James Mann's "China Fantasy" was as weak as I expected.

James Kynge's "China Shakes the World" was great: solid overarching analysis sprinkled amidst long tracts of personal case histories (less interesting for me).

Best recent is Maurice Baxter's "Henry Clay and the American System": straight history with little overarching analysis, but fascinating nonetheless.

Also fab recently was David McCullough's "Truman," which truly deserved that Pulitzer.