Defending Heaven, James Waterson
Defending Heaven, James Waterson
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Defending Heaven
China's Mongol Wars, 1209-1370

Author: James Waterson, John Man

Narrator: Derek Perkins

Unabridged: 8 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/10/2020

Synopsis

The Defence of Heaven brings together, for the first time in one volume, a complete history of the Jin, Song, and Ming dynasties' wars fought against the Mongols. Lasting nearly two centuries, these wars, fought to defend Chinese civilization against a brutal and unrelenting foe, pitted personal heroics against the inexorable Mongol war machine and involved every part of the Chinese state.

The resistance of the Chinese dynasties to the Khans is a complex and rich story of shifting alliances and political scheming, vast armies and navies, bloody battles and an astonishing technological revolution. The great events of China's Mongol war are described and analyzed, detailing their immediate and later implications for Chinese history.

In this excellent new book, James Waterson tackles this fascinating subject with characteristic verve and skill. Setting the Mongol war in the wider context of China's ancient and almost perpetual conflict with the northern nomads, it sheds light on the evolution of China's military society and the management, command and control of the army by the Chinese state.

About James Waterson

James Waterson is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and received his Masters degree from Dundee University. He worked and taught in the United States and China for a number of years and now divides his time between the Middle East and Italy whilst trying to makes ends meet. The Ismaili Assassins is his second book and grew out of his travels in Iran. His first book, The Knights of Islam, a history of the slave soldiers of Islam, was published in 2007 by Greenhill Books.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rindis on September 22, 2019

The Mongols, and their conquest of an exceedingly large chunk of Eurasia is a subject well known in history. Their conquest of China regularly gets good coverage in books talking about this in general, but there's few, if any, books in English about just that. Waterson concentrates especially on the......more

Goodreads review by Oleksandr on December 16, 2024

This is a non-fic history about Mongol 13th century invasion into Chinese kingdoms and the reversal a century later with creation of Ming dynasty. I now decided to read more of the Chinese history to better understand a likely contender for global leadership in the next 20 years. The history starts a......more

Goodreads review by Roniius on June 28, 2020

A good book dealing with Chinese resistance to the Mongols and Northern "barbarians" throughout the Song/Liao/Jin, Yuan and early Ming periods. However, the flurry of names and places did not help with my comprehension, and, since I listened to the audiobook version, the subpar pronunciations did no......more

Goodreads review by Alex on August 22, 2024

A decent, but brief, history of the yuan dynasty. It's interesting but feels a little light on detail......more

Goodreads review by Chris on March 26, 2022

This is an excellent text that summarizes the military struggle between the forces of the Mongol World Empire, in Centra/East Asia and the Chinese dynasties of the Song and the lesser dynasties of the Jin, which led to the ultimate collapse of Han rule and transitioned to a Han-supported, but Mongol......more

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