Review: A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China (by Kevin Peraino)

 My Rating: 3 stars

I struggled a bit with rating this book, mainly because this book turned out to be very different from what I expected.  I'm quite selective when it comes to non-fiction books, since I know it generally takes more effort on my part to concentrate and focus on what I'm reading due to life's many distractions.   When I see a non-fiction book on a subject that piques my interest, I pick it up hoping that the information will be presented in a way that is engaging and insightful. I'm a bit of a history fanatic and love learning new things, so I tend to gravitate toward books that have a historical element to them.  While this book definitely covered the history aspect well, the part that made it difficult for me to get into was its heavy focus on politics.  I've always viewed politics as a complicated game with constantly-changing rules and a playbook so complex that only those players well-versed in its language have a decent shot at success.  I'm not one of those players and never will be.  I know enough about the basics to help me get through life, but that's about it – most politics go way above my head and to be honest, I'm fine with that, as I have no interest whatsoever trying to understand it.  It's no surprise then that I try to stay away from books that are heavy on politics and this is why Kevin Peraino's A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China didn't really work for me.

The book recounts the one year timespan from when Harry Truman starts his second term as President of the U.S. in 1948 to the rise of infamous Communist dictator Mao Zedong and his establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949.  Historically, the author covered quite a bit of ground, starting from the end of the Second World War and its effect on the various countries that were involved (specifically the countries that formed the Axis and Allied Powers during the war), running through some of the major events that occurred during that time and the various players involved.  There was also a bit of back history about China, the rise of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and the Soong family, Mao Zedong's early years and his role during the war, the Japanese occupation of China and its aftermath, etc.  – it also touched on some of the cultural differences between China and the U.S. and the basis for these differences from history….this first third or so of the book that dealt with history and culture I absolutely enjoyed.  However, after that, the book started to focus more on the American side of things – more specifically, the intricacies of American politics and development of foreign policy during the Truman administration, details about the political players and strategists who shaped the U.S. policy toward China and the rest of the Pacific, the roles that Europe and also Russia played, etc. – this is where the book started losing me and after I dozed off a few times while reading, I decided to skim my way through the rest of it.

I ended up rating this book 3 stars because it was actually very well-written and well-researched, plus the history and culture parts were really good, it's just that I didn't care for the minutiae with the politics, which unfortunately was majority of the book. For someone like me who is not into politics, I found this book a bit too tedious and way too long (my version came in at a little under 300 pages, with nearly 100 pages of notes/references in the back). Overall, this is a good book that I'm sure those who are into politics will find fascinating and also will learn a lot from it (in fact, our current leader in the big white house (and his staff too) should probably read this book so he understands the history behind our relationship with China and why he can't say the stuff that he has about China and Taiwan the past couple months and not expect to ruffle some feathers – as an added bonus, there's some stuff about North Korea in here too!).

Received advance reader's copy from Crown Publishing via Penguin First to Read program.