From Rebel to Ruler, Tony Saich
From Rebel to Ruler, Tony Saich
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From Rebel to Ruler
One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party

Author: Tony Saich

Narrator: Nigel Patterson

Unabridged: 22 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/26/2022


Synopsis

Mao Zedong and the twelve other young men who founded the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 could hardly have imagined that less than thirty years later they would be rulers. On its hundredth anniversary, the party remains in command, leading a nation primed for global dominance.

Tony Saich tells the authoritative, comprehensive story of the Chinese Communist Party—its rise to power against incredible odds, its struggle to consolidate rule and overcome self-inflicted disasters, and its thriving amid other Communist parties' collapse. Saich argues that the brutal Japanese invasion in the 1930s actually helped the party. Once in power, however, the Communists faced the difficult task of learning how to rule.

Leninist systems are thought to be rigid, yet the Chinese Communist Party has proved adaptable. From Rebel to Ruler shows that the party owes its endurance to its flexibility. But is it nimble enough to realize Xi Jinping's "China Dream?" Challenges are multiplying, as the growing middle class makes new demands on the state and the ideological retreat from communism draws the party further from its revolutionary roots. The legacy of the party may be secure, but its future is anything but guaranteed.

About Tony Saich

Tony Saich is Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. His books include Finding Allies and Making Revolution: The Early Years of the Chinese Communist Party, and Governance and Politics of China.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Javier on March 23, 2024

I will start by saying that as a primer history to the CPC (and to the PRC, actually) it's a 5/5. If someone asked me for a single book to get a sense of the history of either of them this would definitely be my choice. It's short and not difficult to read (as in, it does not really assume any prere......more

Goodreads review by Lynn on April 12, 2022

Pretty thorough history of the Chinese Communist Party. The book taught me a lot and was very accessible for general audiences.......more

Goodreads review by Mary on January 07, 2022

I've wanted to read a comprehensive overview of CCP history for a while, since while obviously China is a massively important global player and US-China relations are all over the news all the time, I don't actually have that great an understanding of what the CCP is and how it operates. While the s......more

Goodreads review by Sean on March 02, 2024

Thought it would be more of a history of the PRC, but it really is a history of the CCP: most major events are described in a few sentences at best, and the real emphasis is on which meetings were called in response and which party factions came out on top. Definitely an instructive read for me, but......more

Goodreads review by Dylan on March 04, 2024

Tony Saich’s book opens with a formidable question: how has the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gone from a ragtag militia of disaffected intellectuals to the most powerful governing institution on the planet? The answer to this question is hardly clear-cut. Like the CCP’s mythologized Long March duri......more