Representing a lifetime of research and writing by noted historian Arif Dirlik, the essays collected here explore developments in Chinese socialism and the issues that have occupied historians of the Chinese revolution for the past three decades. Dirlik engages Chinese socialism critically but with sympathy for the aspirations of revolutionaries who found the hope of social, political, and cultural liberation in Communist alternatives to capitalism and the intellectual inspiration to realize their hopes in Marxist theory. The book's historical approach to Marxist theory emphasizes its global relevance while avoiding dogmatic and Eurocentric limitations. These incisive essays range from the origins of socialism in the early twentieth century, through the victory of the Communists in mid-century, to the virtual abandonment by century's end of any pretense to a socialist revolutionary project by the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. All that remains of the revolution in historical hindsight are memories of its failures and misdeeds, but Dirlik retains a critical perspective not just toward the past but also toward the ideological hegemonies of the present. Taken together, his writings reaffirm the centrality of the revolution to modern Chinese history. They also illuminate the fundamental importance of Marxism to grasping the flaws of capitalist modernity, despite the fact that in the end the socialist response was unable to transcend the social and ideological horizons of capitalism.

Representing a lifetime of research and writing by noted historian Arif Dirlik, the essays collected here explore developments in Chinese socialism and the issues that have occupied historians of the Chinese revolution for the past three decades. Dirlik engages Chinese socialism critically but with sympathy for the aspirations of revolutionaries who found the hope of social, political, and cultural liberation in Communist alternatives to capitalism and the intellectual inspiration to realize their hopes in Marxist theory. The book's historical approach to Marxist theory emphasizes its global relevance while avoiding dogmatic and Eurocentric limitations. These incisive essays range from the origins of socialism in the early twentieth century, through the victory of the Communists in mid-century, to the virtual abandonment by century's end of any pretense to a socialist revolutionary project by the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. All that remains of the revolution in historical hindsight are memories of its failures and misdeeds, but Dirlik retains a critical perspective not just toward the past but also toward the ideological hegemonies of the present. Taken together, his writings reaffirm the centrality of the revolution to modern Chinese history. They also illuminate the fundamental importance of Marxism to grasping the flaws of capitalist modernity, despite the fact that in the end the socialist response was unable to transcend the social and ideological horizons of capitalism.

These essays consider the implications for Chinese socialism of the repudiation of the Cultural Revolution and the legacy of Mao Zedong as well as the meaning of the new definition and direction Mao's successors have given socialism. The themes have been selected for conceptual coherence within a socialist problematic of social change. Representing anthropology, art history, economics, history, literature and politics, various inquiries point in a twofold direction - the meaning of socialism for China and the meaning of Chinese Socialism for socialism as a global phenomenon - "meaning" not in some abstract sense but rather as it is constituted in the process of political ideological activity, which articulates and defines social relationships within China as well as China's relationship to the world.

Comprehensively indexed and with an introduction newly written by the editor, a leading expert in the field,Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolutionis sure to be recognized as a vital reference resource for all serious Mao scholars.

China has endured a century of turmoil, beginning with the anti-dynastic revolution associated with Sun Yat-Sen, through the military and tutelary rule of Chiang Kai-shek, the revolutionary regime of Mao Zedong, and the radical reforms of Deng Xiaoping. China has had little respite. Historians and social scientists have attempted to understand some of this history as being the consequence of the impact of European ideologies-including Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, and Fascism. Rarely instructive or persuasive, the discussions regarding this issue have, more often than not, led to puzzlement, rather than enlightenment.In A Place in the Sun, A. James Gregor offers an interpretation of the role of European Marxist and Fascist ideas on China's revolutionaries that is both original, and based on a lifetime of scholarship devoted to revolutionary ideologies. Gregor renders a detailed analysis of their respective influence on major protagonists. In the exposition, Gregor reveals an unsuspected and complex set of relationships between the Chinese revolution and essentially European ideologies. His discussion concludes with a number of estimations that suggest implications for the future of modern China, and its relationship with the advanced industrial democracies. How post-Dengist China-the world's most populous nation-is to be understood remains uncertain to most comparativists and historians. Gregor provides one well supported alternative, and he is carefully attentive to the implications of this alternative.

This groundbreaking study of Chinese Marxism examines the ideology and praxis of Marxism as it has developed in China from its earliest beginnings to current debates. This is the first systematic, full-length analysis of the development and nature of Marxist ideology in China. Adrian Chan challenges established scholarship in both the West and China, which continues to be overshadowed by Cold War dogma and party orthodoxy, respectively. It has long been argued that Chinese Marxism was merely an offshoot of Soviet thought blended with ill-defined traditional Chinese ideas. Using previously neglected Chinese sources--including newspapers, political journals and communist party documents--Chan refutes this. Showing how the first Chinese revolutionaries were directly influenced by the writings of Marx, Chinese Marxism argues that Bolshevism was a secondary influence on Chinese communist thought. Mao himself drew upon Marxian themes in the creation of party orthodoxy. In doing so he signalled his differences from Lenin and Stalin on important issues of theory and practice.However, not all party leaders accepted this Marxian praxis. This has led to continuous conflict between proponents of Maoist Marxism and Soviet-type scientific Marxism-Leninism. Chinese Marxism presents detailed studies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution to illustrate the consequences of this ongoing ideological conflict, and brings the story up to the present day with an analysis of the current Thermidorean Reaction and the controversial embracing of Confucianism.

Analyzes the internal pressures and social crises that fostered the beginnings of the Chinese Revolution

Comprehensively indexed and with an introduction newly written by the editor, a leading expert in the field,Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolutionis sure to be recognized as a vital reference resource for all serious Mao scholars.