Description
Book SynopsisThis study of the evolution of Chinese capitalism chronicles the Song family of North China under five successive authoritarian governments. Brett Sheehan shows both foreign and Chinese influences on private business, which, although closely linked to the state, was neither a handmaiden to authoritarianism nor a natural ally of democracy.
Trade ReviewSheehan deftly handles a complex subject—the changing fortunes of one family’s enterprise through five political regimes spanning more than a century.
Industrial Eden is a valuable addition to the literature on business–state relations in twentieth-century China and will remain important decades to come. -- Karl Gerth, University of California, San Diego
Industrial Eden is a fascinating and important study of modern Chinese capitalism that tracks the long arc of a business family from its rise in the late-nineteenth century to the collapse of its fortunes in the 1950s. The documentary basis of the book is rich and exhaustive; no archival stone has been left unturned. The book offers a rare and revealing picture of political and economic change taking place in tandem, in alternating moments of rise and ruin. -- David Strand, Dickinson College
