'A revolutionary book' Sunday Times
'A pulsating account' Peter Frankopan
*A SPECTATOR AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR*
How did the People's Republic of China transform from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today? Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen archival documents, award-winning historian Frank Dikoetter recasts our understanding of an era that both the regime and foreign admirers alike celebrate as an economic miracle. In a fascinating tale spanning five decades, he examines the country's economic transformation alongside the regime's determined suppression of dissent, its increasing hostility towards the West and its development into a thoroughly entrenched dictatorship led by Xi Jinping - one equipped with a sprawling security apparatus and the most sophisticated surveillance system in the world.
'Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what has shaped today's China and what the Chinese Communist Party's choices mean for the rest of the world' New Statesman
'A blow-by-blow account of the uneven, reactive and sometimes chaotic course of economic policies . . . An important corrective' Financial Times
'Dikoetter has been mining Chinese primary sources for decades . . . A clear-eyed and detailed account' Observer
Rezensionen / Stimmen
PRAISE FOR THE PEOPLE'S TRILOGY: Together, these three books constitute a major contribution to scholarship on modern China, one that is unequalled, certainly in the English language * Literary Review * Harrowing and brilliant ... This is the book that changes your life -- Ben Macintyre * The Times * Dikoetter's achievement in this book is remarkable * Sunday Times * Presents a very different take on the Chinese economic miracle than the conventional wisdom ... Convincingly shows how foreign capital pouring into China ... became a key ingredient of economic growth at a time of intensifying repression following the Tiananmen Square massacre. It also shatters the myth of competent technocratic policymaking under leaders such as Deng Xiaoping ... Most radically, the book makes the case that, rather than being a sharp break with the recent past, President Xi Jinping's more nakedly authoritarian rule is in many ways a continuation of trends that started long ago -- Daron Acemoglu, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics A brilliant and powerful account ...This excellent book is horrific but essential reading for all who want to understand the darkness that lies at the heart of one of the world's most important revolutions * Guardian * Powerful ... Bold and startling ... Dikoetter must be admired for the manner in which he puts a human scale on the enormous barbarities of the communist takeover of China. We cannot begin to understand modern China without being aware of the blood-drenched tale Dikoetter so ably relates -- Kwasi Kwarteng * Evening Standard * A mesmerizing account of the communist revolution in China, and the subsequent transformation of hundreds of millions of lives through violence, coercion and broken promises. The Chinese themselves suppress this history, but for anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading -- Anne Applebaum Dikoetter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order -- Tim Snyder A remarkable work of archival research. Dikoetter rarely, if ever, allows the story of central government to dominate by merely reporting a top-down directive. Instead, he tracks down the grassroots impact of Communist policies ... In so doing, he uncovers astonishing stories of party-led inhumanity and also popular resistance ... Dikoetter sustains a strong human dimension to the story by skillfully weaving individual voices through the length of the book * Financial Times * Startling ... Dikoetter's work has aimed to demolish almost every claim to truth or virtue the Chinese Communist party ever made. He combines a vivid eye for detail with a historian's diligence in the archives. Powerful ... Dikoetter is unsparing in his account of the effects of the communist rule * Observer * Magnificent ... This brilliant book leaves no doubt that Mao almost ruined China and left a legacy of paranoia that still grips its modern dictatorship under the latest autocrat, Xi Jinping -- Michael Sheridan * Sunday Times *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Maße
Höhe: 194 mm
Breite: 126 mm
Dicke: 30 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-3430-6 (9781526634306)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Frank Dikoetter is Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His books have changed the way historians view China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China to his award-winning People's Trilogy documenting the lives of ordinary people under Mao. He is married and lives in Hong Kong.
