The Dragon and the Eagle - Chinese American Cultural Symbols - Perfect for Home Decor, Gifts, and Cultural Events

“The dragon and the eagle” is an interesting comparison of the development of two major global empires in antiquity, the Roman Empire in Western and the Qin and Han Dynasties in Eastern Eurasia. Both empires lasted roughly 450 years, while China started about 180 years earlier.The author starts her historical analysis with the development towards the two empires in the previous centuries, the Zhou dynasty and the Roman republic respectively, and then follows the building up of the respective empires, major government tools and structures, military strategies, the make-up of societies and the economic problems and solutions thereto.On the side, it turns out that there are very interesting parallels, such as the early advantages of the former “fringe states” Rome and Qin, the later centralization of power and wealth, similar developments of bureaucracies, and the pressure from “barbarian” northern neighbours.On the other side, the author also carves out major differences, such as different attitudes towards the principle of law (troubled by Qin rigid “legalism”), individual freedom (highly valued in the Roman empire, which however had a much higher proportion of slaves), philosophy, and “nation building”. Here it might have been interesting to further explore possible reasons why the Chinese empire returned three centuries later, while the (Western) Roman Empire definitely ceased to exist.Through these comparisons, the histories of both empires are shortly narrated, so that that some buried knowledge is refreshed. It goes without saying that in order to make her point, the author sometimes makes some simplifications and sacrifices some detail not fitting into the picture.In summary, the book is very nice to read, entertaining (in particular for those interested in historical comparisons) and gives some interesting new views on the development on cultural differences.