Margaret MacMillan

A landmark study of the historic 1972 meeting between Richard Nixon and Mao and its long-term implications for the complex relationship of China and the U.S. in the present day draws on recently available material to profile the key players in the event and their diverse motives and critically analyzes its impact on modern history. 125,000 first printing.

The Week that Changed the World

Nixon and Mao

Jeni Enjaian

I'm adding Margaret MacMillan to my list of favorite authors of history. Quite simply, she did a masterful job weaving together a complex story using the structure of Nixon's historic week long visit to China. It does not hurt that the narrator was pretty spectacular too.
MacMillan walked a delicate line as she weaved back and forth between narration of the specific events of that particular week and several background biographies of the principal characters, American and Chinese, and of the countries themselves. (Not entire biographies obviously, but biographies tailored to the theme of the book.
I have to admit though that this book requires careful attention, more than I gave it as I listened. At times the audio became a bit like background noise and I missed transitions from past to "present" or vice versa which became a bit confusing. This confusion also increased a bit as the book drew to a conclusion and the time gap between past and "present" narrowed.
That being said, this book more than peaked my interest in a whole variety of topics, such as the extremely perplexing one of how Richard Nixon was elected to the presidency, twice. :)
I definitely recommend this book.

Nixon and Mao The Week that Changed the World

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