God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan

Jonathan D. Spence. W. W. Norton & Company, $18.95 (432pp) ISBN 978-0-393-31556-1

In what PW called a ""masterful history,"" Spence recounts the mid-19th century Taiping Rebellion, in which a Chinese Christian fanatic seized Nanking and ruled his ""New Jerusalem"" for a decade. (Jan.)

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