The Fall and Rise of China

I’ve listened to probably three hundred or so audiobooks, mostly fiction (I write science fiction and fantasy). The author/lecturer of The Fall and Rise of China not only puts the entire course in very understandable terms, but he tells the story of modern china in a masterful, entertaining way. Well done!

This is one of the best Great Courses that I have encountered. The instructors years of experience show through in his expertise.

One of the best courses from the Teaching Company I have ever taken. Well written, interesting and presented excellently by Professor Baum. He gives a fair assessment of the turmoil that has been China and the amazing rise from Civil Was and the horrible Communist takeover under Mao. It was a fascinating look at this new world power and the many struggles yet to come. I highly recommend it !

Excellent course; like a novel!

Former UCLA Professor Richard Baum (1940-2012) gives a well-rehearsed set of lectures that reflect conventional thinking, and are rather self-referential. Dr. Baum served as a US governmental advisor on China for much of his career, and predictably, he had a view of Chinese history that dovetailed with the State Department. Unfortunately, this led him to commit some clear factual errors. For example, his depiction of Chinese communists doing most of the fighting against the Japanese during World War Two while Chinese Nationalists refused combat has been refuted by 21st Century scholarship. (For an overlook of this refutation, see the collected essays by several Chinese, Japanese and American scholars published in The Battle For China, released in 2012.) Thus, his World War Two viewpoint recapitulates a false narrative that started with Vinegar Joe Stilwell in the 1940s. Stilwell and his racist anti-Chinese screeds have been roundly rejected by historians, but Professor Baum apparently did not keep up with the latest scholarship in his field. What Baum liked was a great man framework, where a leaders personality quirks carry more weight than the struggles of mid-level managers and the common people.
As for interjecting personal tales into history, which Baum does frequently, I suppose whether one likes that is a matter of taste. I prefer factual analysis over anecdotes, but Baum clearly enjoyed making himself part of the story. During his lectures on Chinas opening to the West in the 1970s, Baum repeatedly interrupts his historiography to let us know about his personal trips to China, where he was when he heard news about various events, whom he sat next to at a Shanghai luncheon, how he got to see Maos poorly embalmed body, etc. It was distracting to say the least, and added little to the discussion, but it did serve to make the professor seem like an important figure in the opening of China.
In summary, I award Professor Baum some points for his smooth delivery, as he gave these talks so many times that he could do it in his sleep. (The downside of his smooth style is that that his dramatic pauses intended to add gravitas to his words sometimes come off as pretentious.) However, I subtract points for his lackluster research and self-infatuation. Basically, if you want a State Department primer on Chinese history, then this will work for you, but if you want the a cutting-edge analysis of the Peoples Republics past and present, you had better look elsewhere.

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