You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Without an understanding of the Communist Party no one can understand the China in which the Party has dominated the country. This book follows the development of the Communist Party and of Marxism in China from the early years. For the years 1921-49, it relies mainly on revelations in the Communist press of the early 1980s, when Chinese historians of the Party were relatively free to write. In relation to the People's Republic, beginning in 1949, it summarises what was reported by the author in China News Analysis. This is essentially the story of the Chinese Communist Party in its own words.
A lively first hand portrait of Chinese society by a veteran British resident correspondent. It starts at the bottom of the pyramid with a picture of the very poorest and ends with an account of the wealthy ruling elite. The books was written in 1998 but is still relevant today as the basic structure of Chinese society has not changed and the issues and challenges remain the same. It shows how China works in the context both of its long history and its more recent Communist past.
Fr Laszlo Ladany, SJ, published only one book in his lifetime (The Communist Party of China and Marxism, 1921-1985: A Self-Portrait), but became widely known and respected as the doyen of 'China-watchers' through his editorship of China News Analysis in Hong Kong in 1953-82. On his death in 1990 he left this survey, simply expressed but revealing on every page the depth of his knowledge of the Chinese people and of Chinese and comparative legal history, one of his own earlier special subjects of study. His ultimate concern is to illustrate the antipathy of Mao Tse-tung to law, even in a form renewed according to Marxist doctrine, and to age-old customary Chinese concepts of acceptable behaviour: this created a mental and spiritual void in a whole generation of Chinese with possibly irreversible and certainly unpredictable consequences. The book is a deeply thought-provoking introduction to the study of Chinese history, politics and culture. Two distinguished German sinologists, Professor Jurgen Domes and Dr Marie-Luise Nath, have, between them, edited the work and provided short opening and concluding sections.
Jin Luxian is considered by many to be one of China’s most controversial religious figures. Educated by the Jesuits, he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained priest in 1945 before continuing his studies in Europe. In 1951 he made the dangerous decision to return to the newly established People’s Republic of China. He became one of the many thousands of Roman Catholics who suffered persecution. Convicted of counter-revolutionary activities and treason, he was imprisoned for 27 years and only released in 1982. His subsequent decision to accept the government’s invitation to resume his prior role as head of the Shanghai Seminary and then assume the title of Bishop of Shanghai witho...
Taking a comparative approach, Alan T. Wood traces the evolution of democracy from its origins in prehistoric times and describes democratic growth in thirteen Asian countries from Japan in East Asia to Pakistan in South Asia and examines key issues such as: * How does the democratic experience in Asia, in countries with unique and totalitarian political traditions, compare with democracies worldwide? * Is the aspiration to freedom universal or is it a product of western ideas and institutions?
These essays present fresh insights into the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), from its founding in 1920 to its assumption of state power in 1949. They draw upon considerable archival resources which have recently become available.
New perspectives on the history of famine—and the possibility of a famine-free world Famines are becoming smaller and rarer, but optimism about the possibility of a famine-free future must be tempered by the threat of global warming. That is just one of the arguments that Cormac Ó Gráda, one of the world's leading authorities on the history and economics of famine, develops in this wide-ranging book, which provides crucial new perspectives on key questions raised by famines around the globe between the seventeenth and twenty-first centuries. The book begins with a taboo topic. Ó Gráda argues that cannibalism, while by no means a universal feature of famines and never responsible for mo...
The essays that make up this volume offer the reader a full introduction to, and analysis of, the politics of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the mid 1990s
In Housing Heaven's Fire, author John Haughey, S.J., offers sharp insights into the nature of holiness and shares his personal efforts to respond to the challenge of holiness. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Scripture, theology, philosophy, and literature, Haughey projects a prismatic view of the many facets of holiness. In this intellectually challenging and personally inviting exploration, Haughey examines holiness from the perspective of the Hebrew Scripture of the Old Testament, the Israelites and their call, Jesus and his humanity, and St. Paul. He explains that while holiness is a gift that we have already been given, it is also a goal that we are striving toward.