Customer Reviews

Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent book if someone is looking for an introduction to chinese politics, history and its political economy. It is comprehensive and easy to grasp, and one of the few books of its kind that I actually found difficult to put down. It is not, however, the best book to look to for an in-depth discussion of specific topics. You should look elsewhere - you could start with Lieberthal's bibliography - if your intrests lie within a narrow subject.

Chinese politics is incredibly tricky. We tend to think of Mao and Deng so dominating this nation that we forget that no one, not even Mao, can rule 1 billion people without a bureaucracy. I agree with the review below that someone trying to look in depth at a topic in Chinese politics will not be satisfied with this work. That's not its point, though. This and Baum's Burying Mao are two books that a reasonably intelligent reader can read on their own in order to get the basics. This does not deal much with international policy or with explicit comparisons between the Soviet and Chinese states. However, Lieberthal lays out clearly the ministries, their responsibilities and what happened when Mao, in his staggeringly limited vision, decided to bypass the massive structures that made the nation work.

Though limited temporally, this sets the stage for the rise of the Chinese Communists and works allows a reader, without wading through too much minutae, to understand what it was that Mao set out to accomplish, how much Deng undid, and what was actually set into motion within the Party and government when these two historical giants flung the nation at a new idea.

This is a very good book on how China actually works. For those of us who did not know a thing about this country it really sums it up nicley. This book tells how Mao and Deng pushed China to make it better. It goes in depth on how those two pushed the cadres into early retirment to bring in younger workers who new about the mordern technology and who were also more highly educated. I also really enjoyed how the author made clear how China is and can affect the future of the U.S and the entire world.

This book is a great introduction to the topic, but is becoming somewhat dated for those who are looking for analysis of the past five years. Lieberthal was busy guiding Clinton's China policy on the National Security Council--no time for writing. Reportedly he has begun work on a new edition.

A very interesting and accurate overview of Chinese modern history and the themes which have shaped the current century. While many seem to idealize and criminalize the characters representing ideology, Lieberthal does a wonderful job describing them as the people they were, the conflicts they inspired, and their motivations to drive the country in the bizarre manner of China through the last century.

The reason I docked it a star was because I felt the section on Women and China, while somewhat accurate, missed the point of the positives that came out of the Maoist period. I won't use this forum to discuss this unrelated topic other than to say the alternative argument is actually equally as compelling. His treatment of this one topic in this manner is striking in a book that is more fair than most in its depiction of the weirdness that was China during the last century.

I would definitely consider assigning this book for a classroom, but would consider adding alternative opinion pieces to certain sections.

This is a very good book on how China actually works. For those of us who did not know a thing about this country it really sums it up nicley. This book tells how Mao and Deng pushed China to make it better. It goes in depth on how those two pushed the cadres into early retirment to bring in younger workers who new about the mordern technology and who were also more highly educated. I also really enjoyed how the author made clear how China is and can affect the future of the U.S and the entire world.

People who have read other books on China will get a lot out of this, because so much of it focuses on the way China's government functions and the way different areas of the government interact with one another (which is missed in other books). Other reviews have rightly stated that China's foreign policy and other areas are left out of the discussion. Books by Andrew Nathan ("Great Wall & Empty Fortress" for foreign policy), Nicholas Lardy ("Integrating China into the Global Economy"), and John Bryan Starr ("Understanding China" for a general overview) should be read first in my opinion before picking up this book.