Obama Recommendations: IV

The search terms “Obama China” have brought a lot of readers to China Beat over the past two months. We are by no means the only ones experiencing an Obama-related reader boost (though we are the second hit on Google, right behind the BBC for a search of “Obama China”!), nor the only ones getting an Obama-related content surge. If you are looking for smart commentary on the recent Obama administration’s China snafus, for instance, check out James Fallows’s analysis from last week (hat tip: kuluyi). Those interested in live (as in right now) discussion of Sino-American relations under Obama may want to listen in to the Japan Society’s panel (including Howard French, who weighed in on our last recommendation list) on “The U.S. & East Asia Under the Obama Administration” (it will be webcast live at 6:30 p.m. EST). Below, our fourth installment of reading recommendations for Obama (though this time with a little twist in answers to our “what should the President be reading” question). Feel that you’ve got too much to read already? If so, you may want to bop over to Huffington Post where Jeff Wasserstrom has posted a list of recommendations for Obama, in which he admittedly offers up titles of yet five more books, but he pairs each one with a relevant, China-related film or video that you might have missed. French Sinologist Marie-Claire Bergere is professor emerita at INALCO (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales) and author of, among many other books, the recent Capitalismes et capitalistes en Chine, XIXe – XXIe siècle (Paris: Perrin, 2007)