The year 2022, in books! My top ten:
#1 - The Old Regime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville
Maybe the best book I've ever read. Brimming with insight on the human condition, in effortlessly elegant prose. I see why Wang Qishan made it mandatory Politburo reading.
#1 - The Old Regime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville
Maybe the best book I've ever read. Brimming with insight on the human condition, in effortlessly elegant prose. I see why Wang Qishan made it mandatory Politburo reading.
#2 - Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott
State's strive to create easily administrable, legible conditions ("statistics" derives from "state"), but when conjoined to an authoritarian state pursuing a "high modernist" ideology, as Scott vividly argues, tragedies unfurl.
State's strive to create easily administrable, legible conditions ("statistics" derives from "state"), but when conjoined to an authoritarian state pursuing a "high modernist" ideology, as Scott vividly argues, tragedies unfurl.
#3 (tie) - Prestige, Manipulation and Coercion by Joseph Torigian
In my view one of the best books on China in the last few decades. Not only a brilliant analysis of Leninist regimes, but the deep dive research up-ends some fundamental views on ζΉι©εΌζΎ
In my view one of the best books on China in the last few decades. Not only a brilliant analysis of Leninist regimes, but the deep dive research up-ends some fundamental views on ζΉι©εΌζΎ
#3 (tie) - The Rise and Fall of Imperial China by Yuhua Wang
Read my earlier review...a brilliant book!
Read my earlier review...a brilliant book!
#3 (tie) Chip War by Chris Miller
Chris already authored one of my favorites-- The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy. I'm blown away again. Deeply researched, superbly structured, so many new factoids, even for those familiar w the space..Mao tried backyard-ing semiconductors?
Chris already authored one of my favorites-- The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy. I'm blown away again. Deeply researched, superbly structured, so many new factoids, even for those familiar w the space..Mao tried backyard-ing semiconductors?
#6 Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm
This book, published in 1941, is among the most elegant and earlier to grapple with a central modern condition: freedom from traditional social bonds has wrought atomization & increasing individual responsibility. How ought we manage?
This book, published in 1941, is among the most elegant and earlier to grapple with a central modern condition: freedom from traditional social bonds has wrought atomization & increasing individual responsibility. How ought we manage?
#7 - Power Restructuring in China and Russia by Mark Lupher
Impressive 1996 book. A student of Franz Schurmann (one of the greatest Sinologists), Lupher uses a sociological lens to analyze the complex power relationships between the central state & local power elites in China.
Impressive 1996 book. A student of Franz Schurmann (one of the greatest Sinologists), Lupher uses a sociological lens to analyze the complex power relationships between the central state & local power elites in China.
(#8) The Ladder of Success in Imperial China by Ping-ti Ho
This 1964 book offers a gem of an opening chapter on social ideology + mines an impressive amount of data on family networks of Ming and Qing imperial exam takers, discovering a surprising level of social mobility.
This 1964 book offers a gem of an opening chapter on social ideology + mines an impressive amount of data on family networks of Ming and Qing imperial exam takers, discovering a surprising level of social mobility.
(#9) The Great Chinese Revolution by John Fairbank
This 1987 book is wonderful to read. Fairbank, one of his generations most renowned China scholars, and by 1987 in his twilight years, wrote something edgy: a survey book. So many great insights:
This 1987 book is wonderful to read. Fairbank, one of his generations most renowned China scholars, and by 1987 in his twilight years, wrote something edgy: a survey book. So many great insights:
#10 - Localized Bargaining by Xiao Ma
Everyone needs a better understanding of how local governments implement, and parochially warp, Beijing's plans. Through a great, in-depth case study of China's massive high-speed network we get a bit of insight into this complex process.
Everyone needs a better understanding of how local governments implement, and parochially warp, Beijing's plans. Through a great, in-depth case study of China's massive high-speed network we get a bit of insight into this complex process.
So many great books not mentioned...want to shout out some awesome honorable mentions:
β’ Meritocracy and its Discontents by Zachary Howlett
The author deconstructs modernization as a process/ideology in China's education system, and its system legitimating & sustaining role
β’ Meritocracy and its Discontents by Zachary Howlett
The author deconstructs modernization as a process/ideology in China's education system, and its system legitimating & sustaining role
β’ Two Kinds of Time by Graham Peck
Published in 1950 by an author with an outsiders perspecitve on what it was like having lived (in some cases barely) through some pretty harrowing times in China's recent past. Deeply meditative.
Published in 1950 by an author with an outsiders perspecitve on what it was like having lived (in some cases barely) through some pretty harrowing times in China's recent past. Deeply meditative.
β’ Xi Jinping by Alfred Chan
A valuable collection of pretty much everything we know about the man (not too much, sadly). At times perhaps parrots too much official creed, but helpful analytic frameworks the author introduces more than compensate.
A valuable collection of pretty much everything we know about the man (not too much, sadly). At times perhaps parrots too much official creed, but helpful analytic frameworks the author introduces more than compensate.
β’ The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor
A timely treatise on the evolution and utility of interest--the price of money--throughout history, particularly in light of our long ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) era. Chapter 14, Let Them Eat Credit, really resonates.
A timely treatise on the evolution and utility of interest--the price of money--throughout history, particularly in light of our long ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) era. Chapter 14, Let Them Eat Credit, really resonates.
β’ The Red Dream by Carl Walter
A useful update to his 2013 book on China's financial system, this time bringing in more intentionally homing in on the extremely important intersection of the state banking system with China's fiscal system. Technical but good.
A useful update to his 2013 book on China's financial system, this time bringing in more intentionally homing in on the extremely important intersection of the state banking system with China's fiscal system. Technical but good.
β’ Decision-making in Dengβs China edited by Carol Lee Hamrin and Suisheng Zhao
A fascinating collection from 1995 that sheds light on China's political system and helps contextualize what's changed and what's not.
A fascinating collection from 1995 that sheds light on China's political system and helps contextualize what's changed and what's not.
Oh almost forgot, one more riveting volume:
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