Adrian LevyRezensionen

From its cover, this book sounds like a history of jade. But it's actually a history of jadeite, not jade. But even that's not accurate as while jadeite runs through this book, it's actually a history of China and surrounding areas, mostly from the 1700s to the present. It's a unique angle on a fascinating history and I'd highly recommend it. Just don't assume it's a book that will only be of interest to gemologists!½

Not much to add to cawilliams, but that was 14 years back and worthy of a comment.
I agree the first couple of chapters were weak, but then something clicks and develops into quite the mystery. They wore out the roads traveling back and forth and of course dealing with the personalities, but definitely worth the time. A surprising quick read for almost 400 pages.
I have not heard anything more plausible to explain the disappearance of this room, seems reasonable to me.

A thoroughly researched book that gives a detailed insight into how 26/11 was planned, executed and how India reacted to it. While reading the book, there were times when I felt a gulp in my throat but that is the least one can feel about what happened in Mumbai on 26/11/2008.

One of the disadvantages of buying most of your books from Amazon is that you’re never quite sure what you will get - especially since reviews at Amazon are suspect. The complementary advantage is sometimes you get books that are still interesting despite not being what you expected. So it is with The Stone of Heaven. I was expecting, I think, James Michener meets high pressure metamorphic mineralogy, with lots of juicy little tidbits about hydrothermal alteration interspersed with anecdotes about famous jade lumps painstakingly carved by Chinese artisans into stunningly accurate representations of green peppers, green apples, green crickets, and The Incredible Hulk.

Instead, the authors, a pair of British journalists, have written a political, sociological and psychological history of jade. It’s not clear if they even know the difference between jadeite and nephrite or the petrology and geological provenance of jadeite deposits; but they do know and transmit quite a bit of knowledge about East Asia in the last two centuries. It was refreshing to find that journalists in the UK, unlike their American counterparts, understand that research is more than just interviewing.

Chinese emperors wanted jade. Unfortunately the only place they knew where they could get it was a part of Burma where “godforsaken hell hole” is a serious understatement. (Aside to alternate history buffs - how would history be different if the botroidal jade deposits of Wyoming were known to Emperor Qianlong?). At any rate, Chinese efforts to conquer the Karen and Shan tribes of Burma came to nothing as armies disappeared into the jungle and never came back.

Eventually the Western powers got into the act. Flimsy excuses were found to conquer Burma, and although China wasn’t conquered (probably because nobody could agree on how to divide it up) a joint French/English expeditionary force, justifiable incensed over Chinese refusal to cooperate in addicting their entire population to opium, marched on and sacked the Summer Palace. (I’ve always been proud of my country because we were not involved in the sordid Opium Wars, since we were too busy exploiting our slave population at the time).

The orgiastic looting of the Summer Palace, where shiploads of artifacts were sent back to London and Paris, only acted to develop an appetite for jade in the West as well as the East. At this point the tone of the book changes, and the authors begin chronicling various figures from both China and the West who conspicuously consumed jade jewelry. This include Chiang Kai-shek, who demolished and looted the Imperial tombs to finance various warlord enterprises; his third wife, who was not at all adverse to the odd jade bangle; the last emperor, Pu-Yi, who at least had the excuse of needing to flee Peking in a hurry for selling off the last Imperial pieces; Madame Wellington Koo, heiress and wife to a Chinese diplomat, who eventually died in poverty in New York, and Barbara Hutton, who went through a series of husbands and jewels before dying addicted to Coke (that’s right, the carbonated kind). This part of the book reads a lot like tabloid journalism - unpleasant but titillating little details abound. No one comes off well at all.


Finally, the last part describes, in a way that could be a little more self-effacing, the authors describe their own adventures in trying to gain access to the jadeite mines in Myanmar, not one of the world’s most accommodating tourist destinations. In a laudable display of political neutrality they come down just as hard on the nominally socialist government of Myanmar and the actually communist government of China as they previously did on various imperialist Europeans. Apparently communist dogma about national liberation movements and downtrodden workers and peasants get swept right into the dustbin of history when there’s money involved, since the PRC cheerfully supplied military assistance to the government of Myanmar so they could crush various ethnic groups in the northern part of the country and take over the jadeite mines - in which the PRC now has a major interest. In the last chapter, the authors somehow manage to get into the mines of Hpakant - maybe because they could pronounce it - and document AIDS-stricken workers staggering around with baskets of overburden and spending their pittance wages on drugs and brothels.

