Experimental Blog #91

Comments on "The Dragon and the Foreign Devils - China and the World, 1100 B.C. to the Present" by Harry G. Gelber

The previous publications by this author, Harry Gelber, suggest that he is from Australia. This particular book, which came out in 2007, was an up-to-date generally British view of China and the rest of the world. Besides being a very good defense of the English side of events, this book could be called very "politically liberal"; and it contains what might be called certain "gaps", or "historical oversights".

Harry Gelber describes and emphasizes America as the world's only "hyperpower" at the end of the 20th century, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This description and emphasis seem rather exagerated, even artificial; although the author goes on to say that these times are changing; as they always are.

Throughout the book Harry Gelber writes about the "differences" between China, on one side, and Europe and America on the other. He does not suggest that both sides are responding to, or "acting out", the same "intellectual fashions" of their times, but in their own ways.