Ten Theses on the Chinese Revolution

Esherick, Joseph W.

doi:10.1177/009770049502100103

Cited by 75 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This view is consistent with the emphasis placed on continuity between the Guomindang and Communist eras in the recent scholarship on Chinese economic planning and state-led development, as well as on the Chinese Revolution and the transformative role of the Sino-Japanese War (Kirby, 1990(Kirby, , 2000Esherick, 1995Esherick, , 2001. It also agrees with my findings on the formation of the Chinese state enterprise system (Bian, 2002, forthcoming).…”

Section: Meanings and Implications Of Wartime Guomindang Institutionasupporting

confidence: 81%

Building State Structure

Bian

2005

Modern China

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This article examines Guomindang institutional rationalization during the Sino-Japanese War and its implications. The author argues that the war witnessed the most intensive Guomindang efforts of state building characterized by rationalization of state institutions. Drawing intellectual resources from theories of public administration in the United States, the Guomindang pushed for institutional rationalization by implementing a three-in-one administrative system through the integration of planning, execution, and assessment. The Guomindang succeeded in creating institutions of central planning and assessment and increased the rationalization of state institutions but failed to achieve the level of administrative efficiency it had hoped for. Guomindang institutional rationalization contributed to the Guomindang's and the Communists' recognition of the desirability of central planning and a planned economic system. It also began the process of designating political, economic, and administrative organizations as danwei.Scholars of modern China have long appreciated the critical importance of the Sino-Japanese War in key historical developments. As many studies have shown, the war fostered the development of Chinese nationalism, hastened the collapse of the Guomindang regime,

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Section: Meanings and Implications Of Wartime Guomindang Institutionasupporting

confidence: 81%

Building State Structure

Bian

2005

Modern China

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“…Historians now saw 1949 not as a liberating quantum leap from one historical epoch to the next but as the replacement of one set of oppressors by another. Esherick ([1995] 2003) cited thematic biographical monographs to demonstrate diversity and contention, but his ten theses would satisfy E. H. Carr as history; they do not include any leader's personality, ideology, or leadership, even those of Mao or Chiang Kai-shek.…”

Section: Who Made "Modern China"?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Where's the Omelet? Bad King Deng and the Challenges of Biography and History

Hayford¹

2016

J of Asian Stud

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Stalinists legitimized their methods by saying “you can't make omelets without breaking eggs.” Others might ask, “you broke lots of eggs, but where are the omelets?” These three biographies of Deng Xiaoping are only the most recent of biographies of epoch-making Chinese leaders that assess the ratio of broken eggs to finished omelets. Reading them together with the body of reviews provokes questions about how biography as a genre can usefully address historical analysis and moral judgment. How much could a single leader transform China? Did Deng merely inherit institutions and decisive policies from earlier leaders or is China today somehow “Deng's China”? What can we learn about the problems from reviewers and critics?

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“…Second, the role and the policies of the KMT party state have also been reconsidered. The KMT, scholars argue, was never a polar opposite of the Communists (Esherick 1995, 2001; Schoppa 2000; Cohen 2003). In economic matters, the KMT pursued policies of the developmental state.…”

Section: What Do Historians Say?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In retrospect, the Japanese invasion gave the Communists perhaps their only chance at a revolution (Esherick 1995). In 1935, the situation was quite different.…”

Section: The Communists' Road To Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Modernization Interrupted? Total War, State Breakdown, and the Communist Conquest of China

Osinsky

2010

The Sociological Quarterly

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A state-centered perspective in studies of revolutions holds that international pressures contribute to outbreak of revolutions, assuming that the magnitude and intensity of international pressures vary from case to case. This study argues that in the paradigmatic communist revolutions of the 20th century, such as the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, the role of the exogenous factor of war was paramount. After outlining a war-centered framework for studying communist revolutions, this research shows how the devastating experience of total war against Japan (1937)(1938)(1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945) undermined the Kuomintang state in China and created structural conditions for the communist takeover.

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Ten Theses on the Chinese Revolution

Cited by 75 publications

References 28 publications

Building State Structure

Building State Structure

Where's the Omelet? Bad King Deng and the Challenges of Biography and History

Modernization Interrupted? Total War, State Breakdown, and the Communist Conquest of China

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