"The Story of China" by Michael Wood is an engaging and informative introduction to the rich history of China. Wood's writing is clear and accessible, making complex historical events easy to understand for the average reader. The book covers a wide range of topics, from the ancient dynasties to modern-day China, with a particular emphasis on cultural and social developments. However, at times the narrative can be a bit dry, and some readers may find the sheer volume of information overwhelming. Overall, "The Story of China" is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in learning more about this fascinating country. A solid four-star read.

A terrific book that brings together China’s history in one book. I knew very little about China when I started reading. I am impressed with how far advanced they were from the rest of the world. I especially identify with the Chinese view that family and striving to be morally good.

Dense work, but extremely insightful. The history of China has always seemed a bit intimidating because it seems overwhelming and vast. Wood is able to succinctly and eloquently present the story of China in a way that kept me interested and able to keep me turning the page.

While late (and after purchasing a physical copy), thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this work honestly in exchange for an eGalley of the work.

I got a DRC just as COVID hit and, in the mishegas of having it twice and wanting to make a review commensurate with the book's quality, have so far failed to get any review at all done. It really is a terrific job of work, just as writing almost a thousand pages goes. One expects Wood to be top-flight at research, given his forty-plus years of making and presenting TV shows about history (his In Search of the Dark Ages series easily being my favorites!) but the clarity and the wit of his sentence-by-sentence storytelling really brings his anecdotes alive.

Really, just excellent. It's a huge topic to cover but the author makes is manageable, and he does not pretend to have all the answers, or even very simple answers. This would be a great course text.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

My dad was a university professor. When I was a kid, he’d often host students from other countries. I grew up in a house where students from Georgia, Germany, Russia, and China came in and out of my life frequently. Though I was just a kid, often my first real understanding of the wider world came from these visits. I remember, for example, we had some people over at our house from Georgia right around when the USSR was collapsing. The first time I ever heard the word “Stalin” was at that meal, when my dad was discussing the collapse of the USSR and its subsequent fallout with them.

A few years later, my dad got a job teaching at a university in China, and from that point on, he’d spend every summer teaching in China, and then sometime during the year, a group of Chinese students from that university would come to our house.

It was a real eye-opening experience, to be able to talk to these people who were from such different parts of the world. These visits opened up the world for me in a way I don’t think I’ve really appreciated until I got older. My dad would tell me stories about what it was like to teach at universities in other countries, and when people from these far-flung nations and diverse cultures would come to our house, I’d sit at the table while they talked to my parents and soak up everything they said like a sponge. It always fascinated me.

But China is not a place I know very well. I’ve never been there. My dad has told me some things, and I’ve talked to the Chinese exchange students that would come to our house, but I don’t really know China. To be quite honest, the country has always intimidated me because it’s so ancient. There’s just so much of it, where do you start? When I saw this book, I honestly had almost no hope for it. How on earth could someone distill the history of an entire region of the world that spans so much time into one book, no matter how long?

Well, the truth is, you can’t. Not really. There’s just so much there, that all you can expect from a book like this is an overview. Some topics are going to be touched on in more depth than others, but if you want to really get into the details of any specific event, you’ll have to use this book as a jumping-off point for further research. However, that’s not really a bad thing. I don’t know a whole lot about China, and what I really needed was an overview, an introduction, as it were. An overview to show me just how rich the history is, presented in such a way that allowed me to shake hands with it, and really get comfortable.

The Story of China is an absolutely fascinating book, which almost feels cinematic in how it is written. Some of the events and people are focused on in such a way, I could almost feel the camera zooming in on a macro level, really allowing me to not only understand what I was reading about, but also forging a connection that made me truly care. The way Michael Wood writes this book kept me engaged and enthralled in a way that a lot of nonfiction books just don’t manage.

The history covered in this book is told in chronological order, but Wood intersperses modern-day events and more modern details into the narrative here or there, thus showing the reader how history impacts the modern day. One cannot really exist without the other. These connections were rather fascinating to see, and it’s something I wish more historical nonfiction authors would infuse their writing with. History does not happen in a vacuum and being able to actually see how the ripples in the historical pond spread out and impact other, more modern events and/or people, was really one of the most interesting parts of the book.

The research that went into this book is absolutely mindboggling. There are a lot of referenced texts, artwork, and the like. I was quite honestly amazed by the amount of detail packed into this historical account. Woods absolutely infuses The Story of China with information, and somehow he never manages to lose sight of the story he’s actually telling, nor does the research become cumbersome, overwhelming, or confusing. He knows when to zoom his camera in and focus on one specific detail, person, or event, and when to use his wide-angle lens to show the sprawling scope, the wider landscape, the totality of the event.

There are some familiar events covered here like the rise and fall of dynasties, the Terracotta Army, the flooding of the Yangtze River, famines, and more. There is also a lot here that you won’t be aware of, and all those connections I mention above make all of this even more interesting. In fact, I daresay, out of all the history books I’ve read in my life, this had to be one of the most informative, enjoyable ones. There’s something about the way Woods manages to tell such a sprawling, illustrious history with such intimacy and care that just worked for me.

