The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC - AD 2000

By Julia Lovell

Categories: History

Historian Julia Lovell tells the story of China's Great Wall over three thousand years and what it reveals about China's relationship with the outside world. She shows that the wall was not a single structure but a series of fortifications that often failed to keep out invaders. Lovell argues that the wall reflects China's long tension between engagement with and isolation from foreign peoples, a theme that continues to shape the country today.

Recommended by 1 person

• Shane Parrish: “The premise of this book is that to understand The Great Wall is to understand China. The author does an excellent job tracing the history of the structure and relating it to the political and cultural changes concurrently happening in country.”