Reviews for Economic History of China

The average rating for Economic History of China based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-08-29 00:00:00 James Hoffmann Linda gave me this book, which interested me in Greek history so much that I found the companion books for Ancient Greece and the Byzantine era. This starts with the Ottoman Empire, which ended up reducing the glorious Greece of Alexander and the Byzantines to the small country we now know, starting in 1453, and lasting about 450 years, when Greece gradually managed to take over many, but not all, regions where Greek is/was spoken. So obviously, these chapters are very bloody, all about the heroic resistance and their leaders, who didn't really start being successful until about 1830 in Peloponnesia, and ending with the partial repatriation of Cyprus. This edition was published in 1998. It has obviously been edited somewhat from an earlier edition. Therefore, not all the underlined words have appropriate glosses (and not all of the added sections are glossed at all. It is also typeset in an old typography. From my experience with the other two books in the series, the new edition is probably well-edited and glossed, with more consistent exercises. I recommend the new version (sight unseen) along with the first two, as a good introduction to Greek history in a language intended for intermediate learners. I agree with Linda that it is very bloody (evidently most of Greek history has been so!), but it represents an important part of Greek culture and memory. My 4 stars refer to the obvious shortcomings of this edition. I hope the new one lives up to my expectations.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-02-20 00:00:00 THOMAS MCCARTY I picked this up for some extensive reading in Greek at a level I hoped I could handle. It was more or less OK for my level (estimated to be B1 or B2), though with a lot of infrequent vocabulary. If you're looking for an unbiased history of modern Greece (well, as much as any history can be), this isn't it. It's so over-the-top patriotic, you'll dream in blue and white for days. Sadly, it's not much better for language learning. I gather this was intended as a textbook for Greek-American elementary school children attending Greek school at their local Orthodox church. The goal is to instill pride in Greek history and culture through fairly easy Greek. Nothing wrong with that. It just gets a little - OK, a lot! - repetitive and the vocabulary is far from frequent. Does your everyday conversation include such terms as "blood-colored", "suzerain", and "to be murdered by being skewered like a souvlaki"? If so, this book will teach them to you. If not, it's adequate reading practice but probably not something you'll retain for long simply because you'll have few opportunities to use the vocabulary again.