Brilliant

Perhaps not brilliant for the professional historian (but then what audiobook is?), but a stellar introduction to the entirety of east Asian culture from homo erectus to tianmen square. Well structured, relatable, engaging and well read, in my opinion.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

"A story about emperors and peasants"

Generally I can recommend this audiobook. It is informative, read with enthusiasm, full of interesting stories from every level of society. I especially loved the part about the Han. There are only two points of critic: Professor Benjamin spends just 2 lectures each for the Ming - and Qing - dynasty (each ~300 years). And with all the care he took with the otherwise excellent course guide, why aren't their any maps? This would be so helpful!

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very well structured, very well read

for me, there were too many too detailed synopses of the previous chapter at the beginning of a new one. unfortunately, the author uses the imperial measurement system instead of the metrical one, which will leave many listeners wondering about the dimensions. lastly, a very strong emphasis on china. would have loved to have more lectures on japan and korea. especially taiwan and vietnam were only peripherally dealt with. nonetheless, mightily intersting and defenitely recommended.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Bought to fill a gap that mightily overflowed

I have a top western education but knew as good as nothing of that half of the world. It has always irked me, that we learned nothing about the people imperialist europe had not utterly conquered or colonized. This audio book not only lets you understand the eastern hemisphere better, by telling you its history, it also provides a completely different perspective on the development of our world filling in some gaps there as well. It also tells you how and why eastern ideas influenced our culture just as much as our ideas influenced theirs.
The lectures are information packed, never get boring and the speaker is very good to listen to.
Listen to it with a map and you can almost see the silkroads bustling, empires rising and dying and the mongols roaming their once vast empire.
I will listen through this again. Starting now.

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Great story brought to us by a Great historian

two complementary features make this book to a real delight: a) the empathy the author has with the cultures and peoples that have been the actors in this geographical area; and b) the mastery of the subject and various topics and themes that made up the story. This mastery enabled the author to present history as a story cleared of her complexity.
The reader and listener is learning, while enjoying the lectures.

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A great conclusive lecture

Despite spanning multiple millenia, Craig G. Benjamin really manages to capture the history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam very well. I learned a lot because in school (German here) our history classes were quite eurocentric.

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Prof. Benjamin does not speak Chinese & may be a Maoist.

Professor Benjamin butchers many Mandarin Chinese names in a very irritating way.

Besides that, he seems to be a big fan of Mao Zedong and lacks critical distance, parroting some old political slogans and myths that are seen as ridiculous by most Chinese historians.

Save yourself the money and listen to Beyond Huxia instead, it’s more varied and critical of both western Orientalism and Chinese nationalist narratives.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich