List $34.99

Written by Margaret MacMillan - Audio book narrated by Barbara Caruso - Unabridged Nonfiction - 12 RETAIL EDITION COMPACT DISCS - 14.5 hours

Publisher, Recorded Books (February 2007)

NOTE: RETAIL EDITIONS are packaged in attractive, compact cardboard or jewel-case shrink-wrapped boxes, with full-color art.

Margaret MacMillan brings her extraordinary gifts to two of the most important countries today—the United States and China—and one of the most significant moments in modern history—Richard Nixon’s week in China in February 1972, which opened relations between America and China (closed since the communists came to power in 1949). This momentous meeting and visit ultimately laid the foundation for the complex and difficult relationship between China and the United States that we see today.

Nixon thought China could help him get out of Vietnam. Mao needed American technology to repair the huge damage of the Cultural Revolution. Both men wanted an ally against an aggressive Soviet Union. Did they get what they wanted? Did Mao betray his own revolutionary ideals? Did Nixon make a mistake in coming to China as a supplicant? And has the United States been at a disadvantage ever since? Drawing on newly available material from China and America, and capturing the personalities at the center of the drama (Henry Kissinger, Pat Nixon, and Chou En-lai among them), this breathtaking history looks at one of the formative moments of the twentieth century and casts new light on two countries and their relationship, on into the world of the twenty-first century.

About the Author: Margaret MacMillan is the author of Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, winner of many awards and chosen as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times. MacMillan is a professor of history at the University of Toronto, and provost of Trinity College. She lives in Toronto.

About the Narrator: Barbara Caruso is an accomplished actress and critically acclaimed audiobook narrator. A graduate of London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she was a featured player in the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has played starring roles on Broadway and in theaters across the country. She won the Alexander Scourby Reader of the Year Award for her performances of young adult fiction, and has more than one hundred Recorded Books narrations to her credit. According to Kliatt, “Caruso’s warmth and energy, clarity and moderate pace work together to capture the listener.”