Sun Yat-Sen: Reluctant Revolutionary
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Few figures in modern history embody the paradoxes of revolution as vividly as Sun Yat-sen — the man who toppled an empire yet remained, at heart, an uncertain architect of change. Harold Z. Schiffrin's Sun Yat-sen: Reluctant Revolutionary presents an incisive and psychologically rich portrait of the founding father of modern China, tracing his journey from a Western-educated outsider to the iconic leader of the 1911 Revolution that ended two millennia of imperial rule. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a dying Qing dynasty and a world being reshaped by nationalism and modernity, Schiffrin chronicles how Sun navigated foreign powers, fractious allies, and his own profound ambivalences to become the symbol of Chinese republicanism. Part of the prestigious Library of World Biography series, this work exemplifies the finest tradition of scholarly biography — concise yet deeply researched, accessible yet intellectually rigorous. Schiffrin, a leading authority on Sun Yat-sen, draws on decades of archival study to argue that the man history immortalised as a revolutionary was, in truth, a pragmatist perpetually caught between idealism and political reality. The result is a biography that not only illuminates one of Asia's most consequential figures but also raises compelling questions about the nature of leadership, national identity, and the true cost of revolution — questions that resonate far beyond the borders of China.
Author: Harold Z. Schiffrin
Format: Hardback
Published: 1980, Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Few figures in modern history embody the paradoxes of revolution as vividly as Sun Yat-sen — the man who toppled an empire yet remained, at heart, an uncertain architect of change. Harold Z. Schiffrin's Sun Yat-sen: Reluctant Revolutionary presents an incisive and psychologically rich portrait of the founding father of modern China, tracing his journey from a Western-educated outsider to the iconic leader of the 1911 Revolution that ended two millennia of imperial rule. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a dying Qing dynasty and a world being reshaped by nationalism and modernity, Schiffrin chronicles how Sun navigated foreign powers, fractious allies, and his own profound ambivalences to become the symbol of Chinese republicanism. Part of the prestigious Library of World Biography series, this work exemplifies the finest tradition of scholarly biography — concise yet deeply researched, accessible yet intellectually rigorous. Schiffrin, a leading authority on Sun Yat-sen, draws on decades of archival study to argue that the man history immortalised as a revolutionary was, in truth, a pragmatist perpetually caught between idealism and political reality. The result is a biography that not only illuminates one of Asia's most consequential figures but also raises compelling questions about the nature of leadership, national identity, and the true cost of revolution — questions that resonate far beyond the borders of China.