Challenging the accepted orthodoxy about the Cultural Revolution, the emphasis throughout is on change in the context of 20th century China, and as part of the Chinese Communist Party's search for paths to development.

Preface 1. Revolution and Economic Life in Republican China: From WWI until 1949 2. Collapse of the Old Order, Germination of the New: Chinese Society during the Civil War, 1945-1949 3. The Politics of the Civil War: Party Rule, Territorial Administration and Constitutional Government 4. The Political Economy of Socialist Transition: Restructuring Inequality 5. China in the Wake of the Communist Revolution: Social Transformations, 1949-1966 6. The Cultural Revolution as an economic phenomenon 7. Is the Cultural Revolution Really Necessary? 8. Economic Growth and Distributive Justice in the Post-Mao Reform Period 9. China's Foreign Relations, 1978-1999: Unleashed, the Tiger Feels Lonely 10. Centre and Periphery after Twenty Years of Reform: Redefining the Chinese Polity List of Contributors