China 'China's Wars' - New Osprey Book

[drclaw]

Osprey has published a superb new book titled 'China's Wars' which covers the Chinese army from roughly the First Sino-Japanese War to, to the Warlord and Nationalist Period, the Japanese Invasions and the Civil War.

It's written by Philip Jowett who many would have come across as author of two excellent Osprey Men-at-War titles on the Chinese Army and the Warlord Period armies.

It's a hefty book and provides an excellent and fascinating overview of the period covered. What's most valuable are the wealth of historical photographs contained, including one or two from my own collection

My one minor criticism is the continued use of Wade-Giles transliteration for Chinese names and places. I recognise that contemporary Western sources used those form of words at the time, but Hanyu Pinyin has been the accepted international standard since the 1970s/80s not only for China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc, but also by the vast majority of Western scholars.

Wade-Giles is quaint but akin to referring to Chinese as 'Chinamen' and the capital of Turkey as 'Constantinople'. Personally I find it frustrating trying to match the words with actual known names and places. But that is a very minor criticism of an otherwise outstanding book.

Author: Philip Jowett

About this book

China is one of the great powers of the modern world. Yet in the late 19th century China was a ramshackle and isolated medieval empire upon whom the European colonial powers could impose their wishes at will. China’s Wars describes the series of conflicts from 1894 to 1949 that forged modern China, from colonial clashes such as the Boxer Rebellion, through the chaotic years of warlord domination to the Japanese invasion, the Second World War and the bitter Civil War that followed.Previously unpublished photographs, contemporary picturesand specially-commissioned maps illustrate these tumultuous events and the men who fought them, events that would end with the eventual triumph of the Communist Party and the rise ofmodern China.

Hardback; November 2013; 400 pages; ISBN: 9781782004073

Edited November 28, 2013 by drclaw

[JapanX]

I familiar with his two previous books in "Man-at-War" series.

Sounds like a book that is worth to check it out (especially since PDF version costs only £5.99)!

[Ulsterman]

Xmas present!

Good stuff.