Deng Xiaoping
A Revolutionary Life
Published on 25. June 2015
Book
Hardback
638 pages
978-0-19-939203-2 (ISBN)
Description
Deng Xiaoping joined the Chinese Communist movement as a youth and rose in its ranks to become an important lieutenant of Mao's from the 1930s onward. Two years after Mao's death in 1976, Deng became the de facto leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the prime architect of China's post-Mao reforms. Abandoning the Maoist socio-economic policies he had long fervently supported, he set in motion changes that would dramatically transform China's economy, society, and position in the world. Three decades later, we are living with the results. China has become the second largest economy and the workshop of the world. And while it is essentially a market economy ("socialism with Chinese characteristics"), Deng and his successors ensured the continuation of CCP rule by severely repressing the democratic movement and maintaining an iron grip on power. When Deng died at the age of 92 in 1997, he had set China on the path it is following to this day.
Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine's new biography of Deng Xiaoping does what no other biography has done: based on newly discovered documents, it covers his entire life, from his childhood and student years to the post-Tiananmen era. Thanks to unprecedented access to Russian archives containing massive files on the Chinese Communist Party, the authors present a wealth of new material on Deng dating back to the 1920s. In a long and extraordinary life, Deng navigated one epic crisis after another. Born in 1904, Deng, like many Asian revolutionary leaders, spent part of the 1920s in Paris, where he joined the CCP in its early years. He then studied in the USSR just as Stalin was establishing firm control over the Soviet communist party. He played an increasingly important role in the troubled decades of the 1930s and 1940s that were marked by civil war and the Japanese invasion. He was commissar of a communist-dominated area in the early 1930s, loyal henchman to Mao during the Long March, regional military commander in the anti-Japanese war, and finally a key leader in the 1946-49 revolution. During Mao's quarter century rule, Deng oscillated between the heights and the depths of power. He was purged during the Cultural Revolution, only to reemerge after Mao's death to become China's paramount leader until his own death in 1997.
This objective, balanced, and unprecedentedly rich biography changes our understanding of one of the most important figures in modern history.
Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine's new biography of Deng Xiaoping does what no other biography has done: based on newly discovered documents, it covers his entire life, from his childhood and student years to the post-Tiananmen era. Thanks to unprecedented access to Russian archives containing massive files on the Chinese Communist Party, the authors present a wealth of new material on Deng dating back to the 1920s. In a long and extraordinary life, Deng navigated one epic crisis after another. Born in 1904, Deng, like many Asian revolutionary leaders, spent part of the 1920s in Paris, where he joined the CCP in its early years. He then studied in the USSR just as Stalin was establishing firm control over the Soviet communist party. He played an increasingly important role in the troubled decades of the 1930s and 1940s that were marked by civil war and the Japanese invasion. He was commissar of a communist-dominated area in the early 1930s, loyal henchman to Mao during the Long March, regional military commander in the anti-Japanese war, and finally a key leader in the 1946-49 revolution. During Mao's quarter century rule, Deng oscillated between the heights and the depths of power. He was purged during the Cultural Revolution, only to reemerge after Mao's death to become China's paramount leader until his own death in 1997.
This objective, balanced, and unprecedentedly rich biography changes our understanding of one of the most important figures in modern history.
Reviews / Votes
The best biography of the man who, along with Mao, was China's dominant statesman of the 20th century. * Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Week * Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine have been able to mine the Russian archives for their book, which gives [this biography an] intimate flavour... This is best seen in their description of the crucial relationship between Deng and Mao Zedong. * Times Higher Education, Kerry Brown * This is the best biography of him so far... The book is written in a clear, direct style that leads the general reader painlessly through the thickets of Maxism and Sinology. It is punctuated with neat, vivid anecdotes. It is balanced but unflinching. * Sunday Times, Michael Sheridan * Alexander V Pantsov and Steven I Levine's use of previously closed Soviet archives and a wider range of Chinese sources has informed the most comprehensive biography to date... In changing China, Deng changed the world: since we live with his legacy, this biography is essential reading. * Prospect, Isabel Hilton * A painstaking and worthwhile effort... [the authors] have made extensive use of a hitherto untapped source: once secret archives kept by the Soviet Union... The book contains many interesting details, especially of Deng's career before he became the paramount leader. * Economist * A strong and solid contribution to our understanding of Deng's importance. In particular, Pantsov's impressive access to the Russian archives permits a range of useful insights on Deng's early life and revolutionary career, as well as the sweep of his life... The biography makes a distinctive and welcome contribution to our understanding of Deng, and the style is accessible. * The Times, Rana Mitter * For a critical, evidence-based biography, turn to Pantsov and Levine. * Jeremy Brown, Times Literary Supplement * This biography is the most balanced and well researched to date, combining a lively style with genuine insights derived from many years of close study. * Literary Review, Frank Dikotter * [This books provides] a wealth of detail on Deng's tasks as a CCP organiser ... Pantsov and Levine's life is no whitewash: Deng's centrality to a number of the bloodiest events in the PRC's history is fully documented. In addition to trawling the extensive Soviet archives, they have mined an impressive number of Chinese, Russian and English-language documents and memoirs to reference every possible detail and cross every empirical 't'. * New Left Review * The definitive life of Deng Xiaoping. * Dr Jonathan Chatwin, Asian Review of Books * Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life, is a rich, full and balanced account of this diminutive but mighty figure. * Martina Steber, Journal of Contemporary History *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
1112 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-939203-2 (9780199392032)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2017
Oxford University Press Inc
€27.60
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
04/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
E-Book
04/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
Persons
Alexander V. Pantsov is a professor of history and holds the Edward and Mary Catherine Gerhold Chair in the Humanities at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. He has published numerous scholarly works including fifteen books, among them The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution 1919-1927 and Mao: The Real Story.
Steven I. Levine is research faculty associate, Department of History, University of Montana. He is the author, co-author, and editor of numerous works, including Mao: The Real Story and Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam, co-authored with Michael H. Hunt.
Steven I. Levine is research faculty associate, Department of History, University of Montana. He is the author, co-author, and editor of numerous works, including Mao: The Real Story and Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam, co-authored with Michael H. Hunt.
Content
CONTENTS ; Cast of Characters ; Note on the Spelling of Chinese Words ; Introduction ; PART ONE ; THE BOLSHEVIK ; 1 Born in the Year of the Dragon ; 2 From Paris to Moscow: The Lessons of Bolshevism ; 3 From Xi'an to Shanghai ; 4 The Guangxi Experiment ; PART TWO ; THE MAOIST ; 5 'The Spirit of Five Fearlessness' ; 6 Master of the Taihang Mountains ; 7 At the Forefront of the New Democratic Revolution ; 8 Chief of the Southwest Region ; 9 The Beijing Hippodrome ; 10 'Critique of the Cult of Personality' and Its Consequences ; 11 'A Great Growing Force' ; 12 Being and Consciousness ; 13 'Yellow Cat, Black Cat' ; 14 'No. 2 Capitalist Roader' ; 15 Arrest and Exile ; PART THREE ; THE PRAGMATIST ; 16 'Soft as Cotton, Sharp as a Needle' ; 17 New Trials ; 18 Practice as the Criterion of Truth ; 19 The Cardinal Principles ; 20 'Let Some Families Get Rich First' ; 21 One Country, Two Systems ; 22 Reforms and Democracy ; 23 The Tiananmen Tragedy ; 24 A Retired Patriarch ; Epilogue ; Acknowledgments ; Illustration Credits ; Bibliography ; Appendix 1: Deng Xiaoping's Chronology ; Appendix 2: Deng Xiaoping's Genealogy ; Notes ; Index