Mark ElvinReseñas

I probably found this book in my searches on Google Books due to it's first sentence: "The question of the size of political units seems never to attract among historians and sociologists the attention which it deserves". However, this question does unfortunately not receive much attention in this book either, so my expectations were not quite met. The book does provide a few explanations for the exceptional durability of the large Chinese empire, but it's primarily just an economic history of China. The book is a pleasure to read and many of its points are nicely illustrated with quotations from historical Chinese sources. But as far as comparisons between China and Europe are concerned, I would recommend Pomeranz' The Great Divergence as a more recent work which I think covers similar ground from a slightly broader perspective.

Text copyrighted in 1983. reprinted almost annually since. Provides a Chronological Table on pages 8-9 which capsulizes 4000 years of culture, culminating with "the great leader, Chairman Mao". The two authors do claim to subordinate bias and write truth.

Alia libre divisa in tres partes: (I) Space -- description of the land and its peoples, with geographic maps indicating demographic settlement patterns, climate, and agriculture. (II) Time - limns the Archaic, Imperial, and Modern epochs. (III) Symbols and Society.

The Preface notes that even the Chinese do not know what China has been in the past. There are few stones, and virtually no original documents. "Compared with the Mediterranean world there are few Chinese ancient monuments or building still above ground." Archivists would destroy old copies, excerpting or abstracting them. Paper was the writing material, no clay or parchment or stone. Thus, the enduring history has been subjected to loss, or worse, reinterpretation and misunderstanding.

If Elvin's approach to the salients of China's historical experience is hopscotch, it is not haphazard. While the text itself is never difficult, you will feel lost if you don't already have a grasp of China's timeline. But Elvin's shrewd epitomes of the various dynasties make this book an invaluable companion to any more conventional history.

"without doubt the most lucid and stimulating introduction to the problems of the economic and social history of traditional China at present available"

Isabel Hilton, editor of the website China Dialogue has chosen to discuss The Retreat of the Elephants by Mark Elvin on FiveBooks as one of the top five on her subject -China’s Environmental Crisis, saying that:



“…The most comprehensive and scholarly history of the Han people’s relationship to their environment…The environmental history of China is a very interesting one, and there is this mythology that Chinese peasants are somehow in tune with nature. But if you read Elvin you realise that in China there has actually been 2,000 years of unsustainable development and environmental degradation...”



The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/isabel-hilton-on-chinas-environmental-crisis