Search results for ""Author Harold M. Tanner""

The civil war in China that ended in the 1949 victory of Mao Zedong's Communist forces was a major blow to US interests in the Far East and led to heated recriminations about how China was "lost." Despite their significance, there have been few studies in English of the war's major campaigns. The Liao-Shen Campaign was the final act in the struggle for control of China's northeast. After the Soviet defeat of Japan in Manchuria, Communist Chinese and then Nationalist troops moved into this strategically important area. China's largest industrial base and a major source of coal, Manchuria had extensive railways and key ports (both still under Soviet control). When American mediation over control of Manchuria failed, full-scale civil war broke out. By spring of 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist armies had occupied most of the southern, economically developed part of Manchuria, pushing Communist forces north of the Songhua (Sungari) River. But over the next two years, the tide would turn. The Communists isolated the Nationalist armies and mounted a major campaign aimed at destroying the Kuomintang forces. This is the story of that campaign and its outcome, which were to have such far-reaching consequences.

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Eminently accessible, yet rigorous, this engaging introduction to the political, social, and cultural development of Chinese civilization tells the story of China--from its beginnings to the present day--in a way that goes beyond simple, misleading accounts of a glorious civilization falling victim to Western and Japanese imperialism or of a supposedly isolated country only recently and reluctantly opening to the outside world. Woven into the narrative are the striking stories of heroes and villains, of women and men, of tragedy and comedy, of high culture and coarse humor, of extremes of wealth and poverty, of feast and famine, and of exquisite art and terrible suffering.Characteristic of Harold Tanner's presentation is the development and carefully balanced recounting of important themes--such as the ethnic diversity of the early empires, interaction with other civilizations, and the challenge of transforming a multi-ethnic empire into a modern nation-state--that other histories of China omit entirely or discuss only minimally.Includes a chronology, suggested further readings, illustrations, maps, and an index.

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In the spring of 1946, Communists and Nationalist Chinese were battled for control of Manchuria and supremacy in the civil war. The Nationalist attack on Siping ended with a Communist withdrawal, but further pursuit was halted by a cease-fire brokered by the American general, George Marshall. Within three years, Mao Zedong's troops had captured Manchuria and would soon drive Chiang Kai-shek's forces off the mainland. Did Marshall, as Chiang later claimed, save the Communists and determine China's fate? Putting the battle into the context of the military and political struggles fought, Harold M. Tanner casts light on all sides of this historic confrontation and shows how the outcome has been, and continues to be, interpreted to suit the needs of competing visions of China's past and future.

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As it set forth to achieve rapid modernizing economic growth under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the People's Republic simultaneously undertook to reform China's criminal justice system in order to make it more efficient, more accountable to central authority, and better suited to the task of maintaining public order in a changing economic and social environment. Taking a historical approach, this book draws on a wide variety of openly and internally published laws, legal interpretations, talks, speeches, Communist Party documents, collections of criminal cases and other sources ranging from the 1950s to the 1990s in order to portray the development of the Chinese criminal justice system between 1979 and 1985 and to place these changes in the context of the reform agenda of Deng's China. Particular attention is paid to the practice of criminal justice and the reform of prisoners, to the role of campaigns in the development of the Chinese criminal justice system, and to the relationship between crime trends, criminal justice, and modernization.

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Available in one or two volumes, this accessible, yet rigorous, introduction to the political, social, and cultural history of China provides a balanced and thoughtful account of the development of Chinese civilization from its beginnings to the present day.Each volume includes ample illustrations, a full complement of maps, a chronological table, extensive notes, recommendations for further reading and an index.Volume 1: From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire (10,000 BCE—1799). Volume 2: From the Great Qing Empire through the People's Republic of China (1644—2009).

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As it set forth to achieve rapid modernizing economic growth under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the People's Republic simultaneously undertook to reform China's criminal justice system in order to make it more efficient, more accountable to central authority, and better suited to the task of maintaining public order in a changing economic and social environment. Taking a historical approach, this book draws on a wide variety of openly and internally published laws, legal interpretations, talks, speeches, Communist Party documents, collections of criminal cases and other sources ranging from the 1950s to the 1990s in order to portray the development of the Chinese criminal justice system between 1979 and 1985 and to place these changes in the context of the reform agenda of Deng's China. Particular attention is paid to the practice of criminal justice and the reform of prisoners, to the role of campaigns in the development of the Chinese criminal justice system, and to the relationship between crime trends, criminal justice, and modernization.

Read more less

Available in one or two volumes, this accessible, yet rigorous, introduction to the political, social, and cultural history of China provides a balanced and thoughtful account of the development of Chinese civilization from its beginnings to the present day.Each volume includes ample illustrations, a full complement of maps, a chronological table, extensive notes, recommendations for further reading and an index.Volume 1: From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire (10,000 BCE—1799). Volume 2: From the Great Qing Empire through the People's Republic of China (1644—2009).

Read more less

Eminently accessible, yet rigorous, this engaging introduction to the political, social, and cultural development of Chinese civilization tells the story of China--from its beginnings to the present day--in a way that goes beyond simple, misleading accounts of a glorious civilization falling victim to Western and Japanese imperialism or of a supposedly isolated country only recently and reluctantly opening to the outside world. Woven into the narrative are the striking stories of heroes and villains, of women and men, of tragedy and comedy, of high culture and coarse humor, of extremes of wealth and poverty, of feast and famine, and of exquisite art and terrible suffering.Characteristic of Harold Tanner's presentation is the development and carefully balanced recounting of important themes--such as the ethnic diversity of the early empires, interaction with other civilizations, and the challenge of transforming a multi-ethnic empire into a modern nation-state--that other histories of China omit entirely or discuss only minimally.Includes a chronology, suggested further readings, illustrations, maps, and an index.

Read more less

Available in one or two volumes, this accessible, yet rigorous, introduction to the political, social, and cultural history of China provides a balanced and thoughtful account of the development of Chinese civilization from its beginnings to the present day.Each volume includes ample illustrations, a full complement of maps, a chronological table, extensive notes, recommendations for further reading and an index.Volume 1: From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire (10,000 BCE—1799). Volume 2: From the Great Qing Empire through the People's Republic of China (1644—2009).

Read more less