"We want neither gods nor emperors", went the words from the Chinese version of The Internationale. Students sang the old socialist song as they gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in the Spring of 1989. This book offers a carefully crafted analysis of the student movement, its leadership, its eventual suppression, and its continuing legacy.

"[Calhoun's] analysis of the whos and the whys of the Tiananmen protest is excellent."--Colina MacDougall, Times Literary Supplement "[Calhoun] presents a fresh perspective . . . [and] has highlighted resonances to which even China experts, especially those who study the People's Republic, have not hitherto been especially sensitive. It sometimes takes an outsider, particularly one of Calhoun's caliber, to draw attention to patterns of behavior which the insider has ignored."--Merle Goldman, The China Quarterly "To date, [Neither Gods Nor Emperors] offers the most complete and balanced narrative of events, and its analysis shines in restoring to the students a subjectivity that subsequent recriminations have tended to obscure."--Timothy Brook, China Review International