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Print Price: $137.99

Format:
Paperback
400 pp.
10 halftones, 4 linecuts, 3 maps, 208 mm x 137 mm

ISBN-13:
9780195106299

Copyright Year:
1998

Imprint: OUP US

People's China

A Brief History, Third Edition

Craig Dietrich

Now completely revised and updated, this balanced and lively history of the Peoples Republic of China offers a narrative and interpretive appraisal of this great nation since its post-World War II beginnings. Opening with the sweeping changes that occurred when Mao Zedong and the Communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 and took over a China which was still reeling from World War II, this text introduces the unique characters and events which have shaped recent Chinese history. It also illuminates such epic events as the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the post-Mao reforms.
This new edition takes into account China's increasing economic liberalization along with its continuing authoritarianism. Including important new materials as well as a thoroughly rewritten final chapter, the third edition of People's China is completely up-to-date, chronologically unpacking the essential story of modern China -- the historical background, the ideologies, the grand economic achievements, and the cruel repression, making it an ideal text for courses in history and political science.

Reviews

Praise for previous editions:
"A major success. Written with unusual clarity and simplicity, it is also based on deeply understood, profoundly digested knowledge."--History: Reviews of New Books
"The narrative is useful and rich inasmuch as it traces these campaigns quite vividly within the space of just 350 pages....The excellent portraits of Chinese leaders and the graphs add considerably to the value of this extremely useful volume."--International Studies
"A lucid, dispassionate account of Chinese history during the last four decades. It is based on sound, scholarly research, and reads extremely well. A valuable contribution."--E-tu Zen Sun, Pennsylvania State University

A NOTE ON THE ROMANIZATION OF CHINESE WORDS
INTRODUCTION
1. OLD CHINA AND YOUNG REVOLUTIONARIES
Village China and Young Mao
To the city
Unification, Invasion, and Civil War
Personalities and Causes
Was China Ripe for Revolution?
2. REVOLUTIONARIES SEIZE POWER: 1949-52
Establishing Sovereignty
Installing the New Order
The Korean War
Campaigns
Disappointments, Ironies, and Contradictions
3. SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATION: 1953-57
The First Five-Year Plan
The First Five-Year Plan
The High Tide of 1955
The Eighth Party Congress, September 1956
The Hundred Flowers Campaign
4. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD
Initial Stages of the Great Leap
The Great Leap in the Ascendant
The Great Leap in Decline
5. DEPRESSION, RECOVERY, AND STRUGGLE AT THE TOP: 1960-65
The Immediate Repercussions of the Great Leap
Political Crisis
6. THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION: 1966-69
Participants
Tidal Wave
The Flood Receded
7. THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN RETREAT: 1969-76
Failure to Consolidate Radical Rule: 1969-71
The Uneasy Regime of the Moderates: 1972-75
Mao's Final Months and the Arrest of the Gang of Four: 1976
An End and a Beginning
8. CROSSING THE RIVER, GROPING FOR THE STONES: REFORM IN THE 1980s
Power Struggle
Socialist Economies with Chinese Characteristics
Political Dilemmas
Foreign Policy
Chinese Society Under Reform
Political Tensions
9. "WE MUST NOT LET THE NEXT GENERATION POUR A BUCKET OF EXCREMENT ON OUR HEADS": THE TRAGEDY AT TIANANMEN
Seven Extraordinary Weeks
10. THE NINETIES: TWO FACES OF CHINA
Regaining Control
The Stern Face of Authority
Xiaokang: The Happy Face of "Modest Prosperity"
New World, New Possibilities
Chinese Society and Culture: Trends and Problems
NOTES
SUGGESTED READINGS
INDEX

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Craig Dietrich is at University of Southern Maine.

Writing History - William Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones

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