Seize the Hour by Margaret Macmillan
In February 1972, Nixon amazed the world with a trip to China. He was the first US President to go there -- in fact officially the first American since the Communist takeover. It was like a visit to the far side of the moon, but also a brilliant stroke of policy. With China on side Nixon could get out of Vietnam; US technology could help Mao recover from his disastrous Cultural Revolution; most of all, both needed a buttress against Soviet Russia in aggressive mood. Yet the visit set a tone that still lingers. Did the Chinese see Nixon, coming to them, as a supplicant, and has the US been at a disadvantage ever since? Will the two countries cooperate, or will China challenge American dominance? Not just a great historical event, the visit is a great story too, filled with extraordinary people: Nixon himself, red-baiter, crook and shrewd statesman; Mao, frail, erratic, ruthless; the twin machiavellis Chou En-lai and Henry Kissinger; brittle Pat Nixon with her designer coat of 'prostitute's red'; and Mao's wife Jiang Qing, a small-time Shanghai actress now scourge of Chinese civilization.The clash of cultures was almost deafening too: China ancient and contemptuous, with nothing to learn from barbarians beyond the Middle Kingdom, the USA so different but also in its own eyes exceptional - the beacon for the world.
"* 'Exactly the sort of book I like: written with pace and flavoured with impudence based on solid scholarship' - Roy Jenkins, Sunday Times * 'A fascinating piece of history' - Tony Blair, Guardian * 'Enthralling.. detailed, fair, unfailingly lively... full of brilliant pen-portraits' - Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph * 'Magnificent... she gives a full, colourful and erudite description of the participants and their motives. It takes a thoughtful and lively writer to do justice to such a cast of showmen, rogues and egotists, and Margaret Macmillan is more than equal to it' - Simon Heffer, Literary Review * 'Every peacemaker sent to determine the future of Iraq should regard it as an essential piece of luggage' - Guardian"
Margaret MacMillan has a doctorate from St Antony's College, Oxford, and is Provost of Trinity College and Professor of History, University of Toronto. Her bestselling biography Peacemakers won the prestigious BBC4 Samuel Johnson prize. Her previous books include Women of the Raj and Canada and NATO.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780719565229 |
| ISBN 10 | 0719565227 |
| Title | Seize the Hour |
| Author | Margaret Macmillan |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | John Murray Press |
| Year published | 2006-10-19 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |