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Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 7-9
A book with clear typography, abundant black-and-white and color photographs, good sidebars, and useful addenda. Mao naturally dominates, the focus of five chapters considerably overlapping with Kathlyn Gay's Mao Zedong's China (21st Century Bks., 2007). One of the remaining two chapters is devoted to Deng Xiaoping, and the other to the Chinese economy. There is some repetition as chapters backtrack, but coverage is generally reliable, with a few lapses. The section on China's role in Vietnam never says to what extent China aided the North. A caption asserts that the man confronting Tiananmen tanks was executed, despite lack of evidence about his fate; another caption confuses Premier Hua with CCP chairman Hu. There is no mention of the environmental consequences of China's prosperity, the human costs of the disappearance of social security, the huge U.S. debt owned by China, or the widespread corruption reflected in such recent events as collapsing schools and food contamination. This is, however, a readable, attractive, and concise overview of China 1945-2008.-Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI