The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern

Description: The Last Kings of Shanghai by Jonathan Kaufman "In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."--The Boston Globe"Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about Chinas past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in Chinas modern history."--LA Review of BooksAn epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistThe Sassoons and the Kadoories stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred seventy-five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the countrys deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Jonathan Kaufman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has written and reported on China for thirty years for The Boston Globe, where he covered the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square; The Wall Street Journal, where he served as China bureau chief from 2002 to 2005; and Bloomberg News. He is the author of A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe and Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America, winner of the National Jewish Book Award. He is director of the School of Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston. Review "The Last Kings of Shanghai is not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about Chinas past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in Chinas modern history."—LA Review of Books"Engrossing . . . Kaufman is an old China hand based on stints with the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal, so he brings a reporters eye for stories as a way of explaining so much more . . . Its a story that will excite readers."—Forbes"The Last Kings of Shanghai examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties. In the end, if not in the beginning, they were, as Kaufman puts it, on the wrong side of history. But now, thanks to him, they are at least part of history."—The Boston Globe"A multigenerational epic of the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties, which rightly takes business out of the shadows and puts it at the heart of modern Chinas history . . . The author entertainingly contrasts the undisciplined Sassoons with the strict approach of Kadoorie and his sons Lawrence and Horace . . . The book is excellent too on Chinas tumultuous history . . . This work does a great service in putting business at the heart of a key development — Chinas re-emergence. —Financial Times"Few histories have been written about the Sassoons and Kadoories in part because the families didnt welcome the attention . . . Kaufman visited an impressive roster of archives to uncover new details."—The Wall Street Journal"Illuminating . . . It is surely not the end of the story."—The Economist"The Last Kings of Shanghai reminds us of that time in captivating detail, and even more surprising, reveals that those "last kings" were displaced Jews from Baghdad who mastered Great Britains tools of empire." —Airmail.com "Kaufman writes with style and strikes a careful balance between holding the families accountable for their "colonial assumptions" and celebrating their accomplishments. This richly detailed account illuminates an underexamined overlap between modern Jewish and Chinese history."—Publishers Weekly"An absorbing multigenerational saga . . . of two significant Jewish families who built wildly prosperous financial empires in Shanghai and Hong Kong that lasted for nearly two centuries . . . Kaufman argues persuasively that their entrepreneurial drive built a lasting capitalist legacy in the country."—Kirkus Reviews"A fascinating look at two powerful dynasties as well as a sharp lens through which to view Shanghais ups and downs."—Booklist"Whats even less likely than a clan of displaced Baghdadi Jews who find themselves in twentieth-century Shanghai and change it forever? Try two clans of displaced Baghdadi Jews. This is the tale that Jonathan Kaufman tells in his remarkable history of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families. Read it and the Bund will never look the same."—Peter Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China"With exacting research and masterful prose, Kaufman excavates the tremendous influence of two Jewish families, both with roots in Baghdad, on Chinas layered and complex modern history. An astonishing read, on every level. "—Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones "Jonathan Kaufman shows how the families of Sassoon and Kadoorie surfed the vicissitudes of history to dominate their chosen arenas commercially and socially. They were indeed Kings, but it was the great city of Shanghai that was to both make and break them." —Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking and City of Devils "Gripping and epic in sweep, The Last Kings of Shanghai reads like a thriller but is also enormously informative, offering a vibrant history of the cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong through the fascinating lens of two rival Jewish dynasties that helped shape them." —Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes"Jonathan Kaufman mines a rich vein of untold history that knits together the Jewish diaspora with the stirrings of Revolution in modern China. The improbable saga of the Sassoon family reads like an eastern and Sephardic companion to the story of the Warburgs--a saga both personal and political, riveting and ultimately heartbreaking. And in Kaufmans always-deft hands, its a terrific read."