Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

Deng Xiaoping is the most important person in contemporary Chinese affairs. It was under his time as the paramount leader of China that modernization started in earnest. He judged policy effectiveness on whether it worked or not. His story is engagingly told by historian Ezra Vogel.

Ezra Vogel, my mentor and one of the most renowned scholars on the field of East Asia, has written extensively on China and Chinese politics. To study modern China, we must first understand Deng Xiaoping, the architect of modern China, and China’s economic reform. Dr. Vogel wrote Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. Dr. Vogel Vogel's book presents a detailed history of Deng Xiaoping's life. He begins with his childhood, how he became a communist, his rise and fall under Mao Zedong, and finally his career after Mao's death and the transition of Mao's China into the China we… show more.

Tracing the remarkable career of Deng Xiaoping, twice purged in disgrace by Mao, but who re-emerged as China’s leader only 3 years after Mao’s death, this book shows how Deng was able to take China in a startling new direction, building the foundation for the country’s remarkable economic rise. It traces Deng’s actions and character from his early days as a revolutionary and Mao loyalist, to his disgrace as the second-leading victim of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, to his brief return to leadership before a second purge shortly before Mao’s death, and the shrewd strategy that he used to place China… show more.