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China's Republic
Lary, Diana
Publisher: Cambridge University PressPages: 225pp ISBN: 0-521-60355-2 Resource Type: Book Cx Number: CX7172 An introductory text for students and general readers offering an unbiased look at the rise of Maoist communism and the decline of Chiang Kai Shek's Guomintang. Abstract: China's road to becoming a republic has been under construction for close to a century, hitting a fork at close to the half way point that has led to an ongoing conflict over whose vision is authentically Chinese, and whether its status as a republic will endure. Lary is a professor of history at the University of British Columbia with expertise in Chinese research. Her tale of the last 95 years examines the evolution of what Sun Yat Sen, the first President of the Republic that succeeded the imperial era, intended. At the pace of a bullet train, it evokes the nation's momentous military events from the founding of the Republic to the Japanese invasion to China's own civil war and the "splitism" that still exists. Throughout, it is studded with compelling photographs, Chinese proverbs and mini-biographies that impart a much rounder sense of history than its slim form suggests. It is proposed as an introductory text for students and general readers and offers an unbiased look at the rise of Maoist communism and the decline of Chiang Kai Shek's Guomintang. [abstract by Penny Cadrain] Subject Headings |