translation)by Irving Yucheng Lo
Indiana Univ Pr; Published: 1986-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $50.00
The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and His Successorsby E. Bruce Brooks, A. Taeko Brooks, Confucius
Columbia University Press; Published: 1998-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $69.98
Price in other shops:
State versus Gentry in Late Ming Dynasty China, 1572-1644by Harry Miller
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2008-12-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $79.90
Price in other shops:
Family and State: The Formation of a Sino-Thai Tin-Mining Dynasty 1797-1932 (South-East Asian Historical Monographs)by Jennifer W. Cushman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1992-01-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $344.74
Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, AD 1-600 (Oxford India Collection)by Xinru Liu
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1995-03-23; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Rome and China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires (Oxford Studies in Early Empires)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-02-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $61.36
Price in other shops:
China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynastyby Charles Benn
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2004-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
Continuity and Change in China's Rural Development: Collective and Reform Eras in Perspectiveby Louis Putterman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1993-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $79.47
Price in other shops:
Ancient China Here Below Level Reader Grade 6: Harcourt School Publishers Storytown (Rdg Prgm 08/ 09/ 10 Wt)Harcourt School Publishers; Published: 2005-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.70
The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (Penguin Classics)by Qu Yuan, Various
Penguin Classics; Published: 1985-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
To Live: A Novelby Yu Hua
Anchor; Published: 2003-08-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.82
Price in other shops:
Red Sky in the Morning: The secret history of two men who got away - and one who didn't.by Sterling Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave
BookSurge Publishing; Published: 2009-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.30
Price in other shops:
Ten Theories of Human Natureby Leslie Stevenson, David L. Haberman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.85
Price in other shops:
Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Ladyby Laura Tyson Li
Grove Press; Published: 2007-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.69
Price in other shops:
The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern Chinaby Hannah Pakula
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2009-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.45
Price in other shops:
Modern East Asiaby Conrad Schirokauer, Clark
Wadsworth Publishing; Published: 2007-03-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $87.70
Price in other shops:
Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Goldby Sterling Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave
Verso; Published: 2005-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.18
Price in other shops:
The Soong Sistersby Emily Hahn
e-reads.com; Published: 2003-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.67
Price in other shops:
The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Familyby Sterling Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave
Broadway; Published: 2001-08-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.87
Price in other shops:
Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of Chinaby Sterling Seagrave
Vintage; Published: 1993-08-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.13
Price in other shops: