The author's review of the Chinese Emperors' wall building programs reveal much of the history of early China that is unknown to most Westerners. Our visit to a section of the wall gives the impression that other sections are similar. The book is Chinese history well written, well presented and most worthwhile.

Lovell's book is an easy-to-read sketch of China's history, particularly along its northern frontier. It is packed with colourful anecdotes, making it a very entertaining read. As someone with little prior knowledge of Chinese history, I have come away with a basic understanding of some of the significant events.

My main criticism of the book is that it is at times opinionated. One example is when Mao Zedong is called the "most destructive dictator to rule China." While many would agree, it seemed an unnecessary judgement, especially as it was unsupported and in the context of only a passing reference to Mao.

Lovell ridicules previous historians for jumping to false conclusions, yet that does not prevent her from conjecturing herself. The thesis of the book is that China's walls were a useless defence against the northern barbarians. She supports her assertion by iterating over the instances in history when the walls were over-run, which occurred every few
hundred years, when a dynasty was collapsing and China was in inner turmoil. The purpose of the walls was to deter bands of raiders, monitor the northern borders and serve as an early warning system against larger scale invasions. What is lacking in her analysis, is whether the walls functioned effectively during times of prosperity, when the walls were competently manned. For example, for the 400 years of the Han dynasty, did the wall allow the inhabitants of northern China to live without the constant threat of being raided? The book does not answer this question. Just because the walls were not invincible does not make them useless. The real issue is whether the benefits of increased stability and security outweighed the enormous costs of building and manning the walls. Because the benefits of the walls were not discussed, this issue was not convincingly answered.