Modernization and Revolution in China

by June Grasso, Jay Corrin, Michael Kort

Extensively revised and fully updated in this fifth edition, this popular textbook conveys the drama of China's struggle to modernize against the backdrop of a proud and difficult history. It features new analysis of the issues facing China’s fifth generation of leaders, including the current economic climate, China's relations with its neighbors and the United States, the latest Tibetan crisis, and the election of Xi Jinping. Incorporating new analytical summaries in each chapter and updated suggested readings, this new edition Spanning the years from China's defeat in the Opium Wars to its current status as a potential superpower, the fifth edition of Modernization and Revolution in China is essential reading for courses on Modern Chinese History, Chinese Politics and Modern East Asia.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Asia, Politics

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Hubert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-written summary of modern Chinese history, primarily focused on the post-imperialist periods, with special focus on the KMT and birth + development of the CCP. The text situates the motives of the main players of the post-CCP period against the dictates of Chinese / Confucian tradition. The final chapter, in this edition, ends with 1991, a few years after the crackdown of the protests at Tiananmen Square. Here, the authors underestimate, almost comically in hindsight, the potential of Chinese economic development of the last 23 years.

[Alex Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

asia requirements

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kudos to the collaboration that these authors did in making a book dedicated to mostly contemporary Chinese history, political, geopolitical, regional, social thought, and economics. Half of whom are seemingly well-versed and advance in Soviet and Russian history have participated in making this book. Although I have the sixth edition, which adds a plethora of current time news, it is not on here as of the moment of me writing this so I must review the fifth edition.

I was essentially forced to use this book as my class on Chinese politics and policy was dedicated to it. But I was pretty surprised when I began to use it more extensively. All that I knew about Chinese history up to this point was basic and elementary. I was now being bombarded and reinforced with a story of the much closer and tightly knit interior politics, divisions, and unifications in the development of contemporary China. It’s a good book, and really well detailed, I would say, if you want to catch up on Chinese politics and history from a very generalized point of view, following some hyper specialized sections such as politburo politics and the age after Mao following Xiaoping.

Some of the authors seem to be very optimistic or idealistic about China’s rise to global power, maybe not as a bias. Others seem to be more keen to be neutral, observing that China’s outreach is limited by conflict in its regional and global conflicts of interest like the Taiwan strait, Japanese islands, and relations to both the IMF and World Bank. Either way, I don’t know a better work right now that summarizes in great detail the era before the Chinese Civil War which describes the various feudal dynasties, afterwards with the Great Leap Forward following the Communist victory against the Nationalist, and the consequences it has had, as well as the revisionist policies that most of the successors of Mao have been able to achieve.

I think it is a great scholarly work!

[Doug Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as history textbooks go, this was very straightforward and easy to read. It does a decent job of understanding the Chinese view of history rather than writing from a Western perspective.