—Roger Lowenstein, author of Americas Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve "Kaufman brings to life the extraordinary forgotten history of two Jewish families who helped transform China into a global economic powerhouse. A masterpiece of research, The Last Kings of Shanghai is a vivid and fascinating story of wealth, family intrigue, and political strategy on the world stage from colonialism to communism to globalized capitalism."—Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College Review Quote "The Last Kings of Shanghai is not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about Chinas past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in Chinas modern history." --LA Review of Books "Engrossing . . . Kaufman is an old China hand based on stints with the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal, so he brings a reporters eye for stories as a way of explaining so much more . . . Its a story that will excite readers." --Forbes " The Last Kings of Shanghai examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties. In the end, if not in the beginning, they were, as Kaufman puts it, on the wrong side of history. But now, thanks to him, they are at least part of history." --The Boston Globe "A multigenerational epic of the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties, which rightly takes business out of the shadows and puts it at the heart of modern Chinas history . . . The author entertainingly contrasts the undisciplined Sassoons with the strict approach of Kadoorie and his sons Lawrence and Horace . . . The book is excellent too on Chinas tumultuous history . . . This work does a great service in putting business at the heart of a key development -- Chinas re-emergence. --Financial Times "Few histories have been written about the Sassoons and Kadoories in part because the families didnt welcome the attention . . . Kaufman visited an impressive roster of archives to uncover new details." -- The Wall Street Journal "Illuminating . . . It is surely not the end of the story." --The Economist " The Last Kings of Shanghai reminds us of that time in captivating detail, and even more surprising, reveals that those "last kings" were displaced Jews from Baghdad who mastered Great Britains tools of empire." -- Airmail.com "Kaufman writes with style and strikes a careful balance between holding the families accountable for their "colonial assumptions" and celebrating their accomplishments. This richly detailed account illuminates an underexamined overlap between modern Jewish and Chinese history." --Publishers Weekly "An absorbing multigenerational saga . . . of two significant Jewish families who built wildly prosperous financial empires in Shanghai and Hong Kong that lasted for nearly two centuries . . . Kaufman argues persuasively that their entrepreneurial drive built a lasting capitalist legacy in the country." -- Kirkus Reviews "A fascinating look at two powerful dynasties as well as a sharp lens through which to view Shanghais ups and downs." -- Booklist "Whats even less likely than a clan of displaced Baghdadi Jews who find themselves in twentieth-century Shanghai and change it forever? Try two clans of displaced Baghdadi Jews. This is the tale that Jonathan Kaufman tells in his remarkable history of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families. Read it and the Bund will never look the same." --Peter Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China "With exacting research and masterful prose, Kaufman excavates the tremendous influence of two Jewish families, both with roots in Baghdad, on Chinas layered and complex modern history. An astonishing read, on every level. " --Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones "Jonathan Kaufman shows how the families of Sassoon and Kadoorie surfed the vicissitudes of history to dominate their chosen arenas commercially and socially. They were indeed Kings, but it was the great city of Shanghai that was to both make and break them." --Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking and City of Devils "Gripping and epic in sweep, The Last Kings of Shanghai reads like a thriller but is also enormously informative, offering a vibrant history of the cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong through the fascinating lens of two rival Jewish dynasties that helped shape them." --Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes "Jonathan Kaufman mines a rich vein of untold history that knits together the Jewish diaspora with the stirrings of Revolution in modern China. The improbable saga of the Sassoon family reads like an eastern and Sephardic companion to the story of the Warburgs--a saga both personal and political, riveting and ultimately heartbreaking. And in Kaufmans always-deft hands, its a terrific read." --Roger Lowenstein, author of Americas Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve "Kaufman brings to life the extraordinary forgotten history of two Jewish families who helped transform