Ancient Chinese Dynasties

I read three or four similar ones, but they just weren't as comprehensive as this one. For such a short book it packs a lot of information. I would recommend this one to adults who want a good overview as opposed to a tome. It has lots of photos, but they are all black and white. I have just a few complaints and suggestions. The author uses the pinyin and Wade-Giles romanizations interchangeably, without explanation, and it was a bit confusing. I can imagine it would be even more confusing to someone unfamiliar with Chinese. Chinese put the surname first, but in some instances they are reversed in this book. I would suggest that when dealing with a non-romanized language authors include the names in the original script. The author gives a timeline of the dynasties. I think it would have been more helpful if it had been juxtaposed with a timeline Westerners could relate to such as Biblical prophets and Roman emperors. There was one instance where the author describes and artifact, but doesn't provide a photo, which would have been helpful. Still, I think it's a terrific book.

For a school research project I researched on the ancient beginnings of China. This book helped me tremendously in writing it. I found great information on the ancient dynasties in China and a lot of information I could not find any where else. If you are doing any type of reasearch project or essay on the dynasties of China I would select this book for you right off the bat.