Radicalism, Revolution, and Reform in Modern China: Essays in Honor of Maurice Meisner

[...]to much recent scholarship, which has rejected the once dominant revolutionary paradigm for a modernization paradigm in which China's revolutionary socialist experience is treated as an aberration, the authors argue for the revolution's centrality and potential to provide a critical resource for a more democratic and just future. For a conference-based volume convened on the twentieth anniversary of June 4, 1989, it is surprising that the book overlooks the role of social movements and the question of Communist Party relations with social forces during the revolution. [...]since the book purports to show the relevance of the revolution to contemporary life, discussion would be warranted of how China's "New Left" grapples with its socialist legacy. [...]the authors should be commended for raising questions about social justice and demonstrating the centrality of the Chinese revolution, thus honoring Maurice Meisner's scholarly legacy.