Lush descriptions of landscapes, palaces, cities, and officials brought many of the settings and the people to life. Outside forces that impacted events were covered, like the Little Ice Age, which brought sweeping political change to the fore. Small facts dropped in here or there were, quite honestly, staggering. For example, by the time the Western calendar began, there were already 140,000 literate Chinese bureaucrats employed by the Qin state. There was also a fairly nuanced study of Mao, which surprised me, as he is such a polarizing figure and is easily painted over with a large brush.

While I truly loved this book, I will say that readers who are familiar with China’s history might not find anything new here. This is, after all, an overview. It’s a long book, but there is absolutely no way you can cover a history as storied and intricate as China’s adequately in one volume. For people like me, who aren’t terribly familiar with the region, this is exactly what the doctor ordered, and it’s given me a ton of ideas about books I want to read next, and things I want to learn about. I do advise, however, to keep in mind this is an overview, and depending on your familiarity with China, it may or may not give you new information.

For me, though, The Story of China blew my socks off. This was a digestible, interesting, intricate view of history that not only captivated me, but kept me coming back for more. Wood’s ability distill weighty, complicated history into digestible bites for his readers is laudable.

The Story of China is history as it should be written.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read the book. This is a well written book on Chinese history that I could not put down.

China - a powerhouse now and in the past. But how did it get to where it is today? Who started this juggernaut rolling, who grew it to this size, and at what cost? Join Michael Wood as he takes the reader on a epic exploration into The Story of China.
Michael Wood opens The Story of China with the December 1899 winter solstice ceremony when the Emperor performed a ritual dating back to the Bronze Age at the Temple of Heaven for the last time. Then, in nineteen chapters, Wood takes the reader back to the beginning of civilization in what became China and works his way forward to the present time. Along the way the reader visits the major events that shaped China including stops at the Shang, the First Emperor, the Han, the Tang, the time of the Five Kingdoms, The Song (North and South), the Yuan/Mongols, the Ming, and returning to the time of the Qing, then into the age of the Republic, the time of Mao, and the current regime. Along that journey are many side trips to understand the Mandate of Heaven, and discover what ordinary folks were doing, writing, and enjoying, and why societies fall apart and reform.

While the reader could rush through this title, The Story of China rewards the careful reader who takes the time read and ponder what he/she has read. The story of China is cyclical - a kingdom/empire is founded, grows and then falls, only for a new kingdom/empire to rise from the ashes and build upon the earlier foundation. The culture of China was formed early and is a thread that Michael Wood weaves through the whole book. The thoughtful reader will see that certain attitudes regarding the role of the state and the importance of cultural stability underlies most of the empires despite what reformers tried to change. Micheal Wood has written a very insightful history that so easily could have been a hagiography for the present oppressive regime.

Thanks, St. Martin's Press, for inviting me to review this title.

I've long been interested in China and was interested in learning more about the country. This book gives an excellent overview of China's history. It is written in a friendly, assessable style. This surprised me. Who would've guessed such an ambitious book would be so readably readable?

This is not a book I would have selected, but I was offered the opportunity to read the ARC by St. Martin’s Press. I have to admit I did not really look forward to taking on this LONG book about a topic I wasn’t that interested in, but St. Martin’s Press has allowed me access to so many ARC’s for books that I did want to read I felt obligated to take on The Story of China. I am glad that I finally read this because it provided so much information on the many dynasty’s in China’s long history. I did scan around a bit and selected certain sections that I was interested in and admittedly did not read this word for word. It is definitely a scholarly book and the average reader would not be drawn to it. I think if you are planning to visit China (whenever that opportunity is available again!) this would be a great resource to help understand the background on this country.

This book was very hard to read. It is full of detailed archaeological and anthropological detail that made it hard to continue. The layers of detail made it confusing and I was unable to continue.

This is an incredible book. I thought, at 600 pages, that I would have a daunting read ahead of me. I wanted to read it to learn more about China and this was my chance. It was so worth the time it took. Taking it just one chapter at a time and really focusing on what I was reading, I came away with many historical blanks filled in and an admiration for Michael Wood's writing style. He ties the past to the present in a seamless fashion, not in a straight dull line of events. After consuming this tome I want to investigate his other books - so many wonderful historical topics, so much to explore. It will be a challenge to decide which one to read next. One thing is certain, I'll have to have my own copy so I can savor each book chapter by chapter at a leisurely pace.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review.

The Story of China takes on the daunting task of covering a huge span of China's history. If you've ever studied it, even in passing, you know that they have long and complex history. Michael Wood does an incredible job of covering thousands of years, and while condensing it, manages to do more than gloss over things. One of the things that I loved about this book was that he really told it from the perspective of the laypeople and not just the ruling class. The author makes use of early recordings, and interviews with surviving family to tell the stories from different perspectives. Michael Wood covers multiple dynasties (Song, Tang, etc) all the way up to today in a way that gives you a good sense of what life was like during those times. I think though, that what I loved best was that he makes us take our Western view of a "closed China" and throw it out the window. China is vast and has long had contact with many nations throughout its history. I really made myself pace this one out so I could really absorb everything. This is an incredibly well researched and well written book, I absolutely loved it.

