Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World
Language: English
Published by Scribner, 2014
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Books From California, Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.Books From California
AbeBooks seller since August 14, 2001
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 16.92
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
First Edition. First thus.
Seller Inventory # mon0003724592
- Title
- Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World
- Author
- Griffin, Nicholas
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Publication year
- 2014
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Includes dust jacket.
- Binding
- hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1451642776
- ISBN 13
- 9781451642773
- Edition
- 1st Edition
THE SPRING OF 1971 heralded the greatest geopolitical realignment in a generation. After twenty-two years of antagonism, China and the United States suddenly moved toward a détente—achieved not by politicians but by Ping-Pong players. The Western press delighted in the absurdity of the moment and branded it “Ping-Pong Diplomacy.” But for the Chinese, Ping-Pong was always political, a strategic cog in Mao Zedong’s foreign policy. Nicholas Griffin proves that the organized game, from its first breath, was tied to Communism thanks to its founder, Ivor Montagu, son of a wealthy English baron and spy for the Soviet Union.
Ping-Pong Diplomacy traces a crucial intersection of sports and society. Griffin tells the strange and tragic story of how the game was manipulated at the highest levels; how the Chinese government helped cover up the death of 36 million peasants by holding the World Table Tennis Championships during the Great Famine; how championship players were driven to their deaths during the Cultural Revolution; and, finally, how the survivors were reconvened in 1971 and ordered to reach out to their American counterparts. Through a cast of eccentric characters, from spies to hippies and Ping-Pong-obsessed generals to atom-bomb survivors, Griffin explores how a neglected sport was used to help realign the balance of worldwide power.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
'Interweaves personal histories with the strategic story of ping-pong diplomacy, one of history's more bizarre, world-changing episodes' Isabel Hilton, Observer
'Alfred Hitchcock would grab this book for a spy thriller' Sir Harold Evans
'The amazing drama of how ping-pong changed the world' Walter Isaacson
'Nicholas Griffin interweaves personal histories with the strategic story of ping-pong diplomacy, one of history s more bizarre, world-changing episodes' Isabel Hilton
'This book deserves a wide audience. Table tennis, with its fascinating, eclectic cast-list of characters, has had a disproportionate and idiosyncratic influence on the wider world. Griffin has captured the big picture without losing the fine detail. It is an early contender for sports book of the year' Matthew Syed, The Times
'Through meticulous research and an impressively-crafted narrative, Griffin gives depth to the life of the the forgotten architect of so-called ping-pong diplomacy... The result is an impressive and intricately-woven overview of the characters and events that led to a seismic shift in the dynamics between two of the world's greatest superpowers' Independent
'A worthy contribution to our understanding of this spectacular event in Chinese-US relations.' --Literary Review
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Books From California
Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.
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