What they're saying ...
"Engrossing. Kaufman is an old China hand based on stints with the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal, so he brings a reporter's eye for stories as a way of explaining so much more. It's a story that will excite readers."
Forbes
"Kaufman succeeds in both presenting a topic with no previous in-depth coverage and analyzing the choices of another era and how they echo the ethical dilemmas of today. Included are a cast of characters, maps, and photographs ... This bold blend of personal and political history will reward enthusiastic readers for their time."
Library Journal
"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
"The Last Kings of Shanghai is not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history"
Qiu Xiaolong, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Eloquent and well-sourced. 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
"The author digs deep to unearth their personal histories, creating an absorbing multigenerational saga ... Both families’ fortunes were decimated with the Communist takeover, and while their wealth overshadowed the enormous poverty of the Chinese, Kaufman argues persuasively that their entrepreneurial drive built a lasting capitalist legacy in the country. While acknowledging the official Chinese version of history, the author does a service by examining 'other truths' as well ... An engaging addition to Chinese history that offers many insights for general readers."
Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating look at two powerful dynasties as well as a sharp lens through which to view Shanghai’s ups and downs."
Booklist
"... a book that almost certainly will revive interest in a much-forgotten wrinkle of Jewish and Chinese history."
The Boston Globe
"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
Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon—billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty—the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite and Charlie Chaplin has entertained his wife-to-be. And a few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist Party have been plotting revolution.
By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty—the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and losing nearly everything as the Communists swept into power. In The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families participated in an economic boom that opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil at 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.
The book lays bare the moral compromises of the Kadoories and the Sassoons—and their exceptional foresight, success, and generosity. At the height of World War II, they joined together to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. Though their stay in China started out as a business opportunity, the country became a home they were reluctant to leave, even on the eve of revolution. The lavish buildings they built and the booming businesses they nurtured continue to define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day. As the United States confronts China's rise, and China grapples with the pressures of breakneck modernization and global power, the long-hidden odysseys of the Sassoons and the Kadoories hold a key to understanding the present moment.