China into a global economic powerhouse. A masterpiece of research, The Last Kings of Shanghai is a vivid and fascinating story of wealth, family intrigue, and political strategy on the world stage from colonialism to communism to globalized capitalism." --Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College Excerpt from Book 1 The Patriarch Through the darkened streets, the richest man in Baghdad fled for his life. Just hours earlier, David Sassoons father had ransomed him from the jail where Baghdads Turkish rulers had imprisoned him, threatening to hang him if the family did not pay an exorbitant tax bill. Now a boat lay waiting to take thirty-seven-year-old David to safety. He tied a money belt around his waist and donned a cloak. Servants had sewn pearls inside the lining. "Only his eyes showed between the turban and a high-muffled cloak as he slipped through the gates of the city where generations of his kin had once been honored," a family historian wrote. It was 1829. His family had lived in Baghdad as virtual royalty for more than eight hundred years. Jews fleeing oppressive rulers was a common historical theme even by the nineteenth century. Jews had been expelled from Britain in 1290, from Spain in 1492. Venice had ordered them confined to ghettos starting in 1516. The horrors of the Holocaust were yet to come. The flight of David Sassoon was different. Jews had always lived at the margins of society in Europe. But for more than a thousand years, Jews had flourished in Baghdad, known in the Bible as Babylon. More than any city in Europe, more than Jerusalem, Baghdad was a crossroads of cultures from a.d. 70 to the 1400s. When Europe was mired in the darkness of the Middle Ages, Baghdad was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. It was home to some of the worlds leading mathematicians, theologians, poets, and doctors. Raw wool, copper, and spices traveled along caravan routes across the desert. Pearls and silverware filled the bazaars. Merchants, doctors, and artists gathered in Baghdads coffeehouses. The rulers palace sat surrounded by three square miles of wooded parkland, with fountains and lakes stocked with fish. Within this world, Jews flourished. They first arrived in 587 b.c., when Babylons King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, and upon victory carried 10,000 Jewish artisans, scholars, and leaders-Judaisms best and brightest-to Baghdad into what the Bible dubbed "the Babylonian Captivity." The book of Psalms famously documented the despair of these displaced Jews: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. In fact, "the Babylonian Captivity" changed the course of Jewish history. Jewish learning and religious innovation blossomed, giving Jews the religious, political, and economic tools-and a way of thinking-they would use to survive and thrive around the world over the next millennia and through to today. It marked the start of the Jewish diaspora: the dispersal-and survival-of Jews around the world, even when they made up just a small sliver of the population. Rabbis modified Jewish ritual practices to accommodate Judaism to modern life and enable Jews to participate in business. Though he had kidnapped the Jews into captivity, Nebuchadnezzar didnt treat them as slaves. He turned to the Jews to strengthen Baghdads economy. He encouraged them to become merchants and trade between the different parts of his sprawling kingdom. So important were Jews to Baghdads business life that many non-Jews working in trade and finance didnt go to the office on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath. When the Persians conquered Baghdad and offered the Jews the chance to return to Jerusalem, only a few accepted. Most decided to stay. Baghdads Jews considered themselves the Jewish aristocracy. Like Jews in London and New York centuries later, Baghdads Jews may have yearned to return to Jerusalem in their Saturday prayers at their local synagogue, but the other six days a week, they grasped the opportunities around them and built a thriving metropolis. Presiding over this dynamic, self-confident community-leading it and nurturing it-loomed the Sassoons. Trading gold and silk, spices and wool across the Middle East, the Sassoons became Baghdads richest merchants. Starting in the late 1700s, the Ottoman Turks appointed the leader of the Sassoon family as "Nasi," or "Prince of the Jews"-their intermediary in dealing with Baghdads influential Jewish population. Preserved among the Sassoon family papers are memoranda in Turkish and Arabic that testify to the sweep of the Nasis power. The Nasi Sassoon blessed marriages and resolved religious disputes. The Nasi also played a key role in advising the Ottoman ruler, especially in economic matters. He negotiated loans, planned budgets, devised and collected new taxes. He was the de facto secretary of the treasury, charged with building a modern financial system. When the Nasi traveled to meet Baghdads Turkish ruler at the royal palace, he was carried on a throne through the streets; Jews and non-Jews alike respectfully bowed their heads. Buoyed by these connections, the Sassoons built a multinational economic empire that extended from Baghdad across the Persian Gulf and Asia. The family stocked Baghdads bazaars with a rich cornucopia of products and sent members of their extended family to travel among the Bedouin tribes to buy their wool in exchange for cotton garments, shoes, and spices. Merchants from across the Middle East and from India and China passed through the Nasis luxurious home and compound. They lounged in his walled courtyard, shaded by orange trees, to escape the 120-degree heat. Underground storerooms held the familys gold. