Description
Book SynopsisThis history of the Chinese Civil War attempts to answer two questions: Why was the war fought? And What were the immediate and lasting results of the Communists' victory? It also shows how campaigns were mounted against changes in politics, society and culture.
Trade Review"Odd Arne Westad has written a key work on the civil-war period as well as an essential bibliographic starting point for further research." --
The China Journal"This path-breaking, perceptive work merits wide circulation and systematic analysis." --
Canadian Journal of History"This book is of fundamental importance to understanding twentieth-century Chinese history, comparative revolution, and early Cold War history. Weaving together strands of military, social, political, and international history, Westad provides by far the best empirically grounded, multi-archival, and comprehensive nationwide analysis of how the Chinese Communist Party achieved victory in the Chinese Civil War of 1946-1950." --
Journal of Cold War Studies"Offers meticulous research, drawing on classic reports, recent memoirs, and scholarship in Chinese, Russian, and English based on archival research. . . . More important, [Westad] weaves a grand, sweeping epic of social, cultural, and economic conflict that includes but goes beyond political and military battles. . . . Highly recommended for academic libraries and collections in Chinese history." --
Library Journal"
Decisive Encounters is a highly readable, comprehensive, and reliable account of a war whose importance we all know but which nonetheless has received little attention." --
PACIFIC AFFAIRS"This remarkable survey of a crucial period of Chinese history deserves to be widely read." --
Choice
