Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
From emperor to citizen : the autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi. 1
Author: From Emperor to Citizen
Author: Aisin-Gioro Pu YiPublisher: China Books & Periodicals
ISBN: 9780835106191
Category : China History 20th century
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
From Emperor to Citizen
Author: PuyiPublisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
First published in Chinese in 1964 and then banned by the revolutionaries ten years later, this remarkable autobiography relays the story of a man who served twice as emperor of China, once as emperor of the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria, and then underwent a complete re-education in the prisons of the Communist Chinese government, finally leading a life as an ordinary citizen. Placed on the throne in 1908 at the age of two, Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi became the tenth ruler of the Ch'ing Dynasty and the last emperor of China. Forced to abdicate four years later but permitted to remain in the Forbidden City until the Ch'ing court lost power in 1924, Pu Yi spent his youth surrounded by the eunuchs, princes, cooks, consorts, tutors, and decadent, often wild excesses of the Imperial Palace. Recounting those early days, Pu Yi then describes his installation by the Japanese as puppet emperor in Manchuria, the defeat of Japan, his imprisonment in the Soviet Union, and his eventual forced return to the People's Republic of China in 1950. Re-educated in Chinese prisons, Pu Yi learned how to dress himself, work on an assembly line, and criticize his former uselessness and pride. Pu Yi ends the account with his release from prison--pardoned by the Communist Party--and the beginning of his new life as a gardener and then as a researcher of literary and historical materials. This fascinating account not only depicts an empire in the throes of death and the zeal of a new-born regime, but also reveals the tragic story of a man who was a helpless subject of family and government turmoils and not really a ruler at all.
Citizen Emperor
Author: Philip DwyerPublisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300190662
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 817
Book Description
In this second volume of Philip Dwyer’s authoritative biography on one of history’s most enthralling leaders, Napoleon, now 30, takes his position as head of the French state after the 1799 coup. Dwyer explores the young leader’s reign, complete with mistakes, wrong turns, and pitfalls, and reveals the great lengths to which Napoleon goes in the effort to fashion his image as legitimate and patriarchal ruler of the new nation. Concealing his defeats, exaggerating his victories, never hesitating to blame others for his own failings, Napoleon is ruthless in his ambition for power. Following Napoleon from Paris to his successful campaigns in Italy and Austria, to the disastrous invasion of Russia, and finally to the war against the Sixth Coalition that would end his reign in Europe, the book looks not only at these events but at the character of the man behind them. Dwyer reveals Napoleon’s darker sides—his brooding obsessions and propensity for violence—as well as his passionate nature: his loves, his ability to inspire, and his capacity for realizing his visionary ideas. In an insightful analysis of Napoleon as one of the first truly modern politicians, the author discusses how the persuasive and forward-thinking leader skillfully fashioned the image of himself that persists in legends that surround him to this day.
Twilight in the Forbidden City
Author: Reginald F. JohnstonPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108029655
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 573
Book Description
Johnson's account of the last years of the Chinese Qing dynasty provides a unique Western perspective on this historic period.
From Emperor to Citizen
Author: Aisin-Gioro Pu YiPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
From Emperor to Citizen
Author: 溥儀Citizen Hughes
Author: Michael DrosninPublisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767919343
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 545
Book Description
Portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsese movie The Aviator, Howard Hughes is legendary as a playboy and pilot—but he is notorious for what he became: the ultimate mystery man. Citizen Hughes is the New York Times bestselling exposé of Hughes’s hidden life, and a stunning revelation of his “megalomaniac empire in the emperor’s own words” (Newsweek). At the height of his wealth, power, and invisibility, the world’s richest and most secretive man kept what amounted to a diary. The billionaire commanded his empire by correspondence, scrawling thousands of handwritten memos to unseen henchmen. It was the only time Howard Hughes risked writing down his orders, plans, thoughts, fears, and desires. Hughes claimed the papers were so sensitive—“the very most confidential, almost sacred information as to my innermost activities”—that not even his most trusted aides or executives were allowed to keep the messages he sent them. But in the early-morning hours of June 5, 1974, unknown burglars staged a daring break-in at Hughes’s supposedly impregnable headquarters and escaped with all the confidential files. Despite a top-secret FBI investigation and a million-dollar CIA buyback bid, none of the stolen secret papers were ever found—until investigative reporter Michael Drosnin cracked the case. In Citizen Hughes, Drosnin reveals the true story of the great Hughes heist—and of the real Howard Hughes. Based on nearly ten thousand never-before-published documents, more than three thousand in Hughes’s own handwriting, Citizen Hughes is far more than a biography, or even an unwilling autobiography. It is a startling record of the secret history of our times.
From Emperor to Citizen
Author: Pu Yi Aisin-GioroPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
The Last Emperor
Author: Edward BehrPublisher: Bantam
ISBN: 9780553344745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Tells the story of Pu Yi, who became Emperor of China at age three, was made puppet emperor of Manchuria by the Japanese, was captured by the Russians, and was reeducated in Red Chinese prison