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as their wealth and fortune expanded, the Sassoons became accustomed to business allies and rivals calling them "the Rothschilds of Asia" for the rapid way their wealth and influence spread across China, India, and Europe. But privately they considered the comparison misleading-and a little demeaning. In the Sassoons minds, the Rothschilds were arrivistes-a poor family that in one generation had leapt from the ghettos of Europe to business prominence and political influence. The Sassoons may have been unknown to the Chinese emperor, the Indian raj, or the British royal family, but they had been rich, prominent, and powerful for centuries. David Sassoon was born in 1792 and trained from childhood to become the future Nasi. He was a business prodigy with an extraordinary gift for languages. At thirteen, he started accompanying his father to the "counting houses"-the forerunners of banks and accounting firms-where the Sassoon revenues were calculated. When the bazaars opened in the morning, his father sent him down to learn how to calculate in different currencies and master disparate systems of weights and measures. He was tutored at home in Hebrew (the language of religion), Turkish (the language of government), Arabic (the language of Baghdad), and Persian (the language of Middle Eastern trade). He sat in on evening visits from representatives of the British East India Company newly arrived in Bombay, who encouraged the Sassoons to expand their trade to India-though he never bothered to learn English. Six feet tall, David stood head and shoulders over his family and the people he would one day lead. His community approved of Davids planned elevation; he radiated trust and authority and, as was the custom, he entered an arranged marriage with the daughter of a prosperous merchant when he was fifteen. His wife swiftly gave birth to four sons. As David was preparing to assume his vaunted role as Nasi, the comfortable position the Sassoons and the Jews of Baghdad had enjoyed for centuries collapsed. A power struggle among the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad put a faction hostile to the Jews in power. Desperate for money to boost a collapsing economy, the Turks began harassing and imprisoning the Sassoons and other wealthy Jews, demanding ransom. One wealthy Jewish merchant was strangled to death outside his cell. As conditions worsened, some Jewish merchants fled to India, seeking British colonial protection. Frightened by the volatile political situation, Davids father made the unusual decision to step down as Nasi and hand power over to David, who would traditionally have had to wait until his fathers death. But David refused, correctly sensing that the position no longer held much power. Instead, against his fathers advice, David sought the help of the Turkish sultan in Constantinople on behalf of the Jews and Sassoons of Baghdad, accusing the citys rulers of corruption. But he was wrong to put his trust in the imperial government, and word quickly reached Baghdad of his betrayal. He was arrested; the Turkish pasha ordered him hanged unless the family paid for his release. Taking matters into his own hands, his elderly father bribed his son out of prison, hustled him through the city in disguise, and chartered a boat to get him to safety. David left Baghdad in a state of rage and helplessness. He had just remarried following the death of his first wife of twenty-five years. He was abandoning his new bride and his children. All the glory of the Sassoons, their wealth and position, had been promised to him and was now snatched away. As the ship sailed away, he turned toward the disappearing shore and wept. David landed at Bushire, a port city controlled by Iran beyond the reach of the Turks. Many of the refugees who had left Baghdad as conditions deteriorated had settled there. But while the stories they sent back home were of great riches and success, in fact they were struggling, crammed into poor neighborhoods, foraging a small living. Disoriented and despondent, David spent his first night away from Baghdad sleeping on the floor of a warehouse by the waterfront, wh Details ISBN0735224439 Author Jonathan Kaufman Short Title The Last Kings of Shanghai Pages 384 Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 0735224439 ISBN-13 9780735224438 Format Paperback Publication Date 2021-06-01 Subtitle The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2021-06-01 NZ Release Date 2021-06-01 US Release Date 2021-06-01 UK Release Date 2021-06-01 Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Imprint Penguin USA Illustrations 13 B&W PHOTOS THROUGHOUT; 1 B&W MAP DEWEY B Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:132011540;

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