Great Transformation China s Road from Revolution to Reform

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

The first thorough account of a formative and little understood chapter in Chinese history

"Almost every page contains an eye-opening detail. . . . The Great Transformation evokes the multiple paths, ideas and possibilities that have shaped, and continue to shape, China's present."-Julia Lovell, Financial Times

Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao's Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.

In this rigorous account, Westad and Chen construct a panorama of catastrophe and progress in China. They chronicle China's gradual opening to the world-the interplay of power in an era of aged and ailing leadership, the people's rebellion against the earlier government system, and the roles of unlikely characters: overseas Chinese capitalists, American engineers, Japanese professors, and German designers. This is a story of revolutionary change that neither foreigners nor the Chinese themselves could have predicted.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9780300285604
Published: October 2025

Number of pages: 424
Width: 156 mm
Height: 235 mm
Depth: not specified

Publisher: Yale University Press