North China at War [Paperback]

Feng Chongyi (Author), David S. G. Goodman (Author), Gregor Benton (Contributor), Elise A. DeVido (Contributor), Joseph W. Esherick (Contributor), David S. G. Goodman (Contributor), Wei Hongyun (Contributor), Pauline Keating (Contributor), Tian Youru (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000 | ISBN-10: 0847699390 | ISBN-13: 978-0847699391

During the War of Resistance to Japan from 1937 to 1945, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) grew from a marginalized political force on the geographical periphery of Chinese society to a position of national leadership. Explaining this transformation has long been a major point of contestation among scholars. This groundbreaking volume draws on newly available documentary sources to explore key facets of the partyOs move to power. Leading scholars from China and the West compare the varied experiences of the CCP_and its interactions with local society_in all the border regions and base areas of resistance to the Japanese invasion on the North China battlefront. Eschewing grand theory, the authors develop a Osocial ecology of revolutionO that traces the relationship between local conditions and patterns of social and political change. By individualizing the experience of the party by locality, period of the war, and stage in the development of mobilization and rule, the book highlights the importance of the military situation, CCP internal control mechanisms, peasant resistance, as well as the roles played by the Nationalist Party and intellectuals in the development of the border regions and base areas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Collected together the papers provide an excellent example of the range of analyses demanded by the complexity of the modern Chinese historical experience. (War In History )

This would be an effective introductory reading for graduate classes. (The China Journal )

[T]his very useful and enlightening volume, which, helpfully focused by the methodological reflections in its introduction and conclusion, enables a greater insight and understanding of the complex social diversity at work in the revolutionary process. It was not without difficulties and setbacks that this process finally led to the defeat of the Japanese and the ultimate victory of the CCP. It is all the more useful to turn back to these issues, because since the 1980s a plethora of CCP documents, personal memoirs, and works by Chinese historians on the Sino-Japanese war period have been published that tend to obscure them, or even conceal them completely. (China Perspectives )

[T]his very useful and enlightening volume, which, helpfully focused by the methodological reflections in its introduction and conclusion, enables a greater insight and understanding of the complex social diversity at work in the revolutionary process. Itwas not without difficulties and setbacks that this process finally led to the defeat of the Japanese and the ultimate victory of the CCP. It is all the more useful to turn back to these issues, because since the 1980s a plethora of CCP documents, personal memoirs, and works by Chinese historians on the Sino-Japanese war period have been published that tend to obscure them, or even conceal them completely... (China Perspectives )

About the Author

Feng Chongyi is head of Chinese studies at the Institute for International Studies, University of Technology, Sydney. David S. G. Goodman is director of the Institute for International Studies, University of Technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847699390
• ISBN-13: 978-0847699391
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,439,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)