Even though I did not finish this book, I wanted to leave feedback so others know this is an incredibly well-written, well-researched and thorough text. I planned to use this text to learn more about the history of China, but have found that at this time my interest in the subject has waned. I may come back to it in the future, and in that event will update my review.

I was offered the opportunity to read and review this book; I did not seek it out. However, I'm glad I got the chance. The author gives a quite detailed history of China, its people and its culture. Most of my knowledge involved the Pu-Yi and Mao eras; digging into the details of the past put it in perspective and was very enjoyable.

Wood brings four thousand years of China history to life in The Story of China. Arranged by dynasty, Wood's venture through history is filled with wonderful stories (albeit a few were too reference-filled) that entertained while educated. This book would be a wonderful addition to any history buff's collection.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an advance reading copy.

This might want you the check out the PBS documentary with the same name.
Anybody that is interested in the history in China this is definitely a book for you, it might be a bit too much detail for the general public but even then a lot of people might like getting tidbits of new information. Just take your time and enjoy. It’s not a book to hurry through. I visited China for a month about 20 years ago and reading about the various places brought back the memories of the trip. Most of the books I have read so far where for the 50 years following World War II and so it was great to get a better overview over the centuries. The author explains the rise and fall of the various dynasties. I always knew China had a very interesting history and reading this book endorsed that point.
I took a while to get into it because the first part of the book does a bit of jumping around and I felt like getting information overload. After that I enjoyed it more. Not an easy task to pack 4000 years of history into 600+ pages. Wood makes clear the different stages of the history of China.
I would have given the book a five star but I felt that the book could have used clearer breaks to make it easier for the reader

Michael Wood's miniseries on the history of China is great; if you have seen it, and like it, and are more interested in the complexity and trajectory of China, continue on with this book.

It really does a nice job with helping readers, who probably are more familiar with "western" history and its contours, navigate a part of the world which may feel more removed from their lives and beliefs. At the end of the day, Wood does a great job explaining that human civilizations ultimately have the same motivation: to prove greatness, to build up its people, to continue to have a lasting impact on the world. I think it was really nice to read up on specific events or people that I was unfamiliar with, but it also of course is a wonderful narrative.

Wood pulls back on the curtain on the elusive qualities of China, explaining how religion and military beliefs have affected the course of the country.

As China continues to rise and becomes a superpower that many people will be interacting with on multiple levels, Wood's book serves as a go-to for information and context of the country.

The Story of China is a daunting read because of its length and subject matter which May repel some readers. However, it is a valuable resource for those who are curious about Chinese culture.
The book is styled like a documentary. It gives sweeping coverage of events in an interesting way. It infuses its narrative with first person diary entries, writings by scholars, and poems. That format makes the story less dry and more interesting.
I learned so much about this complex country as well as more insight into the little I did know of various time periods and people. The names that come to mind are Marco Polo, the Ming dynasty, Kublai Khan as well as Genghis Khan, and Mao. What really fascinated me, though, were the amazing advances the development of the printing press, the creation of maps, and their approaches to government and climate control. China accomplished that and much more, predating the advancements in other cultures. I learned so much and now appreciate it even more.
The book is difficult to follow in parts. It progresses from BCE to modern times, but it jumps back and forth across the centuries, which makes it confusing. Then, it throws in first person writings with a line stating what it is in such a way that it often feels like it is being thrown in without integrating it into the narrative of the book. That line is attached to a previous paragraph without any real transition. It took me some time to adjust to that.
Another problem I found was not the author’s fault, but was the result of the format. Reading the book in Kindle presented many difficulties. The book would reference later pages as further information about a subject. With Kindle, the links to subsequent pages along with jumping back and forth on the surface is an efficient way to access knowledge quickly, but I found that I can far better do so with a text in hand. Call it old fashioned, but the physical flipping through a book seems more satisfying to me personally. It is also easy to refer to bibliographical entries with a physical format.
Overall, The Story of China is an excellent book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about China. I now, as promised understand it much better and have insight into its politics today.

I am admittedly not very impressed with this book, though I enjoyed Michael Wood's writing. While I wasn't expecting anything too in depth considering how monumental and impossible the task of covering the lengthy history of China in one book is, but I was surprised by several generalizations that Wood BEGAN this book with. The most glaring one to me is the line about China having a "unitary culture" unlike Europe, with one "Han identity" and one "Han language." Already, I find myself raising my eyebrows because China is so ethnically diverse and has been throughout its long history, the conception of China as a single state isn't even necessarily true now considering the fraught political tensions between the CCP's "One China" message and their ongoing fight with Hong Kong and Taiwan, and absolutely downplays China's incorporation of Tibet and the genocide of Uyghur muslims. I think we have to be especially careful about the narratives we are pushing about China, considering the ongoing human rights issues that have and continue to happen.