Named one of the Financial Timess Best Books of 2024 in History
A superb history of Chinas transition into and out of the Cultural Revolution. . . . Chen and Westadtwo of the best archival historians of Communist China writing todaycoolly but vividly recount the extraordinary drama of this metamorphosis.Julia Lovell, Financial Times
By choosing to begin with Maos final years, Messrs. Westad and Chen build a strong case for their account of how and why events played out after the leaders death.Maura Elizabeth Cunningham, Wall Street Journal
[ A] compelling book by two of the best historians of the modern Chinese experience.Tony Barber, Financial Times
Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian make an effective partnership. . . . [ They] expertly and authoritatively cover events inside and outside China during a momentous time in the countrys history.Kerry Brown, Literary Review
The Great Transformation offers a rich and nuanced interpretation of the long 1970s as a critical turning point in modern Chinese history.Stefan Messingschlager, Neue Politische Literatur
To understand todays China and where it may be going it is necessary to understand how it got to herethe politics, the pressures, the trade-offs, and legacy of the The Long 1970s. You can do no better in this regard than start by reading The Great Transformation.Martin Petersen, The Cipher
Westad and Chen have written a masterful account of Chinas modernization that illuminates the path it took to emerge as Americas only true peer competitor.Graham Allison, author of Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydidess Trap?
In The Great Transformation, Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian ask a fresh question: How did the Peoples Republic of China emerge from the lunacies of the Cultural Revolution and embark on the path to prosperitya market-based industrialization that prior to 1978 would have been denounced as the capitalist road? Deeply researched and clearly written, this new account of a transformative period gives due weight to the local and international forces at workas well as to the roads not taken, which might have been more liberal politically but less effective economically.Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization: The West and the Rest and Kissinger, 19231968: The Idealist