Li Feng (3)

I'm not very well versed in Chinese history and I felt this book was a good introduction and gave me a much better grasp of the early history of China. I really appreciated the inclusion of maps which is a great help to a westerner as myself. I don't know if it is supposed to be an introduction though as it sometimes feels like the author is debating with other academical historians regarding findings and interpretations, but it wasn't detrimental to my reading experience.
As the focus is on show more social and cultural history it is generally not written in a long narrative form, although a very broad general narrative of wars and political developments is given. So while the chapters follow a chronological order within the chapters themselves the text can feel a bit disjointed on occasion. Often a a large part of a chapter can be given to some archeological findings and how they can be interpreted within the time period. As someone very interested in philosophy I was happy to see one chapter devoted to discussing philosophers and their ideas. show less

Brief overview of the earliest Chinese history. Li Feng (° 1962, a professor of Early Chinese History and Archeology at Columbia University, NY) limits himself to the main points and, in my opinion, sometimes remains a bit too vague. In this way he also avoids the issues in the debate with his Chinese colleagues, who adhere rather closely to a periodization according to dynasties. More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6469159244.