Hannah Pakula

This book was a mammoth read. When one thinks of the WWII-era China, the mind instantly conjures up an image of Madame Chiang. There is so much detail contained within the pages. The amount of research done here is staggering. However, this book is not specifically just about Madame Chiang. It's about China from the fall of the last ruling imperial dynasty up through about 1975, when Madame Chiang's husband passed away. With that in mind, there are whole chapters where Madame Chiang's name isn't mentioned at all. These could get very boring and tedious to read. I lived for moments when Madame would make an appearance. Her early life and widowhood were fascinating for me to read about, because they were exclusively about her. I wish the book had been titled differently because really it's a dual biography of the Chiangs.

Disappointing if you are looking for a book solely about the legendary Madame Chiang Kai-shek.… (mais)

A truly masterful book. Pakula pulls together everything from social theory to medical history to thousands of letters to create a portrait of the Empress Dowager Frederick. The first born and cleverest child of Queen Victoria, Vicky married the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick. Theirs was a truly loving marriage and a meeting of two idealistic, thoughtful minds. Unfortunately, Prussia (led by Frederick's conservative father Wilhelm I and the EVIL EVIL EVIL Chancellor Bismarck) was highly conservative and Anglophobic. Frederick was a talented soldier (papers released decades later made it clear he was a main reason Prussia won the Austro-Prussian War) and dedicated son. Unfortunately, by the time he took the throne he was dying of throat cancer, and only ruled a few months. His crazed son, Kaiser Wilhelm II, took the throne immediately.

Here's what I learned from this book: Vicky was super awesome. She dedicated herself to understanding world politics until the last weeks of her long, drawn out death by cancer (German doctors wouldn't give her more than tiny doses of morphine, so she died in incredible agony). Thanks to the state-owned press, which released constant propaganda against her and her husband, she never got to do the good she dreamt of. But even without official support or money, she spent her life nursing, spreading hygiene plans, and collecting for charities. She was shamefully treated by the Prussian court, most especially by her sociopathic eldest son, Wilhelm II. Wilhelm II was totes crazy. Bismark was an evil manipulative genius who was directly responsible for WWI and indirectly for WWII. His anti-semitic war mongering propaganda ruined the mindset of the German people for a generation.

If I could rewrite history, I would kill off Wilhelm I so Frederick could rule, and kill off Bismarck and WIlhelm II so they wouldn't frustrate Frederick and Vicky's liberal plans.
Of course, if I could *really* rewrite history, I would make Vicky the ruler. I loved her.… (mais)

Actually, Tzu Hsi (Cixi), wife of the Emperor of the Ching Dynasty was the last empress of the long line of traditional dynasties of China, but Madame Chiang Kai-shek was truly the last noteworthy female paragon to represent China. "The Last Empress" is a fascinating biography of Mayling Soong, the youngest daughter of Charlie Soong.

It would be an understatement to say that the Soong family was heavily involved in politics. Mayling married Chiang Kai-shek, and her older sister Ching-ling married Sun Yat-sen, the father of Nationalist China. You might imagine one big happy family, but this was not the case. After Sun Yat-sen’s untimely death Ching-ling joined the communist party and became a loyal follower of Mao Tse-tung, who battled Chiang for years both strategically and physically in a civil war to gain power over the chinese government.

"The Last Empress" contains very detailed information about each battle and every maneuver made by Chiang in his effort to unite and liberate China. Along with the internal struggle to outwit Mao’s CCP and control the greedy warlords, Chiang also had to deal with the continuous strife caused by disagreements with foreign nations, WWI, WWII, and the Korean War.

As China suffered the atrocities of the Japanese invasion of WWII, “Mayling assumed the voice of the victim, crying out for help to the rest of the world.” She became famous world wide and in 1937 "Time" magazine named the Chiangs “Man and Wife of the Year”.

However, It becomes obvious that no matter how well intended someone is in their hopes and dreams for a better country, the unmitigated power eventually goes to their heads and corruption sets in. In many ways, similar to the Russian Revolution, the change away from dynasty and dictatorship was inevitable but not necessarily brought about in the most humane manner, and not always living up the expectations of the common public, and not carried out under the controlled environment revolutionaries imagine.

"The Last Empress" guides the reader through all stages of the revolution, from the fall of the Ching Dynasty to Mao’s rise to power and Chiang’s ultimate defeat and exile in Taiwan. This comprehensive documentary presents an inside view of the tumultuous period in China’s history that paved the way for the modern China of today.… (mais)