Legendarily 2,200 years old and 4,300 miles long, the Great Wall of China seems to make an overwhelmingly confident physical statement about the country it spans: about China?s age-old sense of itself being an advanced civilization anxious to draw a clear line between itself and the ?barbarians? at its borders. But behind the wall?s intimidating exterior?and the myths that have built up around it?is a complex history that has both defined and undermined China. Author Julia Lovell has written a new and important history of the Great Wall that guides the reader through the conquests and cataclysms of the Chinese empire, from the second millennium BC to the present day. In recent years, the Wall has become an ever more potent symbol of Chinese nationalism, of a determination to resist foreign domination. But how successful was the Wall in reality, and what was its real purpose? Was it a precursor,...
Visa mer
Recensioner
Bli först med att recensera denna bok
