So the first China book is Country Driving by Peter Hler, New Yorker correspondent in a lot of way for people of my generation who went over there and lived there. He's kind of like the godfather.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The ‘But China!’ Dilemma Driving the A.I. Race” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-matt-sheehan.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
It's called From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society. It's a book by a Chinese sociologist in the 30s and 40s guy named Faoong who was trained in the west, went back to China, applied kind of western sociological paradigms to studying Chinese villages and agriculture. And it's just one of the most insightful books about Chinese culture. So, I'd encourage people to to seek that one out. I read it every 3 or four years.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The ‘But China!’ Dilemma Driving the A.I. Race” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-matt-sheehan.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
And the last one, just for fun, uh Zadeie Smith's On Beauty. You know, you had Zadeie on the show. I just I think she's the goat. I think she's the best. And On Beauty is uh just a hilarious novel of an academic family. And um you know, her ability to to pierce into the psychology and the insecurities of of each of us [music] and and put that on blast in a way is just I don't know, it just brings me a lot of joy.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The ‘But China!’ Dilemma Driving the A.I. Race” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-matt-sheehan.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
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