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This page links to all my reviews of nonfiction books relating to China and other Far East countries.
The earliest reviews—earlier than mid-1991—were done under my pen-name, "Giles Mathews." This is a Sinological in-joke: Herbert Giles compiled the first major Chinese-English dictionary (1892), Robert Mathews the second (1931).
| Date | Place | Review Title | Book Title | Author |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | ||||
| February 18, 2018 | VDARE | A Study Of Unchanged National Character | What's Wrong With China | Paul Midler |
| 2014 | ||||
| April 23, 2014 | The American Spectator Online | Chinese Lives | Hard Road Home | Ye Fu |
| February 27, 2014 | The American Spectator Online | American Excess, Chinese Success | Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China | Stephen Roach |
| 2013 | ||||
| June 20, 2013 | Taki's Magazine | The Man Who Blew the Lid off Maoism | The Hall of Uselessness | Pierre Ryckmans |
| 2009 | ||||
| September 13, 2009 | (Not published) | Running Out of Bullets | Out of Mao's Shadow | Philip P. Pan |
| Spring 2009 | The New Atlantis | In Search of Chinese Science | The Man Who Loved China | Simon Winchester |
| May 28, 2009 | NRO | Chinese Junk | Poorly Made in China | Paul Midler |
| March 2009 | The New Criterion | A Despot's Verse | The Poems of Mao Zedong | Edited and translated by William Barnstone |
| 2008 | ||||
| August 8, 2008 | NRO | Will Sport Save China? | Olympic Dreams | Xu Guoqi |
| 2007 | ||||
| Fall 2007 | Claremont Review of Books | China Discovers the West | The Dragon and the Foreign Devils | Harry G. Gelber |
| 2005 | ||||
| August 22, 2005 | The New York Sun | Henry Luce's Foreign Policy | Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade in Asia |
Robert E. Herzstein |
| February 2, 2005 | The New York Sun | Amateur Totalitarianism | Pol Pot | Philip Short |
| 2004 | ||||
| November 29, 2004 | National Review | Despotism's Furthest Shore | Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader |
Bradley K. Martin |
| September 15, 2004 | NRO | Zero for Hero | Hero | A movie directed by Zhang Yimou |
| July 21, 2004 | The New York Sun | The Flowers of May Fourth | A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World |
Rana Mitter |
| April 25, 2004 | The Washington Times | In China, Spiritual Hunger, State Power Collide |
Falun Gong: The End of Days | Maria Hsia Chang |
| April 14, 2004 | The New York Sun | Selling the Rope | Losing the New China | Ethan Gutmann |
| March 22, 2004 | National Review | Shrewd, But Small | Chiang Kai Shek | Jonathan Fenby |
| March 7, 2004 | The Washington Times | Understanding Chinese Nationalism | China's New Nationalism | Peter Hays Gries |
| February 25, 2004 | The New York Sun | The Devils | Before Mao | Patrick Lescot |
| 2003 | ||||
| November 12, 2003 | The New York Sun | China's New Left | China's New Order | Wang Hui |
| September 16, 2003 | NRO | Tibet's Long Agony | Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land |
Patrick French |
| July/August 2003 | The American Enterprise | China vs. Foggy Bottom | The New Chinese Empire | Ross Terrill |
| January 24, 2003 | The Washington Times | Hydraulic Despotism | Before the Deluge | Dierdre Chetham |
| 2002 | ||||
| November 10, 2002 | The Washington Times | Interesting Times | Four Sisters of Hofei | Annping Chin |
| April 14, 2002 | The Washington Times | Dream On | The China Dream | Joe Studwell |
| 2001 | ||||
| November 25, 2001 | The Washington Times | Finding Chinese Dissidents | Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing |
Ian Buruma |
| August 12, 2001 | The Washington Times | China Against the Wall | The Coming Collapse of China | Gordon G. Chang |
| April 22, 2001 | The Washington Times | A Vast Nation Scrutinized Closely | Treason by the Book | Jonathan D. Spence |
| 2000 | ||||
| December 4, 2000 | National Review | China and Her Dupes | The China Threat | Bill Gertz |
| October 23, 2000 | National Review | Leninism in Hanoi | Ho Chi Minh | William J. Duiker |
| August 20, 2000 | The Washington Times | Why We Ought to Fear China | Hegemon | Steven Mosher |
| February 25, 2000 | The National Post (Canada) | All Pity Choked | Voices from S-21 | David Chandler |
| January 28, 2000 | The National Post | Hard Luck Story | Colors of the Mountain | Da Chen |
| 1990s | ||||
| August 3, 1998 | National Review | Asian Minor | The Accidental Asian | Eric Liu |
| March 10, 1997 | The Weekly Standard | Who China Lost | Hungry Ghosts | Jasper Becker |
| February 1991 | Literary Review | China's Bad Old Days | Shanghai | Harriet Sergeant |
| 1980s | ||||
| Fall 1988 | The American Scholar | The Beggars' Democracy | Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis | Hao Chang |
| (?) Mid-1985 | The Daily Telegraph | Three Chinese Sisters | The Soong Dynasty | Sterling Seagrave |
| April 30, 1985 | The Daily Telegraph | Bolthole to Superstar | Strategy for Survival | Chiao Chiao Hsieh |
| (?) Early 1985 | The Spectator | China from Inside and Out | Stones of the Wall To Get Rich Is Glorious |
Dai Houying Orville Schell |
| January 24, 1985 | The Daily Telegraph | Stony Ground | Shamans, Lamas and Evangelicals: the English Missionaries in Siberia |
C.R. Bawden |
| June 22, 1984 | The Daily Telegraph | "Paradise" Lost | Return to Tibet | Heinrich Harrer |
| (?) Early 1984 | The Daily Telegraph | The "Saint" Beside Mao | Chou: The Story of Zhou Enlai | Dick Wilson |