Learn and Grow | Author Interviews | Book Summaries | Book lists | Summaries | Author Interviews | Shop Nonfiction books | Booklists | Non-fiction books | Book Reviews | Best Business Books | Best Management Books | Best Leadership Books | Best Business Strategy Books | Best Finance Books | Best Investment Books | Best History Books | Best World History Books | Best China History Books | Best India History Books | Best British India Books | Best American History Books | Best Science Books | Best Technology Books | Best Slavery Books | Best Economics Books | Best Macroeconomics Books | Best Health Books | Best Medicine History Books | Best Travel Books | Book Events | Author Events | Virtual Book Launch | Latest nonfiction books | Upcoming nonfiction books | Best University Presses | Harvard University Press | Yale University Press | Stanford University Press | Columbia University Press | Oxford University Press | Cambridge University Press | Chicago University Press | Pulitzer Prize | Recommended Books | Readara Book Experts | Readara Booklists | Readara Book summaries | Best Author Interviews | Best Nobel Prize Winners Books | Connect with Book Editors | Book Designers | Book Printers | Book Cover Designers | Best Book Agents List | Book PR and Marketing Agencies List | Book Wholesalers List Nonfiction books | Booklists | Non-fiction books | Book Reviews | Best Business Books | Best Management Books | Best Leadership Books | Best Business Strategy Books | Best Finance Books | Best Investment Books | Best History Books | Best World History Books | Best China History Books | Best India History Books | Best British India Books | Best American History Books | Best Science Books | Best Technology Books | Best Slavery Books | Best Economics Books | Best Macroeconomics Books | Best Health Books | Best Medicine History Books | Best Travel Books | Book Events | Author Events | Virtual Book Launch | Latest nonfiction books | Upcoming nonfiction books | Best University Presses | Harvard University Press | Yale University Press | Stanford University Press | Columbia University Press | Oxford University Press | Cambridge University Press | Chicago University Press | Pulitzer Prize | Recommended Books | Readara Book Experts | Readara Booklists | Readara Book summaries | Best Author Interviews | Best Nobel Prize Winners Books | Connect with Book Editors | Book Designers | Book Printers | Book Cover Designers | Best Book Agents List | Book PR and Marketing Agencies List | Book Wholesalers List | Book lists, Summaries, Author Interviews, Shop

Expedite your nonfiction book discovery process with Readara interviews, summaries and recommendations, Broaden your knowledge and gain insights from leading experts and scholars

In-depth, hour-long interviews with notable nonfiction authors, Gain new perspectives and ideas from the writer’s expertise and research, Valuable resource for readers and researchers

Optimize your book discovery process, Four-to eight-page summaries prepared by subject matter experts, Quickly review the book’s central messages and range of content

Books are handpicked covering a wide range of important categories and topics, Selected authors are subject experts, field professionals, or distinguished academics

Our editorial team includes books offering insights, unique views and researched-narratives in categories, Trade shows and book fairs, Book signings and in person author talks,Webinars and online events

Connect with editors and designers,Discover PR & marketing services providers, Source printers and related service providers

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China

History > Asia - China
4.5
  • Viking
  • Hardcover
  • 9780735224414
  • 9.1 X 6.1 X 1.6 inches
  • 1.25 pounds
  • History > Asia - China
  • (Single Author) Asian American
  • English
Order
$0
List Price:
$0
Save:
$0 ($%)
Format:
Hardcover
Shipping Cost:
Ships from:
-
Estimated Arrival:
-
Available Copies:
0 Copies
Ready To Buy:
Back Order
Sold By:
Secure Transation
Readara.com

Book Description

In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties.--The Boston Globe

Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history.--LA Review of Books

An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon--billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty--the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite and Charlie Chaplin has entertained his wife-to-be. And a few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist Party have been plotting revolution.

By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty--the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and losing nearly everything as the Communists swept into power. In The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families participated in an economic boom that opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil at their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival.

The book lays bare the moral compromises of the Kadoories and the Sassoons--and their exceptional foresight, success, and generosity. At the height of World War II, they joined together to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. Though their stay in China started out as a business opportunity, the country became a home they were reluctant to leave, even on the eve of revolution. The lavish buildings they built and the booming businesses they nurtured continue to define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day. As the United States confronts China's rise, and China grapples with the pressures of breakneck modernization and global power, the long-hidden odysseys of the Sassoons and the Kadoories hold a key to understanding the present moment.

more

Author Bio

Jonathan Kaufman is Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, editor and author. He is currently Executive Editor for Company News at Bloomberg News, overseeing more than 300 reporters and editors globally who cover technology, energy, autos, deals, industrials, consumer products, education, science and health. Projects he has overseen at Bloomberg have won numerous awards including finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, several George Polk Awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, a Gerald Loeb Award and Education Writers Association Grand Prize. 
 

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Mr. Kaufman was deputy Page One editor at The Wall Street Journal and also served as the Wall Street Journal's China Bureau Chief, based in Beijing. He also served as Berlin Bureau Chief of the Boston Globe. As a reporter, Mr. Kaufman covered race and class issues in the workplace and on college campuses and wrote about race and women's issues in the extraordinary 2008 presidential campaign. 
 

Mr. Kaufman has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of two well-reviewed books, "A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe" and "Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America" which won the National Jewish Book Award.

 

Source: jonathankaufman.org

more

Videos

No Videos

Community reviews

No Community reviews