Through a series of lively and absorbing portraits of iconic modern
Chinese leaders and thinkers, two of today's foremost specialists
on China provide a panoramic narrative of this country's rise to
preeminence that is at once analytical and personal. How did a
nation, after a long and painful period of dynastic decline,
intellectual upheaval, foreign occupation, civil war, and
revolution, manage to burst forth onto the world stage with such an
impressive run of hyperdevelopment and wealth creation--culminating
in the extraordinary dynamism of China today?
"Wealth and Power" answers this question by examining the lives of
eleven influential officials, writers, activists, and leaders whose
contributions helped create modern China. This fascinating survey
begins in the lead-up to the first Opium War with Wei Yuan, the
nineteenth-century scholar and reformer who was one of the first to
urge China to borrow ideas from the West. It concludes in our time
with human-rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu
Xiaobo, an outspoken opponent of single-party rule. Along the way,
we meet such titans of Chinese history as the Empress Dowager Cixi,
public intellectuals Feng Guifen, Liang Qichao, and Chen Duxiu,
Nationalist stalwarts Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, and
Communist Party leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Zhu Rongji.
The common goal that unites all of these disparate figures is
their determined pursuit of "fuqiang, " "wealth and power." This
abiding quest for a restoration of national greatness in the face
of a "century of humiliation" at the hands of the Great Powers came
to define the modern Chinese character. It's what drove both Mao
and Deng to embark on root-and-branch transformations of Chinese
society, first by means of Marxism-Leninism, then by authoritarian
capitalism. And this determined quest remains the key to
understanding many of China's actions today.
By unwrapping the intellectual antecedents of today's resurgent
China, Orville Schell and John Delury supply much-needed insight
into the country's tortured progression from nineteenth-century
decline to twenty-first-century boom. By looking backward into the
past to understand forces at work for hundreds of years, they help
us understand China today and the future that this singular country
is helping shape for all of us.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY "ST. LOUIS
POST-DISPATCH
"
"Superb . . . beautifully written and neatly
structured."--"Financial Times "
" An] engaging narrative of the intellectual and cultural origins
of China's modern rise."--"The New York Times Book Review"
" "
"Informative and insightful . . . a must-read for anyone with an
interest in the world's fastest-rising superpower."--"Slate"
" "
"It does a better job than most other books of answering a basic
question the rest of the world naturally asks about China's recent
rise: What does China "want"?"--"The Atlantic"
" "
"The portraits are beautifully written and bring to life not only
their subjects but also the mood and intellectual debates of the
times in which they lived."--"Foreign Affairs"
" "
"Excellent and erudite . . . The authors] combine scholarly
learning with a reportorial appreciation of colorful, revealing
details."--"The National Interest"
"From the Hardcover edition."
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