There’s a lot of stuff here that’s just a little dubious; the authors are telling a story about sleazy history and they’re not at all averse to throwing in sleaze of their own just to make sure reader interest doesn’t fall off. I really want to get the same history from other sources before I’m convinced. Which means, of course, that I have to read some more books. Darn.½

Topic itself is interesting but the way it is presented is confusing and botched. The authors attempt to do too much in the space they have, they flit from character to character with little in the way of reminding the reader of who they are/what they do. This takes the reader out of the story, having to go back to the front and remind yourself who that person is. It makes for a jarring and disjointed reading experience. Personally to compare this to Black Hawk Down is erroneous and misguided, BHD is written far better than this.

In 1995 backpackers were assured by authorities that Kashmir was a Paradise and guaranteed absolutely safe, but when a group of tourists camping in an idyllic mountainside meadow was kidnapped by Pakistani-backed Islamic militants, authorities were not exactly surprised.

The beautiful region of Kashmir was a battleground between Hindus, supported by the Indian Government, and Muslims, sponsored by Pakistan: of the men who were taken, only one escaped, determined to lead authorities in a rescue attempt. The authorities however were not that interested.

In this thrilling [although arguably over-researched and lengthy] account, journalists Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark suggest that the hostages – who have never been found – were used as pawns by both the Jihadists, wanting to draw attention to the situation in Kashmir, and the Indian Government who was enjoying the adverse International publicity Pakistan was garnering as a state backing terrorists.

The events of 1995, they argue, opened a new era in the terror war, and led directly to the kidnapping and execution of Daniel Pearl, the rise of al Qaeda and the events of 9/11. A fascinating and meticulous read.

An interesting read and the interviews with several important actors shed some light on how the generals 'managed' the transition to 'democracy' after the death of Zia in 1988. Bhutto tries to shift blame but speaks with enough candour to show herself complicit. Also interesting is the rivalry within the Pakistani "military-industrial" complex so to speak and the fact that Pakistan was wasting money on not one but two rival nuclear weapons programmes. What is also interesting is that from an early stage the generals decided that nuclear technology would become a revenue generating asset. Its obvious that some of the interviewees are being self-serving in their interviews and their words should be taken with a pinch of salt, but generally the authors do not seem to have been overly credulous.

A history book on the story of imperial jade. I love jade so I was interested in the background. Interesting reading - a different way to get a history lesson on China. I hope I can find some good jade while we are in China to bring home - although I know it wont be the imperial jade as it is way out of reach price wise

Tells Asian history via the theme "jade"½

A well researched book on the history imperial jade which parallels the history of the past few centuries of Chinese history. Such promising material but such ploddish writing. A chore to read.

A missed opportunity. Despite the first-rate subject matter, the exposition is leaden and the story loses the reader. See Helms "A Life in Secrets" for an example of how this should be done.

In 1701, Frederick I, King in Prussia, commissions the building of the Amber Room but he dies before it is completed. His son, Frederick William I, decides that rather than complete it himself (a drain on the royal treasury) he will give it as a gift to Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. Peter gets the Room back to Russia but he too dies before it can be completed and installed. It is his daughter, the Tsarina Elizabeth, who completes the project. The room is moved several times but eventually it is installed in the Catherine Palace and there it remains until the Nazis invade in 1941. They dismantle the Room and move it back to Konigsberg in crates and that is the last time it is seen. In 2001, two investigative journalists start tracking down what happened to the Amber Room. The story crosses three "worlds" of Eastern Europe: Imperial Russia of the Tsars, the Soviet Union and her allies, and modern day Russia.

I love history and this book is about history. It is amazing to see the similarities and differences between these three periods of Russia. It is also amazing to see what lengths people will go to when driven by fear. They write with a clean voice that grabs your attention and keeps you interested in the story. The story is laid out as it unfolded for the them; you follow all the same rabbit trails they did. In the process, you get a glimpse into the world of the post-WWII Soviet Union and her ally, the German Democratic Republic. You also get a glimpse of the workings of modern-day Russia where "everything is forbidden but all things are possible." Money greases everything in the new Russia - a lot like the US in that sense.

The one gripe I had with this this book is the first chapter or so comes across as whining, a kind of "it's so hard to get any information, life is so difficult" thing. I think the bulk of the book conveys the difficulty of trying to get information from the Soviet Union, the GDR, and the new Russia and post-reconstruction Germany without the whining.½