Books by John Pomfret

“This is ‘big history’ done really well. China’s history is long and complex. The US has a shorter history, but it’s complicated in its own way. His main reason for writing this book, he says, was to expose the pattern in US-China relations. His point is that we in the US—and it’s very much from a US view—make the same mistakes over and over again. The other part of it is myth-busting, what we think we know about China, and we don’t.” Read more...

Best Books for History Reading Groups

Donna McBride, Historian

“I found this book really unputdownable. We’ve all read lots of books about the reforms under Deng Xiaoping since 1979. Pomfret takes it straight down to street level, almost, with the story of five people that he knew, former classmates he had met at university as a foreign student in Nanjing in 1981. He was able to trace their lives intimately from when he left them. The book really has this grand sweep to it – like a great historical novel, part Balzac, part Exodus. “ Read more...

The best books on The Chinese Communist Party

Richard McGregor, Foreign Correspondent